Describe the biggest conservation challenges in the coming years
Over the past few months, we’ve heard many experts describe the biggest conservation challenges in the coming years. What do you see as the most critical challenges — and how can the NPS help shape the agenda? Jonathan Meade: I think this final discussion at F&ES was a good opportunity to bring in some of the National Park Service leaders who are addressing the critical issues that have been discussed so far, whether it’s energy, relevancy, urban issues, and the urban interface, or more broadly the future of conservation in the 21st century. Those are all issues that we are struggling with at large and small scales, both agency-wide and at the park level. Specifically, they offered some perspective about how these issues get translated into real-world operations at NPS and, as you suggested, how we as an agency can help lead into and through the 21st century. Some of the issues that have come up include not just issues that individual parks have to address — such as water conservation, forest management, or dealing with boundary encroachment. In fact what we’re hoping to get beyond our boundaries. It’s something the National Park Service has been talking about for a very long time — trying to find a valuable role within the larger landscape and larger context where our parks are located. We talk about landscapes, we talk about partnerships with external organizations. But I hope the conversation can point towards how we as the Park Service — preserving and working on our lands — can more fully become more part of these larger landscapes. In the Northeast, I think we have a really unique situation compared with, say, the U.S. West. We have not just working landscapes but highly integrated landscapes. The urban-suburban-rural interface is blurred greatly, with some parks located in highly urbanized and highly suburbanized areas, as well as in more rural areas. We have great opportunities to find roles within those larger landscapes. ———————————————————————————————- ANSWER THE TWO QUESTIONS 1. According to this information above, what issues remain critical at the National Parks in the immediate future? Write a shortest paragraph with your own words. 2. According to this information above, how does the past frame the issues they raise and examine? Write a shortest paragraph with your own words.