Chapter 4: Resource Disturbances--National Park Service--WASO-INFO



		Floating marshes and forest wetlands comprise the complex estuarine resource of the Barataria Preserve unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, site of recent 3-D seismic oil exploration activities. To reduce compaction of marsh vegetation, reduced-weight, aluminum marsh buggies were used to drill and set explosives. Photo Credit: Jean lafitte National Historical Park Download a PDF file of this section of this report (576 KB). Home
				The natural resources held in trust by the National Park Service are remarkably diverse and awe-inspiring. However, maintaining them in an unimpaired condition is a daily struggle for professional resource managers. Both external and internal influences disrupt the very resources that inspire public pride. Nonnative species, environmental contamination, noise pollution, and even legitimate park uses caused great concern and required remedial action in 1998. To be effective resource stewards, managers must first recognize a decline in resource condition before they can begin to understand its causes and work out suitable remedies. Even then, finding solutions can be complex, time-consuming, and expensive. Science tools such as inventories, monitoring, and research provide direction and suggest many courses of action. However, for the National Park Service to be most effective in preserving natural resources, it must elevate science to a level commensurate with the demands of the widespread and often confounding natural resource disturbances confronted in parks today. Articles Jean Lafitte learns from 3-D seismic oil exploration experience by Sandee Dingman Exotic insect jeopardizes eastern hemlocks by James Åkerson Parks cultivate partnerships to tackle noxious weeds by Jeff Connor and Greg Waters At what cost? Deciding whether to control exotic plants by Sue Rutman Source of chemicals that feminize Lake Mead fish discovered by Roy Irwin Protecting the natural “soundscape” in parks by William B. Schmidt

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Last Updated: 08/16/99
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This article is from Natural Resource Year in Review--1998, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in June 1999 (publication D-1346)