Wild Heart of the Continent: Biodiversity in North America’s National Parks

In Redwood forests, epiphyte gardens high in the canopy hold ferns, mosses, and salamanders, while nurse logs on the forest floor host seedlings, fungi, and insects. Biodiversity thrives from tree crowns to hidden microhabitats underfoot.

Icons and Invisibles: Species You Might Miss

Habitats Across the Map

On Olympic’s rocky shores, starfish, anemones, and hermit crabs reveal survival tricks between waves. Watch your step, time your visit to low tide, and you’ll see miniature dramas playing out in sunlit pools teeming with color and motion.

Restoration and Comebacks

Reintroduced in 1995, wolves curbed overbrowsing and reshaped entire valleys. Cottonwoods returned, beavers built wetlands, and songbirds found new habitat. One bold conservation step sparked a cascade benefiting creatures from insects to fish to elk.

Restoration and Comebacks

After dam removal in Olympic National Park, sediment rebuilt beaches and salmon surged upstream. Bald eagles gathered over new spawning runs, and riverbanks greened with seedlings. When a river breathes again, the whole watershed inhales with it.

Restoration and Comebacks

In Sequoia and Kings Canyon, prescribed burns clear thick undergrowth and release sequoia seeds from cones. In the right season and weather, cool, low-intensity fire reduces fuel, enriches soil, and creates sunny gaps where young trees can rise.

Pressures and Protections

Yellowstone Lake’s nonnative lake trout hammer native cutthroat, rippling impacts to bears and eagles. White-nose syndrome decimates bat colonies across eastern parks. Boot cleaning stations and angler awareness campaigns help stop hitchhiking pathogens and pests.

Pressures and Protections

Earlier blooms, shrinking snowpacks, and retreating glaciers reshuffle park calendars. Wildlife shifts uphill or poleward seeking cool refuge. Managers map climate corridors and protect microhabitats, giving species stepping stones to follow changing seasons safely.

Be Part of the Story

Join a bioblitz, upload photos to iNaturalist, or log bird sightings on eBird. Your observations help scientists map species, track migrations, and spot changes early. Subscribe for event updates and share your favorite finds with our community.

Be Part of the Story

Stay on durable trails, clean mud from boots, and never transport firewood between parks. Pack out microtrash, give wildlife space, and secure food. Thoughtful choices today keep delicate habitats intact for tomorrow’s curious hikers and families.

Seasons of Abundance

Snowmelt swells creeks, amphibians chorus in forest pools, and deserts burst with wildflowers attracting hummingbirds and bees. This is a perfect season to practice slow looking, noticing how tiny visitors stitch color into every meadow.

Field Notes and Anecdotes

Under ultraviolet light in Saguaro, scorpions glowed like stars on the ground. A child whispered, I never knew the desert sparkled. That spark—curiosity—often grows into a lifelong pledge to protect the creatures we finally see.

Field Notes and Anecdotes

During the Great Smoky Mountains All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, researchers logged thousands of species, including insects new to science. The most thrilling finds were tiny: evidence that patient observation still rewrites what we think we know.