Inventories
"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively: the land." - Aldo Leopold
A natural resource inventory is an extensive point-in-time effort to determine location or condition of a resource, including the presence, class, distribution, and status of plants, animals, and abiotic components such as water, soils, landforms, and climate. Inventories contribute to a statement of park resources, which is best described in relation to a standard condition such as the natural or unimpaired state. Inventories may involve both the compilation of existing information and the acquisition of new information.
The Inventory and Monitoring program has identified baseline inventory information that will be collected by the I&M networks to effectively address park planning and management needs. Click on the links in the sidebar to the left to see information regarding individual inventories.