Taking the Pulse of the Mountain: Large-scale Inventories
Streams, wetlands, forests, meadows, and wildlife—none of these important mountain denizens know or care where we chose to draw our jurisdictional lines. As such, it makes sense to do large-scale monitoring, inventories, and surveys of these resources collaboratively and across boundaries.
Mt. Tamalpais’ land managing agencies have widely varying amounts of information on these vital resources. Critical knowledge gaps exist, and by working together through One Tam, large-scale inventories and monitoring can fill these gaps and address outstanding questions in a more efficient manner.
A comprehensive, big-picture view of the mountain’s resources will allow managers to prioritize restoration and protection efforts and allocate resources in new ways. It will help them to plan for shifts in hydrology, habitats, and wildlife as a result of climate change, and understand, measure, and track crucial ecosystem services like water filtration, pollination, and carbon storage. It will also provide a benchmark by which to measure the impacts of restoration and stewardship work.
Our Peak Health effort shows how this information comes together to form a bigger picture.
Examples of such inventories and monitoring programs include, but are not limited to:
