Soundscapes monitoring and an overflight advisory group: Informing real-time management decisions at Denali
Dates
Year
2009
Citation
Withers, Jared, and Adema, Guy, 2009, Soundscapes monitoring and an overflight advisory group: Informing real-time management decisions at Denali: Park Science, v. 26, no. 3, p. 1-7.
Summary
In order to properly manage this vast wilderness, the park completed a major amendment to its general management plan in 2006, a comprehensive backcountry management plan and environmental impact statement (BCMP). The backcountry management plan is the result of a public process that took eight years and included specific management goals for Denali’s variety of backcountry lands: designated wilderness, suitable wilderness, national preserve, national park, and other undeveloped park lands. The plan created management zones to accommodate a range of backcountry users accessing the park in a variety of ways, such as day hikers, backpackers, mountain climbers, snow machiners, and hunters. Soundscape is a critical resource specifically [...]
Summary
In order to properly manage this vast wilderness, the park completed a major amendment to its general management plan in 2006, a comprehensive backcountry management plan and environmental impact statement (BCMP). The backcountry management plan is the result of a public process that took eight years and included specific management goals for Denali’s variety of backcountry lands: designated wilderness, suitable wilderness, national preserve, national park, and other undeveloped park lands. The plan created management zones to accommodate a range of backcountry users accessing the park in a variety of ways, such as day hikers, backpackers, mountain climbers, snow machiners, and hunters. Soundscape is a critical resource specifically addressed in the backcountry management plan. Three acoustic indicators were established with standards defined for each of the various management zones created by the plan. 1. Percentage of any hour when motorized noise is audible 2. Number of motorized noise intrusions per day that exceed natural ambient sound 3. Maximum motorized noise level Denali initiated soundscape measurements in 2000 in order to establish acoustic standards for the forthcoming backcountry management plan and in response to Director’s Order 47, which articulates operation policies for protection, maintenance, and restoration of the natural soundscape resource. Upon completion of the plan, this pilot program developed into a protocol designed systematically to sample the soundscape of the entire park at a landscape scale, with the objectives of inventorying current conditions, long-term trend analysis, and informing park management’s implementation of the plan.