A List
5/24/04

SLU PROFESSOR AWARDED GRANT BY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

CANTON – St. Lawrence University Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies 
Christopher A. Monz has been awarded a grant of over $80,000 by the National 
Park Service, Alaska region, for a two-year project to monitor the impact of 
visitor use in the Southwest Alaska Network parks and collaborate with other 
scientists on inventory and monitoring studies.
	According to Monz, objective information on the types, locations and 
amounts of recreational activities – and the effects of the activities on the 
parks' resources – are needed so that the parks and their resources may be 
managed effectively. The monitoring programs can also provide an "early warning" 
of new activities, according to Monz, and a basis for evaluating the effectiveness 
of visitor-management actions.
	The five parks are in the Southwest Alaska Network of the National Park 
Service: Alagnak Wild River; Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve; Katmai 
National Park and Preserve; Kenai Fjords National Park and Lake Clark National 
Park and Preserve.
	Work on the project begins this month, and continues through the fall 
of 2005.
	Monz joined the St. Lawrence faculty in 2003, having previously been the 
dean of Sterling College and a research scientist for the National Outdoor 
Leadership School. He received his undergraduate degree from the State University 
of New York at New Paltz, a master's degree in botany from the University of 
Maine, and his Ph.D. from Colorado State University, in natural resource recreation 
and tourism. Monz teaches courses in recreational issues, ecotourism and 
environmental education, while his research interests include the assessment and 
management of human impacts to preserved ecosystems. He has focused in particular 
on backcountry camping in Alaska and shoreline use on the Atlantic coast, and has 
published this work in journals on environmental management.

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