What is VUM Framework?

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." - John Muir,1912

Every year, people across the country flock to federally managed lands and waters for a variety of recreational purposes. Some are visiting an area for the first time, while others are returning to places they visit year after year. Some visitors are alone, and others visit with friends and family. On any given day, visitors are planning their trips, others are immersed in a long visit, and some are heading home and reflecting on their shared memories of time well spent. Recreation is a core element of American culture and a vital thread in the fabric of society. It allows people to connect with their natural and cultural heritage, be healthier in mind and body, enhance the bonds between family and friends, contribute to the economic vitality of communities, and be inspired and rejuvenated. Further, these opportunities allow people to better understand and care for resources and federal lands and waters, creating citizen stewards who want to support sustained management of our collective heritage.

The last decade has been an exciting time with many initiatives, such as the White House’s America’s Great Outdoors and Every Kid in a Park and the Department of the Interior’s America’s Youth in the Great Outdoors, which encourage visitor access and connections to federally managed lands and waters. In particular, these initiatives encourage federal agencies to be responsive to an increasingly diverse public that has changing interests and expectations. With this encouragement of access, there is a corresponding need to heighten managers’ thoughtful approaches to managing visitor use.

The Interagency Visitor Use Management Council (the council) was chartered in 2011 to develop best practices for visitor use management on federally managed lands and waters. 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. Simply put, it means managing use well to provide sustainable recreation.

This Visitor Use Management Framework (the framework) is intended to provide managers of federal lands and waters guidance regarding a common approach to visitor use management. More specifically, this framework provides the analytical elements necessary to address visitor use management opportunities and issues, consistent with applicable law, within existing agency management processes. The elements of the framework are combined with the appropriate procedural components (e.g., public involvement and environmental and cultural resource analysis) for the particular project being conducted. By using this framework, managers collaboratively develop long-term strategies for providing access, connecting visitors to key visitor experiences, protecting resources, and managing visitor use. The decisions made within the framework are professional judgments informed by the best available science, staff expertise, and public input.

The concepts presented in this framework are not new; the framework is the product of an evolution of earlier efforts, modified to reflect lessons learned. It follows all of the council agencies’ planning principles and illustrates how to specifically address visitor use management. It is consistent with previous efforts, such as the Limits of Acceptable Change process and the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection Framework. In particular, one of the goals of this framework is to avoid the limitations of previous frameworks. Past frameworks were perceived to apply only in certain situations or to specific federal agencies, to be overly complex and costly, as stand-alone processes that were separate from other agency planning efforts, and as reactive. See appendix A for a brief summary of the history of visitor use management concepts and frameworks.

This framework will enhance consistency in visitor use management on federally managed lands and waters, since it will be used by all agencies. The elements of this framework are broadly applicable to all visitor use management opportunities and issues. The framework is applicable across a wide spectrum of situations that vary in spatial extent and complexity, from site-specific decisions to large-scale comprehensive management plans. More specifically, the framework may be used as part of a general or comprehensive planning effort, which typically provides overall guidance on desired conditions, appropriate uses, and general management strategies for different areas within a unit. The framework may also be used to guide project-level planning and management, which typically define actions for specific areas. This framework may also be used across a series of projects that build on each other and may be applied to internally driven activities (e.g., analyzing a management action), as well as externally driven activities (e.g., a permit request or an action by another agency).

All federal agency actions are subject to a variety of procedural requirements, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act. However, each agency has specific policies and procedures for implementing and documenting these requirements. This requires planners to be familiar with and apply their specific agency NEPA and National Historic Preservation Act direction and any other procedural planning rules when using this framework. Chapter 4 highlights some of these commonalities and differences by agency.

The Interagency Visitor Use Management Council’s vision statement: Providing a unified voice for excellence in visitor use management on our nation’s federally managed lands and waters to sustain resources and quality visitor experiences. See the council’s website: visitorusemanagement.nps.gov/.