A diverse group of organizations has launched a project to begin long-term monitoring of the Appalachian Trai’ls environmental health, with plans to tap into an army of volunteer “citizen scientists” and their professional counterparts.

Together, they will collect information about the health of plants, air and water quality, and animal migration patterns to build an early warning system for the 120 million people along the Eastern Seaboard.

The Appalachian Mountains are ideal for the project because they are home to one of the richest collections of temperate zone species in the world. They also has a variety of ecosystems that blend into one another — hardwood forests next to softwood forests next to alpine forests.

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