Inventory and Monitoring Network

Quill Lake

Pulse of the Park

Just as a doctor checks a patient's vital signs - pulse, breathing, blood pressure - to monitor a patient's health, parks have vital signs that give an indication of the park's health. Voyageurs National Park is one of nine national park units in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana that comprise the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Network.

 

Nine sites of the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network

The Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network

The Inventory and Monitoring Program is part of the National Park Service's effort to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific knowledge. The Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network is one of 32 I&M Networks across the United States. Network biologists work with park managers and others to implement long-term monitoring programs that individual park resource managers cannot undertake because of limited time, money, or staff. Network biologists and park resource managers identified 21 vital signs for Great Lakes Network parks. Many monitoring programs encompass more than one vital sign. Collecting, analyzing, and sharing the data we gain from these programs helps us "keep a finger on the pulse" of land, water, and wildlife in national parks like Voyageurs.

For more information, please visit the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network website.

For Voyageurs National Park programs in particular, please visit the Network's individual park page.

 

Monitoring Goals

Broad goals of the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network include:

• Establish long-term monitoring programs based on park management objectives and information needs
• Collect and organize data, put park into regional context, and provide information to park managers, staff, and the public.

Current Monitoring Programs at Voyageurs

• Contaminants
• Forest Vegetation
• Songbirds
• Landscape Dynamics
• Water Quality
• Weather and Climate