Disturbed Land Restoration

Roles and Responsibilities

The Director of the NPS establishes and approves servicewide restoration policies and standards. The Director is ultimately responsible for establishing restoration that conserves natural resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations and for ensuring that such programs are in compliance with directives, policies, and laws.

The Associate Director of Natural Resource Stewardship and Science (ADNRSS) has functional authority through the Natural Resources Program Center for:

• developing policies and standards for the director’s approval;
• providing policy oversight of NPS restoration, including evaluating the results of field performance in compliance with directives, policies, and laws;
• providing direct assistance to parks in specific program areas; and
• administering restoration programs for which the ADNRSS has direct authority.

The Natural Resources Program Center exercises the associate director’s responsibility by:

• administering disturbed land and aquatic system restoration programs, including those that provide direct assistance to parks in designing and carrying out restoration;
• formulating and interpreting servicewide restoration policies, regulations, guidance, and standards that help parks conduct restoration programs;
• carrying out functional oversight in assigned program areas;
• seeking funding;
• providing technical assistance;
• maintaining the servicewide database of AML sites;
• partnering with other government agencies and private organizations; and
• maintaining a list of servicewide contacts involved in restoration and keeping such contacts informed of developments in restoration issues in NPS.

This work is coordinated by the Natural Resources Program Center’s Restoration Technical Advisory Group, comprised of professional staff assigned to the Geologic Resources Division, the Water Resources Division, the Biological Resources Management Division, and the Natural Resource Information Division.

The Denver Service Center assists parks in carrying out restoration projects.

The regional director is responsible for:

• ensuring that restoration projects in the region are uniformly implemented in compliance with directives, policies, and law; and
• identifying regional and central office coordinators and contacts for NPS restoration programs, when appropriate, who can provide information and data about the program to the Natural Resources Program Center.

The support office natural resource staff and regional or cluster level restoration leads advise parks in:

• the details of restoration-need assessments;
• data collection and analysis;
• project planning and implementation;
• proposal and funding requests; and
• related technical assistance and advice.

Superintendents are responsible for:

• understanding natural resources and their condition including disturbances in their parks;
• facilitating the restoration of a park's disturbed lands and aquatic systems; and
• establishing and managing park restoration programs and ensuring that they comply with directives, policies, and laws.

Park natural resource managers on behalf of the superintendents conduct need assessments and planning operational restoration in compliance with directives, policies, and laws.

Other sources of help include:

• Redwood National Park, which has an extensive restoration program and can provide technical assistance and advice on many aspects of disturbed lands and aquatic system restoration.
• the states of Arkansas, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming, which have AML reclamation programs and can work cooperatively with NPS to mitigate abandoned mine hazards and environmental problems in national parks within each state.
• The Society for Ecological Restoration (www.ser.org/) provides guidelines for projects, and publishes two journals on restoration research and projects.