Pacific Island Network Vital Signs Monitoring Plan, Appendices, and Data Management Plan

HaySmith, Leslie; Klasner, Fritz; Stephens, Sonia; Dicus, Gordon

Knowing the condition of natural resources is fundamental to the National Park Service’s (NPS) ability to manage park resources. Assessment of resource trends provides an evaluation of the efficacy of management practices and restoration efforts, and provides early warnings of impending threats. An ecosystem approach is needed because no single spatial or temporal scale is appropriate for all system components and processes. National parks are part of larger ecosystems and must be managed in that context. The Natural Resource Challenge was launched in 2000 to revitalize and expand the NPS natural resource program as well as to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific knowledge. The 11 units of the Pacific Island Network include War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam, American Memorial Park in Saipan, National Park of American Samoa, and the following Hawaii parks: USS Arizona Memorial, Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Haleakala National Park, Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Park units contain a high proportion of the nation’s threatened and endangered species, and provide some of the last remaining habitats for rare plants and animals. Some of the network’s most challenging management issues include: invasive species, adjacent land-use, in-park resource use, fire, global climate change, and natural hazards. Monitoring for the PACN includes six goals: 1) Determine status and trends in selected indicators of the condition of park ecosystems to allow managers to make better-informed decisions and to work effectively with other agencies and individuals for the benefit of park resources 2) Provide early warning of abnormal conditions of selected resources to help develop effective mitigation measures and reduce costs of management 3) Provide data to better understand the dynamic nature and condition of park ecosystems and to provide reference points for comparisons with other, altered environments 4) Provide data to meet certain legal and congressional mandates related to natural resource protection and visitor enjoyment. 5) Provide a means of measuring progress towards performance goals and 6) Provide data to better understand, protect, and manage important resources that share cultural and natural value. Monitoring provides scientific information about the ecological health of our parks. Vital Signs are a medical analogy for ecosystem health and include: (1) physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems; (2) known or hypothesized effects of stressors; and/or (3) elements that have important human values. The Vital Signs selected by the Pacific Island Network are a subset of the total suite of natural resources that park managers are directed to preserve. PACN Vital signs include several broad categories of physical and chemical processes important to all park systems such as air and climate, water, geology, and soils. Because of the high rate of endemism and the pervasive threats of invasive species in network parks, biological integrity is well- represented in the PACN Vital Signs list. The I&M program focuses on improving park natural resource management through greater reliance on scientific knowledge. Two data analysis outcomes are emphasized with the PACN Vital Signs: (1) annual status summarization, and (2) long-term trend assessment. Through these efforts, the Inventory and Monitoring program strives to make well-documented scientific information readily available to a broad audience of resource managers, scientists, park interpreters, and the general public. This information will be channeled to parks, in an adaptive management cycle that documents status and trends of Vital Signs in network parks, and enhances management decisions that will preserve the park resources.

Pacific Island Network Vital Signs Monitoring Plan, Appendices, and Data Management Plan

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