Inventories

The National Park Service is making an unprecedented effort to scientifically inventory and document the natural resources in its parks. As part of the effort, the agency is completing 12 basic datasets for each park including:

• Natural Resource Bibliography
• Base Cartography Data
• Air Quality Data
• Air Quality Related Values
• Climate Inventory
• Geologic Resources Inventory
• Soil Resources Inventory
• Water Body Location and Classification
• Baseline Water Quality Data
• Vegetation Inventory
• Species Lists
• Species Occurence and Distribution

While much of the work is being coordinated through the NPS Washington Support Office (WASO), the San Francisco Bay Area Network (SFAN) is tasked with documenting the parks biodiversity through biological inventories.

Biological Inventories

The three goals of the Biological Inventories are to:

1. Document through existing, verifiable data and targeted field investigations the occurrence of at least 90% of the species of vertebrates and vascular plants currently estimated to occur in the parks.
2. 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.
3. 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.

The San Francisco Bay Area Network implemented the project in 2000 by developing a comprehensive 5-year study plan. Staff were hired through funding by Natural Resource Challenge in order to synthesize existing information and initiate new field research to fill information gaps. Much of the work was also coordinated through partner agencies including the USGS and the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. Data were entered into a comprehensive online inventory database, NPSpecies, following national certification procedures. Reports were entered into NatureBib, the NPS database for references.

The San Francisco Bay Area Network completed a significant 54-page SFAN Inventory Summary Report that summarizes each inventory, highlights major findings, lists available products, and provides an administrative record of the program. The report details the following inventories supported entirely or in part by the Inventory and Monitoring Program:

Marine Ecosystem

• Coastal biological inventory
• Sub-tidal/deep water inventory
• Tidewater goby survey

Aquatic Ecosystem

• Riparian inventory at Pinnacles
• California freshwater shrimp inventory
• Wetland mapping

Terrestrial Ecosystem

• Lichen inventory
• Rare plant inventory
• Terrestrial vertebrate inventory
• Vascular plants - herbarium assessment
• Vascular plant field surveys
• Vegetation maps
• Landbird inventory
• Ashy Storm-petrel inventory
• Waterbird and shorebird inventory
• Bat inventory
• Salt marsh harvest mouse and Point Reyes jumping mouse inventory
• Bee inventory at JOMU and PINN
• Geomorphic survey of Strentzel Canyon
• Soil surveys at JOMU
• Weather surveys at key locations

Completed Inventories
The completed inventories web page provides links to reports and data sets for inventories that were conducted by network staff, such as inventories of selected plant and animal groups.

Basic Natural Resource Inventories
Twelve inventory data sets have been identified as the minimum set of natural resource data needed by all 270 parks with significant natural resources. A summary table shows whether each inventory is complete, in progress, or planned for each park within the network.

Inventory Tracking Database
For natural resource inventories and products in all networks, visit the Inventory Tracking Database.