Shifting paradigms to manage for change in Acadia National Park: Our approach and where we need your help
Speaker: Abe Miller-Rushing, Science Coordinator, Acadia National Park
Agencies charged with protecting natural and cultural resources can no longer simply work to maintain historical conditions. Rather, these agencies must manage resources in a rapidly changing environment. They must adopt a mix of practices designed to resist, accept, and direct change. Dr. Miller-Rushing, Science Coordinator at Acadia National Park, will discuss how the National Park Service is navigating this challenge in Acadia and throughout the agency. In particular, he will discuss the heightened need for forward-looking research, partnerships, and new ways to engage stakeholders and the broader public in science and management. He will focus on some specific examples in Acadia, such climate-smart vegetation restoration (including invasives removal and managed relocation), management of the intertidal zone, understanding and responding to new public health threats, and large-landscape conservation.
Dr. Abe Miller-Rushing, Science Coordinator for Acadia National Park and Schoodic Education and Research Center, is a phenologist studying the biological impacts of climate change and the role of citizen science in observing changes over time. Abe is the former Assistant Director, and one of the founding scientists, for the USA-National Phenology Network, which houses data collected by Signs of the Seasons volunteers. He feels the biggest management action needed for Acadia National Park is to tell the story of what’s happening there to agencies and the public. Abe received a Ph.D. in biology from Boston University and a B.A. in biology from Grinnell College, Iowa.
