SUMMARY OF SESSIONS:
Natural Resource Stewardship
Tuesday, Sept 12 (1:00 pm - 2:30 pm)
N-05r -- Direct Dealings: Working with Park Neighbors of the Future -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 36; Summary: Examine a desired future where park managers have developed collaborative relationships with park neighbors that minimize negative external impacts and maximize protection of park resources and the experience of park visitors. (Repeated as L-04r)
N-06 -- Conservation Biology: Are Today's Resources Really Sustainable? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 280; Summary: Explore fundamental questions about the sustainability of park natural resources, from attempts to accomplish sustainability by controlling visitors and development, to whether parks can be managed so no irreparable natural resource loss occurs.
N-07 -- Making National Parks Effective Components of Protected Landscapes -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 140; Summary: Should the NPS assume a more assertive role in working with external interests to influence land use decisions outside parks and increase the biotic area necessary to preserve and perpetuate park biota?
N-09r -- Resources First: Arriving at Sustainable Levels of Visitor Use -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 36; Summary: Assess the complexities of defining sustainable visitor use, examine best practices relevant to sustainable use, and define a desired future that includes visitor use levels commensurate with preserving park resources. (Repeated as L-08r)
N-11 -- How Will a Public Far Removed from Resources Relate to the NPS Mission? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 36; Summary: Investigate how the NPS might increase awareness of the natural world with people living in an increasingly "high-tech" environment. What role should the Service play in helping educate both children and adults to the value of the natural environment?
N-13r -- Natural Resources: Winning in the Parks, in the Courts, and for the Public -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 36; Summary: Addresses the means by which parks can develop sound, knowledge-based decision-making processes -- the key to dealing aggressively with complex resource preservation issues. (Repeated as N-12r)
N-15r -- The Test: What is Impaired? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 30; Summary: Explore legal, policy, and scientific issues affecting park resource decisions and values. Discuss information park managers need to make informed assessments of whether existing or projected impacts will impair a resource. (Repeated as N-14r)
N-17 -- Future Leaders -- Soloists or Conductors? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 20; Summary: Examine the notion that Superintendents alone speak for their parks. When increasingly complex subjects tax their capabilities to stay abreast and credible, how should park managers use subject-matter specialists in representing the parks?
N-18 -- Dueling Principles: Resources Preservation vs. Wildlife Harvesting -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 280; Summary: Explore traditional NPS assumptions in wildlife resource preservation, the impacts of legislatively authorized hunting and subsistence use within parks, and alternative means through which the Service may achieve its wildlife protection goals.
N-20 -- Resource Issue Interpretation: The Fear of Collaboration -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 20; Summary: Explore the idea of working collaboratively within the NPS across organizational lines to broaden our constituency. Examine a series of recommendations regarding the pursuit of successful inter-disciplinary collaborative work.
N-22r -- Restoration: Does Scale Really Matter? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 72; Summary: Investigate the challenge to develop approaches that evaluate, design, manage, and maintain restoration projects using sound natural system principles and the application of best available technology. (Repeated as N-23r)
N-25 -- Hemispheric Co-management of Resources -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 20; Summary: Explore how the NPS can link with Western Hemisphere partners to jointly manage migratory birds, bats, butterflies, cetaceans, etc. in a more effective manner.
N-26 -- Integrating NPS Facilities Design and Operations with Nature -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 70; Summary: Examine a scenario where the NPS has learned how to live with nature, including discussions on holistic building design and ecologically-based land management practices.
N-27 -- Protecting Resources from Ourselves -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 280; Summary: Critics suggest that more damage is done to park resources by NPS management than by outside forces. How can we provide greater assurance that management actions result in net benefits for park resources and their preservation?
N-28 -- Subsistence Use of National Park Resources: Sustainable -- or Ephemeral? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 30; Summary: Explore the role, dynamics, and potential future of subsistence use and its effects on park resources. Considers the long-term viability of subsistence harvest on the protection and perpetuation of native species in parks.
N-29 -- Experience Your America: The Message Project -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 280; Summary: Examine the results of the Message Project and efforts to implement its recommendations across the Service, focusing on the experience of seven "pilot projects" that are receiving intensive project assistance.
N-31r -- Science-based Decision-Making: How Much Information is Enough? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 20; Summary: Can park ecosystem management based on science succeed as the basis for decision-making in an agency that has traditionally promoted aesthetics, visitor services, and tourism over managing for ecological principles? (Repeated as N-30r)
N-33 -- Discussion Group: Are The Only Inappropriate Park Uses Those that Impair Park Resources and Values? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 20; Summary: Discussion groups delve further into issues raised in Session N-32. Develop approaches to aid in defining and differentiating compatible and incompatible uses.
N-36r -- Treasure Troves -- or Temples? -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 25; Summary: Explore alternative futures that relate to the roles and status of parks as conspicuous examples of untapped resources sought by many, or repositories of the last intact resources accessible to only a few. (Repeated as N-35r)
N-39 -- The Seven Percent Solution: Integrating the Social and Biophysical Sciences -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 40; Summary: Examine an alternative to traditional NPS natural resource issues and management which would interweave social and economic issues into an interdisciplinary portfolio of research projects, skilled scientists, and technical assistance programs.
N-42 -- America's Treasures and Fire Management in the 21st Century -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 40; Summary: Examine the traditional assumptions used within the NPS on the use of wildland fire as a strategy to restore and maintain ecosystems, specifically fire-dependent ecosystems, with the view of achieving desired future long-term ecological outcomes in parks.
N-44r -- Keep the Torch Burning Bright: Personal Reflections on Natural Resource Stewardship -- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm; Capacity: 20; Summary: Take time for thoughtful conversation with your colleagues, personal reflection, and journal writing. Join nationally acclaimed writers and peers to examine how we draw inspiration from places, people, and experiences to sustain our energy and leadership.
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