Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a small cultural park (517 ha in size) with limited but important natural resources that are somewhat sheltered in a landscape dominated by the Black Hills National Forest. Important natural resources include about 344 ha of old-growth ponderosa pine forest-or about 17 percent of this forest type in the Black Hills-and the Starling Basin wetland complex, which is considered an important conservation site in the Black Hills for bats, reptiles and amphibians, and butterflies.