The Natural Resources Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program provides an opportunity to improve the quantity, quality and availability of natural resources data for park managers and the public. This is a two-phase program. The first phase involves baseline inventory, or an extensive point-in-time effort to determine the location and condition of selected biological resources. Inventory may involve both the acquisition of new information and the compilation of existing information from disparate sources. The second phase is monitoring, or the collection and analysis of repeated observations over time to evaluate changes in the condition of a resource.

In order to reduce costs, the I&M program clusters individual parks with biological, physical and geographic affinities into networks. The Sierra Nevada Network includes Devils Postpile National Monument, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Yosemite National Park. The network concept offers efficiencies in designing and conducting inventory and monitoring work, and improved opportunities for exchange of ideas and information among parks. 

View the Sierra Nevada Inventory and Monitoring Program website.