National Park Service

The National Park Service's primary mission is to conserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment of this and future generations. Currently, the Service is unable to attain its mission in many parks, owing to a serious lack of scientific information about the nature and condition of resources in those parks, especially biological resources. In 1992, the National Park Service's (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Program identified a list of candidate elements and processes for initial inventory in all natural resource parks, proposed the establishment of prototype inventory and monitoring parks, and outlined national implementation guidelines. The National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998 recognized the need for good scientific information to manage parks. The act mandated 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". Funding acquired through the Natural Resource Challenge (1999) provided the financial resources for National Park Service to initiate Species Inventory Programs focusing on vertebrates and vascular plants. The basic goal of this program is to provide park managers with comprehensive, scientifically-based information about the nature and status of selected biological resources occurring within park boundaries in a format that increases its accessibility and utility for making management decisions, for scientific research, and to share this information with the public.