Keys to Vegetation of the North Atlantic Coast, Cheasapeak Bay, and Lower New England EcoRegions Progress Report

Sneddon, Lesley

Progress report on how the collection of keys for the vegetation monitoring and mapping. A substantial amount of new information has been collected on vegetation of the northeast by the state heritage programs over the past five years. The cost-share agreement between the USFWS and NPS allowed me to hire an ecologist to integrate this information and develop keys to three ecoregions. I hired Stephanie Neid in July 2001, and she systematically integrated the new data into the NVC over the period of July 2001 to June 2002. Once the information was integrated, we solicited review of the work by holding meetings with the state heritage ecologists. The North Atlantic Coast classification was reviewed by all the state heritage ecologists at a three-day meeting at the University of Massachusetts field station on Nantucket in April 2002. The Chesapeake Bay classification was reviewed by the heritage program staff of MD, DE and VA at a meeting two-day meeting in Maryland in spring of 2002. Stephanie developed draft keys to both the NAC and CHB prior to her departure to the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Inventory (NHNHI, also known as the NH heritage program), where she is currently contracted to continue the work on the Lower New England keys.