Recognizing the need to communicate scientific results Although the NPS I&M networks were not explicitly charged with developing communication products, sharing scientific results is a logical and necessary outgrowth of natural resource monitoring because the results need to be used for making manage- ment decisions. Simply collecting data—or even increasing our ecological understand- ing—will not necessarily help us reach our ultimate goal of informing management practices. As the Challenge aptly states, “Once this information is in our hands, we must share it widely, so that child and adult, amateur and professional can benefit from the knowledge uncovered in these places” (NPS 1999). The George Wright Forum 48 The Challenge of Communicating Monitoring Results to Effect Change Shawn L. Carter, Giselle Mora-Bourgeois, Todd R. Lookingbill, Tim J. B. Carruthers, and William C. Dennison The Natural Resource Challenge legacy SINCE ITS INCEPTION, the National Park Service (NPS) has been charged with preserving the natural and cultural heritage of the United States for future generations. It is only recently, however, that the NPS has fully embraced the need to understand and describe the ecology of parks. The infusion of an ecological perspective into the natural resource management of the national parks is what separates today’s park management from much of that which pre- ceded it (Sellars 1997). The guiding principles set forth by the agency’s National Leadership Council as part of the Natural Resource Challenge (NPS 1999; hereafter “the Challenge”) shepherded these perspectives into present NPS culture and practice. Ultimately, the insights, common goals, and collaborations we describe in this essay have all been made pos- sible by the vision and funding of the Challenge, the most recent high-water mark for embracing science within the NPS. In this paper, we discuss a special collaboration enabled by the Challenge, in which an inventory and monitoring (I&M) network (National Capital Region Network; NCRN), a research learning center (Urban Ecology Research Learning Alliance; UERLA), and a coop- erative ecosystem studies unit (Chesapeake Watershed CESU) partner (University of Mary- land Center for Environmental Science; UMCES) coalesced around a common goal: to col- lect, analyze, and interpret data in national parks, and to promote learning and understand- ing. We describe a set of tools and principles for integrating and communicating science that we believe have broad utility in the practice of natural resource stewardship. Furthermore, we stress the iterative and collaborative nature of communicating results and how the process of communication leads to shared investment and stimulates new areas of scientific inquiry.