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Grazing, farming, or other activities have typically disturbed C quality natural communities, but <br />with proper management techniques such as prescribed burning, could be upgraded to a higher <br />quality. <br />D quality natural communities are severely disturbed and can only be restored to a higher quality <br />with considerable effort and expense. Poor quality natural communities have generally had their <br />characteristic plant species assemblage replaced by weedier native species and /or nonnative <br />species. <br />Upland sites assigned an NA do not meet minimum standards to be classified as a natural <br />community or are human created environments such as conifer plantations and old fields. The <br />ecological ranking for each site is given with its Community Description in this report. One <br />major area where this inventory effort differs from DNR Natural Heritage Program standards is <br />in the "minimum size" criteria. The DNR NHP standard for minimum size varies for each <br />community type with the minimum size for some communities being over 40 acres. During this <br />study, all native plant communities within the five parks studied were visited and inventoried. <br />Because sites with a rank of "C" or better are very rare in urban areas, readers should not be <br />alarmed at the lower rank of some natural communities within the study area. Although the <br />qualitative rank is a reflection of current conditions, it does not take into account a natural <br />community's potential to improve under active management. Restoration is an important aspect <br />to take into account in the case of Roseville Parks since the City has an expressed desire to <br />actively manage these areas and enable their recovery /improvement, where possible. <br />Nonnative Shrub Ranking <br />To assist in prioritizing areas for control of nonnative shrubs, a methodology created by Paul <br />Bockenstedt for assessing European buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica infestation levels in MN <br />State Parks was utilized. This method seeks to assess, within an individual natural community, <br />the extent of nonnative shrub cover, shrub size, seed production, and other related parameters to <br />determine the threat they pose to existing natural communities. The nonnative shrub assessment <br />method yields a numerical score where the higher the score is, the greater the infestation levels <br />of nonnative shrubs. These numeric scores can then be used within, or across parks to prioritize <br />treatment sites. <br />City of Roseville 62 <br />Parks Natural Resource Management <br />