chris_shaver@nps.gov
Chief, Air Resources Division; Natural Resource Program Center, Lakewood, Colorado

Back to Chapter 2: Challenges

Feral horses at Cape Lookout National Seashore
by Sue Stuska, Ed.D.

Lessons from NEPA lawsuits
by Jake Hoogland

National Park Service prevails in court; environmental impact statement on schedule
by John D. Varley with Ann Deutch

National Natural Landmarks Program: Up and running ... and raring to go
by Steve Gibbons

Challenges--News Briefs

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by Christine Shaver.

The National Park Service has been monitoring air quality in many parks for more than a decade. Under the Government Performance and Results Act, the Park Service measures the effectiveness of its air quality program based on results. It holds itself publicly accountable for preventing air quality deterioration in parks, even though it has no direct control over sources of pollution located outside park boundaries. Why? Because the public expects the Park Service to protect these special places, not just keep tabs on their condition.

Although resource managers have used a variety of methods to detect changes in air quality, preparation of the first annual performance report in 1999 required development of a systematic, consistent, and comprehensive approach for assessing air quality trends. As a result of this detailed data analysis, park and program managers were alerted to deteriorating air quality trends in several national parks, including Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Big Bend. When confronted with data documenting deteriorating air quality, managers are using a variety of strategies to exercise influence over air pollution sources the National Park Service cannot control. This suite of strategies includes communication, constituency building, collaboration, and, when necessary, a more direct approach.

One of the simplest, and perhaps most effective, strategies is to communicate air quality-related information to the public. Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Big Bend have all embraced this strategy. Through a combination of wayside and visitor center exhibits, information pamphlets or site bulletins, articles in park newspapers, websites (including real-time access to air quality data being collected at Great Smoky Mountains), press releases, and other methods, these parks reach out to the public and local and national media. For example, Great Smoky Mountains has been issuing advisories to visitors and employees on days when air pollution levels are unhealthy. Shenandoah is developing a similar program.

Communication also builds constituencies that may use the information to echo and advance the objectives of the National Park Service for resource protection. The approach used in each of these parks is to find common ground and interests with local community organizations, including traditional, nongovernmental friends groups; economic and business interests; state and local government officials; schools and universities; congressional delegations; other federal land managers; and the scientific community. Effective constituency building by Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah led the National Parks and Conservation Association and the Izaak Walton League of America to publish reports highlighting park air quality issues and advocating for more aggressive pollution-reduction programs.

Collaboration is critical to achieving air quality-improvement objectives. At Big Bend the National Park Service worked with federal, state, private, and international officials to design and conduct an intensive monitoring program encompassing a multistate area, including the region bordering Mexico. The study was aimed at identifying sources contributing to air pollution problems at Big Bend and will provide a foundation for seeking pollution reductions needed to restore good air quality at the park. Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah have been participating in the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative, a stakeholder-based air quality planning effort in the Southeast. Following several years of data analysis, the partnership is now beginning to build consensus on what additional pollution control strategies will be needed.

When all of these strategies fail to produce results, however, the National Park Service needs to be willing to challenge actions and confront inaction head-on. Face-to-face meetings involving the NPS Director, superintendents, and state environmental directors have been convened to signal the importance of the issue. In Shenandoah's case, where a state was not responsive, appeals have been lodged with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The next step is to ensure that the EPA carries out its oversight responsibility.

(See the related news brief about parks exceeding the ozone standard during 1999.)

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Last Updated: 09/26/00
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