In 1993, the National Park Service (NPS) solicited Long Term Ecological Monitoring (LTEM) proposals from its national parks with significant natural resources. North Cascades NPS Complex was one of eleven "prototype parks" selected for this new program initiative. While the Complex has conducted several resource baseline inventories since 1993, LTEM funding has not been available for its resource stewardship staff to develop a prototype monitoring program. In order to update the monitoring framework described in the proposal and to stimulate collaborative interest among scientists and resource managers, North Cascades NPS Complex and held a workshop in 1998 and one in to develop a conceptual LTEM plan. This document describes the framework of a LTEM program with potentially broader relevance to other locations in the Pacific Northwest (e.g., Olympic NP).

This particular component of the LTEM program introduces the rationale associated with legislative mandates of the NPS and North Cascades NPS Complex. Although ecological monitoring of natural resources is the primary focus of the NPS program and the North Cascades NPS Complex plan, we have included human resources as related to "…public use and enjoyment….," as well as cultural resources, because all of these general resource categories are linked in contemporary park management.

In order to achieve the primary monitoring objectives, the Complex needs to:

• Develop and implement a LTEM conceptual plan
• Design and complete pilot monitoring studies
• Develop protocols for LTEM
• Develop and implement a LTEM program

In order to build a scientifically-based program, an multidisciplinary cadre of subject-matter experts knowledgeable about the North Cascades Range and scientific monitoring methods is needed. Such a cadre needs to become an integral part of park operations and have a supportive infrastructure in order to have a successful long-term monitoring effort.

It is not possible to inventory and monitor every physical, chemical, and biological attribute of North Cascades NPS Complex. The sheer size of the park, with 280,000 hectares, highly dissected mountainous terrain, steep elevational gradients, and a short fieldwork season at higher elevations presents special challenges for data collection. Considering that the greater North Cascades ecoregion extends up to 4 million hectares, expanding a monitoring program outside the park becomes an even more imposing task.

Our inventory and monitoring strategy is to concentrate efforts within representative watersheds on the west and east slopes of the North Cascades mountain range. In order to limit the extent of monitoring, we focus on indicators of ecological "health" or condition. Within the context of our 1998 LTEM workshop, we established eight workgroups representing geologic resources, atmospheric resources, aquatic habitat, aquatic biota, terrestrial vegetation, terrestrial fauna, human resources, and cultural resources. These workgroups identified indicators of condition or "vital signs" by creating an exhaustive list of ecological components. Each workgroup used this process to develop step-down charts representing their priorities. Human and cultural resources are included in this process because it is crucial to understand how they interact with natural resource components and land management. Each selected indicator or vital sign should have the capability of detecting change and differentiating human-induced change from "natural" change associated with a known reference (or historical) set of conditions.

Criteria for meeting monitoring objectives include:

• Monitoring is designed to incorporate a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.
• Monitoring components are easily and reliably measured.
• Monitoring is capable of providing an assessment along a gradient of impairment and provides for early detection of impairment.
• Ecosystem health is based on a variety of measures interpreted by experts.
• Monitoring reflects our knowledge of expected sequential changes that occur naturally within a range of reference conditions and values.
• Measures have defined means and variances wherever possible.
• Where possible, data are scaled up from smaller scales to larger ones, increasingly adding to a description of relative integrity.
• Monitoring program is evaluated according to specific criteria on a regular basis.
• Monitoring program has adaptive capability through incorporating improved methods and new knowledge.
• Monitoring accounts for catastrophic changes.
• Monitoring is based on the concept of ecosystem boundaries, not just park boundaries.
• Park monitoring protocols should incorporate or be calibrated to existing protocols used by surrounding land management agencies.

Publications of Pilot Studies

• Stehekin River floodplain mapping project, 1993.
• Stehekin Valley vertebrate inventory, 1993.
• Wetlands inventory in the North Cascades NPS Complex, 1994.
• Ecological effects of stocked trout in naturally fishless high mountain lakes, North Cascades NP; Liss & Larson, 1995.
• Terrestrial riparian arthropod Investigations in the Big Beaver Creek Research Area, North Cascades NP, 1995-1996: Part I. Hemiptera: Heteroptera.
• Terrestrial riparian arthropod investigations in the Big Beaver Creek Research Area, North Cascades NP, 1995-1996: Part II. Coleoptera.
• A survey of northern spotted owls in North Cascades NP, 1994-1996.
• Thunder Creek watershed analysis (in progress).

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