Making Management Decisions

The decision to relocate wolves to Isle Royale took years of planning and public comment.

NPS / Jim Peaco

How Do Park Managers Make Decisions?

Isle Royale National Park faces challenges. From climate change to invasive species to historic preservation, these challenges force mangers to respond. But how do managers make tough decisions?

Natural resource stewardship decisions are difficult for Park managers for many reasons. The combined philosophy, policy and culture of the National Park Service (NPS) emphasize avoiding or minimizing interventions that affect biological resources in Parks except when needed to restore “natural” conditions. In addition, politics and litigation can create pressure for action or inaction with respect to natural resource management. Parks struggle with the mandate of maintaining conditions and natural processes “unimpaired” and within acceptable ranges of variation that are difficult to define, in the face of local and global anthropogenic influences as well as natural ecological forces. The high value that Parks place on science to inform policy and management decisions often complicates the situation further because science does not always point to management preferences indicated by policy and tradition, and does not resolve differences in stakeholder values associated with natural resource management. Often, natural resource stewardship issues are framed as science issues when in reality the core of the issue is a values conflict that science cannot resolve.” --Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/BRMD/NRR--2011/444

The recent decision on restoration of the predator prey relationship on Isle Royale embodied all of the concepts outlined above; where in the end, for the public, the value issues of wilderness versus active manipulation played a large role in public comment. Isle Royale will remain a wilderness park where any of actions of humans, whether they be a recreationists hiking, the upgrade of a dock, or a reintroduction of a wolf, will be adjusted as the incredible natural forces which shape this island affect our human efforts on this remote island environment. In the meantime, the decisions are always based on the best available science, framed by law regulation and policy, with an eye for the long term good of the American public and the resources of the park.

-- Phyllis Green, Superintendent.

 

Guiding Documents and Reports

The above quote about natural resource stewardship decisions was taken from the following document:

A Conceptual Model to Guide Scientific, Management, and Policy Review of Contentious Natural Resource Issues
An NPS Natural Resource Stewardship Review Framework
Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/BRMD/NRR—2011/444

Research other policy documents that guide park managers on our Policy Documents page.