Appalachian National Scenic Trail (APPA) Rare Plant Monitoring Program
Appalachian National Scenic Trail (APPA) Rare Plant Monitoring Program.
In 1989, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (APPA) and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) began a program to monitor rare plant species occurrences. Because insufficient resources were available to monitor all occurrences, occurrences were selected for monitoring based on perceived degree of threat, species rarity, and accessibility of site. Most monitored plants are understory herbs, but trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, sedges, and non-vascular plants have all been monitored. Rare species are an important APPA resource. In 2004, the NPS Northeast Temperate Inventory & Monitoring Network (NETN) convened a meeting of APPA resource managers and monitoring staff to prioritize “Vital Signs” for resource monitoring. Vital Signs are defined as “a subset of physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems that are selected to represent the overall health or condition of park resources, known or hypothesized effects of stressors, or elements that have important human values.”
- Type
- Program
- Authors
- Northeast Temperate Network; Appalachian National Scenic Trail; Appalachian Trail Conservancy
- Units
- APPA , NETN , NRSS
- Keywords
- APPA, NETN, NRSS, x#APPAProgram