Although Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park appears unchanging, it is in a constantly shifting, dynamic state. Weather and climate change, geologic processes, fire, and human-caused factors such as farming and air and water pollution are only a few of the agents of change that have helped to carve the face of the park that we know today.

Park staff carefully monitor changes in environmental factors, and can often alert managers to threats to the resources in time to preserve those resources.