What We Inventory

Students help to collect dragonfly larvae from the Mississippi River.

NPS

Effective long-term management and stewardship of natural resources in the Great Lakes Network begins with knowing what's out there. To find out, the National Park Service began an inventory program to gather baseline information about park natural resources. Some of this only required pulling the species lists, reports, and published papers out of the files. Where there were gaps in the information, we initiated field studies to fill those gaps.

All networks were required to complete at least 12 basic inventories that provided the baseline information needed to start a Vital Signs Monitoring Program. The 12 basic inventories are defined in appendix A of the Natural Resources Inventory and Monitoring Guidelines (NPS-75).

Learn More About Inventories

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  Twelve Basic Inventories

  A set of basic inventories, including vegetation, species, landforms, air, and water, gives us a common starting point for monitoring.

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  Inventory Reports

  Dig in to the details of inventories conducted in Great Lakes Network parks.

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  NPSpecies

  Species Lists

  Find species lists for the plants and animals that have been recorded in Great Lakes Network parks.