The goal of this project was to establish several one-hectare demonstration and research plots along the escarpment and to design and implement a community-based monitoring program to measure changes in forest biodiversity.
In the late 1990s, each one of the NEBRS sites was chosen based on guidelines set out by the Smithsonian Institution as the “Measurement and Assessment of Biodiversity (SI/MAB) protocol” for establishing long-term forest biodiversity monitoring plots.
In 1996, ACER partnered with Environment Canada, who created the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) and the Smithsonian Institution to implement the NEBRS project.
The data collected through ACER projects has allowed researchers to monitor and compare changes in species abundance, richness and community structure over the long term and to identify and plan for possible future threats to biodiversity (Environment Canada, 2003 in Weiler, 2009).