Welcome
Six federal agencies—the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—collaborate on the Interagency Visitor Use Management Council. Council collaboration is designed to increase awareness of and commitment to proactive, professional, and science-based visitor use management on federally-managed lands and waters. Providing a consistent approach to visitor use management better serves the public by creating seamless connections between lands and waters managed by different federal agencies.
What is Visitor Use Management?
Visitor use management is the proactive and adaptive process for managing characteristics of visitor use and the natural and managerial setting using a variety of strategies and tools to achieve and maintain desired resource conditions and visitor experiences.
Announcements
Council
The Interagency Visitor Use Management Council is excited to announce the release of the Monitoring Guidebook: Evaluating Effectiveness of Visitor Use Management, Edition One. The Monitoring Guidebook, in combination with the council’s Visitor Use Management Framework, provides specific guidance for developing and implementing a monitoring strategy related to visitor use that can be incorporated into existing agency planning and decision-making processes.
Read the guidebook:
- Monitoring Guidebook (low resolution, 508 compliant)
- Monitoring Guidebook (high resolution)
The Interagency Visitor Use Management Council is excited to announce the release of the Visitor Capacity Guidebook: Managing the Amounts and Types of Visitor Use to Achieve Desired Conditions, Edition One. The Visitor Capacity Guidebook, in combination with the council’s Visitor Use Management Framework, provides managers with processes and tools to collaboratively develop long-term strategies to manage the amounts and types of visitor use to achieve desired conditions and improve access, connect visitors to key experiences, and protect resources.
Read the guidebook:
- Visitor Capacity Guidebook (low resolution, 508 compliant)
- Visitor Capacity Guidebook (high resolution)
In addition to the framework and guidebook, three contributed papers on the relationship between the amounts and types of visitor use and environmental, social, and wildlife impacts are now available.
Read the contributed papers:
- The Relationship between Amount of Visitor Use and Environmental Impacts by David N. Cole
- The Relationship between Amount of Visitor Use and Social Impacts by Stewart Allen
- Impacts to Wildlife: Managing Visitors and Resources to Protect Wildlife by Jeffrey L. Marion
Webinars
Interagency Visitor Use Management Council members and technical advisers presented a webinar co-hosted by IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group and the council. The presentation focused on implementing the Visitor Use Management Framework into ongoing projects. A brief overview of the Visitor Use Management Framework was provided followed by case studies using the Petroglyph National Monument Visitor Use Management Plan and USFS Pike National Forest Bear Creek Watershed Restoration Project.
Presenting the new Visitor Use Management Framework VUM Part 1: https://youtu.be/MFGBmB2uArI
Presenting the new Visitor Use Management Framework VUM Part 2: https://youtu.be/Ld3MZiNzJMQ
In the following podcast, Jennifer Reed (USFWS) from the Interagency Visitor Use Management Council Executive Committee explores the basic principles and strategies of visitor use management, and the simple, accessible tools you can use to effectively tackle projects involving visitor use of protected areas. Learn how you can use the Council’s tools to help you connect people with our healthy landscapes while insuring the landscapes continue to thrive now, next summer, and 50 years into the future.