Upper Columbia Basin Network Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Protocol: Standard Operation Procedures Version 1.9

Starkey, Eric; Dicus, Gordon; Garrett, Lisa; Lonneker, Meghan; Sherrill, Kirk; Steinhorst, R

The mission of the National Park Service is “to conserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment of this and future generations” (NPS 1999). To uphold this goal, the Director of the NPS approved the Natural Resource Challenge to encourage national parks to focus on the preservation of the nation’s natural heritage through science, natural resource inventories, and expanded resource monitoring (NPS 1999). Through the Challenge, 270 parks in the national park system were organized into 32 inventory and monitoring networks. The Upper Columbia Basin Network (UCBN) consists of nine widely separated NPS units located in western Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon. One unit of the Nez Perce National Historical Park (NEPE), Bear Paw Battlefield, is actually located outside the Network boundary in eastern Montana. This unit and one other park, Big Hole National Battlefield (BIHO), lie outside the Columbia River Basin, although administratively speaking they are part of the Network. UCBN parks vary in size from 30 ha (74 ac) to more than 188,197 ha (465,046 ac), and all but two are less than 6,000 ha (14,826 ac). These park units operate with limited budgets and few staff, and are not able to provide personnel and funds for many of the natural resource concerns they face. The resources available at the network level greatly increase their capacity to meet increasingly complex resource management issues. While the parks have been identified as having significant natural resources, the majority were actually established to protect cultural and paleontological resources. The upper Columbia Basin holds a rich and fascinating cultural history, and several UCBN parks provide the nationally significant service of chronicling the pre-contact and contact cultures of the Nez Perce and Cayuse people, early pioneer and mission culture, and the tragic conflicts that arose between them. Two parks also protect and interpret globally significant fossil localities. Most also have some level of natural resource protection language included in enabling legislation or other guidance documents. Parks of the Upper Columbia Basin Network include: Big Hole National Battlefield (BIHO), City of Rocks National Reserve (CIRO), Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (CRMO), Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument (HAFO), John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (JODA), Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO), Minidoka Internment National Monument (MIIN), Nez Perce National Historical Park (NEPE), and Whitman Mission National Historic Site (WHMI).

Upper Columbia Basin Network Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Protocol: Standard Operation Procedures Version 1.9

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