Assateague Island National Seashore Natural Resource Condition Assessment

Assateague Island National Seashore with lands and waters in Maryland and Virginia receives some two million visitors per year. After determining key habitats on Assateague Island, potential indicators were identified and data sourced. Attainment of reference condition was assessed for each metric and summarized by habitat and ultimately for the whole park. Based on these key findings, management recommendations were developed. Overall, the natural resources of Assateague Island National Seashore were assessed to be in fair condition. While salt marsh, forest and shrubland habitats were assessed to be in degraded condition, inland wetlands, dunes and grasslands were assessed as fair, bay subtidal and mudflats, beach and intertidal to be in good condition and Atlantic subtidal to be in very good condition.

---