Element 2: Define Visitor Use Management Direction
Element 2: Define Visitor Use Management Direction
Establishing visitor use management direction means defining desired conditions, identifying appropriate and inappropriate uses, and monitoring change over time.
Together, these steps:
- Create a shared purpose among agency personnel and the public they serve.
- Create clear visitor use management direction that benefits the public and provides a foundation for future management actions and accountability.
- Help managers manage by design, not default.
The purpose of this element is to answer the questions: What are we trying to achieve, and how will conditions be tracked over time?
The products that result from element 2 include:- A narrative that describes desired condition(s) for a geographic area or for zones within a geographic area.
- Lists of visitor activities, facilities, and services that are appropriate, appropriate with restrictions, or not appropriate.
- An indicator or indicators that managers are committed to monitor over time to ensure resource conditions and opportunities for visitor experiences remain consistent with desired conditions (i.e., within established thresholds).
Element 2 has three interrelated steps:
Step 5
Define desired conditions for the project areaStep 6
Define appropriate visitor activities, facilities, and services.Step 7
Select indicators and establish thresholdsCompletion of all three steps constitutes “visitor use management direction.” This direction may be developed as part of a programmatic document, such as a National Park Service general management plan, U.S. Forest Service land management plan, Bureau of Land Management resource management plan, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration national marine sanctuary management plan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers master plan, or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service comprehensive conservation plan. However, visitor use management direction may be more fully developed as part of a plan for a specific resource or activity, such as a comprehensive management plan for a wild and scenic river, climbing management plan, wilderness management plan, travel management plan, or other specific plan. Developing this direction is not a stand-alone process but, rather, is embedded within appropriate agency planning guidance for managing recreation or visitor use, including NEPA compliance and public involvement. Chapter 4 provides more information about specific agency planning processes.
There are several benefits to developing clear visitor use management direction. First, managers can communicate a positive vision for the future. Managers are forced to get out of an operational mode and delve into the task of articulating values and setting a vision for the future (Cahill 2003). While challenging, taking the time to do this work upfront creates shared goals and greatly reduces the potential for conflict when plans are implemented. Second, clear visitor use management direction provides a defensible link for future management actions and accountability. With clear understanding about the conditions to be achieved, the choice and purpose of management actions is more evident. Third, managers can ensure they are managing by design, not default.
Defining desired conditions provides long-term direction about the resource conditions and visitor opportunities to be provided. Clear, purposeful management helps focus action and guards against incremental or haphazard change that may occur when managers are reacting only to the issue of the day. Many managers have learned that once undesirable change has occurred and use has become established, it is exceedingly difficult to alter visitor use patterns. The key to avoiding this situation is to proactively and strategically develop clear, meaningful visitor use management direction so that change can be guided in a planned way to achieve desired results.
As has been emphasized throughout this framework, a sliding scale approach is paramount (see chapter 2). For a relatively simple project, this element might produce a short description of desired conditions and one qualitative indicator with a threshold, developed using available information. At the complex end of the scale, the project area might be divided into zones, each of which has a description of desired conditions, appropriate uses, and a set of quantitative indicators and thresholds that have been developed with considerable analysis and potentially a large research investment.
Review: Identify two reasons why working through Element 2 is important for defining Visitor Use Management direction?
STEP 5. Define desired conditions for the project area
This step is fundamental to answering the question: What are we trying to achieve? Desired conditions are statements of aspiration that describe resource conditions, visitor experiences and opportunities, and facilities and services that an agency strives to achieve and maintain in a particular area. Such statements are often built on the foundational language that legally established the area. Desired conditions describe what conditions, outcomes, and opportunities are to be achieved and maintained in the future, not necessarily what exists today. Desired condition descriptions paint a picture of what the particular area will look like, feel like, sound like, and function like in the future. They do not answer the question of how conditions will be maintained or achieved—that comes later.
A range of opportunities is not always needed for some areas. However, for large geographic areas or areas where there is potential to provide a diverse range of opportunities, the project area is typically divided into management areas or “zones,” each with a description of desired conditions that may be arranged along a continuum of visitor opportunities to be provided. Developing a spectrum of zones is done within the bounds of the fundamental purpose of the area, such as the requirement to protect wilderness character in wilderness areas or to protect and enhance outstanding remarkable values on a wild and scenic river. While developing desired conditions for different “zones” makes implementation somewhat more complex, the advantage is that managers can offer a spectrum of opportunities to meet the needs of a broader array of diverse public interests (Haas et al. 1987; Wagar 1964; ORRRC 1962). Zoning stems from the reality that not all areas have the same ecological sensitivity (thus, some places require more protection than other places); not all areas have the same attractiveness; and people are not all seeking the same opportunities (thus, providing a diversity of settings offers more choices). The key is to develop a zoning scheme that recognizes the desired diversity across the landscape, while avoiding zoning that is more complex than can be realistically managed for on the ground.
The concept of providing a diversity of settings is rooted in the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (Clark and Stankey 1979). The spectrum is based on the premise that managers can provide a continuum of recreation opportunities by focusing on a combination of physical, biological, social, and managerial attributes, collectively referred to as the “setting.” The diversity of settings included in the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum range from highly developed (i.e., urban) to very undeveloped (i.e., primitive), or as Nash (1973) phrased it, “from the paved to the primeval” (figure 3). Different zones may be delineated by landscape characteristics, such as watershed boundaries; or zones may be delineated based on social attributes, such as remoteness from infrastructure or services; or they may be delineated based on some combination of topographic landform and social characteristics. Zoning can also be based on a temporal scale, particularly if different seasons (e.g., summer versus winter) offer a very different mix of settings and different opportunities across the landscape.
STEP 6. Define appropriate visitor activities, facilities, and services
This step further answers the question: What are we trying to achieve? The product of this step provides more specific direction for the types of visitor activities, facilities, and visitor services that are consistent with and complement desired conditions. The intent is not to provide an exhaustive list but, rather, to provide some examples to help convey a broad, more complete picture of desired conditions for the area. This step is considerably intertwined with desired conditions so the information developed in this step may be incorporated into the description of desired conditions. This information provides useful direction to help managers specifically understand which activities, facilities, and services are appropriate versus those that are not appropriate when site-specific issues arise.
Importantly, this step recognizes that there is a connection between what is appropriate in a particular project area and the purpose of the area; the desired condition influences the type of activity, facility, or service. For example, snowmobile use may be considered not appropriate or only appropriate with restrictions in an area where the desired condition is to provide a quality backcountry skiing opportunity. Likewise, developed restrooms and picnic shelters may not be considered appropriate in an area where the desired condition is to provide a primitive, undeveloped camping experience. In a remote area intended to provide outstanding opportunities for self-reliance and personal challenge or discovery, commercial services may not be considered appropriate.
At the site-specific project level, appropriate uses already may have been identified in a higher level plan. However, if the project entails preparing a broad, general plan, identifying appropriate uses will likely need to be accomplished. At the low end of the sliding scale, in which there is only one desired condition description for the project area, the product of this step would be a simple list of visitor activities, facilities, and services that are considered appropriate, appropriate with restrictions, or not appropriate. At the high end of the sliding scale, the product of this step may be displayed as a table that lists possible visitor activities, facilities, and services for each of the different “zones” and may include detailed rationale for determining which activities, facilities, and services are appropriate versus not appropriate.
Keep in mind, no matter what the complexity of the situation, developing an exhaustive list of all potential uses is not necessary and can be counterproductive. Anticipating all possible activities, given that interests will likely evolve with changing technology, is not practical. Since desired conditions are focused on the future, managers need to consider where foreseeable activities may and may not be accommodated in order to protect important resource conditions and visitor experiences.
STEP 7. SELECT INDICATORS AND ESTABLISH THRESHOLDS
This step answers the question: What are acceptable levels of impact from visitor use? Answering this question involves selecting monitoring indicators and establishing a threshold for each indicator. Indicators translate the broad description of desired conditions into measurable attributes that can be tracked over time to evaluate change in conditions. Thresholds ensure that conditions remain acceptable for the selected indicators.
This step provides transparency to the public and establishes the foundation for management accountability by focusing the monitoring effort on indicators that directly link to achieving desired conditions. All recreation activities cause some impact; the challenge is to determine the acceptable amount of change. The acceptable amount of change is established by defining the point at which visitor impacts to desired resource conditions and visitor experiences is anticipated to become enough of a concern that a change in management strategies or actions will be required to improve conditions. By monitoring conditions over time and clearly identifying when conditions become problematic, managers can implement programs to prevent unacceptable conditions.
Indicators are defined as specific resource or experiential attributes that can be measured to track changes in conditions so that progress toward achieving and maintaining desired conditions can be assessed. Thresholds are defined as minimally acceptable conditions associated with each indicator. Alternative terms for “threshold”—notably “standard” or “standard of quality”—have been used in many plans, visitor use frameworks, and academic publications.
The concept of thresholds is well established as part of monitoring programs associated with many natural resource disciplines (Guntenspergen 2014). Thresholds help managers avoid problems by clearly identifying when conditions would become unacceptable. As such, thresholds serve as a stop sign or a “line in the sand” letting managers and the public know that corrective action must be taken to keep conditions acceptable so that progress toward desired conditions can be achieved over time.
Those conducting visitor use management should always strive to make progress toward meeting and maintaining desired conditions. Thresholds serve a critical role to alert when conditions are close to becoming unacceptable. In contrast, one role of objectives is to inform the positive direction, defining in measurable terms what will be achieved. Both concepts are useful to help achieve desired conditions over time. In situations in which managers want to define measurable outcomes for what should be achieved within specified timeframes, establish objectives linked to desired conditions. Like thresholds, objectives include an indicator and involve monitoring change over time. Objectives comply with SMART principles: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.
Begin with the end in mind; envision the information obtained through monitoring, and only select indicators that will influence a management response. When establishing thresholds, recognize that they should be informed by science, professional experience, and legal requirements and that they are management decisions. Also, recognize that indicators and thresholds will likely be a subset of a larger visitor or recreation monitoring program.
Apply what you've learned: What conditions are you trying to achieve? How will you know when you have achieved them?
Summary
Establishing visitor use management direction means defining desired conditions, identifying appropriate and inappropriate uses, and monitoring change over time. Together, these steps:
- Create a shared purpose among agency personnel and the public they serve.
- Create clear visitor use management direction that benefits the public and provides a foundation for future management actions and accountability.
- Help managers manage by design, not default.
More
Element Two
Define Visitor Use Management Direction: What conditions are we trying to achieve?
Learn MoreElement Three
Identify Management Strategies: How will visitor use be managed to achieve desired conditions?
Learn MoreElement Four
Implement, Monitor, Evaluate, and Adjust: Are we making progress towards desired conditions?
Learn More