The project focuses on the collection and dissemination of natural sounds of Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, along with habitats and species from throughout the contiguous Western United States.

[5] The mission of the Acoustic Atlas is to archive rare and under-represented recordings of species and environments and "to document natural soundscapes that are increasingly impeded by human activity and development.

[6] These recordings are organized into categories based on taxonomic class, features of the environment (including water, weather, and geology), or dynamic chemical processes such as fire or photosynthesis.

This collaboration supports the creation of new field recordings, along with a podcast series that was jointly produced by Yellowstone National Park and the Acoustic Atlas from 2017 to 2019.

[15] In 2018, the mapping software company Esri worked with the Acoustic Atlas to develop the ArcGIS StoryMap "Sounds of the Wild West: An audio tour of Montana's four major ecosystems.