Natural Area Preservation
City Of Ann Arbor
Department of Parks & Recreation
Page Designed by: Amie Ottinger

What is the Natural Area Preservation Division?

For the past four years, Ann Arbor's natural areas have been undergoing a change.  Thanks to the Natural Area Preservation (NAP) Division of the Parks and Recreation Department, these natural areas are being restored to their native beauty and biological richness.  Our mission is to protect, restore, and champion the natural areas of Ann Arbor, especially those in the City of Ann Arbor's park and recreation system.  The program is funded by the Department of Parks and Recreation's voter-approved 1993-1998 Park Maintenance and Repair Millage.  Continued funding for NAP was recently approved by voters when the 1998-2003 Parks Maintenance and Repair Millage was passed.

The city has set aside almost 1,000 acres of woodlands, wetlands, and prairies in order to preserve natural features and open spaces within Ann Arbor.  This set-aside is the first step in protecting these areas, however out work does not end there.  NAP works to ensure that these species-rich communities stay biologically diverse through a variety of stewardship activities.

Threats to these natural areas arise from the disruption of natural ecological processes.  For example, historically, fire was a common feature to our southeast Michigan landscape.  Our native woodland, wetland, and prairie species are fire-adapted and these ecosystems are vitally linked to fire.  As areas became more densely settled by people, fires became less frequent, thus enabling non-native and fire-intolerant species to "move in."

These aggressive, weedy, non-native species present intense competition to native species, and the areas of once pristine woodland, wetland, or prairie can become thickets of shrubs or weeds with very little diversity.  The loss of native biological richness locally is part of a larger problem of species loss worldwide.  However, we can take steps locally to conserve native species.

With the help of volunteers, the NAP staff works to maintain the regional diversity of native plants, insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals in our green spaces.  First, inventories are conducted to determine what species inhabit our natural areas.  Based upon this information, stewardship plans are developed to determine what stewardship activities are best suited to a particular natural community;  then the plans are put into action.  Staff and volunteers work to reestablish natural processes using a variety of restoration techniques. Controlled ecological burns are used to mimic the effects of natural fire, removing fire-intolerant species and encouraging growth of native fire-dapted species.  Manual digging, cutting and removal of unwanted plants from the natural areas increases the available light and decreases the competition for native plants.

Numerous volunteer opportunities exist with the NAP program.  From March through November, NAP regularly conducts volunteer stewardship workdays within park natural areas.  Volunteers remove invasive plants, collect seeds to use in restoration work, or work as a trained member of the burn brew.  NAP also relies on volunteers to conduct yearly inventories of plants, breeding birds, frogs, toads, and butterlies within the parks.  NAP provides training in identification and inventory techniques.  Other volunteer projects, both long and short-term, are available.  Volunteers may drop into most of our events, however some require pre-training or registration.  Our quarterly newsletter, "Natural Area Preservation News," features information about restoration, preservation, upcoming events, and the activities of NAP.  To learn more about NAP or volunteer opportunities, please call our stewardship hotline at 313-996-3266.

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Inventory Program:	Overview of our inventory efforts.
Plant Inventory:	Our largest database, containing records of over 1,000 species.
Bird Inventory:	Map of inventory sites and highlights of this year.
Butterfly Inventory:	A unique effort in an urban area.
Amphibian & Reptile Inventory:	Highlights of this year.
Burn Program	Maps of our burn sites and a fact sheet describing our burn program.
Staff	A little about us..

Other Links Possibly Relevant to NAPpers (but possibly not)
 

US Forest Service

Michigan Department of Natural Resources

US Fish and Wildlife Service

National Park Service

The Nature Conservancy

University of Michigan Nichols Arboretum