scholarly journals Contrasting prescription burning and wildfires in California Sierra Nevada national parks and adjacent national forests

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 255
Author(s):  
Jon E. Keeley ◽  
Anne Pfaff ◽  
Anthony C. Caprio
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Forests ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Natural Fires ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lassen Volcanic National Park

History of prescription burning and wildfires in the three Sierra Nevada National Park Service (NPS) parks and adjacent US Forest Service (USFS) forests is presented. Annual prescription (Rx) burns began in 1968 in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, followed by Yosemite National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park. During the last third of the 20th century, USFS national forests adjacent to these parks did limited Rx burns, accounting for very little area burned. However, in 2004, an aggressive annual burn program was initiated in these national forests and in the last decade, area burned by planned prescription burns, relative to area protected, was approximately comparable between these NPS and USFS lands. In 1968, the NPS prescription burning program was unique because it coupled planned Rx burns with managing many lightning-ignited fires for resource benefit. From 1968 to 2017, these natural fires managed for resource benefit averaged the same total area burned as planned Rx burns in the three national parks; thus, they have had a substantial impact on total area burned by prescription. In contrast, on USFS lands, most lightning-ignited fires have been managed for suppression, but increasing attention is being paid to managing wildfires for resource benefit.

From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

Born of fire: In search of volcanoes in U.S. national parks, four striking examples

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura C. Walkup ◽  
Thomas J. Casadevall ◽  
Vincent L. Santucci
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Volcanic Hazards ◽  
Volcanic Complex ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
The World ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of

ABSTRACT Geologic features, particularly volcanic features, have been protected by the National Park Service since its inception. Some volcanic areas were nationally protected even before the National Park Service was established. The first national park, Yellowstone National Park, is one of the most widely known geothermal and volcanic areas in the world. It contains the largest volcanic complex in North America and has experienced three eruptions which rate among the largest eruptions known to have occurred on Earth. Half of the twelve areas established as national parks before the 1916 Organic Act which created the National Park Service are centered on volcanic features. The National Park Service now manages lands that contain nearly every conceivable volcanic resource, with at least seventy-six managed lands that contain volcanoes or volcanic rocks. Given that so many lands managed by the National Park Service contain volcanoes and volcanic rocks, we cannot give an overview of the history of each one; rather we highlight four notable examples of parks that were established on account of their volcanic landscapes. These parks all helped to encourage the creation and success of the National Park Service by inspiring the imagination of the public. In addition to preserving and providing access to the nation's volcanic heritage, volcanic national parks are magnificent places to study and understand volcanoes and volcanic landscapes in general. Scientists from around the world study volcanic hazards, volcanic history, and the inner working of the Earth within U.S. national parks. Volcanic landscapes and associated biomes that have been relatively unchanged by human and economic activities provide unique natural laboratories for understanding how volcanoes work, how we might predict eruptions and hazards, and how these volcanoes affect surrounding watersheds, flora, fauna, atmosphere, and populated areas.

Can Bureaucracies Change Policy?

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Lowry
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Limits To Growth ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Town ◽  
The U.S

In the 1990s, policymakers at Yellowstone and Banff National Parks enacted two of the most controversial programs in the history of protected lands. At Yellowstone, the U.S. National Park Service (nps) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (fws) personnel reintroduced wolves into the Yellowstone ecosystem. This program restored a crucial element to the park ecosystem that had been eliminated decades before and not returned since extermination. At Banff, federal authorities imposed strict limits to growth of the town of Banff. This action reversed a policy dating to the park's establishment in the late nineteenth century of allowing and encouraging growth and development of the town within Banff. How did these policy changes occur?

Preserving fossils in the national parks: A history

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent L. Santucci
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich

ABSTRACT The fossil record preserved throughout the National Park Service spans more than a billion years and is documented in at least 267 park units. The discovery, collection, study, and resource management of fossils from localities which are currently within parks sometimes predate the establishment of the National Park Service and many of the parks. Public education and interpretation at parks such as Agate Fossil Beds and Tule Springs Fossil Beds national monuments and many other designated areas include information on the rich history of paleontological field work by notable paleontologists undertaken prior to the areas being preserved as national park areas. Another important historical aspect for several dozen parks involves the conservation efforts undertaken by the public and interest groups to preserve and protect these important fossil localities. The evolution of the science and methodologies in paleontology is reflected in the resource management undertaken by the National Park Service and documented in park resource management records and archives, scientific publications, and agency policy. Today the National Park Service celebrates fossils by coordinating the National Fossil Day partnership which helps to promote the scientific and educational value of fossils.

The National Parks

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Worster
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
John Muir ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
Federal Initiatives ◽  
Historical Sites

The national parks of the United States have been one of the country’s most popular federal initiatives, and popular not only within the nation but across the globe. The first park was Yellowstone, established in 1872, and since then almost sixty national parks have been added, along with hundreds of monuments, protected rivers and seashores, and important historical sites as well as natural preserves. In 1916 the parks were put under the National Park Service, which has managed them primarily as scenic treasures for growing numbers of tourists. Ecologically minded scientists, however, have challenged that stewardship and called for restoration of parks to their natural conditions, defined as their ecological integrity before white Europeans intervened. The most influential voice in the history of park philosophy remains John Muir, the California naturalist and Yosemite enthusiast and himself a proto-ecologist, who saw the parks as sacred places for a modern nation, where reverence for nature and respect for science might coexist and where tourists could be educated in environmental values. As other nations have created their own park systems, similar debates have occurred. While parks may seem like a great modern idea, this idea has always been embedded in cultural and social change—and subject to struggles over what that “idea” should be.

Ecology and Environmental Issues of the Sierra Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum), Now Restricted to California

1975 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Vale
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Coast Redwood ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Sequoiadendron Giganteum ◽  
Park Service

Although they were widely distributed during Cainozoic times, both the Sierra Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) became restricted to greatly reduced ranges in California (and, in the latter instance, southernmost Oregon) during the late Tertiary and Quaternary periods. Today, the Sierra Redwood occurs in about 70 scattered groves, occupying an aggregate of 144 km2 on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada; about 66% of the areas of these groves remain unlogged, and most of these virgin stands are protected within national parks.Fire suppression policies of the National Park Service and other government land agencies have created conditions that are both unsuited for Sierra Redwood reproduction and hazardous to existing trees. Successful seed germination requires a mineral seed-bed, such as is usually exposed through fire. Burned sites also enhance seedling survival through increased sunlight penetration, reduced competition, and improved soil-moisture content. Fire suppression has, however, allowed the accumulation of large volumes of combustible fuels, increasing the probability of destructive crown-fires. In order to rectify these problems, the National Park Service has begun a programme of prescribed burning in Sequoia–Kings Canyon National Parks; to date, about 3.4 km2 have been treated. Thus, the environmental issues facing the Sierra Redwood involve perpetuating the tree within parks that are secure from commercial utilization.

scholarly journals Spiders Revisited: Retracing the Steps of Herbert and Lorna Levi's Historic Invertebrate Surveys of the Jackson Hole Region of Wyoming

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 48-53
Author(s):  
Sarah Kariko ◽  
Daniel Rossman
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Jackson Hole ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
Invertebrate Surveys

In 1950, Herbert and Lorna Levi collected invertebrates in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and other localities in the region. Sixty-five years later and looking towards the centennial of the National Park Service, a preliminary reassessment of the biodiversity of spiders was conducted in a subset of localities that were collected by the Levis. Specimens have been collected and are in the process of being identified. Comparison of this new collection with the historical records is currently underway. As the arts have played a crucial role in the history of national parks, we are exploring how to partner art and science to share the beauty and wonder of spiders based on our fieldwork in celebration of the upcoming National Park Service centennial.

Into Russian Nature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Roe
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
National Parks ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
National Park ◽  
World War ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Goals

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.

Are We Loving Our National Parks to Death? A Call for Research on Crime and Law Enforcement in the U.S. National Park System

2021 ◽  
pp. 073401682110157
Author(s):  
William Andrew Stadler ◽  
Cheryl Lero Jonson ◽  
Brooke Miller Gialopsos
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Current State ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Service Data ◽  
National Park System ◽  
The U.S

Despite a recent surge of visitation and frequent media accounts of lawlessness in America’s national parks, little empirical research has been dedicated to crime and law enforcement in the U.S. national park system. The absence of systematic crime and justice research within these protected spaces should raise concern, as recent park service data and intra-agency reports suggest visitor growth, funding and personnel declines, operational shortcomings, and technology constraints may endanger the capacity of the National Park Service (NPS) to adequately address anticipated crime threats in the 21st century. This call for research aims to raise awareness of the contemporary law enforcement challenges facing this federal agency and encourage the study of crime and justice issues within the U.S. national park system. We briefly examine the evolution and current state of NPS law enforcement and its associated challenges and conclude with a conceptual road map for future research occurring in these protected spaces.

scholarly journals “Making Alcatraz Amazing”: The Alcatraz Cellhouse Tour

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Boling
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Golden Gate ◽  
Federal Prison ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Multiple Languages

In 1987 the National Park Service and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy launched the Alcatraz Cellhouse Tour as part of the interpretive program educating visitors about the island and its history. Using an existing format made possible several years previously by Sony Walkman™ technology, the designers framed this individual, and innovative, audio tour as a means for visitors to experience the cellhouse through the voices of people incarcerated there, or living and working there, during the years when it served as an active federal prison. Such a design called for different decisions about content, scripting and moving people through space than had been required for ranger-led tours or the lecture-type audio tours prevalent at the time. The original tour has been updated continuously since its launch, and experienced by millions of visitors in multiple languages. The author of this case experienced the tour in 1988 and interviewed key designers in 2014.

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