NPS Mission - National Park Service

National Park Service FY 2013 Budget Justifications
Natural Resource Stewardship
• Obtains research support essential for managing the natural resources in national parks: supports
parks by providing park and resource managers with knowledge gained through systematic and
critical investigations involving theoretical, taxonomic, and experimental investigations or simulations;
responsive technical assistance; continuing education for park personnel; and cost-effective research
programs that address complex landscape-level management issues. Partners include the
Environmental Protection Agency, United States Geological Survey, Cooperative Ecosystem Studies
Units around the country, universities, and other Federal and State agencies.
• Manages the natural resources in the national park system by protecting threatened and endangered
species habitat, managing species of management concern, controlling exotic invasive plants and
animals, restoring disturbed lands, and conducting tactical and other non-research studies to address
natural resource operational needs.
• Assesses the vulnerability of park natural resources to the effects of climate change, improves
resource resiliency and develops adaptation strategies to these effects. Seeks to develop climate
change monitoring information in collaboration with parks, other Department of the Interior bureaus,
and other agencies and partners through Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) which are
supported by research obtained by others through Climate Science Centers (CSCs).
• Conducts systematic inventories of natural resources and monitoring of park vital signs through the
organization of 32 multi-park geographic Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Networks.
• Contributes to the preservation of natural scenery, wildlife, vegetation, air and water quality, marine
resources, geologic and paleontological resources, and ecosystems.
Cultural Resource Stewardship
• Conducts applied research aimed at preserving cultural resources. Provides detailed, systematic data
about resources and their preservation and protection needs.
• Preserves and protects the sites, buildings, and objects that define the Nation’s heritage by
identifying, documenting, and commemorating the people, events, objects, and locations of that
heritage, including prehistoric and historic archeological sites and structures, ethnographic resources,
cultural landscapes, and museum collections.
Everglades Restoration
• Implements projects essential to the restoration of the natural ecological systems affecting Big
Cypress NPres, Biscayne NP, Everglades NP, and Dry Tortugas NP. Projects include feasibility
studies, pilot projects for seepage management and in-ground reservoirs, and restoration projects.
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