Recreation Monitoring at Acadia National Park

undertaken an expanding program of recreation-related monitoring and associated activities. This program has been guided by the National Park Service (NPS) Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework (NPS 1997; Manning 2001). VERP was designed by the NPS to address carrying capacity and related recreation management issues. The underlying rationale of the VERP framework is to (1) define desired resource and social conditions in terms of empirically based indicators and standards, (2) monitor indicator variables, and (3) apply management actions to ensure that standards have been maintained. Thus, monitoring resource and social conditions at Acadia has become an important part of park planning and management. This paper describes four aspects of the monitoring program applied to Acadia. First, a suite of indicators and associated standards was initially formulated to guide monitoring of the park’s carriage road system. These indicators and standards give focus to the monitoring program, enhancing its efficiency and effectiveness. Second, computer-based simulation modeling has been used to help conduct the monitoring program. Simulation models can be used to estimate park conditions (as defined by indicator variables), reducing the need for on-the-ground monitoring, and can be used as a more “proactive” monitoring approach by estimating the maximum amount of visitor use that can be accommodated without violating standards. Third, several issues associated with monitoring on the carriage roads are described. These issues have arisen over several years of experience with this monitoring program. Finally, the recreation monitoring program at Acadia is expanding to address other areas of the park. A program of natural and social science research has been undertaken to help guide this monitoring. The final section of the paper briefly describes this program of research as it applies to resource-based impacts of recreation, including societal judgments