Brief History

A brief history of the Natural Resource Challenge and ecological monitoring in National Parks.

“We have to know what we have, how and why it is changing, what changes we can accommodate, and which we must combat.” - Fran Mainella, former Director, National Park Service

“Natural systems in the national park system, and the human influences upon them, will be monitored to detect change. The Service will use the results of monitoring and research to understand the detected change and to develop appropriate management actions” - 2006 NPS Management Policies

The National Park Service’s (NPS) mission to " conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations" (1916 Organic Act), will only be achieved through a scientific understanding of the condition of natural resources within the National Park System.

The National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program was initiated in 1992 with a focus on basic resource inventories and the development of prototype monitoring programs in selected parks and park clusters. While a significant milestone, routine ecological monitoring remained elusive for most of the more than 270 “natural areas” parks.

A significant step towards a more comprehensive inventory and monitoring program came in 1997 with the publication of “Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History,” by Richard West Sellars (published by Yale University Press) which brought to the forefront the "persistent tension between national park management for aesthetic purposes and management for ecological purposes." As he notes:

“The central dilemma of national park management has long been the question of exactly what in a park should be preserved. Is it the scenery--the resplendent landscapes of forests, streams, wildflowers, and majestic mammals? Or is it the integrity of each park's entire natural system, including not just the biological and scenic superstars, but also the vast array of less compelling species, such as grasses, lichens, and mice? The incredible beauty of the national parks has always given the impression that scenery alone is what makes them worthwhile and deserving of protection. Scenery has provided the primary inspiration for national parks and, through tourism, their primary justification. Thus, a kind of 'façade' management became the accepted practice in parks: protecting and enhancing the scenic façade of nature for the public's enjoyment, but with scant scientific knowledge and little concern for biological consequences.”

In 1998, Congress passed the National Park Service Omnibus Management Act (P.L. 105-391), also known as the "Thomas Bill" after its primary sponsor, Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming, requiring the Secretary of the Interior to continually improve the NPS’ ability to provide management, protection and interpretation of National Park System resources. The statute directs the NPS to manage park units by employing high quality science and information as spelled out in Title II of the Act . Inventorying the resources in national park units creates baseline information so that the NPS can monitor and analyze the data to determine trends in resource conditions. Information gained through these efforts is critical in managing and protecting park resources.

In 1999 the National Park Service embarked on a new era of science-based management under the Natural Resource Challenge. An essential component of the Challenge is to characterize and determine trends in the condition of natural resources in national park units. NPS resource monitoring is designed to inform park managers of the condition of water, air, geologic resources, plants and animals, and the various ecological, biological, and physical processes that act on those resources. The broad-based, scientific information obtained through monitoring has multiple applications for management decision making, research, education, and promoting public understanding of park resources.

Through the Natural Resource Challenge, more than 270 NPS units have been recognized as natural area parks and are organized into 32 Networks to conduct long-term natural resource monitoring as part of the Inventory and Monitoring, or Vital Signs, Program. These networks compile and synthesize existing information, evaluate current monitoring efforts, and drew upon expert recommendations to identify the highest priority “vital signs” to monitor in national parks. All networks, including the ERMN, are now developing explicit, peer-reviewed, monitoring protocols for these highest priority vital signs and will soon institute routine ecological monitoring.

The five goals of the I&M Program are to:

• 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.
• Establish natural resource inventory and monitoring as a standard practice throughout the National Park system that transcends traditional program, activity, and funding boundaries.
• 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.

The National Park Service 2006 Management Policies further clarify the importance of ecosystem based monitoring:

“Science has demonstrated that few if any park units can fully realize or maintain their physical and biological integrity if managed as biogeographic islands. Instead, park units must be managed in the context of their larger ecosystems. The ecosystem context for some species and processes may be relatively small, while for others this context is vast. In any case, superintendents face the challenge of placing each of the resources they protect in their appropriate ecosystem context and then working with all involved and affected parties to advance their shared conservation goals and avoid adverse impacts on these resources.”

And, finally, the 2006 NPS Management Policies specifically direct NPS to inventory and monitor natural systems in efforts to inform park management decisions:

“Natural systems in the national park system, and the human influences upon them, will be monitored to detect change. The Service will use the results of monitoring and research to understand the detected change and to develop appropriate management actions.”