Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Lisa M.B. Harrington / The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) is a large, nearly intact ecosystem with significant protection that has often been considered an ideal location to examine coupled human-environment interactions due to the region’s complex mosaic of private and public lands, competing natural resource uses, and rapid population growth. A transition toward sustainability suggests that current societal and economic needs can be met while simultaneously maintaining the planet’s life support systems for future generations. To facilitate sustainability transitions it is imperative that the perceptions and experiences of local communities be documented. The objective of this study was to determine how residents of amenity-driven gateway communities (West Yellowstone and Red Lodge, Montana, and Jackson, Wyoming) surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks perceive and experience their transition toward sustainability and the challenges inherent in that transition, how those perceptions inform locally produced and extra-local policies, and how institutions influence sustainability goals. Further, this study determined which factors contribute to these perceptions, and whether they differed spatially and temporally. To meet study objectives, a mixed methods approach was implemented, including the content analysis of local newspapers and key informant interviews. Content analysis of local newspapers was used to investigate decision maker and stakeholder priorities for the local and regional environment, economy, and communities, and to determine what actions had been taken to promote sustainability. A total of 193 articles from West Yellowstone News, 287 articles from Carbon County News, and 333 articles from Jackson Hole News & Guide for the ten year period 2000-2009, were analyzed. Specific focal topics varied among the newspapers/communities, but in general terms the most discussed topics in West Yellowstone during this time were focused on natural resources, economic development, community development, sustainability and conservation, and growth and development. The most discussed topics for Red Lodge were community development, government services, tourism and recreation, and growth and development. The most commonly discussed topics in Jackson were natural resources, growth and development, community development, and government services. A total of 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants in the three study communities during the summer of 2010 to allow for specific questioning and to gain additional information. Definitions of sustainability differed based on the key informant’s community, role in the community, and length of residence in the community. Overall, definitions of sustainability focused on the environment, the economy, and multi-generational or long-term thinking. The prioritization of the economy, environment, and society also differed based on community; however, there was overall recognition that each community was dependent upon the natural environment for economic vitality. In all three study communities, dependence on tourism and recreation-based industries, the lack of a diversified economy, and continued growth and development have resulted in a disconnect between perceptions, priorities, and goals as they relate to sustainability. In addition, each community was focused on multiple goals that further complicated the fulfillment of sustainability objectives. The multi-goal orientation of study communities is reflected in the multiple visions that various decision makers and stakeholders have for the community and their futures. What is needed most is a hierarchical approach to a sustainability transition, with each community setting its own, as well as ecosystem-wide, goals, objectives, and visions. Findings suggest that a transition toward sustainability is perceived and experienced differently based on local context. In the GYE, that context includes a tourism-based economy that is dependent upon the natural environment, a myriad of local, regional, national, and global stakeholders, and the presence of federal land agencies that are responsible for the sustainability of natural systems, freeing local communities to focus on the societal and economic dimensions of sustainability. A transition toward sustainability will be manifested differently in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and potentially other communities adjacent to protected lands, than it is other areas because of its unique milieu. While the close proximity of federal lands, including Yellowstone National Park, may complicate the sustainability discourse at times and may, in certain instances, add additional challenges through extra-local control of change, these same federal lands may also favor a transition toward sustainability in amenity-driven gateway communities. In addition, the disparate socio-economic conditions present in study communities, as well as extra-local institutions and agencies, directly influence, and may at times further complicate, a transition toward sustainability. This study is based on the theory that in order to successfully transition toward sustainability, a better understanding of coupled human and natural systems is critical, and because of the close couplings between human and natural systems in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and because of the unique challenges and conflicts present in the region, the GYE is an ideal location to study human-environment interactions. The use-inspired orientation of sustainability science aims to provide tangible, real-world, and place-based understanding of a transition toward sustainability. The contribution of this study to the field of sustainability science is the understanding that, while sustainability visions, goals, and objectives may be similar across a region, consideration of local contexts affecting goals and perceptions provides valuable insights that may inform sustainability pathways at local scales and, as a result, provide deeper understanding of global sustainability. One of these insights is that communities that seemingly have much in common due to their shared region, physical environmental surroundings, and history, the specific concerns to ensure place-based sustainability can show variability. Another important point from this research is that, while most depictions of sustainability are focused on three elements—the economy, society, and the environment—individuals also key in on multigenerational concerns.

Large carnivores are among the most challenging species to conserve in our modern and crowded world. Having large spatial requirements and living in low density, they generally require wide and relatively undisturbed areas. In Europe, one of the most anthropized areas of the planet, these needs must be fulfilled in a complex human-dominated landscape. The reintroduced brown bear population living in the Central Alps represents one of the most emblematic examples of a constrained carnivore: despite a steady population increase in the first few years after reintroduction, the population did not substantially expand its range, nor has the Alpine-Dinaric metapopulation been reestablished as envisioned. Although humans have lived in the Alps for centuries, little is known about their impact on the bear population. In other environments humans are known to function as a “super-predator” by changing habitats, competing for space, consuming resources, and harvesting, which alters the ecological niche of animals, especially large carnivores. This dissertation aims to evaluate this phenomenon by assessing the effects of human disturbance on brown bears in the Alps. Anthropogenic disturbance is generally assessed by structural proxies, such as infrastructure and land use, which overlook the impact of human presence. In the first Chapter, we developed the Cumulative Outdoor activity Index (COI) to derive anthropogenic disturbance using crowdsourced data by Strava and validated it with ground truth observations derived from a local camera trapping survey. The intensity of COI provided an effective measure of functional anthropogenic disturbance, and it outperformed all commonly-used proxies of structural disturbance in predicting bear habitat use. When displacement is not an option because of habitat limitations and social mechanisms, bear mobility may clash with human activity. During the moments of lowest mobility, such as resting periods, animals have decreased ability to cope with risky situations, and therefore the selection of suitable resting areas is crucial for the long-term survival of individuals. In the second Chapter, we measured multi-scale response to risk perception (i.e., COI) and resource proximity using bedding sites by GPS radio-collared adult brown bears in the Alps. To map resources across the study area, we developed a GIS-database combining spatial and non-spatial ecological information to map fruit availability. We observed that bears apply a security-food trade-off strategy, avoiding functional anthropogenic disturbance while in proximity to resources. In the third Chapter, we explicitly tested the effect of an abrupt interruption of human mobility during COVID-19 lockdown on bears’ use of ecological corridors. Using bear occurrences reported to local authorities during the recent COVID-19 outbreak, we observed that bears used human-dominated areas more frequently, approached more intensively hot spots for road crossing network, and used areas further from the population core areas more often than previous years, suggesting that connectivity increased with reduced human mobility. In a comparatively human-free system, for the fourth Chapter we used longitudinal morphometric data to analyze drivers of changes in body mass as part of an international collaboration with biologists studying the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Specifically, we analyzed changes in lean body mass and fat percentage during years of major ecosystem perturbations. We observed that individual lean body mass during the last two decades was primarily associated with population density, but not body fat percentage, showing density-dependent factors. Our combined findings (Chapters 1-3) showed that brown bears have to adapt their space use, movement, and resource proximity as a result of functional anthropogenic disturbance. In Chapter 4 we explored one effect of unconstrained bear space use on individuals, as manifested through density-dependent effects on body size. In the Alps, however, we found multiple instances of the human-super predator outcompeting bears so as to make density-dependent effects likely less significant as compared to human-caused mortality. These effects could occur in a variety of socio-ecological contexts across Europe, jeopardizing the long-term establishment of both newly reintroduced bear populations, as well as spatially limiting those naturally present in the environment. In response to disturbance, bears have had to reduce their ecological niche in human-dominated landscapes. Allowing humans and bears to coexist in the same landscape is a challenging task, but it is essential for the long-term survival of this newly reintroduced population that are otherwise at risk of extinction.