• Photo of the Beaver Marsh by Jeffrey Gibson.

    Cuyahoga Valley

    National Park Ohio

  • Canal Road Partially Closed Monday May 14, 2012

    Canal Road will be closed to all traffic from Hillside to Tinkers Creek Road beginning Monday, May 14 until early September, 2012, for construction. Although Hillside Road will be open, the recommended route to Canal Visitor Center is from Rockside Road More »

  • Ice Box Cave Closed

    Ice Box Cave, located in the Ritchie Ledges, is now closed in an effort to slow the spread of a disease to our bat population. More »

Inventory & Monitoring

Identifying species

NPS TED TOTH

Scientists identify species in the laboratory

Science in the Park
Inventory and monitoring (I&M) builds a strong scientific foundation for the management and protection of natural resources in national park areas.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) is a member of the Heartland I&M Network, fifteen parks in the Midwest sharing resources and professional expertise to inventory and monitor natural resources.

The Inventory provides a snapshot of the natural resources in a park. Monitoring tracks the health of the natural resources across time. Effective monitoring programs alert park managers about changes—both positive and negative—in a timely way so that they can make informed decisions to protect the resources.

At Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the largest inventory and monitoring project focuses on wetlands. Wetlands are a significant part of the park's natural environment. Nearly 1,500 individual wetlands cover over 1,900 acres within the park. Many of the wetlands are smaller than one acre. However, about 40 are larger than ten acres. All of these occur in the Cuyahoga River floodplain.

Inventory & Monitoring Reports and Data
Reports and data are found on the NPS Inventory and Monitoring website. 

         

 
Citizen Scientist colleting butterflies

NPS TED TOTH

Citizen Scientist collecting butterflies at Terra vista

 

Citizen Scientists at Work
Volunteer citizen-scientists help survey and monitor different species in the park. The data they collect is reviewed by National Park Service scientists and added to the I&M databases. Click here to find out more about volunteering in the park.

Did You Know?

Historic photo of canal boats along the Ohio & Erie Canal.

The Ohio & Erie Canal, which runs through Cuyahoga Valley National Park, was a 308-mile waterway connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River. This transportation route, which influenced local and national prosperity, was dug entirely by hand by mostly German and Irish immigrants.