GPS Tracking Helping to Improve National Park’s Visitor Experience
9 Jul 2015In order to learn more about the way people move through national parks and how it affects the ecosystems in the parks, scientists have started a tracking study and are now using GPS
tracking on people.
Of course, the GPS tracking devices are not being attached to the people, but rather being handed out to people on a voluntary basis. Park visitors are now able to carry the GPS tracking devices with them as they roam through Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park to provide data on how the shuttle service can be improved in the often congested and popular lake.
Also, visits through two famous meadows are being tracked as well through GPS tracking at California’s Yosemite National Park. This type of tracking is very common in this country at the national parks, however, in earlier times, they were strictly used for tracking wild animals.
“It’s going to help us better understand the expectations, the motivations and then the ultimate experiences that people have,” said Jackie Skaggs, spokesperson at Grand Teton National Park.
Many people are happy to help out in the tracking studies, according to researchers and around 80 to 90 percent even asked if they could carry a device in Grand Teton in 2013 and 2014. Almost all participants returned the devices once they left the study area.
Human pattern was observed in an interesting study for more than a two year period and it was found that a third of the visitors at Grand Teton National Park, on an 8 mile stretch of the Moose Wilson Road, drove straight through the area while the others actually did stop for a little while. The ones who did stop ended up going on hiking trips and some even went to the nearby interpretive center.
It’s believed that the people who did venture through the parks did so because they loved the parks and the wild animals that reside there. However, in many of the situations where harm was done, it was due to lack of intentional influence and facilities.
If an adequate parking lot was provided to the people who wanted to stop and go on that hiking trip, they would not have to park their vehicles in the forest. Furthermore, it could end up bringing in more people who once felt assured their cars were safe, would stop more often. There has been a lot done to bring wildlife and humans closer to each other.
Along with the tracking devices, questionnaires were handed out asking people what they would like from their Grand Teton visit. The survey responses were compared by the researchers to find out where individuals went which would allow them to plot within 10 feet or less in the back country.
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