Successfully responding to climate change requires that considerations be institutionalized across every facet of daily operations. The National Park Service's Climate Change Response Strategy provides an integrated blueprint for continued action, upon which additional guidance has been crafted for specific agency operations. Many of these strategies have been adopted for Alaska’s parks, including how we consider climate change impacts in our planning and management decisions about parks.
Considering multiple future scenarios is important to inform how parks adapt to projected change across the breadth of NPS resources and stewardship responsibilities. Thus, the NPS published Planning for a Changing Climate as a comprehensive resource to guide climate-smart adaptation planning. The guidance helps planners and managers develop forward-looking goals and evaluate strategies and actions considering multiple plausible futures associated with a changing climate.
Climate Change Planning Tools
-
Climate Change Response StrategyThis strategy is the foundation for the NPS to address climate change through science, adaptation, mitigation, and communication.
-
Planning for a Changing ClimateScenarios help park managers develop goals and evaluate strategies and actions for the climate of the future.
-
Resist-Accept-Direct FrameworkThe RAD Framework captures the decision space for responding to the potential for rapid, irreversible ecological change.
Climate Change Management Strategies
Showing results 1-8 of 8
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
- Offices: Wildland Fire Program
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.
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
- Offices: Fire and Aviation Management, Wildland Fire Program
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.
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
- Offices: Wildland Fire Program
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.
- Wildland Fire Program
Increasing decision space for Agency Administrators with fuels work
- Offices: Wildland Fire Program
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.
- Locations: Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Denali National Park & Preserve, Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve, more »
- Offices: Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate
The rugged beauty of Alaska has been the homelands of Alaska Native people for thousands of generations. Today the relentless march of climate change threatens a range of cultural resources from archeological sites to historic cemeteries. Now the National Park Service is in a race to document heritage across the parklands in Alaska.
- Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve, Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve
Climate change is a task society must address sooner rather than later. Park interpreters know it’s important to explain the science, the changes happening on the landscape, and the reasons why, but that’s only half their task. They aspire to inspire; to provoke their audiences to care. Societal action is the ultimate measure of success for effective communication. Alaska Park Science 22(1), 2023
- Locations: Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve
- Offices: Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
Deciding how to act in the face of climate change can be overwhelming. Yet any park can act to begin integrating climate change considerations into their operations. Read how Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the National Park Service Climate Change Response Program, and their partners advanced the park’s efforts to understand, adapt to, mitigate, and communicate with the public about climate change. Alaska Park Science 22(1), 2023
NPS planning initiative in for managing climate change effects in Alaska public lands.
Last updated: November 12, 2024