WHAT WE DO

A phenomenal effort to record every living species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is under way. The initiative, called the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), has drawn scores of scientists, teachers, students, and volunteers into the park to research and chronicle the tens of thousands of species that make up the park's fragile ecosystem - considered one of the most biologically diverse spots in the temperate world.

Nearly 4,000 species not previously known to inhabit the park have been identified - more than 500 of which are insects, plants, and fungi completely new to science. Of the 100,000 species (larger than microbes) estimated to live in the park, about 12 percent have been inventoried and identified, including 1,300 plants, 2,250 fungi, 4,000 insects, 240 birds, and more than 30 distinct salamander species, including the behemoth eastern hellbender salamander that can grow up to 29 inches long-nearly the size of a human toddler.

The initiative, a model for better examination and appreciation of our natural heritage, is still going strong, nearly seven years after it was launched. It was formed by a partnership between the Park Service and Discover Life in America, a nonprofit representing universities, organizations, state and federal agencies, and leaders in science, education, conservation, and technology. Discover Life in America is coordinating the ATBI; Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains Association have provided the most significant funding for this innovative effort.

The All Taxa initiative provides an uplifting anecdote in an otherwise stark landscape. The good news is that it is providing a model for nearly a dozen other parks and reserves, which are conducting their own ATBI. The program's role as a progressive model is crucial to other national parks with equally urgent needs to strengthen the science within their borders - and ensure that such research is put to use. But the bad news is that all too often, scientific research does not receive the funding and attention it deserves.

Science Takes a Back Seat

In 1963, A. Starker Leopold reported that the Park Service should "recognize the enormous complexity of ecologic communities and the diversity of management procedures required to preserve them." But with a few notable exceptions, the ATBI among them, science still takes a back seat in the parks.

Over the past few years, the Park Service has made great progress in expanding its field science and research capacity through project funding provided by the congressionally authorized Natural Resource Challenge. The agency has established 13 strategically located in-park Resource Learning Centers to promote collaborative research activities with universities, educators, and community groups. The Park Service has also been a major partner with 12 other federal agencies in establishing a national network of 17 Cooperative Ecosystem Study Units - partnerships designed to conduct regional and ecosystem-wide natural resource research. Additionally, many individual national parks such as Rocky Mountain in Colorado have successfully partnered with local universities or with NPCA through its State of the Parks® program to conduct science and research projects.

However, these innovative partnerships have only a minor effect on the health of individual parks when internal scientific capacity is limited.

For example, Glacier National Park provides some of the best habitat in North America for the threatened bull trout, but the population has plummeted 90 percent in the last few decades because of an invasion of non-native lake trout. Park managers are trying to address the problem by partnering with local universities, the Fish and Wildlife Service, NPCA, Trout Unlimited, and others, but the coalition's efforts to reduce lake trout numbers and prevent their invasion into the few remaining un-invaded lakes are hampered by the fact that Glacier doesn't have sufficient funding to have a fisheries biologist or an aquatic ecologist on staff.

Although Joshua Tree National Park is downwind of the Los Angeles Basin and six regional power plants, the Park Service has insufficient staff and resources to adequately monitor the park's air quality and assess the effect of pollution on plants, wildlife, and visitors. Shenandoah National Park - one of the nation's most polluted national parks - cannot afford to replace its Air Resource Program Manager, who would monitor the park's air quality.

Mount Rainier National Park in Washington lacks funds to hire a full-time volcanologist, even though Mt. Rainier is an active volcano. Additional funding and staffing is needed to help monitor and ensure the survival of endangered species such as the mission blue butterfly at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is classified as a Biosphere Reserve. For lack of funds, the Park Service has been unable to complete an archaeological survey of the puebloan village sites in White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, leaving valuable cultural resources undocumented and unprotected from looters and other threats.

Grand Teton National Park provides habitat for endangered and threatened species like the Canada lynx, wolverine, grizzly bear, and peregrine falcon, but cannot afford staff to monitor the species. Death Valley National Park's federally listed Devil's Hole pupfish and other native species face possible extinction if more funds aren't made available for critical groundwater assessment and monitoring. And in the midst of Great Smoky Mountain's ATBI, the park can't afford to replace its retired Chief of Natural Resources.

Perhaps the greatest wildlife re-introduction story in America is that of the Yellowstone wolves. In ten years, Yellowstone National Park's wolves have again become a fully functioning part of the park ecosystem after being eradicated nearly a century ago. Their presence is producing enormous volumes of new ecological information and data from studies of the predator/prey relationships. Yet despite the science renaissance unfolding inside Yellowstone, this Park Service flagship program has had its funding dramatically cut in 2005, forcing the program to seek out additional private donations to fund its core monitoring and research efforts.

Key Recommendation: Fund this Core Mission

The National Park System Advisory Board's 2004 report, National Park Service Science in the 21st Century, sounded an alarm. The report included strong recommendations to accelerate long-delayed scientific inventories to determine where species protection should be focused; to establish conservation of biodiversity as a core purpose; and to support wildlife migratory corridors and greenways through partnerships outside of the park. "Every conceivable effort must be made to marshal the necessary resources to preserve the integrity of the parks and the life residing within them," the document states. "Over the years, science has not fared well."

More than a dozen of NPCA's State of the Parks® assessments show that insufficient funding is hindering the Park Service's ability to protect resources and prompting the loss of species. Until Congress and the administration address the parks' chronic funding shortfalls, the protection of natural resources will remain an uphill battle.

Take Action

• Volunteer >> Many national parks need volunteers to help inventory and monitor species.
• Send a letter to your members of Congress encouraging them to support and co-sponsor the National Park Centennial Act.