The National Park Service (NPS) has designed a multi-resources monitoring program for the river corridor that accounts for natural and cultural resource conditions. The program will focus on areas affected by river recreation where the integrity of natural and cultural resources may be at risk. The program involves two data collection periods to assess the seasonal differences and use levels. The data collection is conducted on two river trips annually scheduled for the months of April and September, after the low use and high use seasons, respectively.
This annual monitoring program will provide the park with long-term data on how Grand Canyon resources are being affected by Colorado River use. An interdisciplinary group of park staff collects natural and cultural resource monitoring data at a rotating set of campsites in the Colorado River corridor. The campsites being monitored are a mix of high, moderate and low-use sites; some camps are monitored on a rotational basis and some are visited every trip. The NPS team monitors between 40 and 50 sites each trip.
At each camp vegetation surveys record cover class and species information at one meter quadrants along a 50 meter transect in both new high water and old high water zones. Avifauna specialists conduct bird point counts in both campsite and control areas. They work together to collect vegetation structure data. Archeologists conduct site monitoring for human and natural impacts at long-term monitored cultural sites, and also conduct inventories at common and emerging popular hike locations. Recreation specialists inventory indicators such as the number of social trails, tent pads in the old high water zone, evidences of human waste, urine/algae stains, pieces of “micro” and “macro” trash, camp furniture, and vegetation damage.
The 2007 trips gave the NPS resource staff the opportunity to field test methods and other aspects of the resource model. It will be several years before the overall trends become apparent. The April/September trips will continue in 2008. Reports from the 2007 trips are below.
(10.6kb PDF File )
(16kb PDF File)
