Natural Resource Monitoring at Shenandoah National Park

Fall colors at Bearfence, Shenandoah National Park.

NPS / Brett Raeburn

Shenandoah National Park is one of ten parks in the Mid-Atlantic Network which is part of a nation-wide effort of the National Park Service to generate scientifically sound information on the changing conditions of park ecosystems. Park staff conduct natural resource management activities, but also monitor the status and long-term trends of natural resources in order to better inform management decisions. Each year, park staff and volunteers collect information for several natural resource monitoring programs.

To learn more about these programs and key findings, choose from the options below.

Monitoring Programs

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  Air Quality

  Park managers benefit from knowing the type and extent of various air pollutants in order to evaluate their impacts on park resources.

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  Benthic Macroinvertebrates

  Staff at this park have sampled benthic macroinvertebrates for 25 years, initially in response to gypsy moth defoliation.

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  Fish

  The relatively pristine and high elevation streams found in Shenandoah currently support increasingly rare coldwater fish communities.

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  Forest Vegetation

  All Mid-Atlantic Network parks have forests that form an essential part of the landscape and provide habitat for a diversity of wildlife.

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  Water Quality & Quantity

  Monitoring water quality & quantity helps the National Park Service fulfill its duty to protect pristine (or improve impaired) park waters.

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  Weather & Climate

  Climate is a dominant factor driving the physical and ecologic processes affecting Mid-Atlantic Network parks.

Website Articles

Park Monitoring Documents

Resource Briefs

Resource briefs are short PDFs summarizing our monitoring programs or results.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 4876 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Monitoring Reports

Periodically, we publish reports that describe what we are learning in the field. These monitoring reports are more in-depth than resource briefs and include data analysis and a discussion of our findings.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 4879 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.