By Carol McCoy

Title II of the National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998 explicitly directs the National Park Service to use a broad program of the highest-quality science and information in managing and protecting units of the national park system. Park administrative records must reflect this mandate. In 2000 the Park Service undertook several important steps to integrate this important language into its management actions.

Foremost, NPS Management Policies 2001, released 27 December 2000, contains direction for enhanced decision making that reflects the highest-quality science and information. In particular, park decision makers must now preface decisions to approve a proposed activity with a written finding that the activity will not impair park resources and values.

To provide assistance to park decision makers, the Natural Resources Directorate kicked off an effort to develop detailed guidance on needed scientific information and analyses underlying the written finding on nonimpairment called for in Management Policies 2001.

New guidance (NPS-12) on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the new NPS companion NEPA Handbook both explain and provide guidance on the interrelationship of the Omnibus Act with NPS responsibilities under NEPA.

The NPS course titled Integrating NEPA into NPS Activities provides participants with a solid understanding of the science mandate contained in the Omnibus Act and the interface of this act with NEPA.

The Natural Resources Law and Policy Course for Superintendents now contains a session on the act and the duties it places on park managers in making well-reasoned, informed decisions.

The National Park Service continued its efforts to systematically inventory and monitor park resources to establish baseline information and provide information to park decision makers about the long-term trends in the condition of park resources. The Park Service also received a funding increase of $7.3 million in its base budget to accelerate completion of baseline park resource inventories. With this increase the Park Service plans to complete all inventories, except for vegetation mapping, in seven to eight years. Funding for mapping vegetation in all parks outside of Alaska is being provided by the USGS Biological Resources Division.

In addition, in 2000 the NPS Natural Resources Advisory Group examined a variety of options for integrating the Omnibus Act into day-to-day park management, and the National Leadership Council affirmed the need for the Park Service to thoroughly embrace the act’s science mandate.