Abstract
We have gone from the early day philosophy that if national parks were simply left alone they would survive forever (Botkin 1990, Sellars 1997, Parsons 2004) to the current situation where parks are jeopardized by serious environmental threats both within and outside of their borders (e.g., Pringle 2000). While science alone cannot solve the environmental problems facing public lands, it can lead us to ask the right questions and result in critical information for management and policy needs (e.g., National Research Council [NRC] 1992, Sellars 1997). Unfortunately, we lack a unified infrastructure that supports long-term scientific research on public lands and facilitates application of that science to management. We believe that long-term scientific research would provide essential knowledge for management of public lands, a viewpoint expressed by others as well (Callahan 1984, Likens 1989). Our goals in this commentary are to highlight: (1) the scope and magnitude of environmental problems facing U.S. public lands; (2) the lack of long-term scientific information available to identify and address these problems; and finally (3) the value of long-term research, by using a few examples from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Long-term Ecological Research Program. U.S. public lands are facing environmental problems of increasing scope and magnitude. The National Conservation Association (NPCA) recently began issuing an annual list of America's Ten Most Endangered National Parks to draw public attention to the endangered status of many park units (NPCA 2002a). Environmental challenges include air pollution, threats to water resources, and recreational impacts of snowmobiles. NPCA's third annual listing of endangered parks includes Big Bend National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park, Glacier National Park, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mojave National Preserve, Ocmulgee National Monument, Valley Forge National Historical Park, and Yellowstone National Park. To highlight the impacts of air pollution, which are evident throughout the national park system, NPCA also established its Code Red list of Amer-
Published Version
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