# Presentation: 615128

## How to Create a Resource Assessment for a GMP:  The NERI ExampleMatt Marshall - ERMNCarolyn Mahan – Penn State AltoonaDeborah Darden – New River Gorge National RiverThursday 10:30 Panel: Reporting Results to Managers5th Meeting of the Networks, San Diego CA February 9, 2006

- New River Gorge
- photo by Frank Sellers

## Purpose

- NERI GMP planning process began in 2004
- 		Deborah Darden, Deputy Superintendent, a Planner
- Dr. Carolyn Mahan (Penn State – Altoona) contracted in 2003
- 		Funding from WASO Natural Resource Planning Office via NER
- Purpose was to ensure that existing natural resource information and
- 		issues are incorporated into the planning process
- _Foundation Plan_ identifies “fundamental resources” with 	“significance” statements

## Familiar Methods

- Literature Search and Review
- Meetings with NERI resource managers
- 7 Resource categories identified
- 3 park-based topical Workshops
- More Literature Review
- Draft Report (13 months to complete)
- Peer Review (12 technical reviewers; 15 weeks)
- Revision (8 months)
- 226 Page Technical Report (March 2005; $50k later)

## Slide 4

## Why Successful?Two Points of View

- Dr. Carolyn Mahan – Penn State - Altoona
- No prior template or model
- Scientific buy-in (workshops, 12 peer reviewers, literature cited)
- Significance statements (tough for scientists)
- Layout of report
- Current status and significance
- Threats and condition
- Gaps in knowledge
- Suggested management recommendations (proto-DFCs)

## Why Successful?Two Points of View

- Deborah Darden – NERI Planner (Deputy Superintendent)
- Report served as NR section of Foundation Plan
- 30,000 pages down to 226 peer-reviewed pages
- Park significant resources expanded and justified

## Why Successful?Two Points of View

- For example, _prior to_ assessment:
- Geologic history and topographic relief was Nationally significant
- Floristic diversity greater than other gorges
-      in Southern Apps

## Why Successful?Two Points of View

- _After the_ assessment:
*Globally significant*: unfragmented forest, neotrop. birds, salamander diversity, riverscour communities, Allegheny woodrats
*Nationally significant*: floral diversity, geology of gorge, clifflines
*Regionally significant*: bat diversity, 2 subspecies of painted turtle
*State and Locally significant*: wetlands, game species (ecological and 	economic), RTE species

## NERI NR Assessment

- Mahan, C. G. December 2004 (revised March 2005). A Natural Resource Assessment for New River Gorge National River. Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR--2004/002. National Park Service. Philadelphia, PA.
- 	_available at http://www.nps.gov/nero/science_
- Mahan, C. G. *in press*. NERI Resource Assessment: Methodology and Critique.
- 	_2005 George Wright Society Proceedings_

## Interactive and Targeted Approaches

-  to Sharing Monitoring Results

- Brian R. Mitchell – Coordinator
- Fred Dieffenbach – Data Manager
- Theresa Moore – Science Communication Specialist

**Notes:**
Thanks for letting me lead off this session about getting information out to different audiences.  At NETN, we feel strongly that in order to remain viable, we must make a concerted effort to communicate with a variety of audiences.  We believe that the best way to do this is with a targeted and interactive communication program.

## A monitoring program must include data collection, analysis, and synthesis.

- But the work should not stop with the publication of a final report!
- The Northeast Temperate Network has initiated a communication program that brings relevant information to diverse audiences.
- We strive to effectively deliver information and build support for our activities.

**Notes:**
Developing a sampling design and collecting monitoring data are essential steps for any monitoring program.  Once data is collected, it must also be analyzed and synthesized so that it can be more easily understood.  Most of these monitoring analyses end up in technical reports and administrative documents that have a limited audience.  These reports are certainly valuable, and they enhance our scientific and programmatic credibility.  

But we believe that it is essential to go beyond these reports and bring monitoring results to a diverse array of audiences.  These efforts pay off by helping parks, the public, and others understand current trends in park natural resources.  They also help increase the visibility of our efforts, and build public, park, and administrative support for the I&M program.

## To be effective, communication needs to be targeted:

- What is the audience interested in?
- What do we want the audience to learn?
- What is the best way of conveying the information?
- Static: reports and publications
- Interactive: presentations and dashboards

- Communication: An action by a sender that influences the behavior of a receiver
- Effective communication: Produces an outcome that the sender desires
- Miscommunication: Produces an outcome that the sender did not expect or want

**Notes:**
It may help at this point to digress slightly, and define a few terms.  My graduate training was in behavioral ecology, and most behavioral ecologists would probably agree that communication is an action by a sender that influences the behavior of a receiver.
From the sender’s perspective, communication is effective when the receiver behaves in a way that the sender desires.  This could be anything from a frog attracting a mate, to you leaving this talk thinking about steps you can take to introduce interactive communication into your program.  <click> Miscommunication occurs when a receiver behaves in a way that the sender does not want or expect.  This could be a frog deciding the call she heard was not attractive, a predator homing in on an active frog, or you hearing my talk and then deciding that publishing reports really is enough.
My point is that in order to be effective, we need to practice targeted communication.  We need to know our audience and what they are interested in.  The public doesn’t want to hear about GPRA goals, and Congress probably isn’t interested in how many bird species we found last year.  We need to know what message we want to get across to our audience.  For example, we may want volunteers to know that their efforts provided valuable data, and we may want parks to see that we can provide information that enhances visitor programs and supports management activities.  We need to determine the best method of conveying our messages.  While there is certainly a role for static communications such as reports and publications, we feel that the best communications are interactive.  Interactive communication tools can be real-time, like presentations and discussion, or exploratory, like a well-designed web site or a dashboard application. 

## Who are the audiences?

-  Public
-  School groups
-  Park staff
-  Park resource managers
-  Cooperators
-  Researchers
-  Administrators
-  Congress
- Our goal is to provide monitoring results and program information in a way that
-  Encourages resource protection
-  Illustrates the importance of a sound long-term monitoring program.
- Audiences have different interests, and a “one size fits all” approach will not work!

**Notes:**
I’ll talk about specific projects the NETN is undertaking in a minute, but first I’d like to briefly review some of the key audiences for inventory and monitoring information.

Some of our audiences are pictured here.  They include the general public, school groups, park staff, cooperators and scientific researchers, and potentially even high-ranking government officials and members of Congress.

In general, our goal with all of these audiences is to provide monitoring results and program information in a way that encourages resource protection and illustrates the importance of a sound long-term monitoring program.

But because each of these audiences has different interests, a “one size fits all” approach will not work.

## Working with Park Staff and Volunteers

- Annual park presentations
-  An interactive opportunity for the parks to ask questions and provide feedback
-  Timed to coincide with start of season
-  Update parks on status of current work
-  Give park staff current information for use in their activities
-  Let volunteers see the impact of their work
- Annual network newsletter
-  Update on network accomplishments and future plans
-  Also suitable for network and park cooperators

- Science communication specialist
-  POC for most park staff who have questions about the NETN
-  Will be familiar to park staff through annual presentations

**Notes:**
Two of our most important audiences are park staff and volunteers, because these are the people who use monitoring information to guide management activities, get the word out to the general public, and provide valuable assistance to our monitoring efforts.

Starting this year, our science communication specialist, Theresa Moore, will begin giving presentations for staff and volunteers at each network park.  These programs will be near the start of the park’s visitor season so that seasonal employees can attend.  They will describe park-specific and network-wide inventory and monitoring results, and introduce participants to the network and its ongoing activities.  In addition to giving park staff current information and letting volunteers see the impact of their work, these presentations will encourage feedback that will help the network integrate more closely with park activities and needs.

After the programs, we hope to continue dialogue with park staff and volunteers by having Theresa serve as the point of contact for general inquiries, while technical inquiries will continue to go to the network coordinator and data manager.

We will also continue publishing our network newsletter, which is designed to give park staff, volunteers, and cooperators periodic information about what the network has accomplished and our future plans.

## Involving Educational Groups

- MABI Civic Engagement Grant
-  Developing a lesson plan and program to involve middle/high school groups in forest amphibian monitoring
-  Groups will place and check cover objects collocated with NETN forest plots
-  Potential to expand to other NETN parks

- ACAD and BOHA Rocky Intertidal Monitoring
-  NETN will begin developing a rocky
- intertidal protocol in FY2007
-  Monitoring will involve college invertebrate
- zoology classes
- Volunteer Data Reports
-  School groups and other volunteers will
- receive reports summarizing the data they collect, as well as information about how their data fits into the larger monitoring effort and program

**Notes:**
The NETN is also working to include local educational groups in our communication efforts, because these groups will be assisting us with our monitoring work.

We are currently collaborating with Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP to involve local middle and high school groups in monitoring forest amphibians.  We will be developing a lesson plan and protocol for placing cover objects near NETN forest monitoring plots.  These cover objects will be checked by school groups as part of the network forest condition protocol.

We will begin developing a rocky intertidal monitoring protocol in FY2007, and our intention is to use college invertebrate zoology classes to conduct monitoring at Acadia and Boston Harbor Islands.

School groups and volunteers for these and other projects will receive reports that summarize the data that they collect for the network, plus information about how their data fits into the larger monitoring program.  Reports like these are an important part of ensuring that volunteers feel valued for the contributions that they make.

## Reaching the Public

- Work with park staff to develop public brochures that
-  Present key inventory results
-  Describe monitoring plans
-  Annual updates on monitoring efforts
- Benefits of public brochures
-  Educate the public
-  Increase the visibility of the I&M program
-  Increase collaboration with park interpretive staff

- Web site
-  Will be updating for more general appeal to the public
-  RSS News feed on web site provides updates to subscribers interested in NETN activities

**Notes:**
We are also working with the parks to reach the general public.  Our main avenue for this work, in addition to direct interaction with park staff, is working with parks to produce public brochures.  These brochures will present key inventory results, describe monitoring plans, or provide updates on monitoring efforts.  These publications will help to educate the public about the monitoring program and its results, and also help to integrate the I&M program into park operations.

In addition, we hope to refocus a portion of our web site to be more accessible and attractive to the general public.  This may include on-line versions of publications, summaries of key findings, and spatially explicit map documents (e.g., ArcReader files) that can be explored by interested individuals.  We are also exploring newer technologies, such as RSS news feeds, that allow subscribers to keep current on recent network news without actually visiting the web site.

## Assisting Park Managers

- Scorecard Reports
-  Annual data summaries with minimal data analysis
-  Presents current status of resources for key metrics and indices
-  Compares change from previous year and since monitoring inception
-  Spatially explicit maps for indices and key metrics

- Trend Analyses
-  Periodic (3-5 years) reports analyzing spatial and temporal trends in metrics
-  Highlights specific problem areas and presents estimates of uncertainty

**Notes:**
Park managers are probably our most important audience; most of our official programmatic goals relate to provide information that managers can use to make sound decisions.

NETN is working to meet the information needs of resource managers in several ways.  We will be producing park-specific scorecard reports every spring that provide basic resource status information derived from the previous year’s monitoring efforts.  These reports will include data summaries and comparisons with previous data summaries, as well as spatially explicit maps of key metrics or indicators.  The reports will discuss any trends and potential problems the network was able to detect, and will serve as a spring board for further discussions with resource managers.

We will also produce periodic trend analyses that will analyze spatial and temporal patterns in important metrics and vital signs.  These reports will highlight specific problem areas and present estimates of uncertainty.

## Assisting Park Managers

- Dashboard Applications
-  An interactive data exploration tool
-  Increasingly popular in the business community
-  Allows managers to view summary information, and explore data in depth using an intuitive user interface

**Notes:**
We are particularly excited about a new technology called “dashboards” or “executive dashboards”.  These interactive data exploration tools have become increasingly popular in the business community.  A dashboard allow managers to view current data in a summary form, and then interactively explore the information (or not) as their interests and needs dictate.  In the example shown here, a user 
<click>
clicked on the button associated with forest condition, and eventually reached a plot showing the relationship between the network’s forest health index and the average tree diameter on a plot.  Interactive tools like this will help managers find and understand the information they need much more effectively than a written report could.

## Providing for Specialized Needs

- Provide advice and support for data summaries and reports that facilitate resource management:
-  Generating reports for park resource management activities
-  Specialized analyses to provide baseline information for management actions
-  Working with parks to document progress towards GPRA land health goals

**Notes:**
NETN will also work with parks to provide advice and support for a wide range of data summaries and reports that will facilitate resource management activities.  This could include:
Generating reports for park resource management activities.
Specialized analyses of monitoring data aimed at providing baseline information for specific management actions.
Working with parks to provide reports documenting progress towards GPRA land health goals.  The graphics here are described in more detail on NETN’s poster, but the basic idea is that NETN’s forest monitoring data can be used to report the percentage of habitat that meets the park’s upland health GPRA goal.  The network can not only provide a summary report of progress towards the GPRA goals, but we can also help the park analyze the data and determine appropriate steps needed to meet park goals.

## Know your audience

- Design your communication strategy around providing appropriate information that
-  Helps the audience
-  Supports I&M program goals
- Effective communication is
-  Tailored to the audience
-  Interactive
- The extra effort and cost pays off with
-  Park buy-in
-  Public support
-  Volunteer involvement
-  Positive feedback from administrators
-  Protected natural resources
- All of these things are essential to the long-term survival of the I&M program!

- Conclusions

**Notes:**
To sum up, I’d like to reiterate the importance of knowing your audience.  At the Northeast Temperate Network, we strive to focus our communications around providing information that our audiences are interested in, and that also supports inventory and monitoring program goals.  We believe that, in order to be effective, communication must be tailored to the audience and interactive whenever possible.  This can require considerable extra effort, but we believe the work pays off with enhanced support from the parks and the public, happier and more involved volunteers, positive feedback from administrators, and protected natural resources.
All of these things are essential to the long-term survival of the inventory and monitoring program.

- Theresa Mau-Crimmins, SODN

## Communication Mechanisms

- Communications Specialist
- Quarterly newsletter
- Technical Report Series
- Interpretive Documents
- Website materials
- Handouts/flyers/brochures

## Slide 23

## Slide 24

## Slide 26

## Slide 27

## Slide 28

## Slide 29

- Shawn Carter, NCRN

## Slide 31

## Slide 32

## Slide 33

## Effective management requires knowledge of within park variations - ANTI

| Site |  | pH |  | DO (mg/L) | NO3- (mg/L) | PO43- (mg/L) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Haines Farm |  | 7.12 |  | 5.50 | 5.60 | 0.20 |
| Miller Farm |  | 7.17 |  | 8.48 | 8.70 | 0.21 |
| Newcomer Farm |  | 7.91 |  | 8.86 | 2.90 | 0.14 |
| Above Pond |  | 7.96 |  | 8.16 | 5.60 | 0.23 |
| Mumma pasture |  | 7.87 |  | 8.92 | 5.40 | 0.26 |
| Mumma house |  | 7.11 |  | 5.10 | 7.70 | 0.17 |
| Threshold |  | 6.5-9.0 |  | >5.5 | <10 | <0.1 |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

- Values are annual medians for 2003
- Thresholds = EPA nutrient standards summary

## Water quality health comparison within ANTI

| Site |  | pH |  | DO (mg/L) |  | NO3- (mg/L) | PO43- (mg/L) | Summary Water quality |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Haines Farm |  | 1 |  | 0 |  | 1 | 0 | 0.5 |
| Miller Farm |  | 1 |  | 1 |  | 1 | 0 | 0.75 |
| Newcomer Farm |  | 1 |  | 1 |  | 1 | 0 | 0.75 |
| Above Pond |  | 1 |  | 1 |  | 1 | 0 | 0.75 |
| Mumma pasture |  | 1 |  | 1 |  | 1 | 0 | 0.75 |
| Mumma house |  | 1 |  | 0 |  | 1 | 0 | 0.5 |
| Threshold |  | 6.5-9.0 |  | >5.5 |  | <10 | <0.1 |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

## Water quality health comparison within ANTI

| Site |  | Summary Water quality |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Haines Farm |  | 0.5 |
| Miller Farm |  | 0.75 |
| Newcomer Farm |  | 0.75 |
| Above Pond |  | 0.75 |
| Mumma pasture |  | 0.75 |
| Mumma house |  | 0.5 |
|  |  |  |

- 0.00 attained no water quality criteria
- 0.25
- 0.50
- 0.75
- 1.00 attained all water quality criteria

## Slide 37

## Slide 38

## Slide 40

## Educational outreach and research collaboration at Great Smoky Mountains National Park 

## Outreach and Collaboration

- The All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI)
- More traditional ongoing collaborative research

## What is an ATBI?

- All species groups in a geographical area:
- What species are here?
- What are the distributions?
- What are the relative abundances?
- Associated ecological information (e.g., what are species interactions? Seasonality?)

- Order Diptera
- Family Otitidae
- picture-winged flies

## How is the ATBI organized?

- Discover Life in America, Inc.
- Partnership with NPS
- Private, non-profit organization
- Scientists, educators, citizens, artists, photographers, etc.
- Develops new partnerships
- Secures, leverages, and distributes non-NPS funds (majority of effort through donation of in-kind research)
- TWIGS

## TWIGS (Taxonomic Working Groups)

- Viruses, Bacteria
- Protists
- Fungi
- Plants
- Parasites
- Mollusks, Annelids, Crustaceans
- Nematodes
- Vertebrates
- Hemiptera
- Spiders

- Mites, ticks, fleas, lice
- Coleoptera, Strepsiptera
- Lepidoptera
- Diptera
- Hymenoptera
- Aquatic Insect Orders
- Apterygotes
- Neuroptera, Mecoptera, Psocoptera, Zoraptera, Thysanoptera, Embioptera, Orthopteroids

## Other benefits of an ATBI:

- Baseline data for future monitoring
- Scientific advancement in ecology, biology, etc.
- Education/citizen involvement focused on biodiversity
- Develop taxonomic expertise and resources
- Better understanding of potential impacts

## ATBI Species Tally

- New to Science:
**565**

- New to Park:
**3,572**

## Slide 48

## ATBI Annual Meeting 2005

## www.dlia.org

## Slide 51

- www.dlia.org

## Slide 53

## Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center (Purchase Knob)

## Status of ‘All Species’ Inventories in the Continental U.S. 

**Status of ‘All Species’ Inventories in the Continental U.S. **
**as of May, 2005**

## Collaboration and Data Sharing GRSM I&M Program

- University of Tennessee
- University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- Tennessee Technological University
- University of Florida
- Western Carolina University
- Michigan Technological University
- Clemson University
- Other universities, agencies, international cooperators.

## Dogwood and Fire

## Dogwood and Fire?

**Density (stems/ha)**

- Holzmueller et al. (In prep.)

## Slide 59