PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 13: Landscape Ecology / Geomorphology
Tuesday, August 9, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Housing growth in and near the National Parks of the conterminous United States.
Holcomb, Sherry*,1, Radeloff, Volker 1, Hammer, Roger 1, Budde, Peter2, Stewart, Susan3, 1 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA2 National Park Service, Madison, WI, USA3 USDA Forest Service, Evanston, IL, USA
ABSTRACT- National Parks can serve as refugia for relatively pristine natural vegetation and wildlife species dependent on this. Housing development near National Parks threatens to isolate parks and to limit their ecological functioning. Our objective was to quantify past increase in housing density near the National Parks of the 48 contiguous United States between 1940 and 2000, and to project future growth up to 2030. We calculated summary statistics at buffer distances of 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 km. Since many of the parks contain inholdings, we also measured housing density within park boundaries. Our results show substantial housing growth surrounding most National Parks over the past sixty years. For example, housing units within 50 km of Everglades National Park increased from 38,155 to 1,304,113 (3,418%) between 1940 and 2000. In Rocky Mountain National Park, the increase was from 36,527 to 263,322 housing units (621%). If 1990s housing growth rates continue unabated, by the year 2030 housing units within 50 km of Everglades and Rocky Mountain National Parks will increase by an additional 579% and 2,427%, respectively. Such intense development pressure may eventually lead to deterioration of the value of National Parks for both recreation and conservation.
Key words: housing growth, national parks