Wildlife Monitoring in National Parks

Maintaining a current understanding of ecological conditions is fundamental to the National Park Service in meeting its mission to preserve park resources in an unimpaired state for future generations. Ecological monitoring establishes reference conditions, which over time help to define the normal limits of natural variation, determine standards for comparing future changes, and identify the need for corrective management actions. The USGS Olympic Field Station is working closely with the North Coast and Cascades Monitoring Network in developing standard protocols for monitoring status and trends of wildlife resources of National Parks in the Pacific Northwest. We have also worked with individual parks to develop monitoring programs for wildlife resources not covered under the auspices of the North Coast and Cascades Network.