Diversity

Director honors natural resource stewards

awaii may be providing the national park system with a taste of things to come," according to Superintendent Bryan Harry of the Pacific Islands Support Office. Harry was referring to the challenge of dealing with fire-adapted nonnative grasses in the Pacific islands parks. "While island ecosystems are the first to feel the severity of effects of nonnative species, the mainland will face the same challenges in the future." Last August, he and two colleagues received the 1996 Director's Awards for Natural Resource Management. Given annually to a superintendent, re-source manager, and researcher, the prestigious honor underscores the importance of technical expertise, continuity, and innovative thinking in research and natural resource management.

Harry was recognized for his influence in conserving vestiges of native Pacific ecosystems over the last 25 years. He and his staff changed the mind set in Hawaiian parks from accepting "inevitable" resource deterioration to proactive management that reverses deterioration. "We also shifted our concept of measuring success from how many alien animals we killed to basing removal decisions on the overall impacts the nonnative species have on the native populations."

Also winning an award was Terry Hofstra, Chief of Resource Management at Redwood National and State Park, California. Despite the threat of nearby logging to the Marbled Murrelet, an endangered bird that nests in old-growth redwoods, Hofstra saw the potential for long-term benefit. By preparing a second-growth forest management plan before logging could ensue, the parks positioned themselves to accept funds, mandated by the Endangered Species Act, from the logging company to counter habitat disruption. If its logging request is approved, the company would fund thinning of 10 acres of second-growth forest on park land for every acre of old-growth disturbed on private land. Thinning speeds recovery to old-growth, increasing future habitat for murrelets. Hofstra sees this as "a timely and much needed example of the flexibility of the act in providing for endangered species preservation while accommodating some commercial activities." Hofstra is also a leading proponent of inter- and intra-agency and private sector cooperation. During his tenure, he has helped the parks advance toward ecosystem management and address a broader range of natural resource issues. In that time, his staff has progressed considerably in mitigating erosion from logging roads.

Paul Buckley was honored for the application of his research to park resource management over the past 25 years. His work has typically explored the interplay between resource recreation uses and their impacts on the population and health of plants and animals. A Senior Scientist in ecology with the USGS Cooperative Park Studies Unit at the University of Rhode Island, Buckley is an expert in population biology of shorebirds and the biodiversity of birds in northeastern national parks. Working as shorebird ecologist in the late 1970s, he assisted the National Park Service in gaining colonial water bird and Piping Plover habitat protection in the face of numerous beach nourishment projects along Fire Island National Seashore in New York. Thanks in large measure to NPS management in coastal parks and seashores, the plover is now making a comeback.

Winning the award was extremely satisfying to Buckley because, as he put it, "my colleagues and I have been very persistent over the years pursuing critically needed park research projects. There is tremendous need for much more site-specific inventory and general ecosystem research in our parks. Such research is essential to the long-term management of the natural resources under our care."

Other articles in the "People & Preservation" chapter:

Kemp's Ridley returns to Padre Island

Resource specialist receives Mather award

Partnership honored by National Park Foundation

Retiring superintendent knows the value of resource management

Air quality at Big Bend is an international challenge

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This material is from Natural Resource Year in Review--1996, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in May 1997 (publication D-1182) http://www2./YearInReview/yir/yr_rvw96 /chapter8/director.htm
Last Update:8/20/2002