Threats and information

hreats to natural resources in national parks are as varied as the parks themselves. Real estate development on the boundaries of Saguaro National Park puts human activities right at the park's edge. Visitors trample alpine meadows in Mount Rainier National Park as they fail to heed regulations and informational signs explaining the fragility of tundra vegetation. Air pollution from distant sources wafts across park boundaries reducing visibility and introducing pollution in park ecosystems across the country. Traffic, mining, logging, hazardous materials, grazing, exotic species; the list of threats goes on and on. And because of each threat, natural resources in the national park system are deteriorating. One weapon against these threats is information about them and on the condition of park natural resources.

In a General Accounting Office (GAO) report issued last August (National Park Service: Activities Within Park Borders Have Caused Damage to Resources [GAO/RCED-96-202; August 1996]), eight parks surveyed identified a total of 127 internal threats that directly affect park resources. Most fell into five categories: the impact of private inholdings or commercial development within parks, the impact of nonnative wildlife or plants on native species, the damage caused by illegal activities such as poaching, the routine wear and tear caused by visitation, and the unintended effects of park or agency actions. The majority of these threats have worsened over the past decade and 80% have already caused more than minor damage to park resources.

In a 1994 report (National Park Service: Activities Outside Park Borders Have Caused Damage to Resources and Will Likely Cause More [GAO/RCED-94­59; January 1994]), GAO relayed that park managers responsible for 317 units of the national park system identified 632 external threats to park resources. These can be classified in four main areas: urban encroachment, water-quantity and quality issues, air pollution, and human activities. A few of the lost values associated with the threats include diminished scenic views, polluted streams, habitat destruction, and a loss of biodiversity. In many cases the sources of specific threats have not been identified, but many parks have taken initial steps, such as establishing community outreach programs, to address some of the concerns.

Whether they originate inside or outside a park, natural resource threats are diverse and complex and no comprehensive inventory of them has been completed since 1980. While a list of threats is not particularly useful in and of itself, when combined with scientific information on the severity of impacts caused by various threats, the information is very important for resource preservation.

Data on some threats and the condition of park resources are being gathered through the national Inventory and Monitoring Program and other national park programs. This information is key to the process of planning resource management activities to prevent or mitigate threats, and must be gathered more extensively in the coming years. The National Park Service is making progress in this area, and would like to do more.

Other articles in the "Threats" chapter:

Demographics and resource preservation

Lake trout threaten native Yellowstone cutthroat

The perennial push of exotic plants

Communication breakdown over drilling near Lechuguilla Cave

Historic water rights settlement averts threats at Zion

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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)

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Last Update: 7 / 22 8/20/2002