Plan Process

The Alaska Region of the National Park Service has entered into an agreement with the NPS Social Science Program and Texas A&M University to develop a social science needs assessment and research plan. This will be the first plan of its type for an entire region. Previous plans have focused on a single park or program, a group of parks, or the National Park Service as a whole. This plan will identify and prioritize needed social science studies in the Alaska Region and its individual parks.

Using input from workshops involving Alaska Region NPS staffs, partners, and other stakeholders, a social science research plan will be drafted for the region that includes 2 key components:

A Needs Assessment identifying important social science issues at the regional and park levels;

An Action Plan prioritizing research needs and describing steps to address the issues identified in the needs assessment.



* indicates the current step in the planning process
Step 1. Policy and Literature Review Comment Period (10-06-2004 through 12-01-2004)
Step 2. Stakeholder Workshops: Anchorage (10-12-2004), Fairbanks (10-13-2004), Kotzebue (10-15-2004)
Step 3. Stakeholder Workshop: Juneau (11-09-2004)
Step 4. Comment Period (11-09-2004 through 12-31-2004) *
Step 5. Stakeholder Workshop: Washington, DC (12-02-2004)
Step 6. Prepare Draft NPS Alaska Region Social Science Research Plan
Step 7. Draft plan Review and Comment Period