Remarks of the Director, U.S. National Park Service, at the Plenary Session on North American Park Directors and Global Change

Authors

Mary A. Bomar, U.S. National Parks Service

Date of this Version

2008

Comments

Published in Weber, Samantha, and David Harmon, eds. 2008. Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World: Proceedings of the 2007 GWS Biennial Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites. Hancock, Michigan: The George Wright Society.

Abstract

Thank you, Ernie [Ortega] for your kind introduction. I am honored to be here this evening and to share the microphone with my colleagues, Ernesto Enkerlin and Alan Latourelle.

Global change is expansive, inescapable, and all encompassing—and central to the challenges and opportunities the three of us share with everyone in this room.

It is our shared privilege to have this chance to address the George Wright Society, which collectively represents the thoughtful analysis of what we manage and where we are headed.

Management of protected areas is impossible unless we recognize the need for anticipation of and reaction to the inevitability of change.

I view global change in three broad classes—natural, cultural, and technological. I’m not sure those categories matter except as a way to discuss what we face.