Background

In 1910, Glacier National Park was set aside for two purposes: (1) as a “pleasure ground” for the enjoyment of the people of the United States and (2) to preserve nature in this area, especially fish and wildlife species. Park managers are concerned about potential conflicts between these two mandates. Because the park is managed to maintain the health of its natural resources in addition to offering recreational use for visitors, the impact of visitors on natural resources within the park is a primary concern. In general, park managers need to know more about the impacts of visitors in both the developed and proposed wilderness areas in the park. Because the park is managed in part to offer recreational experiences, park staff also need to know more about the desires and needs of the visitors and their experiences in the park.

Currently, approximately 2 million visitors come to the park each year. Since 1980, annual visitation to the park has increased more than 50%. Concomitantly, use of overnight concession lodging, developed campgrounds, and backcountry camping have increased. During the same time period, while visitor use of services has increased, interpretive programming, protection services, and campground availability have decreased. If these trends continue, potential decreases in visitor satisfaction and resource protection may occur.

Research Needs

Impacts of visitors on park resources

How does human use threaten ecosystem integrity? At what scale should this question be addressed?

What are the effects of recreational use on the natural resources of the park, specifically on hydrologic processes; nutrient cycling; plant reproduction, dispersal, and pollination; invertebrate composition; and wildlife species?

Develop carrying capacity indicators and standards. Determine biological and social indicators which can serve as signals of negative impacts on park resources. Set standards that define acceptable limits of change for particular management zones. Develop a monitoring protocol and management action plan for incidences when resource degradation exceeds set standards. For example, develop protocols to assess visitor impacts on plants and soils and create standards to determine when impacts are no longer acceptable. How can threats to park resources be minimized or reduced?

Investigate backcountry use. Determine use estimates for all backcountry trails and create a reliable baseline of park-wide trail use.

Assess wildlife use of developed and boundary areas. Note occurrence, distribution, range of natural variation, and trend of wildlife using these areas to help managers figure out how to minimize impacts from existing and proposed human activities, such as road construction, building or parking lot modification, visitor use patterns, livestock grazing on the boundary, or timber harvest plans outside the park and near the boundary.

Conduct night sky inventories and compile threat analysis, including internal lighting.

Analyze movements and habitat use patterns of Canada Lynx in Glacier NP and their response to recreational activity. Use GPS-based satellite collars to provide both fine scale (response to recreation) and coarse scale (broad movements) information regarding lynx movements and habitat use. Provide data regarding lynx movements relative to human recreation (trails, back-country campgrounds, developed areas) and other habitat features.

Establish baseline survey of priority rare plant populations and communities. Focus on mapping rare species distributions and sensitive communities that have known human-induced threats placed on them. Characterize sensitive habitats in the park and actual and potential impacts by humans on these populations and communities.

Delineate 100-year floodplains at seven locations (Apgar, Lake McDonald, Rising Sun, Swiftcurrent, Many Glacier, Goat Haunt and Two Medicine) where existing facilities need to be modified. Changes and improvements are needed at facilities that are located adjacent to streams or lakes.

Is social trail density or width or level of use more important for assessing the impacts on wildlife populations?

Determine detection methods and assess effects of human waste on park ecosystems. Develop effective methods to dispose of human waste.

Visitor perceptions, expectations, knowledge and behavior

Elucidate the impacts that climate change may have on visitor use and perception in Glacier NP.

Identify the impact of the increased security on the US-Canadian border (e.g., increased inspections on the United States side) on public perception of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park .

Elucidate the effectiveness of communication, interpretation, and education efforts by park staff, including effectiveness of safety, appreciation, and resource protection messages and information and the potential for use of local media. Determine what visitors feel is most important for them to know upon entering the park, what their initial perceptions of informational messages are, and how those messages affect their visit.

Identify the park's constituency (i.e., socio-demographics of visitors). Who are the visitors? Where do they come from? Where do they go in the park? What do they do and how long do they stay?

Investigate visitors' expectations and motivations. Why do people come to Glacier NP? What are they seeking?

Who visits wilderness areas and what are their expectations? Are there differences between those who come on commercial trips and those who come independently?

What are the proportion of day-users to overnight users within different areas of the park? How do use patterns and visitor impacts differ between the two groups?

Study visitor satisfaction and dissatisfaction. What “things” are important in determining whether visitors are satisfied? What are sources of dissatisfaction?

Determine visitor preferences and priorities for services, activities, and facilities provided by park staff and concessions, including preferences for interpretive services and activities.

Investigate visitor perceptions, knowledge, preparedness, and acceptance of the risks inherent in visiting Glacier. How much do they know before they come here? How well do we explain the risks? How does knowledge of certain risks (e.g., bears) affect visitors' use of the park?

Investigate visitor knowledge of proper behavior regarding pre-contact, contact, and attack situations involving bears, including proper backcountry camping practices.

Determine visitor attitudes toward wildlife and wildlife management, and how their park visit affects those attitudes.

Study the level of visitor knowledge about Glacier NP prior to their visit. Do visitors have an accurate perception of what Glacier NP is before coming here? How do inaccurate perceptions and expectations affect their visit here? How can we get accurate information about Glacier to these people before their visit?

What are visitor expectations about backcountry experiences, including facilities (trails, campsites, signing), expectations for solitude, and amount of regulation? How do these expectations affect their satisfaction with their backcountry experience?

Investigate visitor perceptions of park management, policies, and actions, such as closures, access restrictions, acceptance of regulation, level of facilities and concessions, bear management, fire management, and support for wolf recovery.

Determine use of visitor centers and what visitors want and need from visitor centers. Learn which visitors attend naturalist-led activities and which don't and why.

Study visitor perceptions of the level of service (quantity and quality) that Glacier currently provides in relation to the past, particularly with regard to increased use of VIPs.

Contrast visitor and employee perceptions of what Glacier NP should be with its mandated purpose as a first step in developing an internal identity and a common context in which to make decisions.

Develop a methodology for gathering public input on compliance and planning documents and help to elucidate how to use that public input.

Investigate visitor perceptions of and priorities for different park values (e.g., recreation values vs. preservation values). Determine visitors' personal environmental values, and their understanding of ecological processes. Evaluate how important it is to visitors that some areas of Glacier NP remain wild, and that grizzlies and wolves are present. How important is it to visitors to see bears in the wild?

Determine visitors' views on the adequateness of park facilities, types of facilities visitors feel are needed, and visitor acceptance of inconveniences to preserve a more primitive experience.

Determine visitor understanding of what a National Park is, and why it has the regulations it has.

Examine visitor/employee interaction process: contacts (type, frequency, and reasons), visitor perceptions of NPS rangers, and adequacy of feedback from visitors to park. Specifically, how can we increase visitor participation in management activities, such as reporting bear sightings?

Identify significant interest groups and issues important in decision-making.

Determine visitor perceptions of resource impacts and their causes. To what extent do visitors notice resource impacts? Do they realize that some of their actions may cause resource damage?