Current condition of standards from the Denali Park road vehicle management plan: A summary report 2016

Clark, William

Conditions on six Vehicle Management Plan (VMP) indicators from the Denali Park Road were documented for the 2016 regulatory year (May 28 - September 15, 2016). The six tier-1 indicators are: (1) Number of vehicles stopped at wildlife in the same place at one time (wildlife stops), (2) number of vehicles parked at rest stops at one time, (3) number of vehicles visible in specific viewscapes at one time, (4) hourly 10-minute gaps in traffic at sheep crossing locations (sheep gaps), (5) nighttime (2200-0600) traffic rates, and (6) amount of time a hiker waits for a bus (hiker wait time). The method for monitoring standards for a seventh indicator, large vehicle traffic (> 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating), has not been implemented but we include recommendations for future monitoring. Here we (1) compare current conditions of the VMP indicators to the 1-year VMP standards, (2) use 2013-2016 data to begin assessment of the 5-year VMP standards, (3) assess the efficacy of the current monitoring techniques and make recommendations for improvement, and (4) make recommendations for improving the condition of the resource as measured by the indicators. Assessment of the 1-year VMP standards: 1) Wildlife stop standards were met in all Wildlife Viewing Subzones. In fact, 54% of all wildlife stops (n = 3,211) were occupied by a single bus and 28% were occupied by two. 2) Rest stop standards for number of total vehicles were met at all sites. Rest stop standards for total number of buses were met at Teklanika but failed at Toklat (>11 buses observed twice) and Eielson (>10 buses observed once). 3) Viewscape standards were met at all four sites. 4) Sheep gap standards were met at three of five sites. Sites at mile 21.6 and 60.6 maintained 10-minute gaps in traffic 87.8% and 86.0% of the time, respectively, short of the 90% standard. These results are a regression from 2015 but improved from 2014 conditions. 5) Nighttime traffic standards were met along – a significant increase in compliance over 2014 and 2015 conditions. 6) Hiker wait time standards were met. One-year standards are less strict than 5-year standards to protect from aberrant years indicting long-term trends to failure. To predict if 5-year standards would be met while using only four years of data we assumed similar sample sizes for the fifth year. The wildlife stop indicator in Subzone 3 will fail the 5-year standard for the percent time that one or fewer vehicles are present at wildlife stops if that indicator's 2017 results are below 82.1%. The highest rate of compliance in subzone 3 to date has been 77.5%, which occurred in 2014. All other wildlife stop indicators are likely to meet 5-year standards. Additionally, all viewscape indicators are likely to meet 5-year standards. Sheep gap indicators at mile 21.6, 52.8, and 60.6 cannot, and mile 37.6 is unlikely to, meet the 5-year standard. One sheep gap site (mile 68.5) will likely meet the 5-year standard.

Current condition of standards from the Denali Park road vehicle management plan: A summary report 2016

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