226 • Technologies To Maintain Biological Diversity 



h'noto credit: National Park Service 



Great Smoky Mountains National Park, site of 1 of 43 biosphere reserves in ttie United States. 



program, unlike programs in other countries, 

 is strictly voluntary; designation is used mainly 

 to encourage cooperation and increase use for 

 scientific and educational purposes. 



Research Natural Areas and Experimental 

 Ecological Areas are designated by appropri- 

 ate Federal agencies and the National Science 

 Foundation, respectively, to conserve natural 

 ecological communities for research in natu- 

 ral community manipulation. A Federal Com- 

 mittee on Ecological Reserves was established 

 in 1974 to coordinate designation of these sites, 

 in part to ensure that each community type was 

 included in the system (4). The coordinating 

 committee still exists nominally, but it no longer 

 provides an advisory function. Designations of 

 Research Natural Areas are currently deter- 

 mined independently by each Federal agency. 



A variety of management options exist within 

 programs that consider diversity an objective. 

 For example, national forests are directed by 

 law (National Forest Management Act) to be 

 managed in a way that sustains plant and ani- 

 mal diversity. At the individual forest level, su- 

 pervisors have flexibility in determining how 

 and to what extent vertebrate species diversity 

 will be considered in forest operations. 



Similarly, National Wildlife Refuges and Na- 

 tional Parks consider maintaining diversity an 

 objective, although this attitude is not supported 

 by specific mandate. National Wildlife Refuge 

 managers may try to maintain a diversity of spe- 

 cies with the existing habitat or may manipu- 

 late areas to create a diversity of habitats. In 

 some cases, refuges are managed exclusively 

 for a single species. National Parks have to bal- 



