Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Big Bend have all embraced this strategy. For example, Great Smoky Mountains has been issuing advisories to visitors and employees on days when air pollution levels are unhealthy. Shenandoah is developing a similar program. Communication also builds constituencies that may use the information to echo and advance the objectives of the National Park Service for resource protection. Effective constituency building by Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah led the National Parks and Conservation Association and the Izaak Walton League of America to publish reports highlighting park air quality issues and advocating for more aggressive pollution-reduction programs.
Collaboration is critical to achieving air quality-improvement objectives.
At Big Bend the National Park Service worked with federal, state, private, and international officials to design and conduct an intensive monitoring program encompassing a multistate area, including the region bordering Mexico. The study was aimed at identifying sources contributing to air pollution problems at Big Bend and will provide a foundation for seeking pollution reductions needed to restore good air quality at the park. Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah have been participating in the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative, a stakeholder-based air quality planning effort in the Southeast. Following several years of data analysis, the partnership is now beginning to build consensus on what additional pollution control strategies will be needed. When all of these strategies fail to produce results, however, the National Park Service needs to be willing to challenge actions and confront inaction head-on.