Standards in the Denali park road vehicle management plan — how current conditions measure up: A summary report 2011–2012
McKenny HC, Roed MS, Borg BL, Snover ML. 2014. Standards in the Denali park road vehicle management plan — how current conditions measure up: A summary report 2011–2012. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/DENA/NRTR—2014/867. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report summarizes data collected in 2011 and 2012 by NPS staff and volunteers for four of the seven Denali Park Road Vehicle Management Plan (VMP) tier one indicators: 1) number of vehicles at wildlife stops; 2) number of vehicles at rest stops; 3) number of vehicles visible in viewscapes, and 4) the maintenance of hourly, 10-minute gaps in traffic at sheep crossing locations (sheep gaps). The primary objective of this report is to compare the current conditions of the indicators to the VMP standards. The monitoring results will help inform management of vehicle travel on the park road (e.g., bus scheduling, turn-over rates, driver behavior) through implementation of the VMP. Thus, the secondary objective of this report is to assess traffic patterns within shorter periods (daily or subseason) that indicate potential sources of future problems, if crowding increases to the point where standards are not being met, and areas where management could improve existing conditions to ensure that the goals of the VMP (maintaining high-quality visitor experiences and minimizing wildlife impacts) are being achieved. Our results suggest that traffic scheduling and volumes during 2011 and 2012 enabled the park to be mostly in compliance with the VMP standards during the hours monitored. The results also highlighted areas where conditions of the indicators could be improved. These data illustrate the importance of installing GPS systems to monitor traffic on the park road as was called for in the VMP. The GPS technology will improve the accuracy of our monitoring and will enable us to assess how scheduling and the behavior of different vehicle types (e.g., vehicle residence time in viewscapes or at rest stops) affect the indicators.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- McKenny, Heather; Roed, Melanie; Borg, Bridget; Snover, Melissa
- Date of Issue
- 2014-05
- Units
- DENA , NRSS
- Keywords
- Alaska, Dall Sheep, DENA, Denali National Park And Preserve, Denali Park, vehicle management, viewscape, wildlife impacts
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Human Use | Visitor and Recreation Use | Visitor Use , Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Viewscape | Viewscape/Dark Night Sky