Climate change is the greatest threat the national parks have ever faced.
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Threatened National Parks. Impacts from sources beyond their borders, overcrowding during some parts of the year, air quality issues, invasive species, and even the maintenance backlog in the National Park System all pose threats of varying degrees to some parks.
The consequences of the climate crisis – more wildfires, devastating drought, sea level rise, flooding, ecological disease – are plaguing the country's national parks. Most recently, unprecedented flash flooding overwhelmed Yellowstone National Park and some of its surrounding areas.
The National Park Service presently has a cumulative monetary shortfall of approximately $11.1 billion. [6] This shortfall, which has accumulated over the years, has arisen from a backlog of unfunded operations, construction projects, land acquisitions, and resource protection projects.
Disasters like floods and wildfires affect the national parks and the communities whose economies depend on them. In the visualization below, see the trends for every National Park Service unit in all 50 states.
National Parks Protect the Nation's National HeritageThe stunning landscapes, beautiful forests and impressive natural formations are important parts of the country's heritage. Protecting these things should be considered part of the country's value.
National parks benefit the environment by supporting a wide assortment of critical needs such as biodiversity, healthy ecosystems and key habitats, preserving endangered species, acting as a source of clean water (and as a producer of clean energy), and helping to reduce the impacts of natural disasters due to an ...