Chapter 16

1. Chapter 16 Wildlife in Parks and Refuges

2. Park vs. Refuge • Park – area designated primarily for the purpose of human recreation • Refuge – area with primary goal other than human recreation (although this usually occurs)

3. Special management problems • Interactions between wildlife and visitors • Overpopulation of protected animals • Natural succession • Interactions between park animals and surrounding lands

4. Wildlife enhances the park experience • Presence of any wildlife as much value as other reasons for hiking • High level of public interest in animals • Parks add opportunities for interaction/education in ecology and natural environment • Visitor centers – self-guided tours, education materials, informed naturalists • Providing opportunities to view animals • Attaining a proper balance between human-wildlife interactions without impairing the environment or disrupting the behavior of the animals • Vicarious enjoyment

5. National Parks • Encompass scenic and environmental features of national or international importance • US National Parks • Yellowstone was world’s first national park in 1872 • US National Park System now manages nearly 400 natural, cultural and recreational sites • More than 100 other countries have adopted the national park concept

6. Purpose of National Parks 1) National parks be maintained in “Absolutely” unimpaired form for use of future generations • Preservation 2) National parks are set apart for the observation, health and pleasure of the people • Recreation 3) All decisions regarding public or private enterprise in the parks must be dictated by national interest • Difficulty in reconciling mandates of preservation vs. recreation • Is the visitor’s enjoyment to come from natural or artificial?

7. Definition of preservation • “To preserve, or where necessary re-create, the ecologic scene as viewed by the first European visitors. Protection alone is not adequate to achieve this goal. Habitat manipulation is helpful and often essential to restore or maintain animal numbers. A greatly expanded research program oriented toward management needs to be developed.” • Preservation of representative ecosystems • Preservation by active management • New mandate for research

8. Problems with mandate: • Degree of manipulation • Value of animal life vs plant life • Elephants can destroy habitat. • Ecological succession? • Fire suppression • Use of certain types of recreation • Snowmobiles • Funding • Most goes to maintenance not to protect wildlife or historical artifacts

9. Overpopulation • Due to elimination of predation and hunting • Destruction of vegetation and mass die offs • Elephants, elk, deer • 1988 NPS policy • Provide an environment that is allowed to evolve through natural processes (natural regulation) • Rely on natural processes to control native species to the extent practicable, except when unnatural concentrations result from human activities

10. Overpopulation • Therefore the boom-and-bust of density-dependent processes are considered natural regulation • Predator-prey relationships • Overgrazing followed by starvation • However, non-intervention may not be compatible with goal to maintain natural ecological processes • ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT PARADIGM

11. Overpopulation • Attempt to reduce growth rates • Encourage hunting • Immunocontraception • Allow die-off? • Natural phenomena? • Result of human interference?

12. Dangerous animals • Bison, mule deer • Bears • Grizzlies, black bears, brown bears • Attacks occur in campgrounds, back country trails • High percentage of sows with cubs • Primarily associated with human fed or garbage scavenging • Grizzlies are unpredictable • Coyotes?

14. Human welfare • National parks as part of the economy • Tourism • Culling excess animals for human food • Protection of water resources • Reservoirs for plant and animal cultivation outside park • Revenue sharing

15. Kruger National Park, Africa

16. Kruger National Park • As of 2002, now a part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park linking KNP with Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe) and Limpopo National Park (Mozambique)

17. KNP • Home to the Big Five game animals and other charismatic megafauna • Lions, leopards, elephant, cape buffalo, black rhino • Occupied by nomadic hunter-gatherers for thousands of years • Subtropical climate, rainy season Sept-May • 6 eco-systems

18. KNP • Park can support 8,000 elephants, we have 13,500. • What should we do?

19. KNP • High number of predators accentuating decline of zebras & wildebeest • Let nature take its course? • Intervene?

20. Kruger National Park • Human influences may be responsible for predator-prey ratio • Water developments in park result in fragmentation of herds that are less mobile • Water supplies encourage tall grass (lion cover) • Burning & cropping make herds more vulnerable • More “edge” individuals • Removal of buffalo and impala • Reduced buffering effect

21. Kruger National Park • Management solutions • Return herds to large mobile aggregations • Alter water manipulation • Alter prescribed burning • Reduce culling of elephants and buffalo • Systematic removal of lions and hyenas • Providing adequate habitat conditions minimizes direct manipulation of animals

22. Gir Forest, India • Not a declared nature preserve • Conflict of human and wildlife use • Teak, cattle • Reduction of plant production • Cattle is primary diet of lions • Vicious cycle of lions eating cattle eating the habitat

23. Gir Forest • Management solutions • Reduce overgrazing by keeping cattle out during monsoon season • Resettle human occupants outside forest • Build and maintain a fence around the forest • Provide alternate food for lions until native hoofstock rebound

24. Costa Rica • National parks hard to establish • Lumber interests, poaching, apathetic government • Management solutions • Start with parks of national interest • Battleground – Santa Rosa Park • Then expand to include areas of representative flora and fauna • Funding from international agencies

25. Costa Rica NP • The country is ranked 5th in the world, and 1st among the Americas, in terms of the 2008 Environmental Performance Index. • 2007 - plans for Costa Rica to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021 • According to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index and is the greenest country in the world.

26. Ecodevelopment • Using establishment of parks as development tool • Firewood plantations • Extension programs • Rural education • Without outreach and support parks susceptible to invasion for food, fuel and shelter

27. Transfrontier Parks • 1932 - Canada and United States jointly form Waterton National Park (Canada) and Glacier National Park (US) • International “peace park” • Cooperative management of wildlife resources • 1997 – Peace Park Foundation • Recommendation of management of areas straddling national borders • “Transfrontier conservation area” • Emphasize regional stability, peace, jobs, tourism, protection of biodiversity

28. Refuges • National Wildlife Refuge System • Started 1903 with Pelican Island • Additional refuges added only when site-specific funding approved through Congress • National Bison Range (Montana) – 1908 • Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (Utah) – 1928 • Others added as needed • Addition of waterfowl and game habitat added during the Dust Bowl era

29. Refuges • These individual refuges were eventually united under one land-management system • 1966, President LB Johnson • National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act • Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act • Adds 21.8 million ha in 1980 • Now refuges generally acquired through specific funds • Migratory Bird Conservation Fund • Land and Water Conservation Fund

30. Refuges • US Fish and Wildlife Service administers acquisition, operation and management of all national refuges • National Wildlife Refuge System includes more than 525 refuges ranging from <1ha to 81,000ha in all 50 states and 5 territories • People cannot be forced from lands of interest, federal revenue-sharing funds aid in loss of property taxes to counties affected

31. State Wildlife Refuges • Most state run refuges are called “game management areas” as they are generally acquired with assistance of Pittman-Robertson funds • Open to public hunting • Offer other wildlife-dependent recreation • Open for research

32. Refuge management overview • Intensively managed • Fire • Water • Planting • Timber • Grazing • Some of these activities generate funds

33. Refuge functions • Each refuge has at least one primary function for existence • Endangered Species • Migratory bird rest stop • Protection of unique or highly productive habitat • Wildlife-dependent recreation • Consumptive • Non-consumptive • Research

34. Organic Act • National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 • Mission of conservation, management, restoration • Defines compatible wildlife-dependent recreation as priority public uses • Requires secretary of interior ensure and maintain biological integrity, diversity and environmental health • Refuge manager determines if/when public use allowed • Requires development of conservation plan

35. Refuge problems • Inadequate funding • Inadequate staffing • Increasing responsibilities • Increasing trade-offs • Stress on basic resources • Changes in distribution

36. Acadia National Park • First national park east of Mississippi River • Home to Peregrine falcon • Determined a “non-breeding species” in eastern US in 1960’s • Nest robbing, chemicals, trapping, pollutants • Listed as Endangered in 1973

37. Acadia NP • Eastern Peregrine Falcon Reintroduction Program • Has been so successful that peregrine falcons have been removed from Endangered Species List • Captive reared chicks released into wild (hacking) • Acadia NP last Peregrine nesting pair in 1956 • ‘84-’86 release of 22 hacked chicks • Discontinued when adult returned to hacking area • No young produced until 1991 • At least 85 chicks produced since then