Final Report-Informing Climate Change Adaptation Planning in National Parks
Dates
Acquisition
2019-11
Citation
Symstad, A., 2019, Informing Climate Change Adaptation Planning in National Parks.
Summary
From Public Summary: (One of the greatest challenges facing resource managers today is not knowing exactly when, where, and how climate change effects will unfold. In order to plan for this uncertain future, managers have begun to use a tool known as climate change scenario planning, in which data from climate models are used to identify different plausible future climate conditions and their impacts, known as “scenarios,” for a specific area. In a previous project, we (scientists with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, and National Park Service) worked with natural resource managers at Badlands National Park and on surrounding federal and tribal lands to assess how different climate conditions [...]
Summary
From Public Summary: (One of the greatest challenges facing resource managers today is not knowing exactly when, where, and how climate change effects will unfold. In order to plan for this uncertain future, managers have begun to use a tool known as climate change scenario planning, in which data from climate models are used to identify different plausible future climate conditions and their impacts, known as “scenarios,” for a specific area.
In a previous project, we (scientists with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, and National Park Service) worked with natural resource managers at Badlands National Park and on surrounding federal and tribal lands to assess how different climate conditions and management activities would affect the area’s resources. To make the results of this work more accessible to managers and the public, the present project produced a National Park Service “Resource Brief” summarizing insights from a scenario planning workshop and an ecological simulation model built specifically for the focus area. The Brief highlights actions that the park can take to address resource management challenges associated with the range of plausible climate futures.
Building on the work at Badlands, we also designed and pilot-tested a process for deeply integrating climate change scenario planning into National Park Service (NPS) Resource Stewardship Strategies. These strategies are part of NPS’s streamlined approach for guiding prioritization of a park’s investments in resource stewardship. The process we designed helped managers at the case study park – Devils Tower National Monument – adjust their resource management goals to be achievable across the range of plausible climate futures, and to prioritize activities that will prepare the park for whatever future climate materializes.
We then documented this integration process as a supplement to standard Resource Stewardship Strategy preparation guidance followed by each park as it develops its Strategy. This allows the lessons learned in this case study to be applied to many other parks across the nation.)
