Preserving Nature in the National Parks
A History
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Photos
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Top: Park staff setting fire to a
meadow in Shenandoah National Park. 1978. Reversing policies initiated
in the nineteenth century, the Service began controlled, or
"prescribed," burning in selected forests and grasslands, intended to
simulate natural fire regimes and to reduce fuel loads and prevent
unnaturally intense fires. The controversial program remained only
partially implemented owing to shortages of funds and staff. (Julie M.
Langdon, photographer, National Park Service.) Bottom: Hazardous
materials at Padre Island National Seashore, 1992. One of the myriad
"external threats" to national park areas, hazardous debris from Gulf of
Mexico shipping and petroleum development threatens ecology and human
health at Padre Island. (Robert J. Knumenaker, photographer, National
Park Service.)
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