This workshop covers the application of the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) to natural and semi-natural vegetation monitoring, and ecological condition assessments. Tracking the extent and condition of the nation’s forests and wetlands are key goals of many state and private organizations and federal agencies such as the US Forest Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense, US Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service. This 1 ½ - day workshop provides an overview of how the NVC standard can address these needs (http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/projects/FGDC-standards-projects/vegetation). The workshop will be on-site on Saturday and off-site on Sunday (Fort Necessity National Battlefield, in Chalk Hill, PA). Saturday afternoon we review the classification and explore the criteria that guide the NVC hierarchy. We discuss the scope of the NVC, and illustrate how it facilitates comprehensive classification, mapping and condition assessments. We introduce the role of vegetation plot data in addressing these tasks, including plot data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and the EPA’s National Wetland Condition Assessment. Day 2 we visit vegetation at the Park in different management conditions, including native old-growth forest, plantations, ruderal forests, old fields, and several wetlands. Instructors will make use of NVC vegetation keys, vegetation descriptions, and monitoring plots. The instructors are ESA Vegetation Panel members with field assistance from National Park Service and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy ecologists.