A Brief History of Great Basin National Park's Green Team

First published in The Midden*, Great Basin National Park's newsletter, Vol. 20, No. 1, Summer 2020. By Julie Long, biological science technician.*

The park's Climate Friendly Parks Action Plan. NPS.

Over the past decade, Great Basin National Park has drawn up several plans for sustainable action. A Green Team was formed in 2009 to help carry out and promote two NPS sustainability initiatives — the Climate Friendly Parks programme and the Green Parks Plan. After a few quiet years and uneven participation, the team has been revived.

The plans

Climate Friendly Parks Action Plan (2009). Park staff drafted it with help from the Mojave Desert and Mediterranean Coast Climate Friendly Parks Workshop. The twenty-page plan addresses climate change and sets goals and strategies to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the park's own activities — energy use, waste, transportation — along with best practices for sustainability and more climate-change outreach.

Green Parks Plan (spring 2016). Published for the whole National Park Service, it advances the NPS mission through sustainable operations, with an emphasis on partnerships and sustainable landscapes. Its goals:

• continuously improve environmental performance;
• be climate friendly and climate ready;
• be energy smart;
• be water wise;
• green our rides;
• buy green, and reduce, reuse and recycle;
• preserve outdoor experiences and promote healthy engagement;
• strengthen sustainability partnerships;
• foster sustainability beyond our boundaries;
• green our grounds.

What the team is doing

The park is working out realistic practices to meet some of these goals. The Green Team is:

• bringing back practical recycling;
• reaching out through social media and the park newsletter;
• modelling sustainable behaviour;
• revising its mission statement;
• requesting and installing water-bottle filling stations;
• trading ideas with other parks.

Its main message: reduce and reuse, in the park and beyond. The team welcomes practical ideas for sustainable action in the park.

Sources

• National Park Service, Great Basin National Park, "A Brief History of Great Basin National Park's Green Team," The Midden, Vol. 20, No. 1, Summer 2020. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/a-brief-history-of-great-basin-national-park-s-green-team.htm
• The original lists one Green Parks Plan goal as "Foster Sustainability Boundaries"; the plan's goal is "Foster Sustainability Beyond Our Boundaries".
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.