Selecting indicators and understanding their role in wilderness experience stewardship at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve

Abstract

The Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) and other indicator-based planning frameworks (e.g., VERP, Visitor Experience and Resource Protection; VIM, Visitor Impact Management) have been widely adopted by wilderness managers. A central feature of these frameworks is the selection of indicators of conditions that influence experience quality, and which managers can efficiently monitor.However, identifying meaningful influences on visitor experience quality and selecting appropriate indicators remains a persistent challenge. Managers often have little knowledge of which indicators are most significant at their respective areas, and, as a result, they sometimes choose indicators simply because they have been used elsewhere (Watson and Roggenbuck 1997). Moreover, research designed to support the selection of indicators has often failed to uncover the predictable relationships between social setting conditions and experiences that the notion of an indicator presupposes (Cole 2001).

Citation

Glaspell, Brian; Watson, Alan E.; Kneeshaw, Katie; Pendergrast, Don. 2003. Selecting indicators and understanding their role in wilderness experience stewardship at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. George Wright Forum. 20(3): 59-71