Oregon State University-Cascades researchers will analyze National Park Service data to figure out the ecological health and resilience of national parks, thanks to a $2 million grant the university has received from the federal agency.
The data will be sent to OSU-Cascades analysts by hundreds of National Park Service scientists across thousands of projects at more than 280 national parks, a designation that also includes historic sites like battlefields, national preserves and monuments.
Matt Shinderman, a senior natural resources instructor at OSU-Cascades, will run the five-year project through the Human Ecosystem Resilience and Sustainability Lab, which he founded and co-directs.
Collaborations between the National Park Service and the HERS Lab, which applies science in support of federal and state natural resource management agencies, date to 2016.
“Our existing relationship with the Park Service gave their staff the confidence that this would be a good partnership,” Shinderman told the Source Weekly. “I think what we’re demonstrating is that we can be a really effective partner for federal agencies at low cost.”
These savings are afforded by the HERS Lab’s use of a specific tool called the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units.
“These partnerships help agencies achieve outcomes that might be challenging on their own with existing budgets,” Shinderman said.
HERS Lab analysts will work with National Park Service scientists who track resources considered ecological bellwethers for a particular region. These canaries in the proverbial coalmine might be sage grouse populations or a particular endangered plant species, for example.
“There are certain species that are really important indicators of the health of a particular park,” Shinderman said.
The HERS Lab has previously worked with the National Park Service on studies throughout the Pacific Northwest on persistence and extinction risks facing park natural resources.
Shinderman and his team say it’s too soon to know whether Central Oregon national parks, such as Crater Lake or the John Day Fossil Beds, will be analyzed.
“The idea is to provide park managers with the best information possible to steward national parks and resources,” Shinderman said in a press release. “It’s also to build a body of knowledge that can be helpful to land managers, conservation practitioners and policy makers confronting widespread threats to native biodiversity in our national parks.”
The grant will allow OSU-Cascades to hire three or four research analysts for the project. Two will bring deep experience with statistical analysis, particularly that of natural resources, he added. One new hire will be an early-career analyst.
This article appears in Source Weekly April 17, 2025.
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