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and insect infestations. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides from autoihobiles and coal burning electric power generating plants are sent our way from urban and industrialized areas like Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, North Tennessee and Columbus, Austin and Houston.
On their way they become nitrate, sulfate, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and other compounds none too friendly, interact with sunlight and water vapor, and are deposited in the park in rain or fog or snow or even gases and dry particles.
The acidity of these chemicals wreaks havoc and park officials say that Shenandoah receives an acidic deposition load ten times that of pre-industrial levels The geology of the park, lacking in alkaline rocks and soils, prevents much neutralization of the acidic deposits from our western and southern neighbors.
As a result, the park’s landscapes are acidifying, creating environmental inhospitabilities for local flora and fauna. Brook trout, for example, thrive in nearly neutral waters (pH of 7 to 7.5), but these chemical rains have increased acidity in some of their habitats to the point that either their hatch cannot survive (pH of 5) or all individuals die (pH of 4.5 or less). Acid depositions also damage tree foliage and negatively impact upon their tolerance to cold.
Park ecosystem problems are due not only to acid rains from sulfur and nitrogen, but to other air pollutants such as ozone, to exotic pests like the chestnut blight and the gypsy moth, to the 226 exotic and aggressive plant species like kudzu and Japanese honeysuckle that threaten to displace native species, to physical degradation due to extreme recreational demand.
How can this invaluable resource be protected and preserved? Xhe solutions are easily as complex as are the park’s problems. They may include strict enforcement of environmental laws ana regulations, substantive research into the proper means of management of both internal and external threats to the park, providing the park service with the power and capability to respond to external threats like pollution from a powerplant 200 miles distant, and limits on visitors and motor vehicle traffic. Can we do more than hope that effective solutions can be found and implemented?
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