Management Action

To be effective, response to climate change must be applied at the park level. The Climate Change Response Program and partners have developed tools, frameworks, and strategies to help park managers understand, adapt to, mitigate, and communicate about climate change. This article details what these tools are and how parks can access them, using examples from the American Southwest emphasizing drought and its effects. Intermountain Park Science, 2024

At 12:30 pm on Sunday, June 30, 2024, the Riley Fire was reported on Denali National Park and Preserve lands about one mile north of the park entrance, in the Nenana River canyon. Due to the extremely dry conditions, the fire grew quickly. Thanks to assistance from both local and out of state partners, fire protection agencies, and planning in advance for this type of scenario, the park was back to regular operations only 11 days after ignition.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) graduate student Matt Behrens, with assistance from the NPS Alaska Western Area Fire Management Fire Ecology team, instrumented several of the piles with high-heat temperature sensors to record the flux of heat into the soil column. A first look at retrieved data showed a several hour delay in the transfer of heat through the organic-rich duff layers, and minimal soil heating effects beyond the pile edge.

The frontcountry of Denali National Park and Preserve has not experienced a significant wildland fire for 100 years. Given the expected fire interval in the dominant forest type is 60-120 years, NPS Alaska Western Area Fire Management staff brought together local park managers, major community stakeholders and regional suppression experts to discuss and prepare for what wildfire might look like in this area. A half-day simulation event took place in May 2024 in the park.

Pre-identified management actions, reduced fuels near values at risk (through both fuels treatments and management of wildfires for resource benefits), and close coordination between fire managers and Agency Administrators (AAs) assists AAs in having increased decision space to meet land management objectives in the event of a wildfire in one of our national parks.

Read a summary and get the link to a published paper that describes how caribou decide where to spend the winter based on previous experience. Gurarie, E., C. Beaupré, O. Couriot, M. D. Cameron, W. F. Fagan, and K. Joly. 2024. Evidence for an adaptive, large-scale range shift in a long-distance terrestrial migrant. Global Change Biology 30 (11): e17589.

Have you wondered what will happen to vegetation in arid climates if they become more arid in the future? Northern Colorado Plateau Network scientists explored the relationships between climate and vegetation at Bryce Canyon National Park. Results include discovery of changes that have already occurred and identification of vegetation types that are most sensitive to continued climate change, providing managers with insights into future scenarios that can aid decision making.

Sustainable decision making has been at the forefront of many park operations and Glacier is no exception. The Green Team at Glacier National Park, founded in 2004, have laid groundwork for sustainability initiatives both in and out of the park, furthering the decree of protecting and preserving Glacier for current and future generations.

As you spend your days exploring Maui, you are likely to experience a couple notable distractions from the island’s native sights and sounds: buzzing and biting from mosquitoes. On Maui these insects are more than just an average outdoor nuisance—they are causing irreversible damage to the island’s ecology.

The island of Maui is known for beautiful sand beaches, rich Hawaiian culture, and stunning biodiversity, but the island is at risk of losing one of its most iconic features – the native forest birds, a group of species found nowhere else on earth.