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National Parks are treasured places set aside for conservation and enjoyment by
all Americans, present and future.
As caretakers for these places the National Park Service uses the best available
science to monitor changes in park resources over the long term. The Park
Service Inventory & Monitoring division, or I&M,
monitors the status and trends of park natural resources, like forest plants
wildlife populations, and air and water quality.
Since 2005, I&M has monitored a series of ecosystem
health indicators, or vital signs, in the National Capital Region. This monitoring
helps provide a better understanding of long-term changes within parks and
throughout the region.
The vast majority of capital region park land drains into the Potomac River.
The Potomac is the second largest tributary of the Chesapeake Bay,
the nation's largest estuary.
I&M monitors water quality every month in smaller streams at 39
sites in the region.
"We're monitoring a variety of water quality and quantity parameters such as pH, dissolved
oxygen, conductivity, salinity, flow, depth, and discharge."
"Fish are a nice way to check the water quality because they are constantly exposed
to the environment that they're in."
"Once we collect all of the fish, we count them,
weigh them, and identify them to species.
This then goes into a computer
program and gives us a sense of how healthy this stream is."
"Most of what we're doing is we're trying to capture
good continuous baseline data to ensure that streams are meeting the
parameters for what is considered healthy waters."
I&M also monitors benthic macroinvertebrates including crayfish and
dragonfly larva
and stream physical habitat including erosion of stream banks,
the depth of stream channels, and stream side plants.
Frogs and salamanders are sensitive to changes in the amount and cleanliness
of water in streams and wetlands. I&M monitors these amphibians and tracks
population density and distribution at targeted locations.
More than two-thirds of the land cover in parks of the capital region is forest.
As a result, I&M monitors vegetation, pests,
and invasive plants in more than 400 forest plots spread across the
region.
I&M tracks the tree and shrub seedlings that will grow into the forests of tomorrow, and measures the
size, health, and species
of saplings and trees that are the forests of today.
Due to high rates of local land development,
capital region parks also provide important habitats for birds.
"Wait for the first light to kind of pop through,
and when it does that's essentially when the dawn chorus of bird song begins."
"We get on site, we get to our point and we count
all the birds we hear and see within a 10 minute period."
I&M monitors these birds,
visiting 385 sites every spring and summer.
The Inventory and Monitoring program is proud to be part of conserving
unique natural resources in the National Capital Region. Long term monitoring in
National Parks is an investment in the future.
The knowledge and perspective we gain from monitoring helps ensure that now and in the
future we will be able to better understand and care for our nation's amazing
National Parks.