Beginning next year, the National Park Service in Denali National Park is planning to embark on a roadside study to determine the impacts of bus traffic on the park's wildlife. Bus traffic has increased tremendously over the years, primarily in the Wilderness and Denali Natural History Tours but additionally in the Kantishna Lodge buses. Many locals including bus drivers, professional photographers, and local residents believe that this increase in bus traffic has diminished quality wildlife viewing in the park to a significant degree.
To determine whether this is true or not, NPS is planning to tranquilize grizzly bears and Dall sheep and attach GPS radio collars to them. Furthermore, Tour and VTS buses will also have GPS tracking units within them. NPS is intending to and I quote “ Increases in traffic will be staggered over-multiple years and on alternative days to allow for an experimental and an adaptive management approach utilizing the powerful BACI method to evaluate any increases and adjust traffic levels to prevent damage to resource or visitor experience.” End quote.
It is not unusual during peak season for Tour to send over twenty buses in the morning. At present during peak season, if you include VTS, Tour, DNHT, and Kantishna and all systems running at peak numbers, we may have upwards of a hundred buses entering into Denali. Furthermore, I have several questions in regards to this study:
- How many bears and sheep are to be radio collared next year?
- In what areas along the park road are they to be collared?
- What is the expected mortality of both bears and sheep due to tranquilizing them?
- If the collaring process is to take place next spring after the bears have lost upwards of
30% of their body weight, wouldn't the added stress of tranquilizing them make mortality more likely? If so, what will NPS due to alleviate this possibility?
- Will NPS be tranquilizing mostly the sub-adults, or female bears or both?
- Will female bears with cubs be tranquilized?
- Without knowing what the Denali grizzly bear population dynamics are along the road: the impacts of an accidental death to a breeding female are unknown (but obviously not good) to the population but for roadside viewing, they can be tremendous. Does NPS have any intention of attempting to determine the population dynamics of this roadside population before they begin their roadside study through non-collaring methods?
- What procedures will be in place to reverse negative side effects of tranquilizers?
- Will a vet be on board to monitor the condition of the bears and sheep while they are being tranquilized?
- What will NPS do with orphaned cubs (spring & 1 1/2 yr olds) if a female bear is accidentally killed due to tranquilizing?
- Is NPS prepared for the public uproar if a Denali bear family that is commonly viewed is negatively impacted by the above?
- Will NPS attempt to use color-coded radio collars (if they exist) to lessen the negative and visual pollution that collars have on the general viewing public?
- Why isn't NPS using data collected in the past by not only NPS personnel (Karen & Shan's roadside study) but also data accumulated by bus drivers over the years to establish a base line from which to move from?
- What studies and/or reasons does NPS have to justify the exclusion of the previous roadside data and NPS studies?
- Will the large number of day hikers and backpackers from the Toklat River to the Eielson area also be included within the study to determine their impacts on the movements of bears and sheep? If not, why not? As this is critical habitat, especially for bears.
- Buses, bears and sheep will have GPS tracking units, yet how will NPS make the determination that a bus caused a change in a bear or sheep's behavior versus a natural cause without actually viewing the interaction?
- Also, NPS is planning to vary the numbers of buses onto the road on certain days to determine the impacts of additional buses. Some days there will be a heavier concentration of buses than others. This past summer, Tour would almost routinely send out over 20 buses in the morning, along with VTS, and the Kantishna buses, this inundates the park with road traffic. Kennan Ward (professional photographer) reported to me that on one morning as he was exiting the park, he counted 55 buses. How many more buses does NPS plan to send out over and above what is already traveling into the park? Also, does NPS intend to study the impacts of this plan on the park experience for visitors?
I believe adding more buses will only degrade the visitor experience as this creates more traffic, dust, and wildlife jams. Additionally, it especially impacts those visitors who recreate on or near the park road. If NPS goes through with this plan, they should also survey visitors as to their experience.
Lastly, the Tourism industry has funded this study, and many bus drivers have reported to me that they believe that the results of this study have been pre-determined in favor of the Tourism industry which would result in ever more increases in bus traffic.
If you have any comments please feel free to respond to this posting. Additionally, I will be inviting NPS biologists and various environmental representatives from different groups to partake in this blog.
All the best.
Bill
http://www.WatkinsNaturePhotography.com