invertebrates on Appalachian Trail lands. A wildlife biologist would be able to establish a wildlife monitoring program for the Appalachian Trail and evaluate and implement wildlife management recommendations from the Appalachian Trail natural heritage inventories. Monitoring of rare and exemplary natural communities on Appalachian Trail lands is needed in order to assess vital signs, trends, and threats to those communities. Currently, almost no monitoring of rare or exemplary communities occurs on Appalachian Trail lands. Management actions to protect these natural communities could also be assessed and implemented on Appalachian Trail Park Office land. In addition, there could be additional collaboration with other federal and state agencies regarding the protection of natural communities on land that they manage. The state natural heritage inventories identified more than 450 occurrences of rare and exemplary natural communities on Appalachian Trail lands, so there is no shortage of significant resources to be monitored and protected. Among the rare natural communities that have been identified on Appalachian Trail lands are alpine tundra, subalpine krummholz, subalpine spruce fir forest, grassy balds, fens, calcareous seepage swamps, and pitch pine-scrub oak barrens. The only alpine area in the national park system in the Eastern United States is located on NPS A.T. land in Maine. The A.T. passes through nine diverse ecosystems along its route from GA to ME. Continue to develop a program to inventory and monitor exotic plants and insect pests on Appalachian Trail lands. Though many invasive exotic plant species were documented along the A.T. corridor from GA to ME in 2005, that survey was not as complete in GA and from NJ to MA. The presence, extent, and threat level at individual exotic species sites should be documented for GA, NJ, NY, and CT. Exotic species occurrences have been documented in only a handful of occurrences in VT, NH, and ME, and additional inventory work in these states could confirm whether invasive exotic plants have become an increasing problem along the A.T. corridor there. Concentration on inventory and monitoring of exotics could be given to Appalachian Trail Park Office lands or to sections of the Trail with the highest priority RTE species occurrences. A primary goal of this inventory and monitoring work would be to prioritize RTE species sites on Appalachian Trail Park Office land for exotic species control. The inventory and monitoring of exotic species could also provide early warnings to land managers regarding new occurrences of exotic species that might be easily controlled. Control exotic species at high priority sites on Appalachian Trail Park Office land. The presence of invasive exotic plants has been documented on several thousand acres in the A.T. corridor, and its presence continues to grow and expand into new areas. Mapping and control of invasive exotic plants currently utilizes three NPS Exotic Plant Management Teams (EPMTs) to a limited degree. Generally, only about two sites per year can receive exotics control by each of three NPS EPMTs. Exotic species can be removed by chemical, physical, or biological means, but the NPS EPMT’s largely rely on the use of herbicides. In order to more quickly protect a greater number of RTE species
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