Connect the Dots Spreadsheets and Draft Reports

Mitchell, Brian

The “Connect the Dots” effort is a strategic, long-term framework (over a period of years to decades) for coordinating the efforts of the I&M networks, Watershed Condition Assessment Program, park planning (e.g., Foundation Statement, General Management Plan, Resource Stewardship Strategy), park-funded monitoring and research relevant to assessing natural resource conditions, and other research and monitoring efforts. A Natural Resource Summary Table will be developed for each park as part of the park’s Resource Stewardship Strategy document. The Natural Resource Summary Table framework demonstrates the connection of science to management through the planning process. In 2008, the 32 I&M networks were required to develop a first draft of a Vital Signs Supporting Table for each park, which will feed into the larger Natural Resource Summary Table. The draft spreadsheets listed for each park below summarize the key measures of resource condition that the Northeast Temperate Network will routinely provide data for as part of core duty of measuring the condition of selected park resources. The Northeast Temperate Network is currently developing expanded tables that contain additional contextual information (such as ecological and regulatory thresholds) that do not appear on the spreadsheets. These expanded tables will be the core of the Network’s annual condition reports to parks (along with detailed descriptions of the metrics and discussion of the implications of park-specific data). NETN staff are available to meet with parks to discuss these reports and their potential value for reporting the condition of park natural resources, as well as to expand this framework by filling in information about park management targets.