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ENNTKONMtVTAL RESLAKCH AND DEVEU>PMENT 



National Health EfTccu Research Laboratory) forge ncvi' cooperative research 

 aprcemcnts. Both the Health Effects Laboratory and NIEHS are located in 

 Research Triangle Park. North Carolina. » hich should make it easier to build 

 on NIEHS's basic research strengths and EPA's applied research capabilities. 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 



■ The Department of the Interior should develop a long-range plan for its 

 environmental KStD activities and should work to integrate and focus its 

 programs in the context of clearly defined goals. 



The Dcpanmcnt of the Interior is the caretaker of the nation's public 

 lands and waterways. It is a large department in which environmental re- 

 search and development play a relatively small role. Thus, while it carries 

 out environmental research in all five of its divisions, its programs art de- 

 centralized and are not coordinated across the agency. The dcpanmcnt's 

 cnvirotunental R&D programs lack planning and coherence. Its research 

 programs are underfunded and reactive, and little effon is directed to co- 

 ordinating research across programs within the department. A long-range 

 plan for enviroiunenul R&D would help direa department resources to- 

 «-ards well-defined objectives. 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 



■ The National Park Service should establish a strong environmental re- 

 search and monitoring program to build the knowledge base necessary to 

 protect the resources of the National Psri system. 



Over the past 50 v-can the Park Scr\icc has been advised on several 

 i occasions of the value of esublishing a substantive environmental research 

 1 program. In 196}, the NRC noted that "Research by the National Park Ser- 

 vice has lacked continuity, coordirution. and depth . . . has been marked 

 by expediency rather than long-term considerations ... has lacked direction 

 . . . has been fragmented."'* In the years that followed little significant im- 

 provement in research programs resulted, and in 1977 the National Research 

 Cotincil concluded that 



the National Park Srn-icc has reached a time in its histor)'. and in the history 

 of the nation, when science and research should be given a much greater and 

 clearly recognized responsibility in policymaking, planning, and opetatioiu. 



