Department of the Interior
Dataset Description
Forest vegetation provides an integrated measure of terrestrial ecosystem health by expressing information about the collective suite of drivers and stressors which act upon it. These include climate, disturbance, browse, and invasive species. We developed a comprehensive forest monitoring protocol to detect change in the nine Great Lakes Network parks. Monitoring is conducted on a nine-year rotation, with each of the parks sampled over the course of one summer, once every nine years. Site locations were selected to ensure that they are random, but also spatially balanced throughout the parks. At each sampling site, we collect extensive data on trees (including saplings and seedlings), shrubs, herbs, coarse woody material, and browse. We also carry out assessments of tree health. Data are housed in a Microsoft Access database and published annually in an open-source, machine readable format. Quality control measures include both on site assessments of accuracy, as well as extensive data checking via automated parsing routines. Finally, reports from monitoring are produced on a regular basis and include internal National Park Service technical reports and externally reviewed manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals. All data are publicly available.
Organization: Department of the Interior
Organization URL: https://catalog.data.gov/organization/doi
Last updated: 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z
Tags: APIS, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Basal area, Biomass, Biota, Browse, Coarse Woody Materials, Density, Frequency, GLKN, GRPO, Grand Portage National Monument, Great Lakes, Great Lakes Network, IMD, INDU, ISRO, Indiana, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, MISS, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, Monitoring, PIRO, Pathogens, Percent Cover, Pests, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Plants, SACN, SLBE, Saint Croix National Scenic River, Shrub species, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Tree Species, Tree seedlings, VOYA, Vegetation, Volume, Voyageurs National Park, Wisconsin, herbaceous species