Legacy Magazine

by Lynne Murdock

Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska is one of the oldest coastal national parks in the National Park System. National Park Service.

The year 2016 is significant to the National Park System not only because it marks a century since Woodrow Wilson signed the “Organic Act” establishing the National Park Service (NPS), but also because it commemorates the addition of the first ocean park to America’s crown jewels. In 1916, Acadia National Park joined the other 35 parks and monuments of the National Park System as Sieur de Mont National Monument. Today the 391-unit National Park System has grown to include 6,800 miles of coast across 75 parks and 26 states with over 75 million visits per year, generating $2.5 billion in economic benefits for surrounding communities.

President Bush’s U.S. Ocean Action Plan called on the National Park Service (NPS) to develop a plan to conserve ocean and coastal resources, and on December 1, 2006, NPS Director Mary Bomar announced the release of the Ocean Park Stewardship Action Plan at the 50th anniversary of Virgin Islands National Park.

The Ocean Park Stewardship Action Plan establishes goals and priorities to restore and maintain the tremendous biological and recreational values of ocean and coastal resources across the National Park System in collaboration with state and federal agencies and park stakeholders.

Consistent with the national level plan, the Northeast, Southeast, Alaska, and Pacific West regions have developed strategic plans that identify goals and action items with four major topics:

•     Establish a seamless network of ocean parks, sanctuaries, refuges and reserves
•     Discover, map, and protect ocean parks
•     Engage visitors and the public in ocean park stewardship
•     Increase technical capacity for ocean exploration and stewardship

Park Rangers provide educational programs on cruise ships. National Park Service.

Examples of successful joint stewardship programs can serve as models for managing marine resources that attract academic interest. At Point Reyes National Seashore, the Pacific Coast Research Learning Center hosts collaborative projects such as the Marine All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), in which students from Tomales Bay High School worked with park researchers and local university staff to identify and remove an invasive tunicate from Tomales Bay that had the potential to greatly impact freshwater oysters. (For recent information on this partnership visit www.tomalesbaylife.org /publications.htm.)

“Channel Islands Live!” is a joint classroom-based program between Channel Islands National Park and Ventura Department of Education. A popular element of the program is a live transmission from the kelp forest into the classroom that allows students to interact with a National Park Service ranger as the ranger interprets the natural history of the kelp forest from under water. The technical support to make this project happen is complex and requires ingenuity and determination to install and maintain the necessary hardware in remote locations. Interestingly, installing the communications network on remote islands is highly rewarding for technical support staff when they experience firsthand how much their hardware and expertise is relied upon to deliver compelling educational experiences. (To learn more about this partnership visit http://chil.vcoe.org.)

In conjunction with park partners and the Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center, Kenai Fjords National Park hosted the National Ocean Sciences Bowl in Seward, Alaska, April 25-27, 2008. This exciting educational event allowed high school students from diverse geographic locations and backgrounds to match their knowledge of ocean science with their peers in regional and national competitions. (Visit www.oceanalaska.org for information about Kenai Fjords and visit www.nosb.org for information about this event.)

Communicating about critical natural resource issues requires targeted messages for specific park user groups. Given the right information and knowledge, recreational users such as boaters are eager and better equipped to protect the resources they enjoy. The NPS Marine Recreational Stewardship Program assists parks with educational partnerships, increased use of mooring buoys, signage, maps, and outreach to the recreational community. The Great Annual Fish Count (GAFC) is founded on the same principle as the Christmas Bird Count, but occurs underwater with recreational scuba divers recording sightings and abundance of fish species throughout the year. Channel Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Biscayne National Parks participate in the GAFC with the Reef Environmental Education Foundation. For more information, visit www.reef.org/programs/volunteersurvey.

Data synthesis makes current research outcomes useable and relevant to park visitors. One method to help parks accomplish this is the Research Learning Center network. Currently, there are 17 National Park Service Research Learning Centers designed to facilitate needed research in parks while sharing the results in a compelling manner to a range of audiences. The Schoodic Research and Education Center (SERC) located on the Schoodic Peninsula within Acadia National Park is a former navy base that has been modified and converted to an NPS Research Learning Center. SERC involves the public in an inventory of insects known as “bio-blitz” in many ways. (For more about Acadia and their Research Learning Center visit www.nps.gov/acad/serc.htm.)

“To engage visitors and the public on ocean park stewardship” and “best practices” are two phrases that were consistently referenced as park staff from Cape Cod, Acadia, Gateway, Gulf Islands, Cape Hatteras, Glacier Bay, Channel Islands, and Washington, D.C., gathered in Quincy, Massachusetts March 24–25, 2008, for an “Ocean Park Education” seminar.

Topics ranged from marine protected areas to future online Web Ranger modules on sea grasses and shipwrecks. During a field trip to Boston Harbor Islands, participants learned about the cleanup of Boston Harbor and partnerships that make this park area unique. Students charting a course to Boston Harbor Islands were featured on the cover of the four conference manuals of the 56th National Conference on Science Education held in Boston, Massachusetts, March 27-30, 2008.

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For more information on the ocean and coastal parks, visit www.nps.gov/pub_aff/oceans/conserve.htm.

Lynne Murdock is the interpretive liaison for the associate director of Natural Resources, Science, and Stewardship (NRSS) for the National Park Service.