Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program

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Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program

• Gary Williams, Program Manager
• Natural Resource Information Division
• National Park Service
• Fort Collins Colorado

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Milestones

• 1978 - Management policies require
  scientific data for resource planning and
  management
• 1987 - IM Initiative (Evison Report)
• 1990 - Hester Task Force
• 1998 - NPS Omnibus Management Act
• 2000 - Natural Resource Challenge

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Evison Task Force

• Servicewide Monitoring Strategy
• Institutionalized into park operations
• Support management decisions at all
  organizational levels.
• Focus on 12 pilot monitoring areas.
• Guided by technical advisory committee.

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Evison Task Force

• Pilot Monitoring Efforts Should
• Achieve broad ecosystem representation.
• Be restricted to natural resources.
• Include
• Biotic resources
• Abiotic resources
• Processes and mechanisms

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Hester Task Force

• Develop Workable Implementation Plan
• 10-year strategy
• Complete basic inventories
• Initiate prototype programs
• Design programs for other parks
• Develop distributed database

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NRC The Beginning

• Stimulated in late 1997 by a book publication
  deliberations of Director with his Leadership
  Council
• the NPS undertook a lengthy internal
  conversation about our future.

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NRC Programs

• Accelerate Inventories
• Extend Monitoring
• Collaboration with scientists and others
• Improve Resource Planning
• Enhance Parks for Science
• Assure Fully Professional Staff
• Control Non-native Species

• Protect Native and Endangered Species
• Enhance Environmental Stewardship
• Expand Air Quality efforts
• Measure, restore, protect Water Resources
• Use Parks for Learning

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Current Program Goals

• Complete Basic Resource Inventories.
• Develop Ecological Monitoring Programs.
• Implement GIS and Information Systems.
• Integrate with Park Planning and Interpretation.
• Form Partnerships.

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Natural Resource Program Center Natural
Resource Stewardship and Science
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Conceptual Framework

• I. Program Design
• Strategic Focus
• No Competitive Funding
• Multi-level Project Implementation
• National Level
• Regional Level
• Park / network Level

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Conceptual Framework

• II. Resource Inventories
• Basic Needs Common to All Parks
• Approximately 270 Parks
• Staged Implementation
• Capture Existing Information First
• Conduct Field Inventories
• Goal Complete in 7-8 years

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Conceptual Framework

• III. Prototype Monitoring
• Experimental Programs in 10 Major
  Biomes
• Twenty two Parks Involved
• Represent Centers of Excellence
• IV. Vital Signs Monitoring
• 32 Networks 270 parks
• Monitoring critical variables
• Implement over 5 years

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IM Program Structure
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12 Basic Inventory Data Sets

• Natural resource bibliography
• Base cartographic data
• Geology map
• Soils map
• Meteorological data
• AQRVs
• Air quality data
• Water body location and classification
• Water quality data
• Vegetation map
• Species list of vertebrates and vascular plants
• Species distribution and status of vertebrates
  and vascular plants of management concern

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Prototype Monitoring Programs

• Channel Islands NP (Pacific Coast)
• Shenandoah NP (Deciduous Forest)
• Great Smoky Mts. NP (Deciduous Forest)
• Denali NP (Arctic/Subarctic)
• Great Plains Cluster (Grasslands/Prairies)
• Cape Cod NS (Atlantic/Gulf Coast)
• South Florida/Caribbean Park Cluster
  (Tropical/Subtropical)

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Prototype Monitoring Programs

• North Cascades NP (Lakes and Rivers)
• Olympic NP (Coniferous Forest)
• Mammoth Cave NP (Caves and Karst)
• Northern Colorado Plateau (Arid Lands)

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Prototype Roles and Functions

• Evaluate alternative monitoring strategies
• Ecosystem components and processes
• Integration with park management and planning
• Develop monitoring protocols
• Share expertise, and experience
• Develop State of Parks Report format

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Role of Prototypes in Network Monitoring Strategy

• Serve as Centers of Excellence
• Able to do more in-depth monitoring and monitor
  more resources than most parks
• Training and Mentoring Sites
• Expertise in Data Management and Analysis
• Development of Monitoring Protocols
• Conduct Research

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Data and Information Management Strategy

• Information Strategy
• Based on business requirements analysis
• Conceptual information model(s)
• Desired future resource conditions
• Data Management Strategy
• Standard data structures and templates
• Local and centralized versions
• Emphasis on integration

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• Something told the wild geese
• it was time to go.
• Though the fields lay golden something
  whispered, snow
• Rachel Field