Current Conditions of Camp Sacajawea Group 2 Matthew Dicks Daniel Kaminski Clarissa Spicer Antoinette Spitz

Introduction Camp Sacajawea is owned and operated by the Moingona Girl Scout Council of Iowa Located on over 400 acres of land bordering the Des Moines River to the west Trails/facilities used by 20,000 people per year girlscouts-lonestar.org

Data on recreation, oak regeneration, and wildlife was collected from 56 plots across 148 acres of woodland Each team collected sets of data from 8 plots Interpretation of combined results give us an idea of possible management actions Camp Sacajawea TravelByGPS.com

Recreation castlegarrvpark.com geocities.com glacierguides.com birdphotography.com

Recreation Carrying Capacity High use by Girl Scouts Evaluated for four activities General hiking Primitive camping Birdwatching and wildlife observation Horseback riding Determine optimum carrying capacity for each activity

Distribution of Recreation Values Across 56 Plots

Possible Management Actions Current conditions indicate that Camp Sacajawea is most suitable for general hiking Maintain and develop hiking trails to encourage use Increase suitability for other activities by using value criteria as guidelines geocities.com

Oak and Other Desirable Tree Regeneration 56 systematic 1/20 th acre plots 7 rows with 8 plots per row 1 st plot in each row was placed 2 chains north of southern forest boundary Each plot was 5 chains north of the previous plot corbis.com

Adequacy of Regeneration Adequacy of regeneration for both oak and other desirable species is poor Average of 570 oak seedlings per acre Average of 3300 other desirable species per acre Need 5000 seedlings per acre for both corbis.com

Oak Stump Sprouting A plot percent of 59 requires no stump sprouts for adequate regeneration Camp Sacajawea’s plot percent is 8.3 & will require more than 250 stump sprouts per acre Camp Sacajawea is very inadequate for oak regeneration corbis.com

Undesirable Management Methods Clearcut – seedlings will not be competitive enough in their small numbers Group selection – openings will not be large enough to reduce shade effects and will result in less oak regeneration than clearcuts corbis.com

Possible Management Actions Shelterwood – most desirable Maintain forest appearance for Girl Scout use Remove understory with some soil disturbance Good acorn producing year Remove some large trees May need nursery plantings corbis.com

Wildlife pictures.fws.gov

Wildlife Habitat Unit Values Tells you how good the habitat is for a specific species Range from points Many things taken into consideration Tree size Canopy closure Food plant diversity Cover Water

Class Avg. & Std. Error of HUV

Possible Management Actions Maintain a variety of cavity producing trees Maintain several mast producing trees per acre Build brush pile to create brood raising habitat for turkey Keep water quality at healthy levels Manage for dense cover types as well as opened areas for optimal deer habitat

Conclusion Current management plan is to take no action Camp Sacajawea needs hands-on management approach Highest priority is maintaining appearance and suitability for visitors Increasing suitability of recreation and wildlife habitat, and adequacy of oak regeneration, are possible long-term goals

Further Considerations Our purpose in this presentation was to highlight the current conditions of Camp Sacajawea We will present our recommendations for the camp on Thursday, December 11, 2003 Our priority will be to combine feasible management actions that will optimize benefits for both human and ecological communities