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That's right – this is your national park! National parks are here for the people. They are supported by the people that use them. There are national parks all across the country. If you do not live near Theodore Roosevelt National Park, there is another park near you! You can look for parks near you on the National Park Service website. Mission of the National Park Service The parks belong to the people (that's you!), but the National Park Service runs the parks. Park rangers work in the park to help people learn about the place and take care of it. We help carry out the park service mission: to preserve these places for future generations. You know, there was a president once who wanted to preserve land for future generations. What was his name? Oh yeah! It was Theodore Roosevelt! This is the national park built to honor the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt. It is being preserved for future generations, but there are problems the park faces. Two big problems are light pollution and climate change. 
NPS photo by Jeff Zylland Problems Land around the park is rich in oil, an important resource for our society. To get the oil, we need roads and factories. We have to have homes and stores for the workers. All this development changes the natural landscape. Bright lights at night ruin the natural darkness. With all the lights on earth, it becomes harder to see the lights in the sky! This is called light pollution. National parks like Theodore Roosevelt are great places to see stars, planets, even whole galaxies! Many animals depend on the stars or the darkness – it is a part of their habitat. The park works with businesses and communities to limit light pollution. Climate change is a global problem. Climate is the long-term pattern of weather like temperature and big storms. These patterns are shifting. This is a natural process, but humans are making it happen faster than normal. Burning fossil fuels, like gasoline in cars or coal in power plants, releases an element called carbon. Extra carbon will affect everything from the temperature of the air to how the oceans work. Climate change will alter the habitats plants and animals need. Some can adapt or move. Others might not be so lucky. 
Problem Solvers Both of these are big issues. The good news is, people are working to solve these problems! We need researchers like you to keep working on them! Little steps go a long way! These problems did not start from one big event; there were millions of little things to create the issues. The solution will be the same. Millions of little decisions made by everyone can help fix the problem! By learning about the park, you are helping to solve these problems. Turning off lights, using a bicycle instead of a car, and recycling are little things you can do. Can you think of other ways to save electricity, water, or other important resources? Theodore Roosevelt would be proud of your conservation efforts! He would also be proud that you learned so much about this park. There is always more to learn though! Hopefully someday you can visit the park. Because of the National Park Service and researchers like you, it will always be here! Okay, it is time to take off that thinking cap and go outside to play! But keep it handy, you never know when you will find something cool to learn about! You can return to the first Learn About the Park page. Go to the vocabulary page to review all of the blue words you learned during your research! Looking for good pictures? That link has high-quality versions of all of the pictures used during our research. You can download them and use them for your assignment! |
Last updated: September 26, 2015