Series: Administrative History of the National Park Service Inventory & Monitoring Division

The National Park Service's primary duty is to conserve park resources for future generations. Yet it took almost a half-century before the bureau had a program intended to tell park managers which resources were in the parks, and what state they were in. This is the story of how the National Park Service's Inventory & Monitoring Division finally became a reality, how it's lasted, and what it's accomplished.

• Article 1: I&M Administrative History: Introduction

  

  The NPS Inventory & Monitoring Division employs many different approaches to meet its mission of supporting informed park stewardship with ecosystem science. Its administrative history traces the program from its conceptual origins to its evolution into a foundational organization with an active presence in 280 units across the nation and a central role in fulfilling the NPS mission. Read more

• Article 2: I&M Administrative History: Pleasing the People

  

  Chapter 1 of the I&M administrative history explores early scientific efforts to determine which plants and animals were in the national parks. It also provides an overview of the influential Lane Letter and the early days of NPS resource management, which largely consisted of active manipulation for people-pleasing. In some cases, the premium placed on public enjoyment led to problems that threatened it instead. Read more

• Article 3: I&M Administrative History: The Rise of Scientific Management

  

  Chapter 2 of the I&M administrative history traces the rise and fall of the Wildlife Division, as the NPS briefly experimented with the idea of scientific management in the 1930s. The recommendations in Fauna No. 1, adopted as the bureau’s first wildlife policies, represented a sea change in NPS thinking about its own roles and responsibilities. But the changes were short-lived. Read more

• Article 4: I&M Administrative History: Science Struggles

  

  Biologist Lowell Sumner called the years 1942–1963 “a period of eclipse for biology” in the NPS. Mission 66, the massive postwar building and development project, coincided with even further contraction of NPS science programs. But in the early 1960s, the release of three influential reports urging a return to science-based management provided reason for hope. Read more

• Article 5: I&M Administrative History: Channel Islands

  

  In 1980, Channel Islands became the first national park whose enabling legislation required the performance of natural resource inventories and monitoring. The program, designed by Western Region research scientist Gary Davis, would become the model for how I&M was eventually conducted servicewide. Along the way, Davis developed the “vital signs” metaphor that would come to define these efforts. Read more

• Article 6: I&M Administrative History: Searching for Clarity

  

  In the mid-1980s, longstanding questions about the role of science in NPS management culminated with the publication of Playing God in Yellowstone. The book publicly raised significant questions about NPS science, competence, and motives in park management. And internal research revealed a lack of trust between managers and scientists, called “people who know they must work together, but haven’t yet found the combination." Read more

• Article 7: I&M Administrative History: The Evison Report

  

  Led by a science-oriented superintendent, managers and scientists from inside and outside the NPS conceptualized a program designed to close the gap between what the bureau knew and what it didn’t know about the resources in its care. The 1987 “Evison Report” laid the foundation for a servicewide program of natural resource inventories and monitoring. Read more

• Article 8: I&M Administrative History: A Herculean Undertaking

  

  As NPS leaders worked to define how a servicewide I&M program would be organized, function, and be funded, another public controversy was unfolding. It would reveal just how badly the bureau needed a servicewide, systematic approach to collection and management of scientific data. Read more

• Article 9: I&M Administrative History: Getting to Work

  

  Servicewide I&M got underway in 1992, with the selection of four prototype parks and a single employee guided by an advisory committee. Soon, NPS-75 established the program’s mission, goals, and framework. Yet one thing crucial to the program’s success remained uncertain: funding. Read more

• Article 10: I&M Administrative History: Babbitt Flips the Table

  

  In 1992, most NPS research scientists were moved into the new National Biological Survey, and I&M functions were split between the two bureaus. But the work went on, with the program funding hundreds of natural resource inventories and implementing monitoring at seven prototype parks and clusters. The biggest hurdle to progress continued to be insufficient and uncertain funding. Read more

• Article 11: I&M Administrative History: The Stars Align

  

  Starting in 1997, the I&M program saw a fast and furious improvement in its fortunes. By the year 2000, I&M had been mandated by Congress and provided enough funding—via the Natural Resource Challenge—to expand its coverage nationwide via a series of 32 monitoring networks serving almost 300 parks. Buoyed by strong NPS leadership and bipartisan Congressional support of science-based management, I&M was finally poised to realize its potential. Read more

• Article 12: I&M Administrative History: A New Start

  

  In short order, the NPS had to allocate 270 NPS units across 32 networks, figure out how to divide the budget between them, and decide which networks would be funded first—and last. This chapter explains that process and begins to explore some of the unique organizational and funding components developed to make the program simultaneously responsive to park needs and insulated from their influence. Read more

• Article 13: I&M Administrative History: Appendices

  

  Appendices for the I&M administrative history Read more

• Article 14: I&M Administrative History: Bibliography

  

  Bibliography for the I&M administrative history Read more