NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program

A further boost to park-based science was provided through the recent inauguration of a Service-wide comprehensive Inventory and Monitoring Program. The biological inventory phase of this initiative was implemented in 1999 to secure basic descriptive information about natural resources occurring throughout the nationwide system of national parks, monuments and historic sites. Glacier National Park received funds to begin this work in 2001. The second phase of the program involves long-term ecological monitoring which will take place under the banner of "Vital Signs Monitoring". Glacier National Park is part of the Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Network headed by Dr. Mike Britten. Funding to begin Vital Signs Monitoring in the Rocky Mountain Network became available in 2003.