Resource Stewardship Strategy Summary, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska
National Park Service. 2024. Resource Stewardship Strategy Summary, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. National Park Service
PURPOSE OF A RESOURCE STEWARDSHIP STRATEGY A resource stewardship strategy (RSS) is a long-range dynamic planning tool for a national park unit to set specific goals and track progress in achieving its desired natural, cultural, and subsistence resource conditions. As part of a park's planning portfolio, the resource stewardship strategy serves as a bridge between the park unit’s foundation document, other plans, and everyday management of its natural and cultural resources. A resource stewardship strategy establishes a framework and a coordinated process for: 1. evaluating and summarizing existing information about park resources (including key issues, stressors, and threats), 2. using science and scholarship to establish stewardship goals for resources, 3. integrating natural and cultural resource management, and 4. determining the stewardship activities needed to achieve stewardship goals. This framework provides a basis for informed strategic planning and sets the groundwork for preparing and implementing plans and activities to address resource management needs. Establishing this strategic approach increases management resiliency to staff turnover and guides the park unit to allocate funds and personnel to the most critical resource management needs. INTENT OF THIS SUMMARY DOCUMENT This document is intended to provide readers with a high-level summary of the resource stewardship strategy at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (hereafter referred to singularly as “Wrangell-St. Elias,” “WRST,” or “the park”). It does not describe all of the elements in the park’s comprehensive resource stewardship strategy, but instead focuses on delivering a high-level overview of the park’s resource management priorities and the activities that support each priority. Implementation of the resource stewardship strategy is an ongoing process, with updates and revisions occurring as resource and management conditions change and activities are completed. This resource stewardship strategy represents the collaborative efforts and knowledge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve staff and subject matter experts from the National Park Service (NPS) Central Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network (CAKN); NPS Southeast Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network; NPS Alaska Regional Office and other Alaska Region park units; NPS Cultural Resources, Partnerships, and Science; NPS Natural Resource Stewardship and Science programs; NPS Climate Change Response Program; NPS Denver Service Center; and other partners. DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS Resource Management Priority: An overarching statement that provides direction for the park resource managers. These priorities generally draw from a park unit’s enabling legislation, and remain relatively consistent over time. Multiple stewardship goals contribute to achieving resource management priorities. Stewardship Goal: Direction for maintaining or improving the park’s natural and cultural resources. Stewardship goals strive to enhance information, improve or maintain resource condition, address stressors, increase collaboration, expand interpretation of resources, or achieve other needs. Activity: One or more initiatives that strive to achieve a stewardship goal. Activities may include documentation, maintenance, resource protection, thematic studies, cataloging, interpretation, planning, training, data management, education, inventory, monitoring, research, survey, treatment, restoration, or other types of management.
- Type
- Administrative
- Authors
- National Park Service
- Date of Issue
- 2024-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- WRST
- Keywords
- adaptive capacity, Ahtna, Alaska Natives, alpine ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, archeology, bald eagle, black bear, caribou, Chinook salmon, climate change, coastal brown bear, Copper River, Copper River salmon fisheries, co-stewardship, cultural landscapes, Dall's sheep, ethnographic landscapes, ethnography, Euro-American mining history, Eyak, geohazards, harvestable resources, historic structures, human adaptations, hydrologic systems, Indigenous homelands, inhabited landscapes, inhabited wilderness, interior grizzly bear, interior valley glacier, Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark, Kennicott Glacier, Malaspina Glacier National Natural Landmark, marine ecosystems, migratory birds, moose, mountain goat, museum collections, permafrost, piedmont glacier, Plan, recreational opportunities, resilience, riparian ecosystems, shared stewardship, shield volcano, social-ecological systems, sockeye salmon, solitude, subsistence, terrestrial ecosystems, tidewater glacier, traditional practices, traditionally associated peoples, Upper Tanana, wilderness character, Yakutat Tlingit
See also
- Resource stewardship objectives and actions for climate change-sensitive cultural and natural resources in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve: Outputs from January–February 2022 climate change adaptation strategy development
- Climate-resource scenarios to inform climate change adaptation in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve: Summary of 2021 climate change scenario planning