Redistributed as a Service of the National Library for the Environment*
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Redistributed as a Service of the National Library for the Environment* |
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Ecosystem Management: Federal Agency Activities 94-339 ENR DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES The primary responsibilities of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) are to manage the mineral resources located on the Nation's outer continental shelf (OCS), collect revenues from the Federal OCS and onshore Federal and Indian lands, and distribute those revenues. To accomplish these responsibilities, the Offshore Minerals Management Program administers the OCS competitive leasing process and oversees the safe and environmentally sound exploration, development, and production of offshore natural gas, oil, and other mineral resources. The MMS Royalty Management Program provides for the efficient, timely, and accurate collection and disbursement of revenues from mineral leasing and production. Revenues are distributed to Indian tribes and allottees, States, and the U.S. Treasury. Protection of the environment and operational safety are of primary importance in all OCS leasing and lease management decisions. The MMS manages the offshore natural gas, oil, and marine mineral industries through the establishment of environmental standards in regulations and lease stipulations. These standards are enforced through review of exploration and development plans and permit applications, and a rigorous program of inspections. To accomplish this enforcement, the MMS depends upon its extensive Environmental Studies Program, engineering studies, and technical staff of scientists and engineers. The Environmental Studies Program was initiated in 1973 to support the OCS minerals management responsibilities of the Department of the Interior. The goal of the Environmental Studies Program, as stated in the OCS Lands Act Amendments of 1978, is to provide information needed for prediction, assessment, and management of impacts from offshore mineral development activities on human, marine, and coastal environments. Since its inception, the Environmental Studies Program has supported approximately $600 million in marine environmental and socioeconomic research and data collection. The figures in the chart on the following page show percentages of total Environmental Studies Program funding through FY 1993 by OCS Region and topic. Current research efforts focus primarily on providing information needed for decisions concerning operational activities in areas of the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific OCS with ongoing exploration, development, and production of offshore mineral resources. Research is also conducted in areas with scheduled future OCS leasing. Projects have been sponsored by the MMS Environmental Studies Program in the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, Alaska, and Atlantic OCS and coastal areas. Most of these projects may be generally described by the following categories.Air Quality The objectives of these studies are to characterize and quantify emissions of air pollutants generated on the OCS, to examine the transport and dispersion of these emissions in the atmosphere, and to evaluate their effects on air quality onshore. Biology Investigations of the sea bed and the organisms inhabiting it (benthic ecology), fisheries, non-protected marine birds and other species, and marine ecological monitoring are included in this category of studies. Beginning in FY 1994, the newly created National Biological Survey (NBS) of the U.S. Department of the Interior will be responsible for conducting most of the biological research identified by MMS for support of OCS decisionmaking. The MMS will continue to administer the biological and interdisciplinary marine ecology studies which are site-specific and directly applicable to operational approvals or to the monitoring of OCS gas and oil activities. Fates and Effects The fates and effects investigations are primarily interdisciplinary studies of the physical-chemical and biological processes that affect spilled oil and the impacts of oil and gas drilling and production discharges, spilled oil, and oil dispersants on biological communities. Protected Species Unique protection of all marine mammals in U.S. waters is provided by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 provides additional protection to threatened and endangered marine mammals, birds, turtles, and other listed species of plants and animals. Federal agencies are required to ensure that actions they conduct, fund, or authorize will not jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or adversely modify their critical habitats. These acts require MMS to meet special information needs, including the collection of data pertaining to the distribution and interrelationships of species protected under these acts, and the determination of the potential effects of OCS natural gas and oil activities on these species. Physical Oceanography The broad objective of these studies is to provide an understanding of the dynamic processes of the ocean and the features that control the motion of the coastal and oceanic waters of the continental shelf. These studies support modeling efforts for oil spill risk analysis and provide information important to the interpretation of processes affecting biological populations and communities in the marine environment. Social and Economic This category includes economic modeling efforts conducted to support the 5-year comprehensive offshore natural gas and oil leasing plan, research to describe the economic and social systems of coastal residents, and research to characterize and monitor the complex interactions between the economic and social systems and activities impacted by and associated with the offshore natural gas and oil industry. Other Special studies and analyses are designed to provide coverage of issues related to the offshore natural gas and oil program that do not appropriately fall into the topics described above. Examples include information management and dissemination, support of scientific conferences, information summaries and analyses, and reviews of the Environmental Studies Program by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The MMS Environmental Studies Program has produced a wealth of information that is available as a base for marine and coastal ecosystem management efforts. In its review of the ecology component of the Environmental Studies Program, the NAS concluded that one of the Program's major achievements is the characterization of marine mammal and bird populations and benthic habitats of the U.S. continental shelf, including analysis of benthic fauna and the associated physical and chemical parameters. In addition, the Environmental Studies Program has produced a major information base for social and economic systems of coastal areas, especially in Alaska. From its inception, the Environmental Studies Program has worked hard to maximize cooperative efforts with other Federal programs involved with marine environmental research and data collection. The MMS has provided cooperative funding for many projects conducted by other agencies with missions involving specific components of marine ecosystems. The MMS is currently working closely with the Office of Naval Research and the Naval Research Laboratory to identify research areas of mutual interest for future cooperative efforts. Cooperative efforts with other Federal agencies, primarily the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Energy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey, have accounted for nearly 36 percent of the total Environmental Studies Program funding. The MMS also has emphasized coordination of its marine environmental and socioeconomic research and data collection efforts with State and private sector activities. The University Research Initiative (URI) and the Coastal Marine Institute (CMI) programs are major components of the Environmental Studies Program which emphasize this concept. In both the URI and the CMI, the MMS collaborates with research scientists in the university community to identify research efforts that will address some of the still unanswered questions associated with offshore oil and gas development impacts. Through a sense of shared goals, and shared understanding of what the problems are and how they can be studied, the CMI and URI have increased academic community involvement in design and conduct of the studies. Through the CMI program, MMS funds are combined on a one-to-one basis with funds provided by the participating universities and States to carry out a mutually agreed upon research agenda that might otherwise be unattainable. An important aspect of the CMI is that the agreed upon research agenda represents consensus between the State and MMS on the most important OCS issues that need to be researched. AS stakeholders in the CMI, all participants will have enhanced access to the research results which will facilitate the use of good science in subsequent resource management decisions. Additionally, the CMI emphasizes providing information to local users and providing for education and training of students in academic fields relevant to OCS issues. The MMS participates in many interagency coordination efforts including those involved in marine environmental research, ecosystem management, global change, biodiversity, and management of natural resources. The Interagency Ecosystem Management Coordination Group (IEMCG) has provided MMS with an additional forum to enhance the general awareness of Federal agencies with ecosystem management missions to the wealth of marine environmental and socioeconomic information collected by the Environmental Studies Program. Collaboration among the diverse agencies participating in the IEMCG will promote the implementation of ecosystem management principles to ongoing and future Federal resource management and environmental protection programs. The MMS is in the process of developing a geographic information system (GIS) as part of its agency-wide Technical Information Management System. Spatial information in the MMS Environmental Studies Program Information System will be linked to that GIS. To facilitate incorporation of spatial data to GIS, the Environmental Studies Program now requires that researchers adhere to the Federal Geographic Data Committee's spatial metadata standards. A GIS capability has been developed through the MMS Environmental Studies Program at Jackson State University and some practical experience with GIS application has been gained in the MMS Gulf of Mexico Region. All of the research and data collection efforts supported by the MMS Environmental Studies Program provide information applicable to marine and coastal ecosystem management. Consequently, the current budget structure does accommodate aspects of ecosystem management relevant to the MMS mission. Further implementation of ecosystem management concepts and principles would require budget growth. In FY 1994, $4.5 million of the MMS base budget was transferred to the NBS budget to support biological research identified by MMS. The $4.5 million is to be carried annually by NBS as a minimum funding level required to conduct MMS biological research. The MMS does not maintain its own laboratories, research vessels, or other research facilities. Virtually all of the MMS research and data collection efforts are conducted by external groups including academic institutions, private consulting firms, and State and Federal agencies. The MMS has developed a comprehensive planning process to identify environmental and socioeconomic issues relating to OCS oil and gas development. The MMS scientific staff designs the research efforts, provides technical oversight during the conduct of the research, and interprets and synthesizes the scientific information for use in resource management decisions. ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT LIMITS AND OPPORTUNITIES Problems of insufficient staff or legal restrictions are not identified for MMS with respect to ecosystem management efforts. The MMS plans to continue its emphasis on interagency coordination, partnerships with States, and cooperative funding of marine and coastal environmental research and data collection efforts. As a mission-oriented resource management agency contributing a substantial information base to ecosystem management efforts, the MMS will work to enhance the broader availability of the information produced by its Environmental Studies Program. One avenue for future MMS research is a focus on long-term, interdisciplinary studies of site-specific environmental issues. Emphasis of such studies would be on process-oriented research investigating the chronic impacts of OCS natural gas and oil activities on ecosystem structure and function. CONTACT Tom Ahlfald NATIONAL BIOLOGICAL SURVEY ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES The National Biological Survey (NBS) was established in FY 1994 through the transfer and consolidation of biological research and monitoring programs from seven bureaus within the Department of the Interior (DOI). The mission of the NBS is to provide leadership in gathering, analyzing, and disseminating the biological information necessary to support the sound management of the Nation's natural resources. Central to the vision that guided establishment of the NBS is the need for a strong, coherent, ecosystem-oriented biological science base to assist decisionmakers in the complex task of ecosystem management. In establishing the NBS, Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior stated:
It is important to emphasize that NBS is a non-regulatory agency and does not have natural resource or ecosystem management authorities or responsibilities. Instead, the role of NBS is one of gathering, analyzing, and reporting information as well as improving the accessibility of information to others. It is the biological and ecological sciences arm of the Department of the Interior. As an impartial, scientific organization, NBS is a non-advocacy agency whose greatest contribution is the provision of sound, accurate, and credible information regarding the types, condition, and functioning of the Nation's biological resources and ecosystems. Since NBS was initially constituted by combining individual programs and activities from seven Interior bureaus, the initial task has been to begin structuring the consolidated activities and capabilities in a manner that will be responsive to ecosystem management needs. To accomplish this, the NBS is establishing four geographically based "Ecoregional Offices" to serve the Western, Mid-Continent, Southern, and Eastern Ecoregions. These Ecoregional Offices are responsible for coordination and communication with local managers and decisionmakers regarding information needs. In addition, the Ecoregional Offices have line management and supervisory responsibility for the Centers and Field Stations located within the Region and individual Centers have primary mission responsibilities for specific ecosystems. This structure allows continued implementation of National programs and NBS initiatives through guidance from headquarters and delegated authority to the Ecoregional Offices while providing improved responsiveness to local management needs. The biological research and monitoring activities consolidated into NBS from the seven DOI bureaus tended to be resource specific (e.g., species or habitat type) due to the legal mandates of the bureau from which they originated. Structuring of these activities into programs that support ecosystem management will not result in the termination of such ongoing activities. Rather, consolidation of the activities into a single bureau allows their integration into a more holistic program addressing management needs. In addition, such consolidation provides opportunities for improved efficiency by reducing redundancy and improving coordination. The changes involved in moving towards support of ecosystem management therefore deal more with how the work is done than with what is done. Much of the same information needs to be gathered but it needs to be done in a much more integrated fashion. In advising the Secretary of the Interior on the formation of the NBS, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences recommended the following:
This recommendation not only acknowledges, but strongly emphasizes, that assembling the information necessary for assessing the Nation's biological resources and ecosystems is not an activity that is doable, or even appropriately done, by a single agency. Instead, the role of NBS is to serve as a catalyst for the organization and distribution of biological and ecological information. This is an enormous task which can only be accomplished through the establishment of partnerships with other Federal, State, and local agencies involved with inventorying, assessing, and managing biological resources. Toward that end, NBS is actively developing memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and cooperative agreements with Federal and State agencies with the goal of establishing improved mechanisms for organizing and sharing data and for developing common standards and protocols to ensure data comparability. In addition to these agreements, NBS is actively pursuing MOUs with private sector partners to further increase the base of scientific knowledge about biological and ecological resources. Recent examples of such agreements include MOUs with The Nature Conservancy and the Association of Systematics Collections. As the biological and ecological sciences arm of the Department of the Interior, the NBS also serves the specific research and monitoring needs of the Department's bureaus. These needs include information on the structure, functioning and responses of biological resources and systems under the management authority of the bureaus. Drawing upon information gathered by NBS research and monitoring activities and those gathered by the growing network of partnerships, NBS and its cooperators will be able to respond to information needs ranging from those that are national in scale to local and site-specific needs. Forums such as the Interagency Ecosystem Management Coordinating Group are central to the ability of NBS to identify information needs necessary for effective ecosystem management, to communicate findings, and to assist in coordination of data gathering and sharing. The group can provide a valuable role in helping to coordinate and develop ecosystem management programs and initiatives through the joint identification of needs and communication of programs between information users and providers. Further, with the proliferation of coordinating bodies dealing with a broad range of interagency activities such as research, monitoring, data standards and protocols, sampling and analysis protocols, information networks, etc., the group can help to ensure that these various bodies are aware of, and consider ecosystem management needs in their deliberations and activities so that information gathered for other, worthwhile purposes also will contribute directly and compatibly to the knowledge base that will be required for ecosystem management. The Gap Analysis Program was initiated in 1988 by scientists transferred to NBS and continues to be developed by NBS in cooperation with State agencies, the State Heritage Programs, other Federal agencies, and the private sector. This program and its associated geographic information system (GIS) is one of several such capabilities housed within the NBS and applied to a broad range of research and monitoring efforts through the Centers, Field Stations, and Cooperative Research Units. NBS scientists are using GIS as a tool for data organization, integration, analysis, and display in all phases of research, inventory, and monitoring. Examples include development of statistically based sampling plans, predictive modeling, habitat identification, trend analysis, and wildlife tracking. More specifically, Gap analysis work to map terrestrial species distribution is currently underway in 30 States and planned for expansion into the remaining States by the end of the decade. Similarly, work is beginning on the development of an aquatic Gap analysis as well. Detailed vegetation maps are also being developed for National Parks at a scale sufficient to aid in site-specific park management needs and a prototype program to similarly monitor and map park ecosystems is currently being tested. GIS is commonly used to display and interpret results from the Breeding Bird Survey, and the Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends Program is currently developing a data management system that will allow mapping of contaminant presence and effects across Interior lands. The NBS has a budget structure that is designed to be responsive to ecosystem management needs. As described earlier, NBS is physically structured on an ecoregion basis so that expertise, capabilities, and coordination can be better enhanced and focused on local management needs. In implementing its FY 1994 budget, NBS is emphasizing the initiation of "Ecosystem Initiatives" that will help bring increased funding, research, and monitoring to specific ecosystems under stress. Examples of such initiatives include South Florida, where NBS is helping to organize information and science efforts, and California, where a recently signed MOU established a partnership to fill regional research needs relative to the Endangered Species Act in a multi-species context. Similar efforts are underway in the Southern Forested Wetlands, the Opequon Watershed, and in the Rocky Mountain National Park. In its FY 1995 budget request, NBS is expanding this approach by recommending additional Ecosystem Initiatives aimed at Pacific Northwest Forests and Watersheds and further increases to the South Florida Initiative which began in FY 1994. All of these Ecosystem Initiatives are intended to strengthen and enhance the partnerships of local, regional and national agencies already addressing the management of these ecosystems. Similarly, NBS is proposing increased funding in FY 1995 for data and information partnerships, much of which will have an ecosystem focus. In addition, the FY 1995 budget request proposes increased resources for "Tactical Research" which is short-term, local research identified by land or resource managers as necessary to make immediate resource management decisions. A basic operating premise of the NBS budget structure is, therefore, the need for the bureau to be responsive to changing management needs and priorities of the agencies served by NBS. Establishment of the Tactical Research funding category allows for quick response to management issues or crises while longer-term research and monitoring initiatives are identified and developed as needed for the ecosystem of concern. Under previous budget structures, it was extremely difficult for research to respond to "crises" due, in part, to the 2 or 3 year lead time necessary to incorporate the need into the budget process, and to the problems associated with reprogramming a budget dominated by salaries for permanent, full-time employees. ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT LIMITS AND OPPORTUNITIES The NBS recognizes three major challenges in providing information in support of ecosystem management. These challenges are:
The NBS goal of assembling needed information on the nation's biological resources and their ecosystems is founded upon the establishment of partnerships for better science. Fundamental to this goal is the development of a National Biological Information Infrastructure that provides access (dial-in and Internet accessible) for all interested government and non-government entities having use for this information in carrying out ecosystem management efforts. Development of an information infrastructure containing credible, quality-assured biological data is in line with the President's initiative for spatial data to analyze and respond to environmental, economic, and social issues, and for development of computerized information networks. The rate at which the Biological Information Infrastructure is developed is constrained, of course, by the amount of resources available to build it. NBS will continue to develop the infrastructure as rapidly as possible within available resources. CONTACT John Mosesso NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES Although the phrase "ecosystem management" has come into vogue only recently, the National Park Service (NPS) mission has guided NPS programs along ecosystem management principles for decades. NPS attitudes toward exotic species, natural fire, coastal barrier islands, bear-visitor interactions, animal population regulation, insects and diseases, vegetation restoration, natural and cultural landscape dynamics, ethnographic relationships, appropriate visitor uses of parks, inter-organizational cooperation, and biosphere reserve cooperatives all have their underpinnings in an ecological approach to management. These ecological underpinnings occur both in broad policy and specific programs. In the broad policy arena, NPS views ecosystem management to be a philosophical approach that respects all living things and seeks to sustain natural processes and the dignity of all species and to ensure that common interests flourish. This view recognizes that humans are integral parts of the natural world, that human well-being depends on resources produced by the natural world, and that the natural world must be preserved and perpetuated if the human community is to sustain itself indefinitely. In applying this view of ecosystem management, NPS focuses the resource manager's attention on:
NPS believes parks and other protected areas can anchor the ecosystem management process in landscapes by providing places that sustain relatively undisturbed natural and traditional cultural elements. Given this anchor, humans can use the remainder of these landscapes in ways consistent with their ecological attributes and the complementary partnership roles the uses can contribute to ensuring the sustainability of the entire landscapes. As a partner in ecosystem management, the NPS will continue to implement and enhance its existing management policies through programs that:
The NPS recognizes that ecosystems can range from small to large, depending on the human purposes that lead to their identification. Each described ecosystem will have inherent environmental consistency because it will have been determined by the natural and traditional cultural characteristics of the resource as well as by the human value systems involved. Based on biosphere reserve experiences, NPS believes that it often is more appropriate for the participants in an ecosystem to develop a fluid "zone of cooperation" rather than a rigidly bounded "entire ecosystem". Within the Scale of a Single Park Most park managers conduct activities that reflect an ecosystem approach to park management. Park programs designed on the basis of ecological principles include efforts to restore natural fire processes; restore disturbed areas with native plants of local origin; manage pests in an integrated fashion; provide boardwalks for human access to ecologically sensitive areas; or provide public transportation to reduce the number of vehicles traveling through sensitive animal habitats. Participation in Landscape Scale Cooperative Programs A long-standing landscape scale ecosystem program is the Greater Yellowstone Area, which evolved from a jointly held management purpose of preventing the loss of the grizzly bear from the landscape into today's focus of both maintaining ecological features necessary for the survival of the bear and finding sustainable solutions to competing demands for use of the ecosystem's resources. A more recent landscape scale program is the cooperative effort in the Mammoth Cave National Park area to address the effects of regional land use and development on surface and groundwater resources within a zone of cooperation defined by the groundwater recharge area for the park's cave waters. A currently developing consensus among Federal, State, and some private entities on the desirability of not losing the resources of Everglades NP is spurring a concerted multi-organization effort to develop an ecosystem restoration program for South Florida. This effort has created a South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force of high level federal managers, a South Florida Working Group of Federal bureau managers, and sub-groups for science, management, and infrastructure. The existing interagency organization is seeking to attract the State of Florida and the South Florida Water Management District as additional partners. Regional Scale Partnerships One example of a regional scale partnership, the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Cooperative, evolved from a biosphere reserve that originally included Great Smoky Mountains NP, the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory of the Forest Service, and the Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park of the Department of Energy. Over time, Mount Mitchell State Park and Grandfather Mountain became biosphere reserve units; the Fish and Wildlife Service, Economic Development Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, and Geological Survey joined; the partnership established a zone of cooperation to encompass southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, northern Georgia, northwestern South Carolina, and northeastern Alabama; State agencies explored joining; and the partnership established a nonprofit foundation to enlist other organizations as partners. This partnership now supports a model community planning program to show compatibility of tourism-based development and conservation of natural resources; provides education about threatened and endangered species, dogwood anthracnose, and other environmental concerns; develops environmental education programs and a program directory; supports forest health monitoring; and conducts resource management workshops and planning meetings. An example of a developing regional partnership is the several year effort of the more than 20 National Park System units that occur within the Colorado Plateau to share information, develop cooperative programs based on the ecology of the area, and seek partnerships with interested organizations. The potential zone of cooperation for this partnership includes southwest Colorado, southeast Utah, northeast Arizona, and northwest New Mexico. A State of California initiated program, the California Biodiversity Council, is a third example of a regional ecosystem partnership involving NPS, in this case a regional office and its California units of the National Park System. This State and Federal partnership seeks to apply ecosystem principles to land planning and resource management in each of California's bioregions to prevent further loss of plant and animal species of concern. National Scale Exotic species occur in a given place as a result of direct or indirect, deliberate or accidental actions by humans, not as a result of natural evolution. Populations of exotic species threaten natural ecosystems because of their potential, like cancer cells, to grow unchecked and thus disrupt the natural balance among the native species that have evolved together in concert with natural ecological processes. At the national scale of ecosystem management, NPS implements its exotic species policy through a comprehensive, park-based program of inventory, research, monitoring, management, and education. In conducting this program, NPS seeks partnerships wherever possible, including research on management methods, conducting management actions, and informing people about the concerns that exotic species pose for park resources. Other national scale programs include the NPS air resources program and NPS contributions to recovering threatened and endangered species. Global Scale NPS contributes to elements of "global ecosystem management" through a variety of partnerships. Examples include international cooperative training and information exchange; bilateral programs with parks and equivalent reserves in other countries; partnership in the international biosphere reserve network and the Man and the Biosphere Program; contributions to U. S. acid precipitation and global change research programs; membership in the Partners in Flight program to prevent further decline in neotropical migratory bird populations; and monitoring deposition of marine debris on marine shores of the United States. Ecosystem Management Mission Statement The NPS has not yet developed a specific ecosystem management mission statement. In developing such a mission statement, NPS will draw from the purpose statement of its Organic Act (to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations) and from key elements of its existing Management Policies regarding relationships to regional environments, working cooperatively with others, taking an encompassing definition of natural and cultural resources and values, managing with a concern for fundamental ecological processes and integrity as well as for individual species and features, and reflecting informed concern for the contemporary peoples and cultures traditionally associated with park resources. The NPS cooperates extensively at all levels of its organization. Individual parks cooperate with neighbors in fire management, law enforcement, back country management, interpretation, environmental education, and planning. Regional offices cooperate with their Federal counterparts, with appropriate State organizations, and with non-governmental organizations. The Washington Office cooperates with headquarters offices of Federal counterparts, States, and non-governmental organizations. Cooperation at any level can occur informally or through formal agreements, such as memoranda of understanding, cooperative agreements, interagency agreements, intergovernmental personnel act agreements, or contracts. Examples of existing participatory activities that can influence ecosystem management include the National Interagency Fire Center, Partners in Flight, biosphere reserve cooperatives, the National Water Quality Assessment Program, the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative regarding air quality, the California Biodiversity Council, and the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council. This cooperation is coordinated with State and private sector efforts through agreements; mutual involvements in each other's planning, regulatory, and management development processes; and periodic consultations. As an original, ad hoc member of the Interagency Ecosystem Management Coordination Group, NPS has contributed to the group's charter, program, and activities and welcomes the communication, coordination, cooperation, and interorganizational program development the group provides to the Washington offices of the participating organizations. The NPS has a substantial need to maintain park geographic information systems (GIS) program capabilities, coordinate GIS activities, and set standards and policy. NPS is meeting this need by establishing field technical support centers that will be based in parks, regional offices, or university units. These centers will support the more than 100 parks that already have operational GIS systems with operators and will assist the more than 100 additional parks that already have data bases awaiting installation into a GIS or that are planning to develop and install such data bases. Parks use their GIS systems for such activities as park and facility planning, locating inventory and monitoring sites, managing exotic species, determining appropriate locations for poacher interdiction, and developing fire management plans. In a number of cases, park-focused GIS capabilities are being broadened through cooperative arrangements that make the parks partners in landscape scale efforts. One such partnership involves Shenandoah NP developing GIS information records about natural and cultural resources of park and immediately adjacent lands to facilitate cooperative land use planning with adjacent management jurisdictions and to support formulation of interagency long range protection strategies. Another partnership involves Delaware Water Gap NRA, the Delaware River Basin Commission, and North Carolina State University in an effort to develop watershed GIS models that will help the Commission meet its responsibility regarding regulations for special protection waters. The NPS budget process combines park operating needs with external coordinating and assisting activities. The structure of this process makes it easy internally to add any pieces specifically necessary to advance NPS contributions to ecosystem management partnerships. The presentation of NPS requests in the President's Budget also easily can accommodate ecosystem management needs identified by NPS or by interagency cross-cutting exercises by incorporating those needs into appropriate subactivities of the Park Management Activity of the Operation of the National Park System Appropriation; the Recreation Programs, Natural Programs, Cultural Programs, and Environmental Compliance and Review Activities of the National Recreation and Preservation Appropriation; Line Item Construction, Planning, and General Management Plans Activities of the Construction Appropriation; and the Land Acquisition and State Assistance Appropriation. As a result, there is no apparent need to restructure the NPS budget to accommodate ecosystem management. Given the large number of unmet planning and resource needs NPS has identified in its general management plan, resource management plan, professionalization of the resource management work force, and resource management and assessment program processes, NPS focuses both on responding to immediate threats to the survival of park resources and on installing the inventory, monitoring, and management capabilities necessary for providing early warning of, and effective response to, future potential threats. Over a long time period, priorities given to individual ecosystem management programs likely will change as existing programs achieve key planning and program objectives, resource monitoring reveals newly emerging problems, and ecosystem management partners identify their changing needs for NPS participation. NPS regularly conducts its resource programs through a variety of channels that include employees, volunteers, contractors, and cooperators. Employees and volunteers generally conduct the recurring activities such as interpretation, monitoring, or mitigation; cooperators participate in either recurring or one-time activities such as monitoring, inventory, or mitigation; and contractors mostly perform one-time activities or recurring but highly technical activities such as providing quality assurance for chemical and instrumentation aspects of the air quality monitoring program. The relative mix of these performers changes as the nature of NPS activities change. ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT LIMITS AND OPPORTUNITIES Partnership, identification of common goals, and development and sharing of information form the basis for effective ecosystem management. NPS would like to see functional and broadly participatory partnerships developed for the landscapes that contain National Park System units representative of the nation's natural and cultural resource heritage. To achieve this desired future, NPS will need additional, and more highly trained, personnel, additional resource information, and greater funding as identified through the resource management planning process, both to conduct its own in-park activities and also to carry out its share of the partnership activities that are necessary for partnerships to function. To be a truly effective partner, NPS also will need relief from existing legal constraints regarding forming of partnerships (contractual rules create difficulties in exchanging funds and in working with profit-making entities, the Federal Advisory Committee Act impedes informal discussions that precede development of partnerships), clarification of authorities to expend funds outside parks when those expenditures will benefit the sustaining of the park resources, and confirmation that research to assist the national science agenda is an appropriate use of parks. NPS will address these problems through the normal budgetary process, identifying useful legislative changes, emphasizing greater development and exchange of resource information, and building on existing working models, such as those provided by the biosphere reserve cooperatives. Because of the nature of parks and the NPS park management and external assistance mission, NPS views its future role as preserver of representative natural and cultural resource elements, provider of natural and cultural resource information, and catalyst for partnership. CONTACT John Dennis
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