Towards an Integrated Decision Tool for Managing Wildlife with Visitor Restrictions in Glacier Bay National Park

• Main Author: Whitlock, Steven L.
• Other Authors: Peterson, James T., Roby, Daniel D., Hutchinson, Rebecca A., Gende, Scott M., Fisheries and Wildlife
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: Oregon State University
• Subjects: glacier; Alaska
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/bk128j21b

The National Park Service has a dual mission of providing public access to exceptional natural resources, but in a manner such that these resources are left “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Human activities in parks undoubtedly affect wildlife, but the degree to which such activities cause impairment is often unclear and difficult to assess. It is the task of park administrators to take actions and impose restrictions to prevent impairment based on park values and the information provided through research and monitoring programs. Finding an appropriate balance between wildlife protection and visitor access is difficult because decision makers must consider numerous interrelated factors, many of which are not known with certainty. In light of these challenges, scientific approaches that allow decision makers to incorporate uncertainty and evaluate trade-offs between human access and resource protection are greatly needed. Glacier Bay National Park (the “Park” hereafter) contends with the challenge of managing visitors in an area containing many species of conservation concern. Therefore, the Park seeks a systematic and data-driven process for evaluating the tradeoffs that current and potential restrictions represent, in terms of protecting sensitive resources versus enabling full access to the public. The goal of my dissertation was to assist administrators and biologists at the Park with the development of an integrated decision tool for the Park through a structured decision making process. This task entailed first identifying and structuring objectives, then coordinating with subject-matter experts on the development of biological sub-models for informing the future decision tool. Park Service administrators and staff drew on fundamental purposes of the Park to define measurable attributes that characterize the Park’s values and inform management decisions. This process also identified focal species whose conservation status was viewed as a priority and had motivated management actions in ...