National Park Service (NPS)
The National Park Service (NPS) is a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior and is led by a Director nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Since 1916 the National Park Service has managed our national parks. With the help of volunteers and park partners, they safeguard nearly 400 parks which have more than 275 million visitors every year.
The NPS has established a Climate Change Response Steering Committee representing parks, regions, managers, and subject-matter experts to provide guidance to the NPS and their response strategy. The steering committee has set up a strategic framework of advisors, interagency liaisons, and subcommittees to listen to expert suggestions and formulate recommendations. It serves both the Climate Change Response Program (CCRP) and the NPS National Leadership Council.
Efforts of the NPS Climate Change Response Program are coordinated around four areas of emphasis including climate science, adaptation, mitigation, and education. Adaptation actions form the core of the NPS response to climate change, and the Service is using scenario planning as a tool to prepare for the long-range impacts of climate change on natural and cultural resources. Managers are working through a variety of options for the future, developing responses and action plans for parks nationwide.
National parks across the country are conducting “Climate Friendly Parks” workshops, cosponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, to evaluate energy usage and identify efficiencies that improve park operations. Many are developing alternate energy strategies to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. Use of solar and wind energy, fuel cells, electric and hybrid forms of transportation, and mass transportation where high visitation exists, are being developed. Vulnerable resources are being monitored in most parks, and several have researchers who are specifically addressing climate change impacts. Also, rangers in many parks are being trained and provided the latest reports about climate science in order to answer questions and assist visitors in understanding climate change and its implications.
Phone: (202) 208-3818
Sectors:
Related Organizations:
- Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC)
- National Park Conservation Association (NPCA)
- Department of the Interior (DOI): Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC)
- Department of the Interior (DOI): Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC)
- Department of the Interior (DOI): Eastern Tallgrass Prairie & Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative(LCC)
- Department of the Interior (DOI): Aleutian & Bering Sea Islands Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC)
- Department of the Interior (DOI): South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC)
- Department of the Interior (DOI): Northern Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC)
- Climate Change Collaboration in the Pacific Northwest (C3)
- Bay Area Ecosystems Climate Change Consortium (BAECCC)
- U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)
Related Resources:
- State of the Birds 2011- Report on Public Lands and Waters
- Plumb Beach Renourishment Project and Protection of Belt Parkway, Brooklyn, New York
- Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
- Pacific Northwest Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment
- Ocean Beach, California Master Plan
- Wildlife & Wildlands Toolkit
- U.S. GAO report: Climate Change - Various Adaptation Efforts are Underway at Key Natural Resource Management Agencies
- A Framework for Considering Climate Change in Transportation and Land Use Scenario Planning: Lessons Learned from an Interagency Pilot Project on Cape Cod: Final Report
- Climate-Smart Conservation: Putting Adaptation Principles into Practice
- Kenai Fjords National Park – Protection of Exit Glacier Road
- Central New Mexico Climate Change Scenario Planning Project and Long Range Metropolitan Transportation Plan
- Federal Triangle Stormwater Drainage Study
- Florida “Sacrificial” Roads Projects
- Assateague Island National Seashore (AINS) Parking Lot Relocation
- Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge Restoration and Relocation Efforts
- Our Coast, Our Future
- Adapting to Climate Change at Olympic National Forests: Olympic National Park
- NPS Gulf Islands National Seashore - Fort Pickens Ferry System
- Wildland Fire Resilient Landscapes Program (U.S. DOI)
- Adapting to Climate Change in Coastal Parks: Estimating the Exposure of Park Assets to 1 meter of Sea-Level Rise - Transportation Assets
- National Park Service Coastal Adaptation Strategies Handbook
- Washington, DC Flood Levee System Improvements
- National Park Service Coastal Adaptation Strategies: Case Studies
- National Park Service Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy
- National Park Service Climate Change Response Strategy
- National Park Service Climate Change Action Plan 2012 - 2014
- Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Projections for the National Park Service
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