Are bison exotic in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve?

The effect of past distributions of animal populations now extinct in an area from unknown causes is considered relative to their status as exotic or native in national parks. The example is the bison (Bisonbison) on the Copper and Chitina river drainages in Alaska in the USA which was introduced prior to establishment of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The fossil record suggests that bison were present as recently as 500 years ago in Alaska. The policy of the US National Park Service to maintain natural ecosystems and restrict or eliminate exotic species raises the issue of whether this species should be treated as exotic or native.     

Title 16 united states code §55 and its implications for management of concession facilities in Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is one of the nation's most scenic and ecologically/geologically important parks. Unfortunately, the park is subject to extensive development of concession facilities and associated high levels of visitor use. Those concerned with preservation of the park's resources have attempted to limit the types and extent of such facilities to reduce adverse impacts. Strictly speaking, resolution of the preservation versus use controversy must be based on whether the National Park Service is adhering to its legislative mandate to regulate development and use in the parks. The common interpretation of legislative mandates for national parks, including Yosemite, is that they call for a difficult balancing between the conflicting goals of preservation and use. Accordingly, although concession developments cause significant impacts, they usually have been interpreted to be within the legal discretion allowed the secretary of the interior. However, the usual interpretations of the meanings of legislative mandates for Yosemite National Park have not considered Title 16 United States Code §55, which is a very restrictive statute limiting concession facilities. Many of the limitations imposed on concession facilities by the plain language of the statute have been exceeded. If it can be shown that 16 United States Code §55 is a valid statute, the policy implications for park management in Yosemite National Park would be considerable — namely, that significant reductions in concession facilities could be required. This article examines whether the statute can reasonably be thought to be valid and encourages others to conduct further examination of this question.     

An Assessment of Road Impacts on Wildlife Populations in U.S. National Parks

Current United States National Park Service (NPS) management is challenged to balance visitor use with the environmental and social consequences of automobile use. Wildlife populations in national parks are increasingly vulnerable to road impacts. Other than isolated reports on the incidence of road-related mortality, there is little knowledge of how roads might affect wildlife populations throughout the national park system. Researchers at the Western Transportation Institute synthesized information obtained from a system-wide survey of resource managers to assess the magnitude of their concerns on the impacts of roads on park wildlife. The results characterize current conditions and help identify wildlife-transportation conflicts. A total of 196 national park management units (NPS units) were contacted and 106 responded to our questionnaire. Park resource managers responded that over half of the NPS units’ existing transportation systems were at or above capacity, with traffic volumes currently high or very high in one quarter of them and traffic expected to increase in the majority of units. Data is not generally collected systematically on road-related mortality to wildlife, yet nearly half of the respondents believed road-caused mortality significantly affected wildlife populations. Over one-half believed habitat fragmentation was affecting wildlife populations. Despite these expressed concerns, only 36% of the NPS units used some form of mitigation method to reduce road impacts on wildlife. Nearly half of the respondents expect that these impacts would only worsen in the next five years. Our results underscore the importance for a more systematic approach to address wildlife-roadway conflicts for a situation that is expected to increase in the next five to ten years.     

Estimating the Economic Value of National Parks with Count Data Models Using On-Site,Secondary Data: The Case of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

We estimate an individual travel cost model for Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GSD) in Colorado using on-site, secondary data. The purpose of the on-site survey was to help the National Park Service better understand the visitors of GSD; it was not intended for a travel cost model. Variables such as travel cost and income were estimated based on respondents’ Zip Codes. Following approaches found in the literature, a negative binomial model corrected for truncation and endogenous stratification fit the data the best. We estimate a recreational benefit of U.S. $89/visitor/year or U.S. $54/visitor/24-h recreational day (in 2002 U.S. $). Based on the approach presented here, there are other data sets for national parks, preserves, and battlefields where travel cost models could be estimated and used to support National Park Service management decisions.     

External threats: the dilemma of resource management on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National park,USA

The United States Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in 1919 to preserve for posterity the outstanding natural attributes of the canyon cut by the Colorado River. In some cases National Park Service attempts to maintain Grand Canyon's natural environment have been thwarted by activities outside the park. One of the most obvious external threats is Glen Canyon Dam, only 26 km upstream from the park boundary. Constructed in 1963, this gigantic dam has greatly altered the physicochemical and biological characteristics of 446 km of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. The river's aquatic ecosystem has been greatly modified through the loss of indigenous species and the addition of numerous exotics. We consider this anexotic ecosystem. The riparian ecosystem has been less modified, with addition of a few exotics and no loss of natives—this we consider anaturalized ecosystem.The great dilemma now faced by park managers is that, after 20 years of managing resources along a river controlled by Glen Canyon Dam, the Bureau of Reclamation has proposed major changes in operational procedures for the dam. Scientists and managers from the National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and cooperating federal and state resource management agencies are using a systems analysis approach to examine the impacts of various Colorado River flow regimes on aquatic, riparian, and recreational parameters in the park. This approach will help in the development of management alternatives designed to permit the most efficient use of that river's natural resources without their destruction.     

An Interpretive Study of Yosemite National Park Visitors’ Perspectives Toward Alternative Transportation in Yosemite Valley

The National Park Service (NPS) is increasingly focusing on alternative transportation systems in national parks to address environmental and social problems arising from a historical reliance on personal automobiles as the primary means of visitor access. Despite the potential advantages, alternative transportation may require a reorientation in the way that Americans have experienced national parks since the advent of auto-tourism in the early twentieth century. Little research exists, however, on visitor perspectives towards alternative transportation or the rationale underlying their perspectives. It remains unclear how transportation systems affect visitors’ experiences of the park landscape or the factors influencing their travel behavior in the parks. This report presents an interpretive study of visitor perspectives toward transportation management in the Yosemite Valley area of Yosemite National Park, California. Qualitative analysis of 160 semi-structured interviews identified individual psychological factors as well as situational influences that affect visitors’ behavior and perspectives. Individual psychological factors include perceived freedom, environmental values and beliefs, prior experience with Yosemite National Park and other national parks, prior experience with alternative transportation in national parks, and sensitivity to subjective perceptions of crowding. Situational factors included convenience, access, and flexibility of travel modes, as well as type of visit, type of group, and park use level. Interpretive communication designed to encourage voluntary visitor use of alternative transportation should focus on these psychological and situational factors. Although challenges remain, the results of this study suggest approaches for shaping the way Americans visit and experience their national parks to encourage environmental sustainability.     

Chronology of Awareness About US National Park External Threats

The objective of this paper is to raise understanding of the history of protected area external threat awareness in the United States and at World Protected Area Congresses. The earliest concerns about external threats to US national parks began in the late nineteenth century: a potential railroad transgression of Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s. During the early and mid 1930s, George Wright and colleagues focused on outside boundary concerns like of hunting and trapping of furbearers, grazing, logging, disease and hybridization between species. In the 1960s, a worldwide recognition began about the role of outside habitat fragmentation/isolation on nature reserves and human generated stressors crossing their boundaries. The State of the Park Report 1980 added a plethora of threats: oil/gas and geothermal exploration and development, hydropower and reclamation projects, urban encroachment, roads, resorts, and recreational facilities. The early 1980s ushered in political interference with NPS threats abatement efforts as well as Congressional legislative initiatives to support the abatement challenges of the agency. By 1987, the Government Accounting Office issued its first report on National Park Service (NPS) progress in dealing with external threats. Climate change impacts on parks, especially in terms of animals adjusting their temperature and moisture requirements by latitude and altitude, surfaced in the technical literature by the mid-1980s. By 1992, the world parks community stressed the need to integrate protected areas into the surrounding landscape and human community. The importance of the matrix has gradually gained appreciation in the scientific community. This chronology represents one example of national park and protected areas’ institutional history contributing to the breath of modern conservation science.     

Cooperation or conflict? Interagency relationships and the future of biodiversity for US parks and forests

Cooperation between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and the United States Department of Interior (USDI) National Park Service is most often advocated to protect biological diversity on national forests and parks, but the agencies, so far, have done little to implement the biodiversity mandates of such laws as the Endangered Species Act and the National Forest Management Act. The ideological and political history of the Forest Service and Park Service is explored to determine the roots of interagency conflicts. Several recent models of cooperative reform are also critiqued and found to be insufficient to stimulate better working relationships. To protect biodiversity, cooperation must be framed within conservation biology and must place primary emphasis on ecosystem patterns and processes as well as on individual species. Increased education of agency managers, ecosystem-level research, local and regional public participation, scientific oversight committees, new legislation, and enlightened leadership also play important roles. Ultimately, management policies must be reframed within a context of ecocentric values.     

External threats to ecosystems of US national parks

Activities beyond national park boundaries are now the principal source of threats to park natural resource integrity. Assessing the full impact of major threats as air and water pollution requires a long-term ecosystem-level approach in research design and execution, and park management. Failure to take such an approach renders most existing park data bases useless in the documentation of external threats. While the concept of managing national parks as ecosystems is not new, Park Service research and its organization have not provided the information necessary for such a basis of management. Quantifying the impacts on park resources due to external hydrologic regulation and air pollution is a good example of the need to employ an ecosystem approach in research. However, implementing such a program will require a fundamental change in research administration, priority setting, and conceptual approach.The first four of the articles in this special section arise from an AAAS symposium onExternal Threats to Ecosystems of the National Parks in the USA, which was convened in 1982. The articles have been revised to reflect subsequent developments in this field. The first article, by Dr. Stottlemyer, the symposium organizer, serves as an introduction to the topic. The fifth article in this special section was submitted separately, but included because it also is related to this particular topic.     

US National Park Buffer Zones: Historical, Scientific, Social, and Legal Aspects

/ This review will trace the evolution of beyond boundary/buffer zone thinking and policy responses in the US National Park Service (NPS); address buffer zone science, benefits, and limitations; examine pertinent legal and social concerns; highlight some agency attempts to create buffer zone-like areas; and propose highlights of a protected area strategy, with buffer zones and corridors as one component. Some findings follow. The need to expand national parks to accommodate large ungulate movement began in the late 1800s, but the recognition that such land was also needed to thwart human impacts such as poaching surfaced in the 1930s. External park buffer zone recommendations by 1930s park scientists were not implemented, and other related adopted policy forgotten, supporting the belief that great insight can be discovered in forgotten institutional history. Buffer zones can remedy some impacts but not others, but their benefits are multiple and underappreciated. The science of buffer zones is very immature and deserves more attention. A present primary obstacle to creating park buffer zones and connecting corridors is a social climate opposing federal initiatives that may intrude on the rights of private landowners. Some proactive NPS bufferlike activity examples are reviewed, but there were none where permanent, complete, effective nonlegislated park buffer zones, derived from nonfederal property, circumscribed large natural area parks. The need for buffer zones and corridors may be a symptom of inadequate regional planning. Options to create buffer zones from private and federal land are outlined. A comprehensive, overall protected area strategy must include more than just buffer zones, with highlights provided. Because optimal regional planning for US national parks is now thwarted by land-use politics, American society must soon decide what is most crucial to future well-being. KEY WORDS: Buffer zone; Reserve; Boundary; Policy; Planning     

Planning for environmental justice in an urban national park

Urban national parks were designed in the 1970s to bring nature and recreational opportunities to socio-economically disadvantaged communities in the USA. Using the theoretical frame of environmental justice, this paper discusses findings of a recent survey of visitors to Los Angeles' Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area – the United States' largest urban national park. Findings show park visitors were predominantly white, affluent, and lived nearby. People of colour travelled further, were significantly less likely to be return visitors, and were less inclined to use the park for active recreation. Seemingly, this park fails to meet the needs of the disadvantaged urban communities for whom it was created, a problem that may also affect other parks in the United States and potentially parks in other countries. Park planners and managers can take practical steps to increase accessibility to this park for people of colour and low-income earners, and should monitor other parks for patterns of ethno-racially differentiated access and utilisation.     

Understanding and Managing Experiential Aspects of Soundscapes at Muir Woods National Monument

Research has found that human-caused noise can detract from the quality of the visitor experience in national parks and related areas. Moreover, impacts to the visitor experience can be managed by formulating indicators and standards of quality as suggested in park and outdoor recreation management frameworks, such as Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP), as developed by the U.S. National Park Service. The research reported in this article supports the formulation of indicators and standards of quality for human-caused noise at Muir Woods National Monument, California. Phase I identified potential indicators of quality for the soundscape of Muir Woods. A visitor “listening exercise” was conducted, where respondents identified natural and human-caused sounds heard in the park and rated the degree to which each sound was “pleasing” or “annoying.” Certain visitor-caused sounds such as groups talking were heard by most respondents and were rated as annoying, suggesting that these sounds may be a good indicator of quality. Loud groups were heard by few people but were rated as highly annoying, whereas wind and water were heard by most visitors and were rated as highly pleasing. Phase II measured standards of quality for visitor-caused noise. Visitors were presented with a series of 30-second audio clips representing increasing amounts of visitor-caused sound in the park. Respondents were asked to rate the acceptability of each audio clip on a survey. Findings suggest a threshold at which visitor-caused sound is judged to be unacceptable, and is therefore considered as noise. A parallel program of sound monitoring in the park found that current levels of visitor-caused sound sometimes violate this threshold. Study findings provide an empirical basis to help formulate noise-related indicators and standards of quality in parks and related areas.     

Agricultural area impacts within a natural area: Cades cove,a case history

Agricultural management in Cades Cove, an historic district in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has affected natural resources both within the district and in the adjoining natural areas. Aquatic impacts of haying and cattle grazing included increases in water temperatures, turbidity, nutrient loading, and bacterial counts and decreases in benthic macroinvertebrate density and fish biomass. Wildlife populations, including groundhogs, wild turkeys, and white-tailed deer, have increased in the open fields and around the periphery of the historic district. Intensive deer foraging has removed deciduous seedlings and saplings from woodlots, lowering species diversity and favoring coniferous reproduction. Cades Cove has limestone habitats unique in the park, and both deer browse and cattle grazing may have disturbed populations of rare plant species. Effects on water quality are detectable at a campground 15 stream km from the agricultural area, and the effects of deer foraging extend about 1 km beyond the open fields.Since historic landscape preservation is presently a goal of the park, managing for open vistas in Cades Cove will require some sort of continuing disturbance. Conversion of cattle pastures to hayfields would reduce aquatic impacts but the deer herd might increase as a result of reduced competition for forage. Retarding old field succession would increase populations of native plant species dependent on sunlight, but would require government-funded mowing. Other options are discussed. Completely eliminating the effects of the historic district on adjoining areas may be impossible, at least under present economic constraints.     

Introduced Species and Management of a <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nothofagus/Austrocedrus</Emphasis> Forest

Isla Victoria (Nahuel Huapi National Park, Argentina), a large island dominated by native Nothofagus and Austrocedrus forest, has old plantations of many introduced tree species, some of which are famed invaders of native ecosystems elsewhere. There are also large populations of introduced deer and shrubs that may interact in a complex way with the introduced trees, as well as a recently arrived population of wild boar. Long-standing concern that the introduced trees will invade and transform native forest may be unwarranted, as there is little evidence of progressive invasion, even close to the plantations, despite over 50 years of opportunity. Introduced and native shrubs allow scattered introduced trees to achieve substantial size in abandoned pastures, but in almost all areas neither the trees nor the shrubs appear to be spreading beyond these sites. These shrub communities may be stable rather than successional, but the technology for restoring them to native forest is uncertain and probably currently impractical. Any attempt to remove the exotic tree seedlings and saplings from native forest would probably create the very conditions that would favor colonization by exotic plants rather than native trees, while simply clear-cutting the plantations would be unlikely to lead to regeneration of Nothofagus or Austrocedrus. The key to maintaining native forest is preventing catastrophic fire, as several introduced trees and shrubs would be favored over native dominant trees in recolonization. Deer undoubtedly interact with both native and introduced trees and shrubs, but their net effect on native forest is not yet clear, and specific management of deer beyond the current hunting by staff is unwarranted, at least if preventing tree invasion is the goal. The steep terrain and shallow soil make the recently arrived boar a grave threat to the native forest. Eradication is probably feasible and should be attempted quickly.     

Perceived landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development in the Peak District National Park,England

This study explored the public perceptions of mobile telecommunications development – new landscape elements installed to deliver new technology – in a protected area. It examined: (1) the perceived landscape impacts of such development; (2) the importance attached to the socio-economic value of mobile telecommunications; and (3) the factors underlying the perceived landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development. A postal questionnaire survey was conducted in the Peak District National Park, England with 420 respondents drawn from National Park residents and visitors, urban dwellers and members of environmental organisations. The study suggests that: (1) there was a prevailing antipathy towards the landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development in the National Park; (2) apart from emergency uses, the other socio-economic benefits of mobile telecommunications technology were thought to be relatively unimportant in the National Park; and (3) rather than socio-demographic characteristics, it was respondents' understandings of protected areas' needs for the technology and potential health risks that had significant effects on the perceived landscape impacts. Overall, this study suggests that the significance of National Park landscapes is respected by the public, even when setalongside the convenience of modern technology, which has substantial implications for landscape planning and management in protected areas.     

A WATERSHED APPROACH TO ECOSYSTEM MONITORING IN DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE,ALASKA1

ABSTRACT: The National Park Service and the National Biological Service initiated research in Denali National Park and Preserve, a 2.4 million-hectare park in southcentral Alaska, to develop ecological monitoring protocols for national parks in the Arctic/Subarctic biogeographic area. We are focusing pilot studies on design questions, on scaling issues and regionalization, ecosystem structure and function, indicator selection and evaluation, and monitoring technologies. Rock Creek, a headwater stream near Denali headquarters, is the ecological scale for initial testing of a watershed ecosystem approach. Our conceptual model embraces principles of the hydrological cycle, hypotheses of global climate change, and biological interactions of organisms occupying intermediate, but poorly studied, positions in Alaskan food webs. The field approach includes hydrological and depositional considerations and a suite of integrated measures linking key aquatic and terrestrial biota, environmental variables, or defined ecological processes, in order to establish ecological conditions and detect, track, and understand mechanisms of environmental change. Our sampling activities include corresponding measures of physical, chemical, and biological attributes in four Rock Creek habitats believed characteristic of the greater system diversity of Denali. This paper gives examples of data sets, program integration and scaling, and research needs.     

Confronting the challenge of greenline parks: Limits of the traditional administrative approach

The National Park Service, like other natural resource management agencies, has adopted the traditional model of public administration, which emphasizes efficiency, effectiveness, economy, and dichotomy between politics and administration. This approach is particularly ineffective in greenline parks and increasingly inappropriate in traditional areas. In an era of ecological interdependence, relationships with other agencies and jurisdictions and with adjacent as well as noncontiguous landowners are as important as controlling visitors. Recreation managers need to develop more skill in negotiation, cooperation, coordination, and interpersonal communication if they are to preserve and protect park resources.     

Perceptions and Behaviors of Indigenous Populations Regarding Illegal Use of Protected Area Resources in East Africa’s Mountain Gorilla Landscape

Illegal activities and use of park resources are the main challenges facing mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) conservation and the protection of their habitats in the East Africa’s Greater Virunga Transboundary Landscape (GVTL). Indigenous residents around GVTL are considered the primary illegal users of park resources. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the current and past perceptions of indigenous residents living in communities adjacent to two GVTL parks; Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. Equally, there is also limited understanding regarding the actual incidences of illegal activities inside both parks. This paper addresses these gaps. Perception data were collected from indigenous residents living adjacent to both parks. Further, Ranger-based Monitoring (RbM) data from both parks were analyzed to determine actual numbers and types of illegal activities over the 9-year period. Interestingly, findings indicated that residents perceived the prevalence of illegal activities to be decreasing across GVTL. To the contrary, RbM findings indicated that the number of actual illegal activities was increasing significantly, particularly in Volcanoes National Park. The discrepancy found between the two perspectives provides for a discussion of the social biases potentially present in these data, and their implications for management. Results also illuminated the subsistence-related nature of most illegal behaviors and suggest that to reduce illegal activities and local dependency on park resources, park management must work with communities and support them in tapping into alternative livelihoods and finding ways to address community household subsistence needs.     

Proactive monitoring and adaptive management of social carrying capacity in Arches National Park: an application of computer simulation modeling

Public visits to parks and protected areas continue to increase and may threaten the integrity of natural and cultural resources and the quality of the visitor experience. Scientists and managers have adopted the concept of carrying capacity to address the impacts of visitor use. In the context of outdoor recreation, the social component of carrying capacity refers to the level of visitor use that can be accommodated in parks and protected areas without diminishing the quality of the visitor experience to an unacceptable degree. This study expands and illustrates the use of computer simulation modeling as a tool for proactive monitoring and adaptive management of social carrying capacity at Arches National Park. A travel simulation model of daily visitor use throughout the Park's road and trail network and at selected attraction sites was developed, and simulations were conducted to estimate a daily social carrying capacity for Delicate Arch, an attraction site in Arches National Park, and for the Park as a whole. Further, a series of simulations were conducted to estimate the effect of a mandatory shuttle bus system on daily social carrying capacity of Delicate Arch to illustrate how computer simulation modeling can be used as a tool to facilitate adaptive management of social carrying capacity.