National Park Service Research Articles

Mapping the Chicago Portage: Seventeenth-Century Explorations by Jolliet, Marquette, La Salle, and Joutel

On their return to Canada in 1673, Louis Jolliet’s group became the first Europeans documented to have passed from the Mississippi River watershed to the Great Lakes watershed via the Chicago Portage. This carrying place, between the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers, would remain a politically and commercially important location during the fur trade era. A podcast by a group of Chicago historians, writers, and artists has promoted the assertion that a route south of Chicago, different from that recognized as one of only two National Historic Sites in Illinois, was actually the Chicago Portage Region used by such explorers as Louis Jolliet, Father Jacques Marquette, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and Henri Joutel. However, the accounts of the seventeenth-century French travelers confirm the 1928 work that established the location of the portage region and served as the foundation for its designation by the National Park Service in 1952.

Trouble in the Forest: Whitebark Pine Trees, Mountain Pine Beetles, and Climate Change

Have you ever hiked up a mountain and felt a frosty wind blowing across your face? You might need to button up your jacket to visit this place, but here, whitebark pine trees are right at home. Whitebark pines thrive in the highest forests of western North America. In these environments, whitebark pines help other, less-hardy species to establish, grow, and survive. For this pine, chilly mountaintops provide a refuge from insects, disease, and competition with other trees. Yet as our climate changes, whitebark pines no longer have the cold on their side. They are dying at alarming rates, and one of the biggest killers is a tiny bark beetle. How is climate change helping this little insect munch through huge swaths of forest? National Park Service scientists use long-term monitoring studies to unravel this complicated relationship. This information guides resource managers entrusted with protecting whitebark pines.

Tadaima 2021: A Community Virtual Pilgrimage, Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages (JAMP) in partnership with the National Park Service

<i>Tadaima 2021: A Community Virtual Pilgrimage</i>, Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages (JAMP) in partnership with the National Park Service

Mobile Device Data for Parks and Public Lands Transportation Planning: A Framework for Evaluation and Applications

Examination of mobile device data in transportation research and planning practices has occurred in a variety of contexts. However, little investigation of its potential to enhance transportation planning processes in parks and public lands has happened to date. The National Park Service partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center and Colorado Department of Transportation to investigate how mobile device data can enhance regional and park-level transportation planning efforts by better answering questions about transportation system usage patterns. Using the StreetLight Insight data platform, we evaluated desired use cases and communication strategies for scoping, evaluating, procuring, and applying mobile device data to park- and system-level planning challenges. The analyses of a Colorado statewide visitor data sample were found to be promising data sources for planning tasks including understanding the relationships between gateway communities and parks, internal traffic/visitor flows, dwell times at internal park destinations, and speeds on park- and park-adjacent roadways.

Rabies as a Potential Cause of Mass Mortality Events in North American Bat Species.

Rabies-association bat mortality events are rarely reported, suggesting that rabies is not a significant cause of bat mass mortality. Three bat die-offs in National Park Service units were attributed to rabies, highlighting the value of including rabies, and rabies virus strain spillover events, as a differential in mass mortality events.

“This Place Belongs to Us”: Historic Contexts as a Mechanism for Multivocality in the National Register

Since the creation of the National Register of Historic Places, determining eligibility for listing on it has become the fundamental process driving archaeology in the United States. This process affects how archaeological sites are identified, recorded, evaluated, and ultimately how they are protected. Yet less than 6% of properties on the National Register are archaeological sites. Although scholars often lament the rigidity of the National Register and its eligibility criteria, notable revisions in National Park Service guidance pave the way for important changes. One of the National Register's most pervasive and fundamental concepts—the historic context—remains deeply undertheorized when compared to more familiar terms like “significance” and “integrity.” In this article, we argue that archaeologists are well positioned to reinvigorate the National Register by using historic contexts as a mechanism for recognizing layered relationships to places. Using an example from the multivocal nomination of the Inscription Rock Archaeological District as a case study, we argue that the oft-neglected concept of the historic context can be used to commemorate multivocality, moving from one national history to the production of multivocal national histories.

The potential for sustainable harvest of Common Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana L.) fruits at Pea Ridge National Military Park

Background: The large, sweet fruits of the Common Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana L.) have a long history as a wild-harvested food in the eastern United States, by both Indigenous people and European settlers. However, little is known about the sustainability of persimmon fruit harvest. Persimmon fruits are a culturally important food for the Osage Nation. Pea Ridge National Military Park (hereafter PERI) is within the Osage ancestral territory Methods: We examine the sustainability of persimmon fruit harvest through field surveys of fruit production and the application of the United Plant Savers “At-Risk Assessment Tool”, which assesses the risk of overharvesting wild plants. Our field work to determine persimmon fruit yield was conducted at PERI in response to a National Park Service’s (NPS) 2016 rule which provides a pathway for Native American tribes, the Osage Nation in our case, to collect culturally important plants from NPS land if harvest is sustainable. Results: Combining our field surveys of fruit production with NPS data on persimmon tree density and potential persimmon habitat at PERI, we estimate annual fruit production of about 143,000 persimmon fruits, or about 1,990 kg (4100 lbs.) at PERI. Persimmon fruit harvest has a low risk of overharvest, with an At-Risk score of 19 on a scale with a max score of 96 (highest risk). Conclusions: An annual harvest of 9-15 kgs (~20-30 lbs.) of persimmon fruit by the Osage at PERI (&lt; 1% of total estimated yield), would be sustainable and help promote traditional Osage practices of collecting, preserving, and eating persimmons. Keywords: persimmon, sustainable harvest, At-Risk assessment, Pea Ridge, ethnobotany

The Recovery of the American Peregrine Falcon in Alaska

American Peregrine Falcons nesting along Alaska’s upper Yukon River have been studied for nearly 50 years. Peregrine populations decreased in the 1960’s because widespread use of the insecticide DDT caused their eggshells to thin. Thin eggshells meant that eggs crushed easily in the nest, which reduced the number of baby birds produced. Eventually, Peregrine Falcons were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in the United States (U.S.). After the U.S. banned the use of DDT, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and others helped Peregrine Falcons recover. Today, upper Yukon River Peregrine Falcons have rebounded and are thriving. The Peregrine Falcon’s recovery in the U.S. is a shining success story of the Endangered Species Act, although climate change and other pollutants create continuing challenges for the species.

Intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence on an omnivore’s gut microbiome

Gut microbiomes (GMBs), complex communities of microorganisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tracts of their hosts, perform countless micro-ecosystem services such as facilitating energy uptake and modulating immune responses. While scientists increasingly recognize the role GMBs play in host health, the role of GMBs in wildlife ecology and conservation has yet to be realized fully. Here, we use brown bears (Ursus arctos) as an ecological model to (1) characterize GMB community composition associated with location, season, and reproductive condition of a large omnivore; (2) investigate how both extrinsic and intrinsic factors influence GMB community membership and structure; and (3) quantify differences in GMB communities among different locations, seasons, sex, and reproductive conditions. To achieve these aims, we subsampled brown bear fecal samples collected during United States National Park Service research activities at three National Parks and Preserves (Katmai, Lake Clark, and Gates of the Arctic) and extracted microbial DNA for 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and microbial taxonomic classification. We analyzed GMB communities using alpha and beta diversity indices, subsequently using linear mixed models to examine relationships between alpha diversity and extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Katmai brown bears hosted the greatest alpha diversity, whereas Gates brown bears hosted the least alpha diversity. Our results indicate that location and diet drive GMB variation, with bears hosting less phylogenetic diversity as park distance inland increases. Monitoring brown bear GMBs could enable managers to quickly detect and assess the impact of environmental perturbations on brown bear health. By integrating macro and micro-ecological perspectives we aim to inform local and landscape-level management decisions to promote long-term brown bear conservation and management.

Parks as performance: wilderness and colonial ecological violence in ‘The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks'

ABSTRACT In 2016, Google launched ‘The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks’, an interactive digital platform, hosted through Google Arts & Culture and produced in collaboration with the National Park Service, that offers virtual explorations of some of the most remote parts of several United States National Parks. In this article I argue that Hidden Worlds is more than an innocuous, interactive tour of fascinating geological and biological features. It is a performance ingrained with ideologies that have severe consequences for how we understand social and ecological injustice on the land that is now part of the national parks system. I use an ecocritical approach to examine the immersive experience of Hidden Worlds as performance and ultimately demonstrate that it enacts colonial ecological violence.

Search and Rescue in the Pacific West States.

The training practices and the level of medical oversight of search and rescue (SAR) organizations in the US National Park Service (NPS) Pacific west region is not known. A database of SAR teams in the NPS Pacific west region was assembled using public sources. SAR team leaders received an electronic survey between May and December 2019. A descriptive analysis characterizing team size, technical and medical training protocols, and medical oversight was completed. Results are reported as median (interquartile range, range). Of the 250 SAR teams contacted, 39% (n=97) completed our survey. Annual mission volume was 25 (10-50, 1-200). Team size was 30 members (22-58, 1-405). SAR teams most frequently trained in helicopter operations (77%), low-angle rope rescue (75%), and avalanche rescue (43%). Nearly all teams (99%) had members with some medical training: first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (89%), emergency medical technicians (75%), registered nurses or midlevel providers (52%), and physicians (40%). SAR members administered field medical care (84%), often in coordination with EMS (77%). Medical direction was present on a minority of teams (45%), most frequently by a provider specialized in emergency medicine (68%). Expanded medical procedures were permitted on 21% of SAR teams. SAR teams across the NPS Pacific west region had composition and training standards similar to those surveyed previously in the US intermountain states. Healthcare professionals were present on most teams, typically as team members, not as medical directors. Few SAR teams use medical protocols in remote care environments.

Looking ahead, guided by the past: The role of U.S. national parks in amphibian research and conservation

Protected areas like national parks are essential elements of conservation because they limit human influence on the landscape, which protects biodiversity and ecosystem function. The role of national parks in conservation, however, often goes far beyond limiting human influence. The U.S. National Park Service and its system of land units contribute substantively to conservation by providing protected lands where researchers can document trends in species distributions and abundances, examine characteristics important for generating these trends, and identify and implement conservation strategies to preserve biodiversity. We reviewed the contribution of U.S. national parks to amphibian research and conservation and highlight important challenges and findings in several key areas. First, U.S. national parks were instrumental in providing strong support that amphibian declines were real and unlikely to be simply a consequence of habitat loss. Second, research in U.S. national parks provided evidence against certain hypothesized causes of decline, like UV-B radiation, and evidence for others, such as introduced species and disease. However, describing declines and identifying causes contributes to conservation only if it leads to management; importantly, U.S. national parks have implemented many conservation strategies and evaluated their effectiveness in recovering robust amphibian populations. Among these, removal of invasive species, especially fishes; conservation translocations; and habitat creation and enhancement stand out as examples of successful conservation strategies with broad applicability. Successful management for amphibians is additionally complicated by competing mandates and stakeholder interests; for example, past emphasis on increasing visitor enjoyment by introducing fish to formerly fishless lakes had devastating consequences for many amphibians. Other potential conflicts with amphibian conservation include increasing development, increased risk of introductions of disease and exotic species with increased visitation, and road mortality. Decision science and leveraging partnerships have proven to be key components of effective conservation under conflicting mandates in national parks. As resource managers grapple with large-scale drivers that are outside local control, public-private partnerships and adaptive strategies are increasing in importance. U.S. national parks have played an important role in many aspects of identifying and ameliorating the amphibian decline crisis and will continue to be essential for the conservation of amphibians in the future.

A Potential Framework for Allocating National Park Service Budgets

The US Department of Interior, including the National Park Service (NPS), has interest in developing a national fire budgeting process that reflects and promotes program (fuels and preparedness) efficiencies while being transparent, fair, stable, and predictable. A systematic approach should have the potential to operate at all scales (national, regional, and park). To accomplish these objectives, the research introduced a Budgeting Analysis that can be integrated into the STARFire (Strategic budgeting and planning system for wildland fire). The approach used is known as the “gradient method” reflecting the concept that budgets are allocated based on proportionate performance. Using the gradient method, budget increments were allocated to fuels and preparedness programs to improve return on investment (ROI). Three-dimensional performance surfaces were generated for each of the parks in the NPS’s Alaska Fire Management Zone and a gradient was fit to each surface. The individual park gradients were then used to allocate the zone budget increments to the parks and in turn, to the park’s fuels and preparedness programs. These allocations were then summed up to illustrate regional and park level allocations and allocations by program. The results show how a full range of budget increments can be allocated from the zone to each individual park and to each park’s program. The process and the allocations are repeatable and defensible while meeting the NPS budgeting criteria. They also address the concerns expressed by the US Government Accountability Office and reflect the objectives of the Cohesive Strategy. In the current study, we demonstrate a pragmatic example of implementing this method.

Conservation under uncertainty: Innovations in participatory climate change scenario planning from U.S. national parks

AbstractThe impacts of climate change (CC) on natural and cultural resources are far‐reaching and complex. A major challenge facing resource managers is not knowing the exact timing and nature of those impacts. To confront this problem, scientists, adaptation specialists, and resource managers have begun to use scenario planning (SP). This structured process identifies a small set of scenarios—descriptions of potential future conditions that encompass the range of critical uncertainties—and uses them to inform planning. We reflect on a series of five recent participatory CC SP projects at four US National Park Service units and derive guidelines for using CC SP to support natural and cultural resource conservation. Specifically, we describe how these engagements affected management, present a generalized CC SP approach grounded in management priorities, and share key insights and innovations that (1) fostered participant confidence and deep engagement in the participatory CC SP process, (2) shared technical information in a way that encouraged informed, effective participation, (3) contextualized CC SP in the broader picture of relevant longstanding or emerging nonclimate stressors, (4) incorporated quantitative approaches to expand analytical capacity and assess qualitative findings, and (5) translated scenarios and all their complexity into strategic action.

Talking with a Volcano: Native American Perspectives on the Eruption of Sunset Crater, Arizona

A new volcano erupted in the eleventh century AD in the San Francisco volcanic field, which has as many as 80 old volcanoes and 600 eruption cones all centered around Flagstaff, Arizona. This volcanic landscape has been a cultural center for Native American spiritual activities for up to 23,000 years. During that time, they have come to perceive volcanoes as earth navels and thus places where the earth is reborn. For this reason, the emergence of an active volcano, called Sunset Crater, drew pilgrims and resulted in the construction of ceremonial and support communities surrounding a place called Wupatki. This paper is partially based on a 2004 study funded by the U.S. National Park Service, which produced 80 ethnographic interviews with representatives of six Native American ethnic groups composed of 12 tribes and pueblos. The analysis is informed by a total of 23 ethnographic studies of volcanoes conducted with Native Americans by the authors. In all studies, Native American participants conveyed that they have cultural connections with volcanoes that derive from their Creation-based knowledge of the Earth as being alive and volcanoes being its rebirth. Traditional cultural information is critical to park management and compliance with various laws, regulations, executive orders, and policies so that park managers can better address tribal requests for continued access, use, and interpretation of park natural resources. Native Americans involved in our NPS ethnographic studies agreed that it is not necessary for the NPS to accept as true what Native Americans believe, but it is essential to tell in park interpretative settings both stories side by side with equal accuracy.

Looking More Carefully: A Successful Bioblitz Orientation Activity at an Urban Public University

A college freshman orientation activity incorporating citizen science was designed and implemented by a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Boston and the National Park Service. The goals of this study were to create an engaging citizen science experience for first-year college students who did not have prior background in the field, and to iterate and improve the activity (three consecutive summers, 2017–2019) so as to generate insights that may improve future citizen science projects. Over three years, students (468 total) largely unfamiliar with citizen science (92.6%) or iNaturalist (97.9% first-time users) employed the iNaturalist app to document the biodiversity of Thompson Island in Boston Harbor. Student outcomes were assessed using pre- and post-surveys, and survey data indicated that the bioblitz effectively engaged these students: More than 60% of students found the activity very or extremely engaging, and less than 1% found it not engaging. More than 70% of the students indicated they were somewhat, very, or extremely interested in learning about or participating in citizen science, and in returning to the Boston Harbor Islands, in the future. A similar percent also believed their data were somewhat, very, or extremely important to the islands and to the National Park Service. The students’ self-reported level of engagement and interest shows how a fruitful campus-community collaboration can excite students from across majors in a citizen science project. The three iterations of this activity allowed us to make changes over time and gain insights that may be helpful to the design of future citizen science projects.

Evaluating Potential Impacts of Proposed Industrial Access Road Routes on Wilderness Character in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Northern Alaska is home to the largest designated wilderness landscape in the United States and among the world’s largest remaining roadless regions. Under the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a semi-public corporation of the state of Alaska, proposed an industrial road to access the Ambler Mining District that would run approximately 320 km along the southern edge of the western Brooks Range, crossing federal, state, and Native Corporation lands. Two alternative routes are being considered that cross the Kobuk Preserve portion of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, with the northern route running outside of but adjacent to Gates of the Arctic Wilderness. Both Kobuk Preserve and Gates of the Arctic Wilderness are managed by the National Park Service to preserve wilderness character under existing federal law and agency policy. This study evaluates the potential impacts of both routes on wilderness character in the Kobuk Preserve and adjacent Gates of the Arctic Wilderness. We use a hierarchical conceptual framework to identify spatially explicit measures that show the potential impacts of the road on wilderness character. The impacts from each measure are combined using a weighting scheme to generate a series of maps that quantify the potential impacts of these two proposed routes. Our results show that both routes would degrade wilderness character within the Kobuk Preserve, and that the northern route, which is the state’s preferred alternative for the road corridor, would have a significantly greater impact in terms of degrading wilderness character in the adjacent Gates of the Arctic Wilderness.

US national park visitor experiences during COVID-19: Data from Acadia, Glacier, Grand Teton, Shenandoah, and Yellowstone National Parks

The COVID-19 pandemic has uniquely impacted US National Park Service (NPS) units. This study seeks to help inform future visitor use management and planning by compiling data from five NPS units (Acadia, Glacier, Grand Teton, Shenandoah, and Yellowstone National Parks), focusing on how the pandemic influenced management and impacted visitor use. Data were collected from both park managers and visitors. Results provide understanding regarding managerial changes, user-capacity limits, and documented changes in visitation in 2020 compared to 2019. These results are coupled with park visitor data from 2020, including visitor demographics, motivations and perceived outcomes, information sources for visiting during the pandemic, potential behavioral shifts in response to COVID-19 while on-site, and intent to visit in the future. The results suggest that the distinct shifts in visitation patterns during 2020 impacted park managers’ ability to predict and efficiently respond to visitor use changes. This issue was exacerbated by staffing shortages attributed to the pandemic. Lessons learned regarding what worked well (e.g., respondents were able to achieve health-related outcomes), and what could be improved (e.g., knowing that visitors adapted behaviors to maintain personal safety, and future staffing allocations can be focused temporally and spatially based on these 2020 use trends) can be incorporated to help prepare park managers, surrounding gateway communities, and state tourism authorities for the future.

Multi-year, spatially extensive, watershed-scale synoptic stream chemistry and water quality conditions for six permafrost-underlain Arctic watersheds

Abstract. Repeated sampling of spatially distributed river chemistry can be used to assess the location, scale, and persistence of carbon and nutrient contributions to watershed exports. Here, we provide a comprehensive set of water chemistry measurements and ecohydrological metrics describing the biogeochemical conditions of permafrost-affected Arctic watersheds. These data were collected in watershed-wide synoptic campaigns in six stream networks across northern Alaska. Three watersheds are associated with the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research site at Toolik Field Station (TFS), which were sampled seasonally each June and August from 2016 to 2018. Three watersheds were associated with the National Park Service (NPS) of Alaska and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and were sampled annually from 2015 to 2019. Extensive water chemistry characterization included carbon species, dissolved nutrients, and major ions. The objective of the sampling designs and data acquisition was to characterize terrestrial–aquatic linkages and processing of material in stream networks. The data allow estimation of novel ecohydrological metrics that describe the dominant location, scale, and overall persistence of ecosystem processes in continuous permafrost. These metrics are (1) subcatchment leverage, (2) variance collapse, and (3) spatial persistence. Raw data are available at the National Park Service Integrated Resource Management Applications portal (O'Donnell et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9SBK2DZ) and within the Environmental Data Initiative (Abbott, 2021, https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/258a44fb9055163dd4dd4371b9dce945).

Who You Gonna Call?

A "Letter from Woodstock" editorial column about a recent act of vandalism to a monument at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, what the incident says about the current state of American politics, and how the damage to the monument was repaired by a team of National Park Service specialists.