Pacific Northwest

Research Station DEPA RTMENTOFAGRICULT URE

Forest 

Service

United States 

Department of 

Agriculture

General Technical Report

PNW-GTR-705

March 2007

Rec

reation & 

Tou

rism Initiative

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful

for Public Land Recreation Planning

Stephen F. McCool, Roger N. Clark,

and George H. Stankey
The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is dedicated to the

principle of multiple use management of the Nation’s forest resources for sustained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry

research, cooperation with the States and private forest owners, and management of the national forests and national grasslands, it strives—as directed by

Congress—to provide increasingly greater service to a growing Nation.

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programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability,

and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion,

sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or

part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not

all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require

alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print,

audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice

and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights,

1400 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-

3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and

employer.

Authors

Stephen F. McCool is a professor of Wildland Recreation Management, Department of Society and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812;

Roger N. Clark and George H. Stankey are research social scientists (retired),

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. Clark was at the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, 400 N 34th, Suite

201, Seattle, WA 98103, and Stankey was at the Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200

SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331.

Cover photo by Stephen F. McCool.
Abstract

McCool, Stephen F.; Clark, Roger N.; Stankey, George, H. 2007. An assessment of frameworks useful for public land recreation planning. Gen. Tech Rep.

PNW-GTR-705. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 125 p.

Public land managers are confronted with an ever-growing and diversifying set of

demands for providing recreation opportunities. Coupled with a variety of trends

(devolution of governance and decisionmaking, population growth, technological

innovation, shifts in public values, economic restructuring) and reduced organizational capacity, these demands represent a significant and complex challenge to

public land management. One way of dealing with this situation is to use a framework to assist in working through this complexity. A framework, for the purpose

of this report, is a process using a set of steps, based on sound science, that assists

managers in framing a particular problem, working through it, and arriving at a set

of defendable decisions. Several such frameworks exist for providing recreation

opportunities on public lands. These include the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum,

Limits of Acceptable Change, Visitor Experience and Resource Protection, Visitor

Impact Management, and Benefits-Based Management. The report traces the development of each of these frameworks, describes the fundamental premises and concepts used within them, and provides an assessment of the experience with their

use. Each of the frameworks has been used with varying success, depending on the

organization’s will, its technical capacity, the extent to which the process is inclusive

of varying value systems, how open and deliberative the process is, the extent to

which the organization is concerned with effectiveness, and the extent to which

issues are confronted at the systems level.

Keywords: Recreation frameworks, planning, ROS, LAC, VERP, VIM, BBM.
Preface

This work represents an attempt to apply the experience and knowledge of the

authors in addressing some of the complex and messy issues of public land recreation planning. We believe that understanding and successfully addressing these

issues requires planners and managers to not only be aware of the large-scale trends

and driving forces forming their decisionmaking environment, but also to understand the frameworks available to work through the issues confronting them. This

paper contains not only a synthesis of appropriate literature, but also a reflection on

our own experience in developing and implementing several of the frameworks

discussed. In many of the sections of this paper, we provide insights and impressions that are not necessarily reported in the literature; for one thing, there is little

literature that discusses the “how to’s” of recreation planning, and for another, these

statements are based on our personal experiences and evaluation of those experiences in many situations.

In reviewing literature, we emphasized manuscripts that can be retrieved

relatively easily, and we did not attempt to include all literature on a particular

topic. We have emphasized the earlier or more influential papers on planning

frameworks. We believe that planning exists within a larger and turbulent environment; understanding that environment is helpful in understanding the relevancy and

appropriateness of a particular framework and how it can be applied. This report

does not have to be read from beginning to end, although that would be helpful; the

assessment of each framework can be understood independently from the other parts

of this work.
Contents

1 Chapter 1: Introduction

2 Some Observations About Providing Recreation Opportunities on Public Lands

3 What Is Planning About?

5 What Functions Does a Planning Framework for Recreation and Tourism Serve?

5 Organization of This Report

7 Chapter 2: The Context for Recreation Planning

8 Decisionmaking Environment

9 Technology

11 Population Growth and Change

13 Public Values

14 Economic Restructuring

16 Governance

19 What Do These Changes Mean for Recreation Planning?

21 Contemporary Recreation and Tourism Development Planning Issues

25 Chapter 3: An Overview of Recreation and Tourism Frameworks

25 What Is a Framework?

26 What Frameworks Are in the Planner’s Toolbox?

27 Conditions Needed to Implement a Recreation Planning Framework

30 Framework Summary

31 Chapter 4: A Primer on Recreation Planning Frameworks

31 Recreation Carrying Capacity

31 Developmental History

36 Key Concepts and Premises

37 Assessment of Experience With Recreation Carrying Capacity

40 Lessons Learned

43 Recreation Opportunity Spectrum

43 Developmental History

46 Description of the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum

50 Key Concepts and Premises

55 Implementation Requirements

57 Assessment of Experience With Respect to the ROS

59 Strengths and Weaknesses

61 Barriers to Implementation
62 Recreation Opportunity Spectrum Summary

63 Lessons Learned

66 Variants and Derivatives

66 Limits of Acceptable Change

66 Developmental History

71 Description of Limits of Acceptable Change

80 Key Concepts and Premises

83 Implementation Requirements

85 Assessment of Experience With LAC

88 Strengths and Weaknesses

90 Lessons Learned

92 Visitor Experience and Resource Protection

92 Developmental History

93 Framework Foundation

94 Analysis

94 Prescriptions

98 Monitor and Manage

99 Assessment of Experience With VERP

100 Benefits-Based Management

100 Developmental History

101 Key Concepts

104 Assessment of Experience With BBM

104 Other Frameworks

107 Chapter 5: Conclusions

110 Acknowledgments

111 References
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Chapter 1: Introduction

Federally administered public lands play increasingly important roles in providing

settings for recreation experiences and tourism development. These lands have

long supplied resource commodities, such as timber, grass, and minerals, for local

industry. They continue to serve as the watersheds for community water supplies

and function as habitat for a variety of plants and animals. However, growing

interest in their role as a major foundation of tourism development, particularly for

communities in transition from extraction-based economies, places new and more

complex demands on public land managers.

As explained in chapter 2, a variety of social, economic, and political changes

have led to an increasingly complex and contentious environment for responding to

such demands. Not only are the economic stakes higher, but there is growing

scrutiny and accountability in public land planning. These characteristics suggest

that analysis of proposals, strategic policy, and project planning must rely more on

frameworks and concepts that explicate decisions than in the past. Appropriate

planning frameworks can help to avoid unnecessary impacts, duplication, and lost

opportunities to ensure optimal benefits flow from public lands.

And although conceptual advances in land management, such as landscape

ecology, coupled with technological improvements, such as geographic information

systems, provide a greater capability for informing decisions, these changes have

often led to greater visibility of the scientific uncertainty intrinsic to those decisions. The consideration of longer timeframes and larger spatial scales in decision

analysis means that there is greater argument over what we think we know. Too, the

recognition embedded within such fields as landscape ecology that systems tend to

be nonlinearly dynamic brings complexity to the decisionmaking environment as

well. These factors have converged to make it difficult for the public and agency

staff to understand how decisions are made at a time when the public is demanding

greater involvement in such decisions.

Recreation and tourism development are not immune from this situation. What

once was perceived as a relatively “benign” use of public lands is now often as controversial as the timber sales it has replaced. Large-scale tourism developments,

such as destination ski resorts, are frequently accompanied by a litany of problematic social effects in addition to the manifest environmental ones. Decisionmakers

providing opportunities for recreation and tourism development are confronted

with this increasing contentiousness, complexity, and uncertainty about the consequences of their decisions. Such decisionmakers are increasingly expected to

scientifically justify plans and policies.

Appropriate planning frameworks

can help to avoid

unnecessary

impacts, duplication, and lost opportunities to ensure

optimal benefits flow

from public lands.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

The result of this socially and scientifically turbulent environment is a growing

need for frameworks and concepts that assist decisionmakers in assembling a set of

informed alternatives. Concepts that are useful to decisionmakers are ones that help

clarify underlying conflicts, create understanding of the issues at stake, and build

understanding of choices and consequences. Useful frameworks are those that help

decisionmakers “work through” these choices in a manner that allows technical

expertise, scientific knowledge, and public values and interests to be incorporated,

assessed, and used. In this paper, we review the evolution of the principal frameworks available to assist decisionmakers in working through and understanding

public land recreation opportunities. In addition, we provide a primer on their use.

Some Observations About Providing Recreation Opportunities on

Public Lands

The provision of recreation on public lands within a dynamic, multidimensional,

and uncertain context is complex, challenging, and fraught with potential misdirection and unanticipated consequences. For example, increased demand that public

lands provide commercialized recreation opportunities have led to conceptualizing

management as one of identifying a carrying capacity for recreation, and then

allocating such capacity between commercial and public visitors. Such a simplistic

representation of a complex problem (e.g., what opportunities to be provided, to

whom, where, how, and with what consequences) follows from a lack of the

organizational capacity needed to properly frame and respond to the problem.

As in other areas of resource management, ideologies may subtly influence

the approaches managers take to decisions about recreation on public lands.

We note that these decisions occur in a set of stages: policy, planning, and

implementation (including monitoring). Logically, the former stages precede the

latter, although in development and implementation in the seemingly chaotic world

of natural resources, such a rational representation is probably inappropriate. We

add here that the iterative nature of policy, planning, and implementation is quite

appropriate in a world characterized by uncertainty, but it is the chaotic character

of what actually occurs that makes decisions difficult to understand, follow and, in

many cases, defend. At each of these stages, there may be frameworks and concepts

that help managers clarify and understand the context and requirements for decisions. Appropriate frameworks help managers work through the decision process.

By knowing what frameworks are available for what types of decisions and issues,

managers can increase the quality of their decisions.
3

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Public land recreation frameworks have been developed over the last 25 years.

Such development was generally in response to specific planning and implementation issues, often derived out of formalized policy, such as the National Forest

Management Act of 1976 (Forest Service), Federal Land Policy and Management

Act of 1976 (UDSI Bureau of Land Management) or the General Authorities Act

of 1978 (National Park Service). However, these frameworks were also often developed in response to problems and challenges that are somewhat different, and as

Nilsen and Tayler (1997) argue, the first step in determining their suitability is to

“decide which questions they are seeking to answer.” For example, the Limits of

Acceptable Change framework (Stankey et al. 1985) was developed in response to

numerous failed attempts to establish recreational carrying capacities for components of the National Wilderness Preservation System.

There are a number of formal and informal processes that help managers make

decisions, but which are not oriented toward recreation planning. These processes

are for the most part, constructed around environmental assessment, such as environmental impact statement processes, social impact assessment, landscape and

watershed assessment processes, integrated resource management, and so on.

Although these processes are comprehensive in the sense of making alternative

generation and assessment of consequences explicit, in themselves, they do not

provide the substantive clarification and understanding of recreation and tourism

that is needed in conducting these processes. Thus, our focus in this paper is on

the specific frameworks and concepts developed to help clarify and create understanding about recreation and tourism on public lands. Our overall objective is to

provide decisionmakers with an understanding of how such frameworks evolved,

what issues they address, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. We initiate this

presentation with a short discussion about the functions and rationale for recreation

planning, as understanding why organizations plan is fundamental to assessing the

frameworks available.

What Is Planning About?

There may be as many definitions of planning as there are planners, but probably

the most widespread approach to a definition of planning is that it is a process to

describe both a desired or acceptable future and the “best” route to it—leaving

open the definition of best for the moment. Although other definitions range from

“application of science to policy” (Faludi 1973) to “linking knowledge to action”

(Friedmann 1973), the one we use here—see below—is probably the most widespread notion of the idea of planning.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

Organizations plan for a number of reasons: to solve a problem, because they

are told to do so, to reduce individual discretion, to maintain consistency, to control that which can be controlled, and so on. These notions may have been useful

in the days of stability and predictability (if there ever were those days), but in an

era, as typified in chapter 2, that is chaotic, dynamic, and filled with uncertainty,

such concepts of planning do not seem to fit well. There are at least three weaknesses (Weick and Sutcliffe 2001) with those reasons for planning:

1. Plans are built from assumptions, and therefore contain expectations about the

future; those expectations, however, filter out important, contradictory information such that data challenging the validity of those assumptions may never be

observed.

2. Plans are contingencies based on what we expect to occur, and thus limit our

repertoire of potential actions should our expectations not be met.

3. Planning processes presume that rational people, following the same process,

will come to the same decisions; but in a world of complexity and uncertainty,

such plans cannot accommodate the inevitable surprises and unexpected events

that will occur.

The linear, unidirectional character of planning implied from formalized

planning definitions and processes is not well-suited for the public land contexts

within which recreation and tourism development occur. These settings are not only

contentious, but are fluid as well: priorities shift, needs change, and problems and

challenges evolve. In part, the notion of adaptive management (see Stankey et al.

2003a for a review) was developed to deal with the need for feedback and evaluation of decisions. Thus, a major dimension of suitable and appropriate recreation

planning frameworks would be processes that provide feedback to managers. We

view planning as an iterative, inclusive process where stakeholders and planners

jointly frame issues, construct futures, and choose socially acceptable, efficient,

equitable, and effective pathways to those futures. Thus, planning may be more

formally defined as a process of identifying a desired future and determining the

pathway (or set of pathways) to it.

The frameworks assessed in this paper do provide for such feedback, but, as

noted earlier, the lack of feedback and evaluation is often a function of not only

institutional design but also frequently of organizational will and priority. Feedback may well indicate that change in a management regime is needed, but hard

won regimes are often difficult to change, even given good evidence for such a

change.

The linear, unidirectional character of

planning implied

from formalized

planning definitions

and processes is

not well-suited

for the public land

contexts within

which recreation

and tourism development occur.
5

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

What Functions Does a Planning Framework for Recreation and

Tourism Serve?

Given the above, frameworks that focus on allocation decisions for recreation

and tourism serve to provide some systematic process for making those decisions

such that managers are fully aware of the desired future they wish to attain, the

alternative routes to the future, the consequences of those alternatives, and the

social acceptability of proposed management actions. In addition, these frameworks provide the explicitness and feedback needed in a time of change, complexity, and uncertainty. Stankey and Clark (1996) suggested that an effective framework would (1) identify tradeoffs between provision of recreation opportunities

with the resulting local economic impacts and protection of biodiversity values, (2)

appreciate and address complexity (rather than suggest reductionistic approaches),

and (3) accommodate the array of constituencies with interests in the specific area

or issue.

Finally, recreation and tourism planning frameworks make decisionmaking

efficient by focusing attention on important elements of the political and social

environment, effective by gaining the public support that is needed for implementation, and equitable by forcing consideration of who wins and who loses. In

an overall sense, a framework increases the opportunities to practice the “mindfulness” Weick and Sutcliffe (2001) argued is important to deal with the inevitable

surprises occurring in an uncertain context.

In this report, we examine and assess the principal concepts and frameworks

that managers have available to assist in making decisions about recreation and

tourism development opportunities. Many of these are a result of collaborative

efforts between scientists and managers. Those efforts were largely in response to

specific issues or policy initiatives for which a defensible, transparent, and logical

approach was needed.

Organization of This Report

We begin the assessment by discussing in more detail the significant contextual

changes and driving forces that have accelerated the need for recreation and tourism planning frameworks in recent years (chapter 2). Understanding this context

is critical to application of the frameworks. We then turn to an overview of the

frameworks that we have identified to briefly discuss their function and origin

(chapter 3).
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

Following the overview, we provide a primer on the principal frameworks

available to assist decisionmakers (chapter 4). The primer describes and evaluates

the frameworks. The objective of the primer is to provide planners with enough

information to decide which framework to use in a specific circumstance. The

primer focuses on the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum and Limits of Acceptable

Change as these are the best known and most widely applied frameworks, but

others such as Visitor Impact Management, Visitor Experience and Resource Protection, and Benefits-Based Management are included, although not in the same

depth. We have designed this report so that it is not necessarily meant to be read

from beginning to end. Although chapter 2 provides a needed context for planning,

one simply interested in the frameworks per se may only want to read chapter 4.
7

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Chapter 2: The Context for Recreation Planning

The social, political, and legal environment within which planning and management take place today has changed markedly over the past several decades. Scarcely

a generation ago, planning and management operated in a world in which it was

presumed that problems were both well defined and agreed upon, those problems

could be solved by technical-scientific investigation, and once defined and studied,

the means to resolve them could be implemented in an efficient and cost-effective

manner. Today, there is a growing realization that these conditions, if they ever did

exist, are fast disappearing. The stable and predictable world of yesterday has been

replaced by conditions of extraordinary turbulence—both sociopolitical and technical-scientific. Decisions must be made within a rapidly changing and pluralistic

social context, and almost all these decisions are undertaken in the face of high

levels of uncertainty regarding both causation and their relative effectiveness. In

short, the world in which planners and managers operate today has changed in

many fundamental ways.

These changes imply that approaches to planning and management once effective and appropriate are likely no longer so. Changes in the larger social, economic,

and political context have led to new methods for planning and management; for

example, the demand for inclusive public involvement processes, pressures for

shared decisionmaking systems, and efforts to include a broader range of knowledge. Such changes are fundamental and systemic; they are not limited to natural

resource management nor are they likely to be transitory or cosmetic.

The effectiveness of recreation planning is impacted by these changes. Planning, for example, in a stable and predictable environment is very different than

planning in a turbulent and uncertain one, even though the ultimate goal of planning—to ensure a desired future arrives—is the same. Thus, in this chapter, we

elaborate on these changes and suggest their implications for the conduct of recreation planning: we identify some of the key features of these fundamental changes

in the social, political, and economic context within which contemporary planning

and management must operate. Six key areas are identified: (1) the decisionmaking

environment, (2) technology, (3) population growth and change, (4) public values,

(5) economic restructuring, and (6) governance. For each of these, a brief description of the underlying nature of changes is provided along with a short outline of

some of the key implications of those changes for planners and managers.

Planning in a stable

and predictable

environment is very

different than planning in a turbulent

and uncertain one.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

Decisionmaking Environment

A hallmark of natural resource planning and management in past years was the

high level of discretion available to, and exercised by, agency personnel. In the

case of the USDA Forest Service, the core legislation upon which the agency

operated—the 1960 Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act—was steeped in such implicit discretion; during one of the many legal challenges facing the agency, a

federal judge observed that the act “breathes discretion at every pore” (cited in

Wondolleck 1988). However, such discretion derived from a widespread belief that

most of the problems confronting agencies were technical or scientific in nature

and that the requisite skills and knowledge to resolve those problems satisfactorily

were possessed by a professionally trained agency staff. Because the problems were

of a technical or scientific character, their satisfactory resolution1

 also was dependent upon the application of a particular set of knowledge and skills, which were

largely possessed only by those with the appropriate type of education and experience. Moreover, decisionmaking was marked by a burden of proof argument in

which planned actions were overturned or halted only upon emerging evidence that

their effects were not those intended.

Today, these fundamental dimensions of the decisionmaking environment have

been dramatically recast. Management discretion has been significantly replaced by

an increasing reliance upon an array of regulatory mechanisms, prescriptive legislation, and oversight organizations. Jasanoff (1990) has provided considerable detail

regarding the forces that have led to such a change, but at the core lies an increasing level of distrust regarding organizational decisionmaking by both oversight

agencies and the wider public. As a result, there is growing direction from legislatively-prescribed mechanisms and the imposition of administrative regulations that

require external oversight by regulatory bodies such as the National Marine Fisheries Service or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition to the impact of these external legal strictures, there is also an increasingly prevalent reliance on the precautionary principle. Although this principle

has been defined various ways, its manifestation in a land management planning

context has largely been one in which human interventions are treated as likely

1

 In this text, we use the term “resolution” or “resolve” deliberately, and to mean that an

agreement has been reached on how to deal with a problem. In this sense, resolutions of

problems are only temporary as new contexts raise old questions over and over. We do not

use it to mean that a problem has been solved.
9

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

sources of adverse impacts; it imposes a requirement that in the presence of uncertainty, extreme caution be exercised in any intervention (Cooney and Dickson

2005). Because of an increasing recognition of the limits of contemporary science

in efforts to manage at larger spatial and longer time scales and of the need to look

at secondary and tertiary effects of any action, the ability to foresee such adverse

consequences is almost always problematic. The practical effect of the precautionary principle then often becomes one that restricts interventions or experimentation

until such time that “enough” is known. Coupled with the restrictive legal environment, the ideology of the precautionary principle has created a situation in which

risk-aversion has become the norm, and maintenance of the status quo often

dominates decisionmaking (even though the concept of a “no action” alternative is

not without a host of its own risks, consequences, and impacts).

With regard to recreation planning and management, decisions about development of overnight facilities, access systems (e.g., trails, roads, and bridges) and

other supporting tourism facilities often raise questions concerning possible impacts on endangered species habitat or aquatic and riparian environments. Often,

the inclination is to avoid undertaking any action that might result in any adverse

impact. Either actively or passively discouraging recreation use in riparian zones,

for example, is justified on the grounds that such restrictions effectively preserve

key habitat, even if evidence of any adverse impacts is lacking. In sum, decisionmaking has become increasingly conservative, reactive, and resistant to change;

protection and maintenance of the status quo prevails. The principal impact of these

changes in decisionmaking has been to foster a conservative, risk-averse environment that emphasizes compliance with environmental procedures. The use of

adaptive management regimes is also adversely impacted, as the notion of experimentation may be antithetical to the precautionary principle.

Technology

The impact of technology on planning in general, and on recreation and tourism

planning reveals itself in two ways. First, there continue to be major changes in the

technology of recreation and tourism activities. There have been a host of developments in off-road vehicles, global positioning systems, cell phones, recreational

equipment, clothing and materials, and other apparatus that facilitate recreational

use (e.g., jet skis). Such developments are driven largely by changes in technological capacity and links between these changes and market demand. Moreover, land

managers and planners often find themselves reacting to the latest development or
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

fad, and the associated adverse impacts on other users or the environment occur

with little in the way of forethought or preplanning. Yet, it also needs to be understood that technology has always been present, and changes in it have always had

impacts on the types, levels, and distribution of recreation use; that is, this is not

simply a contemporary phenomenon. Whether we are talking about the advent of

outboard motors, aluminum-frame backpacks, dehydrated foods, or the automobile,

the character and level of recreation use facing planners and managers has long

been the product of technological change.

Complicating the response to technological innovation has been an apparent

acceleration in technological development. Old technologies are not those that are a

decade or so old, they may be only a year or two old. The implication here is that

it has become extremely difficult for agencies to maintain a technological awareness and understand the effects of new technology on the type and distribution of

demand for recreation.

Technology also has dramatically affected the provision of information. The

advent of global positioning system (GPS) and the array of remote and satellite

imagery, for instance, have changed forever the ways in which resource management information is compiled, displayed, and used. The opportunities for the rapid

and accurate display of information about resource systems and different management actions have greatly enhanced the ability of resource managers to understand

how an action might relate to different resources, uses, and values. In addition,

some technologies, such as GPS, have resulted in new recreation activities on

wildlands, such as geocaching, where a “treasure” is hidden and its locational

coordinates are broadcast over the Internet. Users with GPS units then attempt to

find the treasure, and if they do, leave a small note or prize for the next finder.

However, this explosion in information technology is not limited to the resource management community. The World Wide Web and its host of powerful

search engines have dramatically recast the way in which potential recreationists

obtain information about destinations and opportunities. Although data are lacking, it seems clear that increasingly, recreationists are able to obtain information

with little or no direct contact with public resource management agencies. For example, Whitmore et al. (2005) reported that over 8 percent of the visitors to the

Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana used Internet information sources to plan

their visit. The extent to which such information is consistent with rules and

regulations, organizational objectives, or other management considerations is

problematic. Yet, such use likely will become even more of a factor in the future.

Some technologies,

such as GPS, have

resulted in new

recreation activities

on wildlands, such

as geocaching.
11

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Although data again are lacking, we can identify some of the consequences of

this phenomenon of the growth and utilization of information technology. It has

the potential of increasing both the levels and diversity of recreational demand

that public lands must face. It could also have impacts on the spatial and temporal

distribution of recreation use, as information about opportunities and access become widely available. Such shifts, as noted above, have the potential for a variety

of management problems; increased levels of use, conflicts among recreation uses,

and conflicts with or impacts upon, other resource uses. In turn, these latter issues

could increase the level of impact on agencies in terms of law enforcement, supervision, cleanup, and maintenance. Moreover, because the quality and accuracy of

information that recreationists and tourists obtain on the Web cannot be accurately

judged, the potential for unrealistic or misplaced expectations could be great.

Images of sites and landscapes conjured up by Web sites may differ in their accuracy or realism, giving rise to expectations that may or may not be consistent

with the current management regime or conditions. But, given the proliferation

of such data and the number of sources from which it is obtained, it will be challenging for agency personnel to monitor, let alone clarify or correct it. As a consequence, there could be increasing numbers of recreationists and tourists who bring

expectations and demands to public lands that are inaccurate or misplaced.

Population Growth and Change

Since the end of World War II, the U.S. population has increased by about

50 million people every 20 years; according to the U.S. census today, it stands

at more than 300 million. Yet, from a recreation and tourism planning perspective, it is less the total change in population that is of interest than it is the composition and distribution of that population. Although there has been much discussion

about reducing population growth to a “replacement level,” and the natural increase

(births minus deaths) has slowed, this will not occur for many years. However, the

dynamics of population growth and change result in a number of significant consequences for recreation and tourism planners.

First, although the Nation’s total population growth has slowed, there have

been significant shifts in the distribution of the population, driven by large-scale

and long-lasting patterns of migration. The result is some sectors of the country,

notably the Western States, have been marked by substantial population growth.

Some of the internal migration is fed by the search for employment, but amenity

values remain a major factor (Beale and Johnson 1998, McGranahan 1999). In
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

Ravalli County of western Montana, 80 to 90 percent of its total population growth

since the late 1970s is accounted for by immigration. Throughout the Western

United States, counties that have relatively large proportions of public lands and, in

particular, national parks and wildernesses, have seen growth rates that exceed

regional averages, as many economically “footloose” households have chosen to

live in amenity-rich areas. Such growth is also fostered by the types of changes in

information technology discussed earlier that permit certain employment sectors to

telecommute. And, there may be conflicting views of nature and land management

between the oldtimers and newcomers (Fortmann and Kusel 1991, Graber 1974).

Second, the U.S. population is increasingly older; by 2030, it is estimated that

20 percent of the Nation’s population will exceed age 65 (He et al. 2005). The

fastest growing age category is the 85 and older, according to the U.S. census. And,

although at one time, increasing age was clearly associated with declining participation rates in almost all recreation activities, this is much less true now. People now

in their retirement years come from an age cohort where recreation was an integral

part of their lifestyle, and many people retain their participation patterns or switch

to allied activities (e.g., from running to walking, backpacking to day hiking). Increasing numbers of persons in postretirement also might lead to an extended use

season, from the traditional emphasis on the Memorial Day to Labor Day period

to year round. Moreover, the changes in leisure and outdoor recreation technology

noted earlier likely enable these individuals to participate longer than before. Even

when these individuals no longer participate in recreation at their former rates, or

at all, they might still remain engaged in recreation and tourism planning processes,

given the long-term importance of the activity in their lives or of the places in

which those activities were undertaken. As a consequence, the knowledge, experiences, and expectations of a population no longer active onsite will remain issues

with which managers must deal.

Third, the traditional rural to urban migration pattern has reversed itself in

many parts of the West. In the early 1990s, nearly all counties in the Pacific

Northwest experienced this pattern, which was particularly dramatic in counties

containing natural resource based amenities, such as national parks, designated

wilderness, and wild and scenic rivers (Rudzitis and Johansen 1989, Troy 1998).

Although the current pattern of migration is limited to urban proximate counties,

amenity resources—in addition to land prices—are probably largely responsible

for continued population growth in these places (McCool and Kruger 2003).
13

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Fourth, the Nation is increasingly ethnically diverse (USDC Bureau of the

Census 2002); in some regions of the country, such as the Southwest, non-Caucasians now account for a majority of the population. This presents challenges across

a variety of sectors—education, health care—and for the provision of outdoor recreation and tourism services. Cultural beliefs and norms mean that new demands

and expectations will be increasingly brought to bear on the provision of these services. Different languages, or even limited proficiency in English, will challenge

communication programs both onsite as well as in such venues as public involvement efforts. The ability to gain public understanding and support for a variety of

programs, both in recreation/tourism and other arenas, such as biodiversity conservation, might prove challenging. Finally, understanding the meaning and importance of outdoor engagements—for subsistence, for leisure, for spiritual purposes—

will often prove difficult for managers from a Caucasian, Anglo perspective.

The effect of population growth and change has been to dramatically increase

demand for recreational opportunities on public lands, in particular in those places

containing publicly administered amenity resources. Places that once had few visitors now have many. This increased demand may conflict with established patterns

of resource commodity production, leading to competing views of what products

public lands provide. Another effect has been to diversify recreational demand.

Older individuals and those with different ethnic background may engage in different activities. The mode of their engagement in recreational activities may differ.

The tourism industry itself may find a need to adapt to changing age structures and

preferences resulting from the aging process, such as building more lodges and

designing activities that meet the preferences of older Americans.

Public Values

The structural changes in population discussed above have been accompanied by

equally telling shifts in public attitudes and values with respect to the environment

and the management of public lands. Generally, not only have recreation participation rates remained high, but public concern with questions of environmental

quality and protection have gained support (however, whether a causal link exists

between these factors is not known). National surveys of public values about the

environment provide evidence that environmental issues still attract citizen interest

among a wide range of political priorities. For example, Steel and Weber (2003)

reported that in a national survey, over 60 percent of respondents considered

themselves to be at least “moderately informed” about the concept of ecosystem

The effect of population growth and

change has been

to dramatically

increase demand

for recreational

opportunities on

public lands.
14

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

management as applied to public land management. Among these respondents,

the basis of support for ecosystem management tended to focus on the value of

the framework for thinking about the environment in holistic rather than a single

resource basis, as a means of protecting endangered species while ensuring certain

commodity values, and for enhancing the long-term health of the public lands.

Other surveys suggest that a host of symbolic dimensions of environmental management remain important; spiritual values, scientific inquiry, cultural purposes,

and the like (e.g., Manning et al. 1999, Steel et al. 1994).

However, the public support for recreation and tourism uses of the environment

can conflict with public preferences and backing for the maintenance of habitat for

threatened and endangered species, biodiversity conservation, or other conservation

purposes. The view of recreation as environmentally benign may be challenged in

these conflict situations. For example, proposals for large-scale ski resorts using

public lands for ski runs are routinely criticized for their impact on biophysical

conditions and processes.

Nonetheless, survey data such as these clearly indicate that environmental

management remains a salient public issue. Moreover, the pluralistic nature of our

Nation suggests that the option for managing for one set of values (e.g., recreation

and tourism) versus some other set (e.g., environmental protection) as an “eitheror” matter is not a politically viable choice; both are sought and considered important. Thus, managers must seek frameworks that respond to these pluralistic—and

often conflicting—demands in a manner that makes it possible to be responsive to

both.

Economic Restructuring

Recent decades have witnessed a major restructuring of the U.S. economy. A

variety of factors account for this change, some global, some national, others

local. Economists give particular attention to the notion of “uncoupling”; that is,

a fundamental change in the relationship between key components of the economy.

First, there has been an uncoupling of the primary products economy, such as timber, from the industrial economy. In short, the industrial economy has disconnected

itself from its dependence upon primary products, a phenomenon driven largely by

technology. Thus, for example, alternative products have replaced traditional siding

and flooring. Second, there has been an uncoupling of production in the industrial

economy from industrial employment; that is, output and efficiency in the industrial sector have grown while employment in that sector has declined (Carroll and
15

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Blatner 1994, Drucker 1986). Again, this largely stems from productivity gains

owing to technology; mills that once required 100 people to run a shift can now

do so with 20.

Third, there has also been a significant shift in the underlying complexity of

our economic system; economic relations and interdependencies are increasingly

complex and difficult to understand and manipulate. This shift flows from a variety

of national and international policies and programs (e.g., North America Free

Trade Agreement), from the growing globalization and internationalization of

commercial activity, and from technological change. The seemingly simple maxim

to “buy American” holds little meaning when Chevrolets2

 are built in Mexico and

Canada and Toyotas are assembled in Ohio. And, finally, the economies of small,

rural communities in the West have largely been uncoupled from resource commodity production and processing. Many communities have lost their sawmills,

grain storage, and mining dependencies; some have replaced these with a serviceand retirement-based economy. In some communities, retirement income (annuities, social security, and so on) make up 20 percent or more of the personal

income.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis keeps track of such statistics. A couple

of examples illustrate the importance of this source of income. In the Missoula,

Montana, Economic Region, for example, such transfer payments totaled about

17 percent of the total personal income in 2003, but were increasing at the rate

of 5.4 percent per year during the previous decade. The Bend, Oregon, economic

region has a similar proportion, but the rate of increase is much higher at 8.3 percent per year. If one adds in dividends, interest, and rent as a source of income,

then the proportion of personal income in both areas owing to nonlabor income

sources rises to 38 percent and more (USDC Bureau of Economic Analysis 2006).

Such changes impact natural resource and recreation management in many

ways. The increasing emphasis and concern with efficiency, cost-reduction, and

profit margins has seen a major shift in the locus of U.S. timber production, moving from the Pacific Northwest region to the Southeast and its short-term-rotation

pine forests. Combined with gains in technological efficiency, the sum has been a

significant economic impact in many rural communities of the region, as the longterm source of economic well-being and jobs have disappeared. These changes and

2

 The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for reader information and does not

imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product or service.
16

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

others involving legal challenges, were responsible, in large part, for the 1993 Forest Conference in Portland, Oregon, where President Clinton sought to find a

strategy for resolving the gridlock that gripped forest management in the region.

The decline in timber production in the Northwest has had two important impacts on recreation and tourism. First, the loss of a once-prosperous economic base

has led many rural communities to seek alternative means of sustaining themselves;

recreation and tourism represent one potential vector of economic development.

As a result, there has been a growth in private sector and commercial efforts to

provide an array of recreation services, with public lands providing the resources

required for those services. However, two major challenges face both communities

and public land managers. First, how can communities exploit the natural capital

located on public land without unacceptably altering the quality of the very resources upon which the burgeoning recreation/tourism industry ultimately depends?

In some cases, proposals to increase the economic reliance of communities on

tourism have been met with stiff opposition, both on environmental and economic

grounds. Second, what is the capacity of these communities to effectively organize

and deliver an array of recreation and tourism services in terms of the needed

financial and social capital? With regard to both questions, there is a need for

frameworks that enable public and private planners to more effectively define the

nature, distribution, and scope of recreation and tourism demand and supply.

The second impact of the decline in timber harvesting has been a loss of

capacity of management programs within the federal resource agencies. For many

years, timber management budgets helped subsidize activities within other resource

programs, including recreation and wildlife. With the decline of the timber industry, there has been a parallel decline in agency timber management programs and

diminishing budgets felt in those programs once supported by timber dollars.

Coupled with impacts on recreation staff, the sum effect has been a major decline

in the extent and quality of recreation management programs including direct

provision of opportunities and loss of capacity to assess impacts to public lands

from private tourism development.

Governance

The question of how a society organizes itself to achieve a variety of purposes has

long preoccupied many observers. In recent years, this issue has gained increasing

attention and is as true for natural resource management as it is for any other

There has been a

growth in private

sector and commercial efforts to

provide an array of

recreation services,

with public lands

providing the resources required

for those services.
17

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

sector. At the broadest level, it involves a fundamental tension between a conception of governance grounded in a “federalist” model, in which responsibilities are

embodied in a centralized structure (e.g., the federal government) as opposed to

one often described as a “Jeffersonian” model, in which responsibilities and governance are devolved to local authorities. In the United States today, elements of both

are found. However, a growing sense of dissatisfaction and frustration with “traditional” government suggests the search for more effective, efficient, and equitable

structures and processes continues.

Although this is sometimes cast as a politically partisan issue, it is broader than

that. For example, during the Clinton administration, much attention focused on

the recommendations and ideas contained in the book Reinventing Government:

How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector (Osborne and

Gaebler 1992). In August, 2004, an Executive Order signed by President Bush

called for particular attention on the part of federal natural resource agencies to

cooperative and collaborative relations with public and private interests at the local

level in conservation planning. In the forestry sector, O’Toole’s book Reforming

the Forest Service (1988) called for the devolution of many responsibilities to

states, local government, and the private sector. In recent years, burgeoning interest

in alternative models of governance have gained increased attention—for example,

the increased attention given to a host of collaborative management approaches

(Wondolleck and Yaffee 2000) and experiments in comanagement (e.g., between

existing public authorities and Native Americans).

In response, some on-the-ground projects have appeared (e.g., the Quincy

Library Group in northern California); former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber

has established a policy research center to consider alternative institutional structures and processes. These proposals, and many others, reflect widespread dissatisfaction with the top-down, command and control models of planning that have

typified natural resource management agencies. The continuing impact of “not in

my backyard” concerns reflects a sense of frustration and powerlessness on the part

of many citizens about government actions that ignore local concerns with place. In

some cases, these frustrations have triggered local political actions, often in the

form of so-called “friends of” groups that attempt to exert political influence upon

the actions of a government seen as disconnected and unconcerned with local

issues.
18

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

In sum, these and other related movements reflect the continuing search for

more effective instruments of governance. They also reveal an evolving conception

about traditional approaches to natural resource planning. For example, there is a

growing sense that the traditional view of planning as a technical enterprise (the

so-called “social reform” model; see Friedmann 1987) needs to be augmented

by a “social learning” model, which conceives of planning as both a technical

and sociopolitical endeavor. Again, the growing interest in a variety of collaborative approaches to planning reflects this concern. It is also driven and sustained by

statutory and policy mandates (e.g., National Environmental Policy Act 1969) that

give citizens increased roles and responsibilities in natural resource decisionmaking;

this has significantly altered the relation between citizen and natural resource

organizations and the trend likely will extend citizen influence even further.

One specific dimension of the contemporary political scene involves efforts to

reduce government in general and the federal government in particular. Some of

the authority and responsibility has been assigned to various local governments

(states, counties, and municipalities), whereas others are seen as more appropriately

met by the private sector. Coupled with the types of fundamental economic restructuring described earlier, one major impact has been the downsizing of personnel.

For example, personnel dropped by about 50 percent between 1994 and 2004 in

the Pacific Northwest Region (Region 6, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska) of the

Forest Service. This has had three major impacts in natural resource management.

First, the reduction in full-time professional staff has not been accompanied by

any significant reduction in responsibilities and requirements. Thus, individual

employees typically find themselves handling more than one full-time position.

This horizontal job-loading has led to a situation with the consequence that the

time, attention, and energy devoted to any one responsibility, such as recreation

management, increasingly are diminished and diluted.

Second, internal rules of seniority and personnel management in federal

organizations have led to a situation in which, as various downsizing measures are

taken, staff in fields such as silviculture or engineering find themselves reassigned

to responsibilities for which they might be poorly equipped to meet or for which

they have little interest. Thus, people lacking the educational background, on-theground experience and training, and sometimes the interest to proactively manage

the resources assigned to them, fill some recreation staff positions.
19

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Third, as noted in the discussion of economic restructuring, political, economic, and policy pressures have resulted in increased attention to alternative

sources of economic support for local communities. Chief among these have been

efforts to enhance these communities as venues for recreation and tourism and for

the development of local capacity to offer recreation and tourism services. Again,

coupled with a declining federal workforce and pressures to devolve formerly

federal responsibilities to other governmental levels or the private sector, the sum

effect has been to reduce the federal presence in the planning, provision, and

management of recreation and tourism. For example, many Forest Service campgrounds in the Northwest are now managed by private firms, leaving the public

without any direct contact with federal rangers.

The ultimate effect of these changes is substantial and complex. Precisely when

there is significant social and political pressure to rely on public lands as a source

of recreation and tourism development opportunities, the agencies are losing their

organizational capital, as measured in both numbers and breadth of skill set, to

provide for those opportunities. The increasing pressures for more collaborative

models of decisionmaking are counter-balanced by a loss of personnel to do the

collaboration. The growing level and diversity of demand for recreation and

tourism opportunities collides with reduced administrative discretion to provide

those opportunities. Responding to changing public values and preferences for the

outputs of public land management clashes with a growing tendency to view recreation management in highly reductionistic ways. These clashes have led to a

greater reliance on private contractors, but there are significant questions about the

capacity of contractors to carry out the complex, and often changing, responsibilities assigned to public land agencies.

What Do These Changes Mean for Recreation Planning?

Planning is conducted by government agencies and their employees. Each of these

agencies has a distinctive culture, which not only socializes employees into what is

important to attend to (e.g., agency norms, values, positions) but which also carries

with it certain assumptions—often implicit—about the character of its external environment, the appropriateness of planning processes to the issues with which it is

confronted, and the context within which it is situated. Given the complexity,

dimensionality, and pace of external change, there are a number of implications for

the organizations that conduct planning for recreation on public lands.

The growing level

and diversity of

demand for recreation and tourism

opportunities collides with reduced

administrative discretion to provide

those opportunities.
20

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

First, the implicit assumptions that the organization carries about its external

environment—the expectations its constituencies hold, the processes civil society

engages to protect important values, the saliency of the organization to wider

society—are challenged. Although these implicit assumptions are critical in day-today operations of the organization, they also may lead to increasing irrelevancy in a

time of change and uncertainty. Thus, the same assumptions about the environment

that have led to an organization’s success in the past may also be responsible for

conflict with its constituencies in the future. What this suggests for planning

agencies is a need for sensing mechanisms to determine what changes are occurring

and why, so the organization can become as adaptable as the management of public

lands it wishes to implement. The acceptability of management actions and uses

is subject to constant change: what once was acceptable is no longer (e.g., snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park). How do agencies sense these changes in

their external environment? How do they organize themselves to learn about these

changes and address them?

Second, the character of the planning problem has shifted (see next section),

indeed jumped, from the tame—typified by social agreement on goals and agreement among scientists on cause-effect relationships—to the messy situations

where disagreement on both exists. The implication for planning agencies is that

the processes and approaches to problems that once were adequate are no longer.

Typical rational-comprehensive planning, relying on science and driven by expertise, exacerbate rather than resolve recreation issues. The challenge for organizations is to find or develop, when needed, frameworks that will be responsive and

effective in this changed planning situation.

A third major implication is that development of a variety of interlocked

contextual elements challenges the capacity of public land recreation agencies to

respond to the growing complexity of planning issues. Although any one of the

trends or driving forces mentioned earlier would present a formidable challenge

itself, the synergistic quality of them acting together—colliding and reinforcing

as they do—requires thoughtful, defendable, and trackable responses to planning

issues. It is as if the contemporary planner must now follow a twisting, narrow

pathway, bounded by precipices in the search for resolutions to a growing number

of issues. A suitable framework provides the guide for navigating this challenging,

and often unforgiving, pathway.
21

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Finally, as we note in the next section, there are a variety of interlocked issues

confronting public land recreation planners (Allen and Gould 1986). One issue

cannot necessarily be resolved without the others being addressed. Although traditional expert-driven planning processes are still necessary, they are no longer

adequate for resolution of these issues.

Contemporary Recreation and Tourism Development Planning

Issues

This context, as turbulent, contentious, and complex as it is, sets the stage for a

number of issues concerning recreation and tourism development on public lands.

These issues, many of which have dogged land management agencies for decades,

require a framework to structure thinking, to help planners “work through” them,

and to assist in identifying appropriate responses and implementation strategies.

We have identified some of these issues below. We have framed the issue as a

question, and then provided a brief description. Our framing of these issues is

necessarily abstract, but each issue is played out at a local (park, forest or district)

level, and so the specifics differ from one place to another. This local context is

critical to framing the issue at that level—the scale at which appropriate responses

will be made.

What are the interactions between recreation and other uses of public lands?

• Recreation on public lands frequently occurs within the context of other

uses, both utilitarian, such as timber harvesting, grazing, habitat protection,

and symbolic, such as visual quality, and spiritual meanings. How recreation is managed affects the ability of public lands to produce or preserve

these other uses, and conversely, management for these other values influences what opportunities, where, and how many exist for recreation. In

allocating lands to various uses, planners need to understand what

tradeoffs, costs, and consequences result from different proposed allocation

decisions.

Under what conditions can recreational use be limited, and what criteria

would be needed to make visitor use allocation decisions?

• In certain situations, managers may feel that recreation use must be limited

to a certain number of people during a specific period. Such use limits have

often been implemented on western whitewater rivers. Use limits are

generally implemented when there have been clear threats to the biophysical or experiential component of a particular setting. When use limits are
22

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

imposed and demand is above what the limit allows, use must be rationed

and allocated. By allocation, we mean dividing up the total use among

commercial outfitted groups and private visitor groups, a common practice

in river situations. Rationing is the process for determining the specific

individuals that are permitted to enter the setting.

What are the regional effects of site-level decisions?

• Recreation sites, and larger areas, such as national parks, exist within a

complex web of interacting supply-and-demand processes. Managers acting

to protect or enhance the recreation attributes or tourism opportunities at

one site may implement a series of actions that restricts people or their

behavior, but in reality, the problem pops up someplace else. For example,

acting to limit use on one site may displace use to other sites because at

least some users can no longer access the original site. In some situations,

the organizational capacity to deal with increased use and impact may be

very limited on the sites now attracting the displaced users.

How can allocations of use opportunities between guided and nonguided

publics be made?

• Limiting recreational use will often require that limits also be placed on the

number of “service days” of use allowed for guided use and on the number

of visitor days of use allowed for the nonguided public. This decision is

akin to cutting a highly desirable pie into two slices (sometimes more,

depending upon agency and outfitting policy). Criteria are needed to

determine what proportion of use should be guided and nonguided.

Within this decision there are also decisions to allot use to individual

guides and outfitters and to ration use among other visitors, assuming

demand is above the allocated use. Outfitters generally ration use based

on price, whereas for nonguided visitors, rationing may be based on a

waiting line, reservation, random drawing, or a combination of techniques.

How can decisionmakers better link settings, experiences, and uses?

• In a sense, managers produce opportunities for people to experience certain sociopsychological outcomes. These opportunities are composed of

attributes; combinations of attributes lead to the notion of setting. Attributes are things like rules, regulations, visitor-use density, visitor types,

and amount and type of modification of the natural environment. Combinations of attributes lead to settings that have certain similarities; such
23

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

settings can be classified. However, the link between setting attributes and

the sociopsychological outcomes is anything but clear. Indeed, settings

represent opportunities in the sense that they facilitate one type of

sociopsychological outcome over another, but do not ensure that a particular outcome actually occurs. The actual production of the outcome remains

with the visitor. A major challenge, however, is to increase our understanding of how settings, experiences (the package of sociopsychological outcomes produced by the visitor), and other uses are linked. Increasing our

understanding would allow more efficient and mindful allocation of

opportunities to settings.

What is the role of tourism as a component of a community’s economy?

• Shifts in economic restructuring have increased not only the economic

importance of tourism in Western U.S. economics but also have changed

relationships between communities and adjacent public lands. As employment and revenue from traditional resource commodity processing has

dropped, many communities have turned to tourism as a tool to maintain

their economic and social vitality. For many of these communities, however, the product sought by nonresident visitors is located on publicly

administered lands, and even may be found in congressionally designated

areas such as wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, national parks. Other

nondesignated lands managed by the Forest Service or Bureau of Land

Management may also contain settings for recreation that are popular with

nonresidents. Understanding what economic role tourism may hold in a

community is difficult because many businesses in the tourism sector also

appeal to residents, such as restaurants, service stations, and lodging.

Sorting out what is attributable to tourism is difficult.

How do changes in the amount, location, and character of the human population impact formulation of policy?

• The Western United States has experienced dramatic population changes

over the last 15 years. These changes have generally resulted from significant in-migration, particularly to rural areas and more specifically into the

wildland-urban interface. Such population growth has brought generally

younger, less affluent individuals into these areas, but individuals also with

a different distribution of intellectual skills, social preferences, and activism than the current residents. This population growth also accompanies

structural shifts in regional economies, generally from manufacturing,
24

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

natural-resource-dependent economies to service- and amenity-dependent

economies. Such population growth is relatively widespread in counties

with a large proportion of land managed by the federal government; about

94 percent of the counties in the United States with more than 30 percent

of their land base in federal stewardship saw significant population growth

in the 1990s.

What public land recreation opportunities should be commercialized and

privatized?

• With decreasing budgets and more conservative political philosophies,

managers are under more pressure to commercialize recreation opportunities on public lands. Such commercialization and any accompanying

privatization would increase the costs to the recreating public, raise expectations of the quality of opportunity to be provided, and increase revenues

to management. But which recreation opportunities should be commercialized? What criteria would be used to make this decision?

What public lands should be allocated to what types of recreational

opportunities?

• As the population grows, and as preferences for recreation in wildland

environments strengthens, the demands on these environments as places to

enjoy recreation will increase. In many cases, allocation of land to one use

will preclude other recreational uses from occurring there. How will a

manager or planner decide what lands should be allocated to what uses and

opportunities? What criteria and standards will be useful in making this

decision? What claims to lands are most effective?
25

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Chapter 3: An Overview of Recreation and Tourism

Frameworks

What Is a Framework?

The needs identified in chapter 1 and the driving forces, trends, and issues presented in chapter 2 combine to accelerate the need for frameworks to structure

decisions about provision of recreation and tourism development opportunities on

public lands. Such frameworks have existed for the last quarter century or so, and

have had varying degrees of “success” in application and resolution of issues confronting public land management. The fundamental purpose of this paper, as we

noted earlier, is to provide managers with a primer on these frameworks. In this

chapter, we provide a brief overview of the set of frameworks that are currently

available. By “framework,” we mean a process that involves a sequence of steps

that leads managers and planners to explicate the particular issue. A “framework”

in this sense does not necessarily lead to formulation of “the” answer to an issue,

but provides the conceptual basis through which the issue may be successfully

resolved.

A limited number of frameworks exist, and many have similar characteristics,

but may have been developed in specific policy and administrative contexts that

influence the particular elements or components involved. We note that several

overviews and comparative analyses of recreation and tourism frameworks exist

(Manning 2004, Moore et al. 2003, Nilsen and Tayler 1997). Each is helpful in

familiarizing the reader with these frameworks; however, they are not directed

toward understanding a framework’s usefulness in addressing the variety of issues

confronting managers nor do they discuss the principal concepts and premises upon

which these frameworks are built. Finally, such reviews do not necessarily provide

the type of information managers would need to make decisions about what framework to use in a particular set of circumstances.

Not all recreation frameworks are suitable for all issues confronting public

land recreation. And there may yet be issues for which no suitable framework

exists. Nevertheless, decisionmakers must evaluate the suitability of a framework

for a specific issue. But what would guide this evaluation? We suggest use of five

criteria to assess the suitability of a framework for resolving issues of public land

recreation management:

A primary consideration is the saliency of the framework to the particular

problem in a specific planning situation. Not all frameworks were designed to

address all issues confronting public land recreation planners. Indeed, as shown in

Not all recreation

frameworks are

suitable for all

issues confronting public land

recreation.
26

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

chapter 2, a wide range of issues exist. Therefore, as a first step, a framework

should provide a process for working through the specific issue confronting

managers. In particular, the framework should help clarify the issue and frame it

appropriately.

The next set of criteria are adapted from Brewer (1973). The framework

should be conceptually sound, based on the most current and appropriate science

and theory. In this sense, use of the framework should be relatively easy to defend

to one’s peers. Major concepts underlie the principal frameworks reviewed here,

and we present brief descriptions of each.

The framework should also meet certain technical criteria and be easily translated into practice. For example, one would want to know what types of knowledge, skills, and abilities are needed for implementation. The organization would

want to know what commitments are being made once implemented, and how the

organizational structure might be affected. One would want to know if the organization has the technical capacity to implement the framework; in addition, several

of the frameworks described have been implemented with a substantial public engagement component. Does the agency have the technical public facilitation skills

or can it acquire those?

The framework must meet an ethical criterion as well, that is, it should identify

the distributional consequences of a decision. Public land management is about

allocating the flow of benefits, ideally in a manner that such benefits are optimized.

But such benefits do not come without some cost, both financial and social. So,

what groups or values may benefit from a particular decision? Who might be paying the cost, or find access restricted or impacted? A framework should help a

manager work through these questions.

Finally, the framework must be pragmatic, that is, it must be both efficient

(getting the biggest bang for the buck) and it must be effective (it helps achieve

larger goals, such as optimizing the flow of benefits from public lands). This is

an important criterion because the framework should help decisionmakers allocate

scarce financial and personnel resources to important and salient tasks.

What Frameworks Are in the Planner’s Toolbox?

The primer found in chapter 4 is arranged around the most fundamental frameworks that have been identified in the recreation/tourism literature and that have

enough record of application that they can be assessed. We order this discussion
27

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

historically, that is, we begin with a discussion of recreation carrying capacity, a

frequently cited approach to managing recreation issues, and then progress to those

developed more recently. In this discussion, we provide an overview of the framework, the rationale for why it developed, the key concepts important for application and implementation, and assess experience in real world application.

A limited number of frameworks exist to assist public land recreation managers

to address 21st century public land recreation management issues. In general, there

are four genres of recreation planning frameworks available:

• Recreation Carrying Capacity

• Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS)

• Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC), including Visitor Experience and

Resource Protection

• Benefits-Based Management

These frameworks represent an evolution in not only how recreation issues on

public lands are addressed but also in how they are framed. In a very real sense,

they represent a critique or dissatisfaction with prior approaches to recreation

planning. Table 1 also shows the principal question addressed by each of the frameworks we have included here. For the ROS and LAC framework, several variants

and derivative adaptations have been developed (although the Visitor Impact Management framework was developed independently, it contains similar concepts, and

thus is considered a variant of LAC). Although some of these frameworks were

developed relatively independently, several address a similar principal question, and

similar concepts and premises underlie several. Each framework, however, serves

public land recreation managers in different ways and varies in its suitability in

addressing current and anticipated issues.

For nearly all the frameworks, there is considerable case-to-case variance

in how they have been implemented, particularly with respect to public engagement and completeness. For example, LAC makes no explicit mention of a public

engagement step, but in its initial application (and in many others) public engagement was a critical component. In others, there was little public engagement.

Conditions Needed to Implement a Recreation Planning

Framework

Of course the frameworks listed in table 1 can only be implemented if a set of

conditions are present in the agency considering using a framework. These are
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

briefly discussed below, but a more extensive discussion of requirements is developed in the primer chapter. Each of the conditions below will be required to

varying degrees for each of the frameworks.

The agency must have the organizational will to implement the framework

in full. Several of the frameworks listed in table 1 consist of a sequence of steps,

elements or components. Each of these is essential to successful completion of the

framework, and thus resolution of the underlying problem. Managers often ask

for shortcuts to using the framework; what steps can be dropped or indicators and

standards borrowed from other areas and so on. Although this might seem a good

way to cut costs in the short term, planning frameworks are not about the short

term—they are about learning, thinking about the future, engaging the public, and

strategic analysis. Each step or element is included for a specific reason; dropping

any out is counter to these values of planning. Thus, the organization most importantly must have the determination to complete the process.

Table 1—An inventory of existing frameworks available for recreation planning issues on public lands

Principal Key

Framework Variants/derivates question references

Recreation Opportunity Recreation Opportunity What settings Clark and

Spectrum Spectrum, 1980s exist and what Stankey 1979,

Tourism Opportunity should be Dawson 2001,

Spectrum, 1990s provided? Driver and

Water Recreation Brown 1978,

Opportunity Spectrum, Haas et al. 2004

2000s

Limits of Acceptable Limits of Acceptable How much Graefe et al. 1990,

Change Change, 1980s Visitor change from Hof and Lime 1997,

Impact Management, 1980s natural conditions Manidis Roberts 1997

Visitor Experience and is acceptable? Stankey et al. 1985

Resource Protection, 1990s

Tourism Optimization and

Management Model, 1990s

The Benefits Based What experiences Driver and Bruns 1999

Management, 1990s should be provided?

Carrying (Visitor) Visitor capacity, 2000s How many is too many? Lime and Stankey 1971

Capacity, 1960s +

Social Biophysical Haas 2002

Facility

Placed based, 2000sa What meanings are Kruger and Jakes 2003

attached to this place?

a

 Not discussed here.
29

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Related to this condition is that the personnel involved cannot be rushed, careless, or distracted. They must have the time and resources to complete a planning

process competently. This would require the organization to develop and make

available the time needed to work through the challenges of a recreation issue.

Second, the organization needs the technical capacity to conduct the planning

processes. By this, we mean the organization needs the personnel with the appropriate skills, some technical, some in public meeting facilitation depending on the

approach used. This means the organization must not only seek out trained individuals, but also engage in in-service training and continuing education to maintain

an up-to-date work force.

Third, the process must be inclusive of differing values and systems of knowledge. Many decisions in recreation management are value judgments (Krumpe

and McCool 1997) and thus a full discussion of the values involved is essential to

addressing recreation management problems. This can only be done with inclusive

public engagement processes because technical planners cannot be expected to

equitably represent every value system. In addition, there must be recognition that

different forms of knowledge (e.g., experiential, scientific) are not only legitimate

ways of knowing but each contributes constructively at different points in a planning process.

Fourth, the process must be open and deliberative, with opportunities to express, challenge, and debate different assumptions (among managers, scientists,

and members of the public) underlying proposed actions and goals. The planning

process must therefore secure safe and accessible venues, ones that symbolize

equality of access and so on. This quality is as important for purely technical planning processes, (as it assures different viewpoints, theoretical perspectives, and data

quality and saliency issues are brought out) as it is for processes engaging the

public.

Fifth, the process should focus on effectiveness of the framework not efficiency alone. Here, we mean that attempting to keep costs low should be viewed

within the context of what needs to be done. Often, for example, public engagement is viewed as an “added cost” for public land planners, and meetings are often

perceived as simply a means of collecting data about public preferences.

Finally, these frameworks will function most effectively when we think at the

systems level. Systems thinking involves considering relationships across time,

space, and function. For example, one might consider how employment of a framework might help create an understanding of how actions on a particular site might
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

impact conditions and use levels at other places. Thus, managers must be willing to

consider regional consequences or effects occurring at longer time scales (McCool

and Cole 2001).

Framework Summary

A growing number of recreation issues confronting public land managers occur

within a context of complexity, change and uncertainty, and declining organizational capacity. These conditions accelerate the need for frameworks to assist mangers in working through these challenges. Relatively few effective, field-tested

frameworks exist for this array of issues, suggesting that (1) managers may have

difficulty finding a suitable framework and (2) there is need to develop frameworks

for future issues and situations.

For now, public land recreation planners have choices to make about which

framework is most useful for which situation or issue. In making this decision, they

need to consider organizational capacity and commitment to complete the framework, hold reasonable expectations about how the framework will help them, and

be informed about the capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of the frameworks

available. Of these three factors, the last two are the subject of chapter 4.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Chapter 4: A Primer on Recreation Planning

Frameworks

In this section, we provide a primer on the assortment of recreation planning

frameworks that managers may choose to address the variety of issues confronting

them in contemporary public land management situations. By primer, we mean an

introduction to the framework, which includes an understanding of why and how

a particular framework evolved, what were the contexts under which it developed,

how it has been applied, and how it has worked out. Although a primer is not a

detailed explanation, we do try to provide the reader with enough information

about the framework to make a decision about its use in a particular situation. We

also identify the key bibliographic resources that would be of assistance in implementing each of the frameworks.1

Each section below begins with a description of the historical development of

the framework, including the context and a discussion of the primary issue it was

designed to address and the requirements that are needed to implement it.

Following this descriptive section, we (1) provide an overview of managerial

experience with the framework, (2) examine strengths and weaknesses, (3) discuss the barriers to implementation and (4) list some of the major lessons learned

following implementation. These sections are provided for Recreation Opportunity

Spectrum (ROS) and Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) specifically. For Visitor

Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) and Benefits-Based Management

(BBM), our assessment is more limited, primarily because of the limited amount

of managerial experience at this point.

Recreation Carrying Capacity

Developmental History

The notion that wildlands hold a specific, numerical-based capacity for recreation

and tourism has existed for nearly three-quarters of a century beginning with

Sumner’s (1936) observation about impacts of recreation on trees in the Sierra

Nevada. Recent interest began in the early 1960s as recreational use of wildlands

1

 We have generally excluded the grey literature in this assessment, for accessibility of

literature is an important characteristic in considering choices.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

began to grow dramatically. As debate on designation of some of them as wilderness occurred, increased interest developed over the biophysical impacts of recreation. Several articles during the 1960s in the popular newspaper journal Christian

Science Monitor reflected these concerns and argued that national parks were being

“loved to death.”

During this period, the USDA Forest Service initiated several research projects

(initially titled as cooperative recreation research units and located at university

campuses) to identify carrying capacities for recreation. These research units, and

inter-nal Forest Service research, were a result of a problem analysis in the late

1950s that suggested that research focus on establishing recreational carrying

capacities (Dana 1957). One of the first publications from this research, “The

Recreational Capacity of the Quetico-Superior Area” (Lucas 1964) reflected these

initial notions that landscapes contain a fixed upper limit to the number of visitors

that can be accommodated. However, Lucas found that motorboaters and canoeists

held sub-stantially different attitudes toward each other, thus complicating the

calculation of a carrying capacity based on visitor attitudes.

At this time, research and management implicitly assumed that use levels

and impacts were related linearly. However, the existence of an innate or intrinsic

carrying capacity would suggest a J-shaped curvilinear relationship between use and

impact. Such a relationship, if documented, would indicate that impacts rise slowly

in response to recreational use and then reach a threshold beyond which conditions

deteriorate rapidly. The threshold region of this curve would then represent the

carrying capacity for tourism and recreation. The early research on the question

(Lucas 1964, Wagar 1964) suggested that there appeared to be both biophysical and

social carrying capacities, observations that carry on in today’s research and management. Wagar even argued that social capacities would differ depending upon

the motivations tourists sought during a visit to wildlands, an argument similar to

Carey’s (1993) implication that Maslow’s need hierarchy would suggest a variety

of human carrying capacities depending on what needs should be addressed. Wagar

(1964) presented a series of graphs that served to hypothesize the relationship

between recreation use level and ability to achieve certain desired outcomes of the

recreation experience, such as challenge, solitude, and companionship. The curves

were frequently differently shaped, suggesting, in schematic form, potentially

different capacities for a particular site or location, based not on biophysical impacts but on sociopsychological factors.
33

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Following these initial efforts, a variety of researchers in the United States

engaged in additional work in the late 1960s and 1970s that culminated in a series

of observations about the carrying capacity issue (e.g., Frissell and Stankey 1972,

Lime 1970, Lime and Stankey 1971, Stankey 1973). These and other scientists suggested that the objective for which an area was established was a critical element

in determining carrying capacity, thus implying that for any area (as implied by

Wagar’s research), there were multiple carrying capacities: “no single capacity can

be assigned to an entire area” (Lime 1970: 9). The fundamental implication of this

suggestion was that a carrying capacity is more a function of social values than an

innate characteristic of the landscape, the finding that Lucas developed out of his

initial research in the early 1960s. These scientists also indicated that recreational

use induces both quantitative and qualitative changes in both the biophysical and

social character of the environment, leading to the question of how much and

what type of change would be acceptable–a question that could be best addressed

through understanding the objectives established for the area, the various causes of

impacts, and public preferences. And, they suggested that social capacity appeared

to be a function of visitor motivations and expectations. Finally, the realization that

carrying capacity is a function of social values, and that any amount of recreational

use leads to some level of impact (even if it cannot be measured with the extant

technology) means that degradation cannot be prevented if recreational use is

allowed. Put another way, degradation is an inevitable result of recreational use.

Much of this research was initially conducted in recently designated wilderness,

managed under provision of the Wilderness Act of 1964, and requiring that each

wilderness provide “...outstanding opportunities for solitude ...” Thus, the interest

in a social carrying capacity, linked to the ability of visitors to achieve solitude was

a fundamental driver of these studies. The implication that any level of use leads

to some level of impact (even if not measurable under current technology) was a

significant advance in understanding, for it again reinforced the notion that management should be directed toward acceptable conditions. What was acceptable and

to whom still remains an important question for scientists and managers.

The accelerating growth of use on Western U.S. whitewater rivers for rafting

and kayaking stimulated a host of managerial attempts to establish carrying capacities beginning with Grand Canyon National Park in 1972. The park established a

capacity of 96,500 user-days for boater floating the Colorado River through the

park. The capacity was based on the use level that had occurred in 1971, not some

studied evaluation of the relationship between use level and resulting impacts. This

Carrying capacity is

more a function of

social values than

an innate characteristic of the landscape.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

capacity was increased several years later to 169,500 following revisions in the

park’s river management plan, but the limit and how it is implemented remains

contentious. A system to allocate this total among both commercial outfitters and

private boating groups was implemented. A use limit is a specific policy that constrains the number of people allowed access to a recreation opportunity; it is not

necessarily a capacity in the sense of prevention of degradation, although such use

limits may reflect concerns about degradation of social and biophysical conditions.

“Carrying capacities” and the resulting policies limiting the amount of recreation use have been adopted by a variety of U.S. national park, wilderness, and

protected areas since that time, although their form and implementing action

(formal rule, management plan guidance) differs substantially. As knowledge and

management experience grew, definitions of recreational and tourism carrying

capacity also evolved from the initial two primary types (biophysical and social)

to include a “facilities” capacity and others. Recreational carrying capacity came

to be defined as the amount of recreational use allowable by an area’s management

objectives.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as managers attempted to establish use limits

for backcountry and whitewater river situations, such limits were increasingly controversial. Notably, the use limits (see McCool and Stankey 1991 for a discussion)

were portrayed as a “carrying capacity” and for the most part mimicked existing

use levels. Not one case was proposed where the capacity was less than the existing level at which use was occurring, despite concerns that such areas were overcrowded. Each policy was established with a unique, and often controversial,

methodology. In Glacier National Park, for example, backcountry camping capacity was based on one ranger’s estimate of “what was good” for the backcountry.

Along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, the number of groups that could

physically enter the river at the launching point (with the facilities that were available at the time) was a key variable in establishing a recreational carrying capacity

for the river. The Grand Canyon National Park used use levels and characteristics

occurring in the previous year, ignoring the dynamic character of visitor use

patterns.

As managers gained experience with use limit policies (portrayed as carrying

capacities) the idea of capacity was refined. For some managers, it became the

amount of degradation permitted in an area’s use management objectives rather

than the number of visitors permitted. Eventually, carrying capacity was defined as

the “acceptable” amount of human-induced change permitted in the management
35

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

goals established for an area. Note that this latter definition is not related to numbers of visitors at all, but rather the levels of impact judged acceptable. Who should

make these decisions of acceptability? This question has plagued managers ever

since. Table 2 provides a contemporary example of how recreation carrying capacity is defined.

More recently other scientists have attempted to develop tourism capacities for

a variety of destinations at different scales, including Nepal, the Maldives, and a

region of Cyprus (Brown et al. 1997, Saveriades 2000). Usually, these attempts

were not informed by research and other scholarly activity critical of the carrying

capacity notion. This resurgent interest in carrying capacity as a framework for

management has also occurred for public lands and resources in the United States.

For example, a 2003 report (Lake Ripley Management District 2003) defined recreation carrying capacity on a lake as “that threshold at which the number, type,

and manner of operating watercraft will adversely impact boater safety, user

satisfaction, and ecologic sustainability of the lake.” What number, type and

manner of watercraft operations adversely impacts conditions was not established.

A recent report by a Department of the Interior task force and related published

articles (e.g., Haas 2004) have stimulated new interest in recreation carrying capacity and have strongly argued that establishing capacities (visitor capacities) can

Table 2—A representative contemporary definition of recreation carrying capacity

Carrying capacity Definitions

Recreation The level of use beyond which the recreation resource or

recreation experience deteriorates

Biophysical The maximum number of people that can use a given area

for a specified period without reducing that area’s ability

to sustain use

Social The maximum number of people that can use a given area

for a specified period without reducing the level of

satisfaction received by any of those persons on the area

Managerial carrying The maximum number of people that can be accommodated

capacity on a given area for a specified period and (a) not degrade

the environment beyond a given level of acceptability,

and (b) provide a given level of satisfaction for a given

percentage of the users, as set by the recreation manager’s

objectives for the area

Note the emphasis on number of users and the notion of deterioration of conditions.

Source: British Columbia Ministry of Forests 1991.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

resolve many of the complex issues confronting public land managers. Some of

this work has reverted to earlier definitions of recreational carrying capacity, for

example, Haas (2002) defined visitor capacity as “the prescribed number of visitors

at one time that will be accommodated.” Although this recent definition does not

refer to degradation of resources or values, the lack of reference to such determinations further confuses the notion of capacity.

Thus, recreation carrying capacity continues to play a key role as a management and research paradigm in administration of public lands in the United States

and elsewhere. The changing and vague definitions and lack of scientific support

coupled with popular interest has plagued the application of the concept, an issue

we will return to later.

The vast array of definitions and discussions about carrying capacity has generally been absent key descriptions of processes and frameworks to identify it in

specific locales. No one has developed a generic process, framework, or set of steps

that could be used in developing a carrying capacity. There has often been confusion (see lessons learned below) between carrying capacity as a concept, policies

that limit use, and alternative approaches to managing impacts (such as limits of

acceptable change). Therefore, this section does not provide a specific description

of a specific recreation carrying capacity framework.

Key Concepts and Premises

Frissell and Stankey (1972) suggested that carrying capacity is the “amount of

change in an area” that is permitted by an area’s management objectives (which

could be defined as statements of desired conditions). This argument means determining how much change is acceptable is a social judgment, informed by science,

but made in the milieu of political and ethical discourse (Krumpe and McCool

1997). Science does play a critical role in this process. It provides the knowledge

that managers and citizens use in determining how much change is acceptable. It

can inform planning processes about the linkages and relationships that exist in an

area and with its context. It helps all of us understand the consequences of choosing

different alternatives. Frissell and Stankey typified change as coming in two forms:

natural and human-induced. Carrying capacity is focused on human-induced

changes, but these changes can be hidden by natural variations caused by climate,

soil, extreme events (fires, floods, etc.). Management objectives are statements of

desired conditions, which may be different from current conditions.

The vast array of

definitions and

discussions about

carrying capacity

has generally been

absent key descriptions of processes

and frameworks to

identify it in specific

locales.
37

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

The assertion that there is an intrinsic capacity or limit to the number of users

in a recreation area is a specific ramification of a Malthusian view of the world:

that is, there is a fixed and limited supply of resources, that institutions have little

impact on allocation (and thus efficiency and equity issues), and that generation and

dissemination of knowledge have small roles in changing the supply available.

Applied biologists, such as wildlife and range managers, have articulated this

view with the notion that habitats and pastures have fixed abilities to provide forage

(and/or cover) for animals; this is commonly referred to as “carrying capacity.”

Intrinsic to this notion is the assumption that a carrying capacity is inherent and

cannot be modified, an assumption that is of course violated with every new wildlife or range plan. The question with which these fields were confronted dealt with

the physical capacity of a particular pasture, range or wildland area to maintain

over time the amount and quality of forage to sustain a specific number of stock,

whether domestic or wild. In those fields, the issue initially was relatively straightforward then became more complicated as scientists and managers began to understand how particular developments and practices (e.g., fences, salt, water tanks,

pasture rotation, grass seeding, rest-rotation grazing systems) could enlarge the

capacity of a particular area. It was quickly recognized that different sized animals

(e.g., deer, cattle) had different quantitative and qualitative forage or browse requirements, thus indicating that range carrying capacity was a function of landowner objectives as well as characteristics of the environment.

Another major premise underlying the notion of carrying capacity is that the

system of concern is stable and unchanging. Of course, ecologists and sociologists

now recognize that both biological and social systems are dynamic, subject to

disturbance processes, complex (e.g., nonlinearly dynamic) and filled with uncertainty. If a system is stable and unchanging, then a carrying capacity might be

established as a fixed number. However, when the system is in a state of flux, such

a numerical description is not only scientifically invalid, but not useful as well.

Assessment of Experience With Recreation

Carrying Capacity

Beginning in the late 1970s, as increasing number of users and scientists began

questioning the underlying assumptions of recreation carrying capacity (e.g.,

Stankey and McCool 1984, Wagar 1974, Washburne 1981). There was a growing

realization that carrying capacity itself was a simplistic view of the complex nature

of recreational engagements, recreational settings, and recreational policy. The

There was a growing realization that

carrying capacity

itself was a simplistic view of the

complex nature

of recreational

engagements, recreational settings,

and recreational

policy.
38

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

search for a recreational carrying capacity (often informally portrayed as a “magic”

number) became constrained because the objectives of many protected areas are so

broad or vague (e.g., “protect the resource”) that they neither provide the specificity needed to provide clear direction for management nor establish numerical carrying capacities. These vague objectives can be interpreted in many different ways,

leading again to many different capacities. In addition, the process of articulating

objectives and selecting among them is a uniquely human and political process; the

Earth itself does not speak in this process, and neither does science (although

scientists may speak wearing the hats of concerned citizens).

If capacity is so dependent on objectives and if there are many potential objectives leading to many capacities for the same area, then what role could science

play in informing this process? The observation that carrying capacity–and the

amount of change acceptable–is dependent on objectives was a key advance in the

development of the field of recreation and tourism management. It forced managers

and scientists to be more explicit and specific about what objectives were in play in

a specific area. It also led to the realization that development and choice of objectives is a social, not a physical or biological, process. Some authors (e.g., Shelby

and Heberlein 1986) have used the terminology “carrying capacity,” but essentially

their approach does not necessarily lead to establishing a numerical carrying

capacity.

Unfortunately, the importance of specific, explicit, and output-oriented objectives in establishing a carrying capacity, or directing management for that matter,

has not translated into actual practice. Objectives identified in contemporary

recreation plans are still plagued by vagueness and ambiguity. For example, the

1995 Grand Canyon National Park General Management Plan established this

objective for recreation use of the Colorado River: “Provide a variety of primitive

recreational activities consistent with Wilderness and National Park Service (NPS)

policies on accessibility.” This objective does not provide the level of specificity

needed to establish a carrying capacity, for there are many interpretations of what

constitutes a primitive recreational activity.

The experience of recreation carrying capacity in resolving the complex and

often contentious issues associated with recreation and tourism development on

public lands is uniformly a failure. Not only have intrinsic numerical carrying

capacities failed to be identified, but policies limiting use (often portrayed as

carrying capacities) often have been unsuccessful in resolving the issue instigating
39

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

the search for a capacity. We come to this conclusion for three reasons: (1) carrying

capacity is a misframing of the use-impact problem, (2) the theoretical foundation

for recreation carrying capacity is invalid, and (3) practical implementation of

carrying capacity in wildland settings is difficult.

The use-impact problem (either in biophysical or social domains) has been inappropriately framed as a question, “How many is too many?” Although the concerns underlying this question reflect deep anxieties about the sustainability of

resources, they are better framed as, “What are the acceptable conditions?” for a

particular area. Framing the question in this manner allows managers to separate

means from ends, and positions a use limit policy as only one of a number of

possible actions. If impact is an inevitable consequence of use, then the question

must shift to what is acceptable. Acceptability, of course, is a value judgment, and

thus arriving at this would require the explication of various value systems and the

integration of the consequences of differing definitions of acceptability.

Second, the notion of carrying capacity is based upon questionable neoMalthusian assumptions that populations grow exponentially, but are eventually

limited so growth occurs in a logistic pattern. Population growth then is eventually

limited by a variety of environmental factors (Seidl and Tisdell 1999). However,

changes occurring in these environmental factors, biotic or abiotic, are caused by

the population itself or by other factors. Natural variation in the environment

indicates that a logistic determination of a single carrying capacity is all but impossible. Seidl and Tisdell (1999: 401) concluded: “...the concept of carrying capacity

can only be calculated for deterministic and slightly variable systems, and only

for cases where behaviour and ecological relationships of the species change slowly

on the human time scale.” Thus, even in the case of the animal populations that

carrying capacity was originally designed to address, the highly varying character

of the environment, the nonlinearly dynamic nature of many cause-effect relationships and lack of knowledge introduce considerable uncertainty into calculation of

carrying capacities.

The insistence that a numerical recreation or tourism carrying capacity exists

has been strongly refuted, not only recently (McCool and Lime 2001) but in a

series of journal articles and book chapters (e.g., Stankey and McCool 1991, Wagar

1974, Washburne 1982). As yet, no proponent of the use of carrying capacity as an

approach to manage recreation has responded substantively to these criticisms.

Such carrying capacities are also based on a number of cultural and scientific

assumptions, the validity of which has been subject to a variety of recent criticisms
40

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

(Borrie et al. 1998, Seidl and Tisdell 1999). For example, a key assumption has

been that land managers have the capability and means to control or influence both

the occurrence of physical and social impacts and their mitigation. This assumption

has been reinforced as scientific knowledge about the relationships between use and

impacts has developed, giving managers confidence and the expectation that they

can control complex biophysical and social processes. Neither the effectiveness nor

efficiency of any particular use limit policy has been reported in the literature

(McCool 2001), however, and only scant attention has been given to their equity

effects (e.g., Stankey and Baden 1977).

These criticisms lead to two fundamental conclusions: (1) there is no such thing

as an intrinsic or innate carrying capacity; and (2) an area may have multiple capacities, depending upon what objective is articulated for the area. Thus, an individual protected area–say a marine park–may have a very low capacity if it is

designed to provide opportunities for solitude in a pristine setting; or a higher

capacity, if the objective is to provide opportunities that are more social in character and where there are fewer constraints on the impacts caused by the recreating

public. Obviously, there could be multiple (and even an infinite number of) capacities for objectives between these extremes. If one area can have multiple capacities,

does the concept of capacity have any managerial utility? The search for a capacity,

then, is highly dependent on selection of a specific objective (Lime 1970).

Although these foundational assumptions and a variety of others are open to

question and have been seriously challenged in a broad array of venues (McCool

and Lime 2001, Roe 1997, Seidl and Tisdell 1999, Wagar 1974), carrying capacity

itself has often been used to justify limitations on access to public lands. Although

the conceptualization of carrying capacity as some fixed, intrinsic capability of a

landscape has evolved—primarily away from a focus on numbers to more emphasis

on acceptable conditions, there remain significant issues in its formulation, conceptual validity, and managerial utility.

Lessons Learned

1. Carrying capacity requires specific objectives, but agencies are often reluctant to

develop those objectives.

Vaguely written objectives, such as “protect the resource” or “provide a diversity of high-quality recreational opportunities” are subject to wide interpretation

and debate. These objectives are not specific enough to use in establishing a carrying capacity. Carrying capacity, like other managerially useful concepts, requires

If one area can have

multiple capacities,

does the concept of

capacity have any

managerial utility?
41

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

not only informed judgment, but agreement on objectives. Although most people

could probably agree that “protecting the resource” is an acceptable objective, the

statement is so broad that it may hide fundamental disagreements among those who

think they agree. The objectives of most recreation management plans are written

so vaguely, a specific carrying capacity cannot be established from them.

We’ve used the term “reluctant” to describe agency development of objectives,

primarily because the literature has identified characteristics of useful recreation

objectives for more than two decades (Schomaker 1984, e.g., presents a list of five

criteria). Agencies have generally chosen implicitly or explicitly not to develop

objectives that meet these criteria.

2. Because carrying capacity is a function of objectives, there are many carrying

capacities for a site; if there are many, the concept loses its utility.

Identifying and agreeing on objectives for an area is a uniquely human activity

requiring judgment, deliberation, and agreement. Science plays an important role

in helping those involved assess the consequences of alternative objectives. Because

an area may have more than one potential objective, it follows that the area may

have more than one possible carrying capacity for recreation. Therefore, there is no

“innate” carrying capacity, and there is no universally defined point beyond which

degradation occurs. Because there can be many carrying capacities for one area

(based on the array of potential objectives) the concept thus has little practical

utility.

3. For most recreation management situations, impact issues are more a function

of visitor behavior or development actions than numbers.

A variety of research, both biological (e.g., Leung and Marion 2000) and

social, shows that visitor behavior is a principal cause of impacts. Carrying capacity

is focused on numbers of visitors, and thus is unlikely to resolve the impact issues

that are related to behavior. The confusion is often reinforced by simplistic orientations toward capacity as a function of perceived “crowding,” where respondents in

a study are asked to identify how “crowded” a particular area is. Then, scientists,

using these perceptions of crowding make some judgments about what point on

the scale such judgments represent a “capacity.” In many cases, an average score

is used, ignoring the early precept that in recreation “there is no such thing as an

average camper.” For example, Rischbieter (2004) in reporting on the social

carrying capacity of a reservoir in California indicated that because the average
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

score on a perceived crowding scale was 3.3 on a scale of 1 to 9, that crowding,

and thus social capacity was not an issue. The fact that it might have been an issue

for some subgroups having expectations of solitude was neither studied nor reported.

4. There is often confusion in the literature about the nomenclature: carrying

capacity, use limit policies, and processes such as limits of acceptable change.

Often, management plans state that a “carrying capacity” has been or should

be established for an area. But actually, what such plans have done is to limit use—

by day, week, or season, for example. Such use limits are one of many approaches

to managing recreation use and impact issues. Other techniques, such as information, education, site hardening, and so on are also available. Use-limit policies are

designed to achieve certain objectives, which reflect the desired social and biophysical conditions identified for an area. They are not an end in themselves.

In addition, there is often confusion between carrying capacity and frameworks

for identifying appropriate conditions. For example, limits of acceptable change

(see below) is often identified as an approach for identifying carrying capacity.

Quite to the contrary, processes such as limits of acceptable change were developed

as alternatives to carrying capacity not a method to establish it. Use of the term

“carrying capacity” in such different ways makes communication, and thus understanding, very difficult.

5. The conditions needed to establish a carrying capacity are often not present on a

recreation site.

For a carrying capacity to be established for an area, a number of practical and

conceptual conditions must be present (McCool 1989, Shelby and Heberlein 1986).

These conditions include the following:

• There is agreement on the type of recreation opportunity to be provided.

• The recreation opportunity is density dependent.

• The management agency controls access to the area.

• There is a clear and specific relationship between use level and biophysical

or social conditions.

• Visitation level is more important than behavior in determining impacts.

• There is agreement on the objective of a rationing system to implement the

capacity or use limit.

• The agency has the resources to administer the capacity.
43

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

• There is agreement on the acceptable level of impact.

• There is agreement that the capacity is the maximum tolerable use level or

the optimal use level.

Unfortunately, for most situations, only a few, at most, of the above conditions

are present, making implementation of a carrying capacity arbitrary at best.

Thus, carrying capacity is identified as only a pseudo-framework: there is little

scientific evidence for the existence of a numerical capacity; no process for developing a numerical estimate based on scientific relationships between causes and

effects has ever been established; the conditions needed to establish and implement

it in the field are rarely present; and although some scientists prefer to use the term

as an umbrella for use management problems, this is a very poor communication

device.

6. Because carrying capacity is a technical approach to fundamentally value-laden

problems, there is little room for public engagement.

Carrying capacity is a theory of the relationship between use level and impact;

as such it relies more on science than public and experiential knowledge. As a

result, the process of establishing a carrying capacity leaves little substantive room

for open and deliberative processes that emphasize learning. In addition, because

carrying capacity is based more on numbers of individuals, there are substantial

questions regarding its effectiveness in controlling or limiting impacts, as such

impacts are largely a function of other variables.

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum

Developmental History

The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) is the best known of the frameworks

presented here. ROS, however, is both a framework and a concept, which in turn is

constructed upon other concepts and premises as described below. In this section,

we review the history of the development of ROS in terms of it being both a

concept and a framework.

Although the concept of a spectrum of recreation opportunities has a long

history in the field of outdoor recreation management (going back to papers by

J. Alan Wagar—Campgrounds for Many Tastes and Quality in Outdoor Recreation,
44

General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

published in 1963 and 1966, respectively—(Wagar 1963, 1966) and E.L. Shafer—

The Average Camper Who Doesn’t Exist (Shafer 1969),2

 it was not until the passage

of the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) of 1976 that the idea took hold

and was eventually implemented. These early papers discussed the notion that not

all people visiting forested landscapes preferred similar settings, were looking for

comparable experiential outcomes, or desired equivalent facilities. These papers put

forth the proposition that the way to achieve quality recreational experiences would

be to provide a variety of facilities, settings, and physical environments—an argument at the foundation of several later papers on this concept (see especially Clark

1982, Clark and Stankey 1979).

However, the concept of a spectrum lay relatively dormant for many years. But

in the 1970s, rapid growth in recreational use, dramatic increases in harvested timber volumes, and a rising environmental consciousness led to an enormous and continuing debate not only about the purposes of publicly administered lands but also

about how they should be managed. Controversies on the Bitterroot (Montana) and

the Monogahela (Pennsylvania) National Forests in the early 1970s (concerning

silvicultural techniques and visual quality) resulted in passage of the NFMA.

Similar legislation, but with a somewhat different social and political foundation,

occurred with respect to lands administered by the USDI Bureau of Land Management ([BLM] the Federal Land Policy and Management Act [FLPMA]). A fundamental premise of NFMA was that all uses and values of public lands must be

considered in decisions and plans. In particular, NFMA required that forest plans

provide for outdoor recreation opportunities and that timber harvesting decisions

consider the effects on recreation.3

But how could recreational values, for example, be considered in management?

Uses such as recreation were to be integrated with other values through the NFMA

forest planning process and development of environmental statements. No framework existed that could state these values in ways that directly related to the social,

regulatory, and biophysical condition of national forests, nor was a framework

available that could describe the attributes of a recreational setting in the language

of forest management. Extant efforts concerning recreation were also limited in

2

 We recognize that even as early as 1933, some, including Bob Marshall, recognized the

notion, in a formal sense of a diversity of recreation opportunities.

3

 We recognize that the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act of 1960 identified outdoor

recreation as one of the five uses of national forests; it wasn’t until NFMA, however, that

the Forest Service was specifically required to consider it and consequences to it in

management plans.
45

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

their ability to describe the notion of diversity in recreation that had been expressed

in the early literature. And there was no mechanism that could identify the impact

to recreation, in terms of how opportunities would be affected, of alternative land

uses and management actions proposed in the forest plans.

As these questions arose, scientists, working with managers, began to develop

notions of how they could be addressed. The idea that settings—the place that managers manage—provide opportunities for experiences that are created by visitors

and that a diversity of settings provides the route to quality recreation experiences

formed the premises for their response. Settings are composed of a variety of attributes, such as user density, the amount and type of facilities, resource commodity

production activities, and each of these attributes differs, thus facilitating some experiences and hindering others. By providing a diversity of settings, with varying

attributes, over space, and with visitors aware of those opportunities, public land

managers could ensure that quality experiences could be constructed by visitors.

By focusing on settings—physical places with certain describable attributes—such

a system would hold an inherent appeal to managers accustomed to dealing with

management prescriptions that were place specific.

By formalizing these premises into a planning framework, managers and planners, in principle, would be able to address such questions as what would happen to

the distribution of opportunities over a landscape when timber is harvested, what is

the current spatial distribution of supply and what would it be under a new forest

plan, and how could a particular setting be managed to reduce impacts on it? Such

questions form the core of important allocation issues that are becoming not only

increasingly complex but contentious as well as noted in chapter 2.

Beginning in 1978, the concepts of an opportunity setting and spectrum of

recreation opportunities were formalized as a planning framework in a series of

significant papers involving two groups of researchers working with public land

managers: (1) Roger Clark and George Stankey (Clark and Stankey 1979) and (2)

Perry Brown and Bev Driver (Brown et al. 1978, Driver and Brown 1978, Driver et

al. 1987). The series of papers that evolved described the rationale, criteria, and

linkages that could be made to other resource uses. The goal of these papers was to

articulate the concept of an opportunity spectrum and to translate it into a planning

framework; today they serve to archive the fundamental rationale behind the ROS

concept and planning framework. The ROS framework as a planning framework

was oriented toward integrating recreation into the NFMA required forest management plans. Both the BLM and the Forest Service eventually developed procedures

and user guides to do this (e.g., USDA FS 1982).

Settings are composed of a variety of

attributes, and each

of these attributes

differs, thus facilitating some experiences and hindering

others.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

The ROS, following its initial applications and tests, has been widely adopted

around the world by various agencies in a wide variety of settings. Versions of it

have been developed for tourism (Butler and Waldbrook 1991, Dawson 2001),

water (Haas et al. 2004), hiking (Robson and Eagles 2002), mountain biking

(Cessford 1995), urban settings, private lands (More et al. 2003), and even interpretation (Wearing and Archer 2003). The ROS is at the heart of recommendations for managing and planning for tourism under the international Convention

on Biological Diversity (2005). It is the most widely recognized recreation management concept around the world and probably the most single influential concept

in recreation management and planning for public lands and protected areas.

Description of the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum

There are two descriptions of ROS: as a concept and as a planning process. We will

discuss each in turn. The ROS is based on the notion that a recreational setting consists of three types of attributes, each varying along a continuum: (1) biophysical—

the amount of human-induced and evident change in the natural environment; (2)

social—the location, type, and amount of interaction, contact or encounters with

other people during a recreational engagement; and (3) managerial—the amount,

type, and intrusiveness of rules, regulations, and presence of agency staff. Attributes give a setting its value for recreation. Recreational experiences are then

constructed by the visitor using the attributes as elements to amalgamate in varying

combinations.

Each of these attributes may vary along a continuum. For example, biophysical

attributes may vary from no change to highly modified environments. Social attributes may vary from many and frequent encounters to few and rare. Figure 1

shows schematically the variance of each of the three attribute types. Roughly

speaking, the continua are highly correlated, e.g., highly developed settings are

also often typified by large numbers of encounters and many rules and regulations.

There are exceptions (described as inconsistencies) of course, as noted below.

Figure 2 illustrates the spectrum of recreation opportunities that results when the

three attribute types are combined.

This concept then was translated into a planning framework by identifying

specific factors to consider for each attribute, mapping them, and then providing

guidelines for classifying specific sites into one of several categories developed

along the continuum. The classification system would function to reduce the
47

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

number of “objects” or categories to a reasonable number for planning and management (as a line or continuum essentially represents an infinite number of

points). The tabulation below lists the factors in developing ROS as a planning

system that were originally suggested by both groups.

Figure 1—The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum is described by continua concerning the biophysical, social, and managerial attributes. The combination of the three gives rise to a continuum

of settings.

Figure 2—The spectrum resulting from the inventory and mapping processes is divided into several

classes to ease interpretation and management. Here six classes fairly typical of Forest Service ROS

planning are depicted.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

Clark and Stankey (1979) Brown et al. (1978)

Access Access

(difficulty, access system,

means of conveyance)

Other nonrecreational uses Remoteness from sights and sounds

of human activity

Onsite management Size of area

(extent, apparentness,

complexity, facilities)

Social interaction Amount of irreversible evidence of

human activity

Acceptability of visitor impacts Amount of apparent renewable

(degree of impact, prevalence) resource modification

Acceptable level of regimentation

Clark and Stankey (1979) proposed dividing the continuum into four classes;

Driver and Brown (1978) suggested six classes. Managers in the Pacific Northwest

Region (Region 6) of the Forest Service eventually identified 10. This variation in

the number of suggested classes initially formed the basis of some confusion about

ROS, but as experience with it as a concept that could be implemented differently

in different places developed, such confusion was eliminated.

Although both Clark and Stankey and Driver et al. proposed specific attributes

to measure, Clark and Stankey implicitly suggest that other attributes may be measured and used to define a spectrum as long as they are

• Observable and measurable

• Under managerial control

• Related to recreationists’ preferences and affects their decisions about

places to visit

• Characterized by a range of conditions

This set of criteria could conceivably be used to develop a spectrum of opportunities in very different ways than which Clark and Stankey applied it.

Using ROS as a planning framework involves several phases or components

that vary a bit from one agency to another (see, e.g., USDA FS 1982, 1990). It is

important to recognize that each component plays an essential part of ROS as a

planning framework. The basic phases each address a different question (see table

3). They were initially described by Stankey et al. (1983) as follows:
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Phase 1. Defining and describing the recreation setting. Land managers

describe the setting by using specific setting attributes as the basis for inventory of

the area. In many cases, these attributes include access (trail, road, paved, gravel),

remoteness (distance from trails and roads), naturalness (visibility of resource

management activities such as timber harvesting), presence of facilities and site

management, amount and type of encounters with other people in the area, types

and visibility of visitor impact, and visitor management activities such as rules,

enforcement personnel, etc. (USDA FS 1990). These inventories are then used to

map the existing set of ROS classes across the landscape. When areas are mapped

by using these criteria (on Forest Service administered lands), they are placed into

one of six possible classes: (1) primitive; (2) semiprimitive nonmotorized; (3)

semiprimitive motorized; (4) roaded natural; (5) rural; and (6) urban, although

exceptions occur (e.g., urban opportunities do not usually exist on Forest Service

administered lands). We note here that the number of ROS classes may differ from

application to application depending upon the objectives of the planning process.

Phase 2. Assessing alternative management regimes. This involves different

ways of allocating lands to different ROS classes. This is distinct from phase 1,

which identifies only the existing condition, not what could be. Each alternative

reflects a somewhat different approach to provision of recreation on public lands,

and thus leads to somewhat different allocations. The alternative management

regimes are developed from differing philosophies of public land management.

These allocations are displayed on maps and in tabular form.

Phase 3. Selecting the preferred alternative. This phase identifies what

should be, given public land management objectives, other resource uses, regional

supply and demand, public needs and values.

Table 3—Principal questions addressed in each of the five major phases of the

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum planning framework

Phase Description Principal question(s)

1 Description of current settings What is happening at present?

2 Identification of alternatives What can be happening?

3 Select preferred alternative What should be happening?

4 Implement management What will be happening?

5 Monitoring and evaluation What happened?

Why did it happen?

What should be done?
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

Phase 4. Implementing the preferred alternative. This phase establishes a

management regime for what will be. Here, public land managers integrate the

program development and integration activities across time and space to produce an

optimal public land management program.

Phase 5. Monitoring and evaluating phase 4. Monitoring includes identifying what has happened—the consequences of implementation of the preferred

alternative. It also evaluates the consequences, which addresses why these things are

happening and what should be done, if anything.

Defining the setting is critical to the successful application of this process. Examples are shown in tables 4 and 5. The initial output of the ROS planning framework (phase 1) is an inventory of existing recreation opportunities. The product is a

map, and potentially a tabular display of acreages, of existing setting opportunities

by ROS class (see fig. 3 for an example).

There have been a number of Forest Service and agency variations to ROS

inventory and mapping processes (and adaptations by a number of foreign governments, e.g., B.C. Ministry of Forests 1998), but the general approach remains the

same. Although the Forest Service was the primary agency involved in developing

ROS as a planning system, other federal and state agencies have applied ROS to

lands they administer.

Key Concepts and Premises

The fundamental premise of ROS is that quality recreational experiences are best

assured by providing a range or diversity of opportunities: by allowing visitors to

make decisions about the settings they seek, there will be a closer match between

the expectations and preferences visitors hold and the experiences they realize

(Stankey 1999). Thus, underlying the ROS idea is the notion of a spectrum or

diversity of opportunities that can be described as a continuum, roughly from developed to undeveloped. Such opportunities are described by the setting. A setting

is defined as the combination of attributes of a real place that gives it recreational

value. Settings are composed of the three types of attributes described earlier.

The ROS provides an important contribution to the literature of recreation

management with the idea that there are different “levels” of demand. The recreation demand hierarchy (Driver and Brown 1978) was developed to describe

these levels and their linkages. The ROS as a planning system is best understood

within the context of this concept (fig. 4).

The fundamental

premise of ROS is

that quality recreational experiences

are best assured by

providing a range or

diversity of opportunities.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Table 4—Typical example of Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) class descriptionsa

ROS class Physical setting Social setting Managerial setting

Primitive Area is characterized Concentration of Only facilities essential for resource

by essentially unmodified users is very low and protection are used. No facilities for

natural environment of evidence of other comfort or convenience of the user are

fairly large size. users is minimal. provided. Spacing of groups is informal

and dispersed to minimize contacts

between groups. Motorized use within

the area is not permitted.

Semi- Area is characterized Concentration of Facilities are provided for the protection

primitive by a predominantly users is low, but often of resource values and the safety of

non- unmodified natural other area users users. Onsite controls and restrictions

motorized environment of are evident. may be present but are subtle. Spacing

moderate to large size. of groups may be formalized to disperse

 use and limit contacts between groups.

Motorized use is not generally permitted.

Semi- Same as semiprimi- Same as semi Same as semiprimitive nonmotorized;

primitive tive nonmotorized primitive non except that motorized use is permitted.

motorized motorized.

Roaded Area is generally Concentration of Onsite controls and restrictions offer a

natural characterized by users is low to sense of security. Rustic facilities are

a generally natural moderate. Moderate provided for user convenience as well

environment. Resource evidence of the as for safety and resource protection.

modification and utiliza- sights and sounds Facilities are sometimes provided for

tion practices are evident, of humans. group activity. Conventional motorized

but harmonize with the use is provided for in construction

natural environment. standards and design of facilities.

Rural Area is characterized by Concentration of A considerable number of facilities are

a substantially modified users is often designed for use by large numbers of

natural environment. moderate to high. people. Facilities are often provided for

Resource modification The sights and specific activities. Developed sites,

and utilization practices sound of humans roads, and trails are designed for

are evident. are readily evident. moderate to high use. Moderate

densities are provided far away from

developed sites. Facilities for intensive

motorized use are available.

a

 These were developed for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, USA.

Source: USDI BLM 1998.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

Table 5—Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Setting indicators Rural Roaded natural Semiprimitive

1. Experiences a. High feeling of safety a. Moderate-high feeling of safety a. Moderate-high feeling of self-reliance

b. Many opportunities for b. Some opportunities for facilitated b. Discovery is mainly dependent on

facilitated discovery discovery self, but some opportunities for

c. High social interaction c. Moderate-high social interaction facilitated discovery may exist

d. Opportunity for solitude d. Low opportunities for solitude, c. Low-moderate social interaction

unlikely, low feeling of low feeling of escape from sights d. Medium-high opportunity for

escape from sights and and sounds of humans solitude, moderate feeling of escape

sounds of humans e. Low opportunity for challenge from sights and sounds of humans

e. Low opportunity for e. Moderate opportunities for challenge

challenge

2. Physical setting a. Highest level of a. Moderate level of development. a. Lowest level of development.

(remoteness, size, development. New New facility development is New facility development is very

and evidence of facilities may be some- minimal, subtle and in harmony minimal, and in harmony with

humans) what abundant and with the natural environment the natural environment

visible, but in harmony b. Evidence of human influence b. Evidence of human influence on

b. Evidence of human on the landscape is present, the landscape is primarily historic

influence on the land- primarily from external land uses abandoned structures and does

scape is abundant c. Noticeably modified environ- not detract from a natural experience

(buildings, roads, ment within primary natural- c. Predominantly natural appearing

farmlands, plantings) appearing landscape environment

c. Noticeably modified d. May be adjacent to external d. At least 3⁄4 mile from nearest internal

environment interspersed roads, adjacent to or including auto road and internal transportation

with a natural-appearing internal roads system; at least 1⁄2 mile from nearest

landscape e. No minimum or maximum external public road and railroad;

d. Adjacent to and/or acreage 1/8 mile from bike, equestrian, and

easy access to/from multiuse trails

internal and external e. Minimum of 640 acres

roads

e. No minimum or

maximum acreage

3. Social encounters High probability of Moderate probability of frequent Low-moderate probability of frequent

(user density, frequent social encounters, social encounters, moderate social encounters, low probability of

contact) high probability of encoun- probability of encountering large encountering large groups

tering large groups groups

4. Managerial control Regimentation and controls Onsite regimentation and controls Onsite regimentation

(restrictions) are obvious and numerous are noticeable and harmonize present but subtle

and largely in harmony within the natural environment

with the natural environment

5. Motorized Yes Yes Yes, but limited

administrative access

6. Automobile/road Yes Yes No

access

7. Shuttle or train Yes Yes No
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Figure 3—A map showing Recreation Opportunity Spectrum classes on the Okanogan National Forest.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

The demand hierarchy is so named because it represents demands for recreation

at four levels, based on their complexity, visibility, and understandability. At the

top are demands for recreation activities—this is the form of recreation that we

observe at various recreation settings, it is the behavior that individuals practice

and display, such as water-skiing or fishing. At the next level are demands for the

recreation settings described above. Settings are the places where the top-level demands occur, and an argument can be made that demands for activities are better

stated as demands to participate in specific activities within a particular setting,

such as backpacking in a remote, uncongested wilderness. At the third level,

demands for recreation experiences are expressed. This means that people engage

in certain recreation activities in particular settings in order to have satisfactory

experiences. These experiences contain a number of dimensions. In essence, visitors

select particular setting attributes, put them together in their head, and then construct an experience containing such dimensions as adventure, challenge, solitude,

stress release, companionship, appreciating nature, freedom, escape and other

dimensions of a recreational engagement. Helpful to understanding the notion of

experience is the concept of satisfaction. Satisfaction may be defined in several

ways, such as the realization of expectations, the difference between a person’s

normative definitions of a preferred experience and what is realized, or the attainment of that individual’s defined quality experience. Unfortunately, the definitions

Figure 4—The recreation demand hierarchy (adapted from Driver and

Brown (1978)). Demands for recreation occur at several levels, from specific

activities (such as camping), through settings (e.g., roaded natural), through

experiences (learning about nature) to benefits—improved conditions—such

as family cohesiveness. Managers play a critical role in this hierarchy

because the setting is essential for satisfactory experiences.

The demand hierarchy is so named

because it represents demands for

recreation at four

levels, based on

their complexity,

visibility, and understandability.
55

An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

of satisfaction have been controversial in the recreation research literature, and

various studies of this concept have not proved to be particularly helpful to

managers.

At the fourth level of the demand hierarchy is the notion of benefit. Benefits

are the “improved” conditions experienced by individuals, small groups, and

society at large as a result of satisfactory recreational engagements. If individuals

receive a satisfactory recreational experience, benefits will result. These benefits

may involve reduced family divisiveness, greater worker productivity, or reduced

crime.

However, not all recreational experiences are satisfying. Visitors interact

with settings and their individual attributes, and those settings may be significantly

different from their expectations—more or less developed, more or less congested,

for example—and as a result visitors decide not to return. Other visitors may feel

those attributes lead to a satisfying experience, and thus replace the previous

visitors. This process may also lead to displacement of less tolerant visitors by

more tolerant ones. The process of displacement and replacement may be termed

visitor succession. Visitor succession indicates that the visitors are sensitive, in

many cases, to even relatively small changes in setting attributes, and that the

preferences and expectations of current visitors may not be useful in determining

what the setting should be like. Each successional wave of visitors leads to a situation where the next group of visitors are more tolerant of more developed (or more

congested, more regulated) setting attributes than the previous group. Visitor succession may be one reason why, over time, a population of visitors at a specific

setting may always seem satisfied.

Implementing Requirements

Of the frameworks identified in this paper, ROS is probably the easiest to implement. That said, it requires that agencies meet three requirements: (1) a commitment to implement the processes it involves; (2) a set of technical skills, including

knowledge about recreation visitor motivations, experiences, and preferences, and

geospatial analysis and data display; and (3) certain biophysical and social information. In this section, we present each of these three major requirements.

Agency commitment—

A commonly vocalized critique of ROS is that it is complicated and expensive to

implement. We believe that it is no more complicated than frameworks managing

any other natural resource on public lands, and in comparison to the complexities
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

of the human behavior that it seeks to manage, it is actually relatively easy. These

criticisms, however, reflect, we believe, organizational commitments to understand

and provide for recreation opportunities. Many public land management agencies do

not hire trained recreation specialists, and thus any recreation planning framework is

likely to appear complicated to those not trained in using them. Thus, at a systemic

level, agencies can commit themselves to higher quality recreation management by

devoting the resources necessary to continuing education and training, and at the

operational level by devoting the financial resources needed to conduct good ROS

inventories.

Needed skills—

To conduct all phases of ROS and use it as a decision aid, agencies must hold a

variety of knowledge areas, skills, and abilities. First, there must be basic knowledge about recreation use patterns, visitor expectations, preferences, and attitudes

toward management. It may be sufficient that this knowledge is general, e.g., does

not need to be developed for a specific area. This knowledge should also encompass

the interaction of recreation with other uses—such as timber production—and

values—such as aesthetics—in order to better understand the consequences of

alternatives. The agency must have the technical capacity to implement the inventory and monitoring identified above, to analyze and display the data derived from

the inventory, and to assess the consequences of alternatives. In this respect, ROS

uses the same kind of sophisticated geographic information system technology as

other uses and values of wildlands and can be easily brought into the system.

The ROS involves several phases: inventory, analysis, and presentation of data.

In each of these phases, a variety of value judgments may be made. Agencies must

hold the needed skills to think through these tasks, to the point of asking what the

data will look like—which reflects the decision and information needs of managers—prior to collecting the data. Not working through data collection and display

will often lead to a sense of frustration or considerable dilemmas in how to present

and use the resulting data.

Information requirements—

The first phase of ROS involves conducting an inventory of settings, including managerial, biophysical, and social attributes. Agencies, such as the Forest Service, have

developed specific manuals and guides to direct what variables should be measured,

how they should be measured, and how they should be displayed (e.g., USDA FS

1990). To use ROS, then, an agency must have the ability to measure the specific

variables called for in the manual (e.g., access type, remoteness). These variables
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

are measured and then aggregated to specific, predefined opportunity categories.

The agency must have the capability, generally in terms of a geographic information

system, to conduct this analysis. Because a strength of ROS is its geospatial character, such variables must be measured across a landscape. Thus, the agency must have

the capability to measure, analyze, and display these variables.

One of the uses of ROS, described in phase 2, is to develop alternatives and

identify their consequences. A related use is to identify the consequences of other

resource uses and values on a recreation opportunity. Thus, variables that measure

and can be displayed geospatially would be required to conduct these assessments

and tasks. Finally, it may be important to understand the distribution of ROS settings across landscape types. Thus, a description and geospatial distribution of

landscape types is needed.

Assessment of Experience With Respect to the ROS

The ROS was initially implemented by both the USDA Forest Service and the

BLM during the first round of their land management planning, as mandated by the

respective planning acts (NFMA and FLPMA) during the mid 1980s. Both agencies

developed manuals and instructions for implementation of the concept as a tool for

integrating consideration of recreation values into land planning (e.g., USDA FS

1982). Later, ROS was integrated into the Forest Service visual and scenic management systems (e.g., The Built Environment Image Guide). Much of this implementation concerned inventory of existing recreation opportunities; some of it also

involved assessment of impacts of specific proposed timber sales and associated

road construction. Many of these assessments include identifying alternative sale

and road regimes, leading to varying impacts to recreation opportunities.

Subsequent to this implementation, the concept of ROS rapidly disseminated

outside these agencies and around the world. Currently, the concept of ROS, if not

the specific implementation of it (as developed by the Forest Service and BLM) is

used in a variety of national, state, provincial, and local recreation planning processes and is the most widely recognized concept in wildland recreation planning

around the globe. Outside the United States, its most advanced application is in

Australia and New Zealand, which resulted from a series of workshops in the

early 1980s. In particular, the notion of diversity of opportunity, as reflected in

zoning of settings, is a commonly used element of these planning processes. The

widespread use of ROS suggests that it has filled an important need in natural

resource planning.

The widespread use

of ROS suggests

that it has filled an

important need in

natural resource

planning.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

A major reason for the broad interest in ROS, we believe, is the collaborative

nature of its initial development in the 1970s, involving both scientists (primarily

Clark, Stankey, Brown, and Driver) and managers attempting to implement natural

resource planning processes mandated by federal-level legislation. By collaborating, managers were able to communicate their needs, scientists were better able to

understand these needs, and both were able to design a process that meets these

needs. Importantly, because planning was being conducted at the forest or district

level, the inventory and management costs were reasonable and the scale at which

the ROS inventory and mapping was conducted seemed to be appropriate to the

decisions being made. In addition, the process was not overly cumbersome, used

tools (such as maps) with which managers were familiar, and was viewed as an

integral component of planning and not as an “add-on.” In short, ROS seemed to fit

well into the culture of a natural resource organization that had little technical

experience and expertise with respect to recreation planning.

Although initially the involvement of a variety of scientists led to some confusion among managers about such things as what to inventory and how many ROS

classes there should be, the longer term result has been a process based on a strong

theoretical or conceptual foundation meeting demands that decisions be based on

the “best” available science. Only a few scientific articles have been written critical

of ROS (e.g., Hamill 1984, Patterson et al. 1998). Even these criticisms are more

operational than systemic in character. The widespread adoption of ROS also led to

other scientists using the concept as a basis for identifying research needs and

conducting specific studies.

As both managers and scientists gained experience with ROS, and as collaboration continued, the efficacy of implementation also increased. The arrival of

computer-based geographic information systems at about the same time as the

implementation of ROS also enhanced its use as a framework for examining

interactions between recreation and other resource uses and values.

A major output of ROS was a map of a planning area displaying the spatial

distribution of recreation opportunities. This was a distinct advance in resource

management and enhanced the move away from reliance on tabular displays of

data. Spatial relationships are critical to land management, be it wildlife, timber,

or recreation. The ROS map, even if limited to what existed on the ground, carried

many implications for managers of resource commodities, and some could have

even viewed it as a threat because it now forced these other managers to display

their resources and values in spatial form as well.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Although ROS has been successful as an inventory tool, it has been less successful in some other arenas of planning. Inventory of what is (descriptive), for

example, can be easily confused with what should be (prescriptive): maps showing

the existing distribution and classification of recreation settings were sometimes

confounded with the idea that they represented an allocation in a plan of a set of

desired conditions. This confusion is not a function of ROS, either as a planning

framework or as a concept, but more of a realization of the implications of changing land uses. However, ROS did provide the opportunity for land planners to develop “what if” scenarios: What if a road was built up a drainage to support timber

harvesting? How would that change the ROS classification? Would that change

reflect larger scale and contextualizing land management objectives? Could the

road and harvest design be changed themselves to minimize the impacts on recreation opportunities? Could the road and harvest design be changed to enhance a

particular desired opportunity? What set of recreation opportunities should be

offered where, and what would the impacts of those allocations be on other public

land values? Unfortunately, this aspect of ROS capabilities is one of the most

underutilized advantages of the system.

As ROS developed, individuals outside of agencies began to grasp the significance of ROS as a planning tool. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in particular came to view it as a tool in their pursuit of high-quality land management.

In one sense, ROS may have served as a surrogate for nonquantitative and noneconomic values of public lands. The NGOs pressured land management agencies to

use ROS to better understand the consequences of alternative land management

policies.

We noted earlier the recent extension of ROS into more specific recreation

activities and settings. These attempts have met with mixed success. Textbooks and

journal articles often cite ROS in the context of tourism (e.g., Boyd and Butler

1996, Dawson 2001, Newsome et al. 2002), and may even advocate use of ROS

to assist in tourism, but few real world applications are reported in the literature.

Many of these proposed applications have been developed by academics extending

the basic premises to other settings, but not necessarily working collaboratively

with end users.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The widespread adoption or ROS reflects its intrinsic appeal to managers and

academics alike in providing a strong foundation to not only recreation and tourism

decisions, but also in integrating recreation and tourism with other uses and values
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on public lands. The broad recognition of ROS as a concept and planning framework is one of its strengths in that there is relatively broad agreement as to its

general meaning and use for recreation and tourism planning.

A second major strength of ROS is its ability to be relatively easy to use in

making decisions about other resource uses and values and its use as a tool to

quantitatively and spatially identify the consequences of these uses on recreation

opportunities. This is strongly related to the inherently spatial quality of ROS,

which is also a characteristic of other resource uses and values—such as timber

production, wildlife habitat, watershed protection, and so on. This characteristic

allows decisionmakers to better understand, spatially and quantitatively, the impacts

of their decisions. Because of its intuitive appeal to managers, scientists, and

publics, ROS can be effectively implemented, adopted in an open and deliberative

process, and effectively protect a desired diversity of recreation opportunities.

Third, ROS allows managers to think systematically about emerging issues and

challenges. For example, Clark and Stankey (1979) used ROS to work through the

acceptability of noise in recreational settings. In their analysis, they considered the

level of noise, its source and frequency, and how acceptable each might be in different ROS categories. And thus, they were able to develop guidelines that would

be helpful to managers in making decisions about how to manage various sources

of noise.

Fourth, as we have noted earlier, recreation management (as other areas of

natural resource management) requires the use of judgments—either in selecting

preferred alternatives, identifying key variables, or in determining objectives.

The ROS provides managers with an explicit, scientifically-based process to make

“state-of-the-art judgments” (Clark 1982) that are trackable and defendable. In

making these judgments by using ROS to “work through” them, ROS forces managers to understand relationships and interactions, not only between settings and

experiences, but between recreational and other resource values as well.

As with any planning framework, there are some weaknesses. First, there is

often confusion between ROS as a concept and ROS as a framework that guides a

set of planning processes. This confusion is illustrated by the (paraphrased) statement that occasionally is heard that ROS was developed for Western situations and

not Eastern ones, and therefore does not apply. The ROS as a concept has significant empirical support in the scientific literature (e.g., Driver et al. 1987). Its

implementation as a planning process, however, must be specific to a particular

region or locale. Development of national-scale handbooks that establish specific

criteria for locating a setting in one ROS class or another led to this confusion.

ROS allows managers to think systematically about

emerging issues

and challenges.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Implementation of ROS must occur within the context of regional supply-anddemand characteristics.

Development of ROS established a framework to structure thinking about

recreation opportunities and how those opportunities would relate to other resource uses. That framework can be adapted, with creative thinking, to a number

of situations—modern to primitive—and lead to appropriate classification of

recreation opportunities. That classification can then be used to identify information needs, structure research, and understand consequences of alternative land uses.

The framework—the ROS concept—is the foundation. The framework can be

adapted, with creative thinking to a variety of situations, if planners can define the

form of recreation in which they are interested, establish appropriate indicators of

that recreation, and set standards for those indicators.

When ROS fails, it generally fails because of a rigid interpretation of standards or because data appropriate for the planning task have not been collected. For

example, areas farther than 3 miles from a road are often classified as “primitive”

in agency manuals. But areas do not have to be farther than 3 miles if there is

intervening topography, vegetation, or other situational variables that provide the

sense of isolation and remoteness that is important to primitive settings.

Second, ROS as a planning framework is not necessarily simple to use. It

requires substantial data if implemented appropriately, considerable analysis and

critical thinking applied to the inventory, and an ability to use it in a variety of

multiple-use situations. Expectations that ROS involves application of prescriptive

rules are inappropriate. It is a framework, supported by data and analysis, that

helps managers work through often complex interactions between recreation and

other resource uses and values. Managers should not expect answers from using

ROS, but they should use it as a way of responding to increasing demands that

public lands be used for a variety of purposes.

Barriers to Implementation

There are several significant barriers to implementation of ROS as a planning

framework. Although these barriers may be important in any given situation, they

are more operational than systemic in character. The most fundamental barrier to

implementation of ROS is the lack of understanding of what it does and does not

do within the context of multiple use-multiple-valued situations. As a result, ROS

is often viewed as “lines on a map”; there is substantial confusion between what is

and what should be, and the notion that ROS consists of six zones or categories.

Implementation of ROS, as with any other natural resource management tool or
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framework requires in-service training and continuing education, organizational

commitment to critical thinking and adaptive management, and a clear understanding of the planning question in any given situation.

A second barrier to implementation is the tendency to substitute judgments

about conditions for actual inventory data. This situation is a result of a lack of

willingness to invest in high-quality inventories for recreation. As a result, assessments of consequences of resource management alternatives to recreation opportunities are often marginally better than “guestimates.” This barrier can be overcome,

but only with a willingness to invest substantially in the inventory data during the

early stages of planning. This is similarly a matter of organizational will.

A third barrier occurs when ROS is viewed as the “lines on a map” noted

above without the needed understanding of the rationale behind how the lines were

drawn. In this sense, ROS is often viewed mechanistically, as a well-defined and

accepted procedure requiring little in the way of understanding. This is typical of

bureaucracies, which are established to process and address routine problems, such

as filling information requests, processing applications, and so on. Land management is anything but routine, however, and thus a bureaucracy would have difficulty in addressing unique problems. The only way around this particular barrier is

for structural change to occur in agency approaches to land management—to move

away from traditional rational comprehensive approaches to those that are more

learning and adaptive management oriented.

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum Summary

The ROS planning framework has become an important tool for public land recreation managers. Undoubtedly, its intuitive appeal and ease of integration with other

resource uses and values are responsible for its widespread adoption and modification. Its strong science foundation, and the collaborative nature of its initial development are probably also primary reasons why it has endured over a quarter

century of natural resource planning. As a planning framework, ROS forces management to explicate fundamental assumptions, but in the process of moving

through the framework, it allows reviewers to follow and understand results.

It has not only been useful for planning but it has spawned a great deal of research on recreation as well (e.g., Driver et al. 1987) and helped scientists formulate a variety of questions ultimately of use to managers. For example, what is the

probability that certain setting attributes (e.g., use density) facilitate or hinder such

dimensions of experiences as solitude? What is the linkage between settings and

activity participation? Will satisfactory recreational experiences lead to longer term

social benefits? How substitutable are settings?
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Although ROS is popular and useful, it is also confronted by a number of

challenges. Many of those (weaknesses and barriers to implementation) stem more

from organizational factors than inherent weaknesses in the concept or how it has

been implemented as a planning framework. Its continued applicability for the

issues of the 21st century would benefit from a formal evaluation, similar in scope

and content to what has been conducted for the Limits of Acceptable Change

(LAC) framework (McCool and Cole 1997a, 1997b).

Lessons Learned

Here we provide a brief discussion of the important lessons learned in application

of ROS.

1. Describing existing conditions is different from prescribing what should

be—Early in the development and initial applications of the ROS, there was some

concern that mapping the existing conditions would lead to those conditions being

prescribed as a preferred alternative. As a result, there was some internal agency

resistance to ROS. However, the intent of ROS was not to confuse description with

prescription, but rather to provide decisionmakers a more comprehensive understanding of the consequences of decisions, primarily timber harvesting and road

development, on the distribution and availability of recreation opportunities, and to

do this in an explicit and scientifically based manner. Mapping what exists in terms

of recreation settings is a far different exercise than prescribing what should be in,

say, a forest plan.

2. Data aggregation is a potential problem—As a planning system, ROS requires

that mapping be conducted in a cohesive and similar manner over a planning area.

When two different planning agencies use different scales, criteria, or ROS classes,

the quality of the resulting data over the entire planning area must be reduced to

the “lowest common denominator.” That is, if one jurisdiction only recognizes two

categories, and another recognizes six, then the data for the entire area must be

reduced to two categories to consistently display the mapped information. This

reduces not only the quality of the data, but its usefulness for decisionmaking and

wastes effort.

In this vein, however, agency policy may lead to a standard classification of

ROS categories. Individual planning units within the agency may perceive a need

for more categories, which must be balanced by agency-level needs and requirements. Designing ROS categories so they are “nested” within broader categories is a
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method to enable creativity at the local level and to retain the data reporting needs

of higher organizational scales.

3. Dealing with “inconsistencies” remains an issue—As a ROS inventory proceeds, there will be instances where an “inconsistency” in the values of setting

attributes occurs, for example, high-use densities in a remote, undeveloped setting,

or a development in a remote, low-use setting (Sperry Chalet in Glacier National

Park as an example). We note here that inconsistencies are likely to occur because

ROS has not been used as a framework to understand and manage recreation. Clark

and Stankey (1979) noted that the first step in dealing with an inconsistency is to

better understand why it exists. In the case of Sperry Chalet, it is a “leftover” from

a previous era when the park’s backcountry was dotted with chalets to facilitate

access by horse. It remains because it was made out of stone. Managers have treated

inconsistencies in three ways: (1) “reduced” or moved the ROS class surrounding

the inconsistency to a more developed class (e.g., primitive to primitive

nonmotorized); (2) retained the class as if the inconsistency did not exist; and (3)

“spot zoned” the inconsistency—the strategy employed in the NPS wilderness

proposal for Glacier National Park. The circumstances for using each approach

remain unclear. It is clear, however, that the context for inconsistencies is important

to understand. Does a specific development at a site fit within the context? Is it

appropriate, not only at the site level but the larger scale as well? Finally, we note

that an apparent inconsistency, as in the case of Sperry Chalet, may actually lead to

a different type of recreation opportunity.

4. Confusion between a landscape type and an ROS setting—As initially

described by Clark and Stankey, recreation settings were independent of a particular landscape type, that is, a primitive setting could exist in undeveloped remote

alpine settings as well as desert beach settings. They implicitly argued that the

opportunity is similar in both situations. Recent research in Arctic settings (e.g.,

Lachapelle and McCool 2005b) suggests, however, that at least in some situations,

the landscape may be so distinctively different that it produces a somewhat different opportunity. The ROS is based on an assumed linkage between settings and

experiences; and although it has never been argued that this linkage is deterministic, there are situations where additional research is needed to better understand it.

5. Despite use of ROS, incremental changes in settings still occur—One fundamental reason for use of ROS in recreation management was to avoid incremental

changes to the character of the setting (indeed, Clark and Stankey provided an

outstanding example of such changes in the preface to their 1979 publication).
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

However, ROS has been viewed, at least implicitly, as more of a planning process

(for large-scale decisions) than as a management or day-to-day decisionmaking

tool. Thus, what appear to be small changes occurring incrementally (e.g., moving

from pit toilets to flush ones, developing a boat launch ramp, paving a campground

road) still occur without the kind of analysis that ROS was designed to assist. As a

result, recreation opportunities are gradually moving to the more developed end of

the spectrum.

6. Monitoring is essential if the ROS system is to be successful—If one thing

characterizes the state of the art of public land recreation management it is uncertainty—not all consequences can be anticipated at the time of an allocation or management decision. Monitoring—the systematic and periodic measurement of key

indicators—is essential to providing managers with the feedback needed to sustain

the opportunities determined to be appropriate for a specific area. Monitoring provides at least two useful pieces of information: (1) it helps managers identify the

impacts of any incremental or unanticipated actions on the supply of recreation

opportunities, and (2) it forms a basis to strengthen understanding between opportunity setting attributes and experiences achieved by recreationists.

7. Implementation of ROS requires supporting continuing education and

training—Like other technical planning systems, implementation requires carrying

out the steps involved in ROS planning but also understanding the rationale and

conceptual foundation to ROS. This capacity must be built not only with agency

recreation planners but with managers implementing ROS on a day-to-day basis.

Such training allows planners to better appreciate how ROS can be used and

adapted in different situations.

8. Using ROS as a framework to estimate demand remains problematic—

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum was developed primarily as a supply management tool. But if supply is defined by recreation settings, should recreation demand

estimation use the same definitions? If we know how many acres in each ROS class

are available, how would we know if this meets demand? How could demand for

each ROS class be estimated? And what coefficients could be used, if any, to

translate demand estimated in, say visitor-days, into acres? Such coefficients have

been developed (e.g., USDA FS 1982, 1990) but only as examples and not as

research-based findings. How valid is it to use coefficients? Perhaps more significantly, can we apply demand estimates spatially? Can we estimate which places are

more attractive than others? Is the supply in the “right” place?

Monitoring is essential to providing

managers with the

feedback needed to

sustain the opportunities determined to

be appropriate for a

specific area.
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Variants and Derivatives

Recreation Opportunity Spectrum has been widely successful as an organizing

framework, and as a result several variations to fit different situations have been

developed. The most significant variation has been to apply ROS to destination

tourism settings (Butler and Waldbrook 1991, Dawson 2001). Both attempts have

received some recognition in the tourism literature, but there is little documentation

of real world applications. Both reports identify a set of attributes (e.g., accessibility, infrastructure, degree of social interaction) and use those attributes to define a

range or spectrum of settings. In this sense, the tourism opportunity spectrum is

useful more at the regional scale and as a tool of mixed public-private organizations

and ownerships that want to develop and manage a variety of destination attractions. However, in a capitalistic society, where each individual firm seeks to maximize profits and competes with others, there may be little immediate financial

incentive to assign specific roles—parts of the spectrum—to specific businesses.

Use of the ROS in this context would require substantial coordination and cooperation among a variety of businesses in a highly fragmented sector. Although these

proposals have surfaced in the literature, they were developed largely outside of

extended collaborative processes with destination marketing organizations willing

to experiment. Thus, they may not become widely adopted as a planning tool.

Haas et al. (2004) similarly have applied ROS as a concept to water recreation

opportunities. Although ROS as both a concept and planning tool contains this capability inherently, the Haas effort is designed to provide specific guidance to water

settings, primarily those managed by the Bureau of Reclamation (see fig. 5 for an

example of application). The Water Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (WROS)

provides guidelines for applying the concept to water settings and using it to

identify what recreation opportunities should be provided for and where in a water

environment. In addition, the WROS handbook places emphasis on management

once an allocation has been implemented. Because the WROS is relatively new, the

viability of its specific application is unknown at this time.

Limits of Acceptable Change

Developmental History

In this section, we identify the circumstances under which the LAC framework

developed—the reasons why it came about, the context and forces that were

considered during its initial development.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Figure 5—Example of acceptable activities in different water recreation opportunity classes. (Source: Haas et al. 2004).

The LAC was designed to respond to increasing calls to establish a recreation

carrying capacity for designated wilderness. Although recreation carrying capacity

is a concept that has a long presence in recreation management—dating back as

early as the 1930s—it came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as a way of

meeting provisions in the Wilderness Act of 1964 to provide “outstanding opportunities for solitude ..”: too many people in a given wilderness at one time would

obviously make it impossible to achieve this mandate (see section on Recreation

Carrying Capacity for more detail; the basics of that history are repeated here).

Beginning in the early 1970s with rapid rises in use of designated wilderness and

increased use of wild and scenic rivers, managers were forced to wrestle with how
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they would protect the values they were charged with preserving. In 1972, managers of Grand Canyon National Park began limiting floating use of the Colorado

River through the Park. This technique was rapidly adopted by other river recreation managers, such that a short 5 years later, use limits (often termed carrying

capacities) had been emplaced on many other river segments in the Western United

States.

With growing recreational use and the dominance of applied fields of biology

(forestry, wildlife management, range conservation) that often used the notion of

carrying capacity to formulate strategies for managing animals, it was quite natural

that these fields turned to this notion as they were forced to address the rising use

of public lands for recreation. The concept of carrying capacity has played a

dominant, if evolving role in range and wildlife management over the last century

(Roe 1997), and thus its utility for managing recreation was never significantly

questioned until Wagar’s argument in the mid 1970s (Wagar 1974).

However, this experience was not always positive; indeed, limiting use on popular whitewater rivers has been the most controversial action public land recreation managers have ever taken. Use limits, again often termed “carrying capacities,”

frequently triggered protests, lawsuits, and civil disobedience with the concern

often over how limited use opportunities would be allocated among private and

commercial users. During the last 40 years, thousands of studies and technical

reports examined the idea of a recreational carrying capacity, proposed actual capacities, or indicated that such capacities should be established. In most cases, the

capacities established were simply limits on use that were based primarily on a

previous year’s use level. Despite the limited success of the search for what eventually came to be known as “magic numbers,” managers, including those of terrestrial wilderness, continued to seek ways of limiting use. For a variety of reasons,

limiting use was not achieving the goal of protecting the scarce resource and special experiences found in wilderness. Research demonstrated that the relationship

between use level and the amount of biophysical and social impact was complex,

nonlinear, and mitigated by a number of intervening variables.

Beginning in the late 1970s, managers began asking if there were not some

process or approach that might be more efficient, more effective, and more scientifically sound in dealing with the consequences of increased use. The regulations

promulgated in response to NFMA indicated that national forest managers should

establish a recreation carrying capacity for designated wilderness. In addition, the

1978 General Authorities Act for units of the NPS required managers to establish a

recreation carrying capacity for each unit. This legislation eventually prompted the

Research demonstrated that the

relationship between use level

and the amount

of biophysical and

social impact was

complex, nonlinear,

and mitigated by a

number of intervening variables.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

National Parks and Conservation Association to contract with researchers at the

University of Maryland to derive a process that managers could use to meet this

requirement. These two policy statements spurred the development of processes to

address these needs.

Simultaneously, researchers, led by the Forest Service Wilderness Management

Research Unit, who often interacted with managers, were finding that solitude was

neither the most important dimension of a wilderness experience sought nor was it

necessarily linearly (e.g., Stankey 1972) related to use levels. Research was also

showing that the biophysical consequences of recreational use in wilderness was

also not linearly related to use levels (fig. 6). In an early statement, Frissell and

Stankey (1972) indicated that recreational use of wilderness occurred within a

dynamic ecological context; that change in natural conditions was always occurring (regardless of the presence of recreation), and that recreation-induced changes

occurred but within this context. They extended this discussion to changes in the

social domain. The problem, as they saw it, was identifying the recreation-induced

change and determining how much of that change was acceptable in the context of

wilderness.

Beginning in the late 1970s, a number of scientists associated with this research

work unit and the University of Montana collaborated on formalizing the underlying concept of acceptable change and translating this concept into a planning system, eventually termed LAC. This planning system was published in 1985 (Stankey

et al. 1985) concurrent with its first implementation in the Bob Marshall Wilderness

Complex (BMWC) of Montana (McCool et al. 1985, Stankey et al. 1984). This

implementation was articulated as an amendment to the Flathead, Lewis and Clark,

Helena, and Lolo National Forests plans as required by NFMA.

Simultaneous with the development of LAC, the University of Maryland

scientific team developed a process termed Visitor Impact Management (VIM)

(Graefe et al. 1990). The process was similar to the LAC, but it was not the same.

Important distinctions were in the area of scale (VIM was oriented toward sites,

LAC to areas) and procedural location of the inventory step, and an explicit step

stating “define the cause of the problem.” However, VIM was never widely implemented, partly because it was developed outside the normal NPS planning process

and partly because there was little managerial collaboration.4

4

 For these reasons, we do not explicitly cover VIM in this paper.
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At this time, there was an increasing tendency to view humans as an agent of

disturbance, and that such disturbances led to negative impacts. This viewpoint was

particularly significant in areas managed by the NPS under the 1916 act to protect

the “scenery therein” and allow enjoyment to the extent it did not impair park

values. Because landscape ecology as a field was being developed at this time,

humans were often considered a disturbance agent, just as other processes, such as

fire or insects were.

By the mid 1990s, the NPS was under increasing pressure to meet the General

Authorities Act mandate and began to consider how it could take the concepts and

processes developed in VIM and LAC and apply it to its own backcountry and

Wilderness within the context of its General Management Plan (GMP) process.

They are the guiding policy and management document for units of the NPS. The

NPS felt that the GMP process was alright, but could be informed by LAC and

VIM. The outcome is a process termed “Visitor Experience and Resource Protection” or VERP (Hof and Lime 1997). Like LAC, VERP includes indicators, standards, zoning, management actions, and monitoring. However, it places inventory

relatively early in the process, whereas LAC has it later.

Figure 6—Three potential curves describing the relationship between use and impact.

Research shows that these relationships are best depicted by curve A, suggesting that an

inherent carrying capacity does not exist.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

The VERP process was initially tested in Arches National Park, modified and

then implemented in several others, such as Glacier and Mount Rainier National

Parks in the late 1990s and early in the 21st century (see USDI National Park Service 1997 for a manual on VERP implementation). The original implementation

had been weak on public engagement; but this was corrected in later versions.

However, the implementation of VERP has been mixed—identification of indicators and standards has generally not been included in the GMP process, whereas for

more specific resources (e.g., rivers) it has been used in a more complete form (see

following section on VERP).

Other manifestations of LAC were also developed in the 1990s, specifically the

Tourism Optimization and Management Model in Australia (Manidis Roberts 1997)

and the Protected Area Visitor Impact Model—the latter has been proposed to deal

with the alleged complexity of LAC, but its applications in the real world are not

documented in the literature (Farrell and Marion 2002). These other approaches

used LAC as the central framework but adapted it to meet some other specific

criteria contexts.

Each of these frameworks shares similarities in that they focus on identifying

and managing visitor-induced impacts more than providing, in a more assertive

manner, recreation opportunities. They each rely on goals and objectives and also

include indicators and standards in their implementation.

Description of Limits of Acceptable Change

There are two descriptions of the LAC—one is a conceptual definition, and the

other describes it as a step-by-step planning process. At the conceptual level,

LAC was viewed as the amount of human-induced change that was acceptable

in a wilderness setting, oriented principally around recreational uses (Stankey et al.

1985). Natural and human-induced change typifies wilderness and other similar

environments; LAC is directed toward managing human-induced changes. Because

low amounts of recreational use lead to disproportionately high amounts of impact,

preventing impacts is not necessarily the issue, but managing them is.

The central question originally addressed by LAC was, “How much impact is

acceptable and what strategies should be taken to avoid unacceptable impacts?”

This question redefines the notion that drove early concerns about recreational use

away from “How many is too many?” to understanding what is appropriate or

acceptable and for whom. This question is much more closely aligned with agency

legal mandates and policy direction than that suggested by a carrying capacity

approach (see earlier discussion about carrying capacity).

LAC is directed

toward managing

human-induced

changes.
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More recently, this definition of LAC has been generalized to situations where

two (or more) goals are in conflict. One goal is viewed as having higher priority or

greater importance than another, but there is a willingness to compromise on that

goal so that the other goal may be attained (Cole and Stankey 1997). In wilderness

and backcountry situations, for example, one goal may be sustaining the natural

conditions and processes that give rise to the area’s value, and a secondary goal

may be providing recreational access. The first goal is termed the “ultimately

constraining goal,” but can be compromised somewhat in order for (the second

goal) recreational access to be permitted. Natural conditions are allowed to be

degraded somewhat by recreation, but only until they have reached the limit of

what is socially permissible. At that point, recreational access is limited in order to

protect the principal or higher priority goal. This newer, more generalized definition of LAC allows managers to more easily transfer the concept to areas other than

designated wilderness and backcountry situations.

At the practical level, LAC is implemented through a 9-step process described

below (see fig. 7), although more recently, a recommendation has been made to

expand this into 10 steps (McCool and Cole 1997a), adding as a first step an explicit statement of area goals and values. Importantly, the steps act together as a

system. Consequently attempts to “short-cut” the system by removing or changing

the sequence of steps are likely to result in failure.

What follows is a description of the steps involved in the LAC process. With

each step, we first briefly describe the step and follow with a rationale for the step.

1. Identify area issues and concerns—Citizens and managers meet to identify

what special features or qualities within the area require attention, what management problems or concerns have to be dealt with, what issues the public considers

important in the area’s management, and what role the area fills in both a regional

and national context. This step encourages a better understanding of the wilderness

resource, a general concept of how the resource should be managed, and a focus on

principal management issues. The LAC is very much driven not only by legislative

mandates (in the case of wilderness) to protect the values for which the area was

established, but also by the issues or challenges that threaten these values.

This step is important not only in identifying these issues, but also for reaching

agreement with affected publics that these issues need to be resolved through the

LAC process. Issues such as outfitter allocation, horse and trail management,

threatened and endangered species, and opportunities for solitude were identified

as important in the BMWC. If issues are defined as barriers to reaching goals for an
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area, this step is essential to understanding what stands in the way of achieving

those goals. Management actions are eventually developed that address these issues.

2. Define and describe wilderness recreation opportunity classes—Any wilderness area contains a diversity of physical-biological features, use levels, evidence of

recreation and other human uses, and opportunities for wilderness experiences. The

type of management needed will also differ throughout an area. Opportunity classes

describe subdivisions or zones of wilderness where different resource, social and

managerial conditions will be maintained. These classes represent a way of defining

a range of diverse conditions within the wilderness. And although diversity is the

objective, note that the conditions found in all cases must be consistent with the

area’s designation as wilderness. The definition of opportunity classes is not an

excuse to maintain conditions inappropriate in a wilderness.

Figure 7—The Limits of Acceptable Change planning framework. The framework was designed as a system; eliminating or changing the sequence of steps

may adversely affect the ability of the system to address the issues it was

designed to assist with.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

This step, one of the most difficult in the LAC process, describes the current

diversity of conditions. The notion of an opportunity class initially was derived

from the ROS planning framework (see that section) and is designed to identify

what diversity of opportunities currently exist and then eventually explicate what

opportunities should exist. This step is located at this point in the framework to

make explicit the need to consider diversity and agree on more specific goals and

values than may have been adopted or discussed in step 1. By focusing discussion

of what opportunities exist at this step, managers and the public are laying a

foundation for what indicators of biophysical or social conditions may be needed

later. They are establishing a rationale for any re-allocation of what opportunity

classes should be maintained and where within the wilderness.

In step 2, general descriptions of the resource, social, and managerial conditions appropriate to each class are developed. For example, table 6 shows the

resource and social settings in each of four opportunity classes that existed in the

BMWC in the early 1980s, ranging from pristine conditions to one typified by the

relatively more visible impacts of human use. These classes defined the range of

conditions that existed but did not involve specific allocations of land. Allocations

of land to specific opportunity classes occur in step 6. However the descriptions of

these classes ultimately will serve as management objectives for specific areas of

the wilderness.

In the initial application in the BMWC, there was often confusion and as a

result unnecessary debate about the title of the four opportunity classes that were

described. Eventually, a decision was made not to provide a title, but rather label

the opportunity classes with Roman numerals (e.g., I, II, III, and IV) thus avoiding

the meaning of inherently value-laden terms such as “primitive,” which also tended

to conflict with manager and public understanding of the meaning of wilderness.

3. Select indicators of biophysical and social conditions—Indicators are specific

elements of the biophysical and social setting selected to represent (or to be “indicative of”) the conditions deemed appropriate and acceptable in each opportunity

class. Because it is impossible to measure the condition of and change in every

biophysical and social feature in a wilderness, only a few indicators need to be

selected. Examples would include amount of bare ground at campsites or average

number of other groups encountered per day. Indicators should be easy to measure

quantitatively and be related to the conditions specified by the opportunity classes.

Because it is impossible to measure

the condition of

and change in

every biophysical

and social feature in

a wilderness, only a

few indicators need

to be selected.
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Indicators are an important part of the LAC process because their values reflect

the overall conditions found throughout an opportunity class. It is important to

understand that an individual indicator might not adequately depict the condition of

a particular area. It is the “bundle” of indicators that is used to monitor an area.

Indicators also allow establishing quantitative standards of acceptable conditions

(which are developed in step 5). The tabulation below shows the indicators selected

in the BMWC.

Biophysical Social

Forage utilization Number of other campsites occupied

within continuous sight or sound 

Campsite condition Number of trail encounters per day

Density of campsites

In general, useful indicators are those that are quantitative (eliminates ambiguity), reliable (differences from one period or place to another are due to real

changes not measurement error), sensitive to change (in order to measure effectiveness of management actions), administratively feasible (are not costly to implement

or require highly skilled individuals), and related to important objectives and issues

(to provide feedback on how well actions aimed at improving or sustaining conditions are effective).

As a planning framework, LAC often is confused with this step. For example,

backcountry rangers frequently report doing LAC indicator monitoring—when they

are actually measuring certain variables related to the biophysical condition of a

campsite, such as area of barren core. Measuring these variables out of context of

the framework may be something that is needed, but is not the same as implementing LAC. A completed LAC process may require monitoring of these variables, but

simply doing that and none of the other steps can hardly be termed LAC.

Managers frequently want to use indicators (and the associated standards) developed in other places to save themselves time and work. Although the LAC

framework is a generic process, the specifics are highly place, issue, and goal

specific. The process of developing indicators itself is a learning exercise that is

fundamental to creating a better understanding of an area, the issues confronting it,

and the appropriateness of management actions.

4. Inventory existing biophysical and social conditions—Inventories can be a

time-consuming and expensive part of planning. In the LAC framework, the

inventory is guided by the indicators selected in step 3 and therefore is conducted
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not as a first step, but only after there has been deliberation about what biophysical

attributes, social conditions, and managerial actions are important and why. The

inventory stage would spatially identify the value of indicators (such as the location

of campsites at varying impact levels). Other factors, such as bridges, lookout

towers, outfitter base camps, and critical habitat, may also be inventoried, particularly if these factors are important for visitor use and impact management actions.

The information generated by the inventory will be helpful later when the

consequences of various alternatives are being evaluated and to identify where and

with what priority management actions should occur. Without the inventory,

managers would have little idea of the potential consequences on various values and

conditions and would not completely understand where and what actions should be

implemented. The inventory data are mapped so that both the condition and location of the indicators are known. The inventory provides a measure of the indicators’ existing condition throughout the area, as well as a database from which

managers can formulate the standards for each indicator in each opportunity class.

5. Specify standards for biophysical and social conditions in each opportunity

class—We identify the range of conditions for each indicator considered appropriate and acceptable for each opportunity class. By defining those conditions in

measurable terms, we provide the basis for establishing a distinctive, diverse, and

agreeable range of wilderness opportunities. Standards serve to define the “limits

of acceptable change.” They are the maximum permissible conditions that will

be allowed in a specific opportunity class; they are not necessarily objectives or

desirable conditions. Typically, each opportunity class would have a distinctive,

quantitative standard for each indicator, generally along a continuum that reflects

the increasing primitiveness of the desired conditions.

The inventory data in step 4 play an important role in setting standards. The

standards defining the range of acceptable conditions in each opportunity class need

to be realistic and attainable; however, they should not necessarily mimic existing

conditions. When standards mimic existing conditions, the result is to eliminate

areas and conditions that need restoration or other action; by definition, these areas

are within the limit of acceptable change.

Standards play a critical role of indicating when restoration, enhancement, or

other management actions might be needed. For example, if conditions are well

within the limit established by a standard, there may be little need for management

action. However, as conditions approach the standard, managers would want to implement actions to prevent violations of the standard from occurring. The use of
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standards also provides an unambiguous statement as to what conditions in wilderness are acceptable or unacceptable. The comparison of monitoring data (step 9)

with standards provides the public with assurances that conditions are acceptable

for designated wilderness, and an explicit rationale for why, where and when

certain management actions may be needed. Standards are the critical component

of the LAC process; they reflect a set of judgments and agreements about what

conditions will be acceptable, given a desire to recreate in wilderness. The question

of whose judgments count in developing standards remains an important one. In the

original implementation of LAC in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, a variety of

publics were directly involved in negotiating appropriate standards, with scientists

and managers helping identify the consequences of alternative standards. Lucas

(1985) provided important information on use and intergroup encounter levels in

this discussion.

Are standards “red lights” or warning “yellow lights”? The former suggests

standards are “hard” and should not be violated if at all possible. The latter indicates that standards are “soft” and only suggest where, when, and what actions may

be taken. If standards are soft, then managers are not necessarily required to take

action. In many organizations, such soft standards would be used as a reason to

avoid controversial decisions. Hard standards are more likely to contain real

meaning.

6. Identify alternative opportunity class allocations reflecting area-wide issues

and concerns and existing biophysical and social conditions—Most wildernesses

could be managed in several different ways and still retain their basic wilderness

qualities. In step 6, we begin to identify some of these alternatives. Using information from step 1 (area values, issues, and concerns) and step 4 (inventory of existing conditions), managers and citizens can begin to explore how well different opportunity class allocations meet varying interests, concerns, and values. Step 6 is

prescriptive: it involves mapping and thus allocating the opportunity classes identified in step 2. Not all such opportunity classes may actually be used; a group may

decide to narrow or broaden the range of opportunities offered. The different

alternatives may allocate differing proportions of the wilderness to opportunity

classes, thus reflecting varying philosophies of how a wilderness could be managed.

Critical to development of the alternatives is a statement of philosophy or

purpose for each alternative, such as “this alternative seeks to maximize the availability of primitive recreation opportunities.” This statement sends a clear signal

that resulting opportunity class allocations will reflect the purpose.
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Step 6 plays an essential role in the LAC process. It explicitly separates in time

and sequence descriptive components of planning (e.g., step 2) from the prescriptive. It provides the opportunity to examine different pathways to protecting a

particular wilderness. It serves as the foundation for step 7 and for identifying

environmental (social and biophysical) consequences of alternatives (step 8), thus

providing information useful in environmental assessments.

For example, in the BMWC planning effort, one alternative allocated a large

proportion of the area to those opportunity classes in which impact is least acceptable. However, another alternative gives greater emphasis to those opportunity

classes where higher impact levels are acceptable. Yet another alternative featured

maintenance of the status quo. Each alternative thus carries with it implications for

the social, environmental, and managerial costs and benefits.

7. Identify management actions for each alternative—The alternative allocations proposed in step 6 are only the first step in the process of developing a

preferred alternative. In addition to the kinds of conditions that would be achieved,

both managers and citizens need to know what management actions will be needed

to achieve the desired conditions. In a sense, step 7 requires an analysis of the costs,

broadly defined, that will be imposed by each alternative. For example, many

people might find attractive an alternative that calls for restoration of much of the

area to a pristine character. However, such an alternative might necessitate introduction of strict use rationing, prohibition of horses, and closure of some areas. In

light of such costs, the alternative might not seem as attractive.

Step 7 provides a measure of what it will take to move the area from its existing condition to that desired. As such it is an important component of making

informed decisions about the tradeoffs needed for access to wilderness as well as to

restore or enhance certain desired conditions.

Management actions may include information, education, campsite closure and

rehabilitation, increased enforcement of regulations, restrictions on party size, use

limits, length of stay limits, and so on. The action proposed for a specific area differs according to the opportunity class and intensity of the problem as defined by

comparing existing conditions with the standards developed.

8. Evaluate and select a preferred alternative—With the various costs and

benefits before them, citizens and managers can proceed to evaluate the various

alternatives, and the managing authority will then select a preferred alternative.

Evaluation must take many factors into consideration, but examples would include
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

the responsiveness of each alternative to the issues and concerns identified in step 1,

the management requirements identified in step 7, and typical evaluation criteria

such as environmental impacts, costs of implementation, distributional consequences, and so on. In addition, a rule describing how the choice will be made

among alternatives needs to be developed. It is important that the criteria involved

in the evaluation process and their relative importance be made explicit and available for public review.

The evaluation process would be similar to an environmental analysis, and

might be incorporated into it. This step is important because it allows managers

to disclose the costs associated with wilderness protection and recreational use,

explicitly identify the criteria by which the analysis will be conducted, and develop

a rule by which the preferred alternative will be chosen. The process of deliberating these items in a public venue produces learning and a more informed decision.

9. Implement actions and monitor conditions—With an alternative selected, the

necessary management actions (if any) are put into effect and a monitoring program instituted. The monitoring program focuses on the indicators selected in step

3 and compares their condition with those identified in the standards. If conditions

are not improving, the intensity of the management effort might need to be increased or new actions implemented. In this way, monitoring becomes an integrated

component of management, not an expensive and optional “add-on” as it is often

perceived in protected area management. Monitoring suggests the effectiveness of

management in attaining or sustaining goals established earlier, identifies any

unanticipated consequences (e.g., limiting use in one area may lead to it increasing

someplace else), and leads to management that is more adaptive and responds to

new issues and problems. As a result, incorporation of a monitoring protocol means

that new job descriptions are written: some old tasks are dropped, some new ones

are added, and some existing ones are still done, but with new reasons. Implementation of LAC then means that some significant changes must occur in the organization, otherwise it will fail.

How frequently and where should indicators be monitored? This is a key question and how one responds to it affects the success of implementation. Monitoring need not require lists of variables to be measured frequently and everywhere;

indeed, in the BMWC, only nine variables were identified and most were prescribed to be measured on a less than annual basis. It is important to understand

the character of the system being monitored as well as the quality and quantity of

Monitoring suggests

the effectiveness of

management in

attaining or sustaining goals established earlier.
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information needed to understand the effectiveness of management actions. A

monitoring plan detailing and defining indicators, their measurement, and how the

resulting information will be displayed, evaluated, and used is essential to both

minimizing costs and maximizing the utility of the monitoring effort.

In summary, LAC-based (sometimes referred to as indicator-based) approaches

to management of recreation were largely developed out of failures to establish a

recreation carrying capacity in wilderness and wilderness-like settings. When limits

on use were implemented (often termed a carrying capacity), such limits also often

failed to address the underlying reason for the limit. Experience with LAC has

been most widespread; some adaptations of it have been made, each with limited

success and applications.

Key Concepts and Premises

A critical concept for the LAC process is the notion of acceptability, which we

now have come to understand as an assessment of the costs and benefits of a particular condition or management action and a decision that the costs involved are

worth the benefits. What is acceptable is differentiated from preferred conditions

or actions, which may be defined as what is favored or desired without reference

to costs or consequences. Although scientists and managers understood that it was

important to find out what visitors and others with interest in wilderness preferred,

providing those conditions was impossible given the multiplicity of goals, expectations, and demands on wilderness. Thus, researchers recommended managers consider identifying what conditions were acceptable.

The character of the relationship between use levels and resulting impacts

influenced this recommendation as well (see fig. 6). Research on this relationship

by Cole (e.g., 1995), Leung and Marion (e.g., 2000) in particular (dealing primarily with impacts in the biophysical domain) challenged the implicit assumption of

carrying capacity that such relationships were not only predictable, but also were

characterized by a “J-shaped” curve. A J-shaped curve would suggest an inherent

carrying capacity. But the research suggested otherwise, thus indicating there was

no use level where biophysical impacts could be prevented.

Much of the driving interest in addressing recreation in wilderness developed

out of a concern that visitors would not be able to experience the “outstanding opportunities for solitude ...” mandated by the Wilderness Act. In short, designated

wildernesses would be too crowded. The concept of crowding has been much
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

researched in the recreation literature, and we define it here as an evaluative judgment of the use density experienced by a visitor. Crowding is the result of visitors

applying some norm to the number of visitors they encounter during a visit and

leading to a judgment that a place contains too many people (Stokols 1972).

Because norms differ considerably from one person to another, and one setting to

another based on a variety of factors, what one person feels is crowded, another

may view as “just right.” Crowding can be viewed as distinctly separate from the

notion of congestion, which is more concerned with the density and physical

interference of one user versus another. Thus, a setting may be congested but not

crowded. Because concept of crowding reflects a normative judgment, it is often

better to use the term use density, which is simply the number of visitors per unit

area.

The LAC framework separates in time and sequence planning actions that are

descriptive from those that are prescriptive. Descriptive actions depict a current

situation or setting as it is, that is, they describe what is. Prescriptive actions describe what is desired or what should be. Thus, step 4 of LAC involves an inventory. Although the inventory eventually influences what might be (in the sense of

what is practical and realistic), it should not be confused with what should be—the

desired future state of a recreation setting.

The original implementation of the LAC framework in the Bob Marshall

Wilderness Complex involved a citizen task force to work with managers in working through the framework. The citizen task force was critical to the initial success

of this application. Using citizens allowed important information gaps to be filled

as the dialog that developed acknowledged the legitimacy of experiential knowledge, tested the social acceptability of proposed actions, and developed ownership

in the plan by citizens (Ashor and McCool 1984). This process is now known as

collaboration—citizens, managers, and scientists working together to construct a

consensus about a proposed course of action. Collaborative processes have become

the hallmark of contemporary natural resource management. In the BMWC, the

process was guided by the theory of transactive planning, which briefly stated is,

dialog among those affected by a decision leads to social learning about the various

dimensions of that decision, which then leads to societal action—agreement on

what choice or alternative to pursue (Friedmann 1973).

The success of a technical planning framework such as LAC may be strongly

linked to its implementation as a collaborative process. Not only does LAC structure the character of the discussion among those involved, it explicates the numerous value judgments (choices between value systems that are at least partially

The success of a

technical planning

framework such as

LAC may be strongly

linked to its implementation as a

collaborative process.
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overlapping and partially competing) involved in public land recreation management. Three particularly important value judgments are made explicit by the LAC

framework: (1) selecting and describing the purpose and goals for a particular

place, (2) identifying and ranking issues and concerns to be addressed through the

planning framework, and (3) setting standards for what is defined as acceptable or

not acceptable conditions (Krumpe and McCool 1997).

The LAC planning framework eventually leads to the establishment of formalized standards of acceptable change. Such standards are applied to indicators—

quantifiable variables that are monitored periodically and systematically over time

and space that reflect a particular set of social or biophysical conditions. Indicators

are combined with standards, which are defined as a formalized, explicit statement

of the maximum acceptable human-induced change in an indicator. Each indicator

has an associated standard. A standard is the limit of acceptable change. Generally,

the most useful standards are quantifiable statements of the least acceptable condition for an opportunity class. Thus, a standard for campsite conditions may be

written as “no more than 1,000 square feet of bare soil” or “an 80-percent probability that a person will not encounter more than 2 other groups camped within

sight or sound.” Such standards clearly communicate what conditions are acceptable and which are not. They reflect, as noted above, a value judgment about the

tradeoffs between recreational access and protection of biophysical or social

conditions.

Another significant concept used in the LAC planning system is the notion

of opportunity classes. An opportunity class is an area within wilderness that has

similar biophysical, social, and managerial conditions; opportunity classes are

differentiated from each other by the standards that have been defined for indicators. The use of the concept of opportunity class was a direct recognition that even

within wilderness, variability of biophysical and social conditions is inevitable and

may be desirable, and reflects a lineage to the ROS. Opportunity classes are distinguished not only by their descriptions but also by the presence of different standards.

A final significant component of the LAC system is its emphasis on monitoring. Monitoring may be defined as the periodic and systematic measurement of key

indicator variables in such a way that results are assessed and evaluated in the context of management objectives and actions. In LAC, monitoring was recognized

as an essential component that forces evaluation of management actions. Such

evaluations had rarely been conducted with respect to implementation of use limit

policies.
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The core driving component of LAC is the conflict between two objectives of

wilderness management: providing a pristine environment and access to recreational opportunities (Cole and Stankey 1997). The LAC represents a process

where one of these competing objectives is defined as not being compromised, but

another that may be. For the one that is compromised, a set of standards is employed. Thus, LAC represents a process to make tradeoffs among competing objectives, the heart of wilderness management. In the words of Cole and Stankey: “In

the recreation application, when the maximum acceptable limit of resource degradation is reached, no more degradation is allowed, and recreation use is restricted

as much as necessary.”

Implementation Requirements

To implement the LAC framework, agencies need to address three questions:

1. Does the agency hold the commitment to complete the entire process,

including engaging the public?

2. Does the agency hold or can it obtain the technical skills needed to

work through the framework?

3. What types of technical biophysical and social information are needed?

In this section, we introduce the requirements needed to successfully address

these questions.

Agency commitment—

Of primary importance is the agency’s will or commitment to completing the

process. The LAC has often been criticized by managers and scientists as complicated and lengthy (Farrell and Marion 2002). Although we dispute the notion that

this framework is any more complicated than any other framework concerning

natural resource stewardship, we acknowledge that the framework does reflect the

complexity of issues, values, and problems confronting public land recreation managers. Agencies frequently respond to the perceived complicated character of the

framework by desiring to “short cut” it, eliminate steps, forego the public engagement process that has become fundamental to its success, or pass the monitoring

phase off to other divisions within an organization.

This approach can cause problems. In the messy situations confronting recreation managers today, learning and consensus building are critical elements of

building a successful plan—one that has ownership of the affected publics and can

be implemented. Each step involved in LAC has a learning function, for agency

In the messy situations confronting

recreation managers

today, learning and

consensus building

are critical elements

of building a successful plan.
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managers, scientists, and members of the public. Eliminating steps impacts this

learning. For example, managers often seek to adopt indicators and standards

developed for other areas. But those indicators and standards are site specific and

reflect not only the conditions located at a specific area but also public preferences

and notions of acceptability operative in that setting. Each was selected following

substantial deliberation, debate, and decision processes that led to learning and

consensus building. To adopt them in a different place in an attempt to save planning costs removes these important processes from that planning situation; the

rationale for the selection of specific indicators and standards is not understood.

Public engagement is often viewed as an extra cost in planning. Agencies frequently lack the public facilitation skills needed. There are sometimes significant

barriers for federal agencies, such as the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act

(see discussion below). Under these conditions, there are no real incentives to

engage the public. However, working through LAC without substantial public

engagement means that value judgments are hidden, there will be little understanding of why certain decisions are made, and the social acceptability of proposed

management will not be identified.

Sometimes agencies decide that development of indicators and appropriate

monitoring protocols should be left to the managers that implement LAC. This

compartmentalization of components has led to situations where processes have

only been partly implemented, reinforcing the notion that monitoring is a costly

“extra” in recreation planning. By compartmentalizing functions, managers themselves may have little ownership in the outcomes of the LAC framework, and thus

little incentive to engage in monitoring. The monitoring may never be conducted,

and thus one of the key strengths of the LAC framework—understanding the effectiveness of actions designed to meet specific standards—is lost.

Information requirements—

Like other planning systems, LAC requires a certain type of information for its

implementation. Much of this information is technical in nature: inventories of

appropriate biophysical and social conditions, locations and descriptions of key

facilities, campsites, trails, roads, vegetation, habitat, threatened and endangered

species, and so on. In addition, knowledge of recreation use patterns, impacts,

preferences for desired and/or acceptable conditions, and attitudes toward potential

management actions are helpful to completion of the framework. This information

is then analyzed, synthesized, and displayed by using contemporary planning tools
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

such as a geographic information system. Finally, because LAC focuses on judgments of what conditions are acceptable or appropriate, some means of gaining this

information from visitors, those with interest in wilderness, scientists, and managers

is needed. Thus, the agency must have the capability to acquire this information and

translate it into practice in a public setting.

In one sense, this may seem like a lot of information; indeed it is. Not all the

above may be required in any given situation, but much of it will be. Thus, the

decision to use LAC requires agencies to also commit to gathering the needed data.

Needed skills—

Two fundamental skill sets are required to implement LAC. First, planners involved

must hold the technical analysis and procedural skills needed for any planning

framework, as noted in chapter 3. This would include knowledge and familiarity

with the agency’s formalized planning process and how to integrate LAC into it,

mapping and data display, and an ability to interpret the meaning of biophysical

and social data. In this case, planners should also hold a basic understanding of

recreation or wilderness management; recreation user needs, preferences, and norms

(and how to use this information); and how recreation integrates with other public

land values.

Second, planners need public involvement and meeting facilitation skills. That

is, planners need to understand the basics of public meeting management (such as

selecting a venue, facilitating interaction between and among members of the

public and agency personnel, etc.) as well as negotiating, consensus building, and

conflict management basics. These skills are the foundation upon which the public

engagement process can proceed in a timely and constructive manner. These skills

are fundamental to achieving processes that are open and deliberative, as observed

in chapter 3.

This is a great diversity of skills. Most individuals will not hold all of them.

Thus, agencies will need to consider how they acquire and manage these skills and

the costs and benefits of both using them and not using them.

Assessment of Experience With LAC

In this section, we provide an assessment of the LAC framework by discussing

strengths and weaknesses, barriers to implementation, and the lessons learned

through application. To set the stage for this evaluation, we first discuss, briefly,

the initial application of LAC to give the reader an idea of how such a framework

can be implemented.
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The first application of LAC occurred contemporaneously with the latter

stages of its technical development and was focused on the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex (three juxtaposed wildernesses: the Bob Marshall, Great Bear, and

Scapegoat located in northwestern Montana). The complex is administered by four

national forests through five ranger districts and lies astride the Continental Divide.

It includes about 1,482,632 acres (600 000 hectares), 1,500 miles of trail, and well

over 1,000 identified campsites. An extensive amount of outfitting occurs centered

primarily, but not solely, around big game hunting. An estimated 20,000 visitors

entered the complex annually in the mid to late 1980s when the LAC process was

first being applied there.

The LAC-based planning effort was generated as a result of broad managerial

and public dissatisfaction with a previous recreation management plan that had

little public acceptability or ownership. The wilderness staff officer working with

the forest supervisor on the Flathead National Forest (which eventually was designated the “lead” on the planning effort), decided that a new approach to planning

was needed, both in its technical aspects as well as in how the public was engaged

in the planning process itself. Thus, it asked the scientists at the then Wilderness

Management Research Work Unit at the Rocky Mountain Research Station (succeeded by the current Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute) to help managers apply LAC. At the same time, managers decided to engage the public in new

ways (see Stankey et al. 1984, Stokes 1990) through the formation of an “LAC

Task Force.” The task force involved about 35 members of the public and included

outfitters, hikers, advocates, horseback users, as well as managers and scientists. It

met one to three times a year beginning in 1982. The plan was completed in 1987.

Although the task force was formally disbanded in the early 1990s because of concerns developed out of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Forest Service still

meets annually with the public about management issues. During the development

of the plan, the task force went through each of the nine steps of LAC in this

public setting (often other members of the public attended meetings to observe

and provide input). Agency managers and scientists served as technical advisors.

Line managers made decisions on issues in this setting as they could. Disputes

were handled by a consensus process (this does not mean that there was unanimous

opinion, only that members agreed to go along with a decision they did not like).

The plan was amended to each of the four forest plans in 1987 following a formal

environmental assessment.
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The model for the public engagement process was Friedmann’s theory of

transactive planning (1973). Briefly stated, this theory proposes that dialog between

planners and affected publics is needed to overcome a gap in understanding each

others’ language (with the gap being a major barrier to effective planning). Such

dialog would lead to mutual learning, not only about the content or subject of the

planning effort but also about planning processes and the individuals involved.

Mutual learning would then lead to societal guidance, a set of decisions that would

be needed to resolve the particular subject of the planning effort. In the Bob

Marshall case, this approach structured the overall planning process as well as

individual meetings. For example, scientists were often invited to present research

results, particularly research concerning social and biophysical impacts of recreation. Public members were encouraged to discuss what they felt were the unique

and important social values of the wilderness. Managers often indicated what

actions or approaches would be administratively feasible and/or legal.

Most task force members felt a deep sense of ownership about the plan when it

was completed, lobbied for funding for its implementation, and often have participated in informal enforcement of its provisions. Thus, this initial application

combined an innovative technical planning process with intimate public engagement (fig. 8). These two were weaved together such that LAC provided the overall framework for engaging the public (e.g., meetings were organized around

the steps), and the public engagement provided the kind of ownership and social

acceptability needed to implement a plan in a contentious social context.

Following its initial application in the Bob Marshall Wilderness (Stankey

et al. 1984), many areas quickly adopted the process, such as the Selway-Bitterroot

Wilderness, the Beartrap Canyon portion of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness, the South

Fork of the Snake River Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and so on. By

1990, at least 23 wilderness planning efforts were using LAC (McCoy et al. 1995).

By 1995, this number had grown to 50 just within the National Forest System.

Other efforts were underway in Australia, Malaysia, and Belize.

The relatively rapid and widespread use of LAC was probably attributable

to several factors. Like ROS, LAC was a collaborative effort, with most of the

principal scientists deeply involved with managers, particularly those in the Bob

Marshall Wilderness. This involvement helped with the design of the process, and

the presence of scientists serving as “consultants” facilitated the initial application.

Second, the process used familiar concepts of an opportunity spectrum and zoning.

Many wilderness managers had applied ROS in the past, and thus this component

Most task force

members felt a deep

sense of ownership

about the plan when

it was completed.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

was familiar to them. New aspects of wilderness planning, such as indicators and

standards, were relatively easy to understand within the context of the process, and

managers could see some parallels between LAC and the forest planning process

that was being implemented at a similar point in time. The LAC was also based on

the science of the time, such as the acknowledged nonlinear association between use

and impact. Planners using LAC also had recognized that a carrying capacity

approach had not worked in other areas. The public appreciated the involvement of

scientists and the give and take of discussions in meetings.

Strengths and Weaknesses

As a planning framework, LAC has a number of strengths. Foremost among these

strengths is its explicitness. We’ve noted earlier that recreation management involves a number of value judgments—choices among competing expressions of

public preferences. The LAC framework forces the consideration of these choices

and judgments explicitly, that is, they are observable and trackable to others. The

logic pathway (the series of steps in LAC) is visible to any who inspect it. Any

inconsistencies in decisions from one step to another are quickly exposed. This is

an advantage to both technical planning staff who can see how assumptions and

statements earlier in the process influence decisions later in the process and to the

public who want to understand how certain decisions are made given particular

starting points. In sum, the process is open and understandable. These characteristics should mean that decisions are defendable because the logic flow can be

tracked from one step to another.

Figure 8—Successful planning in contentious situations depends on two processes

that occur simultaneously: technical planning and public engagement. Each may be

viewed as a necessary but not sufficient condition.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

A second strength is that LAC is based on scientifically developed principles

and concepts, particularly with respect to management of recreational uses and

values. Thus, it is an example of application of the best science possible to inform

management decisions. And although LAC represents a scientifically based process,

the outcomes of the process are only informed, not decided, by science. The LAC,

although a traditional technical planning process, has been applied as an open,

inclusive process where scientific knowledge is integrated with managerial expertise

and local and experiential knowledge.

Third, LAC represents a systematic, rational process where the flow of information and experience from one step to another is easy to understand, efficient, and

useful. Although some may feel the framework is complicated, when looking at

LAC step by step, one can quickly grasp not only the logic behind each step but

the sequence as well. As a systematic process, it is consistent from one setting to

another, thus creating better citizen and manager understanding of an approach to

decisionmaking. Adaptability is also a significant attribute in that monitoring is a

component of the LAC framework. By building monitoring into the framework

(and implementing the whole framework), changes in management can occur given

the learning that comes through systematic monitoring and evaluation of conditions. This gives LAC the probability of being a highly effective framework, given

organizational will to implement it.

A fourth strength is that the framework focuses on on-the-ground conditions—

real situations, real places, real issues. This focus goes beyond maps of different

opportunity classes to include a better understanding of spatial relationships that

integrate inventory data, goals, and standards. This provides guidance as to what

should be done in any given situation and helps create a better understanding of the

spatial consequences of management actions. This provides appeal not only to

managers but to the public as well.

Several weaknesses or criticisms have developed out of the applications of

LAC. First, LAC is often viewed as too complicated and costly for most managers

to implement.

The initial applications of LAC combined public task forces with technical

planning. However, judicial and administrative interpretations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act—which limited federal planning teams to full-time federal

employees unless a specific exemption was granted by General Services Administration—dampened the use of public task forces. The task force had been the central organizing feature of several planning efforts, including the Bob Marshall,

Selway-Bitterroot, and the Bear Trap Canyon.
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In 1997, McCool and Cole (1997a, 1997b) organized an assessment of LAC.

The assessment involved both scientists and managers. The outcome of the assessment was (1) a recommendation to add a more explicit step at the beginning of the

process to recognize the values of a specific wilderness, (2) recognition that public

engagement was central to successful wilderness management, and (3) a broader or

more fundamental description of LAC and the conditions under which it could be

applied. The principal weaknesses of LAC that have been identified are its (1)

alleged complexity, (2) a focus on the “negative” aspects of recreational use of

wilderness, and (3) its inability to arrive at specific answers to recreationally induced problems. These weaknesses are more operational than systemic in nature,

indicating that they can be addressed successfully through relatively minor changes.

Lessons Learned

1. Technical and public processes need to work in concert—In contentious

settings, which typify many public land recreation situations, public engagement,

often now termed “collaborative planning” is necessary. But so is the technical

planning process of identifying goals, developing alternatives, selecting a preferred

alternative, implementation, and monitoring. Both processes are needed (see fig. 8).

The technical process provides the systematic, step-by-step process required to

ensure the application of the best science available and to structure the public engagement process. Public engagement is essential to developing the consensus

needed to support action in both technical management and political arenas—

without consensus, funding and other support needed for implementation are not

forthcoming. Learning is also a fundamental requirement in contentious and

uncertain situations. Public engagement allows groups and individuals to gain a

better appreciation of the complexities of public land management, learn about

each other, and learn about process. When scientists and managers also “sit at the

table,” learning occurs for all groups.

2. Expectations of the role of the public must be clear to all parties—In intimate public engagement, the role of the public needs to be discussed and clarified.

Is the public to only comment on the initiatives of the agency? Is the public to help

develop alternatives? Are decisions made with the full participation of the public?

Here, the classic Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of public participation might serve as a

useful framework in addressing expectations. The higher up the ladder, the more

Public engagement is essential

to developing the

consensus needed

to support action in

both technical management and political arenas
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involved the public is in the planning and decisionmaking process. Clarifying expectations at the beginning of the planning process will help avoid confusion and

controversy at all stages, from determining the planning process and rules of

conduct to how consensus will be reached.

3. Establish opportunities for dialog—Within contentious situations, dialog is

fundamental to progress, learning, consensus building, and social action. Numerous

and diverse opportunities for dialog among members of the public and between

publics and the agency should be created. This includes using a variety of small

and large group meeting techniques (e.g., nominal group, specific planning tasks),

breaks, field trips, presentations by members of the public, and so on. Such opportunities allow people to discuss the content of the plan but also engage in the “small

talk” that is fundamental to healthy interpersonal relationships.

4. Planning is negotiation; participants must be able to speak for those they

represent—In many respects, a plan is a negotiated, socially acceptable agreement

between the public that provides the funding and political support for an agency,

and the agency which is mandated to meet certain legislative, but publicly developed, requirements. Plans must be socially and politically acceptable, or they cannot be implemented. Not all members of the public can or want to participate in a

task force or other type of setting. Thus, planning is conducted by representatives

of groups, stakeholders, or value systems. To negotiate, discuss issues, and construct consensus, these representatives must have the authority to speak and develop

agreements for these groups. Managers and planners participating in or facilitating

such public engagement processes must ensure that representatives do have such

authority.

5. Bringing people in late can make problems—Construction of consensus

requires that certain conditions be met: the problem definition is shared, agreement

that the problem can be resolved through public deliberation, the process includes

all affected interests, participants will be able to accept or “live with” results, the

agency has “permission” to act, and that knowledge about the planning issue is

distributed equally among participants (McCool et al. 2000). For these conditions

to be met, all participants in engagement processes such as task forces must be

involved from the beginning. Participants brought in later as different needs arise

operate at a disadvantage: they may have dissimilar perceptions or definitions of

the planning issue, they may be unfamiliar with the planning process, they may not

have developed the interpersonal relationships important to communication within
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

the group setting, or they may not hold the same knowledge about the issue as

other participants. To give latecomers equal footing, the process would have to be

stopped so other members of the group could educate them.

6. Uncertainty typifies recreation and wilderness management, particularly at

larger spatial and temporal scales—Planning and public engagement processes

must recognize this uncertainty and incorporate it into implementation strategies

Scientific and other forms of knowledge make claims about the relationships

between causes and effects. Our knowledge is incomplete, however, and developed

in contexts that often are different than what may occur in the future. Thus, decisionmaking occurs under conditions of uncertainty. Planning must proceed in

recognition that not all proposed actions will necessarily have the consequences we

think they will have, and that there will probably be unanticipated negative consequences as well. Planning and implementation proceeds then with feedback loops

built in, and with an organizational structure and commitment to change actions if

needed.

7. Do not compartmentalize management and monitoring—We have experienced several situations where planning has been conducted by technical staff

different from the managerial staff that implemented the plan. In a number of

cases, planners have left design and implementation of monitoring to managers.

This strategy has led to two negative effects: (1) implementing managers have little

ownership in and understanding of the rationale for the plan and the actions contained within it, and (2) monitoring becomes viewed as an “add-on” cost for which

the organization has no funding. The latter consequence leads to a situation where

monitoring is not conducted or is conducted, but the data end up in a box in the

ranger station basement without being used for the intended purpose.

Visitor Experience and Resource Protection

Developmental History

The Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) process was developed

by the NPS in the late 1990s (USDI NPS 1997) in response to growing criticisms

about its lack of attention to the carrying capacity mandate of the General Authorities Act of 1978. The VERP process was developed to be compatible with the existing General Management Planning process employed by the NPS, and adapted

parts of LAC and VIM. Like these two processes, it also employs indicators, standards, and monitoring. It uses the notion of opportunity classes as well.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Visitor Experience and Resource Protection was initially applied in Arches

National Park—using a full complement of visitor and biophysical research to

identify potential indicators and standards (Manning et al. 1995)—as well as in

Acadia National Park (Jacobi and Manning 1999). Following these initial tests, the

process was significantly revised and has been used in several national park general

management planning processes, including Glacier, Yosemite, and Mount Rainier

National Parks. It has undoubtedly been used in other settings as well.

As currently articulated, the application of VERP consists of four major phases

involving eight specific elements. These are briefly described below.

Framework Foundation

1. Assemble an interdisciplinary team—For the NPS, assembling an interdisciplinary team to carry out the VERP process (and associated environmental assessments) is a significant step toward embarking on a planning effort. It means that

there is recognition that plans must be revised, that significant management issues

exist, and that there is a need for coordinated, scientifically informed decisions.

Because VERP has been implemented primarily as a component of the NPS General Management Planning process (Freimund et al. 2003, Hof and Lime 1997),

designation of staff from both local and service center locations is important to

assure technical competency and local staff ownership in the resulting plan.

2. Develop a public involvement strategy—Of all the frameworks discussed here,

VERP is the only one that explicitly recognizes the involvement of the public in

planning. Although LAC was originally carried out with the involvement of a

public-manager-scientist task force, it can be implemented without such involvement. Development of VERP benefited from that experience, and thus a public

involvement strategy has become an essential element. Under most circumstances,

this would mean that VERP has a high potential to use open, deliberative processes

to provide greater opportunities for ownership and implementation (Lachapelle and

McCool 2005a)

3. Develop statements of park purpose, significance, and primary interpretive

themes; identify planning constraints—This component is designed to develop,

communicate, and archive the purposes of the park, the desired futures for it, and

the constraints and issues confronting it. This step makes goals, objectives, and

values more explicit than in the LAC process, although Cole and McCool (1997)

recommended adding a similar step to LAC. By making this step explicit, planners

communicate to each other and the public the constraints on management that may
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

exist, identify barriers to achieving goals, and provide direction for what issues

need resolution. Essentially, this step produces a “corral” (USDI NPS 1997)

identifying and describing the administrative discretion available to respond to

management issues (see fig. 9).

Analysis

4. Analyze park resources and existing visitor use—The initial three elements

provide the administrative and public engagement foundation needed for planning

in addition to determining the overall future direction and conditions for the park

in question. In element 4, planners and managers develop an analysis of current

conditions, issues, and opportunities faced by the park. These issues and conditions

may involve sources of visitor satisfaction and dissatisfaction, areas of visitor use

and congestion, transportation facilities and corridors, campgrounds and visitor

centers, potential areas of resource sensitivity (such as flood plains, riparian zones,

wetlands, and critical habitats), archaeological values, threats to park values, and

other conditions that may be problematic and that can be resolved through attention

to management of visitors. This analysis may be driven by several factors, including the issues identified by the public, concerns expressed by managers, and the

legal mandates governing the park and its administration.

Prescriptions

5. Describe potential range of visitor experience and resource conditions—

Following the development of the planning framework and the analysis of park

conditions, planners work through a sequence of actions designed to be more prescriptive about the desired future condition of the park. As with LAC, this element

recognizes the reality and significance of a diverse range of recreation opportunities

and conditions (consistent with park mandates). The sequence of actions in this

element involves identifying the potential range of opportunities for park value

related visitor experiences—such as wilderness and frontcountry, semideveloped

areas, and so on. This step is very similar to the LAC step of developing recreation

opportunity classes. The purpose here is to develop descriptions of how the park

could be managed under various reasonable alternatives. Conceptually, as with

LAC, this is the most difficult step, for it involves developing from the abstract,

statements about desired future conditions in terms of visitor experiences and

related biophysical conditions.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

The VERP process, like LAC, breaks down site conditions into three domains:

• Social conditions–the type, amount, and temporal distribution of visitors.

• Biophysical conditions–generally, these descriptions are directed toward the

amount of human-induced change in biophysical attributes, not the landscape type.

• Managerial conditions—concerning the amount, type, and visibility of

rules, regulations, and managers.

The result of this analysis is a description of the range of conditions within a

particular park (see table 7 for an example).

6. Allocate potential zones to specific locations within the park—Element 5

identified the range of recreation opportunities and biophysical and resource

conditions that exist within the park. However, the decision to determine what

opportunities should exist where is a prescriptive decision, that is, it involves the

allocation of park areas to specific zones, and thus identifiable biophysical and

social conditions. What factors might be considered in such allocation decisions?

One might be influenced by the features, attractions, existing use levels and densities in the park; demand for varying recreation opportunities, the values, mandates,

Figure 9—The administrative “corral” describing the limits of

discretion to decisionmaking using Visitor Experience and Resource

Protection based planning. (Source: USDI National Park Service

1997).
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705 Table 7—Range of conditions found in Arches National Park following completion of element 5 of Visitor Experience and Resource Protection Potential management zones Semi- Sensitive Motorized Motorized primitive resource Descriptors Pedestrian Hiker Backcountry Primitive sighting rural motorized protection Developed Challenge and Low Moderate Moderate- Moderate- Very low Low Moderate N/a Very low adventure of high high experience Dependence on High Low- Low None Very high High Moderate N/a Very high roads, trails or moderate other facilities

Visitor Very high Moderate- Low Very low Very high Moderate Low N/a Very high

encounter highexpectation

National Park Moderate Moderate Low Very low Moderate Low Very low N/a Very high

Service staffencounterexpectations

Identified N/a N/a N/a N/a Paved Graded dirt Dirt/rock N/a N/a

corridorshigheststandards–roads

Identified Surfaced, Unsurfaced, Unsurfaced, N/a Surfaced, N/a N/a N/a Surfaced,

corridors 6 inches 2 inches 18 inches 6 inches 6 incheshighest wide wide wide wide widestandards–trails

Management Very high High Moderate Very low Very high High Moderate Very high Very high

action forresourceprotectionand safety

Tolerance Low Low Very low Very low Moderate Low Low None High

for resourcedegradation
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Table 7—Range of conditions found in Arches National Park following completion of element 5 of Visitor Experience and ResourceProtection (continued)

Potential management zones

Semi- Sensitive

Motorized Motorized primitive resource

Descriptors Pedestrian Hiker Backcountry Primitive sighting rural motorized protection Developed

Opportunity Very low Low Moderate High Very low Low Moderate N/a Very low

for solitude

Noise level Moderate Low Low Very low High Moderate Moderate N/a High

Need for High High High High High Moderate Moderate Very high High

offsiteinterpretation

Appropriateness High Moderate Low Very low High Low Very low None High

of onsiteinterpretation

N/A = not applicable.Source: USDI National Park Service 1997.
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General Technical Report PNW-GTR-705

and direction identified and established in element 2 of VERP; public interests; and

management concerns. When integrated into environmental analyses, this element

allows planners to develop a series of reasonable alternatives, based on various

management philosophies (e.g., emphasize primitive recreation, emphasize protecting resources). These alternatives then become the basis for creating understanding

of social and environmental consequences.

7. Select indicators and specify standards for each zone; develop a monitoring

plan—The VERP process calls for developing indicators (variables measuring

identified important social and biophysical conditions), the standards associated

with them (the limit of acceptable change), and the appropriate protocols for

monitoring them. This element is similar to the LAC process steps 3 and 5 (see

previous discussion). In the LAC process, indicators are developed in part to guide

what needs to be inventoried, and the standards are developed only following this

inventory process.

As VERP has been practiced, the first six elements occur in the GMP process

for a specific park. Elements 7 through 9 occur following implementation of the

GMP, although they could be incorporated into it. At this time, although many

parks have developed prescriptive management zones, few have identified specific

indicators, their associated standards, or the protocols for monitoring indicators.

This may occur as individual parks come on line for revisions in their GMP and as

the need for more quantifiable indicators and associated standards develop.

Monitor and Manage

8. Monitor resource and social indicators—This element involves the periodic

and systematic measurement of the indicators identified in element 7 (see USDI

NPS 1997 for an extensive discussion of monitoring). The purpose for the monitoring is to understand the effectiveness of management actions implemented to avoid

reaching the standards identified in element 7, or to understand effectiveness of

management actions in bringing areas back within standard. In this sense, monitoring is an essential component of adaptive management, and processes such as VERP

and LAC, when this element is included, can be viewed as adaptive processes. For

each indicator identified in element 7, a protocol identifying the spatial and temporal distribution of measurement, the frequency of measurement, and the way in

which the monitoring results will be displayed is developed, and eventually implemented.

As VERP has been

practiced, the first

six elements occur

in the GMP process

for a specific park.
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An Assessment of Frameworks Useful for Public Land Recreation Planning

Monitoring, unfortunately, remains the weakest component of VERP, as well

as for other processes such as LAC. As noted earlier, the tendency to separate

(compartmentalize) planning and management leads to situations where monitoring

is viewed not only as a distinctly separate activity, but one for which few financial

resources are available. The VERP and LAC represent attempts to fundamentally

change approaches to planning; the extent to which they are not perceived in this

way will lead to their ineffective implementation.

9. Take management action—Monitoring alone is inadequate if the resulting data

are not evaluated, compared to standards and desired conditions, and needed management action is not taken. The effects of management actions implemented in

this element are themselves subject to monitoring and evaluation in order to provide the manager with a continuous loop of information about conditions within

the park.

Assessment of Experience With VERP

The VERP and LAC processes are similar frameworks, but not the same. The

VERP process was largely derived from the LAC process but adapted to national

park situations and the NPS general management planning process. As such, the

fundamental premises and concepts are similar to those for LAC, so we do not

repeat them here. Because of its more limited application experience, our assessment of experience is brief.

Although VERP has been implemented in several parks as an independent or

separate planning process, it has been most generally used as a means of conducting

the general management planning process for a park. Where it has been used as a

separate process, such as in Arches where it was originally tested, the process has

been completed. Where it has been used as a way of conducting a GMP, however,

the final set of steps, including identifying standards, is completed after the GMP

and associated environmental impact statement have been finalized. This has been

usually marked as part of an implementation plan. Unfortunately, few parks have

actually identified indicators, their standards, and associated monitoring protocols.

Monitoring has yet to occur in any park that has used VERP, although this situation

may change. This separation of planning and management has led to the perception

that monitoring, for example, is an extra cost and must be funded separately. This

condition is not an inherent flaw in VERP but a result of how it is implemented

(Hof and Lime 1997). This concerns the organizational will and technical capacity

requirements for use of a framework as noted in chapter 3.
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Because VERP has been subsumed within the GMP process, it has become

more of a way of producing the GMP rather than a separately identifiable process,

with some exceptions—such as planning for recreation on the Merced River in

Yosemite National Park. This has made use of VERP in other settings more difficult, if only for the lack of good examples from which potential clients can learn

about how parks struggled with the nuances of the framework. And unlike LAC,

there has been no formal assessment of experience with VERP from which the

valuable lessons that planners have learned could be archived. Many other aspects

of experience with VERP are similar to what has been learned through application

of the LAC process, and readers are referred to that section.

Because VERP emphasizes analysis of resource and social conditions relatively

early in the process, there is the chance that data not needed for making decisions

may be collected. The VERP process is driven by the “planning corral” (statements

of values and park goals), whereas LAC is more driven by issues. These distinctions may lead to significant differences in how the planning is conducted and reflect differing senses of what planning is supposed to do. Finally, VERP explicitly

recognizes the role of publics in making park planning decisions by formally

recognizing in element 2 the need to develop a public involvement strategy. This

recognition is not inherent in the LAC process, although many applications have

been informed by the BMWC experience. Element 2 thus provides the foundation

for VERP to be open and deliberative.

Because of their similar intellectual lineage, VERP and LAC share similar

information requirements, needs for organizational commitment and strengths and

weaknesses. Those were articulated in the section describing LAC. Like LAC,

VERP can be effective, but that effectiveness is largely a function of organizational

will.

Benefits-Based Management

Developmental History

Benefits-based management (BBM) is an approach to recreation planning developed

relatively recently that focuses decisionmaking on understanding and managing

for certain outcomes of recreational engagements. These outcomes are a result of

managerial actions in providing specific attributes of settings, certain visitor-held

attributes (such as previous experience, norms, and expectations), and visitor interaction with attributes during a recreational engagement. Initially, the BBM

approach rose out of need for increased government accountability in responding
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to the question of what the public receives for an investment in management of

recreation settings. Outcomes of other federal natural resource management programs, such as timber and grazing, had been fairly well known—volume of timber

harvested and animal unit months of grazing, for example—but there remains a

continuing lack of similar definitive metrics for recreation. Given the lack of

metrics, how could recreation management compete for government funding

against other services? Borrie and Roggenbuck (1995) argued that a benefits

approach helps with “understanding and documentation of the recreation management process and outcomes and by giving the community voice in the planning

process.”

The BBM is one method of implementing a philosophy generally termed the

Benefits Approach to Leisure (BAL) (Driver and Bruns 1999). As these authors

argued, the rationale for a BAL was to change the paradigm of recreation management from a focus on inputs (e.g., management actions, such as providing facilities) to the outcomes or results of such inputs (e.g., certain consequences known

as benefits) as indicators of what a successful program is. This focus is often

described as a change from activity-based management to one focusing on the

outputs of management. By focusing on benefits, managers, policymakers, and

academics better understand the consequences of decisions which would help in

evaluating alternative investments.

The BBM is relatively new, with the earliest formal statements occurring in

the mid 1980s (Brown 1984) and early 1990s (Driver et al. 1991a, 1991b; Lee

and Driver 1992). These early conceptualizations, however, were developed after

a number of years of research on the character of recreational experiences.

Although there has been considerable discussion in the recreation research and

applications literature (e.g., Allen 1996, Stein and Lee 1995) concerning BBM,

there is currently no definitive, widely accepted document that describes the steps,

elements, or processes a planner would follow. The lack of a relatively easy-toimplement and definitive set of steps or processes, we believe is one of the key

limiting factors to implementation of BBM.

Key Concepts

The BAL identifies three types of benefits:

• An improved condition, such as cardiovascular fitness, family cohesiveness,

community stability, preserved cultural heritage, stress release, and so on.

By focusing on

benefits, managers,

policymakers, and

academics better

understand the

consequences of

decisions which

would help in evaluating alternative

investments.
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• Prevention of a worse condition, such as lost friendships, and prevention of

social problems, such as crime.

• Realization of psychological experiences (which accrue only to individuals)

such as challenge adventure, skill development, and solitude.

Driver and his associates then use General Systems Theory and the notion of a

recreation production process to show how inputs and outcomes are related.

Basically, this process results from visitors interacting with setting attributes

resulting in two stages of outcomes. The first stage results in five types of outcomes:

• Social benefits accruing to communities

• Economic benefits to local communities resulting from managerial investments in recreation settings

• Increased protection to cultural and natural heritage values

• Recreation opportunities

• Any negative consequences

The recreation opportunities produced as a benefit are of three types: activity

opportunities, experience opportunities, and other benefit opportunities. In the BAL

framework, these initial outcomes of recreational engagements serve as inputs to a

secondary “throughput” process that leads to a second-stage set of outcomes. These

outcomes involve benefits and costs to individuals and larger groups.

The BBM uses this conceptual structure more specifically to define and configure management of recreational settings. Driver and Bruns suggested that BBM is

used in two distinct ways in this context: (1) to optimize an array of benefit opportunities and (2) to use the BAL approach as a basis for intervention to prevent

adverse social problems or to capture a specific benefit. For public lands management, the first use is the most common use of BBM, although in communities, the

second use may be more dominant.

Although Driver and Bruns argue that BBM can be used for both onsite and

offsite customers,5

 our experience suggests that it is most commonly used to

implement management for onsite visitors. In this use, managers identify a set of

psychological outcomes (experience opportunities in the language of BBM) to be

facilitated at a recreation site. This requires not only an assessment of the array of

5

 Driver and Bruns prefer to use the term “customer” over visitor or user. Our preference is

to use the term visitor because this term implies a perspective we believe to be more

appropriate for public land management.
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outcomes that could occur, but decisions about what should occur. We, and Driver

and associates, specifically use the notion of “facilitate” because visitors produce

these outcomes, not managers. Managers can increase the probability of these

outcomes occurring, through management of the setting, but cannot ensure that

they will occur.

There is a substantial range of psychological outcomes that may occur with

any individual recreational engagement. Indeed, Driver and associates (Driver

1992; Driver et al. 1991b, 1996; Lee and Driver 1996; Manfredo et al. 1983) have

identified literally dozens. These include learning about and appreciating nature,

appreciating scenery, stress release, solitude, being with family or friends, challenge, adventure, humility, independence, freedom, and so on. In any given experience, there may be a “package” of four to six that are dominant. Given this array,

a BBM approach to management would select an appropriate package to be facilitated, e.g., freedom, challenge, adventure, solitude, and learning about nature.

The managers then would arrange setting attributes to enhance the probability of

achieving these outcomes. Satisfactory achievement of these outcomes would then

lead to the second-stage benefits mentioned earlier. Management actions to facilitate these outcomes would involve low levels of development, offsite information,

and few restrictions on camping and other behaviors.

Pierskalla et al. (2004) studied setting attributes and benefits in nine recreational settings (state parks, ranger districts) in several states. They measured activity

participation, setting attributes, and attainment of a variety of benefits. Their study

was able to document linkages between attributes and benefit attainment, although

the strength of these linkages varied considerably. They also found that for some

benefits, activity inputs were more significant than setting inputs, and vice versa.

These results suggest that the basic premise of a recreation production process for

BBM is more probabilistic than deterministic, a premise similar to initial formulations of ROS by Clark and Stankey (1979).

Knopf et al. (2004) suggested that a BBM approach to planning and management of recreation settings requires six essentials, briefly stated here:

• A shift in paradigm for public land agencies, from being providers of

campgrounds, trails, etc. to producing “value-added” changes in individuals

and communities.

• A focus on developing explicit management objectives oriented toward

identifying specific benefits of public land recreation.

• Linking objectives to specific management prescriptions.
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• Development of marketing programs designed to accomplish objectives.

• Implementation of monitoring programs designed to inform planners and

managers about how well objectives are being achieved.

• Engagement of all key “service provider” partners (public land recreation

providers, private sector business, and host communities).

Assessment of Experience With BBM

The BBM framework represents a significant investment in research (in identifying

various psychological outcomes), synthesis (in developing the notion of a recreation production function, and in use of systems theory), and application. In a

sense, it views recreational engagements as a rational decisionmaking process by

visitors. Once this process is understood, management is then seen as a set of

interventions taken to facilitate the positive outcomes of the engagement. The

experience with BBM has been limited, however, with reports of its application

restricted to one application in an urban area (Borrie and Roggenbuck 1995), and a

few cases applied in wildland settings (e.g., Bruns 1998, Stein and Anderson 2002)

Pierskalla et al. (2004) reported on several studies attempting to link recreation

setting attributes with benefits. Their results were mixed, with the highest relationships found occurring between activity type and benefit; a few significant relationships occurred between setting conditions and experience. These results suggest that

much more work needs to be done to understand the recreation production function, measure site attributes, and establish linkages with expected benefits.

Although some managers have been involved in development and application,

the use of BBM as a framework has not spread quickly or widely probably because

of the complexity and information requirements needed for its implementation and

the lack of a sequence of steps or elements. It seems to us that BBM is more a conceptual approach to how one may think about the purpose and objectives of provision of recreation opportunities on public lands than a practical decisionmaking

framework.

Other Frameworks

We mention here two other frameworks that have been used in the past, but have

little record of accomplishment. The Tourism Optimization and Management

Model (TOMM) was developed in Australia in the 1990s as an approach to managing tourism on Kangeroo Island (Manidis Roberts 1997). The TOMM was derived
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out of LAC but made public engagement a much more explicit component of the

framework (Curtis 2003). Because it focused on managing tourism, the name was

changed to not only include that word, but to eliminate the word “limits” so the

framework would appeal to the tourism industry. In addition, the notions of

indicators and standards are not as explicit in TOMM as they are in LAC. Although

TOMM is often reviewed in the literature assessing various frameworks, it has not

received widespread application.

Using similar notions of objective-based management, indicators, and standards, Visitor Impact Management (VIM) was developed to respond to the mandate

in the General Authorities Act of 1978 (for the NPS) to identify carrying capacities

(Graefe et al. 1990). The process was tested and applied in a variety of settings but

was never really adopted by the NPS as a planning framework. This was probably a

result of a substantial lack of collaboration in its development, ownership by NPS

in the framework, and its site-level orientation.

The VIM, like the VERP and LAC, contains a number of steps focused around

standards, indicators, and objectives. Although VIM has several similarities to LAC,

and was developed contemporaneously with it, it is not the same. The VIM does

not explicitly include the notion of opportunity classes and focuses primarily on

very small sites—such as a viewpoint—whereas VERP and LAC are much broader

in their orientation and application. Both processes use indicators and standards and

argue for including monitoring as a fundamental, inherent task of management.
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 Chapter 5: Conclusions

Public land recreation managers have several frameworks to choose from to assist

in addressing the growing diversity and complexity of recreation and tourism

development issues. The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS), Limits of

Acceptable Change LAC), and Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP)

frameworks have the advantage of empirical research and managerial experience

(although more limited for VERP) to guide their application, determine construct

validity, and in considering questions of appropriateness. Benefits-Based Management (BBM) is an approach that has driven a considerable amount of thought but

few complete applications in terms of a formally defined framework process.

Similar to BBM, recreation and tourism carrying capacity has been responsible

for a tremendous amount of research into the relationship between use levels and

biophysical and social conditions. The practical utility of this approach, however,

is extremely limited by an unproven empirical foundation, lack of process, and

reductionistic tendencies.

The development of recreation and tourism frameworks has been more evolutionary than revolutionary. For example, the ROS evolved out of a number of concept papers recognizing that visitors to public lands sought a variety of settings.

Although it took some time, ROS eventually evolved into a formalized planning

process that could be integrated into planning for public lands. The popularity of

ROS led it to be applied to similar issues and resulted in frameworks, such as the

Tourism Opportunity Spectrum and the Water Recreation Opportunity Spectrum.

Although many of the evolving adaptations represent new insights and a level of

creativity in how a concept can be applied in different situations, the ROS, as a

concept, remains at the core of the planning frameworks identified here.

The LAC and VERP adapted ROS to formally designated public land recreation settings (such as wilderness and national parks) and extended it to include

indicators, standards, and monitoring. All three processes are based on the premise

of a demand hierarchy, that is, people engage in activities within certain settings

to achieve particular outcomes. Successful attainment of these outcomes leads to

certain benefits. The BBM is also premised on the demand hierarchy, but focuses

on identifying the benefits first, then manipulating setting characteristics to achieve

those benefits. Although LAC and VERP were initially developed for formally

designated areas, they can be and have been applied in other settings as well.

There have been other assessments conducted of recreation planning frameworks (e.g., Manning 2004, Moore et al. 2003, Nilsen and Tayler 1997). These

The development

of recreation and

tourism frameworks

has been more

evolutionary than

revolutionary.
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assessments, however, have been more descriptive than evaluative, focusing primarily on the characteristics of the frameworks rather than on their performance

(e.g., if they contain indicators). Their suitability for addressing issues confronting

public land decisionmakers or their experience in specific situations have generally

not been addressed in the literature. Of the frameworks discussed here, only LAC

has had a formal evaluation involving scientists and managers that has appeared in

the literature (McCool and Cole 1997a).

Evaluation is important. This is a fundamental way in which we learn. Evaluation helps us address questions important in any management environment: Are

management actions effective? How do frameworks help managers make decisions?

How can experience be used systematically to inform actions and frameworks?

Such questions are essential to improving an agency’s technical ability to respond

to new issues as well as old ones. Unfortunately, monitoring performance and

evaluating experience are rarely conducted in public land recreation and tourism

development decisions. For example, McCool (2001) indicated that the efficacy of

recreation use limit policies, in spite of their relatively frequent use, has never been

formally evaluated and reported. Institutions may not be particularly well designed

for current and future challenges (Stankey et al. 2003b).

Successful framework applications have occurred, in our judgment, as a result

of close, continuing collaboration of managers and scientists. As we noted earlier,

such collaboration allows managers to communicate issues and mandates clearer to

scientists, scientists can query managers and come to a better understanding of the

job at hand, and as a result develop applications, concepts, and processes that are

more useful to managers. Approaches to recreation and tourism development issues

that have not involved this collaboration (frequently found in refereed journal

articles), in general, have not had widespread application.

If a framework can be viewed as an innovation, then adoption of this innovation follows a certain and generally predictable path (Rogers 1995). Rogers argued

that the adoption of an innovation by a member of a social system (say a manager)

depends heavily on the decisions of other members of the social (managerial) system. We expand this to include the experience of other members of the system with

the particular innovation. The close collaboration of scientists and managers that

typified the development of the ROS, LAC, VERP, and BBM frameworks allowed

managers to adopt the innovation in small steps, and with the support of scientists.

Positive experiences of other members of the social system (in Rogers’ language, innovators and early adopters) provide the confirmation that the innovation

will enhance a person’s ability to function effectively. Such experiences reduce the

Successful framework applications

have occurred, in

our judgment, as

a result of close,

continuing collaboration of managers

and scientists.
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risk of adopting an innovation that may fail. This process certainly occurred with

the LAC system following its use in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in the mid 1980s.

Other managers, once they heard of the use of LAC there, frequently called and

asked for information, why the process was successful, and for help in adopting it

for their own areas.

Not all innovations diffuse at the same rate or are adopted at the same time.

There are always late adopters and laggards (in Rogers’ terms). Agencies attempt

to deal with this by codifying and putting in agency manuals and handbooks the

innovative frameworks (this was done with ROS and VERP, but not LAC1

 or

BBM). Although there may be a good rationale for doing this, adoption in a

specific situation is more a function of a manager’s willingness to assume certain

risks to gain certain benefits (will it work, will the framework save me time, will

it solve problems), which in turn is a function of a number of personal variables.

The ROS was a valuable innovation, not because of its codification, but because

it helped managers understand and integrate recreation into decisions in a multipleuse situation. The LAC succeeded, in our judgment, because it helped managers

structure their thinking about the tradeoffs between partially conflicting goals.

The VERP is not working as well, not because of any structural flaws in its design,

but because of how it has been applied in general management planning. The BBM,

as a decisionmaking framework, has not been widely adopted, despite concerted

efforts, probably because it is often portrayed as very complex. If managers do

not understand an innovation, it is unlikely they will adopt it. However, BBM has

stimulated a great deal of empirical research and activity around the notion of the

products of public land recreation.

Innovations and bureaucracies are polar opposites. Bureaucracies, such as land

management agencies, are established to deal with routine problems and issues.

Land management agencies are notoriously conservative, with a top-down command and control structure. In these situations, innovations are slow to come. Diffusion strategies must emphasize, Rogers argues, the compatibility of the innovation with existing agency norms and policies. Visitor Impact Management (VIM)

for example, was not extensively applied in the National Park System (NPS), the

agency for which it was designed. It was not until NPS planners saw the ability to

integrate VIM and LAC with the agency’s existing general management planning

1

 The LAC process was initially published as a Forest Service General Technical Report,

but it is not formalized in the Forest Service Manual.
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process that the ideas of these frameworks were actually applied and tested as the

VERP system. Incidentally, VIM itself was not developed collaboratively, but the

VERP process involved much collaborative development between managers and

scientists.

Given the complex, contentious, and changing environment in which recreation

and tourism development decisions are being made, there is a need to continually

understand the strengths and weaknesses of these frameworks, to monitor the

situations in which they work or do not work, and to periodically make changes

in their implementation. Use of approaches such as recreation carrying capacity not

only miscasts a particular issue, but wastes scarce planning resources when managers confront the unresolved issue time after time. The limited capacity of public

land agencies to manage recreation inevitably leads to the conclusion that decisionmakers must have a better understanding of these frameworks, the key concepts and

assumptions upon which they are built, and their suitability for addressing different

issues. Developing capacity in these areas ultimately will lead to more efficient,

effective, and equitable decisions.

In all this discussion, it is important to keep in mind the conceptual validity

of the framework. The conceptual foundations for approaches such as carrying

capacity are contested in the scientific literature. They remain more hypotheses

about relationships than functional concepts and frameworks useful for structuring

deliberation. Despite their appealing simplicity, they have been difficult to implement in such a way that they make for easy adoption. The ROS, LAC, VERP, and

BBM are built on a deliberative model of science—iterative cycles of inductive and

deductive reasoning, hypothesis testing, and real world application.

Acknowledgments

This research is part of the Recreation and Tourism Initiative. Funding came

through the Focused Science Delivery Program and the Human and Natural Resource Interactions Program of the Pacific Northwest Research Station. The authors

acknowledge and appreciate comments and assistance by Kelly Lawrence, Lee

Cerveny, and Linda Kruger of the Pacific Northwest Research Station; Bob Dvorak

and John Adams, graduate students at The University of Montana; Perry Brown,

Dean of the College of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana; and

R. Neil Moisey, a faculty member at The University of Montana. The authors also

appreciate the helpful comments of the three peer reviewers.
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