NPS Photo
Overview
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail traverses the Appalachian Mountain chain from central Maine to northern Georgia, for a distance of approximately 2,180 miles. The trail's length, north-south alignment, changes in elevation, and the numerous peaks and ridges it crosses along this ancient mountain chain has resulted in one of the most biodiverse units of the National Park System.
Mappers, ecologists, and botanists collaborated to identify vegetation types of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Analyses of data from 1,618 vegetation plots were used to describe the vegetation classifications. The interpreted data were digitally and spatially referenced, making the spatial-database layers usable in GIS. Final results indicate an overall accuracy of 80.18% based on data from 3,204 of the 3,265 accuracy assessment sites. The vegetation mapping project delivers geospatial and vegetation data products, including an in-depth project report discussing methods and results, which includes descriptions to vegetation associations, field keys to vegetation associations, map classification, and map-class descriptions.
Products
The products of vegetation mapping projects are stored and managed in the National Park Service's Data Store, a repository for documents and publications relating to park resources. From the highlighted items below, click on the type of information you are looking for.
Last updated: September 20, 2018