Empowering visitors to identify and study nature in US National Parks

John Pickering, Elizabeth L. Skillen & Kevin Weick

Proposal to NBII and NPS

Under development -- Draft 20 February, 2003 -- Please do not cite.

Summary
To promote stewardship of our public lands we must empower our citizens with the ability to indentify the myriad biodiversity contained in our National Parks. For the first time in history, with the innovation of Web-based technology, we can work together on a global scale to study our natural world. We can collect and disseminate the biological knowledge that society needs to reduce human disease, increase agricultural production, control destructive invasive species, protect endangered ones, and enjoy rather than struggle with nature. Here we propose to implement and evaluate new technology that allows citizens to participate in discovery, collect valuable data, and help land managers in our National Parks.

Discover Life showcases state-of-the-art technical solutions. Its simple interface and powerful tools users (4th grade and up) to (1) identify species, (2) report population distribution, abundance, and other findings, and (3) make essential biological information accessible to everyone in real time. Discover Life's IDnature Guides let non-experts identify species, map and report their observations, and access and assemble information from across the Web. Its Global Map Browser, developed in partnership with Topozone.com, is a simple but sophisticated way to build and see world maps of plant and animal distributions. These maps interact with information in huge databases, such as the Missouri Botanical Garden's, and with reports submitted via the Web by students, citizens, and professional biologists alike.

Here we propose to develop and evaluate a program that enables citizens to identify the diversity of life found in our National Parks and assist Park personnel in managing our country's natural resources through better technology. In Phase I of the proposed work, we plan to target Parks that are involved or proposing All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories (ATBI) and work with existing partners devoted to involving citizens in the stewardship of our National Parks. The proposed work includes: (1) developing IDnature guides for 2,000 species of critical concern to our National Parks, (2) provide a database and mapping system for the 25,000 most important species to the National Parks, (3) create a reporting system for Park managers, (4) train Park personnel on new technologies, (5) create means to check, evaluate and quality control the data collected, and (6) evaluate the impacts of these technologies on citizen concern for biodiversity and improved management through better technologies.

In later phases, we intend to include all National Parks in the program. Furthermore, based on what we learn in Phase I, we intend to apply the technology to other biological problems and extend its use around the world. For our 10-year goals, please see The Polistes Foundation's Business Plan.

Critical to citizen monitoring programs are checks on data quality. During Phase I we plan to establish testing and recording protocols to assess data quality. We have on staff a PhD Ecologist that can train Park personnel in using the Web tools and design testing protocols for assessing data quality. The dual benefit of this project as an educational and management tool cannot be understated. Stewardship of our natural resources begins with understanding the complexity of our natural world. At The Polistes Foundation we have the tools to make the natural world more accessible.

• National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)
• National Park Service (NPS)
• The Polistes Foundation

Partners

• All Species Foundation
• Balsam Mountain Trust
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park's All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory
• Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and Peabody Museum
• Missouri Botanical Garden
• Nature Mapping
• NatureServe
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
• Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program
• Topozone.com
• US Department of Agriculture's Bee Lab
• US Forest Service in Georgia
• US National Council for Science and the Environment
• US Geological Survey

Planned Project Duration
This is phase I of efforts to empower citizens with tools to identify biodiversity in National Parks and provide Park personnel better tools with which to manage our natural resources. The project is expected to continue for five years.

1. Identification guides
   We propose to develop Web-based IDnature Guides for 2,000 species of critical concern to each of our National Parks. We will begin with guides to birds, trees, amphibians and other charismatic fauna and flora such as butterflies or pest species of management concern. The need for further guide construction would be decided by Park managers to meet individual Park needs.

2. Web-based tools to report & map biodiversity
   We will use our state-of-the-art identification and reporting tools, IDnature Guides, in concert with our mapping system, Global Map Browser, to provide data on the 25,000 most important species to the National Parks. Through our partnership with Topozone.com, we can include some 17 million topographic maps to georeference data important to Park managers. This database includes aerial photographs covering 89% of the US as well. While we have the capablity to georeference the entire US, we will concentrate on the National Parks as a first priority.

3. Databasing
   With our existing tools, we will develop a data reporting system that can be sent to National Park data headquarters in Denver and to Park managers in all Parks. The data collected via the reporting system may be disseminated monthly or in the case of endangered species or others of critical concern can be reported to Park managers in real time via email.

4. Train Park Personel
   In the first year we will concentrate on Parks that are involved in or proposing All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories (ATBI) including Point Reyes National Seashore, Great Smoky Mountains, Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park's. We propose to have a training meeting in Athens, GA for these four Parks. In the second year, we plan to conduct training sessions, in each of the seven NPS regions and expand participation to two parks from each region. In the third year, we will expand training to include all National Parks.

5. Evaluate data quality
   Critical to citizen monitoring programs are checks on data quality. During Phase I we plan to establish testing and recording protocols to assess data quality. Specifically, we will have trained staff members collect data in areas where citizens have previously surveyed. Further, we can have multiple data collection by citizens to compare data quality between non-experts as well. Thus, we can establish a baseline of data quality between groups and between experts and non-experts. This approach will provide crucial information for utilizing citizen data.

6. Evaluation
   Evaluate our progress. We will have on staff a PhD ecologist and MS graduate student to verify the data quality of the guide building. Database management will be under the guidence of a 25 year veteran of computer programming. We will consult park managers for feedback on how to improve the program as we progress.

• Sun Microsystems $200,000 -- Computer Equipment

Products

1. Create IDnature Guides for 2,000 species of critical concern to each of our National Parks. This work will expand existing guides of common North American butterflies, moths, bumblebees, catepillars, and wildflowers.

2. Develop state-of-the-art reporting tools on the 25,000 most important species to the National Parks.

3. Maps of participating National Parks indicating presence of critical species accessible via the Global Map Browser.

Delivery Date

• July 1, 2004 - Phase I - Trees