Impacts of Land-Cover Change on the National Parks of the Northeast Temperate Network

Wang, Y.; Bonynge, Gregory

The human population in the United States is growing. The population in the United States increased nationwide by 13.2 percent between 1990 and 2000; in the Northeast, 5.5 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2001). Current economic conditions have driven record numbers for new residential construction (U.S. Census Bureau 2003). New commercial districts will be built to meet the needs of the new residents. Human development is becoming a challenge to the natural resources of the United States as natural areas are increasingly fragmented and isolated from their counterparts. The National Park Service Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) intends to document how the landscape has changed in the vicinity of their respective units. The NETN includes 11 parks located in different landscape settings (Figure 1) and sizes (Table 1). Acadia National Park is the largest with 15,414 hectares, while the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is the smallest with only 4.5 hectares. Suburban sprawl, sources of non-point water pollution, timber harvests, and increasingly fragmented natural habitats are a few factors outside of park boundaries that impact the ecosystems within the parks. Knowledge of historical trends of land-cover change, not only how much has changed but also where and when changes occurred, will help resource managers identify key resources and ecosystem stressors, and prioritize resource management efforts to further the development of a Vital Signs Monitoring Program. This proposal focuses on quantifying land-cover changes over the past 30 years within and surrounding park units in the NETN.