What We Inventory

Burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia).

NPS photo / Ryan Manuel

Effective management and stewardship of natural resources in the Northern Great Plains Network parks begins with a basic understanding of the resources. To acquire this understanding, an inventory program was established by the National Park Service with the goal of acquiring baseline information for a set of resources, from bibliographic information to species occurrence and distribution.

Inventories assess and document the current condition of specific natural resources in network parks. A set of 12 basic inventories are defined in appendix A of the Natural Resources Inventory and Monitoring Guidelines (NPS-75). The inventories served as a common starting point for monitoring and were also intended to provide park managers with baseline information on the natural resources in their parks.

The 12  Basic Inventories

Most inventories are now complete, but several of the more complex ones (for example, vegetation and geology) are still in progress. View completed inventory reports for Northern Great Plains Network parks.
 

Air Quality	Soil Resources
Air Quality Related Values	Species Lists
Base Cartography	Species Occurrence and Distribution
Baseline Water Quality	Vegetation
Climate	Water Body Location and Classification
Geologic Resources	Natural Resource Bibliography