Ellis Island, and the San Antonio Missions. But some of these hallowed edifices are crumbling and in desperate need of repair. They re a big part of a nine and a half billion dollars maintenance backlog that plagues the park system.
Wildlife Management
No park exists in isolation, and that fact is becoming increasingly clear as the areas surrounding parks are developed for living space, agriculture, mining, forestry, and more. The iconic species protected inside the parks don t recognize boundaries and must often move in and out of the parks to feed, mate, or migrate. If larger ecological wildlife corridors can not be maintained to include the lands outside of parks, many species may not survive within them either.
Foreign Invaders
National parks are inviting places, especially for non-native species that can cause havoc once they move in. Plants and insects often hitchhike to our shores on boats or airplanes while other species, like snakes, are intentionally imported for the exotic pet trade. When turned loose with no competition, invasive species can run amok in an ecosystem and send a park s native residents toward extinction.than six thousand five hundred non-native invasive species have been found in US national parks . Seventy percent of them are plants, which encroach on a staggering seven million acres of our national parklands. [29]
Adjacent Development
A Canadian company hopes to site North America s largest open-pit gold and copper mine right next to Alaska s remote Lake Clark National Park. Uranium prospecting is currently under way on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Sugar producers have long fouled waters with phosphorus pollution and disrupted critical flows to the Everglades.happens on a park s borders can dramatically impact the environment inside the park itself. Mining, petroleum prospecting, clear-cut lumbering, and other developments are generally prohibited inside parks-but they still pose serious threats to water quality, clean air, and other vital aspects of the park environment.
Climate Change
If Earth s climate continues to change as scientists predict it will, the national parks will be impacted like the rest of the planet. Glaciers may melt away, as indeed they are at Glacier National Park in Montana. Fire seasons may grow in length and severity, and the landscape may shift under the feet of the parks wild residents.
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