As climate change leaves its imprint nationwide, the National Park Service has embraced a harsh truth: not every forest, animal, or wetland can be saved.
Joshua trees could disappear from their namesake Joshua Tree National Park in California by the end of this century. Destructive wildfires in the West open the way for fast-growing shrubs, replacing the forests that grew before the fires. And at Acadia National Park in Maine, spruce and fir could be replaced by oak and other temperate deciduous hardwood.
“Climate change will continue to affect ecosystems of national parks and other protected areas for decades to come, transforming landscapes in surprising ways,” the Park Service says in an 80-page report, Planning for a Changing Climate, published in April. “Thus, the National Park Service and other natural resource management agencies need to consider how to determine and achieve conservation goals in realistic and sustainable ways under conditions of rapidly changing environments.”
The new approach is called Resist-Approach-Direct, and concedes that “even ‘holding the line’ in the face of inexorable human-caused change is ever more difficult and costly.”
The RAD approach has three options:
Resist the trajectory of change, by working to maintain or restore ecosystem processes, function, structure, or composition based upon historical or acceptable current conditions.
Accept the trajectory of change, by allowing ecosystem processes, function, structure, or composition to change, without intervening to alter their trajectory.
Direct the trajectory of change, by actively shaping ecosystem processes, function, structure, or composition toward desired new conditions.
At Acadia, park personnel are resisting forest loss by controlling invasive shrubs and vines, while accepting the arrival of new tree species.
“Our conservation goals have to be realistic and sustainable,” Rebecca Cole-Will, program manager for Cultural and Natural Resources at Acadia and Saint Croix Island International Historic Site, says in a Schoodic Institute report. “The framework in this report helps us make informed, purposeful choices about how to respond to the accelerating trajectory of change.”
The new direction applies to animals as well.
A separate Park Service report says that before animals are relocated to a new area several risk factors must be considered, such as what will happen if no action is taken and how the animals will affect the new habitat through disease or predatory behavior.
“Our strategy is designed to encourage managers to think broadly and comprehensively about risk in order to make the best possible decision given alternate opposing risks (i.e., the risk of extinction versus the risk of causing unintended harm to other species and ecosystems in the process of trying to save a species),” the report says.
Several climate adaptation efforts are underway or completed at national parks.
Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska: Rapidly thawing permafrost because of higher temperatures increases landslide risks, and research suggests that the total area of “stable,” near-surface permafrost could decline from about 49% of total area in Denali during the 2000s to 6% by the 2050s and 1% by the 2090s. Along the park’s only road, the Pretty Rocks Landslide evolved from a minor maintenance concern two decades ago to what park managers say is an “existential threat” to the road. Park managers are grappling with how long the road can or should be maintained and what reconstruction or rerouting options are possible.
Glacier National Park, Montana: Invasive lake trout, increasing stream temperatures, and a reduction in late-season sources of cold water from glaciers threatened the bull trout stock, so park managers relocated them above an impassable waterfall where the water is expected to remain cooler and provide a safe haven from nonnative trout.
North Cascades National Park, Washington: The Stehekin River in North Cascades National Park is shifting from being dominated by spring floods during snowmelt to domination by winter floods resulting from rain-on-snow storms. This has led to larger, more-frequent flooding, with substantial effects on park resources and infrastructure. Recognizing that the shift is due to climate change, park managers moved sections of road, administrative facilities and staff housing, and campgrounds. The actions are expected to reduce the risk of flood damage and reduce costs related to flood damage.
The Park Service’s second century, which it entered in 2016, will not be easy.
“The scope, pace, and magnitude of climate-related changes will continue to present new challenges for the National Park Service, with an accompanying reality that it will not be possible to safeguard all park resources, processes, assets, and values in their current form or context over the long term,” the Park Service concludes in the introduction to the 80-page report:
Featured photo courtesy David Mark from Pixabay
