Blog Post
After two BCSIA researchers wrote a policy paper suggesting that the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail and its corridor be used as a regional environmental monitoring system, the National Park Service (NPS) accepted the idea and made it part of its new Natural Resources Challenge Program authorized by Congress.
The Appalachian Trail Environmental Monitoring Initiative, part of BCSIA''s Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP), is an attempt to integrate and coordinate environmental monitoring within the entire Appalachian Trail (AT) region— from Georgia to Maine. Using the trail as a focal point, the Initiative will give scientists, conservationists, communities and the general public a clear view of the environmental health of the region. Creation of this integrated system of information sharing will foster collaboration between diverse participants, as well as allow scientists to see patterns of environmental change at a regional scale.
In 1999, Fellows Charles H.W. Foster and Karen Filipovich wrote an initial concept paper which served as the basis for discussion with collaborators. The Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere held several meetings in the South, and Harvard and the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) held a Northern meeting in late October. These meetings culminated in a revised concept paper endorsed by the ATC and the NPS, the guardians of the AT. Now the NPS has hired a coordinator to move the concept into reality.
Foster said, "to my knowledge, this will represent the first large-scale, regional use of citizen science in the nation." ENRP will continue to frame issues and provide policy leadership for further development of the initiative.
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