The North Coast & Cascades Science Learning Network

Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change. In this video we meet Dr. Jon Riedel, lead glaciologist at North Cascades National Park. Jon shows how he monitors glaciers and explains his reasons for doing so.

Although Northwest national parks are great for recreation they are also living laboratories offering great opportunities for science. A law passed by Congress in 1998 established a system of Inventory & Monitoring in which the parks collaborate together to monitor ecosystem health year after year. This film features Park Service scientists and staff explaining their vision of the parks.

This "Science Minute Video" shows Park Service scientists at Mount Rainier National Park checking on the health of trees. As part of the Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program, each year they hike to remote plots to monitor trees and look for impacts caused by weather, age, or disease.

This "Science Minute Video" shows staff and students from Fort Vancouver and the NW Cultural Resources Institute Archaeological Field School doing field work. Dr. Doug Wilson explains the work and the reasons why it's important.

Klondike Gold Rush Seattle is a historical site dedicated to preserving and interpreting the role of Seattle in the historic events of the 1890's. This "Science Minute Video" explains the preservation of a historical treasure at Klondike Gold Rush (Seattle) and features the Park Service scientists who work with these materials.

This five-minute video features staff at Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve explaining how they preserve and protect a historic cultural landscape.

Most carnivores need larger areas to roam than plant-eating animals. Discovering their numbers and distribution over the landscape is the work of carnivore monitoring. Roger Christophersen from North Cascades National Park explains how park scientists monitor carnivores using hair snares, motion detection cameras, and DNA analysis.

This five-minute film shows Mount Rainier and North Cascades glacier scientists explaining how they monitor park glaciers and why they do so. Glaciers are important water sources for fish, recreation, and hydropower and they're melting fast.

Exotic plant invaders are a big problem in the National Parks. This five-minute film highlights the efforts to control exotic invasive plants at Lewis & Clark National Historical Park. Resource Management specialist Carla Cole explains how this is done and why she loves this work.

National Parks are required to "preserve and protect" all the natural and cultural resources within their boundaries. So what DO the parks contain? This four-minute video shows Park Service scientists making the newest and most advanced vegetation map of park resources to date. This map will be baseline data showing what is here now... for use in comparisons as climate changes.