Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 455

both provide a recreation and parks experience to all residents of the Louisville-Jefferson County
Metro Area as well as to preserve green space, natural resource areas must be identified and
preserved. Therefore, a natural resource area is a park or park fragment that contains rare
and/or threatened animal and/or plant species, has high biodiversity of plant and/or animal
species, is in itself a critical or rare/threatened ecosystem, contains unique geological or
ecosystem features (such as karst or wetlands), is an ecosystem that could be rehabilitated into
a functioning ecological community, or is worthy of preservation due its unique scenic
recreational properties.
B. Identification of natural resource parks and park fragments
This document seeks to identify all natural areas within Metro Parks and Recreation and
create broad management recommendations for the improvement and conservation of these
ecological resources. In addition to considering the ecological state of properties, management
and use criteria were also considered as is consistent with other natural resource classifications
(US MPA, 2006; Department of Conservation, 2005). Table 2 shows the classification schema
for parks based on public experience, management, use, and environmental factors. Based on this
criterion, thirteen parks and nine fragments were chosen as natural resource parks and natural
resource areas, respectively (Table 3). As previously mentioned, these 22 parks are estimated to
contain almost 10,000 acres of natural areas, or roughly 72 percent of the total land owned and
managed by Metro Parks and Recreation.
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