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  5. Supporting the National Park Service Midwest Region Bison Management Plan

Supporting the National Park Service Midwest Region Bison Management Plan

Convening Managers and Scientists to Support the National Park Service Midwest Region Strategic Bison Management Plan
Principal Investigator
Amy Symstad

Dates

Start Date
2018-07-13
End Date
2019-09-18
Release Date
2018

Summary

The bison, which has long served as the symbol of the Department of the Interior, became the official national mammal of the United States in 2016. Bison played a key role in shaping the grasslands of the Great Plains for millennia, but today they are confined to unnaturally small ranges. National parks, including four in the Great Plains, provide a major last bastion for wild bison. Herds in Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota are wild in that their movements are unconstrained within their park’s designated bison range, they receive no supplemental feed, minerals, or veterinary attention, and social interactions [...]

Child Items (3)

Contacts

Principal Investigator :
Amy Symstad
Co-Investigator :
Nicole Athearn, Brian Miller
Funding Agency :
North Central CASC
CMS Group :
Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASC) Program

Attached Files

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Bison_GrandTetonNP_LauraThompson_USGS2.JPG
“Bison in Grand Teton NP, Laura Thompson, USGS - Credit” 		thumbnail 3 MB image/jpeg

Purpose

: Bison have played a key role in shaping the grasslands of the Great Plains for millennia. National parks are a major last bastion for wild herds of the national mammal and symbol of the Department of the Interior. However, even as the National Park Service (NPS) aims to maintain as natural as possible ecosystem conditions within its parks’ boundaries, managers regularly make decisions affecting their bison herds to sustain the health of bison populations, plant communities that support them, and other wildlife species. To date, most of those decisions have been made at the park level and have heavily focused on this single species. A new NPS initiative to develop a Midwest Region (MWR) Strategic Bison Management Plan strives to increase managers’ consideration of a broader context when making these and other decisions in order to achieve region-wide objectives. As part of this effort, the NPS MWR Bison Leadership Team recently identified the need for a tool that can integrate the array of available information in order to (1) evaluate the feasibility of attaining desired conditions for a variety of ecosystem components under a range of management and climate scenarios, and adjust those desired conditions as necessary (desired conditions will form an important framework for the strategic plan); (2) inform annual decision making by assessing how short-term decisions may affect their ability to achieve long-term desired conditions; and (3) provide transparency for this annual decision making. The NPS MWR Bison Leadership Team has secured funds to develop this tool, but before that development can begin, the team must articulate what it wants and needs in that tool. This project will convene planning meetings to achieve this articulation, build relationships between the managers and scientists who will build the tool, and ensure scientist-manager co-production of the tool.

Project Extension

parts
typeTechnical Summary
valueBison have played a key role in shaping the grasslands of the Great Plains for millennia. National Parks are a major last bastion for wild bison herds, but even as the National Park Service (NPS) aims to maintain “natural” ecosystem conditions within its parks’ boundaries, managers regularly make decisions affecting their bison herds. A new NPS initiative to develop a Midwest Region (MWR) Strategic Bison Management Plan strives to increase managers’ consideration of more than just their park’s bison when making these and other decisions. As part of this effort, the NPS MWR Bison Leadership Team recently identified the need for a tool that integrates available information in order to (1) evaluate the feasibility of attaining desired population and ecosystem conditions under a range of management and climate scenarios, and adjust those desired conditions as necessary (desired conditions will form an important framework for the strategic plan); (2) inform annual decision making by assessing how short-term decisions may affect their ability to achieve long-term desired conditions; and (3) provide transparency for this annual decision making. The NPS MWR Bison Leadership Team has secured funds to develop this tool, but before that development can begin, the team must articulate what it wants and needs in that tool. This project will convene two planning meetings to achieve this articulation, build relationships between the managers and scientists who will build the tool, and ensure scientist-manager co-production of the tool. Project leads Amy Symstad (Research Ecologist, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center), Nicole Athearn (Research Coordinator, NPS Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit), and Brian Miller (Research Ecologist, DOI North Central Climate Science Center) will provide expertise in Great Plains ecology and modeling for decision making, as well as meeting facilitation skills, to the meetings. Meetings will include park managers, NPS regional decision makers, NPS biologists, and USGS and university scientists. Meeting attendees will work together to produce two products: (1) a Detailed Implementation Plan for the production of the identified tool, and (2) a strategy for further work needed to accomplish all needs identified for the MWR Bison Strategic Management Plan.
projectStatusCompleted

Budget Extension

annualBudgets
year2018
totalFunds9908.0
year2018
totalFunds6516.0
parts
typeAward Type
valueCOA & IAA
typeCOA Number
valueC18000392
typeIAA Number
valueG18PG00137
totalFunds16424.0

Bison in Grand Teton NP, Laura Thompson, USGS - Credit
Bison in Grand Teton NP, Laura Thompson, USGS - Credit

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  • National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers
  • North Central CASC

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Type Scheme Key
RegistrationUUID NCCWSC 8596d83f-368c-482f-acf2-bd254f743ded
StampID NCCWSC NC18-SA1327

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