著：（美）韋恩·弗賴蒙德 譯：黃澄 校：莊優(yōu)波

在美國，國家公園系統(tǒng)與世界各地的高等教育系統(tǒng)有著密切的互動(dòng)。作為課堂或戶外實(shí)驗(yàn)室，國家公園為學(xué)生們提供了實(shí)踐培訓(xùn)的機(jī)會(huì)。許多實(shí)習(xí)過的學(xué)生在畢業(yè)后都選擇從事與國家公園相關(guān)的工作。國家公園是為子孫后代保護(hù)自然資源這項(xiàng)全球使命的重要組成部分。通過參與國際合作，國家公園成為學(xué)生和管理者向全球保護(hù)區(qū)網(wǎng)絡(luò)學(xué)習(xí)和貢獻(xiàn)的窗口。

1 國家公園作為教室

1.1 實(shí)地考察和學(xué)?；?dòng)

美國國家公園是幫助學(xué)生建立與公園深厚聯(lián)系，識別資源重要性，了解并保護(hù)遺產(chǎn)與文化的教室。對于很多學(xué)生來說，實(shí)地考察國家公園是其開啟國家公園系統(tǒng)或其他土地保護(hù)相關(guān)行業(yè)職業(yè)生涯的一種方式。通過國家公園與學(xué)校的合作項(xiàng)目，學(xué)生們有機(jī)會(huì)實(shí)地參觀考察國家公園。作為這些合作項(xiàng)目的成果，國家公園管理局每年都要接待數(shù)以千計(jì)的學(xué)生，從小學(xué)到大學(xué)都有。美國國家公園管理局（National Park Service）非常重視與青少年建立友好關(guān)系，下面就是一個(gè)典型例證。作為百年慶典的一部分，國家公園管理局在2016年發(fā)起了“公園里的孩子”計(jì)劃（圖1）[1]。通過這個(gè)計(jì)劃，每個(gè)四年級的美國學(xué)生都可攜家人免費(fèi)進(jìn)入國家公園參觀游覽。這種與學(xué)校捆綁的鼓勵(lì)參觀國家公園的形式，建立了社會(huì)公眾與自然/遺產(chǎn)之間有意義的聯(lián)系。通過向?qū)W生介紹國家公園的精彩故事，學(xué)生們有機(jī)會(huì)接觸這些自然之地，并可能從此開啟未來職業(yè)生涯的大門。

高中生通常在中學(xué)最后兩年選擇就讀哪所大學(xué)。高中時(shí)在公園的游訪經(jīng)歷對他們選擇與公園管理相關(guān)的大學(xué)項(xiàng)目有很大幫助。大學(xué)和公園之間的緊密聯(lián)系可以成為大學(xué)招生的重要賣點(diǎn)。例如，蒙大拿大學(xué)或克萊姆森大學(xué)這樣強(qiáng)大的學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)在地理位置上就分別靠近冰川國家公園和大煙山國家公園等標(biāo)志性公園。很多大學(xué)通過強(qiáng)調(diào)自己在地理位置上鄰近國家公園來突顯優(yōu)勢，作為吸引學(xué)生的競爭條件。

1.2 實(shí)習(xí)與工作機(jī)會(huì)

在美國，大多數(shù)以專業(yè)為導(dǎo)向的大學(xué)課程要求學(xué)生在其受教育過程中積累專業(yè)實(shí)踐經(jīng)驗(yàn)。這些專業(yè)實(shí)踐經(jīng)驗(yàn)包括實(shí)習(xí)、暑期工作、實(shí)踐課以及在導(dǎo)師指導(dǎo)下做項(xiàng)目。這些項(xiàng)目為學(xué)生提供可以直接用于畢業(yè)的學(xué)分。大學(xué)是一個(gè)激發(fā)靈感的好地方，年輕人在國家公園里的實(shí)習(xí)歷練通常對整體提升他們在大學(xué)里的教育有很好的幫助。與此同時(shí)，國家公園在這一過程中也受益匪淺，由于這些良好教育背景年輕人的參與，公園項(xiàng)目取得了更好的效果；大量學(xué)生也因此在畢業(yè)后被招入相關(guān)的工作崗位。

除了實(shí)習(xí)之外，大學(xué)還經(jīng)常與公園管理者合作參加學(xué)術(shù)會(huì)議，充分發(fā)揮學(xué)術(shù)和應(yīng)用管理結(jié)合的優(yōu)勢，并合作舉辦招聘會(huì)，促進(jìn)管理者和學(xué)生之間的互動(dòng)。這些活動(dòng)往往獨(dú)立于學(xué)校教學(xué)活動(dòng)，帶動(dòng)了暑期短期就業(yè)。對于一個(gè)大學(xué)生來說，在他們讀完大學(xué)的時(shí)候積累了將近一年的專業(yè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)是很正常的事。而實(shí)習(xí)經(jīng)驗(yàn)為學(xué)生們順利踏上工作崗位奠定了基礎(chǔ)。這種經(jīng)歷激發(fā)了學(xué)生的自信，當(dāng)他們被聘用到一個(gè)職位上時(shí)，可以立即進(jìn)入正軌。

這些實(shí)習(xí)項(xiàng)目也獲得了學(xué)校課程設(shè)計(jì)的支持，這些教育項(xiàng)目通?？杀粚W(xué)者、科學(xué)家、相關(guān)從業(yè)者及管理機(jī)構(gòu)所認(rèn)可，認(rèn)證包含了社會(huì)經(jīng)驗(yàn)在內(nèi)的實(shí)踐經(jīng)歷（圖2）。

1.3 管理者培訓(xùn)與組織

截至2018年年中，世界保護(hù)地?cái)?shù)據(jù)庫中記錄了238 563個(gè)保護(hù)地。這些地區(qū)占地球陸地面積的近15%和世界海洋的7.3%[2]。這些保護(hù)地的管理工作需要應(yīng)對快速變化的社會(huì)和生態(tài)環(huán)境。通常保護(hù)地所需的財(cái)政資源往往缺乏長久支持。與此同時(shí)，技術(shù)創(chuàng)新、管理框架創(chuàng)新、案例研究創(chuàng)新，以及對以往管理方法的批評和新理念則不斷涌現(xiàn)。這種高強(qiáng)度的變化和復(fù)雜的環(huán)境需要永無止境的學(xué)習(xí)、分享和培訓(xùn)加以支撐。

當(dāng)大學(xué)合作伙伴了解公園管理者們所面臨的問題時(shí)，學(xué)校就可以更好地滿足培訓(xùn)的需求，設(shè)計(jì)有針對性的培訓(xùn)活動(dòng)，并且成為一個(gè)理想的培訓(xùn)活動(dòng)中心。因?yàn)榇髮W(xué)的責(zé)任就在于推進(jìn)課程發(fā)展、傳播知識、展開科研填補(bǔ)知識空白，并評估學(xué)生對所學(xué)事物的掌握能力。

繼續(xù)教育課程項(xiàng)目既可以在大學(xué)開展，也可以通過國家公園現(xiàn)場教學(xué)，或是通過遠(yuǎn)程教育技術(shù)來實(shí)現(xiàn)。在進(jìn)行培訓(xùn)項(xiàng)目的同時(shí)，大學(xué)教授們通常能夠?qū)芾碚哂龅降膯栴}有更深入細(xì)致的了解。因此，對這些實(shí)踐問題的認(rèn)知能夠使大學(xué)教授們更好地培養(yǎng)未來的學(xué)生，并使得研究對策更加具有針對性和落地性?？巳R姆森大學(xué)目前正在籌辦一個(gè)針對國家、州立和市立公園管理者的培訓(xùn)學(xué)院，該項(xiàng)目旨在將大學(xué)科研實(shí)力的優(yōu)勢與公園管理政策部門的優(yōu)質(zhì)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力和經(jīng)驗(yàn)相結(jié)合，直接解決公園保護(hù)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力培訓(xùn)難題。該項(xiàng)目還包含在線的研究生學(xué)位、密集的創(chuàng)新和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力主題討論會(huì)、國家公園問題解決的實(shí)踐機(jī)會(huì)，和眾多的網(wǎng)絡(luò)討論會(huì)議。教師則由大學(xué)教授團(tuán)隊(duì)與國家公園高級管理人員組成。

1.4 大學(xué)作為技術(shù)設(shè)施資源支持

在美國，大學(xué)通常擁有比單個(gè)公園更先進(jìn)的技術(shù)設(shè)施。因此，在大學(xué)里運(yùn)用地理信息系統(tǒng)、數(shù)據(jù)管理、可視化和信息檔案的能力都更加出色，并且信息管理是大學(xué)使命的核心。除此之外，大學(xué)通常以獨(dú)特和客觀的方式主導(dǎo)各種有關(guān)保護(hù)區(qū)適當(dāng)管理和愿景設(shè)計(jì)的討論，并且大學(xué)對保護(hù)地管理的遠(yuǎn)見可以提供整體指導(dǎo)，這與數(shù)據(jù)和數(shù)據(jù)使用者都有密切聯(lián)系。例如，克萊姆森大學(xué)的開放公園網(wǎng)絡(luò)為全美國家公園提供數(shù)字存檔服務(wù)①。通過與國家公園管理局的合作，克萊姆森圖書館將國家公園的許多攝影作品或文檔進(jìn)行了數(shù)字化，建立了一個(gè)向世界提供這些文件的平臺（圖3）。

大學(xué)還可被視為一個(gè)信息交換所，提供各種各樣的信息②。由蒙大拿大學(xué)主辦的荒野連接站位于國家荒野保護(hù)系統(tǒng)的中心位置。這種伙伴關(guān)系包括大學(xué)和4個(gè)管理荒野的聯(lián)邦機(jī)構(gòu)。該站點(diǎn)為研究、培訓(xùn)和教育提供支持信息，并擁有國家荒野保護(hù)系統(tǒng)中每個(gè)區(qū)域的位置和相關(guān)信息內(nèi)容。

2 國家公園作為戶外實(shí)驗(yàn)室

從大學(xué)的角度來看，我們的國家公園在實(shí)踐層面提供了監(jiān)測以及更好地理解社會(huì)與生態(tài)方面變化的機(jī)會(huì)。國家公園作為戶外實(shí)驗(yàn)室，使得研究者能更好地理解國家公園內(nèi)部的資源，認(rèn)識到這些資源的相互關(guān)系以及這些資源與更廣闊的社會(huì)的相互關(guān)系。盡管這里涉及的研究有很多方式，但本文將選擇與作者密切相關(guān)的監(jiān)測、評價(jià)研究以及促進(jìn)合作研究的框架設(shè)計(jì)3個(gè)方面展開討論。

2.1 監(jiān)測

國家公園的管理方式是按照各種管理規(guī)劃中確立的目標(biāo)而開展的。一些目標(biāo)很具挑戰(zhàn)性，尋求提升公園內(nèi)部狀況；而另一些目標(biāo)屬于補(bǔ)救型，尋求恢復(fù)遭受破壞的現(xiàn)狀。無論變化是好是壞，在任何狀況下了解現(xiàn)狀條件，分析導(dǎo)致這些條件發(fā)生變化的影響力量，探究資源變化發(fā)生的原因都非常重要 。認(rèn)識變化并向決策者提供必要的反饋需要專業(yè)監(jiān)測的幫忙。監(jiān)測是一項(xiàng)管理職能，經(jīng)常受到缺乏財(cái)政資源或公園工作人員能力有限的困擾，無法建立有效、高效和創(chuàng)新的監(jiān)測系統(tǒng)。而大學(xué)有資源接觸到更先進(jìn)的新興技術(shù)，并且有精力充沛的學(xué)生需要實(shí)習(xí)機(jī)會(huì)，因此大學(xué)已成為國家公園發(fā)展監(jiān)測項(xiàng)目的優(yōu)秀合作伙伴。

1 9～10歲兒童及其家庭免費(fèi)進(jìn)入所有公共土地Free pass to all public lands for kids of 9-10 years of age and their families

2 在大煙山國家公園會(huì)見國家公園科學(xué)家Meeting with national park scientists at Great Smokey Mountain National Park

通過這些合作關(guān)系，學(xué)生與老師可以與公園工作人員合作，建立監(jiān)測系統(tǒng)，并收集有關(guān)變化指標(biāo)的數(shù)據(jù)。監(jiān)測內(nèi)容涉及野生動(dòng)物遺傳信息和數(shù)量變化、水質(zhì)、資金支出、游客體驗(yàn)、影響公園游憩的區(qū)域人口變化等。例如，蒙大拿州的冰川國家公園與蒙大拿大學(xué)合作開發(fā)了一個(gè)道路和車輛計(jì)數(shù)器系統(tǒng)（圖4），以了解公路上的交通和在野外小徑上徒步旅行的人數(shù)之間的關(guān)系。這些數(shù)據(jù)大大提升了管理人員對擁擠與高質(zhì)量游客體驗(yàn)相關(guān)指標(biāo)的理解。該系統(tǒng)是在公園決定進(jìn)行道路改善時(shí)設(shè)計(jì)的，他們假設(shè)這將影響游客體驗(yàn)的其他部分。通過觀察試驗(yàn)中小徑使用者的人數(shù)，評估人數(shù)變化對公園不同區(qū)域的影響和壓力，最終幫助界定游客進(jìn)入的相關(guān)要求。

國家公園還進(jìn)行大量由國家公園工作人員主導(dǎo)的生態(tài)監(jiān)測。例如，2018年在大煙山國家公園，工作人員通過監(jiān)測發(fā)現(xiàn)了第1 000個(gè)物種。再如，國家社會(huì)人口監(jiān)測項(xiàng)目發(fā)現(xiàn)，每年有超過3.2億訪客游覽國家公園系統(tǒng)。除此之外還有物理資源監(jiān)測項(xiàng)目有助于觀察大氣變化，如氣候變化的影響等。

2.2 評價(jià)研究

國家公園土地管理問題可能存在眾多爭議，大學(xué)可以作為一個(gè)客觀的第三方，在識別和評估問題的過程中扮演一個(gè)相對沒有偏見的角色。在尋求最佳解決方案的過程中，當(dāng)社區(qū)成員和國家公園服務(wù)管理團(tuán)隊(duì)之間發(fā)生沖突時(shí)，大學(xué)可以幫助建立雙方的信任。例如，黃石國家公園內(nèi)冬季的使用管理問題引起公園管理團(tuán)隊(duì)和一些公眾的關(guān)注，認(rèn)為大量使用雪地摩托的訪客對野牛及其棲息地的保護(hù)產(chǎn)生了負(fù)面影響。然而，當(dāng)?shù)厣鐓^(qū)部分居民不同意這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)，并拒絕了管理團(tuán)隊(duì)提出的管理措施。結(jié)果，反對管理措施的訪客不相信公園管理者所堅(jiān)持的科學(xué)性方案，他們認(rèn)為管理措施包含了政治成分，導(dǎo)致不支持摩托、雪橇的使用。大學(xué)研究小組進(jìn)行了進(jìn)一步的調(diào)查來評估這個(gè)問題[3]。最后，大學(xué)的深入評估成為雙方達(dá)成一致意見的可靠證據(jù)來源。

2.3 促進(jìn)合作研究的框架設(shè)計(jì)

促進(jìn)國家公園和大學(xué)網(wǎng)絡(luò)之間有意義的互動(dòng)需要大量的組織工作。盡管許多合作來自各地公園和當(dāng)?shù)亟淌谥g的緊密聯(lián)系，但正規(guī)合作進(jìn)入國家一級的系統(tǒng)需要構(gòu)建一個(gè)完整的框架。為了幫助應(yīng)對美國國內(nèi)的這些挑戰(zhàn)，我們開發(fā)了生態(tài)系統(tǒng)合作研究單元（CESU）網(wǎng)絡(luò)。這個(gè)網(wǎng)絡(luò)提供了以下關(guān)鍵功能。首先，它提供了一個(gè)研究需求的交流平臺，可以通過平臺與對該研究需求感興趣的專家建立聯(lián)系。由于許多問題具有區(qū)域性特征，CESU網(wǎng)絡(luò)將美國全國分為了17個(gè)區(qū)域（圖5）。目前這17個(gè)區(qū)域內(nèi)有“超過435個(gè)非聯(lián)邦合作伙伴和15個(gè)聯(lián)邦機(jī)構(gòu)，代表了所有50個(gè)州和美國領(lǐng)土的生物地理區(qū)域”[4]。CESE合作機(jī)制得到了合作伙伴研究機(jī)構(gòu)的支持，不僅降低了研究成本，同時(shí)方便公園接觸專業(yè)研究人員。大學(xué)還經(jīng)常為研究結(jié)果的存儲(chǔ)庫提供高度復(fù)雜的資源。通過這些伙伴合作建立的個(gè)人關(guān)系也為學(xué)術(shù)研究的所有要素提供了基礎(chǔ)，包括為本科生和研究生提供咨詢專業(yè)意見的機(jī)會(huì)，提供研究、教育和培訓(xùn)的機(jī)會(huì)等，這些對于國家公園的管理也產(chǎn)生了切實(shí)的影響。

3 國家公園作為世界之窗

如前所述，美國國家公園是全球?yàn)樽訉O后代保護(hù)自然和遺產(chǎn)所作的巨大努力的一部分。作為世界上最早建立的國家公園體系之一，美國國家公園提供了許多機(jī)會(huì)來展示管理工作是如何隨著時(shí)間的推移而成功或失敗的。因此，我們有許多機(jī)會(huì)與全球各地同行進(jìn)行對話，這些同行正在迎接同樣的挑戰(zhàn)，他們嘗試著不同的治理方法，擁有著不同的文化結(jié)構(gòu)視角。通過這些對話，我們可以一起學(xué)習(xí)保護(hù)，偶爾也可以展示國家公園在推進(jìn)全球外交中所能發(fā)揮的獨(dú)特作用（圖6）。

3.1 基于保護(hù)的外交和共同學(xué)習(xí)

1932年，美國蒙大拿州和加拿大阿爾伯塔省建立了沃特頓冰川和平公園，這是世界上第一個(gè)和平公園。它被指定用來慶祝世界上最長的無防護(hù)的國際邊界，即美國和加拿大之間的邊界。每年，加拿大人和美國人都會(huì)排隊(duì)站在國家公園內(nèi)的國境線上跨過邊界握手。這是一種象征性聲明，說明我們兩個(gè)國家擁有的共同點(diǎn)遠(yuǎn)超于不同點(diǎn)。和平公園的概念現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)擴(kuò)展到世界各地，有數(shù)百個(gè)公園努力做出類似的象征性聲明。我們知道，當(dāng)人們來到一個(gè)公園，他們關(guān)注于培養(yǎng)、加強(qiáng)或重新建立與自然的關(guān)系，在這個(gè)享受自然的過程中，人與人之間建立友好關(guān)系是比較常見的。因?yàn)楫?dāng)人類共同面對大自然令人敬畏的力量時(shí)，人與人之間的分歧會(huì)顯得微不足道，而人們的共同利益則會(huì)凸顯出來。

3.2 宏觀思維

隨著我們對自然系統(tǒng)在地球可持續(xù)發(fā)展中的地位的理解和認(rèn)識不斷加深，我們意識到人類需要從宏觀的空間和時(shí)間尺度來思考問題。從時(shí)間尺度來說，我們已經(jīng)實(shí)踐了足夠長的時(shí)間來檢驗(yàn)之前的決策是否增強(qiáng)或限制了我們的未來。例如，在20世紀(jì)30年代后期，為了保護(hù)牲畜，美國消滅了48個(gè)州的所有狼群。幾代人之后，人們意識到自然需要完整的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，因此決定讓狼群回歸自然。黃石國家公園成為此方案的一個(gè)試點(diǎn)。如果上一代沒有為下一代保住黃石公園，之后的人們就沒有機(jī)會(huì)改正錯(cuò)誤，使生態(tài)系統(tǒng)得到恢復(fù)。

雖然我們在全球范圍內(nèi)有相當(dāng)數(shù)量的土地處于保護(hù)狀態(tài)，但很明顯，對于許多野生物種來說，還需要保護(hù)更大面積的景觀以確保它們的生存。超大型公園，如南非的卡萬戈-贊比西跨界公園（Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Park，簡稱Kaza），被規(guī)劃設(shè)計(jì)用于保護(hù)大象等遷徙物種的遷徙過程。這種大尺度的保護(hù)要獲得成功，需要將本文所描述的一切配合得恰到好處。需要建立合作關(guān)系，將管理問題與盡可能多的科學(xué)知識進(jìn)行結(jié)合；需要在財(cái)政支持非常有限的情況下開展監(jiān)測項(xiàng)目；需要針對具體環(huán)境進(jìn)行創(chuàng)新，以緩解不同利益方之間必然出現(xiàn)的多重沖突；最后，必然需要跨越國境線的外交，以延續(xù)多種文化的傳承和多種物種的生存演替。

4 結(jié)論

雖然美國國家公園在公園管理方面取得了相當(dāng)大的成功，但仍面臨許多挑戰(zhàn)。我們面臨挑戰(zhàn)的本質(zhì)往往集中在幾個(gè)基本問題上。人與人之間是否能包容相處？人與自然之間是否能包容相處？不同的文化之間是否可以和睦相處并朝著共同的目標(biāo)努力？人們需要了解如何跨語言和跨文化合作。筆者所述的合作伙伴關(guān)系類型表明，在美國，我們將國家公園管理文化和大學(xué)的優(yōu)勢融合到高效的合作伙伴關(guān)系中，并取得了相當(dāng)大的合作進(jìn)展。這些合作在解決眾多困難的問題上取得了相當(dāng)大的成效。

3 參觀黃石國家公園的游客，照片日期不詳U(kuò)ndated photograph of visitors to Yellowstone National Park

隨著中國建立自己的國家公園系統(tǒng)，中國將面臨如何統(tǒng)籌管理機(jī)構(gòu)的能力和大學(xué)潛力。通過與大學(xué)建立牢固的合作關(guān)系，管理機(jī)構(gòu)將投資于培訓(xùn)未來的管理人員，同時(shí)也會(huì)激發(fā)來自多個(gè)領(lǐng)域的人們?yōu)閲夜珗@做工作。大學(xué)還提供專門的研究項(xiàng)目，以幫助應(yīng)對持續(xù)管理這些寶貴地方的挑戰(zhàn)。學(xué)術(shù)研究不僅可幫助個(gè)別保護(hù)地，而且也體現(xiàn)了批判并深入地思考保護(hù)地系統(tǒng)內(nèi)在價(jià)值的重要性。通過發(fā)表研究成果，中國國家公園體系將參與到關(guān)于國家公園和自然保護(hù)地重要性的國際學(xué)術(shù)對話。大學(xué)也是高科技支持的源泉，大學(xué)里的計(jì)算系統(tǒng)、專家和技術(shù)設(shè)施對有意合作的管理者大有益處。這種技術(shù)能力有助于在監(jiān)測、大數(shù)據(jù)存儲(chǔ)、時(shí)空數(shù)據(jù)分析、信息宣傳等領(lǐng)域進(jìn)行創(chuàng)新。這些資源聯(lián)合起來，能夠共同為國家公園的員工提供持續(xù)培訓(xùn)和繼續(xù)教育的平臺。

目前，中國管理部門正在咨詢和尋求與世界其他地方國家公園系統(tǒng)協(xié)同合作的機(jī)會(huì)，這種協(xié)同合作對象可以擴(kuò)展到美國大學(xué)。這是兩個(gè)絕佳的機(jī)會(huì)，通過將自然保護(hù)地視為通往世界的窗口，來展示科學(xué)研究和管理實(shí)踐的結(jié)合是如何促進(jìn)我們對自然的理解。

注釋：

① 參見 https://openparksnetwork.org/about。

② 參見 https://wilderness.net。

③ 圖1來源于 Everykidnapart.gov；圖 2、4、6來源于Wayne A. Freimund；圖3來源于open parks network, Clemson University；圖5來源于Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit National Network. www.CESU.psu.edu。

In the United States, the National Park system has close interaction with the higher education systems from around the world. As classrooms or outdoor laboratories, they provide practical training for students. Many of those students pursue careers in the National Parks. National Parks are part of a global mission to appreciate and conserve nature for future generations. By engaging international systems, parks become windows to the world for our students and managers to learn from and contribute to the global network of protected areas.

1 National Parks as Classrooms

1.1 Field Trips and School Interaction

National parks in the United States are classrooms that help students to build meaningful relationships with parks, their resources and the value of conservation our heritage and culture.For many students field visits are a way to prepare for a profession in the national park system or another land conservation related career. Through partnerships with schools, students are given the opportunities for field trips to visit Nationals Parks. As a result, the National Park Service ends up hosting thousands of students every year that are in primary school to college. One demonstration of the seriousness the National Park Service places on building relationships with youth is the “Every Kid in a Park” program that was initiated during 2016, as part of the centennial celebration (Fig. 1)[1]. Through this program, every U.S. student in grade four has free access to the national park system for themselves and their family. This kind of encouragement, tied to the school system, is developing meaningful relationships between society and nature or heritage through education. By exposing students to the great stories of National Parks, students are provided with opportunities to get attached to these places and start developing their careers.

High school students often choose which university to attend when they are in the last two years of their secondary education. The influence of those youth experiences in parks are often mentioned when they enroll in college programs dedicated to education about park management.Having close ties between Universities and Parks can become a selling point of the university. Strong academic programs such as the University of Montana or Clemson University are close to iconic parks such as Glacier National Park and Great Smoky National Park respectively. Universities prefer to define themselves by proximity to these national parks, which turns out to be a competitive advantage to attract students.

1.2 Internships Lead to Jobs

Most professionally oriented University programs in the United States require students to include supervised professional experience within their education. These experiences come in the way of internships, summer jobs, practicums and the shadowing of professional mentors. These programs offer credit 3 to students, which can be used directly for graduation. Universities are wonderful places for inspiration and time in parks often has a considerable influence on how students refine their education at the University. National Parks benefit from this process by engaging with creative and well-educated young minds who make immediate impacts to the park mission and, in turn, are frequently recruited to join the workforce after graduation.

In addition to internships, university programs also often partner with park managers to participate in conferences that merge academic and applied management strengths, and career fairs to facilitate interaction between managers and students. These interactions often lead to summer employment that occurs independent of the academic program. It is not uncommon for a graduating college student to have nearly a year of professional experience accumulated by the time they finish college. This experience inspires confidence that when a student is hired into a position, they can immediately contribute to many topics.

The internships are supported by the educational curriculums. These education programs are often accredited by a governing body that is a blend of academics, scientists, and practitioners.Accreditation ensures a set of proficiencies including real world experience（Fig. 2）.

1.3 Management Training and Hosting

There were 238 563 designated protected areas recorded in the World Database on Protected Areas half way through 2018[2]. Those areas represent nearly 15% of the earth’s terrestrial land base and 7.3% of the world’s oceans. The management of these protected areas occurs within a vast array of fast changing social and ecological contexts. The financial resources needed to support this scope conservation areas are often lacking.At the same time, innovations in technology,management frameworks, case studies, critiques of previous management approaches and new ideas continue to emerge. This degree of change and complexity requires a never-ending process of learning, sharing, and training.

When university partners are in close touch with the issues managers face, they are better able to address their training needs and can be an ideal hub of training activity. Universities are well built to develop curricula, disseminate knowledge, do research that is necessary to fill knowledge gaps,and evaluate student’s competency with subject matter.

Continuing education programs can be delivered at the University, onsite within the park, or through distance education techniques.While engaging in training programs, University professors gain a more nuanced understanding of the issue’s managers are facing. Thus, it better and enables them to teach future students and to develop research that has a high potential of solving on the ground problems. Clemson University is currently launching a training academy that provides a range of programs targeted toward national, state, and municipal park managers. That program is designed to combine the scientific and technical strengths of the University with the leadership and experiential knowledge of the management and policy community to directly address the leadership challenges of park conservation. The programs will include online graduate degrees, intensive innovation and leadership seminars, park-situated problems solving experiences and broadly distributed webinars. Teachers will include teams of professors and high-level managers.

4 冰川國家公園內(nèi)道路與小徑監(jiān)測傳感器Road and Trail Use Monitoring Sensors in Glacier National Park

5 生態(tài)系統(tǒng)合作研究單元系統(tǒng)The Cooperative Ecosystem Study Unit System

1.4 Universities as a Resource for Technical Infrastructure

In the United States, universities often have a more advanced technical infrastructure than individual parks. Thus, capacity for GIS, data management, visualization and information archives are not only greater at Universities, information management is central to the University mission.Additionally, universities are often uniquely and objectively centered within the debates about the proper management and vision for protected areas and can provide an integrating function as it relates to data and the users of that data. For example, the Open Parks Network at Clemson University provides a digital archiving service for national parks throughout the country①. Through a partnership with the National Park Service, The Clemson library works with parks to digitize many of their photographic or document artifacts and provides a forum for making those documents available to the world (Fig. 3).

Universities can also provide a clearing house of information on a wide range of information②.The Wilderness Connect site, hosted by the University of Montana, serves as a central location and web presence fort the National Wilderness Preservation System. That partnership includes the University and four federal agencies that manage Wilderness. The site provides information to support research, training and education. It also has locations and pertinent information for every area in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

2 National Parks as Outdoor Laboratories

From a university perspective, our national parks provide the opportunity to monitor and better understand both social and ecological change. They serve as outdoor laboratories for research that lead to a better understanding of the resources within the park, and how those resources are interacting with one another and broader society. While there are many ways research occurs,three aspects that the author has been heavily involved with will be discussed here: monitoring,evaluation research, and structures designed to facilitate research cooperation.

2.1 Monitoring

National parks are managed to meet goals established in a variety of different kinds of management plans. Some goals are aspirational and seek to improve conditions within the park,while others are remedial in seek to restore conditions that have been degraded. In all cases, it is important to understand the existing conditions,forces that lead to change in those conditions, and how resource change is occurring either for the better or worse. Understanding that change and providing necessary feedback into decision-making requires dedicated monitoring. Monitoring is a management function that often falls prey to a lack of financial resources or limited capacity within the park staff to build and effective, efficient, and innovative monitoring system. Universities, with access to more sophisticated emerging technology and energetic students looking for opportunities for internships, can be an excellent partner in the development of monitoring programs.

Through these partnerships, students and faculty members can work with park staff to build monitoring systems, and collect data on indicators of change. Monitoring partnership range from wildlife genetics and population changes, to water quality, economic expenditures, visitor experiences,and human population change in regions that affect park visitation. For instance, Glacier National Park in Montana has worked with the University of Montana to develop a system of trail and vehicle counters to understand the relationship between traffic on the road and number of people hiking on backcountry trails. That data feeds into an understanding of an indicator that relates crowding to quality visitor experiences. The system was designed when the park decided to do a road improvement that they hypothesized would impact other parts of the visitor’s experience. By observing the numbers of people on the trials, decisions can be made regarding visitor access after evaluating the impacts and pressure on different parts of the park.

There is also a lot of ecological monitoring occurring that is led by national park staff, such as at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where in 2018, they discovered a their 1 000th resident species. In another example, social demographic monitoring at the national level observed that over 320 million people per year visit the national park system. Physical resource monitoring helps to observe atmospheric change, such as impacts from climate change (Fig. 4).

2.2 Evaluation Research

Land management can be controversial, and the university can serve as an objective third party,playing a role that is perceived to be less biased in the process of identifying and evaluating problems.Universities seek optimum solutions, which can generate trust when conflicts occur between the community members and the National Park Service Management teams. For example, winter use management inside Yellowstone National Park,raise questions among the management team and many concerned citizens that high numbers of visitors using snowmobiles were negatively affecting the conservation of bison and their habitat.However, other parts of the local community disagreed on the issue and rejected the proposed management actions. As it turned out, visitors who opposed any regulations didn’t trust the science that the park managers produced because they thought that they had a political agenda that was not favorable to snowmobiles. University research teams made further investigation to evaluate the problem[3]. In the end, the in-depth evaluation made by the university became a reliable source of evidence to help both parties find agreement.

2.3 Structures for Facilitating Cooperative Research

Facilitating meaningful interaction between national parks and university networks requires considerable organization. While many benefits come from local relationships between parks and professors, fair access to the system at the national level requires numerous structures be developed.To assist with these challenges within the United States, we have developed the Cooperative Ecosystem Study Unit (CESU) network. This network serves several key functions. First, it provides a platform for the communication of research needs and contact with experts that are interested in meeting those needs. Due to the regional nature of many issues and problems, the CESU network is distributed across 17 regions of the United States. Currently there are “more than 435 nonfederal partners and 15 federal agencies across seventeen CESUs representing biogeographic regions encompassing all 50 states and U.S. territories”[4]. CESU partnerships include institutional support from partners that lead to reduced costs and easy access to professionals. Universities also often provide highly sophisticated resources for the repository of study results. Personal relationships built through these partnerships provide a foundation for all elements of the academic mission which includes opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, consultation of their expertise, and opportunities to provide research,education, and training that makes a tangible difference in the management of our national parks (Fig. 5).

6 保護(hù)區(qū)管理國際研討會(huì)。來自全球各地的保護(hù)工作者們在黃石國家公園討論全球性問題The International Seminar on Protected Area Management.A global group of conservation managers discussing global issues in Yellowstone National Park

3 National Parks as Windows to the World

As was mentioned earlier, the National Parks of the United States are one part of a large global endeavor to conserve nature and heritage for future generations. As one of the earliest park systems established in the world, US National Parks provide many opportunities to show how management has succeeded or failed over time. Thus, we have many opportunities for dialogue with our global counterparts that are meeting the same challenges but through the lens of differing governance and cultural structures. Embracing that dialogue allows us to learn together for conservation and occasionally, demonstrate the unique role parks can play in advancing global diplomacy (Fig. 6).

3.1 Diplomacy and Learning Together for Conservation

The State of Montana and the Canadian province of Alberta established the Waterton-Glacier Peace Park, the world’s first Peace Park,in 1932. It was designated to celebrate the longest unguarded international border in the world, the boundary between the United States and Canada.Every year, the Canadians and the people from the United States line up on that boundary and shake hands as they reach across the boundary.It makes a symbolic statement that we had much more in common than in difference. The peace park concept has now expanded across the world and there are hundreds of parks that strive to make a similar symbolic statement. We are learning that when people come to a park, they nurture, enhance or rekindle the relationship with nature. While enjoying nature, it is quite common for people to build relationships among one another. Against the awesome power of a natural landscape, our human disagreements can become diminished and our common interests can reemerge.

3.2 Large Scale Thinking

As we grow in our understanding and knowledge about the role of natural systems in the sustainability of our planet, we have realized that we need to think in terms of large spatial and temporal scales. Temporally, we have worked long enough now to see how our decisions can enhance or constrain our potential in the future.For example, in late 1930s, the United States exterminated all wolves from the lower 48 states to protect livestock. A couple of generations later,we decided that we should have intact ecosystems and needed to put the wolves back. Yellowstone National Park became one sites where that was possible. If the previous generations had not protected Yellowstone Park for the later generation,they would not have had a chance to change their mind and restore the ecosystem.

While we have a considerable amount of land now in protected status globally, it is also clear that for many species of wildlife, much larger spatial landscapes will need to be protected to ensure their survival. Large mega parks such as the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Park (KAZA) in southern Africa are being designed to protect the migrations of nomadic species such as elephant. The success of these large-scale endeavors will require the benefit of everything this is been described in this paper. Partnerships will be required that integrate applied management issues with the best possible scientific knowledge. Monitoring programs will need to be established under conditions with highly limited financial support. Context specific innovation will be needed to address the multiple conflicts that sure to emerge among interests. And finally, diplomacy across international boundaries will be imperative to the success and survival the many cultures and species.

4 Conclusion

While we in the United States have demonstrated considerable success in park management, there are many challenges yet ahead. The essence of our challenges tends to center around a few basic questions.Can people get along with one another? Can people and nature get along? And can differing cultures get along and work toward common goals? People need to understand how to work together across languages and cultures. The kinds of partnerships described in this paper demonstrate that within the United States we have made considerable progress in bringing the strengths and cultures of our managers and universities together into productive partnerships. Those partnerships have led to considerable progress on issues that would otherwise persist.

As China develops its National Park system, it will be faced with the decision of how it will leverage the capacity of its management organizations with the potential of its Universities.By building strong relationships with Universities,management agencies will be investing in the people who will be managing the organization in the future. There will also be inspiring people from multiple fields about potential of doing at least some of their work in a national park.Universities also provide dedicated research to assist in understanding the challenges associated with sustainably managing these precious places.Research, not only helps individual sites, but demonstrates the importance of thinking critically and deeply about the values inherent within protected area systems. Through the publication of research results, the Chinese National Park System will join an international conversation amongst scholars about the importance of protected areas in national parks. Universities are also a resource for high and technical support. University computing systems, experts, and technical infrastructure can be highly beneficial to managers who choose to partner with them. That technical capacity can assist with innovation in monitoring, repository of big data, spatial and temporal data analysis, and distribution of information to a broad national audience. Together, these resources provide a platform for ongoing training and continuing education of your workforce.

Just as the Chinese management Authority is consulting and seeking synergy with National Park systems in other parts of the world, those synergies can extend to working with U.S. Universities. These are two excellent opportunities for demonstrating how it collective agenda of research and management can contribute to our understanding of nature by seeing protected areas as windows to the world.

Notes:

①https://openparksnetwork.org/about/.

②https://wilderness.net/.

③ Fig. 1.?Everykidnapart.gov; Fig. 2,4,6?Wayne A.Freimund; Fig. 3?open parks network, Clemson University;Fig. 5?Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit National Network. www.CESU.psu.edu.