RCN Participant: Christie L. Hendrix

Yellowstone National Park is the proud host of over 200 research studies annually. The Research Permit Office is tasked with issuing permits to researchers who conduct scientific studies in a variety of disciplines. We are also responsible for monitoring the fieldwork associated with scientific studies and ensuring that it does not negatively affect park resources or conflict with any other park goals or missions. The Research Permit Office also works to promote scientific study in the park, as well as collect and appropriately disseminate the results of park-related scientific inquiry.

Current interests include the promotion of the Greater Yellowstone Science Learning Center (GYSLC). The GYSLC is a partnership between Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Bighorn Canyon national parks, the Greater Yellowstone I&M Network, and the Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. Its purpose is to build stronger relations with scientists and better communicate science results to interested park audiences.

The hub of the Learning Center is its web page that disseminates information about a number of resource topics in one place. The web-enabled Learning Center concept is founded in the belief that all internet-using members of the public, from university researchers to primary school students, should be able to access the vast amounts of scientific information that exist about Yellowstone park resources, appropriate to their self-selected level of technical sophistication. Some of the goals of the GYSLC are not unlike those of the RCN. The GYSLC web site was launched to the public in June 2008. It is now the central location where all researchers can find information on research permits. Please check out the website at www.greateryellowstonescience.org.

We have also developed a new web-based check-in procedure for field work. Researchers are no longer required to call park rangers and inform them of their field activities. Today, researchers can file their field itineraries online-trip information is distributed to park rangers weekly. For more information about the new check-in procedure, please contact the Research Office at 307-344-2234. The new online check-in form can be found at www.greateryellowstonescience.org/yell/research/checkin.