Discovering archaeological landscapes in parks and protected areas

Monitoring cultural resources in parks and protected areas is greatly enhanced using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). For this example, a pilot inventory of cultural resources is illustrated for the United States National Park Service lands that protect the Appalachian Trail in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, the trail stretches 145.2 kilometers (90.2 miles) and is protected by nearly 2052 hectares (5070 acres) of land. To aid in the resource monitoring, these remote sensing data are corroborated with historic records to identify the historical archaeological resources in the corridor. The inventory are then added to existing management plans to help protect the national park with a more complete understanding of the historical human impacts in the backcountry of New England.

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Visualizing When, Where, and How Fires Happen in U.S. Parks and Protected Areas

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi9050333 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 333

Author(s):

Nicole C. Inglis ◽

Jelena Vukomanovic

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Protected Areas ◽

National Park ◽

Fire History ◽

National Park Service ◽

Fire Management ◽

Fire Regime ◽

Fire Regimes ◽

The United States ◽

Park Service

Fire management in protected areas faces mounting obstacles as climate change alters disturbance regimes, resources are diverted to fighting wildfires, and more people live along the boundaries of parks. Evidence-based prescribed fire management and improved communication with stakeholders is vital to reducing fire risk while maintaining public trust. Numerous national fire databases document when and where natural, prescribed, and human-caused fires have occurred on public lands in the United States. However, these databases are incongruous and non-standardized, making it difficult to visualize spatiotemporal patterns of fire and engage stakeholders in decision-making. We created interactive decision analytics (“VISTAFiRe”) that transform fire history data into clear visualizations of the spatial and temporal dimensions of fire and its management. We demonstrate the utility of our approach using Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park as examples of protected areas experiencing fire regime change between 1980 and 2017. Our open source visualizations may be applied to any data from the National Park Service Wildland Fire Events Geodatabase, with flexibility to communicate shifts in fire regimes over time, such as the type of ignition, duration and magnitude, and changes in seasonal occurrence. Application of the tool to Everglades and Big Cypress revealed that natural wildfires are occurring earlier in the wildfire season, while human-caused and prescribed wildfires are becoming less and more common, respectively. These new avenues of stakeholder communication are allowing the National Park Service to devise research plans to prepare for environmental change, guide resource allocation, and support decision-making in a clear and timely manner.

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The Anchor on a Long Chain: The National Park Service Act of 1916 Related to Historical and Cultural Resources

Journal of Interpretation Research ◽

10.1177/109258721001500206 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 41-46

Author(s):

Jerry L. Rogers

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

National Park Service ◽

The United States ◽

Second Century ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Leadership Responsibilities ◽

Cultural Resource ◽

Park Service ◽

A Chain ◽

Long Chain

The National Park Service Act of 1916, often dangerously considered alone, is only one link, although a fundamental one, in a chain of authorities that acknowledge and preserve historical and cultural resources everywhere in the United States. By fully exercising its cultural resource leadership responsibilities and expanding them to natural resources, the National Park Service can help to make the second century of the service amount to a “Century of the Environment.”

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From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

Environment and History ◽

10.3197/096734019x15631846928783 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Terence Young ◽

Alan MacEachern ◽

Lary Dilsaver

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

The United States ◽

The Us ◽

Park Service ◽

Settler Societies ◽

History Of ◽

Relationship Of ◽

Flow Of Information ◽

The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

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No Limits of Acceptable Change: A Proposed Research Framework for Informing Visitor Use Management in the Context of Cultural Resources

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010377 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 377

Author(s):

Zachary D. Miller ◽

Wayne Freimund ◽

Stefani A. Crabtree ◽

Ethan P. Ryan

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Human Activities ◽

National Park ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Cultural Resource ◽

Limits Of Acceptable Change ◽

The Us ◽

Visitor Use ◽

Material Evidence

Cultural resources are commonly defined as resources that provide material evidence of past human activities. These resources are unique, as they are both finite and non-renewable. This provides a challenge for traditional visitor use management since these resources have no limits of acceptable change. However, with nearly every national park in the US containing cultural resources, coupled with ever-growing visitation, it is essential that managers of parks and protected areas have the ability to make science-informed decisions about cultural resources in the context of visitor use management. We propose a framework that can help provide context and exploration for these challenges. Drawing on previous literature, this framework includes risk-based approaches to decision making about visitor use; visitor cognitions related to cultural resources; emotions, mood, and affect related to cultural resource experiences; creating and evaluating interpretive programs; deviant visitor behaviors related to cultural resources; and co-management.

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The Opportunities and Limitations of Tribal Consultation in Studies Conducted Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act

Practicing Anthropology ◽

10.17730/praa.20.3.w72316233642234n ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 5-8

Author(s):

Gail Thompson

Keyword(s):

Historic Preservation ◽

Decision Maker ◽

National Park ◽

National Park Service ◽

Development Projects ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Cultural Properties ◽

Park Service ◽

Traditional Cultural Properties ◽

National Historic Preservation Act

Proposed construction and development projects that require Federal permits are subject to review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires that the Federal decision-maker take into account the project's potential effects on cultural resources listed or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Over the years and especially after 1990 when the National Park Service released Bulletin 38, Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs), Section 106 review has increased the consideration of designating TCPs and consultation with the Indian tribal organizations that value them. Bulletin 38 defines TCPs as places that have been historically important in maintaining the cultural identify of a community.

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An Analysis of Variability and Condition of Cavate Structures in Bandelier National Monument. H. Wolcott Toll. Intermountain Cultural Resources Center Professional Paper No. 53. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Santa Fe, 1995. xvi + 300 pp., figures, tables, pull-out maps, appendixes, references, index. Paper (available on request).

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/282410 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 172-172

Author(s):

Tammy Stone

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

National Park Service ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Santa Fe ◽

National Monument ◽

Pull Out ◽

Park Service ◽

Bandelier National Monument

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Reports of the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit of the National Park Service, US.

The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology ◽

10.1111/j.1095-9270.1992.tb00339.x ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 37-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Carl Olof Cederlund

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

National Park Service ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Park Service ◽

Submerged Cultural Resources

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Effects of wildfire on national park visitation and the regional economy: a natural experiment in the Northern Rockies

International Journal of Wildland Fire ◽

10.1071/wf12170 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 22 (8) ◽

pp. 1155 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

John W. Duffield ◽

Chris J. Neher ◽

David A. Patterson ◽

Aaron M. Deskins

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

National Park ◽

Net Present Value ◽

Wildland Fire ◽

The United States ◽

Management Policy ◽

Demand Models ◽

Value Loss ◽

Park Service ◽

Observed Behaviour

Federal wildland fire management policy in the United States directs the use of value-based methods to guide priorities. However, the economic literature on the effect of wildland fire on nonmarket uses, such as recreation, is limited. This paper introduces a new approach to measuring the effect of wildfire on recreational use by utilising newly available long-term datasets on the location and size of wildland fire in the United States and observed behaviour over time as revealed through comprehensive National Park Service (NPS) visitor data. We estimate travel cost economic demand models that can be aggregated at the site-landscape level for Yellowstone National Park (YNP). The marginal recreation benefit per acre of fire avoided in, or proximate to, the park is US$43.82 per acre (US$108.29 per hectare) and the net present value loss for the 1986–2011 period is estimated to be US$206 million. We also estimate marginal regional economic impacts at US$36.69 per acre (US$90.66 per hectare) and US$159 million based on foregone non-resident spending in the 17-county Great Yellowstone Area (GYA). These methods are applicable where time-series recreation data exist, such as for other parks and ecosystems represented in the 397-unit NPS system.

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A Brief History of the Trails of Grand Teton National Park

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.2009.3749 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 32 ◽

pp. 55-62

Author(s):

James Pritchard

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

National Park Service ◽

Service System ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Historical Records ◽

Grand Teton National Park ◽

Park Service ◽

History Of ◽

Practical Development ◽

Trail System

This project investigated the history of the backcountry trail system in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). In cooperation with GTNP Cultural Resources and the Western Center for Historic Preservation in GTNP, we located records describing the early development of the trail system. Only a few historical records describe or map the exact location of early trails, which prove useful when relocating trails today. The paper trail becomes quite rich, however, in revealing the story behind the practical development of Grand Teton National Park as it joined the National Park Service system.

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