Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado was established in 1906 to protect ancient archeological sites of Ancestral Puebloan people, abandoned 800 years ago. The area includes world-famous cliff dwellings such as Cliff Palace. But these sites are fragile, were vandalized and looted before...

Visitors to Katmai National Park and Preserve have the opportunity to view brown bears at close range as they gather to feast on migrating salmon. But increasing demand for viewing opportunities, coupled with the large concentration of bears found in the area, has led to concerns about visitor...

The road serving Zion Canyon - the scenic heart of Zion National Park - was often congested, and parking lots overflowed (Impacts to roads/parking; Impacts to attraction sites; Crowding; Conflict). This made the Canyon noisy (Impacts to natural quiet), and unauthorized parking along the road...

This chapter covers an in-depth discussion of visitor monitoring in a park/protected area (PPA) in the Amazon region of Brazil. It traces the implementation of a systematic 'best practice' approach that applies and tailors a US Forest Service methodology for visitor monitoring to a region in the...

This chapter is concerned with visitor impacts at tourist attraction sites, exploring tourist behaviours, vandalism and related stakeholder responses. The first section of the chapter clarifies the meaning of the term vandalism in a tourism context, provides a condensed literature review of the...

This chapter reviews several conceptual frameworks that can be used to understand the challenges in managing outdoor recreation and to organize thinking about managing outdoor recreation. These include: the dual mission of parks; common property resources; carrying capacity; limits of acceptable...

This chapter identifies and reviews the potential impacts that outdoor recreation can have on park resources (soil, vegetation, water, wildlife, air, natural quiet, natural darkness, and historical/cultural resources), the quality of the visitor experience (crowding, conflict, and depreciative...

On peak summer days, thousands of hikers can be found along the extensive and diverse trail system in Acadia National Park. The collective use by so many visitors can take a toll on trail resources. Some visitors alter and build rock cairns; walk off-trail to avoid rocks, roots, and wet spots; and...

Years of uncontrolled use at a camping area along the Appalachian Trail resulted in widespread damage to soil, trees, and other vegetation; a decimated firewood supply; and visible signs of human waste (Impacts to campsites; Impacts to soil; Impacts to vegetation). The camping area was also crowded ...

A wondrous display of synchronous fireflies at Great Smoky Mountains National Park draws many visitors to the park each spring. However, the small viewing area and limited number of days over which this natural event takes place challenges the National Park Service to prevent associated resource...