Positive Takeaways?

Field vest on, boots tied, and bug jacket zipped: Denali's natural resource team and others are heading out to study the changing landscape. Forests around Denali are now at the forefront of spruce beetle impacts. This attracts and supports many valuable research opportunities.

Across Alaska, forest managers and university researchers have conducted many studies on spruce beetles and their effects. Many have explored new methods. Topics have ranged from understanding spruce beetle populations, to wildlife impacts, to long-term forest health.

National parks, such as Denali, can be great places for observation and research. Parks often have a history of conducting monitoring and respecting natural processes. Long-term monitoring projects run by park staff often capture pre-disturbance conditions. Once a natural disturbance like spruce beetle moves through, then there is an opportunity to capture the effects. In monitoring how a forest responds to natural events like spruce beetle infestation, managers and scientists learn more about how forest ecosystems adapt to change in general.

 

Left: A funnel trap tied between spruce will trap spruce beetles in flight and allow for estimates of local beetle populations. Right: Measuring tapes help researchers systematically demarcate space in the forest. These and other tools assist in taking repeated measures of forest change over time.

NPS Illustrations / M. Perez

Forest Disturbance Research Stories

• Working Together to Track Forest Change
• Boreal Blights—What's Happening to the Forest?
• Assessing the Risk of Denali's Forests to Spruce Beetle Outbreak

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