Inventories
The Inventory component of the Heartland Network Inventory and Monitoring Program evolved from the Heartland Network Inventory Strategy. This strategy was a plan of action and justification for completing inventories of vascular plants and vertebrate animals and provided the framework for the Inventory Study Plan. The Inventory Study Plan identified key park inventory needs, objectives, costs and timelines and was the guidance for the Heartland Network inventories.>> read more
As a result of this strategy, the Network has administered 41 inventory projects (comprising 59 individual taxa inventories) through a variety of cooperators. Inventories include: twelve herpetofauna, nine bat, eight exotic plant, eight fish, seven bird, seven vascular plant, six mammal, and two deer, conducted by university, state and federal agency, and non-governmental personnel. A list of cooperators can be found at the Inventory Cooperators page. Each project resulted with a final report and database effectively archived in the National Park Services’ online databases. Additionally, inventory collections have produced over 5,000 vouchers that are located in various parks, universities, and museums.
A priority of the Inventory and Monitoring effort is to make information more useable for management, research, and education and integrating natural resource information with park operations. As reports and data are finalized, they are documented and posted to the National Park Service master online databases. Results of the inventory projects include several reports, databases, and voucher data. Final reports can be accessed via NatureBib, the master database for natural resource bibliographic references, and species data via NPSpecies, the master database to store, manage and disseminate information on species and subspecific organisms documented in NPS units. Currently, all non-sensitive items (documents, maps, and data sets) are accessible at the Inventory Products page and the NPSpecies Biodiversity Data Store. Sensitive items are accessible at the Heartland Network Intranet site and the I&M Applications and Databases site. A login and password are required to access the Applications and Databases site whereas access to the Heartland Network Intranet is via NPS computer.