RPTS 316 Recreation Management of Wildland

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RPTS 316 Recreation Management of Wildland Unit
III Monitoring and Management
Lecture 13
Application of Recreation Impact Assessment and
Monitoring Techniques Great Smoky Mountains
National Park
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Overview

• Campsite monitoring techniques review
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park background
• Campsite problems
• Campsite Management
• Synthesis

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Campsite Monitoring Techniques

• Descriptive Surveys

Estimates or measurements are taken on recreation
sites to assess current resource conditions

• Comparison of Used and Unused sites

Measurements are taken on recreation sites and
nearby disturbed sites and compared to infer
amount of impact

• Before-and-after natural experiments

Measurements are taken before and after
commencing or ceasing use of sites, or applying
management actions to sites to infer amount of
impact due to the change

• Before-and-after simulated experiments

Measurement are taken before and after treatments
are applied, often with random assignment, to
infer amount of impact due to the treatment
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Campsite Indicators

• Vegetation Disturbance
• Bare Ground
• Tree Damage
• Firewood Availability
• Root Exposure
• Cleanliness
• Camp area size
• Social trail development
• Campsite density
• Sanitation
• Distance from main track to campsite
• Distance from campsite to water
• Visuals between campers
• Fire scars

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Located along the state border of Tennessee and
North Carolina
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park

• Background
• Created in 1934
• Home of Cherokee people
• 209, 000 hectares
• Most diverse flora and fauna in NA
• 10.2 million visitors
• 0.5 million overnight stays
• 87 designated backcountry campgrounds and 18
  shelters
• Permit required for backcountry overnight stays
  (max 3 nights)
• Group size maximum 8 persons

Mr. and Mrs. Willis P. Davis of Knoxville,
Tennessee
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park

• Main visitor activities
• Biking
• Hiking and Camping
• Fishing
• Horse riding
• History Natural and Cultural
• Wildlife viewing and photography
• Road tours - vehicular

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park

• Major visitor related issues
• Too many visitors
• Campsite and trail impacts (illegal campsites and
  social trails)
• Water quality issues
• Exotic species
• Air pollution

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Great Smoky Mountains NPBackcountry management

• What are we doing right?
• Concentrating use within designated areas
• No rest-rotation schemes in place
• Communicate regulations and LNT messages to
  visitors with backcountry permit system

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Great Smoky Mountains NPBackcountry Management

• What problems exist?
• Campsite proliferation sites arent
  individually designated, confusion over which
  sites are legal, visitors can create new sites
• Campsite expansion sites were originally
  selected by visitors, not always very resistant,
  high potential for expansion, close to water
  sources
• Limited solitude in camping areas sites are
  close to trails and to other campsites

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Five point condition class assessment
195 campsites rated condition class 3 or
higher 141 campsites rated class 1 and 2
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Major campsite impacts (68 ILLEGAL sites)
Source Marion and Leung 1998
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Major campsite impacts (327 LEGAL sites)
Source Marion and Leung 1998
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Problems with Visitor-Selected Sites
Poor site selection Social - too close to other
sites Resource - fragile rather than
resistant Campsite expansion Campsite
proliferation
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Problems with Visitor-Selected Sites
Location of legal (designated) and illegal
campsites in Great Smoky National Park Source
Leung and Marion 1999 197
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Campsite Proliferation and Expansion
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Campsite Expansion

• Mean area of camping disturbance
• Illegal sites (n68) 515 sq ft
• Unrationed (n237) 1311 sq ft
• Rationed (n72) 2530 sq ft
• Shelters (n18) 3218 sq ft
• 62 sites between 2000-4000 sq ft, 30 sites gt
  4000 sq ft

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Temporal Trends A Campsite Life-History
Site Establishment
Impact
1 yr.
Time
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Rationale for Dispersal Containment
StrategiesUse/Impact Relationship
Impact
Amount of Use
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Synthesis

• Backcountry impacts in Great Smoky National Park
  an ongoing issue
• Application of descriptive survey
• Application of analytical survey (multi-parameter
  approach)
• Campsite impacts tend to increase in the absence
  of management (example, size and stay limits)
• Campsite recovery may take time
• Dispersal and containment strategies