Appalachian Trail Rare Plant Survey and Site Monitoring Report

Elliman, Ted

Report concerning a Rare Plant Survey taken on the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Pennsylvania. This report summarizes rare plant investigations and monitoring activities at 28 sites along the Appalachian Trail corridor from Maine to Pennsylvania in 2003. The field investigations at these sites took place from April through September, 2003. The goals of the investigations were to assess the current condition of the rare plant occurrences and to propose and implement management actions for their protection from human and natural impacts. Global positioning system (GPS) points and ranges are provided for most of the rare plant occurrences observed in 2003. The GPS points are included in both the individual site summaries and in the spreadsheet of rare plant occurrences that follows the narrative. Digitized maps, using the National Geographic Topo! program for the northeastern states, follow most of the site summaries (scale is 1: 30720). The exceptions are several sites also investigated in 2002 for which maps were provided in the 2002 site monitoring report (Great Falls, CT and Maple Hill, NJ, for example). During the field season, I tried to contact and coordinate site visitation schedules with the Appalachian Trail Conference volunteer monitors for the sites where volunteers have been assigned. I owe a lot of thanks to these volunteers, who are named in the individual site summaries. The dedication, enthusiasm, and observations of the volunteer monitors have contributed immeasurably to the protection of rare plants in the Appalachian Trail corridor. I gratefully acknowledge the help and administrative support of Kent Schwarzkopf of the National Park Service's Appalachian Trail Park Office in Harpers Ferry and of Alice Schori and Michele Miller of the Appalachian Trail Conference. My thanks also to biologists and conservation professionals who have helped with these investigations, including Bill Brumback (New England Wild Flower Society), Charles Cogbill (Ecological Consultant), J.T. Horn (Appalachian Trail Conference), Ed McGowan (New York-New Jersey Trail Conference), Don Owen (National Park Service), Casey Reed (National Park Service), Ann Rhodes (Morris Arboretum), David Snyder (New Jersey Natural Heritage Program), Paul Somers (Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program), Ted Weber (Appalachian Mountain Club), and Larry Wheelock (New York-New Jersey Trail Conference).