Science & Research

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

In early December 2007, a series of three Pacific storms struck coastal Oregon and Washington. Later named the “Great Coastal Gale of 2007,” these storms brought in heavy rains, severe temperature swings, and hurricane force winds exceeding 100 miles per hour to Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. Ten years later, the forest looks very different. How is the park using remote sensing technology to monitor landscape change?

At Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, staff are developing a plan that will help restore the park’s degraded prairies, wetlands, dunes, and coastal forests. To better tailor this ongoing restoration effort, they needed to know more about the species that reside in the park, including bryophytes and lichens.

To steward amphibians effectively, managers need basic information about which species live in parks. But species lists need constant maintenance to remain accurate. Due to recent efforts, the National Park Service now has an up-to-date amphibian species checklist for almost 300 parks. This information can serve as the basis for innumerable conservation efforts across the nation.

Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery saw petroglyphs and pictographs along their route. Sometimes, Native peoples interpreted the markings for the corps members. Other times, the corps members encountered markings that appeared abandoned, with no recent tribal association, and their significance was left a mystery.

Despite dire evidence of rising tree death, researchers found resilience and hope deep inside western Washington's forests. But it will take 21st-century monitoring methods to keep that hope alive.

SEPTEMBER 2023 – Over two years, teams at four parks in the North Coast & Cascades Network hiked hundreds of miles to collect samples of environmental DNA (eDNA) from park waters. These delicate samples promise to greatly expand our understanding of aquatic ecosystems, answering important questions about threatened species, emerging pathogens, ecological invaders, and more. What's next for this project?

JANUARY 2023 – Pacific Northwest forests are vital living systems, cycling huge quantities of carbon and nutrients, filtering pollutants from waterways, and serving as a living bulwark against climate change. However, forests worldwide are threatened by increasing warming and drought, leading to tree die-offs. A new study asks the question: Is this pattern playing out in the mature and old-growth forests of western Washington?

Ocean acidification (OA) is a huge threat to marine life. But it is hard to track remotely on a large scale. So this summer, seven West Coast national parks are teaming up with the 2021 NOAA West Coast Ocean Acidification Cruise. They’ll collect water samples in-person to check several OA indicators. Their data will help paint the most detailed picture yet of OA conditions up and down the coast, from parks’ rocky intertidal zones to dozens of miles offshore.

While the site of Fort Astoria in Oregon has been listed as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) since the 1960s, archaeologists had never performed methodical excavations at the site. In 2020, the regional NHL program published a report from an archaeology field school that detailed three archaeological sites associated with the NHL. This work greatly expanded our understanding of the fur trade and its aftermath at the mouth of the Columbia River.