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Michael Soukup of Blue Hill served as chief scientist for the National Park Service from 1995 to 2007, and as CEO and president of The Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park from 2010 to 2013.
National parks are a beautiful reflection of our country’s magnificent national and cultural heritage. Their protection is a high form of patriotism and worldwide source of inspiration.
National parks also generate significant revenue for national, regional, and local economies. From all angles national parks are a good deal for America. Nevertheless, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is eliminating the small cadre of central office resource specialists, including, I understand, its chief scientist, who provide protection for all 400-plus national park units.
Why are Secretary Burgum’s actions irresponsible? National parks are dynamic, complex, fragile, and at risk. Their health requires careful, knowledgeable management. For efficiency reasons, staff within national parks are primarily visitor services-focused generalists who depend on science support from specialists grouped in central offices.
While most parks will have occasion to deal with highly technical issues, only a few need specialized expertise onsite on a full-time basis. From coral reefs to humpback whales, caves to night skies, parks must have access to those who can evaluate trends, and problems, and develop solutions consistent with park protection
Why is this important? Because our national parks are constantly under siege. The resources that generations of Americans have protected for their enjoyment and inspiration are coveted by a wide range of vested interests. Those wishing to develop, prospect, mine, hunt, trap, harvest, irrigate, and generally extract something from nature’s last refuges are persistent and powerful. Successful defense against piecemeal dismantling of our national parks has often depended on a science-based analysis of predictable impacts provided by central office scientists and resource managers. Here are just a few examples:
Analyses by air quality specialists prevented proposed sources of air pollution from filling up and obscuring the entirety of the Grand Canyon. Otherwise by now families making a once-in-a-lifetime visit would not have been able to see into the canyon. As it stands Grand Canyon National Park continues to host millions of visitors annually, many from around the world. And they can still see the canyon’s unmatched grandeur.
Similarly, protecting water rights in western parks is absolutely critical, and no easy task. Water rights experts facilitate the acquisition of legal entitlement to, and the quantity needed, to sustain life in parks. For example, there will be enough water remaining in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park to maintain this dramatic park thanks to this water rights staff’s documentation that facilitated a victory in court over Department of the Interior political appointees anxious to give away federal water rights.
Park geologists worked successfully with others to protect Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park from ill-advised adjacent geothermal development!
Are visitors interested in seeing the condor fly again over the Grand Canyon, Pinnacles or Zion? The peregrines flying and nesting in Acadia? Grizzlies or wolves taking down a bison in Yellowstone? Old Faithful erupting? Grand Canyon’s panorama? There are hundreds of examples of central office staff successes in keeping national parks intact, healthy, and interesting.
We accept that our enormous national budget deficit requires substantial reductions in federal government spending. Yet, targeting the public’s most beloved federal agency’s ability to protect national parks seems far from compatible with concerns about America’s greatness. There may be better yields from questionable subsidies that give away public resources at below market rates for water, timber, grazing fees, and oil, gas and mineral extraction.
National parks must have vigilant, uninterrupted care to reflect the nation’s stellar heritage over time. To date no administration or secretary has been willing to have as their legacy the certain degradation of our entire National Park System. I believe Secretary Burgum must restore protection for our national parks. Failing that, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden — and all supporters of national parks in Congress — must act.
