National Park Foundation Addresses Ecosystem Restoration on World Habitat Day

Ecosystem Restoration and Ensuring Resiliency Across Landscapes.

The iconic power of Half Dome looming over Yosemite Valley. A meandering stream in Grand Teton teeming with fish. A dense fog early in the morning settled into the lush valleys of Great Smoky Mountains. Immersing oneself in the awe-inspiring landscape of a national park is truly an unforgettable experience. Many national parks were created because of their unique landscapes and their biodiverse ecosystems that host a rich variety of wildlife and plants – some of which can’t be found anywhere else in the world.

National parks are home to an abundant complexity of terrestrial and aquatic habitats, often acting as a refuge for wildlife. But even protected lands are not immune to threats. Climate change, invasive species, habitat degradation, and ecosystem fragmentation put national park landscapes at risk, jeopardizing critical habitat that many of our incredible species rely on, and putting rare native plants at risk for extinction.

Working with an array of partners beyond park boundaries on a holistic, collaborative approach to manage ecosystems and keep wildlife corridors intact is essential for successful long-term conservation at scale. NPF supports high priority ecosystem restoration and resiliency projects across the national park system, helping to ensure that these biodiverse ecosystems remain vibrant for generations to come.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Ecosystem Protection

Faced with degradation and challenges from invasive species, NPF works to protect native habitats and restore sensitive ecosystems. In Death Valley National Park, NPF is supporting efforts to protect vital desert springs from invasive feral burros, helping to safeguard a key habitat area for desert bighorn sheep and the endangered Southwestern Willow flycatcher.

Wetland Restoration

From wildlife habitat to water quality improvements to acting as a buffer to storm damage, wetlands are highly beneficial and productive ecosystems. But over two million acres of wetlands within national parks have been degraded due to past land uses, invasive species, and human alteration of natural water flow across the landscape. NPF is working with NPS to restore wetlands to their natural state, such as removing invasives in key habitat areas at Indiana Dunes National Park and Everglades National Park, and helping to restore natural tidal flows of the Herring River at Cape Cod National Seashore. Acting as a carbon sink, wetlands can also play an important role in carbon sequestration, and NPF is currently partnering with USGS and ApexRMS on a wetlands modeling tool that will predict restoration-driven carbon impacts.

Coastal Shorelines & Ocean Resiliency

Rising sea levels, coral die-offs, marine debris, increased storm wave and wake energy, saltwater intrusion, ocean acidification, erosion – these are a few of the threats facing coastal national parks. At Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve and at Cumberland Island National Seashore, NPF is partnering with NPS, University of North Florida, and the Green Team Youth Corps at Groundwork Jacksonville to support an innovative approach to stabilizing eroding shorelines: using pervious oyster shell habitat reef ball structures. This will allow native marsh grasses to regrow and provide habitat for a variety of marine species.

Collaborative Conservation

Ecosystems are bigger than park boundaries and sometimes require multi-stakeholder approach in order to address critical landscape level issues. NPF is supporting a regional-wide response to the single most devastating event to hit Caribbean coral colonies: Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease. This disease affects half of their coral species and can wipe out 400-year-old coral colonies in as little as three weeks without intervention. A task force of national park and inter-agency scientists, universities, non-profits, and volunteers are working together to better understand this disease and provide critical treatment to save coral colonies.

Partnership with Purpose

STEL+MAR, one of the fastest growing independent wineries in the U.S. according to Beverage Dynamics, selected National Park Trust as its official charity partner - proceeds from every bottle of wine sold globally will be donated to the Park Trust.

“In addition to the Park Trust having a mission that aligns well with STEL+MAR’s brand, it was important for us to partner with a well-run charity,” said Co-founder Chris Noll. “The Park Trust has earned a top ranking of “A” with Charity Watch and an overall score of 100 out of 100 for finance and accountability from Charity Navigator—using 87.7% of its funds towards its objectives of park preservation and youth and family programs,” Noll added.

“The Park Trust is excited to partner with STEL+MAR to inspire its customers to immerse themselves in the great outdoors. Our mutual commitment of preserving parks and promoting active healthy lifestyles makes this collaboration the perfect pairing,” said Ivan Levin, director of strategic partnerships & communications at the National Park Trust.

ABOUT NATIONAL PARK TRUST

National Park Trust is a non-profit dedicated to the protection of our national parks. The Park Trust preserves parks today and creates park stewards for tomorrow by acquiring the missing pieces of our national parks and building a pipeline of future caretakers of our public lands and waters by getting kids to parks. Since 1983, the Park Trust has completed 73 land projects in 31 states, one U.S. Territory, and Washington, D.C. Our national Buddy Bison Programs and Kids to Parks Day support 300 Title I schools annually in under-served communities. Find out more at parktrust.org.

ABOUT NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION

The National Park Foundation works to protect wildlife and park lands, preserve history and culture, educate and engage youth, and connect people everywhere to the wonder of parks. We do it in collaboration with the National Park Service, the park partner community, and with the generous support of donors, without whom our work would not be possible. Learn more at nationalparks.org. 

ABOUT WORLD HABITAT DAY
World Habitat Day is held on the first Monday of October. The day centers around the global observance, which is held in a different country each year with keynote speakers and roundtable discussions focused on a specific theme. World Habitat Day was first celebrated in 1986 in Nairobi, Kenya, with the theme ‘Shelter is my right’. On 3 October 2022, the Global Observance of World Habitat Day, under the theme Mind the Gap. Leave No One and No Place Behind, will look at the problem of growing inequality and challenges in cities and human settlements.

ABOUT STEL+MAR
STEL+MAR makes crowd-pleasing and award-winning wines designed to appeal to the under-40 age cohort. The wine brand was built around four key principles: highly-rated wines, attractive price points, modern stand-out label art, and relevant social values. For more information about STEL+MAR, please visit www.stelandmar.com and follow @stelandmar on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Media Contact: Justin Dumitrescu at justin@stelandmar.com

ABOUT INTEGRITY WELLNESS BRANDS, INC.
Integrity Wellness Brands, Inc. (IWB), is an employee owned company headquartered in Carlsbad, California and is a National Sales, Marketing & Distribution Company accelerating the growth of brands in the Adult Beverage categories. For any questions, please visit us at www.integritywellnessbrands.com or contact us at info@integritywellnessbrands.com.

Boyd Young