Natural Resource Year in Review—2003, A portrait of the year in natural resource stewardship and science in the National Park System, ISSN 1544-5437
Chapter 0 — Front Matter
Chapter 1— Transforming the National Park System
Chapter 2 — The New Face of Professional Resource Management
Chapter 3 — Inventory and Monitoring Charges Ahead
Chapter 4 - Frontiers for Science and Natural Resource Education
Chapter 5 — Preventing Natural Resource Impairment
Chapter 6 — Restoration
Chapter 7 — Conserving Threatened and Endangered Species
Chapter 8 — Cooperative Conservation
Chapter 9 — Looking Ahead
Chapters
Preventing Natural Resource Impairment
Introduction
Big Bend’s Rio Grande faces uncertain future
Interagency cooperation and science keep the Buffalo River system free-flowing
Wind farms—an emerging dilemma for East Coast national parks
Managing energy development issues to protect park resources
Winter sampling of snowpack in eight western parks to assess deposition of toxic compounds
Partnering to reduce risk of West Nile Virus
Small Saint-Gaudens managing exotic invasives
Implementing the Natural Sounds Program
Park resources protected from Washington Aqueduct discharges
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Preventing Natural Resource Impairment
“Humans have achieved mastery over most of the earth's surface. With this mastery has come an acute awareness ...that the land will not sustain humans unless humans sustain the land.”—William L. Halvorson, National Parks and Protected Areas: Their Role in Environmental Protection
Non-flowing Rio Grande in May 2003, Big Bend National Park, Texas.

Sustainer of life in the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rio Grande stopped flowing in May 2003 before the start of seasonal rains. This extremely rare event is heightening concerns for the ecological health of the river ecosystem in Big Bend National Park and the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, which has been in decline for decades.

The National Park Service is responsible for ensuring that the resources of the National Park System are passed on “unimpaired” for the enjoyment of future generations. Park management decisions are predicated on the test that actions will not impair resources or the values associated with them. Nevertheless, the role of the National Park Service as caretaker of the nation’s extraordinary heritage is increasingly challenging given the wide variety of influences that affect park resources, many of which arise outside park boundaries and result from complex environmental, social, political, and economic factors. As the articles in this chapter illustrate, maintaining the health of park resources requires vigilance. It also involves the courage to lead a debate on what is necessary to preserve park resources. It takes skill to marshal scientific investigation to inform park managers and the public about a threat. And it demands patience to effect resolution. Finally, park preservation is impossible without diligence, expertise, strong partnerships, and public support. At stake is the National Park Service’s “contract with the future”—the perpetuation of a park system that is the collective expression of America’s superlative heritage.
NPS Fact
The National Park Service formulates annual budget requests based, in part, on anticipated work levels needed to address a wide variety of potential resource impairment issues in parks. For example, for FY 2004 it estimates that it will review 40 applications for proposed new air emission sources within 200 miles of national parks, inspect 25 new (of approximately 700 active) mineral extraction operations in parks, and respond to chronic wasting disease in wildlife populations at two national parks. It also estimates that it will treat 83,000 acres (33,615 ha) of invasive exotic plants,* resolve water quantity issues in 10 park units, and assess airborne contaminants in nine parks.

*The National Park Service exceeded its FY 2003 performance goal of containing exotic vegetation on 122,600 acres (49,653 ha) by 144,880 acres (58,676 ha), bringing the total contained to 267,480 acres (108,329 ha). This gain of more than 100,000 acres (40,500 ha) reflects the deployment of seven additional Exotic Plan Management Teams and the continuing priority of parks to address harmful invasive species.
Preventing Natural Resource Impairment, Introduction
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last updated 4/13/2004
National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, Natural Resource Program Center, Natural Resource Information Division
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