Summary

Description

This report documents a vascular plant inventory performed for Banks Lake NWR from 2009 through 2011. Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge NWR comprises 3,559 acre 1,440 ha in Lanier County, Georgia Anonymous 2009. It is contiguous with Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area WMA and Moody Air Force Base to the south and Georgia Department of Transportation Wetland Mitigation property to the northwest, and collectively these areas form a natural ecological unit consisting of CypressGum Swamp, Carolina Bay wetland communities, and adjacent upland habitats Anonymous 2009; Bergstrom et al. 1995. Despite its ecological significance, there is currently no vouchered floristic inventory for Banks Lake NWR.The major objectives of our proposed study of Banks Lake NWR are 1 to conduct an intensive survey of the vegetation documenting the occurrence of all vascular plant species with special emphasis on rare, threatened, and endangered species RTE and exotic invasive species; 2 to characterize the major plant communities, according to the quantitative methodology of Peet et al. 1998; 3 to classify the plant communities according to the system developed by the Nature Conservancy NatureServe 2008; and 4 to map the plant communities.