Rocky Mountain National Park is taking action to resist, accept, and direct change

Resist

Eric Brown / Northern Water

Climate change interacts with other stressors and may exacerbate existing resource management issues and the urgency of solving them. At RMNP, some riparian ecosystems are in decline due to multiple stressors, including heavy browsing by elk and moose. Once abundant, beaver no longer inhabit most of these areas. Hydrology has shifted in affected areas to deeper water tables that are less supportive of the tall willow ecosystems that once were habitat for abundant beaver. As moisture declines due to climate change, this will aggravate these issues. At the same time, restored willow-beaver riparian ecosystems will be more able to naturally resist effects of climate change by retaining more moisture that is critical to withstand droughts, support biodiversity, reduce flammability, and repel invasive exotic plants. Functioning willow-beaver riparian ecosystems also retain more sediment and nutrients, which is of high interest to communities and water managers downstream. In this case, we believe that resisting change will result in a more sustainable ecosystem in the face of climate change. The timeline for conducting these actions will be limited, however; as the ecosystem dries out and effects of wildfires become more frequent, there will be less opportunity to be successful. The existing Elk and Vegetation Management Plan addresses some of these issues, but more support and management action would be needed to reach goals at a meaningful scale.

The Kawuneeche Valley, which is the watershed that drains into the Colorado River on the western side of RMNP, is a stark example of a once lush willow-beaver riparian wetland that has transitioned to a grassland with incised, eroding streams and an abundance of invasive, exotic vegetation. Some people may call this an “ecosystem collapse”; certainly, it is a biome shift. In 2020, the Kawuneeche Valley Ecosystem Restoration Collaborative (KVERC) was established to address the ongoing environmental changes in the Valley, including in the Park, adjacent US Forest Service lands, and downstream on private lands. KVERC partners and funders include the Park and eight other agencies, local governments, organizations, and institutions. Preliminary results from a study conducted for KVERC by Colorado State University confirmed and further quantified the changes that have occurred. From 1953-2019, the area of beaver ponds declined by 94% across the valley. From 1999-2019, the area of tall stature willows declined by 77% valley-wide and by 96% just within RMNP. KVERC is considering a variety of stream and wetland restoration projects within the valley to restore it to a healthy beaver-willow riparian wetland.

Learn more at the Kawuneeche Valley Ecosystem Restoration Collaborative website.

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Click here to learn more about the RAD framework

Park managers today face growing challenges. As climate change interacts with other stressors such as land use change, increases in visitation, pollution, and nonnative species, ecosystems and park infrastructure are changing beyond the bounds of historical variability. These changes are increasingly difficult to resist. Thus, managers are thinking more broadly about how to effectively conserve resources in this rapidly changing world. In this context, the **resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework **helps decision makers make informed, purposeful, and strategic choices. This tool is simple and flexible, complements other important climate change adaptation approaches, and applies to a wide range of decisions that managers must make as they steward transforming environments.

Understanding the RAD Framework

The RAD framework consists of three strategies:

• Resist: Working to maintain existing conditions or slow the rate of change based upon historical or acceptable current ecosystem conditions. This often involves direct interventions to counteract environmental changes.
• Accept: Allowing the system to change without intervention.
• Direct: Actively steering changes toward desired outcomes, which may involve redesigning or repurposing systems to function under new conditions.

Where this belongs

• Rocky Mountain National Park

Where this page came from

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