SWAN Monitoring Visitor Use

Southwest Alaska Network. SWAN Monitoring Visitor Use. 2007. National Park Service

Human activities were identified as an important agent of change in SWAN ecosystems. Recreational use by visitors and guides presents two resource protection issues in the parks: (i) direct impact to physical resources, plant and animals from actions such as vehicle use and camping, and (ii) indirect impacts such as disturbance or displacement of wildlife from actions such as aircraft over-flights. Because of the impacts that human recreation can have on the environment, visitor use was was seen as an important vital sign for SWAN. Management also placed importance on knowing when and where people were visiting the park. Visitor use counts provided by CUA activity reports provide a low-cost means of estimating the potential impacts to park resources. In addition, they provide parks with enough data to allocate NPS staff to areas of high use. The goals of the monitoring are: Document the number of visitors in parks monthly and annually, as recorded by CUA activity reports. Document visitor use days monthly or annually in specified areas of the parks as recorded by the CUA activity reports.

Type
Project
Authors
Southwest Alaska Network
Publisher
National Park Service
Units
ALAG , ANIA , KATM , LACL , SWAN
Keywords
Activity, commercial operation
Subjects
Ecological Framework: Human Use | Visitor and Recreation Use | Visitor Use

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