Integrating Citizen Science into the Elk & Vegetation Management Program in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Kevin McCartney¹ & Richard E.W. Berl²

¹ Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, CSU

² Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, CSU

Introduction

• Elk (Cervus elaphus), reintroduced in 1913-14, have exceeded their carrying capacity in RMNP
• Overbrowsing of aspen & willow, negative downstream effects on biodiversity
• NPS instituted its Elk & Vegetation Management Plan (“EVMP”) in 2008
• Primary management tool is culling
• Requires annual estimation of elk population numbers & monitoring of plant communities

Research Questions

1. Where and in what ways does elk herbivory impact plant communities in Rocky Mountain National Park?
1. How is community composition affected?
2. How is the regeneration of aspen and willow specifically affected?
3. Are there differences in rates of herbivory between riparian and non-riparian habitats, or between core and non-core elk range?
2. Can elk management strategies be improved to encourage and maintain healthy plant communities in Rocky Mountain National Park?
• Are current methods of estimating elk populations accurate and sufficient?
• Are current management strategies, including culling, reaching target population quotas?
• Are there viable alternatives or additional methods that can be used?
3. How can contributions from citizen science lead to improved plant community health in Rocky Mountain National Park and help to achieve National Park Service goals?

Introducing Citizen Science

• Volunteers follow protocols to gather seasonal data about aspen and willow at existing sites
• Opportunistic data on elk sightings
• Project objectives will be defined and outcomes measured
• Phases of the citizen science project follow (Citizen Scientist Toolkit; Bonney et al., 2009; Fauver et al., in prep)

1 Form a Project Team

• Park Service
• Volunteer Coordinator/Project Manager
• Botanist
• Wildlife Biologist
• Land Manager
• USGS Data Analyst
• University Researcher

2 Develop Protocols and Training Materials

• Protocols
• Suit citizen scientists
• Specify how to handle uncertainty
• Elk monitoring—new protocol
• Training materials will be created for executing protocols

3 Recruit Participants

• Approaches
• Park’s existing volunteer program web page
• Flyers and talks at visitor centers
• University Researcher involvement
• Advertisements target most likely interests in project (Rotman et al., 2012)

4 Train Participants

• Training pilot
• New volunteers scrutinize presentations, materials, protocols
• Provide feedback
• Incorporating comments betters instruction
• Treat volunteers as students; they’ll seek more knowledge (Rotman et al., 2012)

5 Collect Data

• Seasonal counts of plant species of interest
• Transects, within and outside elk exclosures
• Aspen, willow, upland shrub (Zeigenfuss et al., 2011)
• Seasonal individual plant measurements (Zeigenfuss et al., 2011; Arellano et al., 2011)
• Total height, circumference, longest stem length
• Percentage of shoots browsed or presence/absence of browsing
• Percentage of aspen or willow cover
• Percentage of dead canopy
• Seasonal and opportunistic counts of elk
• Geolocation data (where possible) or rough description of area
• Number of animals, age structure, sex

6 Analyze Data

• Data infrastructure
• Quality control
• Access to data and analysis tools
• Managers, participants
• Collaboration with end users (i.e. NPS)
• Local opportunities for scientific data use
• Workshops in Estes Park/Fort Collins/Boulder

7 Retain Participants

• Ongoing Incentives (Rotman et al., 2012)
• Recognition & Rewards
• Attribution
• Gamification
• Public Metrics & Leaderboards
• Feedback
• Data Visualization
• Data Quality
• Opportunities for Training
• Community Involvement & Advocacy
• Social Capital

8 Disseminate Results

• Scientific publications, presentations
• Inclusion of key contributors as co-authors
• Technical reports
• “Grey literature” for and by RMNP/NPS
• Popular media
• Newsletters and other RMNP/NPS publications
• Opportunity to enhance relationship with surrounding communities

9 Measure Outcomes

• End Users: RMNP, National Park Service
• Other Collaborative Stakeholders
• Town of Estes Park, Estes Valley Recreation and Parks District, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Grand County, Larimer County, Town of Grand Lake, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Forest Service
• Participants
• RMNP Visitors & General Public
• Local Ecology & Environment

Costs and Benefits

1. Costs
1. New roles and responsibilities
2. Quality assurance for data
3. Disseminating results
4. Producing training materials and protocols
2. Benefits
• Frees up park service staff
• Opportunity for more frequent monitoring
• Park service-volunteer and volunteer-volunteer relationships
• Educates citizens about elk herbivory, biology, ecology
• Broadens local communities’ understanding of EVMP and need to manage elk

Conclusions

Incorporating citizen science into the EVMP can create a more robust, collaborative project that benefits both park service and public

Following best practices of citizen science project design would set this project up for success

References

• Arellano, M., Brunner, N., Geuder, S., & Shoppell, K. (2011). A study of the effectiveness of Rocky Mountain National Park elk and vegetation management techniques (Thesis).
• Bonney, R., Cooper, C. B., Dickinson, J., Kelling, S., Phillips, T., Rosenberg, K. V., & Shirk, J. (2009). Citizen science: A developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy. BioScience, 59(11), 977-984.
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (2011). Citizen science toolkit. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/toolkit
• Fauver, B. M., Newman, G., Scarpino, R., Masching, A., Mueller, M., Schafer, S., Strouse, C., & Ivory, N. (in prep). Intentional implementation of citizen science: Economic decision making of natural resource managers.
• Rotman, D., Preece, J., Hammock, J., Procita, K., Hansen, D., Parr, C., Lewis, D., & Jacobs, D. (2012, February). Dynamic changes in motivation in collaborative citizen-science projects. In Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (pp. 217-226). ACM.
• Zeigenfuss, L. C., Schoenecker, K. A., & Amburg, L. K. V. (2011). Ungulate herbivory on alpine willow in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Colorado. Western North American Naturalist, 71(1), 86-96.