What We Inventory

Vegetation canopy at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield park

NPS Photo / Rachel McManamay

Natural resource inventories are a documentation of the condition of plant, animal, or other natural resources. They can include a list of existing species, a count of the number of each species, or a dataset of existing conditions, like air quality. They provide a baseline that can be compared to later assessments to see if conditions are improving or degrading. Sometimes they provide information about the location of plant or animal communities.

Baseline inventories are administered by the National Inventory and Monitoring Division for twelve core areas which are listed below. For more information, see the national inventory program information page.

Additional Inventory Resources

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  Climate Inventory and Monitoring

  A misty morning for monitoring on Rattlesnake Island near Fort Matanzas National Monument.

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  Inventory Publications

  An eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) just before being rescued from the road at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.

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  Species Lists

  Violet coral (Clavaria zollingeri) at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

Baseline inventories are administered by the National Inventory and Monitoring Division for these twelve core areas. For more information, see the national inventory program information page.

Twelve Basic Inventories

Inventory	Completion Status
Air Quality	Completed
Air Quality Related Values	Completed
Base Cartography	Completed
Baseline Water Quality	Completed
Climate	Completed
Geologic Resources	Completed
Natural Resource Bibliography	Completed
Soils Resources	Completed
Species List	Completed
Species Status and Abundance	Completed
Vegetation Mapping Inventory	In Progress
Water Body Location and Classification	Completed