Since 2001, The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) has been working with the National Park Service to inventory and monitor bird populations in the parks of the Pacific Northwest, including Mount Rainier National Park. Each summer a team of IBP field technicians will hike hundreds of miles and use their eyes–but mostly their ears–to count birds at specific, mostly off-trail, locations that are surveyed year after year. IBP has conducted over 12,000 point counts in total, collectively hiking over 10,000 miles.
But what's the goal of this epic effort? The data gathered are used to track the abundance and distribution of bird species as part of the National Park Service's Inventory and Monitoring Program. The Inventory and Monitoring Program is an effort to "gather and analyze information on specific park natural resources—the plants, animals, and ecosystems that can indicate the overall biological health of parks" and use this information to make better management decisions. IBP scientists also analyze the collected data and have published six peer-reviewed scientific papers based on this data. Recent papers show that despite widespread declines in North American birds, populations of birds in Pacific Northwest parks are stable or increasing–further evidence that protected habitats like national parks are critical for conservation.
___ Mandy Holmgren photos of IBP field work in a variety of terrain at Mount Rainier National Park and a Mountain Bluebird. ~kl
