Klamath Network website

The NPS recently launched several new science initiatives as part of the Natural Resource Challenge program, a Service-wide effort aimed at bolstering science and resource management throughout the national parks. A key feature of this initiative is the newly established network of Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU's). These units were created to facilitate park science and provide technical assistance to resource managers within designated biogeographic regions. Plans call for the eventual creation of a network of 17 such units nationwide. A prominent feature of the CESU program is establishment of formal linkages with a national network of colleges, universities and non-governmental research organizations. The NPS has placed full-time Research Coordinators at the universities hosting CESU's. Glacier National Park was fortunate to be among the first Parks to benefit from this initiative through establishment of the Rocky Mountains CESU located at the University of Montana in Missoula. Dr. Kathy Tonnessen, the National Park Service Research Coordinator at this unit, facilitates research, technical assistance and outreach programs between affiliated universities and parks throughout the United States with an emphasis on units in the Rocky Mountain cluster.