From Mountains to Coast: Monitoring Ecosystems

Located in western Washington and northwestern Oregon, the North Coast and Cascades Network includes seven park units with natural resources. From rocky coastlines to steep valleys and mountains, these unique national park landscapes showcase the largest remaining tracts of old forest ecosystems with massive trees 500 to 1000 years old and over 250 feet tall, the most small lakes in high-elevation environments (~1,600), and the most glaciers (over 500) within the conterminous United States.

As one of 32 Inventory and Monitoring networks across the country, we track environmental characteristics of national parks from the long-term perspective. Our aim is to determine the status and trends of these key characteristics, inform management decisions, provide reference data to compare with altered environments, and communicate our results to managers, scientists, and the public.