Park & Regional Programs

Parks form the core of the natural resource management effort. Scientists and resource managers practice the natural resource stewardship cycle of discovery, learning, understanding, sharing, protecting, restoring, and evaluating at park and regional scales. Thirty-six parks received base increases from the Challenge, which increased their capacity to deal with threats to natural resources (see Appendix A [PDF - 28KB] for natural resource funding in these parks). Regional programs also benefitted from the Challenge through the establishment of professional positions, such as aquatic and air resource specialists, that assist multiple parks with natural resource management issues at a local level.