Tag: National Park Service (NPS)

Wildfires show how climate change is transforming national parks

National Geographic discusses how Wildfires show how climate change is transforming national parks. Drier landscapes, warmer weather, and intensifying fires may change America’s beloved landscapes forever.

ACROSS THE PARCHED West this year there’s been an obvious—and destructive—signal that national parks are struggling to cope with a shifting climate: wildfire.

Through early October, nearly 8 million acres were torched, some by strikes of lightning, others by carelessness and arson. Many of the burned trees were already dead, killed by tiny beetles once kept in check by bitter winters that are rarely seen today. Although this year’s tally so far lags behind the 9.3 million acres burned in 2015, the wildfire trend in recent years is clear to land managers in the National Park Service (NPS) who are trying to cope with a climate that has brought their parks to “the extreme warm edge of historical conditions.”

National park officials were told climate change was ‘sensitive.’ So they removed it from a key planning report

This article discusses why national park officials removed references to climate change from a key planning report – they were told it was ‘sensitive.’

Park officials scrubbed all mentions of climate change from a key planning document for a New England national park after they were warned to avoid “sensitive language that may raise eyebrows” with the Trump administration.

The superintendent of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park in Massachusetts had signed off a year ago on a 50-page document that outlines the park’s importance to American history and its future challenges. But then the National Park Service’s regional office sent an email in January suggesting edits: References to climate change and its increasing role in threats to the famous whaling port, such as flooding, were noted in the draft, then omitted from the final report, signed in June.

Portions of North Carolina’s national seashores could be underwater by 2100.

This article discusses  how those beaches are in grave danger from sea level rise.

Every year, visitors flock to North Carolina’s national seashores. Some come to camp under the stars, others to admire lighthouses or catch a glimpse of the wild horses that roam there. But these shores are in danger.

If nothing is done to reduce global carbon pollution, sea levels at Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout could rise by about two-and-a-half feet by the end of the century. Long stretches of the seashore would be underwater.

That’s according to a report published by the National Park Service. Author Maria Caffrey of the University of Colorado says that in the worst-case scenario, protecting these coastal areas would require extreme measures, such as building huge sea walls.

Top Interior officials ordered parks to end science policy, emails show

This article discusses the Trump Administration’s attempts to ignore science in dealing with US parks and forests.

As deputy director of the National Park Service, Michael Reynolds played a key role in developing a sweeping new vision for managing national parks. The new policy, enacted in the final weeks of the Obama administration, elevated the role that science played in decision-making and emphasized that parks should take precautionary steps to protect natural and historic treasures.

But eight months later, as the first acting director of the Park Service under President Donald Trump, Reynolds rescinded this policy, known as Director’s Order 100. Newly released documents suggest that top Interior Department officials intervened, ordering Reynolds to rescind it.

A memo addressed to Reynolds states: “Pursuant to direction from (Interior) Secretary (Ryan) Zinke, I hereby instruct you to rescind Director’s Order #100.”

Reynolds, now the superintendent of Yosemite National Park, did not respond to requests for an interview.

The emails were among 170 pages of documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Union of Concerned Scientists, an activist group.

Study: National parks report on climate change finally released, uncensored

This article discusses the recent release of the National Park Service’s study – the uncensored version. It had been censored to remove all references to humans causing climate change.

Backing away from attempts at censorship, the National Park Service on Friday released a report charting the risks to national parks from sea level rise and storms.

Drafts of the report obtained earlier this year by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting showed park service officials had deleted every mention of humans causing climate change. But the long-delayed report, published Friday without fanfare on the agency’s website, restored those references.

The scientific report is designed to help 118 coastal parks plan for protecting natural resources and historic treasures from the changing climate.

Maria Caffrey, the study’s lead scientist, said she was “extremely happy” that it was released intact.

“The fight probably destroyed my career with the (National Park Service) but it will be worth it if we can uphold the truth and ensure that scientific integrity of other scientists won’t be challenged so easily in the future,” said Caffrey, a University of Colorado research assistant who had worked on the report for five years.

Study: Finds Runoff Boost From Forest Thinning – Fewer Trees, More Water

This article discusses a study that has shown how deforestation is causing water problems. The study has produced solid estimates of the hydrologic benefits of forest restoration work. Scientist Roger Bales explains how this could create a new method to finance controlled burns and selective logging.

A team of scientists from the University of California and the National Park Service now has some answers. In a new study, they combined sensors that measure evapotranspiration – how much water trees exhale – with satellite images of “greenness” on the landscape to estimate the additional freshwater runoff that could be created by thinning overgrown forests.

Wipeout: Human role in climate change removed from science report

This article discusses the Trump administration’s attempt to deny that humans are causing global warming.

ational Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans’ role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited report on sea level rise and storm surge, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science.

The research for the first time projects the risks from rising seas and flooding at 118 coastal national park sites, including the National Mall, the original Jamestown settlement and the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Originally drafted in the summer of 2016 yet still not released to the public, the National Park Service report is intended to inform officials and the public about how to protect park resources and visitors from climate change.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting obtained and analyzed 18 versions of the scientific report. In changes dated Feb. 6, a park service official crossed out the word “anthropogenic,” the term for people’s impact on nature, in five places. Three references to “human activities” causing climate change also were removed.