scholarly journals Die-off of Utah Juniper Natural Bridges National Monument

Author(s):  
Darrell Weber ◽  
David Nelson

The pinyon-juniper woodland is a wide spread vegetation type in the southwestern United States that is estimated to cover from 30 to 40 million hectares. They pinyon-juniper vegetation provides a source of fuel, building materials, charcoal, pine nuts, christmas trees and folk medicines. About 80% of the acreage is grazed by livestock and wildlife. In Utah, this ecosystem is a large component (62,705 km2 or 28.6%) of the vegetation. Particularly in the Utah National Parks, the pinyon-juniper woodlands valued for their watershed, aesthetic and recreational values. Over the past several years extensive foliar damage to Utah juniper (Juniperus osterosperma (Torr.) Little) has been observed in the Natural Bridges National Monument. The characteristic pattern is for the distal foliage to become chlorotic and die. Mortality progresses along twigs until whole branches or even the entire tree dies. Reports of similar foliar damage has been reported in Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado National Monument, areas near Cedar City in southwestern Utah and in eastern Nevada, which would indicate that the foliar damage is a widespread problem. The cause for the foliar damage is unknown. The loss of juniper trees in the national parks in southern Utah would have a dramatic ecological impact and would be an aesthetic blight in the parks. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the cause of the die-off of Utah junipers and suggest management options concerning the juniper die-off problem.

Author(s):  
Darrell Weber ◽  
David Nelson

Utah junipers (Juniperus osterosperma (forr.)) are the dominant trees in the landscape of the southwestern states (35 million hectares). In Utah, the pinyon-juniper woodland represents 28.6% of the vegetation and are an important part of the aesthetic value of the Utah national parks. Over the past several years, extensive foliar damage has occurred to Utah juniper, yet little foliar damage has been observed in Natural Bridges National Monument, Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde National Park and Colorado National Monument. The characteristic pattern is for the distal foliage to become chlorotic and die. Mortality progresses along twigs until whole branches or even the entire tree dies. The cause for the foliar damage is unknown. The loss of juniper trees in the national parks in southern Utah would have a dramatic ecological impact and would be an aesthetic blight in the parks. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the cause of the die-off of Utah junipers and suggest management options concerning the juniper die-off problem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11961
Author(s):  
Daniela Agostini Ferrante ◽  
Jelena Vukomanovic ◽  
Lindsey S. Smart

National parks are vital public resources for the preservation of species and landscapes, and for decades have provided natural laboratories for studying environmental and cultural resources. Though significant scholarship has taken place in national parks, syntheses of research trends and biases are rarely available for needs assessments and decision making. In this paper, we demonstrate procedures to close this information gap using Congaree National Park (CNP) as an example of a protected area characterized by disparate research. We conducted a systematic review of research topics and funding sources of all peer-reviewed, published research conducted since its inception as a National Monument in 1976. We next paired our evaluation of research trends with a spatial analysis of study locations to uncover patterns and biases in research. A total of 49 peer-reviewed publications describing research conducted at CNP have been published between 1976–2018, with over 75% published since 2003. Quantitative studies accounted for nearly 90% of all studies, and vegetation was the most commonly studied discipline. Most studies were funded by federal agencies, with the National Park Service providing the most funding instances. Spatial analyses revealed statistically significant (p < 0.05) hotspots of studies near the park entrance, visitor center, roads, and hiking trails. In providing a comprehensive evaluation of research patterns and trends within a single park, we developed an approach that can be applied by managers in other parks or public lands to maximize the utility of past research, identify potentially valuable but understudied park resources, and prioritize research needs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Dupke ◽  
Carsten F. Dormann ◽  
Marco Heurich

SummaryNational park management has the dual mission of protecting and conserving natural systems and providing services to visitors. These two goals are often contradictory, especially when levels of recreation and tourism increase. We studied whether and how the management of the 13 terrestrial national parks in Germany respond to increasing numbers of visitors. One to three managers from each national park completed an online questionnaire and were then interviewed by phone. We found no general strategy for managing high levels of recreational use. Adaptation to increasing visitor numbers seemed to be complex and arduous. Management options are particularly constrained by the mandatory public participation process, in which various stakeholders are involved in decision-making. Given the political pressure to make amends for restrictions imposed by designated protected areas, national park management is characterized by compromises, which results in a shift of priorities from conservation towards service provision. We argue that to maintain the balance between the dual objectives of conservation and recreation, park managers need the support of both social and biological research communities. Above all, the unique ecological merits of national parks could be more strongly highlighted to increase the general public’s acceptance of park restrictions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britton L. Mace ◽  
Jocelyn McDaniel

Natural lightscapes are an important resource for parks and protected areas, including Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Both locations offer night sky interpretive programs, attracting over 27,000 visitors annually, equaling all other interpretive programs combined. Parks need to understand what drives visitor interest and park managers need to assess if night sky interpretation is meeting expectations. A total of 1,179 night and day visitors to Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument served as participants and completed a 36-item survey measuring knowledge, attitudes, benefits, and behaviors related to the night sky. Results show those who attended a night sky interpretive program gained a significant amount of knowledge about night sky issues. Both day and night visitors have strongly held attitudes about light pollution and the protection of the night sky in national parks.


1996 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 157-165
Author(s):  
Brent H. Breithaupt

As the concepts of time, past life, and fossils are often difficult for children to comprehend and as many of the National Parks and Monuments have important paleontological resources, Fossil Butte National Monument developed a fossil education curriculum guide designed to aid teachers presenting these principles to students in the second and third grades. The following activities are modified from that guide (Leite, M. B. and Breithaupt, B. H., 1994, Teaching Paleontology in the National Parks and Monuments: A curriculum guide for teachers of the second and third grade levels: National Park Service, Fossil Butte National Monument, Kemmerer, WY 103 p.). For more information on this curriculum guide distributed though the National Park Service, please contact Ms. Marsha Fagnant, Fossil Butte National Monument, P.O. Box 592, Kemmerer, WY 83101.


Author(s):  
Sandra Mitchell ◽  
Bruce Woodward

This is the third and final year of this project. In 1990 and 1991 we concentrated our efforts at Natural Bridges National Monument and Canyonlands National Park. In 1992, we performed work at Natural Bridges National Monument, and at Arches National Park. At Natural Bridges we sampled plant grids and small mammal grids along sections of canyon bottom containing or lacking a hiking trail to determine if the trail was influencing the distributions or abundances of plants or animals in the canyon bottom. We collected data in May and June. We sampled the area between Sipapu Bridge and Kachina Bridge (area containing the well used hiking trail), and an area about 3 kms long above Sipapu Bridge (area lacking a well used trail).


SURG Journal ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Zuzanna Drewniak ◽  
Kaitlyn Finnegan ◽  
Charlotte Miles ◽  
Meredith Miles

There are two primary options for the successful preservation of national resources in African national parks: centralized government management and decentralized privatized management. In this article we argue that a free market environmentalism approach to the management of national parks in Africa is preferable to centralized government management. We begin by discussing social, economic, and biophysical trends related to the operations of national parks in Africa. Next, we describe the institutional and political structures of management options, including the conventional centralized planning model, and present alternatives such as co-management and privatization. We then identify current conflicts and controversies regarding national park management in the African context, which include land tenure and expropriation, poverty, and the protection of large mammalian endangered species. Finally, we apply the free market environmentalism approach to African national park management and make a case for why this approach would allow for better protection of endangered large mammal species, benefit African citizens in the surrounding communities, eliminate the free-rider incentive which can lead to acts such as poaching, and create incentives that are necessary for the preservation of African national resources. We conclude that this market-based system is effective in protecting natural resources in areas of Africa where the private owners are willing to pay for the preservation of the environment, and on privatized and which can be successfully profitable through the aid of competition in the market. Keywords: national parks; Africa; free market environmentalism; sustainability (environmental, social)


Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver

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.


Author(s):  
Alan D. Roe

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6831
Author(s):  
Rosa Marina González ◽  
Concepción Román ◽  
Ángel Simón Marrero

In this study, discrete choice models that combine different behavioural rules are estimated to study the visitors’ preferences in relation to their travel mode choices to access a national park. Using a revealed preference survey conducted on visitors of Teide National Park (Tenerife, Spain), we present a hybrid model specification—with random parameters—in which we assume that some attributes are evaluated by the individuals under conventional random utility maximization (RUM) rules, whereas others are evaluated under random regret minimization (RRM) rules. We then compare the results obtained using exclusively a conventional RUM approach to those obtained using both RUM and RRM approaches, derive monetary valuations of the different components of travel time and calculate direct elasticity measures. Our results provide useful instruments to evaluate policies that promote the use of more sustainable modes of transport in natural sites. Such policies should be considered as priorities in many national parks, where negative transport externalities such as traffic congestion, pollution, noise and accidents are causing problems that jeopardize not only the sustainability of the sites, but also the quality of the visit.


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