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Making an Impact: Long-Term Monitoring of Natural Resources at Intermountain Region National Parks, 2021

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Amistad National Recreation Area, Arches National Park, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Bandelier National Monument,

Science-based management is critical to protecting, restoring, and maintaining national park ecosystems. Underlying the success of these efforts are the dedicated park managers who study how ecosystems and their components function and apply science toward managing those resources.

The National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Division plays a unique role in providing scientific information on long-term monitoring of natural resources to park resource staff. This information informs assessments of ecosystem health, identifies changes in resource condition, and contributes to a wide array of resource management efforts.

Across the Intermountain Region, network staff are helping to track the effects of climate change on natural resources across multiple parks, provide baseline information and tools to enhance resource management, evaluate new technologies, and inspire the next generation of park stewards—to name just a few. The information provided to park managers is invaluable for decisions made today and in the future.

I&M staff collaborate with their park partners to attain the best outcomes for park resources and the American public. In addition to long-term data collection, analysis, and reporting, the seven I&M networks in the Intermountain Region also provide a plethora of science support for park programs, are contributing to the scientific literature, and working hard to enhance public understanding of science in the national parks and in our world. This article highlights accomplishments achieved during fiscal year 2021.

Research Shows Effects of Visitation on Cave-Water Chemistry

Hansen Lake at Timpanogos Cave National Monument.

A water-quality trend analysis by the Northern Colorado Plateau Network suggested that cave visitation affects cave-water chemistry and, in turn, the potential for cave-decoration formation at Timpanogos Cave National Monument. At Hidden Lake, a decrease in dissolved CO2 corresponded to implementation of a new cave management plan, leading to conditions that favored the formation of speleothems. A new collaboration with Western Kentucky University and the US Geological Survey increased the frequency of cave-water sampling during the COVID-19 closure of the cave in 2020, and added prototype carbon-dioxide sensors to sample the cave atmosphere when cave tours resumed in 2021. This research will help park staff to better understand thresholds of visitor use to support active cave processes.

New Exotic Plants Dashboard Rolled Out

Data managers for the Southwest Network Collaboration (Chihuahuan Desert, Sonoran Desert, and Southern Plains networks; SWNC) built an Exotic Plant Data Dashboard to serve data to park managers, Invasive Plant Management Teams, and other vegetation management programs. The new design uses an intuitive mapping interface to generate clear, quality-controlled information on invasive plant location and density. Because several required data management procedures are now automated, final information is available to end users as soon as field sampling is complete. By shrinking the time between observation and treatment, this approach can dramatically improve the efficacy of weed management efforts in SWNC parks. The dashboard can be accessed via the NPS GIS portal. An NPS VPN connection and addition to the group by network data management staff are required.

Climate Adaptation Workshops Target Grasslands

Grassland at Canyonlands National Park.

Following up on Climate Smart Grassland Drought Workshops in 2018 and 2019, the Northern Colorado Plateau Network was a key partner, with the US Geological Survey, Colorado
State University, Northern Arizona University, and the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, in an arid-grassland climate-adaptation workshop attended by staff from parks and partners throughout the Colorado Plateau. The workshop tested a climate-adaptation menu with strategies to help parks resist, accept, or direct change. Each park brought an active grassland-management issue to work through the framework to identify climate vulnerabilities, discuss strategies, highlight information gaps, and create a list of potential management actions. Feedback from the workshop will help finalize the climate adaptation menu for Colorado Plateau arid grasslands. A report is available.

Pinyon-Juniper Workgroup Created

Patch of dying junipers with the Abajo Mountains in the background, Cedar Mesa, Utah, 2019.

Scientists from the Southern Colorado Plateau Network established a workgroup for effective management of pinyon-juniper ecosystems. All SCPN parks have pinyon or juniper species, and pinyon-juniper is the dominant vegetation for many park units. Management of this vegetation type on the Colorado Plateau must contend with three major challenges: (1) Because much of the Plateau is dominated by old-growth pinyon-juniper stands that are not fire-adapted, the common forest treatment of thinning to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk is not necessarily ecologically appropriate; (2) The increasing frequency of stand-destroying fires has exposed them to invasions of exotic species and hampered re-establishment of previous PJ vegetation; and (3) Because traditional satellite metrics have been shown to not work in pinyon-juniper ecosystems, we have no means of monitoring the vulnerability of these ecosystems to disturbance. SCPN staff helped identify this problem several years ago and have continued work to find and validate a suitable replacement satellite vegetation index. To address these challenges, this workgroup facilitates (1) assessments guided by concerns of park resource managers; (2) detailed condition data compiled from a variety of sources (e.g., NPS vegetation, soils, and geologic substrate maps; disease/die-off maps; fire history maps); (3) literature describing outcomes of past management actions in this vegetation type, (4) guidance from experts in the field from the US Geological Survey, Northern Arizona University, Colorado State University, and emeritus research scientists, and (5) a forum where resource managers from multiple parks can combine efforts to discuss and then test different forms of management.

Using Water Balance to Help Explain Vegetation Change at Multiple Spatial Scales

Normalized change (percent of historical mean per decade) in total annual climatic water deficit, 1980–2019.

Staff from the the Northern Colorado Plateau Network and Greater Yellowstone Network partnered with Mike Tercek and the NPS Climate Change Response Program to create a comprehensive set of GIS layers representing 30-year and decadal average water balance calculated at 1-km resolution for the continental US. This cloud-hosted product provides data for 1980 to the present, as well as 24 futures projected to the late 21st century. Recent collaborative research indicates much of the western US has experienced increases in water deficit (drying) since 1980, primarily due to rising temperatures—while much of the eastern US experienced increases in evapotranspiration (wetting) due to increases in precipitation. At a more local scale, vegetation at lower elevations in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks is experiencing more water stress recently than in the past, while vegetation at higher elevations is experiencing less water stress. These findings—based on analyses using the new gridded water-balance dataset described above—explain how the same climate conditions can have different effects over short distances due to local interactions between climate and site characteristics. Collectively, this information can be used to develop management options to help parks adapt to climate change.

Evaluating the Impact of New Wastewater Technology on the Colorado River

Colorado River near Moab, Utah.

Thousands of chemical compounds enter our water each day. In Moab, Utah, staff from the Northern Colorado Plateau Network and the US Environmental Protection Agency collaborated to determine whether improved methods of wastewater treatment can help reduce the presence of unregulated contaminants in effluent (cleansed discharge from a wastewater treatment plant) discharged to the Colorado River near Arches and Canyonlands national parks. The results from this study indicate that improved technologies resulted in effluent discharge with fewer detected bioactive contaminants, lower instream bioactivities, and increased fish survival. The treatment process dramatically reduced the number and concentration of pharmaceuticals and hormones in the outflow, with many pharmaceuticals dropping below detection limits. Investment in new technologies can reduce the levels of contaminants we already target with wastewater treatment, and a lot of others we don’t. This a win for everyone who depends on clean water for health and survival—and for the places we cherish.

Collaborating with Parks

Staff from the Rocky Mountain Network and their network parks collaborated on post-fire support at Rocky Mountain National Park, an Annual Brome Adaptive Management decision-support tool for Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and several Northern Great Plains Network parks, and hydroacoustic monitoring in support of Clark Fork River remediation at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.

Evaluating Drought Effects on Landbirds

Conducting bird surveys at dawn, Bryce Canyon National Park.

Birds of the desert southwest, a climate-change hotspot, are among the most vulnerable groups in the United States. Recent research determined how bird communities in three habitats responded to drought stress over 12 years in 11 national parks on the Northern Colorado Plateau. Responses depended on habitat type and species traits, demonstrating that increased drought stress is not inherently bad or good for all species. Species that breed in multiple habitats may find it easier to adapt. Knowing how sensitive different species are to drought stress can help land managers to focus on the habitats where certain landbirds are most vulnerable. The results provide managers a clear path to developing a set of options, depending on which species and habitats they decide to focus on.

Vegetation Map Provides Useful Management Tool

Map of Saguaro National Park's Tucson Mountain District with different colors showing locations of different plant communities.

The Sonoran Desert Network published a three-volume vegetation mapping report for Saguaro National Park. Knowing what’s growing where, and what kinds of habitat occur in a park, helps park managers with park planning, resource monitoring, interpretive programs, prescribed fire, wildland firefighting, and climate-change response, among other activities. Vegetation maps also provide a baseline for other ecological studies. At Saguaro National Park, a total of 97 distinct vegetation associations were described across the park’s two districts, ranging from low-elevation creosote shrublands to mountaintop Douglas fir forests. A total of 538 species were observed, with three new species added to the park plant checklist. One species believed to be extirpated from the park was also documented. The increased warming and drying of the climate in the 21st century is leading to a decrease in post-fire tree regeneration compared to the end of the 20th century. This is especially true where dominant species (like conifers) are at the lower elevational end of their typical range.

Data Used for Focused Condition Assessments

Data from the Rocky Mountain and Greater Yellowstone networks are being used in focused condition assessments (FCAs) that evaluate the condition of specific natural resources to address important near-term management issues and critical information needs identified by parks. These include the networks' Alpine Vegetation & Soils GLORIA datasets for soil temperature during 2008–2020, which the University of Colorado's Doak Lab is using for a vulnerability analysis and synthesis. The Greater Yellowstone Network participated in FCAs for mountain mahogany at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, hayfield restoration at Grand Teton National Park, and alpine vegetation (GLORIA sites) servicewide.

Frontiers for Young Minds Special Collection

Cartoon of person in NPS uniform taking Earth's temperature.

Multiple networks have contributed to a collection of articles for Frontiers for Young Minds, an online science journal published for youth ages 8–15 years old. “Taking the Pulse of US National Parks” will eventually contain 28 articles. Multiple papers by Intermountain Region network staff explore topics including the role of water balance in park management, amphibian resilience in extreme environments, and how stream bugs are an indicator of aquatic health. An eBook will be created from this collection and distributed to educational institutions around the world. The Greater Yellowstone Network's vegetation ecologist leads the editorial team for this project.

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Communications and Outreach

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  • Rocky Mountain National Park

    Checking Rocky's Vital Signs

    two people in life jackets stand in a small, forested stream holding a measuring tape

    In 2007, the Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Network—a small team of NPS scientists—began monitoring natural resources, called “vital signs,” in Rocky and nearby parks. Vital signs indicate park health and serve as red flags if conditions deteriorate. Results from monitoring these vital signs support park managers’ efforts to make science-based management decisions. Learn about the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program and its work in Rocky Mountain National Park.

    • Sites: Chihuahuan Desert Inventory & Monitoring Network, Inventory and Monitoring Division, Amistad National Recreation Area
    A blue lake viewed from between prickly shrubs on a rocky embankment.

    Climate and water dramatically shape ecosystems, especially in arid and semi-arid places like Amistad National Recreation Area (NRA) in Texas. The reservoir at the park receives drainage from water basins in the U.S. and Mexico, including the Pecos and Devils rivers and the Rio Grande. The park supports a wide variety of plants and animals because it is in a transition zone between major life and climate zones. We monitor climate and water to assess park ecosystems.

  • Green pool surrounded by cave formations.

    At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, water quality is monitored in two cave pools perched within a steep mountainside. Yet a recent analysis of measurements collected over a ten-year period revealed some surprising results about the influence of human activities on park waters. The findings will help park managers make decisions that protect park resources for enjoyment by future generations.

    • Type: Series
    A scientist holding a piece of equipment that is submerged in a river.

    The Greater Yellowstone Network monitors water quality and analyzes river discharge in the Lamar River between April and November each year. Water quality is high in the Lamar River; about three quarters of its watershed is contained within Yellowstone National Park. Discharge records for the Lamar River go back to 1923. Our monitoring results are presented here and will be updated each year as new information is collected.

    • Sites: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Sonoran Desert Inventory & Monitoring Network, Saguaro National Park
    Map with irregularly shaped color fields representing location of different vegetation associations

    Vegetation maps tell park managers what’s growing where, and what kinds of habitat occur in a park. At Saguaro National Park, the Sonoran Desert Network mapped and classified 97 different vegetation associations from 2010 to 2018. Communities ranged from low-elevation creosote shrublands to mountaintop Douglas fir forests on the slopes of Rincon Peak.

    • Sites: Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park
    A brownish river runs through rugged canyon walls

    In Moab, Utah, the Northern Colorado Plateau Network is helping to determine if improved methods of wastewater treatment can help reduce the presence of unregulated contaminants in effluent. The results have important implications for water quality in some of our nation’s most treasured rivers—and the news is good.

    • Type: Series
    Two boats on the side of a blue river lined by green plants and a few trees

    The Greater Yellowstone Network monitors water quality and analyzes river discharge in the Bighorn River near Fort Smith, MT, each year. This sampling location in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is just downstream of the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam. Water quality is relatively good at this location. We will update this site each year as new information is collected.

    • Sites: Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Hovenweep National Monument, Natural Bridges National Monument, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park
    Pika with a mouthful of grass

    In response to climate change, park managers are having to rethink how they plan for the future. Climate Smart Conservation is a process that can help managers achieve goals in the face of coming changes. Under this framework, scientists and managers use their collective knowledge to anticipate problems and be proactive, rather than reactive.

  • Red and white cliffs against a blue sky, green trees and shrubs at lower elevations.

    Invasive exotic plants are one of the most significant threats to natural resources in the national parks today. To provide early warning of weed invasions, the Northern Colorado Plateau Network monitors target plants in park areas where they are likely to first establish: along roads, trails, and waterways. Find out what we learned at Capitol Reef National Park in 2019.

    • Sites: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Northern Colorado Plateau Inventory & Monitoring Network, Arches National Park, Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park,
    A man wearing a clipboard looks through binoculars at dawn in field of sagebrush

    Birds of the desert southwest, a climate-change hotspot, are among the most vulnerable groups in the US. To help park managers plan for those changes, scientists evaluated the influence of water deficit on landbird communities at 11 national parks in Utah and Colorado. The results will help land managers to focus conservation efforts on places where certain species are most vulnerable to projected climate changes.

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Last updated: June 1, 2023