Science Innovation
Since our program began in 2007, there have been major changes in the technology and methods available for biodiversity and land cover monitoring. Our work has evolved in parallel and each year our scientists explore ways to improve the methods and protocols used in our monitoring efforts. This work contributes to increasing the accessibility of our existing data and ensures our scientific processes are replicable and credible. As we change, it’s critical to ensure we are building on the legacy of collected data. We work to calibrate old with new, leverage existing datasets to answer new questions, and build new modelling frameworks.
2025–26 Deliverables
Our 2025-26 science innovation efforts will focus on overall program design, and protocol development. In recent years we have refined the objectives and approach of our species monitoring programs; in 2025-26 our technical teams will explore further refinements to the terrestrial and wetland program to support short-term change detection. We will continue our multi-year effort to develop remote sensing-based coarse-filter indicators and will further refine and test our species models that were updated in 2024-25. Protocols for remote camera, autonomous recording units (ARUs), and iButton monitoring will also be tested as part of the 2025-26 work plan.
To view updates for 2025–26, please select a deliverable from the table below. The table can be sorted and filtered by EPA working group or theme to narrow down results.