Acadia National Park (ACAD) lies within a transition zone of the Maine coastline, containing ecological communities typical of both southwestern and "downeast" coastal Maine. Eleven of these communities, or "associations" as defined within the United States National Vegetation Classification, are rare within the state of Maine, and one is globally rare. The NPS Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) is establishing a long-term forest monitoring program in 10 national park units within the northeastern US. This program is designed to detect trends in forest condition. At ACAD, the network has installed 176 permanent forest plots. This sample size will allow detection of trends in park forests overall, as well as in some specific ecological communities. However, this effort will not yield sufficient sample sizes in rare community associations to assess trends in the condition of these communities. Rare communities are of particular management and conservation interest at ACAD, because they are rare and because they may be particularly sensitive to anthropogenic (human caused) impacts.

This protocol was designed to provide data for the assessment of status and trend in rare woodland and forest communities within ACAD, and was adapted from the NETN Long-term Forest Monitoring Protocol.