The capacity for change: How much is too much?

Carrying capacity is a concept that ecologists regularly consider in evaluating population levels and habitat constraints.    Similarly, for decades practitioners and researchers have struggled to determine how best to address user capacity in parks and protected areas in an attempt to answer the elusive question: how much use is too much?  In a park management context user capacity not only concerns the level of use, but the type, timing and locations of use as well.  Toward this end the National Park Service employs the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework to proactively plan and manage visitor use taking into account all aspects of use and its corresponding impacts.    In the midst of a litigation maelstrom over how much visitor use is suitable, Yosemite National Park is using the VERP process to address visitor use and user capacity for developing management plans for the Merced and now the Tuolumne Wild and Scenic Rivers. This presentation will give an overview of the process that uses biological, cultural, and social indicators to determine acceptable levels of use and impact to one of American’s iconic national parks.  Management implications and recommendations for future research and collaboration are provided.