Developing Vital Signs of Ecological Integrity: A Monitoring Plan for the National Park Service Northeast Temperate Network
Gibbs JP and Tierney G. 2004. Developing Vital Signs of Ecological Integrity: A Monitoring Plan for the National Park Service Northeast Temperate Network
National Park managers are directed by federal law to know the status and trends in the condition of natural resources under their stewardship in order to fulfill the National Park Service mission of conserving the scenery, and the natural and historic objects and wildlife in national parks unimpaired. In order to fulfill this mission, it is necessary to identify and understand changes in complex, variable and imperfectly understood natural systems and to provide insight into whether observed changes are within natural levels of variability or indicate excessive human influence. The Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) consists of 10 parks in 7 states. The Appalachian Trail will be handled separately through a State of the Trail Report. The parks are grouped together based on their common ecological resources, northeastern temperate forests and the wetland and aquatic systems that accompany them. Currently, the Parks and Historic Sites in this network do not all have monitoring programs in place that will adequately identify trends in the status of the freshwater resources over the long term.