PROJECT SPOTLIGHTS
Heritage Documentation Using LiDAR Technology
Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units allow partners with technical expertise and equipment to assist with cultural resource management activities in National Park Service units and other public lands. Professors and students participated in this project, which aimed to document, analyze, and preserve built environments and cultural and natural landscapes. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Engaging Youth from Local Communities and Affiliated
Tribes in Historic Preservation Projects
Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs) create partnerships that benefit communities and their ethnographic resources. In the western United States, ancient pueblos, cliff dwellings, churches, and forts are rapidly disappearing from the land. The National Park Service's Vanishing Treasures Program and Cornerstones Community Partnerships (a non-profit specializing in preserving architectural heritage and community traditions) developed a multi-year training program focused on resource preservation and reconnecting tribal youth with traditional building practices and materials. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Training the Next Generation:
Historic Preservation Field Schools
CESUs provide real world opportunities for students interested in pursuing cultural resource management careers while improving the condition of the nation's heritage resources. These field schools are an important element of graduate studies in architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, and archeology. They also benefit facility managers and maintenance staff that get specialized training in historic preservation techniques. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Heritage Preservation Partnerships: Archaeology Field Schools
For budding archaeologists, a field school dig is a foundational learning tool. Field schools also combine the research, technical assistance, and education foci of the CESUs as well as providing foundations for university, land management agency, and community partnerships essential to stewardship and preservation of public lands heritage resources. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Natural and Cultural Crossroads: An Environmental History of Pecos National Historical Park
This project highlights the flexibility and fluidity of CESU partnerships. Research conducted by Colorado State University allowed the National Park Service to reassess cultural landscapes within the milieu of environmental history and helped resource managers develop a Resource Stewardship Strategy. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Infantry and Habitats: Creating the Recovery Credit System
In this CESU research and technical assistance project, Texas A&M University and the Department of Defense partnered with private and non-profit organizations in order to meet the needs of army training at Fort Hood while complying with the Endangered Species Act. The project implemented a resource-based case study of land use and endangered species habitat that helped establish the Recovery Credit System. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Technology Training for the Natural Resources Conservation Service
Remote sensing is an ideal tool for collecting baseline data and mapping conditions over large areas because of its precision and growing capability. Federal employees need specialized skills to use this cost-effective tool. Working through a CESU agreement, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and West Virginia University collaborated to train NRCS employees on how to use remote sensing software. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Bringing Climate Change to Students of All Ages: An Education Model for Pacific Island Coral Reefs
This project created a dynamic learning program that allows students and teachers to explore the coral reefs of the Pacific Islands in the context of climate change. To complete the module, the National Park Service's Pacific Island Network partnered with the Integration and Application Network at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science through a CESU task agreement. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Shifting Risk Perceptions of Wildlife Disease:
Avian Outbreaks
This CESU research project allowed the National Park Service to analyze its urgent response to an outbreak of avian botulism at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. By identifying citizens' concerns about vector-borne diseases through a series of public engagement meetings, an easily-understood message was communicated to people living near infected wildlife. This dialogue invited both land managers and citizens to share their concerns to create clear, scientific reports on diseases such as botulism and how they affect the wildlife and people in the area. Cornell University studied how the agency could most effectively identify and address citizens' concerns about vector-borne diseases. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Fire on the Great Plains: Documenting Fire History in National Parks, Monuments and Historic Sites
Fire has long played an important role on the vast, open Great Plains. In protected areas, resource stewards need to understand the history of fire in order to make decisions to keep the grasslands healthy and thriving. The purpose of this CESU study was to create a chronology of fires in national park units in the Great Plains through observations of fire scars on trees. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Tracking Each Fish: Humpback Chub Reintroductions and PIT-tag Technology
The Bureau of Reclamation's ability to provide technical assistance and innovative monitoring methods highlight the purpose of the CESU Network: to draw upon interagency and institutional expertise to meet the needs and goals of resource managers and scientists. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Joshua Tree Vegetation Modeling: Predicting Shifts in the Face of Climate Change
A hallmark of CESUs is the contribution of universities and local non-profit institutions. In this project, the University of California, Riverside, James Madison University, and the Desert Institute collaborated to help inventory vegetation in Joshua Tree National Park. This baseline can be used in the future to measure the effects of climate change. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
SageSTEP: A Model Collaboration for Land Managers
Public land managers in the Great Basin aim to maintain and restore healthy ecosystems. Climate change, private development pressures, and invasive plants are just a few of the challenges they face. Without regional collaboration, stewardship of public lands can be expensive and ineffective. SageSTEP (Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project) is a model collaborative effort, made possible, in part, by the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit Network that brought together six federal agencies, five universities, and one non-profit organization in six states. Large file size/high quality print version. Smaller file size/screen resolution.
Articles about National Park Service CESU Projects
Reconstructing prehistoric ecology to restore the paleo-environment at Effigy Mounds
Impact of a cougar decline on Zion Canyon, Zion National Park
Sea-level rise, climate change, and salt-marsh development processes at Fire Island
Archaeological field school provides valuable data for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park