Naval Support Activity (NSA) Crane, Indiana
Last Edited: 5/5/2010

Background - NSA Crane is a shore command of the U.S. Navy located near the town of Crane, Indiana. This installation is in the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region (BCR24) and classified by Audubon as Crane IBA. . It is also covered by PIF Interior Low Plateaus Bird Conservation Plan (Physiographic Area 14). Of Crane's 62,609 acres, nearly 49,000 are forested with oak-hickory, upland mixed hardwood, bottomland hardwood, or pine. Open fields, bottomlands, and stream valleys comprise remaining habitat types. MAPS stations are located primarily in deciduous forest (upland and bottomland), riparian areas, and grassy fields.

NLCD 2001 imagery of NSA Crane, IN and 20 km buffer (Nott, M. P. and T. Morris. 2007. Performance Measure Analysis: Examples of Comparing and Contrasting Installation-specific Demographics with Regional Demographics and Landscape Characteristics PDF (7MB) ).

Management Issues - Existing management plans for NSA Crane (from the NSA Crane INRMP) include continuation of uneven age timber harvest, clearing of roads and fire breaks for the prevention of wildfire, and creation of nesting structures, water sources, and forest openings for wildlife. MAPS is monitoring the effect of timber harvest regeneration gaps at two stations (Sulphur Creek and AR14). Models predicting the effect of harvest on capture rates through various spatial parameters (i.e. forest edge %) have been generated and tested for two species of management concern, Acadian Flycatcher and Wood Thrush. MAPS is also monitoring general post-harvest community changes with interesting results (e.g. Brown-headed Cowbird capture rate increase likely due to the development of "corridors" (roads) allowing access to the interior forest).

MAPS Monitoring (1994-2008) - The MAPS Station Information file contains descriptions and geographic location information for the six MAPS stations that have ever operated at NSA Crane. All six stations were run annually from 1994 to 2002 and 2004 to 2008. Google Earth generated maps of the location (CRAN) and of each station (FIRS, WICE, SEED, SULP, EABO, AR14) show the specific arrangement of the nets and the associated vegetation.

Installation Contact:
Steve Andrews
Natural Resources Manager
steven.andrews@navy.mil
Tel: 812-854-1165

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