BERING LAND BRIDGE NATIONAL PRESERVE Purposes, Natural & Cultural Resources, and Facilities Bud Rice, Environmental Protection Specialist, NPS Alaska Region Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is a subset of Beringia, a former massive land bridge between Asia and North America during ice ages. 1
BERING LAND BRIDGE NATIONAL PRESERVE (BELA) was established for the following purposes and values: SEC. 201. The following areas are hereby established as units of the National Park System and shall be administered by the Secretary under the laws governing the administration of such lands and under the provisions of this Act: (2) Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, containing approximately two million four hundred and fifty-seven thousand acres of public land, as generally depicted on map numbered BELA-90,005, and dated October 1978. The preserve shall be managed for the following purposes, among others: To protect and interpret examples of arctic plant communities, volcanic lava flows, ash explosions, coastal formations, and other geologic processes; to protect habitat for internationally significant populations of migratory birds; to provide for archeological and paleontological study, in cooperation with Native Alaskans, of the process of plant and animal migration, including man, between North America and the Asian Continent; to protect habitat for, and populations of, fish and wildlife including, but not limited to, marine mammals, brown/grizzly bears, moose, and wolves; subject to such reasonable regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, to continue reindeer grazing use, including necessary facilities and equipment, within the areas which on January 1, 1976, were subject to reindeer grazing permits, in accordance with sound range management practices; to protect the viability of subsistence resources; and in a manner consistent with the foregoing, to provide for outdoor recreation and environmental education activities including public access for recreational purposes to the Serpentine Hot Springs area. The Secretary shall permit the continuation of customary patterns and modes of travel during periods of adequate snow cover within a one-hundred-foot right-of-way along either side of an existing route from Deering to the Taylor Highway, subject to such reasonable regulations as the Secretary may promulgate to assure that such travel is consistent with the foregoing purposes. Generalized Plant Communities in BELA 2
Vegetation Patterns are Dynamic near the Coast Beach Ridges and Thaw Lakes 3
Is this the Northern most eelgrass bed? (from Wyllie-Echeverria & Ackerman 2003, in World Atlas of Seagrasses) Eelgrass (left) compared to P. pectinatus (right) 4
Locations of eelgrass beds (Zostera marina) in the eastern Bering Sea (McRoy 1968) The northern limit of eelgrass (Zostera marina) in Pacific North America Area= 2-3 km 2 Biomass = 500 g m -2 Shoots = 4600 # m -2 5
National Park Service Arctic Network Inventory and Monitoring Program Yellow-billed Loon Monitoring Melanie Flamme 1, Tara Whitesell 1, Eric Sieh 1/2, Angela Matz 2, Ed Mallek 2 National Park Service 1, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2 Photo by Ken Wright Significance For Management Yellow-billed Loons ARCN high-priority vital sign determining ecosystem health Large-bodied, long-lived and philopatric Top trophic-level predators (obligate piscivores) Indicators of persistent bio-accumulative contaminants and water-quality ANILCA (1980)-CAKR and BELA to protect birds and their habitats ~20% of U. S. population occurs in NPS protected lands in Western Alaska Collaboration with USFWS and USGS (contaminants, surveys) Species warranted as threatened by USFWS Photo by Tara Whitesell 6
YBLO Aerial Survey Area (Bollinger et al. 2007-USFWS) CAKR BELA YBLO Occupancy 2009 CAKR 8 YBLO 1 nest YBLO/plot 2009 1-2 3-8 9-15 16-25 BELA 176 YBLO 13 nests 5 eggs Adapted from Bollinger et al. 2007. 7
Field- And GIS-Based Measurements of Coastal Change for National Parks bordering the Southeast Chukchi Sea, Alaska William F. Manley Diane M. Sanzone James W. Jordan Owen K. Mason Eric G. Parrish Leanne R. Lestak INSTAAR, University of Colorado Arctic I&M Program, National Park Service Dept. of Environmental Studies, Antioch University New England GeoArch Alaska INSTAAR, University of Colorado INSTAAR, University of Colorado NPS State of the Arctic Parks Workshop -- February 15, 2007 See also: instaar.colorado.edu/qgisl/arcn/ 15 Coastal Monitoring Stations 27 sites first established 1987-1994 revisited in 2006 measured on bluff top 16 8
from NOAA & NPS 1:24,000 natural color photos mosaic created by Aero-Metric 0.6 m resolution accuracy: 1.1 m (RMSE) 103 tiles, 94 GB: lots of imagery! highest res. in Alaska for this large of an area available to the public early 2007 valuable for other types of research 17 1949 18 9
1985 19 2003 20 10
21 22 11
Beach Ridge with Features 23 Sites on the Seward Peninsula 12
An Archeology Site Near the Coast Erosion of sandy site in BELA 13
Archeology site beyond the edge Points and Microblades 14
Bearded Seals are an Ice Dependent Seal that Uses Coastal areas near BELA Bearded seals have been tagged and tracked in a study with ADFG, NOAA, and local Native tribes. Note the use of these seals in the Bering Straits area during the month of October. As winter progresses many seals migrate south into the Bering Sea, only to return again in spring. Bearded seal or ugruk is a large ice-dependent seal. Because their sea ice habitat is retreating more and more during recent summers, this species is being considered for threatened status. Data from these slides on seals are from: http://kotzebueira.org/current_projects4.html Ringed Seals also Rely on Sea Ice near BELA and Beyond Ringed seals have also been captured and tagged with transmitters. This seal species is much smaller than the bearded seal, but it is extremely important to polar bears and indigenous hunters in the Bering Straits area. These seals haul out and rear young on sea ice, but loss of ice habitat, particularly multi-year ice, could cause reductions in reproduction and their population. Movement of male ringed seals in fall 2008, show a heavy reliance on areas in and near the Bering Straits. Similar maps track the movements of female ribbon seals. Data from these slides on seals are from: http://kotzebueira.org/current_projects4.html 15
Comparison of Bearded and Ringed Seal Use of Area Habitat Both species are heavily dependent on sea ice for their life cycle and may be listed as threatened species in the future. They are important prey species for polar bear and subsistence hunters. Bearded seals were tagged and tracked in the Bering Straits area in October 2009 Ringed seals were tagged and tracked during the same period in October 2009 Subsistence Harvest of Marine and other Foods are Important to Seward Peninsula People Drying seal meat on a drying rack in the region. Harvesting a seal from the sea in the region. 16
Percent Subsistence Harvest of Resources for 12 Communities around Seward Peninsula Estimated Kilograms of Subsistence Harvest by Resources and Communities in Bering Straits Region 2005-2006 17
Wales Subsistence Harvest of Resources Source: Kawerak, Inc. North Pacific Research Board, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, 2005-2006 Comprehensive Subsistence Harvest Survey, Bering Strait/Norton Sound Region. Shishmaref Subsistence Harvest of Resources Source: Kawerak, Inc. North Pacific Research Board, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, 2005-2006 Comprehensive Subsistence Harvest Survey, Bering Strait/Norton Sound Region. 18
Subsistence Harvest Composition of Resources in 12 Communities around Seward Peninsula Source: Kawerak, Inc. North Pacific Research Board, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, 2005-2006 Comprehensive Subsistence Harvest Survey, Bering Strait/Norton Sound Region NATIVE ALLOTMENTS IN BELA 19
Access to the Coast of BELA Facilities in BELA 20
Other structures and Installations in BELA QUESTIONS? Please contact me with questions about this presentation at Bud_Rice@nps.gov or 907-644-3530 For questions about Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, please contact Superintendent Jeanette Pomrenke at jeanette_pomrenke@nps.gov or 907-443-2522 For questions about the Western Arctic National Parklands overall, please contact Superintendent Frank Hays at frank_hays@nps.gov or 907-442-3890 21