Limitations

Ecological Surveys

This project does not document all components of biological diversity in Hanover. Rather, we visited representative sites, consulted maps and aerial photography and incorporated as much current information to make informed determinations of lands that could not be visited within the scope of the project. For instance, the observation points on Moose Mountain are not meant to represent or describe a specific spot, rather they may describe the broad forest condition over a large area on the mountain. In addition, the observation points at Pressey Brook may do a good job describing similar kinds of wetlands on the eastern side of Hanover, but should not be considered exhaustive. In all cases, we documented conditions at a certain place at a certain time, and re-visits to ecosystems may yield slightly different results.

Field Sites

While the field sites included in this report probably represent the variety of uplands and wetlands throughout the town, it is likely that unique and significant areas exist that were not visited within the scope of the project. This report should be used as a starting point for future work at other sites to confirm or expand the information reported here.

We focused our attention on plants and natural communities in uplands and wetlands. We did not study aquatic habitats, and we made no attempt to document wildlife, non-vascular plants, or fungi.

Rare Species

Rare species that we found were not at new locations, rather we confirmed known populations that were previously documented. There is a reasonable potential for finding more rare species in appropriate habitats in Hanover. In addition, due to the timing of our surveys (mid-summer through mid-fall), it is likely that we missed many plants due to variations in flowering time and other life-cycle differences.