Science and Ecosystem Management in the National Parks presents twelve case studies of long-term research conducted in and around national parks that address major natural resource issues. These cases demonstrate how the use of longer time scales strongly influences our understanding of ecosystems and how interpretations of short-term patterns in nature often change when viewed in the context of long-term data sets. Most important, they show conclusively that scientific research significantly reduces uncertainty and improves resource management decisions. Chosen by scientists and senior park managers, the cases offer a broad range of topics, including air quality at the Grand Canyon; interaction between moose and wolf populations on Isle Royale; control of exotic species in Hawaiian parks; simulation of natural fire in the parks of the Sierra Nevada; and the impact of urban expansion on Saguaro National Monument. Because national parks are increasingly beset with conflicting views of their management, the need for knowledge of park ecosystems becomes even more critical - not only for the parks themselves, but for what they can tell us about survival in the rest of our world. This book demonstrates to policymakers and managers that decisions based on knowledge of ecosystems are more enduring and cost effective than decisions derived from uninformed consensus. It also provides scientists with models for designing research to meet threats to our most precious natural resources. "If we can learn to save the parks", observe Halvorson and Davis, "perhaps we can learn to save the world".

Our national parks are more than mere recreational destinations. They are repositories of the nation's biological diversity and contain some of the last ecosystem remnants needed as standards to set reasonable goals for sustainable development throughout the land. Nevertheless, public pressure for recreation has largely precluded adequate research and resource monitoring in national parks, and ignorance of ecosystem structure and function in parks has led to costly mistakes--such as predator control and fire suppression--that continue to threaten parks today. This volume demonstrates the value of ecological knowledge in protecting parks and shows how modest investments in knowledge of park ecosystems can pay handsome dividends. Science and Ecosystem Management in the National Parks presents twelve case studies of long-term research conducted in and around national parks that address major natural resource issues. These cases demonstrate how the use of longer time scales strongly influence our understanding of ecosystems and how interpretations of short-term patterns in nature often change when viewed in the context of long-term data sets. Most importantly, they show conclusively that scientific research significantly reduces uncertainty and improves resource management decisions. Chosen by scientists and senior park managers, the cases offer a broad range of topics, including: air quality at Grand Canyon; interaction between moose and wolf populations on Isle Royale; control of exotic species in Hawaiian parks; simulation of natural fire in the parks of the Sierra Nevada; and the impact of urban expansion on Saguaro National Monument. Because national parks are increasingly beset with conflicting views of their management, the need for knowledge of park ecosystems becomes even more critical--not only for the parks themselves, but for what they can tell us about survival in the rest of our world. This book demonstrates to policymakers and managers that decisions based on knowledge of ecosystems are more enduring and cost effective than decisions derived from uninformed consensus. It also provides scientists with models for designing research to meet threats to our most precious natural resources. "If we can learn to save the parks," observe Halvorson and Davis, "perhaps we can learn to save the world."

The U.S. National Park Service needs much better scientific information to protect the nation's parks for future generations, and research must be an essential element in its mandate. Science and the National Parks examines the reasons why science is important to the national parks, reviews previous evaluations of research in the parks, and recommends ways to improve the current science program. The book stresses the need for two distinct but related approaches to research, called "science for the parks" and "parks for science." Science for the parks includes research to gain understanding of park resources and develop effective management strategies. The parks for science concept recognizes that the national parks are potentially very important to scientific investigations of broad national and global environmental problems and invaluable for understanding the ecological response to anthropogenic change. Science and the National Parks is a critical assessment of the problems hampering the current Park Service science program, providing strong recommendations to help the agency establish a true mandate for science, create separate funding and autonomy for the program, and enhance its credibility and quality.

The need for cooperation among government agencies as well as an interdisciplinary approach to the increasingly challenging and complicated problem of managing park and wilderness areas prompted the University of Washington College of Forest Resources, the National Park Service, and the Forest Service to sponsor an ecosystem management workshop for scientists, planners, and managers. To develop an improved conceptual approach to managing change in ecosystems crossing natural and political boundaries, the workshop focused on defining terms, uncovering areas of misunderstanding and barriers to cooperation, and developing methods to determine the most important problems and issues. Three needs emerged from the prioritization process: a precise definition of the management objectives for park and wilderness lands and how to integrate them with objectives for surrounding lands, nationally as well as site-specific; more information about physical, biological, and social components of park and wilderness ecosystems from both sides of political boundaries; and key indicators of ecosystem condition as well as methods for evaluating management effectiveness. All of these common themes point to a need for more precise direction in management goal setting and more accurate assessment of progress toward goals. The book includes an introductory chapter by the editors and summary in which they outline a direction for ecosystem management in the next critical decades. The other chapters by individual contributors include studies on laws governing park and wilderness lands, paleoecological records that reveal the historic effects of climatic variations on vegetation change, succession and natural disturbance in relation to the problems of what can and should be preserved, managing ecosystems for large populations of vertebrates, the management of large carnivores, effects of air pollution, lake acidification, human ecology and environmental management, the role of economics, cooperation in ecosystem management, and management challenges in Yellowstone National Park.

Papers from a summit, "Science for Parks, Parks for Science: the next century," organized by University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the National Geographic Society and the National Park Service and held 25-27 March 2015 at the University of California, Berkeley.

Now in a fully updated edition, this invaluable reference work is a fundamental resource for scholars, students, conservationists, and citizens interested in America's national park system. The extensive collection of documents illustrates the system's creation, development, and management. The documents include laws that established and shaped the system; policy statements on park management; Park Service self-evaluations; and outside studies by a range of scientists, conservation organizations, private groups, and businesses. A new appendix includes summaries of pivotal court cases that have further interpreted the Park Service mission.