Yellowstone National Park has permitted the National Ecological Observatory Network, also known as “NEON,” to build an ecological research and monitoring site on Blacktail Deer Plateau in the northern section of the park.
Officials with the park say that NEON has approximately 81 field sites across the United States, in order to measures the causes and effects of environmental change.
The site in Yellowstone is expected to produce long-term monitoring data about the impacts of climate change, invasive species, and landscape changes. The data will be made available to scientists, researchers, and the public to collectively help understand how the ecosystem responds to various types of change and stress.
All facilities and monitoring equipment will be located on the Blacktail Deer Plateau. The project will consist of a 59-foot tower with monitoring equipment and a satellite communications dish, an instrument hut, electrical power, a precipitation collection system, soil study plots, and aquatic monitoring equipment.
Construction is anticipated to start later this year, it will be suspended during winter, then resume in July 2018, once the annual bear management closures in the area are lifted.
A statement from Yellowstone National Park, NEON will collect data in Yellowstone for 30 years. Once activities end, all infrastructure will be removed. All areas are expected to be returned to as natural a condition as possible.
This project is funded through the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Program.