Biological inventories are done on City Parkland to determine what plants and animals occur and to monitor any changes in the environment.  Below are descriptions of the various inventories done. If you are interested in becoming trained to help do inventories on City parkland, call 645-3304 for more information.

Stream Surveys: Catching, identifying and releasing fish and  insects from streams.  Types of fish and insects present helps determine quality of stream.   Our streams need our help!  Too much hard surface in the county sends a torrent of rainwater through our streams after every rain. This is not only hard on the stream life, it erodes away the banks and degrades the water. Amphibian Surveys: Catching, identifying and releasing salamanders,frogs and toads using screen traps. Identifying frogs by their call. Monitoring roads near wetlands during rainy night for movement of amphibian populations. Five types of salamanders and nine types of frogs have already been identified living in our Parks! Reptile Surveys: Laying out plywood boards for snakes to take shelter under. Checking the boards periodically to identify what snakes are under them. Six types of snakes have been found in our parks. (None are poisonous-they don't live in Franklin County) Breeding Bird Surveys: Observing and recording bird species and their breeding behavior.  Approximately 100 bird species have been documented as breeding within our Parks! Bat Surveys: Capturing, identifying and releasing bats using mist nets. This is done only by trained staff.  Six types of bats have been identified living on City parkland so far!  Habitat Surveys: Collecting data about tree types, age, shrubs, flowers, invasive plants, deer impact and more. This helps to determine the quality of the natural resources within our parks.  It also aids in the development of natural resources management plans.