Explore Resources

This Interagency Visitor Use Management Council paper reviews the management of recreation impacts to wildlife, including discussions of influential factors, impact indicators, and the range of management responses. This information is provided to assist recreation and land managers in avoiding or minimizing visitor impact to wildlife.

This Interagency Visitor Use Management Council paper summarizes research on carrying capacity and visitor management and provides suggestions on how planners can use existing information to identify capacity barriers and solutions.

This visitor capacity guidebook, in combination with the “Visitor Use Management Framework,” provides managers with processes to collaboratively develop long-term strategies to manage the amounts and types of visitor use to protect resources, improve access, connect visitors to key experiences, and achieve desired conditions. The purpose of this guidebook is to provide cohesive guidance on identifying visitor capacity and implementing related management strategies and actions on federally managed lands and waters. Similar to the framework, the sliding scale of analysis is discussed throughout this guidebook to ensure the investment of time, money, and other resources for a project is commensurate with the complexity of the project and the consequences of the decision. Overall, this guidebook is meant to expand on the framework, guiding a professional and consistent approach to identifying and implementing visitor capacity.