News

The following list is a compilation of various climate change related news releases from individual parks as well as the National Park Service national office.

April 22, 2021
National Park Service Publishes New Guidance to Support Planning for a Changing Climate
This new guide helps managers consider possible risks and impacts associated with climate change to make informed decisions to better protect parks in the future.

January 19, 2021
National Park Service Publishes New Report on the Resist-Accept-Direct Decision Framework for Natural Resources
The report presents and explores a simple set of distinct management options that decision makers can consider when responding to ecosystems facing the potential for rapid, irreversible ecological change.

January 24, 2020
National Park Service Releases Report Detailing Scenario Planning at Devils Tower
The National Park Service (NPS) recently published a report on advances in the use of scenario planning as a tool to evaluate the vulnerability of park features and develop potential management actions in light of climate change.

January 15, 2020
NPS Releases Chisos Basin Water Study
The NPS recently published a report examining the implications of current and projected climate on Oak Spring, an important source of water within Big Bend National Park. Oak Spring currently serves as the sole water source for the Chisos Basin--a hub of visitor infrastructure and services within Big Bend National Park. The area is served by an aging drinking water system dating back to the 1950s. Prior to investing in necessary infrastructure improvements, the NPS sought to examine the viability of Oak Spring in light of changing climatic conditions.

October 31, 2016
National Park Service Releases Coastal Adaptation Strategies Handbook
Lessons from Sandy and other case studies are part of the Coastal Adaptation Strategies Handbook, a summary of what scientists and park managers know about climate adaptation in coastal areas. The handbook highlights the processes and tools parks have available for response and recovery from tropical storms and hurricanes and offers strategies to address rising sea levels.

October 6, 2016
Interior Secretary Jewell announces study showing spring starting earlier in 3/4 of national parks studied
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced a new study showing that spring is beginning earlier than its historical average in 75 percent of the national parks examined—providing further evidence that climate change is already impacting public lands. The announcement came during a visit to Shenandoah National Park, one of the sites identified in the study as experiencing the impacts of an early onset of spring.

September 22, 2016
Climate Change Dance Engages Youth to "Be the Change"
On Monday, September 12, Flathead Valley students experienced something a little different than your average school day. Nearly 900 students and their teachers participated in an educational dance performance on climate change. And, participated is not an exaggeration. In this dance, the audience is indeed a part of the performance.

July 26, 2016
Artists Explore Climate Change in Point Reyes National Seashore through Artist-in-Resident Pilot Program
From August 5 until August 12, in honor of the National Park Service's Centennial, and in service to one of our most pressing environmental concerns, a program called Climate Change at the Western Edge will support six artists to explore and contribute to the conversation about climate change while living in residence on or near Point Reyes National Seashore.

May 23, 2016
Fighting Drought with Fire - Prescribed Fires Reduce Tree Death from Drought
A new study from the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service shows that thinning forests with prescribed fire can reduce the effects of drought. Climate change is expected to amplify drought conditions in California so using science to better understand the impacts of drought is of great importance to resource managers such as the National Park Service.

April 20, 2016
Critical Climate-resilient Lands Added to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
A major victory toward long-term protection of the Delaware River has been realized with the addition of three new properties to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, further expanding the world-class park. And now, a “Resilience Analysis” conducted by the Open Space Institute has captured and inventoried the entire park’s critical role as a regional haven for wildlife and natural moderator of flooding and drought as the climate changes.

January 29, 2016
Pikas in Peril: Tiny Mountain Mammal Faces Uncertain Future
Scientists from the National Park Service (NPS) and three western universities predict a complex future for populations of the diminutive and charismatic pika. The hamster-sized member of the rabbit family lives in rocky, icy patches in the western United States.

December 29, 2015
Study to look at effects of climate change on wildlife
The University of California, Berkeley is leading a study of wildlife and climate change at Death Valley National Park. Researchers plan to survey animals in Death Valley National Park to learn how bird, small mammal, reptile, and amphibian populations have changed over the last century. Between 1908 and 1945, Professor Joseph Grinnell and his colleagues at UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology collected animal specimens and recorded locations of animal populations. That research now provides a valuable baseline to be able to understand if there have been changes over time.

November 30, 2015
In Paris, Secretary Jewell Releases Report on Actions Underway to Combat Climate Change in National Parks
Today, the National Park Service (NPS) released a report detailing actions underway to address climate change threats to infrastructure, recreation, and natural and cultural resources. The report follows a recent study that revealed sea-level rise caused by climate change could pose a risk to more than $40 billion worth of national park assets and resources.

July 15, 2015
Denali Publishes Online Work, "Denali Climate Anthology"
The National Park Service (NPS) this week announces completion of a new online anthology of essays by five accomplished local authors about the effects of a changing climate on the lives and landscape they treasure in Interior Alaska.

June 23, 2015
Interior Department Interior Department Releases Report Detailing $40 Billion of National Park Assets at Risk from Sea Level Rise
In advance of the two-year anniversary of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today released a report revealing that national park infrastructure and historic and cultural resources totalling more than $40 billion are at high risk of damage from sea-level rise caused by climate change.

June 11, 2015
EPA Honors Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park as Federal Green Challenge Winner
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park with the EPA's Federal Green Challenge Regional Overall Achievement award as part of its efforts to encourage federal departments to reduce their environmental footprints through sustainable practices.

May 14, 2015
Grant Supports Alternative Transportation At Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park staff recently assembled with partners from the Northern Colorado Clean Cities Coalition and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the substantial completion of a grant funded through the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities National Parks Initiative.

May 12, 2015
NPS Proposes Climate Monitoring Program for Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
The National Park Service Inventory & Monitoring program operates long-term ecological monitoring programs for parks including Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. "Weather and Climate" is one of the park's 12 priority Vital Signs. Additional climate monitoring is being proposed to help managers understand future changes in key park resources and ecological processes that may result from climate change such as glacial ice mass wasting, shifts in marine salinity and nutrients, changing composition of plant communities, and the spread of invasive species.

November 13, 2014
Nationally-touring Art Quilt Exhibit Debuts in Biscayne National Park Gallery
A juried show of twenty-six art quilts created by 22 Florida artists will debut in Biscayne National Park's Dante Fascell Visitor Center Gallery on December 5, 2014. On display through February 27, 2015, the show then moves on to 9 other National Parks and National Park partner venues as part of the celebration of the National Park Service's Centennial in 2016.

November 6, 2014
Students Inspired in Climate Change Partnership Program
Youth from an Ohio high school spent 12 days in Alaska this summer, hiking and watching wildlife and learning about our changing climate. Their experience was part of the first “Climate Change Academy,” an immersive, comprehensive climate change course.

July 28, 2014
Vegetation shifting up slope and north as climate changes
Because of the combination of climate change and habitat loss, up to one-quarter of the total area of the U.S. National Park System is vulnerable to vegetation shifting up slope and northward according to new research published in the journal Global Change Biology.

July 2, 2014
National Park Service Report Confirms Climate Change in National Parks
A new report authored by the National Park Service confirms that climate change is happening in America’s national parks, and in some cases in rapid and concerning ways. These changes will have implications for what visitors see and experience in national parks and will require new approaches to the protection of natural and historic resources within parks.

April 4, 2014
Environmental Assessment on Wonder Lake Climate Reference Network Station Available for Public Comment
The National Park Service (NPS) is considering a proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to install a U.S. Climate Reference Network station near the water treatment building west of the Wonder Lake Campground in Denali National Park and Preserve. This project would take place during the summer of 2014.

March 31, 2014
Be a Project Budburst Observer
Mammoth Cave National Park as a Project Budburst Partner is asking the public to watch and record the leafing, flowering and fruiting cycles of ten plant species. Project Budburst is a network of people, citizen scientists, across the United States who monitor plants and collect ecological data as the seasons change.

March 20, 2014
Free Climate Change Teacher Workshop This Summer
Glacier National Park and the Glacier Institute are accepting applications for their third climate change teacher workshop to be held June 23-26 at the park. Middle and high school teachers from the local area and across the country are encouraged to apply. Teachers selected for the science and field-based workshop will spend time in the park with agency researchers and educators discussing climate change impacts on park resources.

March 10, 2014
New Online Film Documents Climate Change Research in Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is pleased to announce the release of a new Science Minute Movie by the North Coast and Cascades Science Learning Network (NCCSLN). Tides of Change takes viewers behind-the-scenes of Olympic National Park with coastal ecologist Dr. Steve Fradkin, as he traverses one of the most remote, wild, and scenic coastlines in North America to monitor the health of the park's rocky intertidal community.

November 15, 2013
Cuyahoga Valley National Park Recieves Climate Friendly Park Status
Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) has become the first national park site in Ohio to achieve the status of "Climate Friendly Park". As a participant in the Climate Friendly Parks program (CFP), CVNP belongs to a network of 106 national parks nationwide that are committed to reducing resource consumption, cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and educating staff and the public about climate change and sustainability.

July 26, 2013
Death Valley National Park Participates in Global Network of Mountain Ecosystem Climate Change Monitoring Sites
During the week of June 23-28 twenty scientists, volunteers and students gathered in the Panamint Range to establish a new target region ("site") of the GLORIA Monitoring Program.The Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments was established by scientists in Austria nearly a decade ago to facilitate an effort to document changes in biodiversity and vegetation patterns in high mountain ecosystems around the globe, in response to climate change.

June 14, 2013
Weather and Climate Monitoring Stations Proposed for Glacier Bay
The National Park Service Southeast Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network (SEAN) designs and operates long-term ecological inventory and monitoring programs for Southeast Alaska parks including Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Weather and climate is one of the park's 12 priority Vital Signs. Detecting changes in climate will inform managers about a broad range of resource effects including glacial ice mass wasting, shifts in marine salinity and nutrients, timing and abundance of marine mammal prey, forest and early successional plant community advance, spread of invasive species, and adjusting park infrastructure to more intense storm events or rising sea levels.

February 4, 2013
Yosemite National Park’s Largest Glacier Stagnant
The Lyell Glacier, the largest glacier in Yosemite National Park, has stagnated, or ceased its downhill movement, according to a recent study conducted by scientists from the National Park Service and the University of Colorado. The adjacent Maclure Glacier is still moving at its historical rate, about one inch per day.

February 4, 2013
Denali's Landscape and Potential Response to Climate Change
An article in the current issue of Ecological Monographs provides new insights about the trees in Denali National Park's vast, open landscape and how changes in climate may translate to changes across interior Alaska.The article summarizes work by scientists with the National Park Service's Inventory and Monitoring program.

August 2, 2011
University Students Study Climate Change in National Parks
This summer’s initiative brings 12 interns and 11 graduate students from 14 states to the National Park Service. Their research and applied projects include surveys of marine animal species to find populations resistant to climate change; use of field data to model where and when park visitors are most at risk of diseases transmitted by ticks; and development of exhibits, lesson plans, podcasts and other new media to help visitors understand how climate change affects national parks.

January 26, 2011
National Park Promotes Climate Change Research and Awareness (24 kb PDF)
In conjunction with the Governor’s mission and the Department of Commerce Climate Change Summit, the National Park of American Samoa continues to promote climate change research and community awareness. The national park has one of the best natural laboratories in the world for climate change research and is already taking actions to prevent the possible affects of climate change on the territory.

September 29, 2010
National Park Service Awarded Climate Change Education Grant
The National Park Service recently received a National Science Foundation grant to develop innovative approaches for climate change communication.

September 8, 2010
Welling named to lead Climate Change Response Program
National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis this week named Dr. Leigh Welling to direct the new Climate Change Response Program. Welling has for the past three years coordinated National Park Service climate change activities and led a service-wide steering committee to create a national climate change response strategy.

July 1, 2010
Young scholars help National Park Service tackle climate change
From temperature tolerance of moose to solar energy, 26 young scholars will tackle research and education projects to help national park managers look at the effects of climate change. The students will work in national parks from Maine to Alaska and California to Florida this summer and are the first to take part in the National Park Service (NPS) George Melendez Wright internship and fellowship programs.

February 17, 2009
Climate Friendly Parks workshops in Washington National Parks
Washington’s three national parks, Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks will host diverse groups of community leaders, scientists and business people at three Climate Friendly Park workshops to be held this month.

June 17, 2008
Smokies Launches Global Climate Educational Initiative
On Monday, June 16 Great Smoky Mountains National Park launched a new "Do Your Part!" initiative aimed at educating visitors about measures that they can take, in the park and at home, to reduce their contributions to global warming. Visitors to the park’s visitor centers and other facilities will find information posted with suggestions on how they can minimize their carbon footprint during their visit as well as when they return home.

June 16, 2008
Report Released on Climate Change Issues in Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park and the Center of the American West recently released a report on climate change. The report highlights the results of a workshop held in November where experts from around the state came to discuss the anticipated effects that climate change would have on the park’s ecosystems.

April 26, 2007
Climate Change Testimony to Congress Subcommittee
Statement of Dan Kimball, Superintendent, Everglades National Park, National Park Service, Department of the Interior, before the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies of the House Appropriations Committee concerning climate change and lands administered by the Department of the Interior.