Mediterranean Coast Network

Inventory and Monitoring Program

The Mediterranean Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network (MEDN) is part of the nationwide Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) program of the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS has organized its parks with significant natural resources into 32 Inventory and Monitoring Networks. The Mediterranean Coast Network consists of three park units in Southern California: Cabrillo National Monument, Channel Islands National Park, and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The parks of the Mediterranean Coast Network include some of the most significant examples of terrestrial Mediterranean-type ecosystems and coastal marine environments anywhere in the world. These parks protect and manage an increasingly rare example of a Mediterranean Biome. At the same time, the parks are embedded in the highly developed and rapidly expanding southern California metropolitan area. Consequently, each park experiences numerous ecological threats, including introduction of non-native invasive species, declining fresh and marine water quality, fragmentation of habitat, and altered fire regimes.

The Network is charged with creating inventories of its species and natural features as well as monitoring natural resource trends and issues. Critical inventories help park managers understand the natural resources in their care while monitoring programs help them understand meaningful change in natural systems and respond accordingly.

The mission of the Mediterranean Coast Network is to collaboratively develop and conduct scientifically credible inventories and long-term monitoring of park “Vital Signs” and to distribute this information for use by park staff, partners, and the public, thereby promoting sound decision making informed by science in the preservation of the natural and cultural resources held in trust by the National Park Service.