A Description of the Grassland Communities of the Wildcat Hills Region of Northwestern Nebraska Including Scotts Bluff National Monument and Rare Plant Survey of the Wildcat Hills Region of Northwestern Nebraska, Volume II

Authors

Terri Hildebrand, Hildebrand Contracting
Steven B. Rolfsmeier

Citation

Hildebrand, Terri and Steven B. Rolfsmeier. Undated. A Description of the Grassland Communities of the Wildcat Hills Region of Northwestern Nebraska Including Scotts Bluff National Monument and Rare Plant Survey of the Wildcat Hills Region of Northwestern Nebraska, Volume II. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. 88 pp.

Abstract

This study resulted from a Cooperative Agreement between Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the National Park Service (NPS), with funding provided by the Natural Resource Preservation Program of the NPS. Scotts Bluff National Monument was seeking to characterize the native grassland communities of the Wildcat Hills region in order to develop species composition models for prairie restoration of disturbed lands at the monument. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission needed similar information to refine community classification for the Wildcat Hills region, and to update rare plant species inventories. This report includes a description of the grassland communities and a rare plant survey of the Wildcat Hills region.

Between May and August of 1996, scattered regions of the Wildcat Hills were examined for federally and state monitored plant species. A variety of plant communities were examined. These included: Stipa comata/Carex filifolia dominated prairie, sandstone and siltstone outcrops, Artemisia filifolia prairie, Pinus ponderosa woodlands and forests, Pinus ponderosa/Cercocarpis montanus woodlands, limestone outcrops, and riparian communities deep in forest draws and broad sandstone canyons. Fifteen days of field work at eleven tracts revealed 45 occurrences of 15 state monitored plant species. No federally monitored species were identified. Several state monitored species not previously known to occur in the Wildcat Hills region were located. These included: Heracleum sphandylium, Apocynum andraesimifolium, and Delphinium nuttallianum.