Listening to the sounds of nature is pleasant and has real, proven health benefits, and now we know it can be a tool for maintaining healthy national park ecosystems, too.
In partnership with the National Park Service, Pennsylvania State University leads the Protected Areas Research Collaborative Listening Lab. Scientists set up microphones in national parks to send recorded sounds back to students at the lab, who analyze and inventory them.
Their findings are then sent back to park officials to help them better manage populations and protect the natural sounds of ecosystems.
“We need to understand how ecosystems across the globe are changing, and understanding base-level natural sounds helps do that,” Peter Newman, co-director of PARC said. “Once we have a baseline, we can understand how human-caused noise affects ecosystems around the world.”
Researchers set up recording devices in the field. Photo courtesy of NPS
The students’ analysis also helps with park visitor management. By gathering data on how people utilize these spaces, they help improve infrastructure like trails and transportation systems.
Over 20 years’ worth of soundscapes in the lab’s collection gives national parks a better understanding of both their past and future.
“With help from this lab, national parks can get a better understanding of what is happening in their areas from an acoustics perspective and what has been happening,” Andrew Barnard, a Penn State professor of acoustics and engineering, said in a statement.
“This can be used to make better conservation decisions. The real benefit of this is understanding where we’ve been and then making informed decisions on the future of the parks.”
These soundscapes are also an archival tool to preserve the sounds that make a place what it is.
Installation of sound equipment at Granite Lake, Yosemite National Park. Photo courtesy of NPS
PARC has an archive of natural sounds people can explore on the NPS website, too.
“If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it… it may have been recorded,” NPS writers quip on the federal website.
“Efforts to protect the soundscape and overall acoustic environment in our national parks are driven by NPS management policies. But before any action can be taken, park planners and managers need reliable data about a park’s existing acoustic environment. What natural and cultural sounds can be heard at the park? What types of noise can be heard? Where, when, and how often are these sounds heard, and how loud are they?”
Penn State graduate researcher Morgan Crump, who studies both recreation, park, and tourism management, alongside social data analytics, said the work PARC does to track and improve national park data.
“It’s critical to understand these soundscapes,” Crump said. “This can be impactful to wildlife health but also visitor experience. For so many people, nature is that escape from reality, and soundscapes are a significant part of that.”
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A version of this article was originally published in The 2025 National Parks Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image courtesy of NPS/Great Smoky Mountains National Park
