Glacier National Park is one of the crown jewels of the National Park System.  Glacier is a hiker's National Park, with only 100 miles of roads, but over 700 miles of historic and scenic trails. This project has been developed in order to help park visitors not only better enjoy the scenic vistas within the park, but also to appreciate the parks wildlife.

One of the main challenges to locating wildlife in a park is knowing where to look in the first place. Thus we have used a GIS based analysis to evaluate the habitat patterns of three charismatic wildlife species in an initial 10 km by 10 km study area in the popular Many Glacier area. This will provide visitors with a better guide to understanding where animals might be and explain why each animal would exist in the area.

The design team selected beaver, elk and bighorn sheep for their varying habitat, available habitat suitability indices, and general charisma and interest to the general public.

One of the goals of the National Park Service Fire Program is to estimate the number of hectares expected to burn in wildfires in national parks across the United States.  The LANDFIRE (Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project) project has created data products in an effort to support this goal. Additionally, a joint project between the National Park Service and the United States Geological Survey has created burn severity analyses for many historic fires in national parks. Our group will use both LANDFIRE data and burn severity data in our analysis of Yosemite National Park.

The purpose of the project is to predict the number of hectares expected to burn in Yosemite National Park using LANDFIRE data on existing vegetation type and mean fire return interval.  Another goal is to characterize the area in Yosemite National Park by fire regime condition class, which is a measure of the amount current vegetation has departed from simulated historical vegetation reference conditions. Finally, burn severity data was used to characterize historic fires from 2004 to 2006 in Yosemite National Park.

The purpose of this website is to provide potential Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) patrons with a means to more effectively plan hikes that cater to their specific needs. The trails in RMNP have been analyzed using ArcGIS to determine trail difficulty ratings, theme-based hikes including: hikes to lakes, waterfalls, mountian summits, historic structures, and family oriented hikes, as well as to provide detailed maps of RMNP and the trails within RMNP. GIS analysis methods are also provided as well as links to the base information and other useful information for potential park-goers.

This website is designed to characterize trails within Florissant National Monument based on the diversity of present-day vegetation communities, the diversity of geologic formations directly underfoot, and general descriptors such as their length and elevation profile. The goal is to provide spatially-explicit information to prospective visitors so they can choose hikes best suited to their interests. To do this, we have utilized spatial data from the National Park Service as well as a tool called Geographic Information Systems, which is commonly refered to as GIS. For more details on our analytical techniques, we invite you to visit the GIS Concepts section of our webpage. Otherwise, you can peruse through the other sections to find specific information on the types of vegetation communities and geologic formations within the Monument, as well as spatially-explicit guides to each of the 8 trails. This project was made possible by the skills we acquired in Dr. Melinda Laituri's GIS class in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University.

National Park Service Fire Management In The Intermountain West Region

A better understanding of the role of fire in ecosystem dynamics has tempered the demand for all out suppression of fires and has also led to the use of prescribed natural fire management and wildland fire use for resource benefit (Rollins et al. 2001).  This transition in fire management depends largely on how well technology is integrated and applied to allow managers to restore fire while minimizing negative social consequences (Gollberg et al. 2001).  To be achieved, reform requires better development, dissemination, and utilization of scientifically based information to assist in efficient formulation and implementation of policy (Franklin and Agee 2003, Stephens and Ruth 2005).  Recognizing this opportunity, we have used GIS technology as a tool to try and disseminate information of Wildland Fire Use for the Intermountain Region (IMR) of National Park Service (NPS) lands.

Our research goals were to: 1. develop a map for NPS and general public use that identifies Wildland Fire Use areas.  2. determine that mean acreage is similar for Wildland Fire Use Areas and non-Wildland Fire Use Areas within the NPS IMR.

Interactive Trail Map for Winter Activities in Rocky Mountain National Park

Our goal was to create a user friendly interactive map of winter activity trails and areas in Rocky Mountain National Park for general public use. Six trails on the eastern slope were identified as suitable for hiking, cross country skiing and/or snow shoeing. A winter play/sledding area at Hidden Valley was also included.

GIS files of the park, park boundary, roads, trails, and trailheads were used to create a map of the winter activity areas. Each trail can be "clicked on" and more information on the trail made available such as directions to the trail, trailhead, trail distance, change in elevation, difficulty and unique features. A trail comparision chart is also included. Using one of the trails, Deer Mountain Trail, a viewshed analysis was performed and the resulting map of the view from several points on the trail is presented.

The purpose of this project was to ascertain the effectiveness of GIS to predict avalanche prone areas near Aspen, CO using available datasets, and GIS analytical tools and methods. The final result was a thematic map of avalanche prone areas in the Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Aspen Highlands Bowl areas SW of Aspen, CO.