*       The NRC is the National Park Service’s plan for preserving natural resources.  For most of the 20th century, the Park Service has practiced a combination of active management and passive acceptance of natural systems and processes, while becoming a superb visitor services agency.  Parks are becoming increasingly crowded remnants of primitive America in a fragmented landscape, threatened by invasions of nonnative species, pollution from near and far, and incompatible uses of resources in and around parks. 

*    Protection of these natural resources now requires active and informed management to a degree unimaginable in 1916.  The lack of information about park plants, animals, ecosystems, and their interrelationships is profound.  If the NPS is to protect these resources into the far future, we must know more.  A growing research effort will help guide us into the future.

*       The NPS is expanding existing inventory programs and developing efficient ways to monitor the vital signs of natural systems.  Professionals in the scientific community are being enlisted to help, and also facilitate their inquiry.  Managers must have and apply this information to preserve our natural resources.

*       Once this information is available, the NPS must share it widely, so that child and adult, amateur and professional can benefit from the knowledge uncovered in these places.  The information contained in the parks should help the surrounding communities, both regional and global, in making choices about their future.  Parks and protected places should become increasingly “useful” to surrounding communities as benchmarks and repositories of environmental information. 

*       To unlock this information, through the NRC, the Park Service is revitalizing and expanding the natural resource programs, strengthening partnerships with the scientific community, and sharing knowledge with educational institutions and the public.

For more information:

http://www.nature.nps.gov/challengedoc/