Professional Opinion Paper 12 - Reassessing the Development Footprint in our National Parks

Abstract

Infrastructure in the National Parks: What is necessary? What is sustainable?

This paper contemplates the physical structures that have accumulated in the parks, and their impact on the agency's mission. It questions how the inventory relates to the agency's mission: Is it all needed to support park functions? Would removal of some enhance resource management? Can the parts that remain be modified to improve their sustainability? It considers these questions in light of existing management policies and several different recommendations expressed in a variety of professional reports produced over the last decade or so:

“We recommend that the National Park Service minimize development of visitor facilities within park boundaries, while striving for excellence in visitor services.”
- National Parks for the 21st Century
The Vail Agenda, page 85, 1992

“…the Service will not develop or redevelop a facility within a park until a determination has been made that the facility is necessary and appropriate, and that it would not be practicable for the facility to be provided outside the park.”
- Management Policies 2006, Park Facilities, Paragraph 9.1, page 124

NOTE: This paper is in .pdf format because some attributes are lost otherwise.