Trail runners, mountain bikers, cross-country skiers and townsfolk just out for lunchtime walks take to the trails around Jackson in droves.
Bordering wild country that includes a wilderness area and wildlife refuge, recreators regularly bump into and sometimes conflict with wildlife, whether it鈥檚 , , or even .
But encounters with bipeds don鈥檛 appear to faze an impressive array of wildlife.
That鈥檚 one of the chief findings of a yearslong ecological inquiry that analyzed humans and critters passing by 27 remote cameras set along nonmotorized trails in a 36-square-mile area south and east of Jackson. Led by Courtney Larson, a conservation scientist with The Nature Conservancy, the research set out to find if the habitat in the near-town trail system had truly been overrun by outdoorsy locals and several million tourists that flock to recreation-centered Teton County every year.
鈥淧eople think of that area as like a sacrifice zone,鈥� Larson told WyoFile. 鈥淭here鈥檚 super heavy recreational use and you鈥檙e probably not expecting (much) wildlife. We wanted to test that.鈥�
Much of the , including studies conducted near Jackson, have found that recreation can have significant adverse effects on wildlife. In the Teton Range, for example, backcountry skiing has from prime winter habitat.
But along trails near Jackson, Larson found mostly 鈥渆ncouraging鈥� results. 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.
鈥淥verall, we didn鈥檛 find a lot of significant avoidance,鈥� Larson said. 鈥淲e really do have all these different wildlife species using the area, despite really high recreation.鈥�
Dubbed 鈥淣eighbors to Nature: Cache Creek Study,鈥� the research and was a joint effort of The Nature Conservancy, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, Friends of Pathways and Teton Raptor Center.
The research team鈥檚 study area was the Bridger-Teton National Forest extending out from Snow King Mountain. That area, which includes 50-plus miles of trails, reaches from Josie鈥檚 Ridge up the Cache Creek drainage, down to Game Creek and is bounded on the west by U.S. Highway 89.
In April, the collaborators published in the academic journal Conservation Science and Practice. The study looked at how different species responded to different types of human recreation, both in terms of the time of day they used the habitat or if they avoided an area altogether.
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, the researchers found.
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.
The analysis of remote camera images showed that foot traffic 鈥� hiking, skiing and snowshoeing 鈥� produced more negative wildlife responses than did cycling or the presence of domestic dogs.
鈥淭he results on that were mixed, and kind of confusing,鈥� Larson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nuanced, because there are greater numbers of hikers. We also aren鈥檛 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.鈥�
Larson emphasized her research鈥檚 limitations. The cameras, she pointed out, measured use during a 2.5-year 鈥渟napshot in time鈥� when the trails were already in place.
鈥淭his area has been used really heavily for recreation for a long time,鈥� Larson said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know how many mule deer were using the area before.鈥�
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want it to be portrayed as, 鈥榃e have no impact, recreation and wildlife are totally fine,鈥欌�� she added.
The study results come out at a time when the Bridger-Teton National Forest is revising its forest plan. Recreation is in the planning effort, which is in the a forest plan that鈥檚 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.
鈥淲e really wanted this to serve as a baseline,鈥� she said. 鈥淎s we look at the forest plan, let鈥檚 try to build in metrics for wildlife-recreation coexistence.鈥�
The beloved Cache Creek area (it鈥檚 even the subject of ) 鈥渋s not a sacrifice zone,鈥� Merigilano said. The area鈥檚 wildness and resilience, she said, is influenced by its setting, bordering the Gros Ventre Wilderness and National Elk Refuge.
鈥淚f Snow King was completely surrounded by development, we wouldn鈥檛 have the kind of critters that we have there,鈥� Merigliano said. 鈥淭here can be coexistence, but it鈥檚 not like anything goes. It requires active management, having season closures, and trails that people primarily stay on.鈥�
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