Great Lakes Landbird Monitoring Data Package by the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network

The Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network coordinates landbird monitoring in nine national park units. A standardized protocol published in 2010 and implemented across the Great Lakes Network parks allows for regional comparisons while still giving parks the freedom to analyze and identify trends within their boundaries. The overall goal of this protocol is to improve the consistency, comparability, quality, and access to landbird monitoring data being collected each year by network parks. To accomplish this, we: develop and use a standardized sampling method that is flexible enough to fit the unique sampling challenges at each park but still yield data that are comparable across parks and can be integrated at regional and national levels; develop and integrate quality control measures such as training and certification for observers; provide an online database for storage and retrieval of data; periodically analyze the data and report the findings to park managers through the NPS report series and resource briefs; and publish datasets, data packages, reports, and resource briefs to the NPS Integrated Resource Management Applications (IRMA) DataStore (https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/).