Effects of winter recreation on wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone area : a literature review and assessment

Authors(s): T. Oliff, K. Legg and B. Kaeding

Publication:

Publisher:

Publication Date: 0000-00-00

Type: literature review and assessment

Location: Washington DC

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Since the first snowmobiles entered Yellowstone National Park in 1963, the number and types of winter recreationists have steadily increased. While media attention has focused on Yellowstone National Park, winter recreation on public lands throughout the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) has increased as well, for example snowmobilers in the Lionshead/Two-Top, Island Park, and Cooke City areas; skiers around Cooke City and Teton Pass; and snowshoers, dog sledders, and resort skiers throughout the ecosystem. Many of these activities have experienced explosive growth in the last decade. In 1990, Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks issued the Winter Use Plan for the two parks following public involvement and an environmental assessment. At the time, winter visitation in the parks was about 123,000 visitors. The plan forecast that winter use of the parks would not increase quickly and would not reach 140,000 (the high projection) for 10 years. However, that use level was reached by the 1992?93 winter, and, as directed by the plan, the parks began to address use levels by developing a process to assess visitor use. Because winter use of the parks is only a portion of the winter use that occurs in the GYA, the other members of the Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee (GYCC) shared many of the same concerns of park managers. In April 1994, the GYCC chartered a team made up of staff from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and Gallatin, Targhee, Shoshone, Bridger?Teton, Custer, and Beaverhead?Deerlodge national forests to study winter visitor use issues and to develop an assessment of use. This assessment, titled Winter Visitor Use: A Multi-Agency Assessment,Assessment, showed that human use is not only increasing, but it is also expanding into areas that received little or no use in the past. Groomed snowmobile trails as well as some cross-country ski trails, particularly on national forest lands, are being expanded to accommodate this increase. In 1995 the national parks conducted a scientifically based survey of its visitors. While many activities were listed as important, 93 percent of visitors to Yellowstone and 89 percent of visitors to Grand Teton rated wildlife as ?very important? or ?extremely important.? Land managers, area residents, and the visiting public are concerned about the effect that the current levels of winter recreation may be having on the natural environment and wildlife. Human activities continue to expand into wildlife habitats. To minimize the impacts of these activities, wildlife managers need to be aware of the effects of these activities and to understand how to mitigate for them. While much of the information in this document will be useful in areas beyond the GYA, the document does focus on many issues specific to this area. For example, one task accomplished through the visitor use management process was to describe the entire Greater Yellowstone Area in terms of Potential Opportunity Areas (POAs). Potential Opportunity Areas describe an area?s recreation potential, not necessarily its existing condition. The experiences range from those that are easily accessible and highly developed to those that are considered remote backcountry experiences. Complete descriptions of POAs can be found in Appendix II. How wildlife could be affected in various POAs is described in this review. The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines for managing winter recreational use in the context of preserving wildlife populations. Several topics are discussed, including the current population status and trend of the individual species, relevant life history data, information on winter habitat use, summaries of studies on the influence of human activities on individual species in the winter, and the potential effects of specific winter recreational uses on those species. Papers that were peerreviewed prior to the compilation of these papers are noted as such. All papers were subject to a joint review process by biologists and managers before being submitted to the final editing process.

Keywords: Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, human activity, animal, mammal, wildlife, management, habitat, bibliography, bird, habitat, Teton Mountain Range, Targhee National Forest, Bridger-Teton National Forest