Revitalize and expand the natural resource program within the park service and improve park management through greater reliance on scientific knowledge

1
National Park Service Natural Resource Challenge
Revitalize and expand the natural resource
program within the park service and improve park
management through greater reliance on scientific
knowledge
2
National Park Service Natural Resource Challenge
Revitalize and expand the natural resource
program within the park service and improve park
management through greater reliance on scientific
knowledge
3
State of the Parks Report (circa 2000)

• 80 (1/3) of the natural resource parks had no
  professional natural resource manager
• Another 84 parks had only 1 or 2 natural resource
  professionals.
• Almost all projects/studies were short-term
  staff mostly deals with the crisis of the day.
• Few parks are able to identify the desired
  future condition of resources, or current status
  trend.

No Time No Money No Clue
4
NPS Natural Resource Challenge

• Provides funding and new positions for natural
  resource stewardship to add to NPS visitor
  services capability
• Learn what is in parks (inventories), and monitor
  the vital signs of natural systems
• Engage the scientific community and the public,
  and facilitate their inquiries
• Share the information widely

5
NPS Natural Resource Challenge
Revitalize and expand the natural resource
program within the NPS improve park management
through greater reliance on scientific knowledge

• Accelerate Inventories
• Design/Implement Vital Signs Monitoring
• Collaboration with scientists and others
• Improve Resource Planning
• Enhance Parks for Science
• Assure Fully Professional Staff
• Control Non-native Species
• Protect Native and Endangered Species
• Enhance Environmental Stewardship
• Expand Air Quality efforts
• Protect and restore Water Resources
• Establish Research Learning Centers

6
Vision Statement of the Board of Directors,
North Coast and Cascades Network

• The 7 parks will work collaboratively to design
  and implement a Network Monitoring Program
  that will provide timely and relevant,
  scientifically credible information to Park
  managers and the public.
• Through these efforts we will be better able to
  understand, and explain to others, the status and
  trends in key components and indicators of Park
  ecosystems, and how they have and will respond
  over time to natural and human induced changes
  both from within and outside of Park boundaries.
• This comprehensive, integrated long-term
  ecological monitoring program provides for better
  protection, restoration and maintenance of the
  natural ecosystems under NPS management.

7
The Law
NATIONAL PARKS OMNIBUS MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1998
The Secretary shall undertake a program of
inventory and monitoring of National Park System
resources to establish baseline information and
to provide information on the long-term trends in
the condition of National Park System resources.
The monitoring program shall be developed in
cooperation with other Federal monitoring and
information collection efforts to ensure a
cost-effective approach.
The Secretary shall assure the full and proper
utilization of the results of scientific studies
for park management decisions.
8
Message from Congress
This involves a serious commitment from the
leadership of the National Park Service to insist
that the superintendents carry out a systematic,
consistent, professional inventory and monitoring
program, along with other scientific activities,
that is regularly updated to ensure that the
Service makes sound resource decisions based on
sound scientific data. (FY2000
Appropriations Language)
9
NPS Advisory Board Report
A sophisticated knowledge of resources and their
condition is essential. The Service must gain
this knowledge through extensive collaboration
with other agencies and academia, and its
findings must be communicated to the public. For
it is the broader public that will decide the
fate of these resources.
Source Rethinking the National Parks for the
21st Century. A Report of the National Park
System Advisory Board, July 2001
10
The Burning Question
Who will use the monitoring results and what
will they do with them? Who are the intended
audiences and what is the most effective way to
get the information to them?
11
Issues and Tasks involved in Managing the Natural
Resources of a Park Know, Protect, Restore,
Connect

• Inventory, Monitoring, Research studies
• Invasive species (e.g., weeds, insect pests,
  diseases)
• Threatened endangered species
• Restoration
• Planning GMPs,Resource Stewardship Plans
• Compliance NEPA, Permits
• Performance management GPRA goals
• Interpretation connect with visitors
• Maintenance (e.g., trails, mowing, vegetation
  control)
• Law enforcement visitor safety
• Acquire funding to make things happen
• Deal with politics people dynamics local,
  WASO, DOI, OMB

Information is the common currency among all of
these park stewardship activities
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Overall Purpose of Vital Signs Monitoring Determi
ne status/trends in the condition of park
resources

• Assess the efficacy of management and restoration
  efforts
• Provide early warning of impending threats
• Provide a basis for understanding and identifying
  meaningful change in natural systems
  characterized by complexity, variability, and
  surprises improves decision-making.

13
The intent of park vital signs monitoring is to
track a subset of physical, chemical, and
biological elements and processes of park
ecosystems that are selected to represent the
overall health or condition of park resources,
known or hypothesized effects of stressors, or
elements that have important human values.
14
Goals of Vital Signs Monitoring

• Determine status and trends in selected
  indicators of the condition of park ecosystems to
  allow managers to make better-informed decisions
  and to work more effectively with other agencies
  and individuals for the benefit of park
  resources.
• Provide early warning of abnormal conditions of
  selected resources to help develop effective
  mitigation measures and reduce costs of
  management.
• Provide data to better understand the dynamic
  nature and condition of park ecosystems and to
  provide reference points for comparisons with
  other, altered environments.
• Provide data to meet certain legal and
  Congressional mandates related to natural
  resource protection and visitor enjoyment.
• Provide a means of measuring progress towards
  performance goals. (You cant have performance
  management without monitoring)

15
Monitoring Strategy is based on initial Funding
Realities
Funding level (avg. 100,000 per park) would
allow each park to hire one professional position
(GS-9 or 11) plus about 30-40 K operating
Conclusions Resulting Strategy

• Without integration and cost-sharing, parks could
  only monitor a few things too few to adequately
  track the condition of a parks resources
• Park buy-in and cost-leveraging through
  partnerships are critical must be relevant to
  park managers and flexible to allow integration
  and partnerships
• Establish 32 monitoring networks that share
  funding and staffing among parks to gain
  efficiencies and consistency.

Start with a modest program
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Vital Signs Monitoring

• Strategic, national program to allow 270 parks
  to identify most critical data needs and initiate
  long-term monitoring now start with bare bones
  program
• Primary audience park managers, but results will
  also be used for park planning, interpretation,
  and performance management.
• Parks share permanent professional staff and
  funding to focus on long-term monitoring of
  condition of selected resources emphasizes
  integration among components (synthesis,
  modeling) and programs (air, water,
  interpretation, fire program, TE, invasive
  species, learning centers)
• Flexibility allows parks to maximize the use and
  relevance of the data for managing parks and to
  gain efficiencies through partnerships
• Emphasis on making information more available and
  usable integration with other park operations
  building institutional knowledge

17
Park Management Informed by Scientific
Information Integration with other Park
Operations

• View monitoring as an information system
• Integrate natural resource information with other
  park operations
• Make information more useful and available for
  managers at local level
• Make data available to others for research,
  education modeling, more sophistical analyses

gt33 of resources dedicated to data management,
analysis, reporting
(Adapted from National Water Quality Monitoring
Council)
18
Prairie Cluster Prototype Monitoring Program A
Network Success Story
Uses of Plant Community Monitoring Data Prairie
Cluster Monitoring Program

• GMP planning meetings at Pipestone and Wilsons
  Creek
• Cultural landscape report at Wilsons Creek NB
• Trail expansion planning at Effigy Mounds
• Prairie restoration seed mix at Scotts Bluff
• Adjust timing of prescribed fires at several
  parks
• Trailside interpretive signs at Pipestone
• Vegetation Mapping at Effigy Mounds
• Road show meetings with managers and
  interpreters