One role of the National Parks is to protect large areas of valuable ecosystems with minimal disruption of natural processes. Management of these ecosystems requires a knowledge of all biotic components as well as their interaction. Although a great deal is known about some taxonomic groups within the National Parks, there remain many groups of organisms in the parks for which our understanding of their distribution and abundance is limited. In 1999, the National Park Service instituted a servicewide program to inventory parks for groups of taxa about which little information was known within the parks.

The overall goals of the Park Service Inventory Program are to assess the biotic components of the parks by filling in gaps in the knowledge base. The specific goals of the inventory program are, first, to document and verify at least 90% of the five main taxonomic groups of species estimated to be present in the parks. Species estimates are compiled from a range of sources including previous studies, park databases, museum and herbaria specimens, and direct communication with natural resource specialists. The second goal of the inventory program is to compile data in a manner that is easily accessible to others and conducive to manipulation. Finally, the inventories will provide baseline information from which to develop long-term monitoring strategies.

Inventory needs within the nine parks in the Great Lakes Network are varied. Inventories have been conducted to determine the presence of selected large mammals, including lynx and cougar. We have also conducted many studies of small mammals with emphasis on determining the extent of the bat communities in several of the parks.

Herpetological inventories are ongoing and focus on key species within six network parks. Target species include relatively common species that have yet to be documented in some parks, such as the Common Mudpuppy and the Eastern Snapping Turtle, as well as species of concern, including the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake.

While we are interested in assessing the state of native communities, we also want to know the extent to which non-native species have invaded the parks within the network. Along these lines, we are determining the degree to which European earthworms have invaded the parks. Because there are no native earthworms in much of northern Minnesota, the introduction of these worms in this region has resulted in profound changes in soil physical and chemical properties, in turn affecting forest understory communities.

The presence of exotic plant species is a problem at many ecological scales. In the National Parks, high visitation rates can leave parks especially prone to plant invasion. One of the network parks, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, is used by over one million visitors per year. At this park, we have undertaken surveys to determine both the species assemblage and geographic extent of invasive plants.