Tuesday, August 3, 2010: 1:50 PM
401-402, David L Lawrence Convention Center
Kathryn Miller, Northeast Temperate Network, National Park Service, Bar Harbor, ME, Geri Tierney, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, Brian R. Mitchell, Northeast Temperate Network, National Park Service, Woodstock, VT and Don Faber-Langendoen, Conservation Science Division, NatureServe, Syracuse, NY
Background/Question/Methods In 2006 the National Park Service’s Northeast Temperate Inventory and Monitoring Network (NETN) began monitoring forest health annually in Acadia National Park and biennially in 9 National Historic Parks in New England, New York, and New Jersey. The monitoring program uses a protocol based on the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis program. To facilitate interpretation of forest health data to park staff, NETN developed an Ecological Integrity Scorecard that rates condition for a suite of metrics that address forest structure, composition and function. For each metric, assessment points were defined that distinguish acceptable or expected conditions from undesired conditions based on current scientific understanding of their natural or historic range of variation. Ecological Integrity is then interpreted using three categories for each metric: Good, Caution and Significant Concern. “Good” represents acceptable or expected conditions; “Caution” indicates a problem may exist; and “Significant Concern” indicates undesired conditions that may need management action.
Results/Conclusions
Reporting Ecological Integrity at the park level for metrics that have a wide range of variability has proven too broad to effectively inform management decisions. Post-stratifying data by USNVC Groups can better constrain variability and help us to more accurately identify condition. To make the EI Scorecard more useful to park resource managers at Acadia National Park, we assessed Ecological Integrity separately for the three dominant, terrestrial NVC forest groups (linked to NatureServe’s Ecological Systems) at that park: Red Spruce - Fir Forest Group (including both spruce-fir-hardwood and aspen-birch stands) , North-Central Appalachian & Laurentian Rocky Outcrop Group, and Northern Hardwood - Hemlock - White Pine Forest Group. Scorecard metrics include coarse woody debris volume, snag abundance, stand structural stage, tree condition, indicator invasive plants, and soil chemistry, many of which varied significantly by NVC Group.
