A National Park Service snorkeler and U.S. Geological Survey data recorder survey freshwater mussels in the Upper Delaware River. The initial phase of the mussel study has revealed the presence of dwarf wedgemussel in Pennsylvania where it was thought to be extirpated. Monitoring changes in the populations and distribution of species found in the survey will provide valuable information about the health of the river ecosystem.
Download a PDF file of this section of this report (405 KB).
We will lose the wildness, the very nature of our parks, if we don’t understand them. If we don’t truly understand them, we won’t be able to speak authoritatively for them, and we won’t know how to restore them. We will ultimately lose them if we can’t educate people about what parks require for survival.
—Mike Soukup
Associate Director, Natural Resource
Stewardship and Science
A fundamental and critical role of the National Park Service is acquiring and considering scientific information to preserve park natural resources for the American public. The Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program has been at work since the early 1990s gathering baseline resource information and monitoring conditions over time. New information may suggest the need for more sophisticated studies to examine why conditions have changed and how those changes are affecting ecological processes. The Park Service relies on its own resource managers and an expanding network of partners to gather and focus such information on park management questions. Certainly much more information is needed to thoroughly understand the natural systems in the national parks. Nevertheless, as the articles for 2000 indicate, the knowledge being developed through science is providing valuable insights for the long-term care of park natural resources.
Articles
Inventories benefit resource management efforts in the Northeast Region
By Kathleen Kodish Reeder
Amphibians and abandoned mines spawn collaboration of scientific disciplines
By Carol A. Pollio
Barred owl displaces northern spotted owl at Olympic
By Scott Gremel
Return of the muskox to Gates of the Arctic
By James Lawler
Paleontological inventories unearth the remains of ancient life in parks
By Vincent L. Santucci
Sidebars
Award-Winner Profile - Dan Foster honored for resource monitoring
Sulfur dioxide advisory system installed at Hawaii Volcanoes
Beaver, river otter, and muskrat inventoried in Grand Canyon
This material is from Natural Resource Year in Review--2000, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in May 2000 (publication D-1459)
/YearInReview/yir/yir2000/pages/02_nps_science/02_001_nps_science.html
Last Updated: 06/17/2001
Direct comments on this website to jeff_selleck@nps.gov