tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/national-park-service-centennial-25866/articles
National Park Service Centennial – The Conversation
2016-09-02T02:12:02Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/61883
2016-09-02T02:12:02Z
2016-09-02T02:12:02Z
Melting glaciers, shifting biomes and dying trees in our national parks – yet we can take action on climate change
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134840/original/image-20160819-30406-11z2frb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Human climate change has shifted vegetation and wildlife upslope in Yosemite National Park.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Gonzalez</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Trees are dying across Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks. Glaciers are melting in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Corals are bleaching in Virgin Islands National Park. Published field research conducted in U.S. national parks has detected these changes and shown that human climate change – carbon pollution from our power plants, cars and other human activities – is the cause.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.14/meet-the-man-helping-the-park-service-prepare-for-a-hotter-future">principal climate change scientist of the U.S. National Park Service</a>, I conduct research on how climate change has already altered the national parks and could further change them in the future. I also analyze how ecosystems in the national parks can naturally reduce climate change by storing carbon. I then help national park staff to use the scientific results to adjust management actions for potential future conditions.</p>
<p>Research in U.S. national parks contributes in important ways to global scientific understanding of climate change. National parks are unique places where it is easier to tell if human climate change is the main cause of changes that we observe in the field, because many parks have been protected from urbanization, timber harvesting, grazing and other nonclimate factors. The results of this research highlight how urgently we need to reduce carbon pollution to protect the future of the national parks.</p>
<h2>Melting glaciers, dying trees</h2>
<p>Human-caused climate change has altered landscapes, water, plants and animals in our national parks. Research in the parks has used two scientific procedures to show that this is occurring: detection and attribution. Detection is the finding of statistically significant changes over time. Attribution is the analysis of the different causes of the changes. </p>
<p>Around the world and in U.S. national parks, snow and ice are melting. Glaciers in numerous national parks have contributed to the global database of 168 000 glaciers that the <a href="http://ipcc.ch/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC) has used to show that <a href="http://ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter04_FINAL.pdf">human climate change is melting glaciers</a>. Field measurements and repeat photography show that Muir Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska <a href="https://www2.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/glaciers/repeat_photography.asp">lost 640 meters to melting from 1948 to 2000</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134844/original/image-20160819-30383-1drd07t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muir Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by William O. Field, courtesy of the National Park Service, National Snow and Ice Data Center, and U.S. Geological Survey.</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134845/original/image-20160819-30403-12jx7wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muir Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, 2004.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Bruce F. Molnia, courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Glacier National Park in Montana, Agassiz Glacier <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004GL019770">receded 1.5 kilometers from 1926 to 1979</a>. Snow measurements and tree cores from Glacier National Park, North Cascades National Park, and other national parks contributed to an analysis showing that snowpack across the western U.S. has dropped to its <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1201570">lowest level in eight centuries</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136158/original/image-20160831-30768-1jz1s6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Measuring glacier depth in North Cascades National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Jim McLeod, National Park Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Climate change is raising sea levels and heating ocean waters. Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California hosts the tidal gauge with the longest time series on the U.S. West Coast. That gauge has contributed to the global database that the IPCC used to show that human climate change has raised sea level <a href="https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.shtml?stnid=9414290">17 to 21 centimeters in the 20th century</a>. Measurements of sea surface temperatures by ocean buoys in Buck Island Reef National Monument, Channel Islands National Park, and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument have contributed to a global database that IPCC has used to show that human climate change is heating surface waters at a <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter03_FINAL.pdf">rate of 1.1 ± 0.2 degrees Celsius per century</a>.</p>
<p>On land, climate change is shifting the ranges where plants grow. A global analysis that colleagues and I published in 2010 found that, around the world, climate change has <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00558.x">shifted biomes</a> – major types of vegetation, such as forests and tundra – upslope or toward the poles or the Equator. This type of research requires long-term monitoring of permanent plots or reconstruction of past vegetation species distributions using historical information or analyses of tree rings or other markers of the past. In the African Sahel, I uncovered a <a href="http://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/17/c017p217.pdf">biome shift</a> by hiking 1,900 kilometers, counting thousands of trees, reconstructing past tree species distributions through verified interviews with village elders and counting thousands of trees on historical aerial photos.</p>
<p>Research has documented biome shifts in U.S. national parks. In Yosemite National Park, <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1657/1523-0430%282004%29036%5B0181%3AROSCIT%5D2.0.CO%3B2">subalpine forest shifted upslope into subalpine meadows</a> in the 20th century. In Noatak National Preserve, Alaska, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/11956860.1999.11682538">boreal conifer forest shifted northward into tundra</a> in the 19th and 20th centuries.</p>
<p>Wildlife is also shifting. In Yosemite National Park, scientists compared the species of small mammals they captured in 2006 to the species originally captured along an elevation transect from 1914 to 1920 and showed that climate change <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1163428">shifted the ranges of the American pika and other species 500 meters upslope</a>. Across the United States, the Audubon Society organizes its annual Christmas Bird Count in numerous national parks and other sites. Analyses of bird species results from 1975 to 2004 and possible local causes of changing distributions found that climate change shifted the winter ranges of a set of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/06-1072.1">254 bird species northward</a>. Examples include northward shifts of the evening grosbeak (<em>Coccothraustes vespertinus</em>) in Shenandoah National Park and the canyon wren (<em>Catherpes mexicanus</em>) in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136146/original/image-20160831-30780-6wv0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136146/original/image-20160831-30780-6wv0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136146/original/image-20160831-30780-6wv0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136146/original/image-20160831-30780-6wv0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136146/original/image-20160831-30780-6wv0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136146/original/image-20160831-30780-6wv0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136146/original/image-20160831-30780-6wv0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research in Yosemite National Park has documented a move of pikas to higher elevations as temperatures have risen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/npsclimatechange/23072904076/in/dateposted/">National Park Service/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Climate change is driving wildfires in and around many national parks in western states. Fire is natural and we need it to periodically renew forests, but too much wildfire can damage ecosystems and burn into towns and cities. Field data from 1916 to 2003 on wildfire in national parks and across the western U.S. show that, even during periods when land managers actively suppressed wildfires, fluctuations in the area that burned each year <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/07-1183.1/full">correlated with changes in temperature and aridity due to climate change</a>. Reconstruction of fires of the past 2,000 years in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.262.5135.885">Sequoia</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112711007110">Yosemite</a> national parks confirms that temperature and drought are the dominant factors explaining fire occurrence. </p>
<p>Climate change is killing trees due to increased drought, changes in wildfire patterns and increased bark beetle infestations. Tracking of trees in Kings Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks has contributed to a database that revealed how climate change has <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1165000">doubled tree mortality since 1955 across the western United States</a>.</p>
<p>High ocean temperatures due to climate change have bleached and killed coral. In 2005, hot sea surface temperatures killed <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013969">up to 80 percent of coral reef area</a> at sites in Biscayne National Park, Buck Island Reef National Monument, Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, Virgin Islands National Park and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. </p>
<h2>Managing national parks in a changing climate</h2>
<p>When the U.S. Congress established the National Park Service a century ago, it directed the agency to conserve the natural and cultural resources of the parks in ways to leave them “<a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2014-title54/pdf/USCODE-2014-title54.pdf">unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations</a>.” By altering the globally unique landscapes, waters, plants and animals of the national parks, climate change challenges the National Park Service to manage the parks for potential future conditions rather than as little pictures of a past to which we can no longer return. </p>
<p>For example, Yosemite National Park resource managers plan to use climate change data to target prescribed burns and wildland fires in areas that will be different from the areas selected using estimates of fire distributions from the 1850s. At Golden Gate National Recreation Area, resource managers have examined stewardship plans resource-by-resource to develop actions that account for climate change. At Everglades National Park, managers are using sea level rise data to help plan management of coastal areas. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136148/original/image-20160831-30768-4q5tm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136148/original/image-20160831-30768-4q5tm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136148/original/image-20160831-30768-4q5tm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136148/original/image-20160831-30768-4q5tm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136148/original/image-20160831-30768-4q5tm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136148/original/image-20160831-30768-4q5tm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136148/original/image-20160831-30768-4q5tm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fort Jefferson, located in Dry Tortugas National Park in the western Florida Keys, is vulnerable to sea level rise and increased storm surges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/npsclimatechange/25284166739/in/dateposted/">National Park Service/Flickr</a></span>
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<p>Continued climate change is not inevitable. It is in our power to reduce carbon pollution from cars, power plants and deforestation and prevent the most drastic consequences of climate change. In the face of climate change, we can help protect our most treasured places – the national parks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Gonzalez is a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley</span></em></p>
The National Park Service’s principal climate scientist explains why the parks are important laboratories for climate change research, and how climate change is altering the parks.
Patrick Gonzalez, Principal Climate Change Scientist, National Park Service
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64097
2016-08-25T09:53:15Z
2016-08-25T09:53:15Z
Corporate sponsors at Yosemite? The case against privatizing national parks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135433/original/image-20160824-30228-utiecb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Camping under the Milky Way, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/canyonlandsnps/21522072870/in/album-72157658673065869/">Emily Ogden, National Park Service/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The centennial of the National Park Service is inspiring an impressive amount of <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.14">soul-searching</a> about the agency and the lands for which it is responsible. This is timely and appropriate, as the NPS faces serious challenges that affect the preservation of these precious lands. </p>
<p>We both study the history of conservation efforts in the United States, and have also worked as rangers at national park sites in Utah, Arizona and California. Based on our experience with the park system, its stewards and its visitors, we caution against many major changes to the overall institutional structure of national park management. These proposals are neither persuasive nor popular, and they could cause unforeseen damage and loss of support for the system.</p>
<h2>Risky reforms</h2>
<p>Some observers have suggested significantly restructuring or even replacing NPS by privatizing the parks or transferring them to state control. Indeed, the <a href="https://www.gop.com/platform/americas-natural-resources/">Republican Party platform</a> calls on Congress to “immediately pass universal legislation providing for a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal government to convey certain federally controlled public lands to states.” It also calls for amending the Antiquities Act of 1906 to require congressional approval for designation of national monuments, such as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine that President Obama <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/08/24/fact-sheet-president-obama-designates-national-monument-maines-north">designated just this week</a>, and would require approval from the home state for creating any new national parks or monuments.</p>
<p>Legislators in nearly a dozen states are already pressing for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Politics-Policy-West-Third/dp/1607324563">greater state control over public lands</a>. Such proposals may have helped to inspire the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-twisted-roots-of-u-s-land-policy-in-the-west-52740">takeover of a national wildlife refuge</a> in Oregon earlier this year. But while individuals have called for privatizing or transferring federal public lands to state control for many years, units of the national park system <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/this-land-is-whose-land.aspx">have usually been excluded</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135434/original/image-20160824-30228-w6i9lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135434/original/image-20160824-30228-w6i9lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135434/original/image-20160824-30228-w6i9lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135434/original/image-20160824-30228-w6i9lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135434/original/image-20160824-30228-w6i9lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135434/original/image-20160824-30228-w6i9lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135434/original/image-20160824-30228-w6i9lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 1954 Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas led journalists on a 185-mile hike along Maryland’s historic C&O Canal to protest plans to turn the adjoining path into a highway. The canal and path became a national park in 1971.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalparkservice/5657197251/in/album-72157626582929504/">National Park Service/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Any such proposals involving national park lands should be cause for concern. The empirical record regarding state parks is illustrative. Most states have either cut their funding for state park systems substantially in recent years or required them to be <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/17580/summary">more self-sustaining</a>. This trend has <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/04/14/state-parks-find-new-ways-to-save-make-money">increased pressure on state park managers</a> to generate revenue. </p>
<p>State parks thus have added hotels, lodges, golf courses, ski resorts and various forms of commercial sponsorship. Now the National Park Service reportedly is considering <a href="http://lawstreetmedia.com/blogs/weird-news-blog/americas-national-parks-now-brought-corporate-sponsors/">selling corporate sponsorships</a> to raise money for unfunded maintenance projects. </p>
<h2>National parks are valuable public resources</h2>
<p>Critics often assume that national parks are too costly, and it is true that the United States spends <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/upload/FY-2016-Greenbook.pdf">about US$3 billion yearly</a> on the park system. But parks <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm">generate more than five times that amount</a> in spending by visitors in communities within 60 miles of a park, and create hundred thousands of jobs.</p>
<p>In a recent study, scholars at the Harvard Kennedy School and Colorado State University calculated that Americans <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-think-national-parks-are-worth-us-92-billion-but-we-dont-fund-them-accordingly-57617">value the national parks at $92 billion annually</a>. That figure represents what Americans would pay to preserve the parks intact, not an actual flow of dollars to the U.S. Treasury. Nonetheless, we can only wish that Americans thought all government expenditures were so worthwhile.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135435/original/image-20160824-30259-13i3lc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135435/original/image-20160824-30259-13i3lc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135435/original/image-20160824-30259-13i3lc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135435/original/image-20160824-30259-13i3lc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135435/original/image-20160824-30259-13i3lc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135435/original/image-20160824-30259-13i3lc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135435/original/image-20160824-30259-13i3lc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children meet a park ranger on a field trip to Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalparkservice/21461033062/in/album-72157658301470718/">National Park Service/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reasonable reforms</h2>
<p>We are not suggesting that the NPS is doing everything right. As we and many other analysts have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/To_Conserve_Unimpaired.html?id=Rx-uo4Erq6EC">argued</a>, the national park system is contending with <a href="http://lawschool.unm.edu/nrj/volumes/56/index.php">significant challenges</a>, including deteriorating infrastructure and micromanagement from political authorities. </p>
<p>But many reforms are possible without privatizing parks or transferring them to state control. First, NPS could pay greater heed to lessons learned by state parks. The agency has often been somewhat insular and unreceptive to different ideas. State park managers, consistent with the tradition of innovation in a federal system, have tried various approaches to problems that could be useful at the national level. </p>
<p>As one example, California developed <a href="https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25417">clear criteria for accepting corporate sponsorships</a> in response to serious budgetary shortfalls a few years ago. The National Park Service currently is considering a similar policy, and weighing California’s approach could help NPS address <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/05/19/a-look-at-the-brouhaha-on-donor-naming-rights-in-u-s-national-parks/">concerns from park supporters</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135436/original/image-20160824-30212-1pbhztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135436/original/image-20160824-30212-1pbhztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135436/original/image-20160824-30212-1pbhztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135436/original/image-20160824-30212-1pbhztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135436/original/image-20160824-30212-1pbhztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135436/original/image-20160824-30212-1pbhztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135436/original/image-20160824-30212-1pbhztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Logo available to corporate supporters of California state parks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24417">California Dept of Parks and Recreation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, the current national park fee system is generous to a fault. For instance, any American age 62 or older can buy a Senior Eagle Pass that is valid for the rest of his or her life for a one-time fee of $10. With the park system facing a $12 billion backlog of unfunded maintenance projects, NPS should not be virtually giving away access, especially to people like us who would be more than willing to pay more for this lifetime pass. Large fees increases are controversial and unlikely to pass Congress, however. </p>
<p>In some ways the National Park Service is a captive of its own popularity and success. Many writers have <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Repairing-Paradise-Restoration-Americas-National/dp/0815722702/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472061224&sr=1-3&keywords=national+parks+lowry">argued</a> that the NPS needs to focus on protecting park resources, and it has done so. Now the agency is also tackling new challenges, such as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/kids/index.cfm">bringing more young people to parks</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1244/index.htm">building a more diverse workforce</a> and ensuring that the park system <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/index.htm">reflects the experiences of all Americans</a>. </p>
<p>These all are admirable goals, but they add to the core mission that Congress wrote for NPS in its <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/management/organic-act-of-1916.htm">1916 charter law</a>: providing for the enjoyment of the parks while preserving park resources “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”</p>
<p>Radical proposals for restructuring the NPS are not as popular as advocates may think. In a 2012 Hart Research survey, 88 percent of voters – including 81 percent of Republicans – stated that it was either quite or extremely important for the federal government to <a href="https://www.npca.org/resources/2566-poll-strong-bipartisan-support-for-national-parks">protect parks</a>. In 2013 another Hart poll of western voters – who might be expected to favor the idea of restructuring parks – found that 65 percent supported <a href="http://westernpriorities.org/2013/06/13/poll-of-westerners-on-drilling-on-public-lands-65-protection-30-drilling/">permanent protection</a> for wilderness, parks and open spaces. </p>
<p>And in 2014, when the Center for American Progress asked 1,600 voters in Rocky Mountain states whether public lands should be managed by the federal or state governments, <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release/2013/06/17/66706/release-poll-shows-voters-want-public-lands-protected-campaign-launched-to-put-energy-and-conservation-on-equal-ground/">62 percent chose federal control and only 17 percent favored state control</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135437/original/image-20160824-30209-htruhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135437/original/image-20160824-30209-htruhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135437/original/image-20160824-30209-htruhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135437/original/image-20160824-30209-htruhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135437/original/image-20160824-30209-htruhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135437/original/image-20160824-30209-htruhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135437/original/image-20160824-30209-htruhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photographing Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yellowstonenps/24301818341/in/album-72157648796243414/">Jim Peaco, National Park Service/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As some commentators have <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/National-parks-trails-define-public-good-4783854.php">pointed out</a>, national parks fit the classic economic definition of a <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/public-good.asp">public good</a> – something from which no one is excluded, and that one person can consume without reducing its value to other people. Author Wallace Stegner put it more elegantly when he noted that without national parks <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Uws_hCokSW4C&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=wallace+stegner+millions+of+lives+would+have+been+poorer&source=bl&ots=LrVpN99pAp&sig=_dmjsn6F286gWQ_R_7JMf5lJjew&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmnM_DldvOAhUISyYKHXmzDwwQ6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=wallace%20stegner%20millions%20of%20lives%20would%20have%20been%20poorer&f=false">“millions of lives would have been poorer.”</a> </p>
<p>Fundamentally, the national parks belong to us all. As environmental historian Alfred Runte observes, they were inspired partly by pride and the desire to show that we had <a href="https://www.amazon.com/National-Parks-American-Experience-4th/dp/1589794753/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472061944&sr=1-1&keywords=national+parks+the+american+experience">landscapes rivaling the cathedrals of Europe</a>. Today that system is the envy of the world, and cause for a different kind of national pride. It still celebrates those awe-inspiring landscapes, but it also tells the world a more complex story, from precolonial times to ongoing struggles for equality today. </p>
<p>As former NPS rangers, we’re proud to have participated in protecting what many observers call <a href="http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/">“America’s best idea</a>.” Privatizing the parks or turning them over to the states runs directly against the idea that they are for all Americans, forever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Freemuth receives funding from USGS and BLM. He is the Executive Director of the Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Lowry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As the National Park Service turns 100 years old, two conservation scholars and former park rangers respond to critics who support privatizing national parks or putting them under state control.
John Freemuth, Professor of Public Policy and Senior Fellow Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy, Boise State University
William Lowry, Professor of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/57708
2016-07-29T09:31:53Z
2016-07-29T09:31:53Z
More than scenery: National parks preserve our history and culture
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131286/original/image-20160720-31117-1gb84fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ancestral Pueblo carving at Petroglyph National Monument, New Mexico</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Petroglyph13.jpg">Steven C. Price/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On August 25, 2016, the National Park Service (NPS) will celebrate its <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/index.htm">100th birthday</a>. But what’s a party without people? In fact, while many Americans think of national parks as places to experience nature, they also preserve unique resources that tell stories about the everyday lives of people and their American journeys. </p>
<p>Along with protecting natural wonders, such as Yellowstone National Park’s geysers, the National Park Service is charged with preserving cultural resources that are relevant to living communities. Many of the more than 400 sites in the national park system are repositories of history and heritages of people and communities – some well-known, others underrepresented – that shape the national dialog. Particularly in recent decades, NPS has worked to showcase a diverse range of human stories that help us understand our nation’s past and present.</p>
<p>Today NPS’ role in cultural heritage preservation – collecting and interpreting stories about people and the many ways they inhabit places – is more important than ever. These stories help us to see our similarities and better understand our differences as a society. And this work helps NPS tell a national story of relevance and significance to all. </p>
<h2>Telling diverse stories</h2>
<p>Our national park system includes many of our nation’s most important and, in some cases, most contested cultural sites and resources. Examples include <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jame/index.htm">Historic Jamestowne</a>, where English colonization of North America began; the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/trte/index.htm">Trail of Tears National Historic Trail</a>, which commemorates the forcible removal of the Cherokee people from Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee; the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/hatu/index.htm">Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument</a>, which honors Tubman’s heroic work leading enslaved people to freedom; and the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm">Manzanar National Historic Site</a>, one of 10 camps where Japanese-American citizens were interned during World War II. </p>
<p>Most recently, on June 24, 2016, President Obama designated the area around the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/ston/index.htm">Stonewall Inn</a> in New York City, where protests sparked the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in 1969, as a national monument. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ywtvJyXDWkk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">President Obama announces his designation of the Stonewall Inn and surrounding area as the first national monument honoring the struggle for LGBT rights.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Each of these sites links our nation’s past and present in challenging and enriching ways. As a cultural anthropologist, I <a href="http://news.usf.edu/article/templates/?z=123&a=2986">work with the National Park Service</a> to involve underrepresented communities in interpretations of place and to ensure that our park system embraces and reflects diverse experiences. </p>
<p>This work is not just about written history and preserving the past. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1209/crespi.htm">The National Park Service’s Ethnography Program</a>, created in 1981, focuses on “living people linked to the parks by religion, legend, deep historical attachment, subsistence use, or other aspects of their culture.” Through consultation and research, the program works to ensure that voices and practices of these communities are heard and taken into account in decision making and administration of National Park Service sites. </p>
<h2>Conserving objects and experiences</h2>
<p>For example, in 2010 I conducted research in rural southeast Georgia with students from the University of South Florida (USF) focusing on the community of Archery. Our <a href="http://heritagelab.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Archery-Ethnohistorical-REU-2010.pdf">study</a> documented Archery’s roles as the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/jimmy_carter_nhs.html">boyhood home of former President Jimmy Carter</a> and home of Bishop William Decker Johnson (1867-1936), who was a prominent preacher, educator and founder of the Johnson Home Industrial College, which started in 1912 in Archery as a school for black youth. Archery is also the site of the St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, Johnson’s home congregation. St. Mark represents the heart of the historically African-American community that constituted the majority of Archery during President Carter’s boyhood. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131279/original/image-20160720-31129-173dt2c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historic marker in Archery, Georgia (click for larger view).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Antoinette Jackson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used tools and methods that encouraged participation and enabled people to share their stories. This included conducting interviews and collecting oral histories from former residents of Archery, including President Carter. In addition, we participated in community events like the annual May Day festival and visited with people in their homes, businesses and churches. </p>
<p>We documented stories about farming, fishing, segregated schooling and special events like family reunions, baseball games and train rides. And we linked these stories with material culture findings, such as photographs, remains of old buildings, abandoned wells and gravesites, and with places such as train depots, baseball fields, ponds, pecan groves and pine tree stands. Together they tell a story about a small community in rural Georgia that has national significance. </p>
<p>Our team also translated some of the stories and information collected into maps, posters and other visual and digitally accessible products in order to showcase the community of Archery to people who were unfamiliar with its history and heritage. For example, with the help of community elders, we surveyed the St. Mark A.M.E. Church cemetery and identified nearly 200 graves, some of which had previously gone unmarked. We created a detailed map of the cemetery with associated names, and a geographic information system (GIS) database that digitally displays information listed on each grave marker and shows a picture of each gravesite. </p>
<p>As Archery continues to work on preserving its past and securing its future, preservation and management of the cemetery should remain a key goal. It is an integral part of the Archery community. For example, it allows us to see multigenerational connections and extended family histories and reflect on them, such as those of Zenobia Wakefield, (1867-1962), midwife and member of a founding family of the community, and Bishop William Decker Johnson. The cemetery links the past to the present in tangible and intangible ways.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131676/original/image-20160724-26811-1afru2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131676/original/image-20160724-26811-1afru2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131676/original/image-20160724-26811-1afru2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131676/original/image-20160724-26811-1afru2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131676/original/image-20160724-26811-1afru2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131676/original/image-20160724-26811-1afru2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131676/original/image-20160724-26811-1afru2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Johnnie Raven maps his family’s plot in the St. Mark A.M.E. cemetery in Archery, Georgia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Whitney Goodwin/USF Heritage Research Lab</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our cemetery mapping work, ethnographic interviews and other community engagement activities pursued as part of this project demonstrate the power of incorporating community knowledge into cultural resource management and heritage preservation initiatives. The National Park Service cited our ethnohistory study of Archery in its 2015 <a href="https://www.nps.gov/resources/2016.htm?id=16EC3D02-1DD8-B71C-07C4B7FF1138DEF0">Call to Action</a> plan, which pledges that in its second century, the park system will “fully represent our nation’s ethnically and culturally diverse communities” and help communities protect places and objects that are special to them.</p>
<p>Our Archery community project materials are archived at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains, Georgia and are on display at the St. Mark A.M.E. Church. Our maps and posters can also be accessed via the <a href="http://heritagelab.org/?page_id=1782">USF Heritage Research Lab</a>. </p>
<h2>What places can tell us</h2>
<p>As our work in Archery shows, we can find unique and precious connections to our past in seemingly unassuming places. In his book “Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache” (1996), anthropologist Keith Basso captures what places can mean to people and how people help us know places. Basso writes that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“places possess a marked capacity for triggering acts of self-reflection, inspiring thoughts about who one presently is, or memories of who one used to be, or musings on who one might become. And that is not all. Place-based thoughts about the self lead commonly to thoughts of other things - other places, other people, other times, whole networks of associations.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wisdom does sit in places, and in stories people tell about those places, and the lives people live in those places. Perhaps we should reconsider the artificial lines that we often draw between natural and cultural resources, between tangible and intangible cultural resources and between historic resources in museums and the knowledge we can find within communities, families and their lived experiences. </p>
<p>The national park system provides a window into stories about places, people and experiences. This makes it, and NPS’ cultural resources and heritage preservation programs – particularly those focused on engaging living communities – invaluable assets for educating future generations. We can learn as much about our American journey from people such as Bishop William Decker Johnson and communities such Archery as we can from experiencing the Grand Canyon or the mountains of Yosemite.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57708/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Antoinette Jackson receives funding from the National Park Service. She is affiliated with the National Park Service and was the Southeast Region Cultural Anthropologist until May 31, 2016. </span></em></p>
When we think of national parks, many people picture geysers or mountain peaks. But the park system also protects historic sites and objects that show how the U.S. has evolved into a diverse society.
Antoinette Jackson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/57617
2016-07-11T02:18:34Z
2016-07-11T02:18:34Z
Americans think national parks are worth US$92 billion, but we don’t fund them accordingly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129734/original/image-20160707-30672-107ss0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Viewing wildlife in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yellowstonenps/8381920470/in/album-72157630275575066/">National Park Service/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the quirks of government accounting is that our nation’s most valuable assets – from aircraft carriers to interstate highways – don’t appear on any national balance sheet. In part this is because it is hard to put a value on them. How can we calculate the worth of the Washington Monument? And yet, without such a yardstick, it is hard to calibrate just how much money we should spend to maintain and replenish these precious assets over long periods of time.</p>
<p>America’s national parks – often called <a href="https://www.nps.gov/americasbestidea/">“America’s best idea”</a> – are a prime example. The National Park Service (NPS), which manages the park system, celebrated its <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/index.htm">100th birthday</a> last summer. From Yellowstone to Ellis Island, the 412 places that NPS protects tell America’s story.</p>
<p>But what are they worth?</p>
<p>Past attempts to answer this question have typically focused on how much money visitors spend in or around the parks. But that is only a small part of the story. In particular, it doesn’t account for people who don’t visit the parks, but who nevertheless treasure the iconic scenery and want America’s historic battlefields, wildlife habitats and finest seashores to be protected. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.nationalparks.org/npf/PDF_files/NPS-TEV-Report-2016.pdf">study</a> we conducted independently of the National Park Service, we sought to develop the first-ever comprehensive assessment of what the parks are worth to the public. We calculated that Americans put a total value of US$92 billion per year on our national parks, monuments, seashores and recreation areas. However, what we also concluded is that we are not funding the park system at a level that reflects its value.</p>
<h2>Why calculate the parks’ worth?</h2>
<p>This project responds to the 2009 report of the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/civic/resources/Commission_Report.pdf">Second Century Commission</a>, a group of prominent scientists, historians, legislators and conservationists that considered how to ensure that the national parks thrive over the next century. The commission called for full government funding for NPS, but also recommended creating an endowment to help the agency survive flat or declining federal appropriations. </p>
<p>To lay the groundwork for new funding approaches, we needed to establish a baseline for the true economic value of the park system. This had never been done before. </p>
<p>Using methods similar to the way federal agencies analyze proposed regulations, we conducted a peer-reviewed economic study to estimate what the national parks are worth to Americans. We asked a representative sample of more than 700 households how much they would pay in increased taxes to preserve those assets for themselves and their grandchildren. </p>
<p>Our results showed that Americans put a total value of $92 billion per year on our national parks, monuments, seashores and recreation areas. This represents the amount respondents would pay to preserve the parks ($62 billion) and their programs ($30 billion) – whether they actually visit the parks or not. Ninety-five percent said that protecting national parks for future generations was important, and 81 percent were willing to pay higher federal taxes to ensure that the park system was protected and preserved. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129740/original/image-20160707-30676-bj0fac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129740/original/image-20160707-30676-bj0fac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129740/original/image-20160707-30676-bj0fac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129740/original/image-20160707-30676-bj0fac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129740/original/image-20160707-30676-bj0fac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129740/original/image-20160707-30676-bj0fac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129740/original/image-20160707-30676-bj0fac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visitors at Mather Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. More than five million people visited the park in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/grand_canyon_nps/5738165358/in/album-72157626052533148/">Michael Quinn, National Park Service/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our estimated value is actually a conservative figure, for several reasons. First, we calculated a value only for the percentage of U.S. households who returned the survey. Those who didn’t respond were assumed to place zero value on the parks – even though our post-survey test showed that most of the nonrespondents simply didn’t have time to fill out a long questionnaire. We chose the most conservative approach in terms of methodology, weighting of the sample and handling responses from people who opposed paying higher taxes on principle. </p>
<p>We also excluded some park benefits which fall into the category of “<a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/public-good.asp">public goods</a>.” For example, trees in the parks store large amounts of carbon and absorb pollutants from soil and water. We have studied these topics <a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/25038/carbon_sequestration_in_the_us_national_parks.html">separately</a> using different methodologies. </p>
<p>One surprising finding is that the public cares a lot about programs that the National Park Service runs, such as teaching kids about nature, developing teacher curriculum materials and interpreting historical events. In recent years NPS has devoted enormous time and resources to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/teachers/index.htm">educational efforts</a>, such as the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/kids/features/2015/everyKid.cfm">“Every Kid in A Park” initiative</a>, which aims to bring every fourth grader in the United States to a national park. NPS is also broadening its historical interpretation services to reflect the diversity of our population and experiences of groups such as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/africanamericanheritage.htm">African-Americans</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/heritageinitiatives/latino/">Latinos/Latinas</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/womenshistory.htm">women</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129735/original/image-20160707-30676-117fm0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129735/original/image-20160707-30676-117fm0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129735/original/image-20160707-30676-117fm0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129735/original/image-20160707-30676-117fm0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129735/original/image-20160707-30676-117fm0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129735/original/image-20160707-30676-117fm0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129735/original/image-20160707-30676-117fm0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Learning about bugs at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalparkservice/5658566517/in/album-72157626586158342/">National Park Service/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some government officials contend that these efforts are <a href="http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2013/10/senator-coburn-blames-congress-bloated-national-park-service-state-national-park-system24163">low priorities</a> compared to basic maintenance. But NPS officials see teaching young people about historical sites and conservation as a way to make sure that the next generation of Americans feel connected to the parks and to nature. Our study suggests that NPS is on the right track. </p>
<h2>Protecting the parks</h2>
<p>Our analysis provides a new perspective on funding for the national park system. The law that Congress passed when it created the NPS charges the agency with preserving the parks “unimpaired” forever. But NPS gets its funding from a combination of visitor fees and an annual congressional appropriation, which total some $3 billion yearly. That amount is inadequate to maintain and invest in an asset valued at over $90 billion. </p>
<p>Moreover, by our calculations, Congress has cut its funding for NPS by 15 percent over the past 15 years when inflation is factored in. Consequently, the agency is fighting an uphill battle to keep parks pristine and unspoiled as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/news/release.htm?id=1775">visitor numbers climb</a> and climate change <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/effectsinparks.htm">stresses natural resources</a> in the parks.</p>
<p>NPS has a backlog of overdue maintenance projects that stands at <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/plandesignconstruct/defermain.htm">$12 billion and rising</a>. The list includes park infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, campgrounds, trails and utilities, along with preventing forest fires and repairing historical monuments and visitor facilities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129741/original/image-20160707-30705-1rhf84x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129741/original/image-20160707-30705-1rhf84x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129741/original/image-20160707-30705-1rhf84x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129741/original/image-20160707-30705-1rhf84x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129741/original/image-20160707-30705-1rhf84x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129741/original/image-20160707-30705-1rhf84x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129741/original/image-20160707-30705-1rhf84x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Volunteers help repair a damaged trail in Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?hiderightrail=true&showrawlisting=false&id=CD21F64B-155D-4519-3E8FF61C94155795&tagid=0&maxrows=20&startrow=21">National Park Service</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The NPS has also been hurt by cuts to the federal <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/lwcf/index.htm">Land and Water Conservation Fund</a>, which provides money to purchase private properties within parks when they go up for sale in order to prevent development by private buyers. NPS is required to provide services such as utilities and road access to these properties, which are known as <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/swiss-cheese-national-park/405865/">inholdings</a>, so often the agency saves money by buying them and merging them into the surrounding park.</p>
<p>Our study reinforces the Second Century Commission’s conclusion that in order to thrive, the national park system needs a new funding model and a more flexible funding structure. Many universities, museums and other charitable institutions use endowments to achieve long-term financial stability that supports their long-term missions. The commission recommended creating an endowment for the park system to provide a steady income that could help NPS to thrive into the next century – for example, by enabling it to issue “green bonds” to pay for infrastructure repairs. We also believe that as a 100th birthday gift, Congress should also give NPS a one-time grant to pay off its maintenance backlog. </p>
<p>Congress is considering <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3556">legislation</a> that would establish a nonprofit national parks endowment to supplement federal dollars. Another pending bill would create a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4680">Centennial Challenge Fund</a> that would match private dollars with federal money to support signature projects to enhance visitors’ experiences. But other proposals would threaten NPS funding, either through direct cuts or indirectly – for example, by slashing budgets needed to enforce the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. </p>
<p>As the National Park Service celebrates its 101st birthday, our study demonstrates that the American public benefits from just knowing that our national parks are protected for current and future generations. The continued uncertainty of living year to year on an annual budget is incompatible with NPS’ responsibility to provide perpetual protection for the treasured public lands, monuments and ecosystems that make up our national parks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda J. Bilmes is a member of the U.S. Department of Interior National Park Advisory Board and served on the Second Century Commission.
The study described in this article was funded by the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, the Turner Foundation, the Summit Foundation, the National Park Foundation and UPD Consulting Inc.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Loomis has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.</span></em></p>
A study estimates that Americans would pay $92 billion yearly in extra taxes to protect national parks. But the Trump Administration’s budget calls for cuts.
Linda J. Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance, Harvard Kennedy School
John Loomis, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56454
2016-06-07T10:03:57Z
2016-06-07T10:03:57Z
How the Antiquities Act has expanded the national park system and fueled struggles over land protection
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125399/original/image-20160606-13074-ljiigc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, built by Anasazi c. 1200. The Antiquities Act was passed to protect such sites from looters.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/cliff_dwellings_home.htm">National Park Service</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Americans anticipate summer vacation, many are planning trips to our nation’s iconic national parks, such as the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm">Grand Canyon</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm">Zion</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm">Acadia</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm">Olympic</a>. But they may not realize that these and other parks exist because presidents used their power under the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/54/320301">Antiquities Act</a>, enacted on June 8, 1906, to protect those places from exploitation and development. </p>
<p>The Antiquities Act has saved many special places, but at times its use has angered nearby communities. Some critics argue that presidents have used the act to restrict natural resource development. Others simply do not like the fact that the president has such power – even though Congress gave it to presidents by passing the law. </p>
<p>As a seasonal park ranger at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in the 1970s, I hiked through areas that were first protected under the Antiquities Act. They include Zion and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/care/index.htm">Capitol Reef national parks</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nabr/index.htm">Natural Bridges National Monument</a> and the area that would become the <a href="http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/grand_staircase-escalante.html">Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument</a>. Much of the scenic redrock <a href="http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/province/coloplat.html">Colorado Plateau</a> region, which covers 140,000 square miles in the <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/four-corners-southwest-road-trip/">Four Corners</a> region of the Southwest, has been protected from development under the Antiquities Act. </p>
<p>While the Antiquities Act has played a crucial role in the growth of our national park system, it has become a flashpoint for disputes from Alaska to Maine over protection and use of public lands. For that reason, it works best when it is not used arbitrarily or too often, and when the public understands and supports its use. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125403/original/image-20160606-13074-sa9fvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125403/original/image-20160606-13074-sa9fvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125403/original/image-20160606-13074-sa9fvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125403/original/image-20160606-13074-sa9fvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125403/original/image-20160606-13074-sa9fvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125403/original/image-20160606-13074-sa9fvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125403/original/image-20160606-13074-sa9fvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Bill Clinton signs a proclamation creating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah 1996. Because the act was unpopular with Utah politicians, the signing ceremony was held at the Grand Canyon in Arizona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://clinton3.nara.gov/CEQ/Record/091896quote.html">National Archives and Records Administration</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Looting and vandalism</h2>
<p>The Antiquities Act was passed to conserve the stunning archaeological treasures of the American Southwest. As settlers, prospectors, ranchers and explorers pushed into the region in the late 1800s, they discovered unique and spectacular sites left by <a href="http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/ahc/who_were_the_anasazi.html">Anasazi</a> – ancestral Pueblo people who lived in the area from about A.D. 700 to 1600. Examples included dwellings such as the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/cd_cliff_palace.htm">Cliff Palace</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/cd_spruce_tree_house.htm">Spruce Tree House</a> at what would eventually become <a href="https://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm">Mesa Verde National Park</a>. </p>
<p>These <a href="http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/Books/bid1649.htm">discoveries</a> led to pot hunting, looting and shipping of artifacts to institutions in the east and abroad. Scholars began to call for controls. J. Walter Fewkes, a prominent archaeologist, <a href="http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1302">warned in 1896</a> that unless this plundering of ancient sites was curbed, “many of the most interesting monuments of the prehistoric peoples of our Southwest will be little more than mounds of debris at the bases of the cliffs.” </p>
<p>Congress passed the “Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities” on June 8, 1906. Its key provision states: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[T]he President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>How fortuitous it was for the national park system that Theodore Roosevelt – who strongly believed in using his authority to conserve precious natural resources – was president in 1906. Over the next three years Roosevelt designated 18 national monuments, some of which Congress later elevated into national parks or national historical parks. They include Arizona’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm">Petrified Forest National Park</a>, a landscape of fossilized trees and a “painted desert”; <a href="https://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm">Chaco Culture National Historic Park</a>, a stunning and complex Anasazi site in New Mexico; and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/pinn/index.htm">Pinnacles National Park</a>, a swath of rock spires and woodlands in California’s Central Coast Range. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125407/original/image-20160606-13091-6i42ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125407/original/image-20160606-13091-6i42ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125407/original/image-20160606-13091-6i42ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125407/original/image-20160606-13091-6i42ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125407/original/image-20160606-13091-6i42ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125407/original/image-20160606-13091-6i42ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125407/original/image-20160606-13091-6i42ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, the first national monument, designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beth_day/3998001539/in/photolist-76hNz2-6EsSBx-bsUQ7n-aLPg62-3HLigd-4ZFq6v-cXKWB7-8KTyEU-a6pqH3-a6pfhd-987ZC9-6TQncA-a6pb1b-76BaKP-6MEHje-aLPkkR-a6mB3g-6TPZrd-55uYmd-8fy5C3-aLPAia-bn4Sc7-aLQ2pH-6UrJXS-aLP2MX-a6mvcn-a6pqgL-6XMQzM-a6mjZB-aLPYNr-6XMQLV-5cCGSW-6RrAMj-a6pmnj-4jTiyu-qfBKZZ-aLNZmx-fzfozi-a6p9Ru-8RvwUp-57LPBV-aLP9rX-5KobBR-puxQNz-a6miVT-cSTrFw-97pB8H-a6mtuZ-6Qibap-6TQ4V3">Beth Day/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Every U.S. president in the past century except for Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush has used his authority under the Antiquities Act to create new national monuments. Both Congress and the president can take this step, but in practice most monuments have been designated by presidents. (In contrast, only Congress can designate national parks.)</p>
<p>Both national monuments and national parks can be large in size. The original Grand Canyon National Monument, proclaimed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1909, covered more than 800,000 acres. Although the law explicitly says that monuments should be as small as possible consistent with conservation, courts have <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2003/oct/08/local/me-sbriefs8.4">upheld the creation of large monuments</a> if the proclamations justify protecting large areas. </p>
<h2>Power struggles</h2>
<p>Use of the Antiquities Act has fueled tensions between the federal government and states over land control – and not just in the Southwest region that the law was originally intended to protect. Communities have opposed creating new monuments for fear of losing revenues from livestock grazing, energy development, or other activities, although such uses have been allowed to continue at many national monuments. </p>
<p>In the 1930s Wyoming residents objected when John D. Rockefeller offered to donate land that he owned near Jackson Hole to enlarge the original Grand Teton National Park. When Rockefeller threatened to sell the property instead, President Franklin Roosevelt combined the land with 179,000 acres from Grand Teton National Forest to create a national monument in 1943, which later was added to the national park. Wyoming Republican Senator Edward Robertson <a href="http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/Books/bid1649.htm">called the step</a> a “foul, sneaking Pearl Harbor blow.” In 1950 Congress amended the Antiquities Act to require congressional approval for any future monuments designated in Wyoming.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=646&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125409/original/image-20160606-13067-f1imok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">T-shirt protesting President Jimmy Carter’s designation of Gates of the Arctic National Monument in Alaska, 1978 (click for larger view).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/gaar/learn/historyculture/creation-of-gates-of-the-arctic-national-park-and-preserve.htm">National Park Service</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The next controversy flared in 1978 when President Jimmy Carter, acting on advice from Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=30228">designated 17 national monuments</a> in Alaska totaling more than 50 million acres. Carter took this step after one of Alaska’s senators, Mike Gravel, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/rothman/chap11a.htm">delayed action</a> and threatened to filibuster pending legislation to create national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges on these lands. </p>
<p>Alaskans <a href="http://www.adn.com/commentary/article/thirty-five-years-ago-carter-drew-wrath-many-alaskans/2013/12/01/">protested</a>, but in 1980 Congress passed compromise legislation that converted the lands to parks and refuges. Once again, Congress amended the Antiquities Act to require congressional approval for any future national monuments larger than 5,000 acres in Alaska. </p>
<p>In 1996 President Bill Clinton designated the <a href="http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/grand_staircase-escalante.html">Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument</a> in Utah, a spectacular swath of redrock canyons and mesas in the Colorado Plateau. Clinton administration officials sought to protect the areas from proposed coal mining nearby. The Interior Department tried to soften local opposition by offering Utah access to coal resources elsewhere through land exchanges. But Clinton proclaimed the monument without much advance consultation with local communities, leaving some Utahans feeling <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/us/politics/20utah.html">blindsided and resentful</a> years later.</p>
<h2>Proceeding with caution</h2>
<p>The Antiquities Act is still a valuable tool. President Obama has used it to protect <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/us/obama-california-national-monument.html">several million acres</a> in Nevada, Texas and California. But future designations will succeed only if federal agencies consult widely in advance with local communities and politicians to confirm that support exists. </p>
<p>Invoking the Antiquities Act inevitably raises broader conflicts over preservation versus use of land and state versus federal land management. These issues are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-twisted-roots-of-u-s-land-policy-in-the-west-52740">deeply rooted in Western states</a>, and have flared up in recent years, most recently in the standoff at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/malheur-occupation-is-over-but-the-war-for-americas-public-lands-rages-on-54943">Malheur National Wildlife Refuge</a>. </p>
<p>Sometimes these debates produce compromises. In Idaho, <a href="http://magicvalley.com/app/projects/BWC/BWC.html">pressure from conservationists</a> to create a national monument in the Boulder White Clouds Mountains spurred passage of a bill last year that created several <a href="http://simpson.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=121113">wilderness areas</a> there. No new roads will be built in these zones, but existing grazing and most recreation activities will continue. </p>
<p>A similar controversy is generating heated debate in <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/bears-ears-monument-gets-closer-to-reality">Utah</a>, where conservationists and tribes are lobbying for the federal government to designate a scenic area called Bears Ears as a national monument. The region is <a href="http://www.bearsearscoalition.org/">sacred to Native Americans</a> and contains thousands of archaeological sites, many of which have been <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3856162-155/op-ed-protect-bears-ears-before-the">looted and vandalized</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125410/original/image-20160606-13074-vldhkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125410/original/image-20160606-13074-vldhkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125410/original/image-20160606-13074-vldhkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125410/original/image-20160606-13074-vldhkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125410/original/image-20160606-13074-vldhkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125410/original/image-20160606-13074-vldhkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125410/original/image-20160606-13074-vldhkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bears Ears, Utah, has been proposed for national monument status by tribes and conservation advocates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/5422149370/in/photolist-zxM6eM-9g8W6Y-9jDRH7-9jALaD-9jAKWv-9jDRad-9jALuH-9jALCp-9TfoZB">J. Brew/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Maine, businesswoman Roxanne Quimby has tried for more than a decade to donate land she owns to the federal government to <a href="http://katahdinwoods.org/about/">create a new national park and recreation area</a>. Opponents say this step would harm the timber industry and force federal authority on a region that prizes local control. Now the family is proposing to have the land designated as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/proposed-national-park-is-a-multimillion-dollar-gift-wrapped-up-in-distrust/2016/05/22/0f036aa0-1d0b-11e6-b6e0-c53b7ef63b45_story.html">national monument</a>. Environmental advocates openly call this action <a href="http://www.nrcm.org/projects-hot-issues/woods-wildlife-and-wilderness/a-new-national-park-recreation-area-in-northern-maine/">a first step</a> toward creating a new national park.</p>
<p>Another use of the Antiquities Act bears watching: using it to conserve and spotlight sites that mark important moments in American history, such as the new <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.7/how-to-build-the-second-century-of-american-conservation">Cesar Chavez National Monument</a> in California. Perhaps using the act to celebrate our history and learn from our failures can increase support for it as an enabling instrument of American conservation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56454/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Freemuth is affiliated with the Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy as Senior Fellow for Environment and Public Lands</span></em></p>
The 1906 Antiquities Act gives presidents unilateral power to protect land as national monuments. The law has saved important places, but has also fueled intense conflicts over land control.
John Freemuth, Professor of Public Policy and Senior Fellow Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy, Boise State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56052
2016-05-30T01:00:32Z
2016-05-30T01:00:32Z
Restoring the Everglades will benefit both humans and nature
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124238/original/image-20160527-22086-mbhgr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flock of ibis, Everglades National Park.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/evergladesnps/5477254462/in/album-72157626011077857/">Linda Friar, National Park Service/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Everglades National Park (ENP) is our only national wetland park, and one of the largest aquascapes in the world. Perhaps more than any other U.S. national park, ENP’s treasures are hard to defend. Lying at the southern end of an immense watershed the size of New Jersey, ENP is caught between the largest man-made water project in the world upstream and a rapidly rising ocean downstream. </p>
<p>The park and the wider Everglades ecosystem have suffered immense ecological damage from years of overdrainage to prevent flooding and promote development. In 2000 Congress approved the largest ecological restoration project in the world – the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/cerp.htm">Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan</a>, which is expected to take more than 35 years to complete and cost at least US$10.5 billion. In addition to repairing some of the damage to this unique ecosystem, the restoration is designed to ensure reliable clean drinking water supplies for South Florida cities and protect developed areas from flooding.</p>
<p>The plan is making progress – but the closer it gets to its goal, the more the details matter, and some of those details have become roadblocks. As I complete my 30th year as an ecologist studying and trying to restore this great place, it is increasingly clear that restoration can work and will benefit both wild spaces and people. However, that view rests heavily on the assumption that we will commit to fixing a central problem – water storage. </p>
<h2>Managing water flow</h2>
<p>The Everglades drainage area stretches over 200 miles, starting near Orlando and reaching south to the Gulf of Mexico. At least 100 miles of it is made up of the wide-open grasslands called the Everglades. Nearly 83 percent of the Everglades lies outside of the national park, mostly on agricultural or state-protected lands. </p>
<p>The Everglades landscape is flatter than a billiard table, and water tends to pool on it. Florida has huge swings in annual rainfall, which can vary by <a href="http://www.flsenate.gov/UserContent/Topics/WLC/UF-WaterInstituteFinalReportMarch2015.pdf">as much as 82 percent from average levels year to year</a>, and water evaporates very rapidly during dry seasons. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124222/original/image-20160526-22054-o2sgga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historic water flow pattern through the Everglades (click for larger image).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://141.232.10.32/education/requested_downloads.aspx">Evergladesrestoration.gov</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before the 20th century, the Everglades managed these flows naturally. They were a network of vast marshes that expanded and contracted from wet to dry seasons, populated by plants and animals that evolved strategies for dealing with unpredictable depths. Alligators created ponds to live in and crayfish burrowed into sediments during dry seasons. <a href="https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/southflorida/habitats/freshwater-marshes/sawgrass-marshes/">Sawgrass</a>, which grows throughout the Everglades, can withstand drought, floods and fires and thrives in soils that contain pathetically few nutrients. </p>
<p>As development spread across Florida, farmers, ranchers and urban dwellers sought to control floods and manage water supplies during droughts. In 1948 Congress authorized the <a href="http://141.232.10.32/about/restudy_csf_devel.aspx">Central & Southern Florida Project</a>, which would become the <a href="http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20drought%20%20and%20%20flood/canal%20and%20structure%20operations">largest water works project in the world</a>, with more than 2,000 miles of canals and dikes, 71 pump stations, over 600 water control structures and 625 culverts. This infrastructure, which spans 16 counties, is operated today by the <a href="http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/sfwmdmain/home%20page">South Florida Water Management District</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124223/original/image-20160526-22043-1t5od37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Current Everglades water flow (click for larger image).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://141.232.10.32/education/requested_downloads.aspx">Evergladesrestoration.gov</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Engineers rerouted a huge portion of the water that flowed south into the Everglades from <a href="http://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/sites-forecast/s/lake-okeechobee/">Lake Okeechobee</a>, diverting it to Florida’s east and west coasts. This enabled agricultural development and a huge western expansion of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. </p>
<p>It also destroyed the <a href="http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20protecting%20and%20restoring/stlucie">St. Lucie</a> and <a href="http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20protecting%20and%20restoring/caloosahatchee%20strategies">Fort Meyers</a> estuaries by flooding them with unnatural pulses of fresh, and often polluted, water. In the Everglades it caused a 90 percent decline in populations of wading birds and repeated <a href="https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/upload/seagrass-Dieoff_final_web_hi_res.pdf">seagrass die-offs</a> in Florida Bay and Charlotte Harbor, which in turn led to algae blooms and fish kills.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cl5kprLbewM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Seagrass dieoffs in southwest Florida, 2013.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rehydrating the Everglades</h2>
<p>The restoration plan seeks to restore some of the Everglades’ natural water flow. Models increasingly confirm that it is possible to effectively <a href="http://www.flsenate.gov/UserContent/Topics/WLC/UF-WaterInstituteFinalReportMarch2015.pdf">rehydrate all of the Everglades</a>, including the National Park.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124236/original/image-20160527-22043-qpaj0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Planned flow after Everglades restoration (click for larger view).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://141.232.10.32/education/requested_downloads.aspx">Evergladesrestoration.gov</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But water coming out of Lake Okeechobee is polluted with phosphorus from fertilizer used on farms upstream. Plants in South Florida evolved in soils that were naturally low in phosphorus, so the Everglades is hypersensitive to it. Under natural conditions water flowing into the Everglades would contain 8-10 parts per billion (ppb) of phosphorus. Current levels range <a href="http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_watershed/portlet%20-%20everglades/tab1832065">between 100 and 300 ppb</a>. </p>
<p>Adding so much phosphorus to the system can cause massive shifts from sawgrass plains to dense, oxygen-poor cattail monocultures, which outcompete sawgrass under higher nutrient conditions. Florida is now under <a href="http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/04-21448DE585.pdf">federal court orders</a> not to release water to the Everglades until phosphorus levels have been reduced close to natural concentrations. </p>
<p>Removing a 300-year supply of phosphorus from Lake Okeechobee waters will require many acres of land to store and treat water by filtering it through beds of aquatic plants and algal mats. This system is partially constructed, but water cannot be released to the Everglades until it is finished, which may not happen for years or even decades, largely because of the cost. Restoration thus is effectively at a standstill. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124218/original/image-20160526-22086-rx050s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124218/original/image-20160526-22086-rx050s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124218/original/image-20160526-22086-rx050s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124218/original/image-20160526-22086-rx050s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124218/original/image-20160526-22086-rx050s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124218/original/image-20160526-22086-rx050s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124218/original/image-20160526-22086-rx050s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stormwater treatment ponds, used to remove excess phosphorus before discharging water into the Everglades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usepagov/15836177632">South Florida Water Management District/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, the Everglades ecosystem south of Lake Okeechobee is <a href="http://www.evergladesrestoration.gov/content/documents/system_wide_ecological_indicators/2014_system_wide_ecological_indicators.pdf">rapidly deteriorating</a>. Fish and bird populations are not recovering, alligators are getting skinnier, invasive pythons are ranging unchecked and algal blooms repeatedly devastate Florida Bay. </p>
<p>In ecologists’ worst-case scenario, the Everglades could reach a condition called an <a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/alternative-stable-states-78274277">alternative stable state</a>, in which the ecosystem has been altered so drastically that it cannot be restored to its original condition. Seagrass beds and mangrove forests along the coasts are already collapsing, partly due to reduced freshwater flow.</p>
<p>Facing these conditions, scientists and managers are privately and off-record debating the formerly unthinkable option of letting water that contains some intermediate level of phosphorus flow into the Everglades. Even mildly relaxing phosphorus standards could make hydrological restoration much more achievable. And the nonprofit <a href="http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/">Everglades Foundation</a>, which advocates for restoration, is offering <a href="http://www.barleyprize.com/#/">a $10 million prize</a> to researchers who can develop a cost-effective technology for removing phosphorus from natural water bodies.</p>
<p>Global climate change raises other uncertainties. The Everglades is very close to sea level, and is already being affected by sea level rise. Peat soils in coastal forests are collapsing due to salt water intrusion. And a recent study estimates that hydrological restoration could be stymied if climate change reduces Florida’s annual rainfall by <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0417-5">as little as 10 percent</a>. </p>
<h2>An interim goal: water storage</h2>
<p>Still, progress is possible. In a 2015 <a href="http://www.flsenate.gov/UserContent/Topics/WLC/UF-WaterInstituteFinalReportMarch2015.pdf">report</a>, the <a href="http://waterinstitute.ufl.edu/">University of Florida’s Water Institute</a> concluded that nearly all uncertainties and problems associated with Everglades restoration could be markedly improved by building more ponds and impoundments to store water. </p>
<p>One million acre-feet (an acre one foot deep) of storage, distributed across several locations both south and north of Lake Okeechobee, could substantially reduce water surpluses and shortages for farmers, tribes, city residents and the Everglades. Building more water storage facilities would also drastically improve our ability to remove phosphorus from the water. </p>
<p>But storing water is difficult and expensive in such a flat, porous landscape. Making dikes out of Florida’s porous rock is like trying to contain water with walls of Swiss cheese: they have to be very thick, and water cannot be stacked deeply for fear of rupturing those walls. As a result, it takes a lot of land to store water. </p>
<p>We have already made huge investments in water distribution and management to buffer ourselves from floods and drought, and to restore the ecology of the Everglades. Water storage is key to the future of cities, agriculture and Everglades restoration - the same structures buffer everyone. If we do not make these investments, all of South Florida’s past drought and flooding challenges will intensify as our weather becomes less predictable. </p>
<p>Completing an integrated natural and human water system for south Florida will have a payoff comparable to a moon shot. But unlike a space mission, we have already mostly paid for this venture. Going the final miles will be cheap compared to the alternative, and future generations will thank us for it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Frederick currently receives funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for documentation of annual wading bird nesting responses to water management in the Everglades, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for work on American Oystercatcher habitat restoration. In the past five years he has also received funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Sea Grant, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the South Florida Water Management District, and the U.S. Geological Survey. </span></em></p>
Rehydrating the Florida Everglades is the largest ecological restoration project in the world. Ecologist Peter Frederick explains why this massive effort is worth its multi-billion-dollar cost.
Peter Frederick, Research Professor, University of Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56478
2016-04-21T10:04:57Z
2016-04-21T10:04:57Z
How John Muir’s incessant study saved Yosemite
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119357/original/image-20160419-13898-17bsa6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Half Dome, Yosemite National Park</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=128840470&src=id">Lorcel/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Run a Google search on naturalist and preservationist John Muir and you will quickly turn up one of his best-known, yet abbreviated, sayings: “The mountains are calling and I must go.” It’s a compelling quote that says it all for many outdoor lovers, which may explain why it’s printed widely on <a href="https://www.etsy.com/market/the_mountains_are_calling">mugs, t-shirts, posters and jewelry</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/opinion/the-calculus-of-climbing-at-the-edge.html?_r=1">paraphrased by today’s adventurers</a>. </p>
<p>However, the shortened quote doesn’t fully capture John Muir or his desire to understand and protect California’s Yosemite – a grand glacially cut valley with sheer 2,500-foot walls, now federally protected as one of the oldest of the Sierra Nevada’s four national parks.</p>
<p>As we mark the anniversary of Muir’s birth on April 21, 1838, we should consider the full quote, which appears in an <a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/muirletters/id/12602/rec/1">1873 letter from Muir to his sister</a>: “The mountains are calling & I must go & I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.” These words reveal a man who saw responsibility and purpose as well as pleasure in the mountains. Muir was a master observer who enjoyed the constant work of understanding nature. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119355/original/image-20160419-13951-ial9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119355/original/image-20160419-13951-ial9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=154&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119355/original/image-20160419-13951-ial9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=154&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119355/original/image-20160419-13951-ial9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=154&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119355/original/image-20160419-13951-ial9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=193&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119355/original/image-20160419-13951-ial9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=193&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119355/original/image-20160419-13951-ial9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=193&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Letter from John Muir to Sarah Muir Galloway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of the Pacific, ©1984 Muir-Hanna Trust</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the curator of <a href="http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/John-Muir-Papers.html">John Muir’s papers</a> at the <a href="http://www.pacific.edu">University of the Pacific</a>, I help researchers to “study incessantly” these raw materials and get the full unabbreviated story. The papers reveal Muir’s determination to interpret and preserve nature, and his seminal role in the creation of the <a href="http://findyourpark.com/">National Park Service</a> which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. </p>
<p>You too can participate in not only understanding Muir but making him more accessible by <a href="http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/John-Muir-Papers/Transcriptions.html?utm_source=Link&utm_medium=GoRedirect&utm_campaign=muirwords">transcribing his handwritten journals</a>. We are <a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/03/20/john-muirs-journals-read-decipher-share">enlisting citizen curators</a> to harvest Muir’s words and make his journals keyword-searchable. Of course, the payoff for the transcribers is finding their own meaningful Muir quotation. </p>
<h2>Revelry and science</h2>
<p>Through Muir’s archives we can trace how his thinking about Yosemite evolved over almost half a century. He first mentioned the valley in an <a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/muirletters/id/18191/rec/1">1867 letter</a> after an industrial accident left him temporarily blind: “I read a description of the Yo Semite valley last year and have thought of it most every day since.” </p>
<p>Muir, who was born in Scotland and grew up in Wisconsin, attended college briefly and “botanized” every chance he could get. He made his living as an inventor and efficiency expert, but the accident realigned his thinking. As he would later recall in his autobiography, he “made haste with all my heart, bade adieu to all thoughts of inventing machinery and determined to devote the rest of my life to studying the inventions of God.”</p>
<p>Before acting on those “every day” thoughts and going to Yosemite, Muir wanted to follow the footsteps of famed naturalist <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-influential-scientist-you-may-never-have-heard-of-35285">Alexander von Humboldt</a> to South America, so he grabbed some books and a plant press, and started his “<a href="http://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/a_thousand_mile_walk_to_the_gulf/">thousand mile walk to the Gulf</a>” of Mexico from Indianapolis. However, a bout with malaria in Florida diverted his attention from visiting South America. He decided to make his way to California via steamship as quickly as possible. </p>
<p>Muir arrived at the granite cliffs of Yosemite in the spring of 1868. He was low on money but high on the majestic beauty of the granite faces, the mighty Giant Sequoia trees, and the roaring waterfalls. In a letter to mentor and friend Jeanne Carr, <a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/muirletters/id/18370/rec/1">he wrote</a>, “It is by far the grandest of all of His special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter. It must be the sanctum sanctorum of the Sierras [sic].” </p>
<p>The Sierra had called, and he went. Muir studied the “Range of Light” incessantly for the next five years while living in Yosemite Valley. He understood that his studies could be risky – for example, he practically dangled himself over the top of the 2,500-foot Yosemite Falls in order to observe the motion of the water – but expressed no fear, exclaiming “<a href="http://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/my_first_summer_in_the_sierra/chapter_5.aspx">Where could a mountaineer find a more glorious death!</a>” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119356/original/image-20160419-2059-2aal9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119356/original/image-20160419-2059-2aal9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119356/original/image-20160419-2059-2aal9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119356/original/image-20160419-2059-2aal9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119356/original/image-20160419-2059-2aal9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119356/original/image-20160419-2059-2aal9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119356/original/image-20160419-2059-2aal9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Muir took copious notes in his field journals that are preserved and made available for study at the University of the Pacific.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of the Pacific, © 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Muir’s intense observations deepened his understanding of the natural world and called him further into nature. Entering a grove of Giant Sequoias, the largest trees in the world, he wrote what historian <a href="http://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/bibliographic_resources/press_releases/natures_beloved_son.aspx">Bonnie Gisel</a> considers Muir’s pledge of <a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/muirletters/id/12500/rec/1">allegiance to the wilderness</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The King Tree and me have sworn eternal love,… and I have taken sacrament with Douglas Squirrel [and drank] sequoia blood…. I wish I could be more tree-wise and sequoiacal, so I could preach the green brown woods to all the juiceless masses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Muir used his observations to interpret the science of Yosemite and the Sierra. Before Muir arrived, California’s first geologists had theorized that Yosemite was created by cataclysmic dropping of the valley floor through violent earthquakes. But based on his studies and exploration, Muir concluded that <a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/muirdrawings/id/210/rec/11">glaciers had scraped Half Dome</a> and carved the granite cliffs. Today geologists widely agree that glaciers were key forces in the <a href="http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/yos/topobk.html">origins of the valley</a>.</p>
<h2>Preserving the Sierra</h2>
<p>In the early 1870s, Muir pulled his Yosemite observations together and published articles about the grand scenery. He preached his theories and called those “juiceless masses” to join him in the mountains. Years later he wrote, “[T]ry the mountain passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action.”</p>
<p>Muir also began to call for protecting Yosemite and the Sierra. He saw major threats from loggers’ axes and the livestock industry’s “<a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/muirjournals/id/2786/rv/compoundobject/cpd/2811/rec/1">hoofed locusts</a>” – his description of sheep that were overgrazing and destroying mountain meadows. Two years after Yosemite National Park was created in 1890, he cofounded the Sierra Club to preserve California’s greatest mountain range and make it more accessible. </p>
<p>Muir’s <a href="http://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/">books and articles</a> helped to promote appreciation of wilderness, and attracted political attention. In <a href="http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/muirletters/id/16761/rec/6">1903, President Theodore Roosevelt</a> visited Yosemite with Muir, hoping to “drop politics absolutely for four days and just be out in the open with you.” </p>
<p>In 1908 Muir joined another president, William Howard Taft, in Yosemite, seeking to stop a campaign by the city of San Francisco to build a reservoir in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which lay inside the national park. Muir <a href="http://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/the_yosemite/">declared in outrage</a>,“Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.” </p>
<p>The battle to preserve the glorious valley was lost in 1913 when Congress passed a bill authorizing the dam. The loss practically killed Muir as well, and he died of pneumonia in a Los Angeles hospital a year later.</p>
<p>Summing up Muir’s legacy with the statement that “the mountains are calling and I must go” can suggest that he viewed nature as a playground. When he added, “& I will work on while I can, studying incessantly,” we see a more complete picture of Muir’s relationship with Yosemite. He viewed the Sierra with a combination of reverence and scientific fascination, but understood that its future depended on his efforts. Reading Muir’s writing carefully, we can recognize our continuing responsibility to observe, interpret, and celebrate the value of his “sanctum sanctorum.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Wurtz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
John Muir, born on April 21, 1838, was one of America’s first great conservation advocates. His letters and diaries convey the emotions Muir felt in Yosemite Valley, his ‘sanctum sanctorum.’
Michael Wurtz, Head of Special Collections, University Library, University of the Pacific
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56204
2016-03-21T10:13:01Z
2016-03-21T10:13:01Z
How the Grand Canyon changed our ideas of natural beauty
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115319/original/image-20160316-30227-ee98zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sunrise on Angel's Window, North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Grand_Canyon_National_Park_Service#/media/File:Grand_Canyon_National_Park,_North_Rim_Sunrise_on_Angel%27s_Window._0137_-_Flickr_-_Grand_Canyon_NPS.jpg">National Park Service/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Few sights are as instantly recognizable, and few sites speak more fully to American nationalism. Standing on the South Rim in 1903, President Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed it “one of the great sights every American should see.” </p>
<p>It’s true. Every visitor today knows the Grand Canyon as a unique testimony to Earth’s history and an icon of American experience. But visitors may not know why. Probably they don’t know that it was big and annoying long before it was grand and inspiring. Likely, they don’t appreciate that the work of appreciating so strange a scene has been as astonishing as its geological sculpting. Other than a pilgrimage to a sacred site, they may not understand just what they are seeing. </p>
<p>As the National Park Service <a href="http://www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/index.htm">celebrates its centennial</a>, it’s worth recalling the peculiar way the Grand Canyon became grand and what this has meant. Like American society, our landscapes celebrate individual vision within a collective pluralism. We value many landscapes and have come to protect them in various ways.</p>
<h2>“This profitless locality”</h2>
<p>The Grand Canyon was one of the <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/330915/how-the-canyon-became-grand-by-stephen-j-pyne/9780140280562/">first North American natural wonders to be discovered by Europeans</a>. In 1541, a party of the Coronado expedition under Captain García López de Cardenas stood on the South Rim, 138 years before explorers found Niagara Falls, 167 before Yellowstone, and almost 300 before Yosemite. A group scrambled down to the river but failed to reach it, and returned to announce that the buttes were much taller than the great tower of Seville. Then nothing. Some Coronado chroniclers did not even mention this side trip in their accounts. </p>
<p>A Franciscan friar, Francisco Tomas Garcés, tracing tribes up the Colorado, then visited the rim in 1776, discovered the Havasupai tribe, and departed. Fur trappers based in Taos knew of the gorge, which they called the Big Cañon, and shunned it. When they guided exploring parties of U.S. Army Corps of Topographic Engineers, they steered the expeditions away from the canyon, which offered no passage by water or land. </p>
<p>Then in 1857 Lt. Joseph C. Ives led a steamboat up the Colorado River in explicit quest of the Big Cañon. After the steamboat struck a rock and sank near Black Canyon, Ives traveled down Diamond Creek to the inner gorge, briefly touched at the South Rim, and in 1861 penned one of the most <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1xIOAAAAQAAJ&q=profitless+locality#v=snippet&q=profitless%20locality&f=false">infamous proclamations</a> to ever emerge from an American explorer. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The region is, of course, altogether valueless … after entering it there is nothing to do but leave. Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Eight years later Major John Wesley Powell descended the Colorado River through its gorges, renamed the Big Cañon as the Grand Canyon, and wrote <a href="https://archive.org/details/explorationofcol1961powe">a classic account</a> of the view from the river. In 1882 Captain Clarence Dutton, in the first monograph published by the new U.S. Geological Survey, wrote an <a href="https://archive.org/details/tertiaryhistoryo00dutt">equally classic account</a>, this time from the rim.</p>
<p>Something had changed. Mostly it was the advent of geology as a science with broad cultural appeal. The Grand Canyon might be valueless as a corridor of transport, but it was a “wonderland” for the new science. It helped enormously that artists were drawn to landscapes, of which the canyon seemed both unique and operatic. Urged by Powell and Dutton, <a href="http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3406">Thomas Moran</a> and <a href="http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=2279">William Henry Holmes</a> transformed a supremely visual scene into paint and ink.</p>
<p>Before Powell and Dutton, the Grand Canyon was a place to avoid. Now it was a marvel to admire. Twenty years later Teddy Roosevelt stepped off a train at the South Rim and added nationalism to the mix by declaring it “a natural wonder … absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world.”</p>
<p>It was an astonishing reversal of perception. The geologic mystery of the canyon is how the south-trending Colorado River made a sudden turn westward to carve its way, cross-grained, through four plateaus. This is also more or less what happened culturally. Intellectuals cut against existing aesthetics to make a place that looked nothing like pastorals or alpine mountains into a compelling spectacle. Unlike most great features, the Grand Canyon is invisible until you stand on its rim. You aren’t drawn to it as to a river’s source or a mountain’s peak. You have to seek it out, and then cope with its visual revelation. It simply and suddenly is. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115322/original/image-20160316-30219-4xm7ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115322/original/image-20160316-30219-4xm7ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115322/original/image-20160316-30219-4xm7ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115322/original/image-20160316-30219-4xm7ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115322/original/image-20160316-30219-4xm7ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115322/original/image-20160316-30219-4xm7ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115322/original/image-20160316-30219-4xm7ax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">View from Powell Point, South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Grand_Canyon_National_Park_Service#/media/File:Grand_Canyon_Nat._Park,_View_from_Powell_Point_After_the_Rain_2491_-_Flickr_-_Grand_Canyon_NPS.jpg">National Park Service/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So it appeared to Western civilization. As Dutton pointed out, the canyon, “while the sublimest thing on earth,” was “a great innovation in our modern ideas of scenery,” and appreciating a scene so alien to European sensibilities demanded the invention of a new aesthetic. It required its own unique canon of appreciation. The Grand Canyon stood alone. </p>
<h2>Humans can only mar it</h2>
<p>It still does, which makes its role as a portal to the national parks paradoxical. Yet in two ways the canyon has strengthened the national park system in recent decades. </p>
<p>First, it added an appreciation for exposed rock, gorges and earth colors to the traditional focus on the bucolic, the alpine and the green. It made it possible to value the larger setting of the Colorado Plateau, which contained the Grand Canyon but otherwise lay to the margins of American settlement and economy. This region now has the highest density of parks and monuments of any physiographic province in the country. </p>
<p>Second, the Grand Canyon contributed to the rise of postwar environmentalism through debates in the 1960s over proposed dams. The canyon had enough cultural cachet that advocates could <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fierce-green-fire-when-the-sierra-club-saved-the-grand-canyon/2931/">argue successfully</a> to preserve it. Slightly upriver, Glen Canyon by contrast lacked that heritage <a href="http://grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu/sites_adjacentlands_glencanyondam.html">and got dammed</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the Grand Canyon sits awkwardly in modern preservationist thinking. The larger thrust has been to expand beyond geologic monumentalism, typical of early parks, and incorporate living landscapes rich in biodiversity and unique habitats. But the Grand Canyon is a geological monument. If it contained nothing alive within its immense bowl, it would still retain its cultural power. Its scale is so vast that, other than flooding it above the gorge, it’s hard to imagine what people might do to permanently alter it. </p>
<p>Yet it is possible to spoil the canyon experience. What it takes is an obscured sky, or a visually confused viewpoint, or social noise that distracts from the quiet calm of individual vision. The Grand Canyon’s great impact still derives from the sudden shock of seeing it all without filters or foreground. The rim just falls away. The canyon is there, instantly and insistently. That sensation is what must survive for the Grand Canyon to work its cultural alchemy.</p>
<p>Threats to parks are not new, but they have evolved from poaching and dams to the compounding insults of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-it-mean-to-preserve-nature-in-the-age-of-humans-39987">Anthropocene era</a>. Still, as Roosevelt understood, the Grand Canyon testifies to that most fundamental of all needs. “Leave it as it is…The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.” Keep it, he urged, “for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you.” We can do that in spite of climate change, invasive species, a feckless global economy, dysfunctional politics and a national attention span for which sound bites take too long. We can leave it as it is.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56204/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Pyne received funding from the National Park Service to research a fire history of contemporary America, which resulted in the book, Between Two Fires. He also worked seasonally for the NPS from 1967-1981 at Grand Canyon, and for other parks in three subsequent years.</span></em></p>
Why do Americans revere the Grand Canyon? It taught us to look at nature in a new way, and to respect iconic places by leaving them alone.
Stephen Pyne, Regents Professor in the School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.