Format
1. This program begins with an overview of Rocky Mountain National Park and why it was protected as a national park.
2. Ranger then dives into three "big changes" Rocky Mountain National Park is experiencing, including the management of wildlife, wildfires, and visitor use.
3. We discuss what the future of Rocky may look like.
4. 5 to 10 minutes is left at the end for questions and answers.
Objectives
1. Understand that the visitor experience of a National Park is in itself a value to be preserved.
2. Describe the impacts of wildlife management, wildfires planning and visitation trends.
3. Internalize how change doesn’t necessarily alter the fundamental resources involved.
Standards Alignment
National Standards
HS-LS2-6 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS4-5 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.
HS-LS2-8 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Evaluate evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.
State Standards
Colorado Academic Standards:
Sciences:
SC.5.3.5: Societal activities have had major effects on land, ocean, atmosphere and even outer space.
SC.MS.2.5: Organisms and populations of organisms are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving
SC.MS.2.6: Ecosystems are sustained by the continuous flow of energy, originating primarily from the sun, and the recycling of matter and nutrients within the system.
SC.HS.2.6: A complex set of interactions determine how ecosystems respond to disturbances.
SC.HS.2.13: Humans have complex interactions with ecosystems and have the ability to influence biodiversity on the planet
SC.HS.3.9: Resource availability has guided the development of human society and use of natural resources has associated costs, risks, and benefits
SC.HS.3.11: Sustainability of human societies and the biodiversity that supports them requires responsible management of natural resources, including the development of technologies
Social Studies:
SS.8.2.1: Use geographic tools to research and analyze patterns in human and physical systems in the United States
SS.8.2.2: Recognize the impact of the competition for control of land and resources in early American history.
SS.HS.1.2: Analyze and evaluate key concepts of continuity and change, cause and effect, complexity, unity and diversity, and significant ideas in the United States from Reconstruction to the present
SS.HS.2.2: Make connections among geographic variables that influence the interactions of people, places, and environments
SS.HS.2.3: Investigate patterns of the interconnected nature of the world, its people, and places.
SS.HS.4.1: Research and formulate positions on government policies and on local, state, tribal, and national issues to be able to participate and engage in a civil society
SS.HS.4.2: Evaluate the purposes, roles, and limitations of the structures and functions of government.
SS.HS.4.3: Analyze the impact of civic participation on political institutions and public policy