Moose Monitoring in the central Alaska National Parks and Preserves (Denali National Park and Preserve, Yukon-Charley National Preserve, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park)

Cutting, Kyle; Mathew, Sorum; Cameron, Matthew; Owen, Patricia

Moose are widespread across central Alaska with primary habitat in riparian corridors, low- to mid-elevation shrub, and shrub tundra. Moose are of great importance to people from both consumptive and non-consumptive viewpoints, and to the ecosystem as a whole. From a monitoring standpoint, moose are considered to be good indicators of long-term habitat change within park ecosystems because they depend on large scale, healthy habitats for food and cover, which in turn are dependent on weather and other habitat patterns across the entire landscape. As a top herbivore, moose may play a key role in influencing vegetation growth and change potentially resulting in habitat change on a landscape scale. Changes in moose populations directly affect subsistence harvest on NPS park and preserve lands in Alaska, and harvest by the general public on NPS Preserve lands. Considerable effort has been invested in monitoring, managing, and conserving moose populations across Alaska due in large part to a notable decline in moose density across the state in the early 1970s. Prior to 2003, moose surveys were primarily aerial trend counts, and areas surveyed, objectives, and methodologies varied across central Alaska and thus survey results were not comparable to other surveys or to more recent estimates. Central Alaska identified moose as a vital sign for all three network parks with objectives of determining changes in moose abundance, distribution, and composition, estimating calf survival and recruitment success, and assessing annual human harvest levels. Starting in 2004, moose monitoring in Central Alaska Network Parks was standardized by adopting the same methodology, the GeoSpatial Population Estimator (GSPE), which is widely used across Alaska and Canada to monitor moose populations. The goal is to conduct moose surveys in each central Alaska park unit every three years in late fall or early winter using the GSPE method. Total abundance, density, and composition are calculated for each survey year. Composition classes include cow, calf, yearling bull, medium bull, and large bull.

Moose Monitoring in the central Alaska National Parks and Preserves (Denali National Park and Preserve, Yukon-Charley National Preserve, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park)

Program

Products