National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis didn't wait long to reach into his Idaho roots.

Jarvis, who served as superintendent of Craters of the Moon National Monument, picked the University of Idaho's Gary Machlis to serve as the first National Park Service science adviser. Machlis, a professor of conservation, has a distinguished career of research and teaching that has already had a major influence on conservation nationwide.

He has published several important books about parks and park activities including the "State of the World's Parks," "On Interpretation: Sociology for Interpreters of Natural and Cultural History" and "National Parks and Rural Development."

But perhaps his biggest contribution has been as teacher and adviser. Since 1981, Machlis has worked with Chinese scientists on the challenges of saving the panda.

He has helped them design their preserves and even taught Zhang Hemin, a graduate of the University of Idaho, who is now director of China's Woolong panda reserve. With China's huge populations and competition for space between humans and wildlife, the lessons of conservation go both ways, Machlis says.

"What happens to the environment impacts society, and what happens in society impacts the environment," Machlis says. "To be useful in solving complex, real-world problems, modern science needs to understand these coupled systems, and provide usable knowledge for citizens and policy makers."

Jarvis is the first scientist in many years - if ever - to head the Park Service, and he has vowed to use science as his guide for decisions. He also has promised to restore the National Park Service's international mission as a beacon and leader in park management issues worldwide.

Machlis brings to Jarvis and the agency the tools and experience to make good on these promises.

Perhaps their biggest challenge will be to lay a new philosophical base for the agency in a time of climate change.

The current philosophy was developed by a commission headed by biologist Starker Leopold during the Kennedy administration. Its goal has been to return the land to what it was like before European society had destroyed so much of the nation's natural world. "A national park should represent a vignette of primitive America," the panel wrote.

Today, however, scientists largely agree we cannot go back. Climate change will forever alter ecosystems across the globe, shifting and destroying the places where animals and plants can live and thrive.

Many of the national park's policies are based on the findings of the Leopold report. The natural fire policy, the elimination of alien species like feral pigs in Hawaii and the reintroduction of predators like wolves all have a basis in that report.

These policies are not inherently wrong in the new world, but along with other conservation measures that may be necessary to preserve the values we cherish, they need a new examination. Perhaps Jarvis can have Machlis help him establish a new Leopold committee to take a fresh look at park policy that helps the agency lead itself and conservation into its next 100 years.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484