Trail runners, mountain bikers, cross-country skiers, and townsfolk just out for lunchtime walks take to the trails around Jackson, Wyoming, in droves. Bordering wild country that includes a wilderness area and wildlife refuge, recreators regularly bump into and sometimes conflict with wildlife, whether it is moose, wolves, mountain lions, or even grizzly bears. But encounters with bipeds do not appear to faze an impressive array of wildlife, according to a yearslong ecological inquiry.
Study Methodology
Led by Courtney Larson, a conservation scientist with The Nature Conservancy, the research analyzed humans and critters passing by 27 remote cameras set along nonmotorized trails in a 36-square-mile area south and east of Jackson. The study aimed to determine if the habitat in the near-town trail system had been overrun by outdoorsy locals and the several million tourists that flock to recreation-centered Teton County every year.
“People think of that area as like a sacrifice zone,” Larson told WyoFile. “There is super heavy recreational use and you are probably not expecting (much) wildlife. We wanted to test that.”
Key Findings
The research team drew its conclusions by analyzing 1.9 million images, including roughly 310,000 photos of humans, 54,000 detections of domestic dogs, and 8,300 photos of wild mammals. “Overall, we did not find a lot of significant avoidance,” Larson said. “We really do have all these different wildlife species using the area, despite really high recreation.”
Elk appeared to be the most sensitive to disruptions. Faced with high human use, they were more active in the mornings and evenings. Elk also avoided areas with lots of recreation. Moose did not avoid habitat altogether but did adjust the time of day they used highly trafficked areas. Mule deer, black bear, coyote, skunk, and mountain lion did not significantly alter their use of habitat due to recreation.
Recreation Type and Wildlife Response
The analysis showed that foot traffic — hiking, skiing, and snowshoeing — produced more negative wildlife responses than did cycling or the presence of domestic dogs. “The results on that were mixed, and kind of confusing,” Larson said. “It is nuanced, because there are greater numbers of hikers. We also are not able to look at distance. The average person going out hiking is probably going a couple miles, but the average person going out for a mountain bike ride is going to go much further.”
Limitations and Context
Larson emphasized her research’s limitations. The cameras measured use during a 2.5-year “snapshot in time” when the trails were already in place. “This area has been used really heavily for recreation for a long time,” Larson said. “We do not know how many mule deer were using the area before.” She added, “I do not want it to be portrayed as, ‘We have no impact, recreation and wildlife are totally fine.’”
Implications for Forest Planning
The study results come out at a time when the Bridger-Teton National Forest is revising its forest plan. Recreation is expected to be a central issue in the planning effort, which is in the early stages and will update a forest plan that is 36 years old. Linda Merigliano, a retired Bridger-Teton recreation specialist and collaborator on the study, hopes her successors put the new data to use. “We really wanted this to serve as a baseline,” she said. “As we look at the forest plan, let us try to build in metrics for wildlife-recreation coexistence.”
The beloved Cache Creek area “is not a sacrifice zone,” Merigilano said. The area’s wildness and resilience, she said, is influenced by its setting, bordering the Gros Ventre Wilderness and National Elk Refuge. “If Snow King was completely surrounded by development, we would not have the kind of critters that we have there,” Merigliano said. “There can be coexistence, but it is not like anything goes. It requires active management, having season closures, and trails that people primarily stay on.”
