Onion Park Research Natural Area: Botanical and ecological resources inventory, mapping and analysis with recommendations towards the development of a long-term monitoring and research program

Abstract

Onion Park is a floristically rich naturally occurring mountain meadow and wetland complex which is surrounded by subalpine forest. The grass- and wetlands comprising the Park contribute biological diversity to an otherwise predominantly lodgepole pine-forested, subalpine setting. Onion Park is located at 7400' elevation in the Little Belt Mountains, five miles west of the town of Neihart, Meagher County, Montana. It is within the USDA Forest Service Tenderfoot Creek Experiment Forest on the Lewis and Clark National Forest. A 1,173 acre Research Natural Area (RNA) encompassing Onion Park and its surrounding forest environs has been proposed (Chadde, 1991-Figure 2). This study provides an overview of the flora and plant communities for the entire RNA, but focuses detailed inventory, mapping and analysis primarily on the meadow and wetland vegetation at Onion Park.

Citation

Layser, Earle F. 1992. Onion Park Research Natural Area: Botanical and ecological resources inventory, mapping and analysis with recommendations towards the development of a long-term monitoring and research program. USDA Forest Service Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest and Lewis and Clark National Forest Contract #43-84M8-2-0705. Unpublished report on file. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. 53 p.