Full document / COSOC-W-86-002 - the National Sea Grant Library

Developing the Management Tools to Conserve Threatened Park
Resources
Research is providing park managers with the tools needed to
minimize the adverse effects of several identified threats
to park resources. Those threats include, beach erosion
related to channel dredging practices, introduced and exotic
species, and adverse impacts associated with recreational
Beach renourishment
An experimental project is underway on Perdido Key to
determine if beach renourishment is an acceptable solution
to a man-induced beach erosion problem. Channel dredging in
Pensacola Pass has cut off the sediment supply to Perdido
Key and accelerated beach erosion over the past twenty
years. In August 1985 two million yards of sand were pumped
from Pensacola Pass on to Perdido Key restoring
approximately 20 hectares of new beach to the Seashore. A
research project is currently underway to assess the project
through an analysis of shoreline change and sediment
transport processes on Perdido Key.
Exotic species management
Introduced feral hogs (Sus scrota), nutria (Mvocastor
coypus1, eastern cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus florTdanusl,
and black rats (Rattus rattus1 are found on several of the
Mississippi barrier islands. Research is underway to
develop population control methods, and to assess the impact
of exotic species on the native flora and fauna.
Recreational impacts
Preserving natural resources for public use is a difficult
mandate for the National Park Service. Determining the
carrying capacities of communities, the tolerance of species
to disturbance, and the development of approaches to "people
management" that reduce the adverse affects of recreational
use, is a major goal of several research projects.
Summary
The major research challenge at Gulf Islands, and other
natural coastal areas, is the development of the tools
resource managers need to maintain and accommodate the
dynamic nature of these areas in the face of relentless
urban encroachment. Although we realize that plant
communities go through successional stages, that fire is an
important component of many ecosystems, that wildlife
populations and water levels fluctuate, and that barrier
islands move, we too often ignore these dynamic qualities in
the management of coastal resources. At the same time,
these areas are becoming ecological museum pieces, natural,
dynamic islands embedded in a matrix of highly urbanized
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