Pest, Disease, & Invasive Species Research

From coast to coast, the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division is helping park managers improve the health and function of forest ecosystems. From promoting resilient forests in the Northeast, to conserving whitebark pine in the West, to protecting Hawaiian forest birds from avian malaria, scientific partnerships are helping parks to share information, leverage funding sources, and work together for outcomes that extend beyond what any park could accomplish on its own.

Researchers hope to identify the “source populations” for the invasive glossy buckthorn so park staff can target intervention strategies by focusing treatments on the populations that are the biggest contributors to re-invasion.

Using traps, sweep-nets, and mist-nets, scientists are sampling insects as they hatch and emerge later in the season and taking blood samples from lakeside birds that may be eating the insects, to study the impact of invasive fish on aquatic food webs.

Research project on the importance of invasive fish on aquatic food webs