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Dorothy Davis / NPS
National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, second from right, with members of the National Park Service Advisory Board Science Committee at Acadia National Park in 2011 discussing resource management in the national park system. Committee chair, Dr. Rita Colwell, is left of Jarvis. Others in the photo, from left, to right: Dr. Gary Machlis, science advisor to Jarvis, Dr. Michael Novacek, Dr. Joel Berger, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, Dr. Gary E. Davis, Colwell, Jarvis, and Dr. Susan Avery.
On the eve of its 96th birthday on Saturday, the National Park Service is getting a special gift: A new report that is both the first of its kind in the last 50 years and a benchmark for the future.
Announced by NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis in a ceremony at Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday, the report represents a science-based effort to ensure America’s parks remain protected, accessible and relevant as the system approaches its second century and the world around them undergoes massive change.
While the report focuses on the future, its title — “Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the National Parks” — alludes to its half-century heritage. In 1963, A. Starker Leopold, son of noted conservationist Aldo Leopold, was the lead author of a report that sought to bring science-based principles to park management.
The Leopold Report, as it came to be known, was ostensibly focused on managing proliferating elk populations in Yellowstone National Park. However, it also introduced what have now become standard policies, including the reintroduction of predators and the use of controlled fires to shape park landscapes.
“It was groundbreaking for the time,” Jarvis told NBC News. “The original Leopold Report has been the bedrock of park management since the 1960s.”
It was not, however, without its critics, who cited the report’s conclusion that parks should be managed as “vignettes of primitive America,” a static vision that’s become increasingly outdated in the face of changing environmental conditions, evolving demographics and 50 years of scientific advancement.
Chuck Burton / AP
Some of the nation's most beautiful places are in peril.
“We wanted to reinforce Leopold but also lay the foundation for the much more complicated issues that we’re facing today,” said Jarvis. “It was tantamount to rewriting the New Testament.”
To accomplish the task, Jarvis called on the NPS Advisory Board Science Committee, a group of 12 experts who visited parks, including Acadia and Everglades; analyzed current management practices; and incorporated new research on climate change and other 21st-century challenges.
Not surprisingly, their findings read like an academic text. But the takeaway is that park management must be predicated on principles that recognize that change is inevitable, ongoing and not always well-understood; that parks are part of larger landscapes and ecosystems, and that many of the challenges they face come from beyond their boundaries.
“What we know now that we didn’t know 50 years ago is that when you create islands by fragmenting habitat, the habitat itself starts to change,” said Thomas Lovejoy, a committee member and professor at George Mason University. “It’s not necessarily about expanding protected areas but rather raising awareness to get a better result.”
Other findings and recommendations include calls for working with partners outside park boundaries to maintain those larger landscapes (and seascapes); recognizing the importance of the parks’ cultural, as well as natural, resources; and understanding the impacts of a growing and increasingly diverse population.
Clearly, that’s a tall order for an agency that’s continuously underfunded and under pressure to do more with less. And while the new report doesn’t propose specific solutions for specific problems, it does set out guiding principles based on the best science currently available.
“We know more now than we did in 1963 and we’ll know more in the future,” said James Nations, vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association’s Center for Park Research, who was not involved in the project. “The report offers an understanding of where the Park Service needs to go to properly manage the resources that America is asking them to manage.”
For committee member Gary Davis, a consultant and marine ecologist, that understanding actually goes both ways. In the summer of 1964, he arrived in Lassen Volcanic National Park as a young park ranger trainee and was immediately handed a copy of the original Leopold Report.
“It was a real eye-opener,” he told NBC News.com. “It took me beyond the idea of parks as just places for family vacations and explained the natural processes that were going on and the science behind them.”
Now, nearly 50 years later, Davis and his fellow committee members hope to do the same in light of changes in the parks themselves, the world around them and our understanding of the processes that impact them both.
“It’s not that Leopold got it wrong; it’s that the world has changed,” said Davis. “`If we’re going to hang on to these remnants of our heritage, we need to change the way we approach them.”
Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.
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This article is non-political news story. However, it doesn't escape the minds of people who want to preserve these American treasures for future generations in thinking what would happen if Romney, Ryan, & co. were to come to power in DC. A bleak future indeed, where the federal lands and parks would be open to Corporations for unfettered mining, logging, and exploration.
One more reason for us not to vote for Mitten Romney's ticket come November.
Could you have a political bone to pick here in a basically non-political story? Please share you biased crystal ball more, you genius.
Well youve managed to turn this into a political issue. I've enjoyed over 40 National Parks (not to mention Nat Monuments, Lakeshores etc.). Your hero Barry Hussaine has done nothing to save these gems. So stop shilling for him. These Gems have been created by the dedicated, both rich and poor. Liberal and Conservative. Learn their history idiot.
I read the PDF. While it doesn't seem to say much more than to implement a Science Advisory panel for the parks, I am still cautiously cynical. We would definantly want true and uncorruptable scientists. Untapped resources are wildly valuable to corporate America. It just takes one or two "bought and paid for" to really mess things up. For example, cutting old and dying timber isn't always the good idea it has been made out to be. It removes habitat and food sources for wildlife.
http://www.npca.org/protecting-our-parks/park-funding/Americas-Heritage-for-Sale.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/06/wyoming-grand-teton-national-park
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27753981/ns/us_news-environment/
http://www.homefinder.com/CA/Yosemite_National_Park/
I frankly don't yet see how a vision of maintaining "a vignette of primitive America" could ever be outdated. Unless of course, there is a hidden agenda.
I agree and the greater picture they seem to glide over is that preserved as they are, they are vignettes of american history as it would have evolved everywhere and the parks give us a glimpse of where nature would have taken us as opposed to mans path elsewhere. They must never be open to big business.
Teddy Roosevelt knew we would screw it all up and manage to preserve as much as he could - he knew the Bushes and Romneys were going to appear in the future.
Don't mess it up for the kids who haven't been born yet!
I note that the group looking into the future of the National Parks did not include a single user. Only 'experts' were allowed to weigh in on how the Parks were to be used, saved and improved. This is a typical government response. It happens in situations where the professors are asked how to improve the college, traffic experts are asked how to make roads better and countless other instances.
A consumer of the park experience could have told you that the food in the Parks--in the snack stands--sucks to the point of literally making you sick (at Mt Rainier, where a substantial number of visitors are from East Asia, there is virtually no meatless option offered). The fees charged to enter the Parks actually hurt commercial ventures--who are removing as many as twenty cars from the Park when full.
I have driven tour buses (mostly minibuses and small vans) to Mt Rainier and no one has asked my passengers or me about their experience and how it could be improved. The vast majority of the Rangers have been helpful and accomodating--if anything, the volunteers are even better--but problems persist.
Dick Falkenbury
I think they're more concerned with preserving the lands themselves, not with how much fun people have visiting them.
seriously, you're whining because you can't get good food in a national park? too bad, they need to eliminate ALL for profit ventures from those parks, their not amusements, their the last chance to see what this land was like before a bunch of profit driven anti-christs stole it and destroyed it in the name of manna.
YAY...Now all the mexican drug cartels can choose bettter places to grow pot, did they also make it available in spanish?
Good one.And that is so true here in California.
These parks were set aside for the people. People should be able to use them but the anti crowd keeps shutting more areas down to the public. Animals will always evolve and animals will always become extinct.
We can not save everything unless you eliminate mankind.
Yes, and even if mankind were eliminated, species would still go extinct.
they were set aside for the people to enjoy, not abuse. You going to start whining because you can;t ping pong buffalo too loser? Seriously you;re one of those idiots who think if a bear eats your dog, the bear should be killed. The world will be a better place when people like you are extinct.
Well, I feel somewhat unqualified to comment much on this because I haven't travelled to many National Parks. In 2006, after being laid-off from work and finally taking early 62 retirement I decided to do what many wish they could do; Just head off down the road. So, after putting what I wanted to keep in storage and turning in my apartment keys we, my two little dogs and I, did that. Starting in Sept. 2006 we went to Big Bend National Park in Texas, then to Organ Pipe Monument in Arizona, to Joshua Tree Park and Death Valley Park in CA. Then to Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona and up to Bad Lands National Park in SD, up to Theodore Roosevelt Park in ND. We also visited Devil's Tower Monument in WY, Dinosaur Monument and Black Canyon of the Gunnison Park along with Great Sand Dunes Monument in CO. Lol, a side trip from the Natchez Trace Parkway where we spent a lot of time took us to Everglades Park in Fl and Congaree Park in SC. All in all, we travelled homeless for 13 months sleeping at night in my Rangers cab. I saw a lot and dealt with a lot of Park Service folks and never once had a bad moment. The one Park that I wanted to go too was Yellowstone but I was advised by people; "It's a great place, if, you don't mind 5mph bumper to bumper through the place." I live now in TN and I've heard the same thing about Great Smokey Mountains Park, so, maybe something can be done about overcrowding. The purpose of the National Parks is to preserve and protect for posterity, we, the people. From what I saw in my wandering around the Park Service is doing a great job considering the scope of the effort.
I'm sorry you let other people dissuade you from going to Yellowstone. I have been there four times at various times of the year. The only time I encountered 5 mph bumper to bumper traffic is when there was a wildlife traffic jam, bison on the road or an elk grazing nearby. The best time to go though is late August, early September. Not many people, beautiful weather. The rangers are friendly and the ranger walk around Old Faithful is insightful and full of facts about the area.
In Zion NP, you can't drive your car too far into the park. They use shuttle buses throughout most of it with multiple stops so you can get out and hike then hop on the next shuttle that comes along. I think that could be a viable option for other parks as well.
I don't expect to be visiting any national parks in the near future. With the economy still in a huge recession, having spent all my savings and 401K just to survive and try to not lose my house, a vacation is the furthest thing from my mind. Luckily I was able to visit Acadia, Zion, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Great Smokey Mountains, Pointe Reyes National Seashore, and many other smaller state parks in my younger years, when life was easier and I had more money. I advise people who have the money and the vacation time, to visit the National Parks, you won't be disappointed.
Kalani, along with the National Park Service parks and monuments two attractions to be considered; The Natchez Trace and the Outer Banks of NC. I'm fortunate in that I live within fifty miles of the Trace which is a 430 mile long Parkway between Nashville, TN and Natchez, MS. Managed by the National Park Service with three campgrounds. Love the campgrounds, "No fee." We all have to consider cost but for a good economical vacation camping The Natchez Trace is hard to beat. I neglected to mention the Blue Ridge Parkway, it's a good scenic drive and the first place we went when I began wandering. Lol, when it became the Skyline Drive and toll, I got off quick. The 13 straight months that I spent wandering around was all done on my SS benefit, so, I had to watch the coins. Aside from my four grown kids considering me "Out of control" those 13 months were the best months that I have spent so far in life. America is a beautiful place and there's a lot to see and experience, and, it doesn't take riches to do it.
I stop at Mammoth Cave whenever traveling between Georgia and Michigan, every few years. This year was the first year there were not huge crowds of people in line and buses/tour groups everywhere. The park service had recently renovated the visitor center, and the restaurant was even serving alcohol to try to entice people to stay in the park. From what I saw I believe the park system is doing everything it can to encourage visitors to continue to come to Mammoth Cave.
Mammoth Cave Park in KY hasn't been a national park for long and since I live in TN I'll have to go there. We need more national parks East of the Mississippi River. So far there's only Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Akron and Cleveland, Shenandoah Park in VA, Acadia Park in Maine. Then too, there's Everglades Park in Florida and Great Smokey Mountains Park in TN and NC. Well, lol, there is one little park, Congaree in SC. The main feature there are Cypress trees and swamp.
Please remenber, on this 96th aniversary of the NPS that in 1916, the mission of the Service was defined, and remains the same today, that the NPS is to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpared for the enjoyment of future generations". Nothing about visitor safety from "wild" aminals, nothing about food quality, nothing about "fun", but the mission of protecting what is really our history. a mirror of who we are as a nation.
Thank God for what we have now and what HE will provide in the future. He wants us to have all this, but we have
love our God.