The National Assessment Impacts on Interior Resources The nation's parks, refuges, and other public lands account for large areas with diverse landscapes and ecosystems. These lands are under multiple stresses today. Their natural resources are important to the nation and its economy through grazing, agriculture, mining, recreation, and tourism. In addition, they protect unique and pristine biological resources that include rare species of fish, plants, and wildlife. Increased variability in climate and climate change will affect existing stresses in different ways. One of the more perplexing impacts could be the shift in vegetation and wildlife engendered by a change in climatic norms. Many parks, refuges, and wilderness areas were designated for their unique characteristics and habitats. As species migrate in response to climate variability and change, these designated areas with fixed boundaries may no longer be able to support and provide for the flora and fauna that now reside there. Ghost swamps result when saltwater floods a baldcypress swamp. Photo courtesy of V. Burkett. Increased temperatures are causing glaciers to melt (imagine a Glacier National Park without glaciers). Sea level changes will continue to alter wetlands and shorelines. Climate changes could also alter the balance among species and enhance the encroachment of exotic species. Insect and disease outbreaks could increase, and a loss of biodiversity and habitat could occur. Existing stresses on parks, refuges, wilderness areas, and other public lands include the following: increased development in and adjacent to federal lands; increased recreational use; altered occurrence of natural fires and flooding; livestock grazing and concentrations of protected wildlife; habitat fragmentation at landscape scales that is often intensified by boundaries; air pollution; exotic species invasion. Responses to current and potential future stresses include the following efforts: maintain or restore natural disturbance frequencies and intensities such as the natural role of fire; enhance migration corridors and emphasize whole ecosystems approaches to managing these lands; develop adaptive management practices; increase efforts to control exotic species by improving biological, chemical, and physical control techniques; expand natural resource inventory, monitoring, and research activities. U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey This page is <http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/info/assessment/interior.html> Maintained by Randy Schumann Last modified Wednesday, 15-Mar-2006 14:38:42 MST