Forest health monitoring summary data (2007–2024) from eight national parks in the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network

This data package contains records and metadata from long-term forest health monitoring collected in eight national park units in the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Inventory and Monitoring Network from 2007 - 2024. Data on forest composition and structure, tree dieback, forest pests and pathogens, tree regeneration, shrubs, invasive plants, groundstory diversity and nativity, herbaceous plants sensitive to browse, and coarse woody debris were collected from over 380 plots, most of which were sampled four times. Plots were sampled on a four-year panel design, in which one panel containing one-fourth of a park’s total plots was sampled each year. Field methods and data quality control procedures are described in detail at the National Park Service's Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network website (https://www.nps.gov/im/ermn/vegetation-soils.htm). This monitoring program focuses on indicators of forest ecological integrity to provide information on the condition of the parks’ forests and how this condition is changing over time. Plot locations were determined through a random, spatially balanced sampling design for each park. Therefore, these data are appropriate for precisely estimating forest health metrics within each monitored park.