There is a collision, perhaps one in slow motion, involving the National Park System. It's a collision of technology, of surrounding growth, of generational differences in how to experience nature. For the sake of the parks, how the National Park Service reacts to that collision arguably is more critical now than ever before in the first 100 years of the agency. 

Not only are more people visiting the parks than ever before, but communities are growing up, or simply growing, around the parks, technology tied to the Digital Age is pushing on the doors of parks to extend communications networks, there are demands in some areas to increase the human footprint on nature, and, of course, there is climate change. Against that backdrop, the National Park Service is working to develop an updated approach to managing resources, one that clearly reinforces that "resource stewardship is a preeminent duty of the NPS."

"The National Park System, as well as all the natural and cultural resources under National Park Service oversight, face environmental changes that are increasingly widespread, complex, accelerating, and uncertain," Park Service Director Jon Jarvis wrote this week in a memorandum sent to all Park Service employees to inform them of the efforts under way to clearly define Resource Stewardship for the 21st Century. "Scientific understanding about natural and cultural resources has dramatically expanded and continues to grow at an increasing rate. These challenges require us to carefully update our policy framework to reflect the complexity of decisions needed to manage the natural and cultural resources in our care."

The trick, you might say, going forward, is how to respond to the ongoing kaleidoscope of factors on the national parks that can impact natural, cultural, and historical resources, something Director Jarvis noted in his memo.

"...the overarching goal of resource stewardship is to manage NPS resources in a context of continuous change that we do not fully understand," wrote the director.

As the Park Service leadership works to develop this approach to resource stewardship in a new Director's Order, the intention is to:

* "integrate the overarching goal of resource stewardship into all appropriate policies, stewardship plans and strategies, resource planning, program funding, inventory and monitoring, and educational and interpretive programs."

* "...ensure that the National Park System is core to a national and international network of protected lands and waters."

* "Informed by scientific and scholarly research, and traditional ecological knowledge, we will manage our resources emphasizing resiliency, connectivity, and life-cycle stewardship."

* "NPS resource stewardship decision making will be explicitly based upon best available sound science and scholarship, accurate fidelity to the law, and long-term public interest.  While used in every decision, these criteria will not always be weighted equally."

* "We will ensure all superintendents possess scientific literacy appropriate to their positions and resource management decision-making responsibilities.  Scientific literacy is defined as the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes relevant to biological, physical, social, and cultural sciences, with an ability to understand the strengths and limitations of scientific findings and the appropriate application of scientific research to management and policy issues."

* "We will fully integrate the precautionary principle into resource stewardship decision making at all appropriate levels.  As applied by the NPS, the precautionary principle requires managers to act in furtherance of the NPS mission, even where the possibility for harm is not yet fully quantified.  We will develop and incorporate guidance for the application of the precautionary principle into appropriate guidance documents."

The Director's Order being developed, with a goal of being finalized by December, could prove to be particularly challenging against the United States' political landscape. There have been pressures to open up more of Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida to more off-road travel and energy exploration, to roll-back the decision by Biscayne National Park managers to create a marine reserve area to protect fisheries and coral reefs, and to greatly expand Wi-Fi coverage in the National Park System.

The precautionary principle "requires that stewardship decisions reflect science-informed prudence and restraint," noted a panel of scientists Director Jarvis tasked in 2012 to provide guidance on how the Park Service could, in essence, reinvent how it approaches scientific study, and management of natural resources.

Because ecological and cultural systems are complex, continuously changing and not fully understood, NPS managers and decision makers will need to embrace more fully the precautionary principle as an operating guide. Its standard is conservative in allowing actions and activities that may heighten impairment of park resources and consistent in avoiding actions and activities that may irreversibly impact park resources and systems. The precautionary principle requires that stewardship decisions reflect science-informed prudence and restraint. This principle should be integrated into NPS decision making at all levels.

"As we embark on our second century of stewardship and public engagement, our employees are faced with more complex decisions and unprecedented change that threaten the resources in our care," the director wrote in concluding his message to the field staff. "This Memorandum begins our process of creating a new policy framework for NPS resource stewardship.  The new framework will ensure that decision makers have the scientific literacy to make difficult decisions, and to apply the precautionary principle in the long-term interest of the public. When applied within the context of landscape level conservation, for example, the framework will ensure that we will meet our mandate of 'unimpaired' for future generations."