Increasing development in the surroundings of U.S. National Park Service holdings jeopardizes park effectiveness

Housing development erodes avian community structure in U.S. protected areas

“…Yet, protected areas that are located on suitable lands for Manuscript human habitation are potentially affected by stresses from outside the protected area boundaries. Throughout the world, development has been particularly strong adjacent to protected areas and on private inholdings (Gude et al 2006, Wade and Theobald 2009, Radeloff et al 2010, Gimmi et al 2011, Laurance et al 2012, which potentially diminishes the conservation benefit of these lands. For example, in the United States, much of the forest and grassland habitats on private lands are intensively used by humans (Mitchell 2000, Haynes 2003, with nearly two million hectares of forest and grassland converted to cropland (e.g., for the manufacture of ethanol) or developed land (e.g., urbanization, transportation, or small built-up areas) from 2002(USDA 2009.…”

Deforestation Near Public Lands: An Empirical Examination of Associated Processes

“…Recently, researchers have raised concerns over increasing housing densities in areas adjacent to protected lands Deforestation Near Public Lands 617 and the resulting negative impact on the ecological services protected areas provide (Gimmi et al 2011;Radeloff et al 2010), and others (Davis et al 2011) have suggested a typology for National Parks based on patterns of land use changes over time. The findings presented here provide a more nuanced understanding of the underlying mechanisms linking housing development patterns in areas adjacent to these protected areas and provides a finer grained understanding of the differences between different public lands.…”

A Chinese approach to protected areas: A case study comparison with the United States

“…However, many parks also abut "gateway" communities just outside park boundaries, where the National Park Service has no jurisdiction. Development in these communities can be extensive-e.g., hotels, restaurants, shopping areas, housing and retirement communities, office complexes, and light industry-and can create substantial threats to national park resources, including through nutrient pollution, water use, invasive species, and habitat fragmentation (Gimmi et al, 2011;Nielsen, 2013;Wang et al, 2009). In extreme situations, development in gateway communities can be so extensive as to make parks function as islands of conservation, disconnected from surrounding landscapes.…”