Quick Reads

War in the Pacific National Historical Park is working to protect Guam’s biodiversity by managing invasive species like brown tree snakes and little fire ants while safeguarding native wildlife, including the endangered Guam tree snail. A recent study assessed the park’s Guam tree snail population, providing essential data to inform conservation efforts aimed at restoring the island’s fragile ecosystem.

From coast to coast, the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division is helping park managers improve the health and function of forest ecosystems. From promoting resilient forests in the Northeast, to conserving whitebark pine in the West, to protecting Hawaiian forest birds from avian malaria, scientific partnerships are helping parks to share information, leverage funding sources, and work together for outcomes that extend beyond what any park could accomplish on its own.

As you spend your days exploring Maui, you are likely to experience a couple notable distractions from the island’s native sights and sounds: buzzing and biting from mosquitoes. On Maui these insects are more than just an average outdoor nuisance—they are causing irreversible damage to the island’s ecology.

Within the next ten years, many native Hawaiian honeycreeper species will be pushed to extinction by the uncontrolled spread of avian malaria—but it’s not too late to save them!

The island of Maui is known for beautiful sand beaches, rich Hawaiian culture, and stunning biodiversity, but the island is at risk of losing one of its most iconic features – the native forest birds, a group of species found nowhere else on earth.

Click the link above to read some in-depth examples of national parks choosing to resist, accept, and direct change.

The National Park Service, in partnership with many other agencies and organizations, will suppress invasive mosquito populations through biocontrol to reduce avian malaria and prevent the extinction of several federally threatened and endangered native forest bird populations at Haleakala National Park.

Efforts to conserve endangered species strengthened by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Hawaiʻi is home to some of the most diverse and unique wildlife on the planet, including the Hawaiian honeycreepers, a group of forest birds found nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, human-assisted arrival of avian malaria—worsened by climate change—and other factors have brought Hawaiian honeycreepers to the brink of extinction. Read more about how Haleakalā National Park is using innovative methods to save the 17 remaining species of Hawaiian honeycreepers.

As climate changes, significant changes in weather conditions impact the natural environment by shifting patterns of precipitation, promoting extremes in storm behavior, and influencing bird migration, invasive species spread, coral reef decline, and much more. The Pacific Island Network (PACN) undertakes systematic long-term monitoring of a wide variety of natural resources to accurately determine if change is occurring and why.