[Superseded by Director’s Order #100,
approved 12/20/2016.]
June 9, 2016
Policy Memorandum 16-01
To: All Employees
From: Director /s/ Jonathan B. Jarvis
Subject:
Resource Stewardship for the
21st Century – Interim Policy
The
National Park System, as well as all the natural and cultural resources under National
Park Service (NPS) oversight, faces environmental and social changes that are
increasingly widespread, complex, accelerating, and uncertain. These challenges require us to carefully
update our policy framework to reflect the complexity of decisions needed to
manage the natural and cultural resources in our care. This Policy Memorandum (Memorandum) will
guide us in taking the necessary actions to fulfill the NPS mission in the 21st
century.
This
Memorandum sets the framework and direction for creating and implementing a
comprehensive new Director’s Order #100: Resource Stewardship for the 21st
Century (Director’s Order), which will be completed by December 15, 2016. The Director’s Order will update the guiding
principles and policies of resource management and stewardship in the National
Park System.
This
Memorandum and the subsequent Director’s Order reflect the completion of an
important element in the NPS A Call to Action, namely:
Action #21: Create a new basis for NPS resource
management to inform policy, planning, and management decisions and establish
the NPS as a leader in addressing the impacts of climate change on protected
areas around the world.
Purpose
This
Memorandum: (1) updates guiding principles for resource stewardship in parks,
programs, and offices of the NPS; and (2) provides interim guidance to
employees during the development of the Director’s Order.
This
Memorandum is intended only to improve the internal management of the NPS, and
is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or equity by a party against the United States,
its departments, agencies, instrumentalities or entities, its officers or employees,
or any other person.
Background
In 1963,
A. Starker Leopold chaired a committee of scientists in preparing a report
titled, Wildlife Management in the
National Parks. The report, which
became known as the “Leopold Report,” represented the first comprehensive
attempt at evaluating best practices and principles for sustainable resource
management, and was the source of longstanding policies for natural resource
management in the National Park System.
Much has changed for the NPS since the 1960s. The number and types of parks in the system,
and the overall size of the system, have increased significantly. The annual number of visitors has grown
four-fold. Social, cultural, and
demographic changes to American society have been profound. Climate change is creating, and will continue
to create, dynamic environmental shifts that impact both natural and cultural
resources.[1] Additional
pressures such as biodiversity loss, invasive species, land use change, and
pollution require effective response and management. New science—and new disciplines of
science—have expanded our understanding of natural and cultural systems, and
have revealed how much we do not yet know about how these systems function.
For all
these reasons, I asked the Science Committee of the National Park System
Advisory Board (NPSAB) to revisit the Leopold Report, and report to me their
findings and recommendations.
Importantly, this new report was to examine both natural and cultural
resource management. The committee was
composed of scientists from a wide range of disciplines, with broad experience,
and included several Nobel Laureates and members of the National Academy of
Sciences. The committee delivered the
Report, Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the
National Parks (Report) [2] to the
NPSAB, which adopted it and presented it to me.
The
Report makes several important recommendations for advancing resource
stewardship in the 21st century, noting:
The overarching goal of NPS resource management
should be to steward NPS resources for continuous change that is not yet fully
understood, in order to preserve ecological integrity and cultural and
historical authenticity, provide visitors with transformative experiences, and
form the core of a national conservation land- and seascape. [Report, page
11.]
This
Memorandum, and the Director’s Order, will help prepare the NPS—its parks, its
programs, and its people—to continue what the Report aptly describes as our
“enduring responsibility,” which is the NPS mission:
The National Park Service preserves unimpaired
the natural and cultural resources and values of the [N]ational
[P]ark [S]ystem for the enjoyment, education, and
inspiration of this and future generations.
The National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the
benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation
throughout this country and the world. [Management Policies (2006), inside front cover.]
The Overarching
Goal of Resource Stewardship
This
Memorandum reaffirms that resource stewardship is a preeminent duty of the NPS,
and that “[w]hen proposed park uses and the protection of park resources and
values come into conflict, the protection of resources and values must be
predominant.” Management Policies (2006), section
1.5. The
NPS defines resource stewardship as both an ethic of active responsibility to
pass on the parks unimpaired to future generations and the application of the necessary expertise to meet this
duty. We do not redefine “unimpaired” in
this Memorandum, but instead recognize that there are new and complex forces
that impact park resources and that must be considered in resource management.
Therefore, the overarching goal of resource stewardship is to
manage NPS resources in a context of continuous change that we do not fully
understand, in order to:
·
preserve and restore ecological, historical, and
cultural integrity that includes multiple perspectives;
·
provide visitors and users of our programs with
opportunities for transformative experiences that educate and inspire; and
·
contribute as an ecological and cultural core of a
national and international network of protected lands and waters. See section
1.6 of Management
Policies (2006).
Developing
the Director’s Order
Building
upon the framework set out in this Memorandum, the Director’s Order will be
developed, in collaboration with appropriate directorates, regions, and
programs, to articulate and communicate the guiding principles and policies of
resource management and stewardship of the NPS.
Upon issuance, the Director’s Order will supersede this Memorandum.
POLICY
In
support of the overarching goal of resource stewardship, we will implement the
following:
A. We will
integrate the overarching goal of resource stewardship into all appropriate
policies, stewardship plans and strategies, resource planning, program funding,
inventory and monitoring, educational and interpretive programs, and field
operations. We will fully define and
describe the new concepts in the Director’s Order; current definitions for some
of these concepts are included in the Appendix.
Integration of efforts to create transformative visitor experiences are
already underway and can be found in Achieving Relevance in Our Second Century (2014).
B. We will
ensure that the National Park System is core of a national and international
network of protected lands and waters.
C. Informed by
scientific and scholarly research, and traditional ecological knowledge, we will
manage our resources emphasizing resiliency, connectivity at landscape scales,
and life-cycle stewardship.
D. NPS resource
stewardship decision making will be explicitly based upon best available sound
science and scholarship, accurate fidelity to the law, and long-term public
interest. While used in every decision,
these criteria will not always be weighted equally.
·
Best
available sound science and scholarship is defined as up-to-date
and rigorous in method, mindful of limitations, peer-reviewed, and delivered at
the appropriate time in the decision-making process in ways that allow managers
to apply its findings.
·
Accurate
fidelity to the law means that the NPS decision-making process must
adhere with precision to the law, be mindful of legislative intent, and
consistently and transparently follow public policy and regulations.
·
Long-term
public interest emerges from an evolving understanding of public
wants and needs, meaningful civic engagement including multiple inclusive
perspectives and generations, the NPS mission, and the expert judgment of NPS
professionals.
E. We will
ensure all superintendents and those who aspire to positions of leadership in
the NPS possess scientific literacy appropriate to their positions and resource
management decision-making responsibilities.
Scientific literacy is defined as the knowledge and understanding of
scientific concepts and processes relevant to biological, physical, social, and
cultural sciences, and an understanding of the strengths and limitations of
scientific findings and the appropriate application of scientific research to
management and policy issues.
F. We will
fully integrate the precautionary principle and adaptive management into
resource stewardship decision making at all appropriate levels. As applied by the NPS, the precautionary
principle requires managers to act in furtherance of the NPS mission, even
where the possibility for harm is not yet fully quantified. Adaptive management requires managers to
monitor the consequences of resource management actions, and use these results
to improve the effectiveness of actions.
We will develop and incorporate guidance for the application of the
precautionary principle and adaptive management into appropriate guidance
documents.
ACTIONS
In
support of the overarching goal of resource stewardship, we will begin to
implement the following actions:
A.
Integrating Natural and Cultural Resource Stewardship
As the Report states, “Parks
exist as coupled natural-human systems.
Natural and cultural resource management must occur simultaneously and,
in general, interdependently. Such
resource management when practiced holistically embodies the basis of sound
park stewardship.” Report, page
9. We will:
·
Strengthen the integration of natural and cultural
resource programs, functions, and funding mechanisms when it is beneficial to
resource stewardship.
·
Expand internal and external partnerships to achieve
the policy objective of the National Park System serving as a core of a
national and international network of protected lands and waters.
·
Increase our understanding and use of traditional
ecological knowledge to strengthen resource stewardship.
Implementation of the above actions will be led
by the Natural Resources, Stewardship and Science (NRSS) and Cultural
Resources, Partnership and Science (CRPS) Directorates, and will engage all
relevant parks, regions, offices, and programs.
B.
Updating our Workforce
We will take the following actions to diversify, modernize, and
support our workforce to:
·
Create, through strategic partnerships with
educational institutions and other organizations, a new generation of scientists,
scholars, and resource managers who can transform the NPS workforce to reflect
the diversity of the Nation.
·
Incorporate the overarching resource stewardship goal
into new and revised position descriptions and performance plans for all
appropriate positions throughout the NPS.
Implementation of the above actions will be led
by the Workforce and Inclusion Directorate and the regional directors, and will
engage all relevant parks, offices, and programs.
C. Investing in Service-wide Resource
Stewardship Training
To ensure the workforce is adequately trained to understand and
implement these policies, strategies, and actions, we will develop and make
available the following:
·
Additional Service-wide training for resource
stewardship so that every employee understands her or his responsibility to
implement the overarching goal.
·
Training to effectively apply the three primary
criteria for resource stewardship decision making (see Policy, section D,
above) and scientific literacy (see Policy, section E, above). Appropriate training will also incorporate
the definition and application of the precautionary principle and other
concepts, using case studies and other tools.
Implementation of the above actions will be led
by the Workforce and Inclusion Directorate, and will engage all relevant parks,
regions, offices, and programs.
Conclusion
As we
embark on our second century of stewardship and public engagement, our
employees are faced with more complex decisions and unprecedented change that threaten
the resources in our care. This
Memorandum begins our process of creating a new policy framework for NPS
resource stewardship. The new framework
will ensure that decision makers have the scientific literacy to make difficult
decisions, and to apply the precautionary principle in the long-term interest
of the public. When applied within the
context of landscape-level conservation, for example, the framework will ensure
that we will meet our mandate of “unimpaired” for future generations. The NPS is uniquely positioned to lead the
Nation in this “enduring responsibility” of stewardship, with our ability to
integrate natural and cultural resources along with strategies informed by
science and scholarship to effectively address the many challenges ahead. By adopting this updated policy direction, we
will create a resilient course for meeting our mission in a continuously
changing world. I am confident that the
NPS, with its extraordinary employees and partners, will carry forward this
mission so as to serve this and future generations.
-------End
of Policy Memorandum------
Appendix–Definitions
Note: Definitions for the new
concepts appearing below are interim in nature.
They will be fully defined and described in Director’s Order #100: Resource
Stewardship for the 21st Century.
Accurate
fidelity to the law
The NPS
decision-making process must adhere with precision to the law, be mindful of
legislative intent, and consistently and transparently follow public policy and
regulations. Report, p. 17.
Best
available sound science
Information
that is up-to-date and rigorous in method, mindful of limitations,
peer-reviewed, and delivered at the appropriate time in the decision-making
process in ways that allow managers to apply its findings. Report, p. 17.
Continuous
change
The
concept that parks are not a static entity, but instead are undergoing nearly
constant and seasonal changes including periods of extreme, volatile swings in
conditions within longer-term trends of change.
Report, pp.
11-12.
Core of a
national and international network of protected lands and waters
NPS-administered
resources that are ecologically and/or culturally essential to national and
international networks of protected areas, and that are managed through
exemplary resource stewardship practices.
Ecological
integrity
The
ability of an ecological system to support and maintain a community of
organisms that has a species composition, diversity, and functional
organization comparable to those of natural habitats within a region. NPS
Ecological Integrity Assessment Framework (January 2009), p. 2.
Historical
and cultural integrity
Note: While the Report utilized
“cultural and historical authenticity,” this term is not being adopted by the
NPS. Rather, during the development of
the Director’s Order, NPS staff will consult with cultural resource management
practitioners to develop a definition of “historical and cultural integrity”
that incorporates a variety of perspectives, reflects current theories and best
practices of all relevant disciplines, and promotes dynamic, adaptive, and
data-driven resource management interpretation.
Life-cycle
stewardship
Managing
natural resources such that species’ full life cycles are sustained over time (Report, p. 14)
and managing cultural resources for long-term preservation.
Long-term
public interest
Based on
the NPS mission, the expert judgment of NPS professionals, and an evolving
understanding of public wants and needs now and for multiple generations in the
future. Report, p. 17.
National
conservation land- and seascape
Large, interconnected
regional and continental landscapes with recognized conservation values that
are influenced by adjacent land and water uses and regional cultures, and
require connectivity for system resilience over time. Report, p. 9; Scaling
Up website.
Precautionary
principle
When an
activity raises plausible or probable threats of harm to human health or the
environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if all cause and
effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. A key element is to take anticipatory action
in the absence of scientific certainty. 1998 Wingspread Statement. See also section
1.4.7.1, “Unacceptable Impacts,” of Management Policies (2006).
Scientific
literacy
The knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and
processes and an understanding of the strengths and limitations of scientific
findings and the appropriate application of scientific research to management
and policy issues. Report, p. 21.
Traditional
ecological knowledge (TEK)
Although
the definition varies in each setting, TEK is generally regarded as a
cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive process,
and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the
relationship of living beings with one another and their environment. It is knowledge based on long-term
observation and interactions with the natural world associated with societies
who have a strong connection to a geographic location and historical continuity
in resource use and management practices.
Berkes, F. 1993. Traditional ecological knowledge in perspective, Traditional
ecological knowledge: Concepts and cases. Canadian Museum of
Nature/International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Unacceptable
impacts
Impacts
that, individually or cumulatively, fall short of impairment, but are still not
acceptable within a particular park’s environment. Park managers must not allow uses that would
cause unacceptable impacts. Management Policies (2006), section
1.4.7.1.
Visitor
The term “visitor” encompasses individuals who physically visit a
national park, and any audiences that actively engage with a park’s or
program’s interpretive and educational services, regardless of where or how
such use occurs.
[1] There are a number of climate
change policy initiatives throughout the Federal Government including, for
example the President’s Climate Action Plan (2013), the NPS Climate Change Action Plan
(2012-2014),
the NPS Climate Action Plan (2010), and the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation
Strategy
(co-led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, 2012).
[2] Portions of this Memorandum are
derived from text in the Report.