Botanical Assessment of High-quality Woodland Parcels of the Undeveloped Lowell Regional Greenspace, Kent County, MI

Abstract

The 2019–2023 Masterplan for the Kent County Parks includes the future development of acquired properties that have been designated as the Lowell Regional Greenspace (528 acres) occupying nearly the entirety of Section 22 of Lowell Charter Township in Kent County, Michigan. As part of an on-going botanical inventory project of the greater Grand Rapids area, we have been assessing sites that Emma Cole described over 120 years ago, along with other high-quality remnant natural areas in the region. Nine wooded sites within the Lowell Regional Greenspace property that appear to be high-quality habitat were identified for floristic inventories and floristic quality assessments during the summers of 2018 and 2019. A total of 274 species are reported for the nine wooded sites, including 241 (88.0%) native species. Three of these species are designated in Michigan as rare (one of Threatened status, two of Special Concern status). A non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was run using presence/absence floristic data from the nine woodlots to spatially compare similarities and differences among the sites. Additionally, Sørensen Index of Similarity was employed to ascertain the similarity between pairs of individual sites, which was also useful for assigning plant community types in accordance with the classification system developed by the Michigan Natural Features Inventory. Six of the wooded sites were best classified as mesic southern forest (one of which has old growth characteristics), two as dry southern forest, and one as dry-mesic southern forest. Of the nine sites, the floristic quality assessment indicated that eight of the sites are floristically important statewide, whereas one, having numerous weedy native and non-native species, was deemed to be of low to moderate value. We discovered remarkable differences in species composition among the sites, even between wooded sites we classified as the same community type. Such high-diversity in a limited space underscores the importance of preserving persisting remnant habitats, even those small in extent. This study should be useful to the Kent County Parks as they begin to develop the greenspace into parkland, and to those interested in learning more about how to assess habitat quality and diversity of remnant natural areas.

Recommended citation: Warners, D.P., Crow, G.E., Walt, J.D., Koehn, C.R., Hartwig, Z.E., & Clum, D. (2021). Botanical Assessment of High-quality Woodland Parcels of the Undeveloped Lowell Regional Greenspace, Kent County, MI. The Great Lakes Botanist, 60(3-4), 110.
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