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Mission of the National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world. The NPS core values are a framework in which the National Park Service accomplishes its mission. They express the manner in which, both individually and collectively, the National Park Service pursues its mission. The NPS core values are:
- Shared stewardship: We share a commitment to resource stewardship with the global preservation community.
- Excellence: We strive continually to learn and improve so that we may achieve the highest ideals of public service.
- Integrity: We deal honestly and fairly with the public and one another.
- Tradition: We are proud of it; we learn from it; we are not bound by it.
- Respect: We embrace each other’s differences so that we may enrich the well-being of everyone. The National Park Service is a bureau within the Department of the Interior. While numerous national park system units were created prior to 1916, it was not until August 25, 1916, that President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act formally establishing the National Park Service. The national park system continues to grow and comprises more than 400 park units covering more than 84 million acres in every state, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. These units include, but are not limited to, national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House. The variety and diversity of park units throughout the nation require a strong commitment to resource stewardship and management to ensure both the protection and enjoyment of these resources for future generations.
Introduction
Every unit of the national park system will have a foundational document to provide basic guidance for planning and management decisions—a foundation for planning and management. The core components of a foundation document include a brief description of the park as well as the park’s purpose, significance, fundamental resources and values, other important resources and values, and interpretive themes. The foundation document also includes special mandates and administrative commitments, an assessment of planning and data needs that identifies planning issues, planning products to be developed, and the associated studies and data required for park planning. Along with the core components, the assessment provides a focus for park planning activities and establishes a baseline from which planning documents are developed. A primary benefit of developing a foundation document is the opportunity to integrate and coordinate all kinds and levels of planning from a single, shared understanding of what is most important about the park. The process of developing a foundation document begins with gathering and integrating information about the park. Next, this information is refined and focused to determine what the most important attributes of the park are. The process of preparing a foundation document aids park managers, staff, and the public in identifying and clearly stating in one document the essential information that is necessary for park management to consider when determining future planning efforts, outlining key planning issues, and protecting resources and values that are integral to park purpose and identity. While not included in this document, a park atlas is also part of a foundation project. The atlas is a series of maps compiled from available geographic information system (GIS) data on natural and cultural resources, visitor use patterns, facilities, and other topics. It serves as a GIS-based support tool for planning and park operations. The atlas is published as a (hard copy) paper product and as geospatial data for use in a web mapping environment. The park atlas for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve can be accessed online at:http://insideparkatlas.nps.gov/.
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Part 1: Core Components
The core components of a foundation document include a brief description of the park, park purpose, significance statements, fundamental resources and values, other important resources and values, and interpretive themes. These components are core because they typically do not change over time. Core components are expected to be used in future planning and management efforts.
Brief Description of the Park
Located in southwestern Oregon in the Siskiyou Mountains at 4,000 to 4,360 feet in elevation, there exists a dynamic system of marble caves with limestone formations that started forming 330,000 years ago through calcium carbonate deposition. In 1909, by presidential executive order, Oregon Caves and its surrounding environment were identified as nationally significant and designated as a national monument for the enjoyment of future generations. The original designation was 480 acres. This small size almost immediately led to legislative proposals and plans for monument expansion so that the watershed that supports the caves, including old-growth mixed coniferous and deciduous forests, would be preserved. The addition of the 4,070-acre national preserve, signed into law on December 19, 2014, by an act of Congress, included the surrounding watershed and forest, adding new visitor opportunities and cultural and natural resources to the park unit. Visitors to the national monument and preserve will see natural waterfalls, mountain and subalpine meadows, alpine rock gardens, dozens of vegetation communities, and vistas of Mount Shasta. Glacial features in the preserve include cirques, tarns, montane ponds, erratics, windblown loess deposits, hanging valleys, faceted boulders, and moraines.
Preservation and protection of resources include management of fifteen plant communities, such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands. Assuring that the airflow, water flow, biology, and chemistry of surface and subsurface watersheds are reflective of natural cycles is essential to maintaining subsurface and surface environments and their interactions. Within the cave is a large assemblage of endemic cave-adapted invertebrates. The caves also provide a hibernaculum and roost for several bat species, including the Townsend’s big-eared bat, listed as threatened by the state of Oregon. All the caves in the park unit provide foraging and nesting sites for woodrats, which are a major food of the northern spotted owl, a federally listed species. Cougars and bears are common in the park. Deer are seen and Douglas squirrels are heard daily. For the past two decades, there has been a healthy population of fishers in or near the major waterways in the preserve. It has been proposed for federal listing as threatened. Visitors to the park’s main and only developed cave can tour through large twisted catacombs and view spectacular calcite-flowstone formations. During a tour with a guide, visitors can also learn about many other rich natural and cultural resource features of the caves and of the surrounding ecosystem. The area is one of the most concentrated examples of geodiversity in this hemisphere due to the presence of tilted rock slabs from back-arc and forearc basins, mid-ocean ridges, island arcs, and rifting volcanism from sinking seafloors, all stacked by massive tectonic forces against the continent and soldered by granitic welding. Five buildings and their associated landscape features, such as stone benches and original trails were designed and constructed by a private public partnership and are listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. The centerpiece of the historic district is the Chateau, a national historic landmark. This unique six-story, cedar bark-sided building was built in 1934 and still operates today, providing lodging and food service to park unit visitors. The nationally significant Chateau was designated a national historic landmark in 1987 because of its architecture and design. Other buildings in the national register historic district include the Chalet, Guide Dormitory, Ranger Residence, and the Kiosk.
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Park Purpose
The purpose statement identifies the specific reason(s) for establishment of a particular park. The purpose statement for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve was drafted through a careful analysis of the presidential proclamation for the monument signed into law on July 12, 1909, and legislation that created the preserve expansion on December 19, 2014, along with history that influenced the development of this park unit. The purpose statement lays the foundation for understanding what is most important about the park.
"Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve protects and preserves the scientific interest and the unusually diverse and concentrated biology and geology of an important solution cave system and watershed within the Siskiyou Mountains for the benefit, understanding, and enjoyment of the public."
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Park Significance
Significance statements express why a park’s resources and values are important enough to merit designation as a unit of the national park system. These statements are linked to the purpose of Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Statements of significance describe the distinctive nature of the park and why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. They focus on the most important resources and values that will assist in park planning and management. The following significance statements have been identified for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. (Please note that the sequence of the statements does not reflect the level of significance.)
- Complex Geology. Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve is an outstanding place to view one of the world’s most complete and complex arrays of geology. Visitors can see beautiful glacial features, along with marble cave passages that were transformed deep within the earth.
- Solution Cave Access. Oregon Caves is an excellent example of solution cave geology in the Pacific Northwest region and is easily reachable by the public.
- Fossils. The cave possesses a significant collection of well-preserved fossils, including one of the oldest American grizzly bear bones, the remains of a jaguar, and a bone tentatively identified as being from a short-faced bear. There also is a unique assemblage of trace fossils and subfossils that record much older and more recent habitat change.
- Historic Resources. The Oregon Caves Chateau, a national historic landmark, and the Oregon Caves Historic District are outstanding examples of public and private efforts to develop, manage, and protect the monument’s natural and recreational resources. The Chateau and designed landscape of the historic district exemplify the rustic– romantic architectural style of developed national park tourist facilities built in the early 20th century.
- Genetic Biodiversity. Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve contains a rich variety of habitat types that support unusually high genetic diversity, including one of the highest concentrations of endemics in North America and more single-cave endemics than any other cave in the western United States.
- Climate History. Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve protects dripstone chemistry and fossil deposits that record half a million years of detailed and accurate climate history and drastic climate change a quarter of a billion years ago. These caves thus provide an opportunity for scientific research and education about climate and habitat change.
- Wild and Scenic Rivers. Oregon Caves is home to the first subterranean National Wild and Scenic River, the River Styx. The River Styx and the other rivers in this watershed are critical to the sustained health of the cave and karst features.
Fundamental Resources and Values
Fundamental resources and values (FRVs) are those features, systems, processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or other attributes determined to warrant primary consideration during planning and management processes because they are essential to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance. Fundamental resources and values are closely related to a park’s legislative purpose and are more specific than significance statements. Fundamental resources and values help focus planning and management efforts on what is truly significant about the park. One of the most important responsibilities of NPS managers is to ensure the conservation and public enjoyment of those qualities that are essential (fundamental) to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance. If fundamental resources and values are allowed to deteriorate, the park purpose and/or significance could be jeopardized. The following fundamental resources and values have been identified for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve:
- Fossils and Diversity of Features. Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve contains a nationally significant collection of fossils that were preserved in the undisturbed confines of the cave environment for thousands of years. The past record of life at Oregon Caves consists of fossils, fossil traces, and subfossils. Fossils include one of the oldest American grizzly bear bones, dating back more than 50,000 years; jaguar remains dating back approximately 38,000 years; and a bone tentatively identified as being from a short-faced bear, the largest American land carnivore since the dinosaurs. There also is a unique assemblage of trace fossils and subfossils that record much older and more recent habitat change. Fossil traces, which date back approximately 250,000 years, include claw marks, paw prints, and carbon from microbes. Subfossils are less than 10,700 years old and include diverse assemblages of amphibians and the remains of half a dozen vertebrates no longer living at Oregon Caves.
- Endemic Species. The five scientifically described species endemic to Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve are part of one of the largest assemblages of single cave endemics in the United States. A high habitat diversity largely results from a high climate and soil diversity due to the region being next to oceans and geologically active plate margins for more than half a billion years. The habitat integrity of the area also contributes to habitat diversity and health of various species and wildlife populations. Whereas the cave reduces surface fluctuations that cause extinctions, a trout lily hybrid, an entire millipede family, and a grylloblattid insect on the surface also appear to be endemic to the park unit. A high habitat diversity on the surface ensures the successful establishment of migrants (some of which become cave endemics) and offers places to move to and survive climate change.
- Geologic Features and Processes. Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve features a concentrated variety of rock types, which provide visitors with opportunities to see and understand the geologic record from the inside out and in four dimensions. The cave features all three major rock types and their main subdivisions (volcanic, plutonic, chemical, clastic, contact, and regional). At least three ophiolites (seafloors on land) and other terranes (displaced rock formations with shared history) also illustrate the concentrated complexity of the park unit.
- Biodiversity from Surface and Subterranean Interaction, Including Cave and Noncave Endemics. The caves provide refuge for a vast diversity of species that are supported by the natural processes that occur between the caves and the surface. These processes include airflow, water flow, and migration of species. Biodiversity and healthy habitats are also supported by minimal disturbances within areas of the caves, such as lack of artificial light, noise, and habitat fragmentation. Accelerated climate change has been recorded as affecting or predicted to affect cave/surface biotic interactions, including the effects of reduced seasonal waterflow from less snowpack, more floods and droughts, migrations changes, and a greater metabolic need in certain species for food and water.
- The Chateau and the Historic District. The Chateau and the historic district strongly support the significance of the park unit. The architecturally significant Chateau includes the largest publicly owned collection of Monterey furniture, one of two styles that are purely American. The naturalistic design of the historic district (built waterfall, ponds, and a stream in the Chateau) helps augment the visitor experience. This district has 14 individual features that comprise a historic landscape in terms of form and function. They include:
- buildings and structures - Chateau, Chalet, Ranger Residence, Guide Dormitory, rock walls of local stone, and Kiosk
- circulation features - road system, walkways, trail system, parking areas
- small-scale structural features - rock-lined Cave Creek diversion pool system, four drywall benches on Big Tree Trail, peeled log pole roadway lighting standards
- Opportunity to Explore and Access the Complex Geology of the Cave System and Its Relationship to the Mountain Watershed. Visitors to the park have opportunities to explore the complex geologic beauty of the caves and to observe how water shapes lands from above and below the surface. The tight twisting and turning cave route provides visitors with opportunities to connect with a sense of discovery, adventure, and wonder. Trails lead visitors to scenic mountain vistas, glacial lakes, meadows, and waterfalls.
- Free-Flowing Water and Dependent Systems. Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve protects the first subterranean National Wild and Scenic River, the River Styx, as well as 15 miles of free-flowing and undeveloped watercourses, the surrounding area of Bigelow Lakes, and other wetlands. These rivers, streams, and mountain meadow wetlands have a large number of significant species that support habitats for unique communities of aquatic, riparian, terrestrial, and cave species. This pristine watershed is part of the headwater tributaries of the Illinois River, one of the last major undammed rivers in the Pacific Northwest. The complex, dynamic cave ecosystem is dependent on the pristine waters in the park unit for its continued existence and integrity.
Other Important Resources and Values
Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve contains other resources and values that are not fundamental to the purpose of the park and may be unrelated to its significance, but are important to consider in planning processes. These are referred to as “other important resources and values” (OIRV). These resources and values have been selected because they are important in the operation and management of the park and warrant special consideration in park planning. The following other important resources and values have been identified for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve:
- Partnerships. Support from public and private organizations has been essential in the creation or sustainability of Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. With long-term connections to the local community and a passion for the park unit, these partnerships are crucial for the protection of important resources such as the Chateau and allow expanded opportunities for visitors to understand and connect with the monument and preserve.
Interpretive Themes
Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a park—they define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to visitors about a park unit. Themes are derived from, and should reflect, park purpose, significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary for park staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore and relate to all park significance statements and fundamental and other important resources and values. Interpretive themes are an organizational tool that reveal and clarify meaning, concepts, contexts, and values represented by park resources. Sound themes are accurate and reflect current scholarship and science. They encourage exploration of the context in which events or natural processes occurred and the effects of those events and processes. Interpretive themes go beyond a mere description of the event or process to foster multiple opportunities to experience and consider the park and its resources. These themes help explain why a park story is relevant to people who may otherwise be unaware of connections they have to an event, time, or place associated with the park. The following interpretive themes have been identified for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve:
- Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve entices, enthralls, and overwhelms the imagination in our efforts to understand the astounding complexity of the awesome geological forces that sculpted glacial features, forged the mountains, and crystalized rock in and around the park.
- The Oregon Caves provide visitors with opportunities for a wondrous adventure through a marble cave in the Pacific Northwest where solution caverns are rare.
- The remarkable collection of fossils preserved within the Oregon Caves inspires us to contemplate past times, evolution, and the realization of our own impermanence.
- Nestled in the rugged contours of the Siskiyou Mountains, the Chateau, in the complementary context of the historic district, stirs the imagination and conjures nostalgic memories of travel, recreation, and affordable luxury in a bygone era.
- The concentration of biodiversity of the Siskiyou Mountains, which can be experienced on a small scale at Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, provides opportunities for intimate understanding and appreciation of the natural processes that are foundational to our survival.
- The Oregon Caves preserve a remarkable record of ecological, paleontological, and geological climate history dating back to before the dinosaurs, and provide opportunities for awe and understanding changes through time.
- The splashing burble of the River Styx echoes through the Oregon Caves, compelling us to explore its sources deep within the mountain and to understand the dynamic role of water as the life blood of a cave’s creation.
Part 2: Dynamic Components
The dynamic components of a foundation document include special mandates and administrative commitments and an assessment of planning and data needs. These components are dynamic because they will change over time. New special mandates can be established and new administrative commitments made. As conditions and trends of fundamental and other important resources and values change over time, the analysis of planning and data needs will need to be revisited and revised, along with key issues. Therefore, this part of the foundation document will be updated accordingly.
Special Mandates and Administrative Commitments
Many management decisions for a park unit are directed or influenced by special mandates and administrative commitments with other federal agencies, state and local governments, utility companies, partnering organizations, and other entities. Special mandates are requirements specific to a park that must be fulfilled. Mandates can be expressed in enabling legislation, in separate legislation following the establishment of the park, or through a judicial process. They may expand on park purpose or introduce elements unrelated to the purpose of the park. Administrative commitments are, in general, agreements that have been reached through formal, documented processes, often through memorandums of agreement. Examples include easements, rights-of-way, arrangements for emergency service responses, etc. Special mandates and administrative commitments can support, in many cases, a network of partnerships that help fulfill the objectives of the park and facilitate working relationships with other organizations. They are an essential component of managing and planning for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve.
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Special Mandates
National Wild and Scenic Rivers (2014).
In 2014, the Carl Levin and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (PL 113-291) designated the subterranean segment of Cave Creek, known as the River Styx, for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (PL 90-542) requires the National Park Service to protect and enhance the water quality, free-flowing condition, and outstandingly remarkable values of the River Styx. The river is to be managed with the goal of nondegradation and the enhancement of the values for which it was established. Section 4.3.4 of NPS Management Policies 2006 states that no management actions may be taken that could adversely affect the values that qualify a river for inclusion in the national wild and scenic rivers system.
Grazing and Voluntary Grazing Lease or Permit Donation Program (2014).
Grazing may continue on preserve lands where this activity is currently under permits or leases until the termination or retirement of those permits [PL 113-291; sec 3041 (c)(4)(A)]. With respect to the grazing permits for the Big Grayback Grazing Allotment and the Billy Mountain Grazing Allotment, the Secretary of the Interior shall accept the donation of grazing leases or permits and subsequently terminate these grazing permits or leases and ensure a permanent end to grazing on the lands covered by these grazing permits or leases [PL 113-291; sec 3041 (d)(1)(B)].
Fire Management (2014).
In accordance with the forthcoming revised fire management plan, the park unit will carry out hazardous fuel management activities within the boundaries of the national monument and preserve [PL 113-291; sec 3041 (c)(2)(B)].
Hunting and Fishing (2014).
Hunting and fishing will be allowed on land and waters within the national preserve in accordance with applicable federal and state laws. The unit may, in consultation with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, designate zones and periods where no hunting or fishing is permitted for reasons of public safety, administration, or compliance by the Secretary with any applicable law (including regulations) [PL 113-291; sec 3041 (c)(5)].
Existing Forest Service Contracts (2014).
The National Park Service will allow for the completion of any stewardship or service contracts that are already underway on preserve lands as of the date of transfer from the US Forest Service. The US Forest Service will be responsible for administering and closing out these contracts in accordance with the terms currently listed in those contracts [PL 113-291; sec 3041 (c)(3)].
Administrative Commitments
For more information about the existing administrative commitments for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, please see appendix C.
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Assessment of Planning and Data Needs
Once the core components of part 1 of the foundation document have been identified, it is important to gather and evaluate existing information about the park’s fundamental and other important resources and values, and develop a full assessment of the park’s planning and data needs. The assessment of planning and data needs section presents planning issues, the planning projects that will address these issues, and the associated information requirements for planning, such as resource inventories and data collection, including GIS data. There are three sections in the assessment of planning and data needs:
- analysis of fundamental and other important resources and values (see appendix B)
- identification of key issues and associated planning and data needs
- identification of planning and data needs (including spatial mapping activities or GIS maps) The analysis of fundamental and other important resources and values and identification of key issues leads up to and supports the identification of planning and data collection needs.
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Analysis of Fundamental Resources and Values
The fundamental resource or value analysis table includes current conditions, potential threats and opportunities, planning and data needs, and selected laws and NPS policies related to management of the identified resource or value. Please see appendix B for the analysis of fundamental and other important resources and values.
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Identification of Key Issues and Associated Planning and Data Needs
This section considers key issues to be addressed in planning and management and therefore takes a broader view over the primary focus of part 1. A key issue focuses on a question that is important for a park. Key issues often raise questions regarding park purpose and significance and fundamental resources and values. For example, a key issue may pertain to the potential for a fundamental resource or value in a park to be detrimentally affected by discretionary management decisions. A key issue may also address crucial questions that are not directly related to purpose and significance, but which still affect them indirectly. Usually, a key issue is one that a future planning effort or data collection needs to address and requires a decision by NPS managers.
The following are key issues for Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve and the associated planning and data needs to address them:
- Planning for Adaptation to Climate Change. Climate change, in conjunction with other stressors, is impacting many aspects of park management from natural and cultural resources to park operations and visitor experience. Regional warming may be moving invasive species northward, inland, or to higher elevations. Climatic change may affect some of the intersections of climate and soil gradients that yield the park unit’s current density of habitats, refugia, and niches. Climate change has the potential to change surface environments, which will affect potential organic input into the cave systems and the cave itself. Organic input into the park unit’s main cave consists mainly of molecules dissolved in water and secondarily of organic matter deposited by wildlife feces, urine, and corpses (resident bats, plants, and invertebrates) and plant matter. The primary main source supports bacterial populations that are the main food base for the cave’s invertebrates, both species only found in Oregon Caves and those more widespread. Climate change not only affects the amount of organics entering the cave but also affects the amount of wet surfaces in which microbial grazers are active. Although the caves may provide refugia for endemics even as surface conditions change for some time, sustained climate change may eventually change extinction rates of Oregon Caves’ endemics more than the variation in such rates from the past 10 million years. One possibility could be less organic input due to higher evaporation from soils and trees, while at the same time higher temperatures penetrating the cave would increase metabolic activity (including waking up bats) and oxidation of food. This would result in the need for more food at a time when there would be even less food in an already low food environment. Throughout the monument and preserve, infrastructure or vegetative resiliency will probably be threatened by an increased occurrence of catastrophic wildfires, and in the case of cultural resources, accelerated deterioration of historic structures due to higher temperatures and/or rainfall. Under some of the climate modeled projections for the region, fire frequencies could increase by 25% by 2100, snowpack may continue to decrease and reduce summer streamflow, and the frequency of heavy precipitation events could double. Studies in the last decade suggest that shrinking wetlands will release methane, regional warming will decrease dew points, and smoke from fires will reduce precipitation, thus increasing the likelihood of more extensive fires and smoke.
Associated high priority planning and data needs: Watershed infrastructure study, slope failure study, resource stewardship strategy, natural resources condition assessment
- Concession Sustainability. The park unit’s concentrated area of visitation, short season, and remote location make a sustainable concession operation difficult—this will continue to be an ongoing issue. Recently, funding and length of closure due to construction has dramatically increased the risks associated with concession operation, leading to an immediate issue with securing bids for a new contract. Any lapse in a concession contract would make reinstatement much more difficult.
Associated high priority planning and data needs: Strategic plan
- Maintenance of Facilities and Infrastructure. The park unit contains expensive building infrastructure with significant ongoing maintenance costs and a growing maintenance backlog, including a newly acquired campground in need of rehabilitation. Maintaining and upgrading all facilities and infrastructure and ensuring visitor use facilities are safe and accessible are complicated by funding cycles and restrictions. The designs of historic buildings, especially, create challenges for updates and improvements. Both the Chateau and Chalet require expensive upgrades and restoration. The unique and historic Chateau siding is made of Port Orford cedar (there is no source for replacing this siding if needed). Slope movement uphill of the Chateau threatens its long-term stability. Some irreplaceable National Register of Historic Places properties are in extremely confined and indefensible space settings, adding another element of risk to investment. Available financial resources may never completely address ongoing facility needs, perhaps requiring difficult decisions about retention and uses. The sources and piping for the park unit’s drinking water within the monument and preserve boundary and will probably need to be replaced with better infrastructure.
Associated high priority planning and data needs: Watershed infrastructure study, slope failure study, resource stewardship strategy, natural resources condition assessment, strategic plan, preserve recreational and operations management plan
- Reaching Visitors and Building Support. Determining the acceptable amount of time that visitors wait for a cave tour is a challenge. Recruitment and retention of qualified guides to give cave tours is difficult. As of 2015, long wait times and daily tour closures 3–5 hours before the advertised time is common during the summer months. Ensuring consistent and high-quality staffing, both below and above ground, to serve arriving visitors efficiently would require the balancing of many factors. Most visitors waiting for a cave tour do not express much interest in interpretive programs or activities, including hiking, other than the cave tour. As the monument and preserve face increasing challenges from climate change and watershed impacts, building visitor appreciation of these issues and building local support for the park unit becomes increasingly important. The interpretive program lacks sufficient staff and tools, including identification of priorities, to capitalize on these opportunities. Many people are unaware of the park-related science, ecosystem benefits, and economic impacts that have increasing relevance to their lives and those of their children. The park lacks the capacity to sustain existing social media and recognize and respond to new and popular media trends needed for key visitor demographic groups. Because of this, many opportunities to prepare and disseminate information about the surface areas of the monument and preserve are lost.
Associated high priority planning and data needs: Long-range interpretive plan, strategic plan
- Watershed Management and Protection. The recently designated preserve lands add to the list of species, ecosystems, roads, and infrastructure managed by the National Park Service. Long-term protection of the watershed is important to ensure enduring conservation of the park unit’s fundamental resources and values and water for drinking, fire protection, and sanitation. The caves, creeks, and water supply are affected by land uses in and adjacent to the monument and preserve, which are surrounded by a managed forest ecosystem. Dissolved organics entering the caves have been altered by past land uses and by fire suppression within the park unit. Important risk factors for the caves and water supply include fuel loads, forest and soil health, and the effects of livestock grazing. Port Orford cedar, an important species in watershed management for shading streams while alive and making diverse slope gradients (plunge pools, etc.) for aquatic life when they fall, is threatened by a root disease caused by a water mold.
Associated high priority planning and data needs: Watershed infrastructure study, resource stewardship strategy, natural resources condition assessment, preserve recreational and operations management plan, wild and scenic rivers eligibility and suitability study, comprehensive river management plan
Other Important Issues
In addition to the key issues described above, several other important monument and preserve issues were identified: · White-Nose Syndrome. Bat populations and public cave tours are potentially threatened by the arrival of white-nose syndrome, a fungus that is jeopardizing bat populations nationwide as it moves across the country. If the fungus eventually reaches Oregon, management might have to suspend cave tours to protect remnant populations or at least initiate more intensive decontamination for all visitors so as to possibly delay the spread of white-nose syndrome into Oregon Caves.
- Information Management. The park lacks an organized analysis of data already collected to support active, consistent, and streamlined management of natural resources. Archival collections require updating by professional archivists, for which funding is not readily available.
- Social Science. There are few studies or even literature searches on relevant studies outside the park unit on communication, ethnography, politics, and economics, yet these sciences are crucial for understanding the cultural history of the monument and preserve.
Planning and Data Needs
To maintain connection to the core elements of the foundation and the importance of these core foundation elements, the planning and data needs listed here are directly related to protecting fundamental resources and values, park significance, and park purpose, as well as addressing key issues. To successfully undertake a planning effort, information from sources such as inventories, studies, research activities, and analyses may be required to provide adequate knowledge of park resources and visitor information. Such information sources have been identified as data needs. Geospatial mapping tasks and products are included in data needs.
Items considered of the utmost importance were identified as high priority, and other items identified but not rising to the level of high priority, were listed as either medium- or lowpriority needs. These priorities inform park management efforts to secure funding and support for planning projects.
Criteria and Considerations for Prioritization. The following criteria were used to evaluate the priority of each planning or data need:
- emergency / urgency of the issue
- prevention of resource degradation or impairment
- ability of the plan to address multiple or interrelated issues
- ability to impact visitor use and experience
- funding availability
- feasibility of completion
High Priority Planning Needs
Preserve Recreational and Operations Management Plan.
Rationale and scope — The new preserve includes a variety of facilities including a campground, roads, water lines and trails, as well as new management responsibilities, including managing of hunting, fishing, and a legacy grazing allotment. In addition, the gateway communities view the designation of the preserve as an opportunity to provide expanded recreation opportunities to visitors which would entail starting a program for commercial use authorization permits and initiating new interpretive programs. This plan would address these issues and others with a comprehensive approach to management of the preserve. The fire management plan revision, comprehensive river management plan for the River Styx, wild and scenic river eligibility and suitability studies, and boundary survey of preserve lands or some combination of these, could also be included within this planning effort.
Strategic Plan.
Rationale and scope — Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve lacks a multiyear plan for operations and funding that is guided by a long-term vision for the park. A strategic plan would address this need by setting goals and priorities to address the most pressing operational, organizational, administrative, and resource issues, including budget resiliency, commercial services, and the alignment of staff, partners, and project funding with park unit priorities. Specific components of the process include identifying the most significant challenges and opportunities facing the park or program, figuring out how to address those challenges and opportunities, and following through with effective implementation. The overall intent of strategic planning is to focus employee attention and energy on effectively addressing the biggest issues in a timely manner. The strategic planning process would evaluate what can be accomplished within the constraints of funding limitations, and would include a “drop duty analysis.” This evaluation helps to identify staff positions that need to be filled. The strategic plan would also help assess current operations and gaps in the context of the budget and would inform development of a potential workforce management/staffing management plan.
Long-Range Interpretive Plan.
Rationale and scope — The 2002 long-range interpretive plan was written at a time when the monument had not been conducting cave tours for very long. With the benefit of an additional 12 years of experience, the monument and preserve needs a plan that better addresses visitor demographics, relevancy, interpretive techniques, and staff considerations. The long-range interpretive plan would identify interpretive programs, techniques, products, and locations, training needs, and funding sources. Staff recruitment and retention would be addressed, as well as partner opportunities. Interpretive themes would be refined. Relevancy to diverse audiences, particularly youth and millennials, would be emphasized.
Resource Stewardship Strategy.
Rationale and scope — The park needs to define integrated and specific desired future natural and cultural resource condition goals. Adaptive management approaches to mitigate threats from human land use and increase the resiliency of ecological resources and processes to account for changing climate scenarios need to be developed in a multidisciplinary format. The plan would identify all known cultural and natural resources in the park unit, identify current conditions and trends if possible, and prioritize management strategies to protect resources. The resource stewardship strategy would identify conservation objectives and potential activities for managing resources as well as implementation strategies, including inventory and monitoring, project management, restoration, and research. The document would also consider resource condition in addition to funding and staffing requirements.
Fire Management Plan Revision.
Rationale and scope — In December 2014, Oregon Caves was expanded to include additional lands. As a part of this legislation (PL 113-291), Oregon Caves was directed to “revise the fire management plan for the monument and preserve to include the [newly added lands].” This updated fire management plan would help this park unit to carry out hazardous fuel management activities within the boundaries of the national monument and preserve.
Comprehensive River Management Plan.
Rationale and scope — To meet the requirements of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, section 3(d)(1), the monument shall prepare a comprehensive management plan for the River Styx to provide for the protection of its values. The plan shall address resource protection, development of facilities, user capacities, and other management practices necessary or desirable to achieve the purposes of the act.
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High Priority Data Needs
Slope Failure Study.
Rationale and scope — The monument and preserve needs additional information to protect important assets, including the Chateau and lower parking lot, from slope failure on the hillsides above, ensuring continued public access, as well as protecting visitor experiences in the historic district. The study would determine the probability and speed of failure, as well as the rates of impact on park unit assets. Data collection techniques would probably include ground-penetrating radar, water pressure core analysis, and stress testing. A comparison of data to determine rates of change would follow. The outcomes of the study would help determine annual measurement and mitigation needs. If slope failure is found to be advancing, further investigation to determine whether conditions of closure and/or evacuations exist and would be necessary.
Watershed Infrastructure Study.
Rationale and scope — A watershed infrastructure study is needed to support water supply protection. A consistent water supply from the surrounding watershed, in quantity and quality, is needed to sustain natural resources, provide for visitor and staff consumption and sanitation, and ensure the park unit’s ability to protect its natural, cultural, and structural assets from fire. A better understanding of the sources, flows, and slope failure potential within the watershed would assist the park in preparing for future scenarios. Data collection would include all related factors, including source points, flow, discharge, system input, loss, gains, potential climate futures, and identification of secondary and tertiary sources. New and previously known springs would be mapped as needed.
Wild and Scenic Rivers Eligibility and Suitability Study.
Rationale and scope — In December of 2014, section 5(a) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (16 USC 1276(a) was amended to designate five segments of rivers and streams as potential additions to the national wild and scenic rivers system. (These include Cave Creek, Lake Creek, No Name Creek, Panther Creek and Upper Cave Creek.) This study would be conducted in accordance with the guidelines established in sections 4(a), 5(c), and 6(c) for wild and scenic river designation to determine the eligibility, suitability, and classification for these segments of river.
Natural Resources Condition Assessment.
Rationale and scope — A necessary precursor to the resource stewardship strategy, the natural resource condition assessment would summarize the current conditions of natural resources within the boundaries of the preserve and monument for a subset of natural resources and resource indicators. The assessment would report on trends and data gaps and report the general level of confidence for final assessments.
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Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve
Vicki Snitzler, Superintendent
Alicia Alvarado, Administrative Officer
George Herring, Chief of Interpretation
John Roth, Resource Management Specialist
John Taerea, Chief of Maintenance
Lynne Stokes, Chief Ranger
Laurie Tuohy, Operations Specialist
Christopher Willis, Media Specialist
Emily Cole, Visitor Services Assistant
Emily Ring, Physical Science Technician
NPS Pacific West Region
Brad Phillips, Planning Liaison, Pacific West Region
Brenden McLane, Cartographic Technician, Pacific West Region
Other NPS Staff
Ericka Pilcher, Project Manager, Denver Service Center-Planning
Jennifer Stein, Project Specialist, Denver Service Center-Planning
Rachel Collins, Project Specialist, Denver Service Center-Planning
Peter Pettengill, Project Specialist, Denver Service Center-Planning
John Paul Jones, Visual Information Specialist, Denver Service Center-Planning
Ken Bingenheimer, Contract Editor, Denver Service Center-Planning
Tabitha Carver-Roberts, Contract Editor, Denver Service Center-Planning
Melody Bentfield, Cherokee Nation Government Solutions, Contractor Librarian, Denver Service Center-Planning
Partners
Karen Chase, Board Member, Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau
Menno Kraai, Executive Director, Oregon Caves Outfitters
Vicki Grieve, Executive Director, Oregon Caves Natural History Association
Sierra Papas, Assistant Manager for the Natural History Association at Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve
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