- Project Locations -

National Resource Condition Assessments

California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, New Mexico, CO, Utah

IWS and the National Park Service (NPS) are collaborating on a series of Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) for parks in the Pacific West and Intermountain Regions.

What are NRCAs?

Assessments are based on NPS Vital Signs Monitoring, spanning 270 Parks across the United States. Each assessment:

focuses on park-specific natural resources and their management;
evaluates and reports on current conditions, critical data and knowledge gaps associated with these resources; and
describes resource threats and stressors common to multiple parks.

NRCAs provide a snapshot-in-time evaluation of resource conditions for the most important park resources. Gathered information will assist NPS managers to develop management priorities, partnerships, park plans, and education efforts. NRCAs also provide information for professionals in the ecological sciences and a better understanding of the resource management of NPS units.

The final reports are published as part of the NPS Natural Resource Publication Series.

Involvement with this study supports the mission of IWS, which includes gathering information necessary to maintain biodiversity.

IWS work involves 12 parks or park groups. Following are some examples: