Changing Climate Compels Changing Policy Approaches

The changing climate presents significant risks and challenges to our national parks, and therefore to traditional policy approaches to meet the NPS mission.  Accelerated melting of mountain glaciers, reduced snowpack, and changes in timing and amount of stream flow are a few of the impacts already observed.

While some of the impacts are already measurable, the long range effects of climate disruption on NPS natural and cultural resources, park infrastructure, and visitor experience are not well known. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the long range effects of climate change will likely impact the ability of the NPS to meet its mission.

“Climate change challenges the very foundation of the National Park System and our ability to leave America’s natural and cultural heritage unimpaired for future generations,” said Jon Jarvis, regional director for Pacific West Region at an April 7th Congressional field hearing on “The Impacts of Climate Change on America’s National Parks” in Joshua Tree National Park.

As the world’s premiere conservation agency, how will the NPS perpetuate natural systems and processes, conserve biodiversity and protect our cultural and historic heritage?  The answers will depend on the best available scientific data and analyses as well as firm and realistic policy positions.

Climate change science has influenced policy decisions in sister agencies. In 2008, the FWS listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, based on the best available science, which shows that loss of sea ice threatens and will likely continue to threaten polar bear habitat. This loss of habitat puts polar bears at risk of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future, the standard established by the ESA for designating a threatened species.

The development and application of scientific data and analyses regarding climate change impacts, however, must happen in conjunction with a focused policy dialogue. The changing climate presents some fundamental issues for resource stewardship, facility planning and daily operations.  With regard to resource stewardship, several questions become evident:

• How does NPS uphold the “no impairment” mandate? What impacts are acceptable? How can managers prevent impairment to resources when uncontrollable changes are affecting them?
• What should desired conditions be, given that some change is inevitable?  What is the “natural condition” that we are mandated to protect?
• Many species will have to shift geographic regions to survive the impacts of climate change. To what extent, if at all, should we interfere to save a species? Do we engage in “assisted migration?”
• Is the NPS currently doing enough to mitigate its own greenhouse gas emissions? Should the Service participate in carbon markets – selling via sequestration methods, or buying to offset operations)?
• What role does the NPS play in communicating about the impacts of climate change in national parks? Who better can be an “honest broker” of the scientific understanding and raise public awareness for the issue?

While identification of some basic policy positions may be needed to address these issues, immediate and wholesale NPS policy changes are likely unnecessary.  Currently, NPS management policies direct decisions to be grounded in best available science, careful consideration of pertinent factors and transparent decision-making through public involvement, and do not require what is impossible, economically infeasible or likely ineffectual. 

Operating NPS units and managing resources in the context of climate change and the inherent uncertainties will necessitate some flexibility. The ultimate question is: How much flexibility should park managers have? The answer is somewhere between total discretion and prescriptive policy mandates. Park manager discretion should be balanced with measures to ensure some consistency across the Service in decision-making processes.

These and other questions are subjects of monthly climate change webinars. The next such webinar will be held on Thursday, June 11th, at 2 p.m. EDT. For more information contact Leigh_Welling@nps.gov or John_Morris@nps.gov. If you’re interested in seeing May’s webinar, in which Sue Haseltine, USGS’ associate director for biology, discusses the use of science to inform decision-making on polar bears, click on the “More Information” link below. Other webinars are also archived at this site.