Montana's national parks buck U.S. trend

A pair of Montana State University researchers say they were surprised at how much growth and development has taken place around national parks across the U.S., but they point out that the numbers are much lower for Glacier and Yellowstone national parks.

“When compared to 57 parks, we are quite on the lower end of that development,” MSU ecology professor Andrew Hansen said.

Hansen and research associate Cory Davis recently published their findings in the academic journal Ecological Applications. Davis is a graduate student who has worked as a biologist at Glacier National Park.

Hansen and Davis’ study used U.S. Census data from 1940 through 2000 and looked at 57 national parks in the Lower 48. They selected large parks with significant natural resources and excluded parks that were surrounded by water or were managed for cultural resources.

They also divided the 57 parks according to types and rates of land-use change just outside the park boundaries. Their five categories included wildland-protected, wildland-developable, agricultural, exurban and urban.

Glacier and Yellowstone national parks were among the 25 wildland-protected parks. About 45 percent of the land around Glacier Park and about 35 percent around Yellowstone Park is private land, and of that private land, about 75 percent has not been developed, they found. Tribal land was included as private land.

In general, national parks in the wildland-protected category share common issues, such as increasing conflicts between humans and wildlife as private land near the parks is developed. In the Glacier Park region, this typically means conflicts between humans and endangered species such as grizzly bears, as well as impacts to migration corridors and winter range land.

Forest Service land makes up much of the land surrounding Glacier and Yellowstone national parks. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex lies only a few miles south of Glacier Park, and steep mountainous terrain makes development close to the Park difficult.

Hansen and Davis were surprised to find that population growth around national parks increased on average by 224 percent between 1940 and 2000, while housing densities increased on average by 329 percent. That growth was significantly higher than the nationwide average.

Growth from 1940 to 2000 , however, varied considerably between national parks. While population increased by 2,962 percent around Mojave National Preserve, in California, and by 2,473 percent around Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Park, in Florida, it increased by 210 percent around Glacier Park and by 246 percent around Yellowstone Park.

The pattern for housing figures from 1940 to 2000 was similar. While housing density increased by 75.6 percent around Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, in California, it increased by 11.4 percent around Glacier Park and 13.2 percent around Yellowstone Park.