Acadia National Park (ACAD) lies within a transition zone of the Maine coastline, containing ecological communities typical of both southwestern and "downeast" coastal Maine. Eleven of these communities, or "associations" as defined within the United States National Vegetation Classification, are rare within the state of Maine, and one is globally rare. The NPS Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) is establishing a long-term forest monitoring program in 10 national park units within the northeastern US. This program is designed to detect trends in forest condition. At ACAD, the network has installed 176 permanent forest plots. This sample size will allow detection of trends in park forests overall, as well as in some specific ecological communities. However, this effort will not yield sufficient sample sizes in rare community associations to assess trends in the condition of these communities. Rare communities are of particular management and conservation interest at ACAD, because they are rare and because they may be particularly sensitive to anthropogenic (human caused) impacts. This protocol was designed to provide data for the assessment of status and trend in rare woodland and forest communities within ACAD, and was adapted from the NETN Long-term Forest Monitoring Protocol.

The Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) of the National Park Service is tasked with monitoring a suite of representative indicators, called vital signs, of natural resource condition for 12 parks in seven northeastern states and the Appalachian NST. This report summarizes data collected in 2007 and 2008.

In 2006 the Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) Inventory and Monitoring Program began implementing a long-term forest monitoring program to assess status and trends in forest composition, structure and function within ten national park units: Acadia National Park (ACAD), Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park (MABI), Minute Man National Historical Park (MIMA), Morristown National Historical Park (MORR), Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites (ROVA), Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (SAGA), Saratoga National Historical Park (SARA), and Weir Farm National Historic Site (WEFA). Roosevelt- Vanderbilt National Historic Sites includes Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (ELRO), Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (HOFR), and Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site (VAMA). To date, NETN has established and sampled 344 permanent forest plots. In 2010, NETN will begin resampling plots in ACAD, MABI, MIMA, SAGA and SARA. This report summarizes metrics of ecological integrity for ACAD, ELRO/HOFR, MORR, VAMA, and WEFA, and examines forest composition and structure for all NETN parks sampled from 2006-2009.

This document describes the rationale and methods used by the National Park Service (NPS) Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuges (MCI) for long-term monitoring of rocky intertidal habitats. The monitoring effort will collect data for key metrics representing the ecological health of the intertidal zone, and over time it will provide an indication of the trend of these metrics.