Social Science Information from the Exit Glacier Fee Area: Implications Based on Multiple Methods

Vande Kamp, Mark; Johnson, Darryll; Manning, Robert

This project was administered by the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit of the National Park Service. It was proposed and funded by Kenai Fjords National Park. The general purpose of the project was to collect visitor information beneficial to the development of visitor and resource management strategies in the Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park. In accord with this very broad goal, a variety of data was collected using: 1) Mail questionnaires; 2) Structured on-site interviews; 3) Open-ended on-site interviews; and 4) Systematic visitor counts. The specific information collected by these methods is described in considerable detail in other volumes of the project final report, and that information promises to be useful to managers in many ways, including some that will only become evident in the future. In contrast, this report focuses on the information collected using each method that was particularly relevant to the selection of social indicators and the setting of standards for those indicators. More specifically, this volume of the final report seeks to help managers answer two questions: 1) What is the visitor experience at Exit Glacier? and 2) What do we know about the balance between the number of visitors and the quality of visitor experiences at Exit Glacier?