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Inventory and Monitoring of Park
Natural Resources
Discovering and protecting America’s
natural heritage
From the spectacular mountain ranges
and glacier fields of Alaska to the Sonoran deserts of
the American Southwest, from the volcanic landscapes of
Hawaii to the magnificent barrier islands of the northeastern
United States, the National Park Service acts as steward
for natural resources that have inspired, awed, and brought
enjoyment for more than a century. Responsible for nearly
80 million acres of public land, the National Park Service
preserves and protects some of the world's most scenic
and important natural resources. In support of NPS’
Natural Resource Challenge,
the goal of the National Park Service's Natural Resource
Inventory and Monitoring Program is to acquire the information
and expertise needed by park managers in their efforts
to maintain ecosystem integrity in the approximately 270
National park System units that contain significant natural
resources.
Five long-term goals have been established
for the Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program:
- Baseline inventories of basic biological
and geophysical natural resources are underway for all
natural resource parks. To ensure availability to park
managers, data collected at the park level is maintained
in the park and also used to generate regional and national
summaries of selected inventory items.
- Long-term monitoring programs efficiently
and effectively monitor ecosystem status and trends
over time at various spatial scales.
- Decision Support Geographic information
systems and other tools that apply field data aid park
managers in identifying alternative management actions,
assessing trade-offs, and evaluating outcomes.
- Integration Natural resources inventory
and monitoring programs are integrated with park planning,
operation and maintenance, visitor protection, and interpretation
activities to establish natural resource preservation
and protection as an integral part of park management.
- Cooperation The National Park Service
is actively cooperating with other federal and state
agencies to share resources, achieve common goals, and
avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and expense.
Every effort is being made to develop cost-sharing and
technology exchange agreements with other agencies conducting
inventories or monitoring.
The Inventory and Monitoring Program creates an important
foundation for effective, long-term management of natural
resources throughout the Service. Resource
inventories constitute a critical first step; they
inform park managers about the nature of the resources
held in trust. The expertise gained through prototype
monitoring programs will allow park managers to more effectively
detect changes and quantify trends in the condition of
those resources, as well as understand the linkages between
changes in resource condition and their cause. When fully
operational, monitoring
programs will provide important feedback between natural
resource condition and management objectives, which can
serve both to trigger management actions and to evaluate
managerial effectiveness. By developing this type of sound
technical information on park resources and ecological
processes, the Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring
Program will improve NPS’ natural resource stewardship
capabilities.
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