National Park Service Climate Change Strategy 2023 Update

Posted by
CAKE TeamAbstract
The American public increasingly recognizes climate change as a challenge to the mission and work of the National Park Service (NPS). Driving these perspectives is the fact that climate change exacerbates many other concerns: habitat and biodiversity loss, declining freshwater availability, invasive species, outbreaks of pests and diseases, damage to—or loss of—cultural resources, and deteriorating infrastructure, among others. Climate change is a systemic threat that affects everything we manage and protect in national parks.
The NPS Climate Change Response Strategy 2023 Update builds on longstanding attention by the NPS to climate change, including the first NPS Climate Change Response Strategy published 2010 and reaffirms and strengthens its commitment to addressing the challenge of climate change. The Strategy retains the overarching and integrated components of science, adaptation, mitigation, and communication while offering important new approaches that reflect considerable growth in knowledge and experience.
This is a high-level blueprint to guide NPS work to address the ongoing climate crisis. The strategy stands on four cornerstones of action that organize our efforts across the NPS and each has its own section and vision statement, followed by supporting goals, examples of progress, and priority next steps.
Citation
National Park Service Climate Change Response Strategy 2023 Update. National Park Service, Washington, D.C.