National Park Service aims to reduce greenhouse gases

TACOMA — Thousands of cars, pickups and minivans carry visitors to Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic national parks. They leave behind tons of plastic bottles, granola-bar wrappers and banana peels.

Mount Rainier staff have a two-hour, 60-mile drive just to get from one area of the park to another.

Heating the Hurricane Ridge visitor center at Olympic costs almost $12,000 a year for diesel fuel.

Not what most people would consider the "green" image expected of the National Park Service. But that's about to change.

Working with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Park Service has launched the Climate Friendly Parks program to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

"Our national parks can be used to demonstrate the impact of climate change," said Shawn Norton, who heads the climate program for the Park Service.

Raising the ante, the Western region office wants park operations to be carbon-neutral by 2016, the Park Service's 100th anniversary.

It won't be easy. All the driving and utility consumption spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Estimated footprint

As a result, the state's three national parks have an estimated combined carbon footprint of 30,820 metric tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of a year's worth of emissions from 2,667 households.

A carbon footprint estimates the amount of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases.

The footprints for Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic national parks are produced by the more than 5 million who visit and the functions needed to operate the more than 1.85 million acres.

Park officials want to reduce carbon emissions because scientists believe greenhouse gases are responsible for changes in the Northwest climate.

The result has been more frequent and stronger storms lashing the Northwest and warmer weather, resulting in more winter rain and less snow at higher elevations.

Obvious effect

The effect of climate change on the parks is easy to see after each flood and by measuring receding glaciers.

"We should care because our resources are finite," said Karen Gustin, superintendent at Olympic National Park. "Being good stewards of our communities, whether a national park or a backyard, we have to be conscious of how we can protect those resources."

Chip Jenkins is the superintendent of the North Cascades National Park Complex that includes the Ross Lake and Lake Chelan national recreation areas.

"National parks are the canary in the coal mine," he said. "We are places where there are leading indicators of what is going on in the United States.

"So if you are seeing changes in these parks, and we are, they are indicators of what you will see elsewhere in the country."

King said climate change is already affecting the parks.

"It's hard for visitors to access and enjoy Mount Rainier National Park when the roads and trails are washed out," King said.

"A change of a few degrees in average temperature would certainly impair the park's plant and animal communities, glaciers and watersheds. Some species of plants and animals could be imperiled."