preservation philosophy
Sustainable Practices

The 1993 NPS publication Guiding Principles of Sustainable Design, clearly states that sustainable practices should be both environmentally and culturally sensitive and supportable over the long term.

Sustainable earthworks management practices include the following basics:

1 Minimize energy expenditure, such as the number of maintenance interventions requiring motorized equipment;

2 Restrict the need for irrigation to small areas or rare occasions such as extreme droughts or during plant establishment;

3 Reduce the need for soil amendments such as chemical fertilizers and lime by using plant species that are naturally adapted to the site conditions;

4 Minimize labor-intensive practices of plant establishment, such as planting grass seedlings by hand, or by employing natural processes to rejuvenate and revegetate the site; and

5 Decrease pesticide and herbicide use.

		After seeding with tall grass, Ninety Six NHS, SC, NPS Photo.

Because a goal of sustainability is to require less human intervention, applying sustainable practices to earthworks should present fewer opportunities to initiate erosion by human impacts. Adopting these guidelines to earthworks management recognizes the dynamic relationship between resource preservation and environmental protection.

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