National Parks, Naturally

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Parks Canadas EI Monitoring Program Update on
Science and Management Challenges Donald McLennan
and Stephen Woodley
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Responsibilities National Parks

• 42 national parks representing 28 of 39 natural
  regions
• 292,000 sq kms

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Responsibilities Marine Conservation Areas

• 2 marine conservation areas representing 2 of
  29 natural marine regions

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Responsibilities National Historic Sites

• 912 national historic sites
• 153 administered by Parks
• Canada including 9 historic canals

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Ecological integrity

• With respect to a park, a condition that is
  determined to be characteristic of its natural
  region and likely to persist, including abiotic
  components and the composition and abundance of
  native species and biological communities, rates
  of change and supporting processes

National Parks Act, May 2000
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Ad Hoc Monitoring EraExample Fragmentation -
species and roads
As road density outside parks increases, road
density inside parks increases, so native species
and biodiversity decrease, but exotic species
increase
Correlation coefficients between species change
and human activity Significant at ?0.05 Exotic
vertebrates Extirpated and vascular plants
vertebrates In park Road density 0.732
0.818 Visitors/sq.km 0.477 0.830
human-dominated 0.461 0.348 landscape In
region Road density 0.583 0.712 Population/sq.km
0.630 0.868 human-dominated 0.580
0.544 landscape
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Comprehensive EI MonitoringKey Monitoring
Questions
What is the state of park EI?
What are we doing to improve it?
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Management Challenges for Monitoring

• Mission creep
• Working in a matrix
• Connecting to management systems
• Developing management literacy
• Developing public literacy
• Connected information systems
• Money

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Mission Creep
State of Ecological Integrity
State of Ecological Integrity State of Visitor
Experience State of Public Education State of
Cultural Resources
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Working in the matrix - regional integration and
partnerships. Whos Standards????

• Answer
• Always work to common systems and data
  standards
• push for technically creative solutions
• be a standards setter
• accommodate local where possible

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Longevity Being Part of Management Systems
Park Management Plan
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Developing Management Literacy

• 1. Ongoing Engagement
• Monitoring Task team
• Bioregional meetings
• Newsletters
• Executive Board Briefings
• 2. Accountability documents
• Corporate Plan
• Business Plan Call Letter
• Management Plans / Business Plans
• Getting to 2008
• Monitoring Guidelines
• 3. Being clear and understandable
• Red, yellow and green
• 4. Being part of a solution - solutions not
  problems

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Developing Public Literacy

• State of Parks Reports not on line
• State of Protected Heritage Areas on line
• Biotics - on line
• Management Actions Reporting
• - Action on the Ground
• Science on Interpretation Programs
• - Why is this place protected
• - Part of a protected area system
• - What are the challenges to protecting this
  place

Move up to larger and bigger media Life in a
stump does not make it anymore
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Connected Information Systems

• Observations
• Data
• Data analysis
• Data standards
• Qa/Qc
• Public Information

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Standards and Common Language! les normes et la
langue commune
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No one system will solve all our data
management concerns
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Light Brown under development
Dark Brown In Place
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NatureServes Member Programs the Network in
2004
US Virgin Islands
Parks Canada Acts as a CDC
54 U.S. programs 8 Canadian programs 13 Latin
American / Caribbean programs
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(No Transcript)
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EI Monitoring Information Management System
(MIMS)
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Project/Measure Leader
Home Query Report
Drop down to ecosystem indicator table (many)
Year of Data Measure Rational (open text) Measure
Leader Name Financial Info Partners (all the
other MSD for a project/measure) UPLOAD DATA,
PROTOCOL, METADATA etc
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Is the park losing species?
Assessing species loss Green no species lost in
the last 20 years Yellow 1-3 species lost in
the last 20 years Red - gt 3 species lost in the
last 20 years Justification Lee et al 2005
Index of Species Loss
Protocol Assessing Species Loss Determined by
repeat measures on vascular plants using transect
surveys.etc.
Assessment Rules Index Rules
Protocols how, what, when, where, who
Measures 1. Bird diversity. 2. Salamander
diversity 3. Vascular transects
Park or Ecosystem Model
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Check list for success

• Internal house in order
• scientific review of protocols,models,
  thresholds, indexes
• from indicators to data information management
  system
• managers engaged with bioregional teams
• Standard operating manuals in place
• Public access
• SOP reports, program elements on the Web
• fact sheets on indicators and results
• transparency in indicator development, public
  input
• interpretation is engaged - early

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Check list for success 2

• Connecting to management
• indicators have clear place management plans
• close cooperation with public education and
  experience
• accessible desktop information for managers/staff
• Information is used and wanted
• Corporate
• on time / on budget
• clear trail for CESD
• help CEO report to Treasury Board, Minister
• Connected to SOPHA Ministers Round Table

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Getting to2008 annual report