|
The National Park System plays a critical role in the preservation of biodiversity in North America. Even though the challenge to biodiversity continues far beyond park boundaries, the system's 84 million acres, its variety of habitats within 387 units scattered throughout the country, and its unique mission make it one of the world's finest nature preserves.
About a quarter of all species federally listed as threatened or endangered are found within parks or rely on them for at least part of their habitat needs.
The National Park System preserves an incredible array of America's most biologically significant places—from the Mojave National Preserve in southern California and Florida's Everglades National Park to Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and Maine's Acadia National Park—providing the best sites for recovering imperiled plants and animals. National parks also serve as some of the country's finest classrooms, educating the public about ecosystem and species protection and providing optimal conditions for conducting and studying ecological restoration.
Many national parks, such as Yellowstone, Glacier, and Everglades, protect within broader landscapes the core areas on which many species depend. Wolves at Yellowstone, coho salmon at Point Reyes National Seashore, and sea lions at Channel Islands National Park depend for survival on core areas within these parks.
The wolf, salmon, and sea lion are just a few of many species needing large landscapes to hunt, spawn, and fish. Marine reserves that encompass coral reefs are prime examples of the importance of protecting core areas needed by animals for reproduction and shelter during critical parts of the life cycle. As breeding and feeding areas and as nurseries for young fish, reefs are the factories that populate open seas. When fishing in and around reefs is banned, catches beyond the reefs increase as local marine populations bloom.
National parks also protect portions of many of America's 21 most endangered ecosystems, including Hawaiian dry forest and cave and karst systems. But these fragile places are no longer insulated from a barrage of human activities that undermine their biological integrity.
 NPCA'S BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN GOALS
- Protect, restore, and manage parks to conserve native species and allow them to fulfill their natural roles in healthy ecosystems. Invasive nonnative species should be eliminated from parks where feasible.
- Ensure that the National Park Service creates and maintains complete species inventories and strong species monitoring programs and makes management decisions based on the best scientific information.
- Ensure that the National Park System includes representations of U.S. terrestrial, aquatic, and marine ecosystems in adequate size and configuration to constitute the world's finest and most comprehensive network of nature preserves.
- Where possible, ensure that national parks anchor large complexes of protected, interconnected habitat and that the Park Service is guided by an approach to ecosystem management that integrates parks with surrounding public and private lands and coordinates management as needed with other federal and state agencies.
| |
