Climate change is impacting our national parks NOW. Yet, embedded in this challenge is opportunity. Parks provide visual, historic, and tangible examples of the impacts of climate change on both small local scales and large landscape and ecosystem levels.
Check out 10 ways we are working with our community and our Parks Conservancy members to help mitigate the effects of climate change.
1. STANDING WITH YOUTH. We’re shepherding the next generation of conservation leaders through our programs with youth. One of our leadership programs, called Urban Trail Blazers, created a podcast series about environmental justice that tackles the question: Are all communities affected by environmental changes in the same ways at the same time?
2. EXPERIENCING NATURE. Visiting the parks help deepen our understanding of the importance of conservation. These experiences can activate people to make changes and encourage others to work together for change.
3. COMMUNITY SCIENCE. Our BioBlitz program and our Golden Gate Raptor Observatory help individuals make meaningful contributions to scientific research and discovery. We’re learning more about how raptors breathe during wildfire season, how species are adjusting to new weather patterns, and more.
4. NATIVE PLANTS. We have four native plant nurseries that help propagate seeds and plants for proliferation in the national park sites. Native plants are more resilient to wildfire and changing weather patterns.
5. REMOVING INVASIVE SPECIES. Tens of thousands of volunteers help with habitat restoration and other projects in the parks every year. One way people participate is to reclaim the habitat for native plants. Invasive species hinder the growth of native plants that attract pollinators and provide crucial habitat for other animals that call the parks home—ever more important as the climate changes.
6. ANTI-RACISM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE. Racial injustice and inequities across society have been a part of national systemic discrimination and bias for far too long. We are committed to the active work of being anti-racist. We understand that not everyone has easy access to parks, nor the comfort to feel welcomed. We can and will do more, and you can find ways to be anti-racist in the outdoors on our website.
7. CONVENING. We’re bringing together the public with innovators, scientists, educators, public health experts and more to find new solutions and share knowledge. Join our summits, discussions, and conferences at One Tam or the Institute at the Golden Gate.
8. EDUCATION. In the parks—or via educational activities from home—we are providing information about nature and why we must preserve it.
9. PROTECTING ENDANGERED SPECIES. There are 35 endangered, rare, and threatened species in the Golden Gate National Parks—more federally protected species than any other national park unit in the continental United States. There are so many endangered, threatened and rare plants and animals that the Golden Gate National Parks have been declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
10. DONATE. Join as the newest member of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy to get more involved and support this work protecting and restoring public lands, and making us all more resilient to combat the effects of climate change.
Together, we must mitigate and adjust to the impacts of climate change on parks, wildlife, and people.
The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is the nonprofit partner of the Golden Gate National Parks—nearly 84,000 acres of national parkland in the San Francisco Bay Area that belong to all of us.