Parks as Proving Grounds: Research Tools and Techniques

Jeff Rasic, National Park Service
Guest Editor

Download a pdf of the full issue.

Denali ranger servicing a high-altitude (14,200’) weather station at Kahiltna Glacier on Denali. This is the highest-elevation weather station in Alaska and is maintained year-round as a collaborative project of the Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network and the Denali mountain rescue team.

NPS/Michael Loso

Alaska’s national parks are laboratories for scientific research and monitoring, but they present special challenges to scientists. Alaska’s parklands are typically large, remote, and little-studied compared to conservation lands in more populated and developed regions. Just getting to a base camp from which to mount a scientific study in most Alaskan parks can be a costly endeavor requiring travel in boats and small aircraft, followed by lengthy stays in remote camps, and requiring an ability to work detached from the power and data grid.

This, of course, represents not only a challenge, but also rewarding opportunities. Swapping an office cubicle and a constant stream of email for a quiet camp in a mountain meadow or coastal bay no doubt makes for an incredible workplace. More importantly, the exceptional natural and cultural resources in parklands represent special opportunities for novel research and an encouraging mandate to conduct the work in practical, effective, and impactful ways. This places an especially high premium on the use of the right tools and best methods for research and monitoring. Sometimes this means new, cutting-edge technologies that minimize impacts to resources or visitor experience. Other times it means, simple, tried-and-true methods that are guaranteed to deliver results when a follow-up visit to a study site is impractical.

This volume of Alaska Park Science highlights a wide range of high and low tech, of novel and well-tested methods, and in all cases demonstrates the unparalleled collection of data about the natural and cultural resources preserved in Alaska’s national parks, preserves, and historical parks.

Explore articles in this issue of Alaska Park Science

New Approaches to Study Interactions Among Climate, Environment, and Humans in Arctic Alaska
R. S. Vachula, K. J. Wang, J. A. O’Donnell, and Y. Huang

Clues from Glacier Debris: Dating and Mapping Glacial Deposits Since the Last Ice Age in the Western Alaska Range
J. P. Tulenko, J. P. Briner, and N. E. Young

High-definition Laser Scanning for Documenting Cultural Resources
J. Wachtel

Unmanned Aerial Systems as a Tool for Natural Resource Applications
J. N. Womble, P. Martyn, and B. Schroeder.

Mapping and Monitoring Landscape Changes Using Structure from Motion from Aircraft
C. Hults, T. Jones, B. Schroeder, D. Capps, D. Hansen, C. Miller, M. Hannam, and D. Kurtz

Repeat Photography: A Visually Compelling Tool for Documenting Natural Resource Change
R. D. Karpilo

Making Sound Decisions Using Bioacoustics in Alaska’s National Parks
D. Betchkal, P. Burger, and C. Gabriele

An Introduction to Some of the High-flying Technology Used to Study the Movements of Alaska’s Migratory Birds
C. McIntyre

New Insights from an Enduring Tool: Using GPS Data to Detect Calving Events in Alaskan Caribou Herds
M. S. Cameron, K. Joly, and J. Hepler

Using GPS Units to Understand Where Backpackers Travel in Denali National Park
R. Keller and L. Foelske

Using Aquatic Invertebrates to Measure the Health of Stream Ecosystems: New Bioassessment Tools for Alaska’s Parklands
T. Simmons, T. Armstrong, and C. P. Hawkins

Thank you to the contributing authors

Trip Armstrong, National Aquatic Monitoring Center, Bureau of Land Management

Davyd Betchkal, Natural Sounds and Night Sky Division, National Park Service

Jason P. Briner, University at Buffalo

Paul Burger, Hydrologist, Alaska Region, National Park Service

Matthew D. Cameron, Wildlife Biologist, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, National Park Service

Denny Capps, Geologist, Denali National Park and Preserve, National Park Service

Lorraine Foelske, Bureau County Soil and Water Conservation District

Christine Gabriele, Wildlife Biologist, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, National Park Service

Michael Hannam, Ecologist, Southwest Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network, National Park Service

Dana Hansen, Alaska Region Remote Sensing Specialist, Geoscientists-in-the-Parks Intern, National Park Service

Charles Patrick Hawkins, Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University

Joelle Hepler, Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Yongsong Huang, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University

Chad Hults, Alaska Regional Geologist, National Park Service

Kyle Joly, Wildlife Biologist, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, National Park Service

Tahzay Jones, Alaska Region Oceans and Coastal Coordinator, National Park Service

Ronald D. Karpilo Jr., Research Associate, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University

Rose Keller, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway [formerly social scientist, Denali National Park and Preserve, National Park Service]

Deborah Kurtz, Physical Science Program Manager, Kenai Fjords National Park, National Park Service

Parker Martyn, Inventory Program Manager, Alaska Region, National Park Service 

Carol McIntyre, Wildlife Biologist, Denali National Park and Preserve, National Park Service

Celia Miller, Ecologist, Arctic Inventory & Monitoring Network, National Park Service

Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Physical Scientist, Arctic Inventory & Monitoring Network, National Park Service

Britta Schroeder, Geographic Information Systems Specialist, Denali National Park and Preserve, National Park Service

Jeff Rasic, Natural and Cultural Resource Program Lead, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers Natonal Preserve, National Park Service 

Trey Simmons, Ecologist, Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network, National Park Service

Joseph P. Tulenko, University at Buffalo

Richard S. Vachula, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University

John Wachtel, Historical Architect, Cultural Resources, Alaska Region, National Park Service

Karen J. Wang, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University

Jamie N. Womble, Biologist, Southeast Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, National Park Service

Nicolas E. Young, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University