Appalachian National Scenic Trail forest health monitoring protocol
Dieffenbach F. 2018. Appalachian National Scenic Trail forest health monitoring protocol. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NETN/NRR—2018/1804. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Knowing the condition of natural resources is fundamental to the National Park Service’s mission to manage park resources “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Park managers are confronted with increasingly complex and challenging issues that require a broad-based understanding of the status and trends of park resources. Specifically, forest health was selected for monitoring because forests are the dominant ecological communities associated with the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (APPA). The large, but narrow configuration of APPA makes a ground-based plot monitoring program logistically and financially infeasible for the National Park Service to implement. In light of that challenge, the Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) developed a data acquisition protocol to track the overall condition of forest resources along the Appalachian Trail using plot-based data collected by the US Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA). The primary objectives of this protocol are to monitor the status and trends in forest composition and structure based on available FIA data. Data acquired from FIA are summarized within an area surrounding the APPA corridor (HUC10 Shell) and further into distinct ecoregional subsection intersecting the APPA. This protocol, along with the associated standard operating procedures (SOPs), provides the framework and guidance for monitoring and assessing forest resource condition at APPA over time. Data collected as a part of this protocol are stored locally in databases and uploaded to national databases maintained by NPS on an annual basis. Reporting on these data occurs at regular intervals defined in part by the revisit of FIA plots within the HUC10 Shell and has multiple applications for management decision-making, park planning, research, education, and promoting public understanding of park resources.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Dieffenbach, Fred
- Date of Issue
- 2018-11
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- APPA , NETN , NRSS
- Keywords
- APPA, Appalachian, forest health, narrative, NETN, NST, Protocol, x#APPA, x#forestHealth, x#narrative, x#NETN, x#protocols