National Park Service

Landbird Inventory of San Juan Island National Historical Park Final Report National Park Service

Publisher Marketing: The National Park Service (NPS) is charged with the responsibility of managing park natural resources and preventing their loss or impairment. To meet this responsibility, NPS established the Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M) to provide funding and technical support to approximately 269 national park units. The goals of this program are to help park units collect scientifically credible ecological resource information and to develop or improve field and analytical monitoring techniques to aid park managers in managing, planning, and protecting their natural resources. As a first step toward meeting I&M goals, NPS initiated its Natural Resource Inventories Program in 2001. This five-year program emphasizes gathering a core set of data describing park vascular plant and vertebrate resources. Furthermore, parks within the North Coast / Cascades Network, including San Juan Island National Historical Park (NHP) held "vital signs" workshops to identify and implement a core program of monitoring. The network monitoring program focuses on the most critical ecological parameters and stressors identified for the network as a whole. All seven parks in the North Coast / Cascades Network identified landbirds as a critical faunal resource to be monitored.