Long-term monitoring for environmental change in U.S. National Parks a watershed approach

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) is faced with direct questions about the condition of Park natural resources. The watershed approach to long-term monitoring of natural, and remote areas within the National Parks has provided important data for detecting both spacial and temporal changes in environmental conditions. These data collections allow the partitioning of cause and effect relationships of ecological change within a given watershed. They also serve to meet both reference and early warning objectives. Success in advancing a number of 'acid precipitation' goals has demonstrated the usefulness of these integrated watershed data for inter-ecosystem comparison and for analogy between watersheds. The watershed program owing to the NPS experience is proposed as a model for focusing the National Park Service's inventory and monitoring program inititiative. This approach provides to park researchers and resources managers the needed tools for dealing with today's complex local, regional and global natural resources issues.