Current Air Quality and Smoke Monitoring

Motorized access to Yellowstone National Park during the winter season has been historically contentious, with continual concerns regarding potentially affected resources, including air quality. The culmination of the air quality monitoring aimed at understanding the impacts of OSVs in Yellowstone National Park provides an excellent example of how balancing policy and public interests can result in positive environmental impacts. NPS, Intermountain Park Science, 2025.

Read the abstract and get the link to a published paper on a model to predict mercury risk park waterbodies: Kotalik, C.J. et al. 2025. Ecosystem drivers of freshwater mercury bioaccumulation are context-dependent: insights from continental-scale modeling. Environmental Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c07280

The Midden is the Resource Management Newsletter of Great Basin National Park, published each summer and winter. Find out the latest going on at Great Basin National Park, Nevada in resource management and research. The Midden - Great Basin National Park: Vol. 24, No.1, Summer 2024. https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/news/midden.htm

Spend a day at Glacier National Park with the Montana Conservation Corps. This program inspires youth and young adults to be leaders and stewards of the land. See what it's like to do hands-on conservation work, like collecting dragonfly larvae, through the eyes of a youth corps member.

Explore these videos that highlight the different partnerships of the Dragonfly Mercury Project. Learn more about the youth programs, local watershed organizations, and student groups that participate in this nationwide study by collecting dragonfly larvae for mercury analysis.

Explore how the Dragonfly Mercury Project offers a unique education experience, outside of the formal classroom. At Dinosaur National Monument, student volunteers enjoy collecting scientific data while floating down the river through a national park.

Learn why mercury research is important at Wild & Scenic Maurice River (New Jersey). Here, a local watershed organization called Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries (CU Maurice River) helps sample dragonfly larvae for mercury analysis. The Dragonfly Mercury Project empowers community volunteers and helps protect human health.

Lichens are durable enough to grow on tree bark and bare rock, yet are sensitive to pollution and air quality. One species in particular was used to track levels of air-borne lead over a 100 year period!

Air quality profile for North Cascades National Park. Gives park-specific information about air quality and air pollution impacts for North Cascades NP as well as the studies and monitoring conducted for North Cascades NP.

Is there a way to measure visibility in a scientific way, with accuracy and precision? Some atmospheric physicists started figuring that out in the 1970s in the Grand Canyon. They succeeded, and today their methods allow governments worldwide to monitor visibility and enact policies to improve it by reducing air pollution.