B19
Politics & Parks: Protecting Our Cultural, Historic, and Natural Landscapes
As protected anchors connecting large ecosystems, national parks are vital to supporting landscape conservation. Their protection relies upon a mosaic of adjacent land at risk from resource development, climate change, and encroachment. NPCA works with strong coalitions to leverage the political support of national parks to implement large landscape conservation.
Protecting the California Desert
The California desert represents arguably the most intact and connected landscape in the lower 48 states. The existing preserved land, anchored by national parks creates a conservation framework for a network of protected lands similar in scope to Yellowstone to Yukon. This opportunity differs strategically from efforts in other landscapes, as restoration is not a primary objective, but administrative and legislative tools are required to protect existing corridors and landscapes.
Conserving the Chesapeake Landscape
The Chesapeake watershed’s mosaic of protected lands, including 55 national parks and iconic national trails, such as the Appalachian Trail and Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail offer an opportunity for collaboration and large landscape-scale conservation.
FracTracker: Measuring the Impacts of Fracking on Theodore Roosevelt National Park
To address questions about the impacts of oil and gas development across landscapes, NPCA joined with “FracTracker” to create a crowd-sourced digital map detailing the scale of oil and gas development near North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Revitalizing the Texas Gulf Coast: The Proposed Lone Star Coastal National Recreation Area
The proposed Lone Star Coastal National Recreation Area (LSCNRA) is an innovative, collaborative way to protect the critical flood mitigation aspects of coastal lands, while at the same time promoting this unique part of the upper Texas coast as a destination for eco-tourism.