Indicators and standards of quality for the Schoodic Peninsula section of Acadia National Park, Maine

Abstract

A multi-year research initiative was undertaken to inform park planning and management efforts at the Schoodic Peninsula Section of Acadia National Park, Maine. This research focused on developing information that will enable formulation of indicators and standards of quality. The first phase of research in the summer of 2000 obtained descriptive information on visitor use and users through an initial visitor survey and identified several potential indicators of quality for park resources and the visitor experience. The second phase of research in the summer of 2001 obtained descriptive information through a second visitor survey and gathered data on nonnative standards of quality for selected indicator variables. Indicators and standards of quality addressed in this study span both park resources and the visitor experience and include the number of cars on the park loop road, the number of visitors at selected park attractions, and resource impacts on hiking trails. Results indicate that visitors are able to provide information necessary to help determine indicators of quality pertinent to their experience at the Schoodic Peninsula. Further, visitors are able to make normative judgments about a variety of evaluative dimensions across a diversity of indicator variables. Research findings and their management implications are presented.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2002 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Bacon, James; Manning, Robert; Lawson, Steven; Valliere, William; Laven, Daniel. 2003. Indicators and standards of quality for the Schoodic Peninsula section of Acadia National Park, Maine. In: Schuster, Rudy, comp., ed. Proceedings of the 2002 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-302. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 279-285