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INTRODUCTION oday, the East Fork of the Virgin River courses through Parunaweap Canyon in Zion National Park just as it has for thou- sands of years. Carving its way through red sandstone walls, the Virgin is both the architect and lifeline of that remote, pristine desert canyon. But if Utah's Washington County Water Conservancy District has its way, those waters will be tamed, and the timeless carving of the canyon stilled, by a dam and reservoir just upstream of the park. The arrested waters will fuel the expanding subdivisions, retirement condominiums and golf courses of St. George, Utah - a desert community that promotes growth, but largely ignores water con- servation. At another desert park, the harsh landscape is relieved by scattered springs and seeps -secret oases that sustain an intricate web of life, from tiny snails to desert bighorns. But Death Valley National Monument faces huge demands on its life-giving waters because of plans to mine the park's ground water aquifer to sustain the booming growth and glit- ter of the city of Las Vegas. Neither hydrologic sci- ence nor legal protections for park waters are presently adequate to deal with this threat. Amazingly, threats like these are increasing, despite the tragically familiar lessons of Everglades National Park. There, a giant plumbing system of canals and water holding areas was constructed to serve expanding urban and agricultural growth. The natural sheet flows, once supplied to Everglades by semi-tropical monsoons, have been "managed" and polluted to the devastation of the Everglades' incredi- bly rich and diverse web of life. The "managers" did not understand, or choose to understand, the ecosys- tem's complex dependency on those natural flows. Belated remedial efforts continue to confront major obstacles, and may never undo the damage. Stories like these -varied but with painful con- sistency -are duplicated at each of the dozen units of the National Park System recently studied by the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA). In park after park, the waters essential to the health of natural systems and to the quality of visitor experience are under siege. Competing demands and activities beyond the boundaries of the parks jeopar- dize park waters, as well as the wildlife and natural processes that depend on those waters. Increasingly, it is the very essence and survival of the parks that are in jeopardy. Looming large in these stories are many difficult obstacles to effective protection of park waters, obsta- cles that reflect the inadequacy of the scientific, legal and institutional tools available to confront the threats. Also damaging is the political interference that seeks to prevent the effective use of even these inadequate tools for the protection of park waters. This Report summarizes the 12 most pressing problems confronting efforts to protect park waters, and outlines the National Parks and Conservation Association's (NPCA) recommendations for remedy- ing those problems. It also includes case studies of 12 National Park System units. These case studies dis- cuss the role and importance of water to park values, highlight significant threats to park waters, and examine the obstacles handicapping protection efforts. The National Park System units studied by NPCA are: ^ Everglades National Park (Florida) ^ Colonial National Historic Park (Virginia) ^ Acadia National Park (Maine) ^ St. Croix and Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (Wisconsin/Minnesota) ^ Chickasaw National Recreation Area (Oklahoma) ^ Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming) ^ Dinosaur National Monument (Colorado/Utah) ^ Zion National Park (Utah) ^ Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Arizona) ^ Death Valley National Monument (California) ^ Olympic National Park (Washington) ^ Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (Alaska)