Ptarmigan Tracks

We often use our annual newsletter to urge you to provide public comment on upcoming park planning documents or to contact your legislators on issues affecting conservation in Alaska. This year, things are quiet on the planning front in Denali. NPS has conducted some preliminary public scoping about trails management and development in the park that will inform future planning. Continuing to manage the park as a trail-less wilderness is unrealistic; formal and informal trails exist throughout the park. Trail use must be recognized then balanced with protection of the wilderness experience visitors come here to enjoy. Stay tuned.

We keenly await the Alaska Board of Game’s reconsideration of hunting and trapping limits of wolves on state land across the park’s northern boundary. This will be a topic at its February 2017 meeting. The ability to view top predators such as wolves and bears is a major draw for Alaska visitors. While hunting and trapping of wolves is hardly the only reason for a major drop in the park’s wolf population, the take of wolves just beyond the boundary has a significant impact.

In 2017, as we celebrate Denali National Park’s 100 years as a sanctuary for native wildlife and wilderness, we hope that our nation will not forget to look forward as Denali’s visionaries did. With so much uncertainty about the future of our nation’s commitment to climate change science and environmental protections, now is the time to maintain that vision for areas currently protected and those that still warrant protection.