Climate imperils wonders that gave US parks their names

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Montana — Glacier National Park's ice fortress is crumbling, and the giant trees of Sequoia National Park are ablaze. Even the tenacious cacti of Saguaro National Park are struggling to endure a decadeslong drought.

Since their creation, national parks have embodied the pioneering spirit of the United States in their vast expanses and breathtaking landscapes. But today, the climate crisis imperils the very symbols of many parks, leaving them facing a future where their names could be cruel ironies.

Deep within Montana's Glacier National Park, the once majestic Grinnell Glacier is now greatly diminished. After a grueling trek, visitors are met with a stunning sight: a serene lake of pale blue water, nestled among towering peaks.

But as beautiful as it is, the very presence of this lake is testament to the ravages of a fast-warming planet.

Just a few decades ago, this landscape was entirely frozen. Now the glacier itself is relegated to a small hollow, sheltered from the sun, at the edge of the lake created through its own melting.

The park has lost 60 percent of its namesake glaciers since the 1850s, and scientists predict their complete disappearance by the century's end.

Conserving the 63 national parks is a rare point of political convergence in a sharply divided country. With tens of millions of people visiting these sites every year, it is also an economic imperative.

President Joe Biden's government recently announced nearly $200 million to help them adapt — funding made available through his signature climate law.

Yet, despite these efforts, the reality is that not everything can be saved.

This sobering truth has sparked an identity crisis for the National Park Service.

But it is now "pretty clear that it's not achievable in many places", says John Gross, an ecologist with the NPS' climate change response program.

"It's certainly possible that the parks could lose the iconic feature for which they've been named."

At Indiana Dunes National Park, beaches are submerged and the eponymous dunes are collapsing.

This time, park workers are fighting back. Every year, they fill in a damaged site along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, where the park's unique biodiversity thrives amid surrounding steel mills and a coal-fired power station.

The proximity to Michigan City's industrial port is the main culprit for erosion because the pier blocks the flow of sand along the coast.

While the situation was once manageable, climate change "is changing the game completely", NPS geologist Erin Argyilan says.

The ice shelf that forms in winter "has been our first line of defense to protect the dunes from the high waves that naturally come with fall and winter storms", Argyilan explains.

But with climate change, the ice is not coming until at least December if not January, while the storms begin in late October.

At Saguaro National Park in Arizona, home to the largest concentration of iconic saguaro cacti in the US, about 2 million of the towering desert plants cluster together like a forest, their arms outstretched to the sky.

Hidden threats

To the untrained eye, they appear to be thriving. But these resilient cacti that evolved to cope with ultra-arid environments are facing hidden threats as a result of a drought that began about 30 years ago.

In 2020 and again last year, the region experienced unusually meager rainfall in the summer, typically a time of monsoon rains.

During this period, a nonnative plant, buffelgrass, began to colonize the park. This invasive weed, introduced from Africa as livestock fodder, fuels fires that have ravaged saguaros in the past.

Beyond the ecological devastation, the loss of saguaros and glaciers has far-reaching cultural consequences.

For Native American tribes, these natural wonders hold deep spiritual significance.

The Tohono O'odham people consider saguaros their ancestors, and rely on their fruit to make ceremonial syrup. Similarly, the Blackfeet Nation reveres glaciers as sacred, recognizing their crucial role in sustaining life.

Wylie Carr, a climate planning specialist for the NPS, says national parks are "natural classrooms" for young and old alike to "really see and experience how climate change is impacting natural and cultural resources".

To this end, Glacier National Park's winding trails are dotted with signs that pose poignant questions.

"How many glaciers will be left for the next generation?" one pleads.

Agencies Via Xinhua