Inventory

Preserving the unimpaired splendor of the national parks for the enjoyment of future generations is the fundamental purpose of the National Park Service. The safekeeping of the awe-inspiring natural wonders in our national parks requires the identification of their key components, including living things, natural processes, and landscape features. Natural resource inventories allow managers to account for park resources, such as the presence and distribution of plants, animals, and nonliving resources such as water, landforms, and climate in the parks. This type of baseline information is needed to make scientifically sound management decisions that ensure the future health of the parks.

The core goals of the Inventory Program are:

• To document through existing, verifiable data and targeted field investigations the occurrence of at least 90 percent of the species of vertebrates and vascular plants currently estimated to occur in the parks.
• To describe the distribution and relative abundance of species of special concern, such as Threatened and Endangered species, exotics, and other species of special management interest occurring within park boundaries.
• To provide the baseline information needed to develop a general monitoring strategy and design that can be implemented by parks once inventories have been completed, tailored to specific park threats and resource issues.
• To develop a coordinated network data management effort which results in readily available biological resource information for within-park management, as well as regional resource managers, scientists, and the public.