YellowstoneNET: Preventative Ecosystem Health Care through Monitoring and Forecasting for Yellowstone and all its Citizens
2020 was a year we’ll never forget. We were all very concerned about health issues, what to believe in or not, and what might lay ahead. The Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC) is similarly concerned about those in our Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and its water, wildlife, and working landscapes—all the natural amenities we rely upon for our own health and well-being. And that’s why we have just launched our YellowstoneNET program as a way for everyone to engage as concerned citizens, conservation stewards, and the scientists we are. YellowstoneNET is a network of people involved in community science that can access incredible amounts of information on ecosystems using an internet platform called EPIIC (Ecosystem Prognosis, Impacts, and Information Cooperative)—an Internet of Nature’s Things. It also delivers datastreams, diagnostics, planning tools, and forecasts from our three programs (RiverNET, LandNET, and WildNET) and data from many other sources including academia, agencies, and corporations.
YERC is one of many organizations that seeks to protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. However, we are different, very different. We are taking several unique approaches to not just protect Yellowstone but sustain a healthy ecosystem for future generations of all species using Yellowstone as an open lab for the world. We now seek to put our science to work and YellowstoneNET is a novel way to do just that.
First, while seeking to understand how ecosystems work through traditional research, YellowstoneNET also ingests the essential diagnostics from long-term monitoring projects in Yellowstone. Like the results of a panel of serum parameters from your doctor, these diagnostics form the basis for a preventative health care plan that leads to sustained health. They are also used for what scientists call predictive modeling—projections and forecasts so we can not only maintain a resilient ‘well-normal state’ for our ecosystems but also make informed decisions for restoration and recovery as needed. Such forecasts (prognostics from diagnostics) are similar to how weather forecasting services offer 36-hour and weekly forecasts as well as access to historical trends. What actions would we take if we knew that the Madison river is going to warm 5 degrees in the coming week, if bison will likely be leaving Yellowstone Park tomorrow, or if grizzly bears will be seeking new food sources at riskier lower elevations ?
Second, YellowstoneNET provides valuable information in an independent, non-advocacy, non-partisan, and transparent manner which is badly needed during an epidemic of misinformation, polarization, and distrust. Whether an advocacy organization, agency, business, academic, or landowner, we all need access to the same data so we can make informed decisions, prevent problems, and forge successful conservation strategies. YellowstoneNET also uses protocols that are standardized, transparent, repeatable, and defensible. These attributes along with a community of individuals and organizations working together to bear witness to the collection of data will improve trust in the application of those data to solve problems.
Third, due to the unprecedented and unpredictable changes in climate, politics, and human land-use activities we need this trusted information—health diagnostics and prognosis—in a timely manner. We provide fast turnaround of our datastreams so that we can simultaneously adapt to change while building trust by working together in our community science approach. They say the “truth is out there” and YellowstoneNET, a People’s Science, can be the gateway to understanding and discovery in the Yellowstone ecosystem.
Since the organization's inception in 1993, YERC has been conducting long-term research and monitoring projects to provide the public with unbiased scientific information on the ecological health and integrity of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We are free from the time constraints placed on many research projects by the duration of short-term degree programs. Rather we focus on the scale of ecosystems where 10,000 year old rivers flow and 40 year-old grizzlies have untold stories. Furthermore, while YERC strives to be a useful member of the scientific community, the "end users'' of our programs are primarily members of the broader communities within the GYE. From farmers to fishermen, businesses to biologists, and politicians to poets, YERC's programs focus on providing data to anyone who cares about this famous landscape and our home ecosystem. We all want healthy trout and elk populations, migrating birds, clean water, fresh air, healthy soils, and the ability for our plant communities to bounce-back after a fire, flood, or disease outbreak.
During the Envision Yellowstone summit in 2017, private industry thought leaders from across the continent helped YERC transform its data-producing projects into three distinct programs: RiverNET, WildNET, and LandNET. Yet, the impact of these programs is limited unless we find a better way to engage the community and deliver critical ecological information where needed. YellowstoneNET is that engagement and delivery platform. All stakeholders can access and interact with datastreams from natural living systems (biodiversity), which is both a missing and powerful component of the effort to sustain a healthy GYE.
YellowstoneNET does three primary things:
aggregate unbiased ecological data from RiverNET, WildNET, LandNET, and other publicly available sources,
provide open-access to that data via a cloud based platform, EPIIC
and involve a community of shareholders in data collection through citizen science initiatives
allows YellowstoneNET users to use a vast array of tools for intelligent decision-making, preventive health care of our landscapes and watershed, “what if” scenario building for planning and exploring the possibilities, and forecasts of what’s ahead
As a scientific organization, YERC recognizes that policy, practices, and management affecting the natural resources of ecological systems should be based on trusted empirical measurements. However, the events of 2020 exposed the reality that data alone holds little influence without trust. At its core YellowstoneNET is an effort to engage the community with ecological data in a way that builds trust. Community- and citizen-science initiatives, a central feature of YellowstoneNET, transcend the agendas of industry and advocacy groups, both real and perceived. Stakeholders learn to trust the data in EPIIC because they helped collect it. YERC's positioning as a conduit of unbiased information bolsters the work of stakeholders to become involved shareholders in Yellowstone’s health. Regional advocacy organizations need factual input for their campaigns. Policy-makers need factual information to make decisions. Businesses both small and large that rely upon ecosystem amenities such as plant production and quality recreation need sustained income from stable, resilient landscapes.
Yellowstone is one of our planet's iconic ecosystems, and has long been a laboratory for influential ecological research projects and global conservation efforts. With your support we have completed the architectural design phase of YellowstoneNET and are now in the construction phase with code-writing, realtime data downloads, data sharing tools, predictive models, analysis and summary capabilities, and user-specific mobile applications. We thank the many supporters and collaborators for pioneering this very unique program and hope you all can support this effort in the year just ahead. We hope what we learn from YellostoneNET can spread the benefits of trusted unbiased data, open access, and community involvement to ecosystems around the world.