Appalachian National Scenic Trail

Recipients of the 2014 NPS Environmental Achievement Awards

A.T. Seasons monitors plants and animals with large geographic ranges that are relatively common along the Appalachian Trail. Volunteers use a mobile app or the Phenology Project’s portal in Nature’s Notebook to record their data digitally. Several hundred volunteers have provided almost 400,000 observations from every state the AT encompasses. Data shows how the changing rate of spring advancement between the southern and northern trail impacts various species.

The National Park Service is investing funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to increase the ecological and cultural values in landscape restoration projects in six parks in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and western Pennsylvania. The initial work will focus on converting approximately 400 acres of open lands that have been previously used for agriculture into native grasslands.

Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.

With well over 100 citizen-science based apps now available for smartphones, there is no lack of opportunity for people of all ages and affectations to significantly add to the collective knowledge base about many aspects of the natural world. The phrase “there is an app for that” has perhaps never been more true for natural resource monitoring.

Citizen scientists are help the Vermont Center for Ecostudies to monitor mountain bird populations and the rare Bicknell's Thrush along northeastern portions of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is a 2,184 mile long public footpath that traverses the scenic, wooded, pastoral, wild, and culturally rich lands of the Appalachian Mountains. Much of the trail follows ridge tops, and these high elevation and ridge-top ecosystems are very sensitive to acidic deposition. Potential consequences of increased acidification include forest die-back and streams that are no longer able to support certain sensitive fish species.

During 2024 scouting for a large eastern grassland restoration project funded by IRA and BIL, several old growth remnant grasslands were identified in National Capital and Northeast Region parks that were previously unknown. These remnants preserve the genetic integrity of the original grassland flora of the eastern US and are true unexpected treasures that in some cases, were hidden in plain sight.