 Recommendations:
- Congress should designate critical new national park units by 2005 where suitable for protecting jeopardized areas of major biodiversity. Examples include the loess hills of western Iowa, the Gaviota Coast of central California, and Bioluminescent Bay in Puerto Rico, all recently studied by the Park Service and home to spectacular plant and animal diversity in need of protection.
- Congress should enact boundary expansions of existing parks by 2005 to enhance protection of whole ranges of plant and animal populations and the entire watersheds on which they depend.
- The Park Service should assemble a blueprint for a system of needed connections and corridors among parks, other protected areas, and lands adjacent to parks. This should include consultation and cooperation with Canadian, Mexican, Russian, and Caribbean conservation authorities regarding potential cross-border conservation strategies.
- The National Park Service, in conjunction with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (which manages the national marine-sanctuary program), should create an enhanced system of marine-based parks that serve as refuges for marine species, including additions to the existing marine/coral reef park units and expanded no-fishing marine areas.
- The Park Service should coordinate its management of marine parks with management of state and federal marine protected areas or "blue ways" to maximize preservation of coral reefs, other marine habitats, and marine species.
New parks and boundary expansions of existing parks can make park ecosystems more complete and the National Park System more of a safety net for biodiversity.
In the expansion and addition process, Congress and the Park Service should aim at meeting the broad conservation needs of the pre-existing unit by following ecological rather than political or administrative principals.
For smaller park units the Park Service should work closely with other federal, state, and local jurisdictions to create corridors or greenways, providing critical pathways for wildlife movement.
|
|
