What's left for wildlife: Quantifying park visitation patterns to establish effective park area

Abstract

Protected areas around the world support biodiversity conservation by providing crucial habitat for wildlife species, as well as providing ecosystem services like recreational opportunities for their visitors. Visitation to protected areas has increased greatly over the last decade. Research in the field of recreation ecology attempts to understand the impact of increased visitation on protected area functioning. Studies have shown how visitors influence aspects of wildlife behavior and physiology, with the impact of visitors not confined to trails or roads, but extending at least 400m outwards. This suggests that the presence of visitors in protected areas like national parks reduces the park area that is usable by wildlife. Yellowstone National Park in the United States tracks total visitor numbers, but not visitor patterns of use across the park. For my senior thesis, I studied the distribution of visitors throughout the park using targeted surveys and found that visitors on trails, campsites, and roads in Yellowstone National Park reduce the park’s effective area by at least 15%. In addition, due to the overlap of high-use areas with wildlife territories, park visitors reduce the effective area of elk, bison and wolf territories in the park by an average of 20%. As the impact of visitation on wildlife will depend on the type of recreational activity, such as hiking, biking, or camping, future studies must continue to investigate the impact of different recreational activities, their effects on different wildlife species, and the extent to which visitation effects extend past trail and road boundaries. As visitation to protected areas continues to rise and visitors request additional trails and facilities, this research provides an initial assessment of the potential of park amenities to reduce park functionality and highlights the additional considerations needed to make intentional management strategies to benefit park users and wildlife.