Inventory and Monitoring of Park Natural Resources
Vital Signs Networks
A commitment to resource protection
National parks are places of spectacular beauty, encompassing an enormous diversity of landscapes and living things. Imagine a range of natural communities that includes tundra where wolves chase caribou, desert lands forested with majestic saguaro cacti, and seashores where loggerhead turtles come to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, beauty is not a sufficient indication of the condition and health of national parks. Just like a physician monitors a patient’s heartbeat and blood pressure for diagnostic purposes, National Park Service managers need accurate information about the resources in their care. They need to know how and why natural systems change over time, and what amount of change is normal, in order to make sound management decisions. Therefore, the National Park Service has begun natural resource monitoring throughout the National Park System to gather this information as directed by the Natural Resource Challenge.
A key component of this effort, known as Park Vital Signs Monitoring, is the organization of more than 270 parks with significant natural resources into 32 ecoregional networks to conduct long-term monitoring for key indicators of change, or “vital signs.” Vital signs are measurable, early warning signals that indicate changes that could impair the long-term health of natural systems. Early detection of potential problems allows park managers to take steps to restore ecological health of park resources before serious damage can happen.
To facilitate collaboration, information sharing, and economies of scale, each network supports a core, professional staff who conduct the day-to-day activities of the network and who collaborate with staff from network parks and other programs and agencies to implement an integrated long-term program to monitor the highest-priority vital signs.
Network staff are involved in numerous activities and functions, such as organizing and cataloging data; performing data analysis, synthesis, and modeling; and providing data and expertise to park planners. Network personnel are also occasionally called upon to provide data and expertise for resource assessments and resource stewardship strategies, and to contribute to performance reporting.
Park Vital Signs Monitoring is a cornerstone of effective park management, providing managers with the scientifically sound information needed to safeguard the health and integrity of landscapes and living things that make up our national parks.