Chapter 2: NPS Science--National Park Service--WASO-INFO



		Approximately 275,000 plastic fragments, 19,000 rubber gloves, 14,000 milk jugs, and 11,000 balloons were among the items of trash painstakingly recorded and disposed of by staff at Padre Island National Seashore from 1994 to 1998. Data collected over 10 years of trash monitoring suggest that between 21% and 62% of the trash comes from Gulf of Mexico shrimping, while 15% is attributable to offshore oil and gas activities. Download a PDF file of this section of this report (495 KB). Home
				The National Park Service plays an important scientific role in fulfilling its resource stewardship mission—acquiring and applying the best and most comprehensive scientific information available to preserve resources and manage park visitors. A portion of that information comes from research obtained from the National Park Service’s natural and social science research partners. Equally critical is information collected through its scientific inventory and monitoring activities. Inventories of biological and physical resources account for the presence, class, and distribution of natural resources in parks; long-term monitoring helps to reveal resource condition and detect ecosystem change. Together, inventory and monitoring are potent partners that give early warning of resource degradation. As the stories from 1998 indicate, the scientific functions of the National Park Service, including its technical expertise, are fundamental to the long-term maintenance of natural resources. Articles Shoreline studies at Padre Island point to trash sources by John Miller White abalone: Going, going, gone? by Gary E. Davis Riparian monitoring focused on stream recovery in Canyonlands by Charlie Schelz Science-based planning at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve by John Neal and George Oviatt Recurrent themes of water resources management plans by David L. Vana-Miller Program Center takes on geologic inventories by Bruce Heise and Joe Gregson Bats surveyed at Grand Canyon by Elaine Leslie Survey research provides management information by Jean E. McKendry

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Last Updated: 08/16/99
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This article is from Natural Resource Year in Review--1998, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in June 1999 (publication D-1346)