Recreation Impacts and Management in Wilderness: A State-of-Knowledge Review

This paper reviews the body of literature on recreation resource impacts and their management in the United States, with a primary focus on research within designated wildernesses during the past 15 years since the previous review (Cole 1987b). Recreation impacts have become a salient issue among wilderness scientists, managers and advocates alike. Studies of recreation impacts, referred to as recreation ecology, have expanded and diversified. Research has shifted its focus more towards questions driven by wilderness and park planning frameworks such the Limits of Acceptable Change and the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection. This paper begins by providing an overview of recreation impacts and their significance in wilderness, followed by a review of research approaches and methods. Major findings from recent studies are summarized. The contribution of this knowledge base to management decisionmaking and practices is examined. The paper concludes with a discussion of major knowledge gaps and suggested areas for future research. The passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964 and the creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) marked a milestone in nature conservation in the United States. The system has expanded from 54 units and 9 million acres at its inception to 624 wilderness areas and 104 million acres by 1998 (Landres and Meyer 1998). The Wilderness Act recognizes the value of wilderness recreation and specifies that unconfined and undeveloped recreational opportunities are to be provided in wilderness areas as a legitimate type of use. Results from recent recreation trends studies show that wilderness visitation has experienced impressive growth during the past three decades (Cole 1996). Hiking, overnight camping, wildlife viewing, horseback riding and nature study remain popular activities, and participation in more specialized activities, such as caving and rock climbing, is increasing. In-depth discussion of wilderness recreational use and user trends is provided in another state-of-knowledge review (Watson, this volume). Continued growth in recreational use in wilderness has tremendous environmental, economic and social implications. This paper focuses on the environmental challenges wilderness managers face in addressing a large and expanding number of recreationists and their associated impacts. Sustaining current use and accommodating future growth in wilderness visitation while achieving an appropriate balance with resource protection presents a considerable challenge. Scope and Definitions ___________ Several definitions and limitations are provided here to clarify this discussion. The term impact is used to denote any undesirable visitor-related biophysical change of the wilderness resource. Social impacts are excluded from this review. The scope of this paper is generally limited to studies conducted in wildernesses designated by Congress. However, research studies from similar backcountry areas outside the NWPS are occasionally included for comparison. Active research in recreation impacts exists in other countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, but this body of international literature deserves a separate review. Finally, this paper limits its scope to recreation impacts generated from within wilderness boundaries, although recreational use and development outside wilderness boundaries can pose an external threat to the integrity of wilderness resources (Cole and Landres 1996). The Field of Recreation Ecology ___ Negative impacts on wilderness are an inevitable consequence of recreation. Even the most thoughtful visitors would leave footprints and unintentionally disturb wildlife. As recreation is a legitimate use in wilderness areas, the issue for managers is at what level do resource impacts become unacceptable based on wilderness management goals and mandates. Recreation activities can cause impact to all resource elements in a wilderness ecosystem. Soil, vegetation, wildlife and water are four primary components that are affected (Table 1). Because various ecological components are interrelated, recreation impact on a single ecological element can eventually result in effects on multiple components (Hammitt and Cole 1998). The scientific study of recreation impacts, also referred to as recreation ecology, is a research response to the knowledge gaps and information needs about evergrowing visitor impacts in wilderness as well as other protected areas. Recreation ecology can be defined as the field of study that examines, assesses and monitors visitor impacts, typically to protected natural areas, and their relationships to influential factors (Hammitt and Cole 1998; Liddle 1997; Marion 1998). Such knowledge can help managers identify and evaluate resource impacts, facilitating understanding of causes and