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OPEN SPACE INSTITUTE ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE RESILIENCE AND THE
DELAWARE WATER GAP NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
A UNIQUE PLACE: THE DELAWARE WATER GAP NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area’s spectacular cliffs, rushing river, and deep
gorges make the land a recreational mecca that attracts millions of visitors every year to
northeastern Pennsylvania. Now, a new study quantifies how the area’s unique geology and
landforms will remain a haven for diverse plant and animal species—even under a changing
climate.
As a critical wildlife corridor connecting the northern and southern Appalachian regions in the
midst of heavy development, the park’s resilient landscapes are vital for maintaining
populations of animals—such as black bear, bobcat, fisher, and timber rattlesnake—that
require large, undisturbed habitats. Raccoon Ridge, for example, is a well-known resting point
for the intercontinental migration of hawks, while the park floor is home to sensitive and rare
plant species such as walking fern, native orchids, and the Eastern prickly pear.
The April 2016 addition of the properties known as Mosiers Knob, Milford Glen and Rosenkrans
(also known as Walpack) to the park will benefit all of this rich ecology. They are, respectively:
 a 548-acre, mostly forested area with rolling and steep topography culminating in 1,120foot point;
 39 entirely forested acres bisected by an Exceptional Value Stream; and,
 135 acres on the Delaware River encompassing a rolling topography of open fields,
small, steep forested areas and a 20-acre wetland complex.
At the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area as elsewhere, the effects of climate
change, such as unpredictable variations in temperature and precipitation, and more intense
storms, are disrupting treasured natural communities and shifting species ranges. Yet new
science has determined that the very traits that make the park so special for its visitors also
mean that it can serve as a linchpin for climate resilience for plants, animals and humans in the
Mid-Atlantic region.
WHAT IS RESILIENCE AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
“Climate resilience” is the ability of plants, animals and natural processes to persist in the face
of changes caused by a warming planet. The science around climate resilience measures how
well a site or a region can rebound from disturbance and continue to support diverse forms of
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life. The climate adaptation plans of the White House and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
both identify protection of the land—such as the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation
Area—as a first-line defense against the expected loss of biodiversity under climate change.
Conservation scientists have developed a method for identifying resilient places based on a
landscape’s physical and biological features. This relatively new approach simplifies the task of
protecting the thousands of distinct species in a region: Permanently protecting a network of
resilient sites can help safeguard the full range of habitats that plants and animals depend on,
so they can survive into the future.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A RESILIENT SITE
Resilience is built on four landscape characteristics: variety of geology and landforms at a site,
connections within and between that site, and its biological condition. These traits are referred
to as diversity, connectedness, and intactness.
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Diverse geology (such as limestone, granite and shale) at all elevations (high, medium
and low) is the basis for the full range of habitat that supports the numerous species in a
region. Such permanent physical features ensure that species diversity can continue to
flourish as well.
Diverse landforms, or how many slopes, valleys, cliffs and other features a location has
helps determine the variety of temperatures and moisture levels there and the impacts
of any disturbances. The more of these “microclimates” there are at a site, the more
likely plants and animals can adapt in place rather than having to move to find the right
type of habitat under climate change.
Connectedness means the landscape allows species to move within and through areas
where there are few to no human or natural barriers. These local and regional
connections provide them with more habitat to seek out food or to reproduce.
Intact biological condition means a place contains the quantity and quality of natural
resources necessary to support biological diversity today and into the future.
By identifying and permanently protecting sites that have a great deal of landform complexity
and local and regional connectedness across all geologies and at all elevations, land protection
experts can be fairly certain they are securing a diverse range of habitats that support the full
diversity of plants and animals into the future.
DELAWARE WATER GAP NATIONAL RECREATION AREA RESILIENCE TRAITS
Recent climate science identifies the park and its recent additions as a refuge and critical
corridor for migration through an otherwise heavily-developed landscape—and across an array
of habitat types—that have little-to-no protection elsewhere along the Appalachian spine.
According to a “resilience analysis” performed by the Open Space Institute, these lands have
robust resilience traits:
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Overall Resilience
More than half of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area contains a diversity of
landforms and intact habitat blocks that will help sustain ecological function and so enable a
diversity of plants and animals to find appropriate habitat locally, even as climate change
impacts the region.
Geological Diversity
The park is a significant stronghold for biodiversity because of its broad range of geologies,
which support a range of habitat types and plants and animals. A remarkable 60 percent of the
DWGNRA (and 100 percent of Milford Glen and Rosenkrans) are composed of geologies that
have been identified as under-protected. These include rich limestone bedrock; mid-elevation
shale, which flakes to create a unique dry habitat type; and fine sediments, which are deposited
along the Delaware River’s floodplain. Most of these geology types also have resilience
characteristics.
Landscape Diversity
The park lands on the northwestern side of the river have many microclimates due to the
undulating and pocketed landscape easily identified at well-known scenic overlooks, like Hawks
Nest above the Delaware, and in the park’s deep ravines with high waterfalls, such as Bushkill
Falls.
Connectedness
Despite the development flanking either side of the park, the Delaware Water Gap National
Recreation Area also provides significant pockets of intact forest habitat. Most notably,
however, it offers the only linkage through a heavily developed area between the central and
northern Appalachians. Mosiers Knob, at the far southern end of the Park, will help to buffer
and protect this important corridor.
Some of the most striking resilience characteristics of the park and the new parcels include:
Scores AboveAverage for
Overall Resilience
Contains
Underrepresented
Geologies
Scores AboveAverage for
Landform
Diversity
Mosiers
Knob (548
acres)
261 acres
(48%)
Milford
Glen (39
acres)
25 acres
(64%)
Rosenkrans
(135 acres)
N/A
Delaware Water Gap National
Recreation Area (56,000
acres)
31,000 acres (56%)
453 acres
(83%)
100%
100%
34,000 acres (60%)
350 acres
(64%)
34 acres
(87%)
98 acres (73%)
35,000 acres (63%)
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Of course, conservation experts cannot predict the trajectory of every species under climate
change. But by protecting places like the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, they
expect that a diverse array of life will continue to endure there.
BENEFITS OF PROTECTING RESILIENT LAND ON HUMAN COMMUNITIES
Protecting land as a strategy to mitigate climate effects is a national priority as identified by the
President’s strategy on climate adaptation. Protecting natural features—such as wetlands and
intact forest—that are also climate-resilient will help mitigate the impacts of disasters
associated with climate change, such as flooding and other storm events, to human
communities.
Under its Resilient Landscapes Initiative, funded by the Doris Duke Foundation, the Open Space
Institute has protected nearly 7,000 acres of climate-resilient land, and is on track to conserve
much more, around the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and other critically
valuable areas. In 2014, the President commended the initiative for its investment in natural
infrastructure.