What is Climate Change?  •  How Parks are Being Affected  •  What Parks are Doing

How Parks Are Affected by Climate Change

There is significant evidence of climate change in national parks. It affects the coral reefs in Florida at Biscayne National Park, the massive stands of lodgepole pines in Rocky Mountain National Park and animals that rely on snow in Yellowstone National Park. Climate change effects impact parks with cultural resources as well as natural resources. America’s heritage is at risk as rising sea levels and more powerful storms threaten the coastal parks that tell the story of our nation from its inception.

If we do not take action to slow or halt climate change, our national parks will experience the accelerated loss of glaciers at Mount Rainier National Park, the loss of Joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park, and the submersion of portions of historic sites such as Colonial National Historical Park, site of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.

The ramifications of climate change in national parks are symptomatic of changes unfolding across the larger landscapes to which they are connected—the same landscapes that contain our communities—and the same landscapes we want to save for our children and grandchildren.

Although the situation seems dire, we can still halt the most severe effects of climate change if we take action now. All of us, acting together, can ensure that our national parks—and indeed our own communities—continue to sustain our nation now and into the future. Please join us and Do Your Part!

National Park Resources at Risk

Climate change in the parks threatens some of the most treasured natural and historic places in our nation. Just some of the examples include:

• Glaciers are disappearing from Glacier National Park, and Joshua trees disappearing from Joshua Tree National Park.
• Coral reefs are dying in Biscayne and Virgin Islands national parks due to warming water temperatures.
• Forests from the Great Smoky Mountains to Yellowstone are succumbing to devastating insect pests.
• Historical parks and delicate seashores along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts face more powerful hurricanes.
• Wildfires and flash floods threaten ancient American Indian dwellings and artifacts protected by national parks in the Southwest.
• Roads and buildings in Pacific Northwest national parks are being destroyed by increased flooding.
• Early snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada is disrupting national park wildlife and depriving California farms and communities of much needed summer water supplies.
• Wolf and moose populations at Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior are in decline.
• Shenandoah National Park could see the loss of threatened native brook trout.
• In Alaska’s national parks warming arctic temperatures are altering vital habitat for caribou, polar bears, and many birds.
• Rocky Mountain National Park could lose high meadows and the wildlife that depend on them.
• Migrating birds may lose habitat from prairie potholes in the Midwest to essential barrier islands along the Texas coast.

For more information on climate change effects and climate change in national parks visit:

• Climate Change and National Park Wildlife: A Survival Guide for a Warming World
• Unnatural Disaster: Global Warming and Our National Parks
• Restore a Nation: the Economic Benefits of Restoring the Lands and Waters of Our National Parks
• National Parks at a Turning Point
• Climate Change Effects on National Parks and Other Protected Areas