National Park Guide » Climate Change

Climate Change Report Carries Foreboding Forecast for Shenandoah National Park, Historic Jamestown

Kurt Repanshek — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:45:29 +0000

Imagine Shenandoah National Park without its autumnal showcase of colors, or a sign along the Virginia coastline noting that the site of the Jamestown colony is offshore and under water.

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Imagine Shenandoah National Park without its autumnal showcase of colors, or a sign along the Virginia coastline noting that the site of the Jamestown colony is offshore and under water. Both scenarios could be realized in less than a century if human-influenced climate change isn't slowed, according to a report.

Lecture Series Explores The Climatic Changes Confronting Grand Teton National Park

Kurt Repanshek — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:37:24 +0000

Climatic changes are confronting the natural and historic resources of Grand Teton National Park, and an upcoming lecture series explores how those might alter the park's appearance.

The series, which opens Thursday, looks at threats to whitebark pines that are so valuable to the park's landscape and wildlife; how changing environmental conditions might impact the di

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Climatic changes are confronting the natural and historic resources of Grand Teton National Park, and an upcoming lecture series explores how those might alter the park's appearance.

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Loons Employed To Help Biologists Better Understand The Birds and Great Lakes Botulism

Kurt Repanshek — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:42:05 +0000

Avian botulism has been a problem at some units of the National Park System located along the Great Lakes. Biologists working to better understand the spread of the disease are turning to loons to help with their research.

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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agrees Whitebark Pine Trees Might Need ESA Protection

Kurt Repanshek — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:59:59 +0000

U.S.

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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials announced Tuesday that the agency will take a closer look at whether whitebark pine trees, a key food source for some grizzly bear populations as well as birds and squirrels, need protection under the Endangered Species Act.

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Melting Ice Patch Near Yellowstone National Park Reveals Ancient Hunting Weapon

Kurt Repanshek — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:29:03 +0000

Whether the shot went errant, or the fatal strike missed its mark and the prey shook free the weapon, the hunter never retrieved his spear-like dart. For more than 10,000 years it rested on a windswept mountainside not far from Yellowstone National Park.

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National parks, long treasured as providing glimpses into our past, are proving to be better time capsules than we might have imagined just a decade ago. Proof lies in a 10,000-year-old hunting weapon found below a melting ice patch near Yellowstone National Park.

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Surprising Coral Reef Found At Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument

Kurt Repanshek — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 07:21:33 +0000

A surprising discovery along the mangrove-rooted shores of Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument has, among other things, raised questions about how some coral reefs can tolerate higher water temperatures brought on by climate change.

It's said that coral reefs are more biologically diverse than rainforests.

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A surprising discovery along the mangrove-rooted shores of Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument has raised questions about whether some coral reefs can tolerate higher water temperatures brought on by climate change.

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Battle Against Mountain Pine Beetles Launched at Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Kurt Repanshek — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:16:04 +0000

They're inventorying trees at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, with an eye out for trees that are infested with mountain pine beetles.

Those tiny insects can lay waste to lodgepole forests if they gain enough of a foothold by boring into the trees' trunks and killing them.

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They're inventorying trees at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, with an eye out for trees that are infested with mountain pine beetles.

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Democrats Introduce “Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act” To Help Wildlife Cope With Climate Change

Kurt Repanshek — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:22:50 +0000

With some impacts of climate change already evident, and others projected, wildlife will need a means to move across the landscape to cope with the changes. With that in mind, two Democratic congressmen have introduced legislation to identify and protect wildlife corridors across the country.

Drafted by U.S.

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Climate Change Continues To Melt Glacier National Park’s Icons

Kurt Repanshek — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 07:04:51 +0000

From their vantage point high above the glacier, it was readily apparent that the ice sheet was waning, even in its death throes.

[i][b]While standing upon that peak overlooking the terrain above the rim wall, we got the thrill of thrills, for there lay the glacier, shriveled and shrunken from its former size, almost senile, with its back against the mountain walls to the east of it, putting up

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Glacier National Park is suffering from heat stroke, a malady that could melt all of its rivers of ice within a decade and send impacts not only through the park's landscape and wildlife but also through Montana's economy.

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Bark Beetle Battles Continue This Year At Rocky Mountain National Park

Kurt Repanshek — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:26:38 +0000

If you're planning a visit soon to Rocky Mountain National Park, you might want to read the following carefully and look at your calendar. Park crews plan to be spraying trees around the park through most of May in an ongoing battle against bark beetles.

Park crews have battling mountain pine beetles and spruce bark beetles for some years now.

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