每日英語跟讀 Ep.K150: What to Save? Climate Change Forces Brutal Choices at National Parks捨

For more than a century, the core mission of the National Park Service has been preserving the natural heritage of the United States. But now, as the planet warms, transforming ecosystems, the agency is conceding that its traditional goal of absolute conservation is no longer viable in many cases.

一百多年來，美國國家公園管理局的核心使命一直是保存美國的自然遺產，然而在地球暖化改變生態系的當下，管理局承認，該局完全保育的傳統目標在許多情況下已經不再可行。

The service published an 80-page document that lays out new guidance for park managers in the era of climate change. The document, along with two peer-reviewed papers, is essentially a tool kit for the new world. It aims to help park ecologists and managers confront the fact that, increasingly, they must now actively choose what to save, what to shepherd through radical environmental transformation and what will vanish forever.

管理局發表一分80頁的文件，載明氣候變遷時代國家公園管理人的新指導原則。就本質而言，這分文件與另外兩篇通過同儕審查的論文，是邁向新世界的一套工具。這分文件旨在協助國家公園生態學者和管理人面對事實，也就是他們如今愈來愈需要主動選擇該保存什麼、該引導護衛什麼去挺過激烈的環境變化，以及該讓什麼永遠消失。

“The concept of things going back to some historical fixed condition is really just no longer tenable,” said Patty Glick, a senior scientist for climate adaptation at the National Wildlife Federation and one of the lead authors of the document.

民間組織美國國家野生動物同盟氣候調適資深科學家、這分文件領銜作者之一派提．葛利克說：「讓一切維持在歷史上某個固定狀態的概念，再也站不住腳了。」

The new research and guidance — which focus on how to plan for worst-case scenarios, decide what species and landscapes to prioritize, and how to assess the risk of relocating those that can’t survive otherwise — represent a kind of “reckoning” for the Park Service, Glick said.

葛利克說，新研究和指導原則重點放在如何為最壞情況做準備，決定那些物種和地貌要優先保存，以及如何評估遷移那些不遷走就活不下去的物種的風險，對管理局來說是種「算總帳」。

For a profession long tied to maintaining historical precedents, the change is brutal, said Gregor W. Schuurman, a scientist with the climate change response program at the Park Service who helped to write the new guidance.

新指導原則作者之一、管理局氣候變遷因應專案科學家舒爾曼說，對於慣於延續歷史先例的生態保育這一行而言，這種改變很殘酷。

“It’s bargaining. Nobody wants to do this. We all got in this game, as the Park Service mission says, to ‘conserve unimpaired,’ ” Schuurman said. “But if you can’t do that in the way you thought, you have to see what you can do. There’s often more flexibility there than one imagines.”

舒爾曼說：「這是種取捨。沒人想這樣做。我們都從事這一行，正如管理局使命所言，去『原封不動保存』。不過如果不能按自己想法做，就得看看能怎麼做。通常彈性比你以為的大。」

The team behind the report kept a low profile during the Trump administration, when the Park Service was at the center of frequent political battles. The day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, they began publishing their papers, which were years in the making.

撰寫報告的團隊在川普政府時期保持低調，當時管理局經常是政治鬥爭的焦點。現任總統拜登就職前一天，他們才開始發表寫了多年的論文。

The first one, titled “Resist, Accept, Direct,” aims to help park employees triage species and landscapes. In some cases, that will mean giving up long efforts to save them. The second outlines how to assess risks when relocating species. That may be crucial to saving plants and animals that can no longer survive in their natural habitat.

第一篇題為「抗拒，接受，指導」，旨在幫助國家公園職員依照物種和地貌的重要性分類。在某些情況下，那意味放棄長久以來拯救物種和地貌的努力。第二篇介紹如何評估重新安置物種的風險，這對拯救再也無法在天然棲地存活的動植物而言很關鍵。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5512192