National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Denali National Park and Preserve Denali National Park and Preserve Center for Resources, Science, and Learning Photo Courtesy of Miki and Julie Collins Summary of Current Resource Projects 2009 All photos courtesy of National Park Service, unless otherwise indicated. Table of Contents Natural Resources ................................................................................................................... 3 Integrated Programs and Findings .................................................................................... 3 Denali Park Road Capacity Study ...................................................................................... 3 Resource Stewardship Strategy .......................................................................................... 7 Central Alaska Network ..................................................................................................... 8 Plants/Vegetation ................................................................................................................. 10 Long-term Vegetation Monitoring ................................................................................... 10 A Ton of Exotic (Non-native) Plants Removed ............................................................... 11 Revegetation of Construction/Disturbed Sites ................................................................. 11 Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Impacts ................................................................................... 12 Monitoring Dust Palliatives on the Park Road ................................................................. 13 Wildland Fire ......................................................................................................................... 14 Monitoring Wildland Fires ............................................................................................... 14 Creating Defensible Space Around Structures ................................................................. 15 Videography Landcover Reclassification and Moose Browse Utilization ...................... 16 Fire Education .................................................................................................................. 17 Wildlife ................................................................................................................................... 18 Keep Wildlife Wild .......................................................................................................... 18 Bears ................................................................................................................................. 18 Bear Management ............................................................................................................ 19 Wolves.............................................................................................................................. 22 Caribou ............................................................................................................................. 24 Small Mammal Monitoring .............................................................................................. 28 Snowshoe Hare and Willow Ptarmigan ........................................................................... 29 Birds ................................................................................................................................. 30 Wood Frog Surveys ......................................................................................................... 35 Physical Resources ................................................................................................................ 36 Parkwide Climate Monitoring .......................................................................................... 36 Weather Monitoring at Park Headquarters ...................................................................... 37 Weather Station on Mt. McKinley ................................................................................... 38 Snow Surveys ................................................................................................................... 39 Air Quality Monitoring .................................................................................................... 40 Visibility Web Camera ..................................................................................................... 40 Monitoring Landslide at Mile 45 ..................................................................................... 40 Paleontological Survey of the Lower Cantwell Formation .............................................. 41 Soundscape Inventory and Monitoring Program ............................................................. 42 Overflights Committee ..................................................................................................... 44 Field Class for Geologic Mapping ................................................................................... 44 Muldrow Glacier Monitoring ........................................................................................... 44 Long-term Glacier Monitoring ......................................................................................... 45 Shallow Lakes Monitoring ............................................................................................... 46 Water Quality in Kantishna Streams ................................................................................ 46 Post-mining Creek Restoration ........................................................................................ 47 Permafrost Monitoring ..................................................................................................... 47 Toklat River Dynamics and Gravel Acquisition .............................................................. 48 i Social Sciences ....................................................................................................................... 49 Visitor-related Projects..................................................................................................... 49 Subsistence ............................................................................................................................ 50 Denali Subsistence Resource Commission ...................................................................... 50 Other Advisory Councils and Board Participation .......................................................... 50 Federal Subsistence Registration Permit Hunts ............................................................... 50 Managing Timber Resources in the Windy Creek Area of Denali National Park ........... 50 Documenting Trapping Activities in Denali and Wrangell-Saint Elias ........................... 51 Cultural Resources ............................................................................................................... 52 Comprehensive Archeological Survey and Inventory ..................................................... 52 Native Place Name Mapping Project ............................................................................... 53 Kantishna Cultural Landscape Report ............................................................................. 53 Servicewide Programmatic Agreement............................................................................ 54 Historical Research and Oral History .............................................................................. 55 Museum Collections ........................................................................................................ 55 Research Support ................................................................................................................. 57 Geographic Information System ...................................................................................... 57 Research and Resource Communications ........................................................................ 58 Research Administration .................................................................................................. 58 Brief Synopsis of Research Findings in 2008 .................................................................. 60 Murie Science and Learning Center ................................................................................. 77 Background ...................................................................................................................... 77 Programs .......................................................................................................................... 78 E-Resources ............................................................................................................................ 83 Links to Information ........................................................................................................ 83 ii Natural Resources Integrated Programs and Findings Denali Park Road Capacity Study Overview In 2006, Denali began a multidisciplinary study designed to optimize visitor experience along the park road while protecting wildlife. Since 1972, traffic on the park road has been limited mostly to buses, and since 1986, a use limit of 10,512 vehicle trips annually has been in effect. Faced with increasing visitation and pressure to defend or change the limits to road traffic, park managers have designed a study to develop a greater understanding of the impacts of traffic volume and traffic patterns on the physical, biological, and social environment of the