National Framework for Inventory & Monitoring

The National Park Service has implemented a strategy designed to institutionalize natural resource inventory and monitoring on a programmatic basis throughout the agency. The effort was undertaken to ensure that more than 270 park units with significant natural resources possess the resource information needed for effective, science-based managerial decision-making and resource protection. The national strategy consists of a framework having three major components: (1) completion of basic resource inventories upon which monitoring efforts can be based; (2) creation of experimental Prototype Monitoring Programs to evaluate alternative monitoring designs and strategies; and (3) implementation of operational monitoring of critical parameters (i.e. "vital signs") in all natural resource parks.

National and Regional Oversight

Natural resource inventory and monitoring activities by the National Park Service are carried out under the direction of the Associate Director for Natural Resource Stewardship and Science. National level program coordination and management is provided the National Inventory and Monitoring Program Leader and other staff who are aligned administratively with the Inventory and Monitoring Division in the Natural Resource Program Center. The Inventory and Monitoring Program at the Washington Office level involves staff and funding from all offices and divisions of the Natural Resource Program Center, including the following NRPC divisions that provide guidance, technical support and funding to the I & M networks: Air Resources, Biological Resources, Geologic Resources, and Water Resources.

Five long-term programmatic goals for the Servicewide Inventory and Monitoring Program were established in the early 1990s to comply with legal requirements, fully implement NPS policy, and guide management:

Establish natural resource inventory and monitoring as a standard practice throughout the National Park system that transcends traditional program, activity, and funding boundaries.
Inventory the natural resources and park ecosystems under National Park Service stewardship to determine their nature and status.
Monitor park ecosystems to better understand their dynamic nature and condition and to provide reference points for comparisons with other, altered environments.
Integrate natural resource inventory and monitoring information into National Park Service planning, management, and decision making.
Share National Park Service accomplishments and information with other natural resource organizations and form partnerships for attaining common goals and objectives.

Program coordination and oversight at the regional level is provided by a full-time Regional Inventory and Monitoring Program Manager who reports to the Associate Regional Director or other senior staff member designated by the Regional Director. Regional I&M Program Managers are responsible for providing day-to-day coordination between parks, the regional office, and the National Inventory and Monitoring Program.

Natural Resource Program Center

The Natural Resource Program Center is comprised of seven divisions and two offices, and is part of the Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate. The seven divisions in the NRPC, Air Resources, Biological Resource Management, Environmental Quality, Geologic Resources, Inventory and Monitoring, Social Science, and Water Resources, provide technical support, scientific expertise, and funding to parks to assist with the following park stewardship functions:

coordinating resource inventory and monitoring activities;
implementing technical resource management solutions;
funding resource management projects and implementation;
acting as a national clearinghouse and distribution hub for resource management information;
facilitating resource management partnerships and training;
interpreting resource management policy, regulations, and permitting; and
supporting resource management planning, research, and policy development.

(1) Basic Resource Inventories

The first major component of the NPS national inventory and monitoring framework is a set of 12 basic natural resource inventory data sets needed to effectively manage a park's resources. The minimal information required by all parks includes the following 12 data sets that include a variety of biotic and abiotic ecosystem components:

(2) Prototype Monitoring Programs

The second component of the NPS national inventory and monitoring framework is a series of eleven "prototype" monitoring programs that were selected in the early 1990s as experiments to learn how to monitor different kinds of natural resources. The prototype monitoring parks worked with USGS scientists and funding to design and implement long-term ecological monitoring. All prototypes are now nested within one of the 32 monitoring networks described below, and most of them are now fully integrated with their respective networks. The eleven prototype programs included:

Channel Islands National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Shenandoah National Park
Cape Cod National Seashore
Denali National Park and Preserve
Great Plains Prairie Cluster (6 small parks in the Midwest Region)
Virgin Islands-Southern Florida Cluster (3 parks in the Caribbean)
Olympic National Park
North Cascades National Park Service Complex
Mammoth Cave National Park
Northern Colorado Plateau Cluster (5 parks on the Colorado Plateau)

(3) Vital Signs Monitoring Networks

The third component of the NPS national framework for inventory and monitoring consists of more than 270 parks with significant natural resources that have been grouped into 32 I & M networks linked by geography and shared natural resource characteristics. The network organization will facilitate collaboration, information sharing, and economies of scale in natural resource inventory and monitoring. Each of the 32 park networks is guided by a Board of Directors (usually comprised of park superintendents and the regional and network coordinators) who specify desired outcomes, evaluate performance for the monitoring program, and promote accountability. The level of funding available through the Natural Resource Challenge will not allow comprehensive monitoring in all parks, but will provide a minimum infrastructure for initiating natural resource monitoring in all parks that can be built upon in the future.

Parks within each of the 32 networks work together and share funding and professional staff to plan, design, and implement an integrated long-term monitoring program. The complex task of developing a network monitoring program requires a front-end investment in planning and design to ensure that monitoring will meet the most critical information needs of each park and produce scientifically credible data that is accessible to managers and researchers in a timely manner. The investment in planning and design also ensures that monitoring will build upon existing information and understanding of park ecosystems and make maximum use of leveraging and partnerships with other agencies and academia.

View the Map of the 32 networks and the parks in each network.

Download a list of parks in each network.

Download a list of coordinators and data managers for each network.

Download a list of abbreviations for all NPS park units.

A monitoring program requires professional-level staff who can analyze data, interpret data, prepare reports, and provide the information in a useable format to park managers, scientists, and other interested parties. However, it is currently unrealistic that every park will be able to obtain funding to hire a full professional staff, including as an example a botanist, wildlife biologist, hydrologist, geologist, soil scientist, data manager, etc. The vision behind the vital signs monitoring program is to provide each network of parks with consistent annual funding and approximately 5 to 7 FTEs to develop a core, long-term program. Each network could then leverage these core resources with existing personnel, funding from other sources, and partnerships with other agencies and organizations, to build a single, integrated monitoring program that best addresses the needs of the parks in that network. The integrated program would monitor the condition of physical and biological resources including air quality, water quality, geological resources, weather, fire effects, threatened and endangered species, exotic species, and other flora and fauna. The offices of the Natural Resource Program Center, including the divisions of Air Resources, Biological Resource Management, Geologic Resources, and Water Resources, are coordinating efforts to provide funding and technical support to park networks for developing these integrated monitoring programs.

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