Overview

Since 1916, the American people have entrusted the National Park Service with the care of their national parks. With the help of volunteers and park partners, we are proud to safeguard these nearly 400 places and to share their stories with more than 275 million visitors every year. But our work doesn’t stop there.

We are proud that tribes, local governments, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individual citizens ask for our help in revitalizing their communities, preserving local history, celebrating local heritage, and creating close to home opportunities for kids and families to get outside, be active, and have fun.

Taking care of the national parks and helping Americans take care of their communities is a job we love, and we need – and welcome – your help and support.

Adaptation Work:

Activities underway in the NPS include:

• Participation in Department of the Interior Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs). NPS is supporting 4 full time positions associated with LCCs that include some of the parks’ most vulnerable resources.
• Collaboration with federal and state agencies, tribes, NGOs, and academic partners to develop guidance for adaptation planning and implementation for natural and cultural resources.
• Consideration and development of new approaches to frame management goals and desired outcomes in the context of a rapidly changing environment.
• Advancing the tools of scenario planning to support adaptation, and initiating pilots to apply scenarios within the context of existing planning processes.
• Developing an approach to evaluate risks to park infrastructure associated with climate change (such as sea level rise) and determine appropriate responses.
• Conducting projects in several regions among partners at a landscape scale to develop strategies for adaptation.

In 2013, the NPS released briefs on adaptation and vulnerability assessments.