Potential Inventory and Monitoring Plan On the Appalachian National Scenic Trail - Maine to Pennsylvaina

Appalachian National Scenic Trail

The following are a listing of potential areas of focus for natural resource inventory and monitoring on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail from Pennsylvania to Maine. As part of the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring program, park units have been divided into networks for the purposes of natural resource inventories and long term monitoring. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail spans five of the NPS networks. In the Northeast Temperate Network the A.T. encompasses well over 200,000 acres in 8 states if one includes all A.T. lands regardless of ownership. In order to facilitate the A.T.'s role in the NETN, Trail managers have proposed selecting 10 sample areas to do more intensive inventory and monitoring projects. The following list represents a list of possible sample areas or plots where additional natural resource inventory and monitoring work may prove beneficial to Trail managers. Sites were selected based on the following criteria: • The presence of known rare, threatened or endangered species • The likelihood of observing land use change in the next 25 years • The likelihood of experiencing heavy recreational use that may compromise natural resource conditions. • The presence of a data set that may assist managers to track trends over time (for example existing air quality data). • The presence or absence of exotic or invasive species • The possibility of significant land conservation in areas adjacent to the study area. • The gut feeling of Trail managers