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The National Park Service (NPS) is responsible for protecting in perpetuity and regulating use of our National Park areas. Preserving park resources unimpaired and providing appropriate visitor uses of parks require a full understanding of park natural resource components, their interrelationships and processes, and visitor interests that can be obtained only by the long term accumulation and analysis of information produced by science. The NPS has a research mandate to provide management with that understanding, using the highest quality science and information. Superintendents increasingly recognize that timely and reliable scientific information is essential for sound decisions and interpretive programming. NPS welcomes proposals for scientific studies designed to increase understanding of the human and ecological processes and resources in parks and proposals that seek to use the unique values of parks to develop scientific understanding for public benefit. |
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When is a Permit Required?
- A Scientific Research and Collecting Permit is required for most scientific activities pertaining to natural resources or social science studies in National Park System areas that involve fieldwork, specimen collection, and/or have the potential to disturb resources or visitors.
- For questions
about research permits please contact the Chief of Resource Management at (409) 951-6820.
- Additional required permits, approvals, and agreements
- In some cases, other federal or state agency permits or approvals may be required before NPS staff can process an application for a Scientific Research and Collecting Permit.
- Examples include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service threatened and endangered species permits and migratory bird permits and approvals by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
- It is the responsibility of the principal investigator to provide NPS with copies of such permits when they submit an application.
- Applicants are encouraged to contact park staff to determine if additional
permits may be required in conjunction with a proposed study.
- When to apply?
- We recommend that you apply at least 90 days in advance of your first planned field activities.
- Projects requiring access to restricted locations or proposing activities with sensitive resources, such as endangered species or cultural sites, usually require extensive review and can require 90 days or longer for a permitting decision.
- Simple applications can often
be approved more quickly.
- How and where to apply?
- An individual may submit an application;
- via the Internet Research Permit and Reporting System
- or through Big Thicket Association Field Research Station.
- Once an application
is completed on-line an email notification is sent to the park to process the application.
- An individual may submit an application;
- Permit stipulations
- General Conditions (requirements and restrictions) will be attached to all Research and Collecting Permits issued.
- These conditions must be adhered to by permit recipients. Additional Park-specific Conditions may also be included that address unique park resources or activities.
- An NPS permit is valid only for the activities authorized in the permit.
- The principal investigator must notify the NPS in writing of any proposed
changes. Requests for significant changes may necessitate re-evaluation of the permit
conditions or development of a revised proposal.
- Inventory Data
- Prior to any inventory effort, the researcher should perform a thorough literature search (both published and gray) to determine specimens already collected in a particular taxa.
- A list of previously collected/inventoried species should be compiled and a list of repositories where specimens are being stored should be compiled.
- An effort should be made,
when possible, to not duplicate collection of previously collected voucher specimens.
- A
general tenant of quality inventory data is knowing where specimens were collected.
Use of a GPS to record sampling locations is highly encouraged to provide accurate location
information (see Guidelines for Collecting GPS Data). A list of data fields
to be collected is listed in the Science Plan.
- Voucher Specimens
- If specimens are collected they will need to be accession and cataloged into the Preserve's Collection Management System ANCS+ (Automated National Catalog System) by the Collector.
- Contact Lisa Jameson
for information on this system, (409) 951-6821.
- Prior to submitting an application for a research permit, an NPS approved repository that have the ability to manage and store the Collections should be identified and have a signed agreement in place.
- If conditions do not favor a repository with an existing agreement in place, then an agreement will need to be negotiated between the Preserve, the Collector and the new Repository.
- A list of NPS approved repositories and blank agreements can be obtained by contacting the Preserve Biologist Lisa Jameson at (409) 951-6821.
