The purpose of the NVC is to provide a complete, standardized listing and description of all vegetation types that represent the variation in biological diversity at the community level and to identify those communities that require protection. The NVC focuses on existing vegetation rather than potential natural vegetation, climax vegetation, or physical habitats. Because it is not restricted to static vegetation types, classification units are useful both for inventory, site description, and as the basis for building dynamic ecological models. The NVC also includes vegetation along the natural-invasive-cultural (semi-natural and modified) continuum, but it emphasizes natural communities as the focus of biodiversity protection.

The purpose of the NVC is to provide a complete, standardized listing and description of all vegetation types that represent the variation in biological diversity at the community level and to identify those communities that require protection. The NVC focuses on existing vegetation rather than potential natural vegetation, climax vegetation, or physical habitats. Because it is not restricted to static vegetation types, classification units are useful both for inventory, site description, and as the basis for building dynamic ecological models. The NVC also includes vegetation along the natural-invasive-cultural (semi-natural and modified) continuum, but it emphasizes natural communities as the focus of biodiversity protection.

To better understand the native, non-native and restored plant community dynamics at WHMI the NPS Vegetation Inventory Program (NVIP) funded a vegetation inventory and mapping project in 2006 as part of the larger Upper Columbia Basin Inventory and Monitoring Network (UCBN) network-wide inventory program. The authors' detail the findings of the Vegetation Inventory Project at Whitman Mission National Historic Site

The Natural Resource Publication series addresses natural resource topics that are of interest and applicability to a broad readership in the National Park Service and to others in the management of natural resources, including the scientific community, the public, and the NPS conservation and environmental constituencies. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed to ensure that the information is scientifically credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the intended audience, and is designed and published in a professional manner.

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (SAAN) encompasses approximately 844 acres in the city of San Antonio and rural Wilson County, Texas. The park preserves and celebrates the largest collection of Spanish colonial resources in the U.S., including four missions, two acequias (irrigation ditches), and one ranch remnant. The four missions are located in the southern portion of San Antonio along the San Antonio River and the ranch site is located approximately 5 miles southwest of Floresville, Texas and 35 miles southeast of San Antonio. SAAN was created to protect and commemorate these historical structures and in addition it also contains rich and varied natural resources including native flora common to the Tamaulipan thornscrub and southern tallgrass prairie ecoregions. To better understand the distribution of these plant assemblages the National Park Service's (NPS) Southern Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (SOPN) in conjunction with the NPS's Gulf Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network (GULN) begun a vegetation mapping and classification effort at SAAN.