NPS Photo
A National Park botanist inventories plant species in the tallgrass prairie at Herbert Hoover NHS.
Science at Work
Herbert Hoover NHS 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. Park managers use scientifically collected data to monitor the vital signs—measurable, early warning signals of significant changes—to assess the long-term health of natural systems.
At Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, trends in populations of birds, native plant communities, and exotic invasive plants may indicate changes in the overall health of the reconstructed tallgrass prairie. Park scientists also assess the quality of stream habitat by inventorying Hoover Creek's physical characteristics as well as fish and aquatic invertebrate communities. The park also has inventories of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
Volunteer citizen-scientists help survey birds each year at Herbert Hoover NHS. The data they collect is reviewed by National Park Service scientists and added to the I&M databases.
