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A Municipal Inventory And Evaluation Of Natural Areas: History And Methodology, William R. Norris, Donald R. Farrar

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

An inventory of natural areas in the vicinity of Ames, Iowa was conducted (1990-1994) in response to conflicts arising when significant natural areas were encountered on lands approved for development by the City of Ames (Iowa) Planning Office. Methods for objective evaluation of woodland and prairie quality were developed for use during the inventory. The woodland method is based on four components: I) Diversity of expected species, H) Structure of canopy and understory layers, III) Fidelity of species to the habitat and IV) absence of Introduced Species. Rules are explicitly stated for the scoring of each component for both the …