Recent Methodological Considerations

When monitoring and mitigating resource impacts related to visitor use, man-agers must decide which indicators to mea-sure and how often to monitor such condi-tions. All too often, managers and re-searchers collect large amounts of data that are left unanalyzed. In this case, researchers can support parks by providing an “effi-cient ” means of collecting and analyzing data. In this case, “efficiency ” is defined as collecting the most amount of robust data for the least amount of expenditure (both personnel/volunteer energy and money). This assumes that higher sample sizes will yield more precise results. More work in support of managers ’ monitoring and data analysis needs will contribute to their con-tinual efforts to maintain high-quality recre-ation opportunities. Protecting both resources and visitor experience can be very challenging for parks and related areas. Managers often rely on objectives-planning frameworks such as LAC and VERP to accomplish their aims. At the heart of management by objectives-planning framework are the setting of appropriate management objectives, the development of associated indicators and standards of quality, and a strong and con-sistent monitoring program that signals when management action should be taken. Over the last several years, there has been much discussion about the efficacy of such planning frameworks (McCool and Cole 1999; Manning and Lawson 2002). More-over, budget constraints have forced many parks to do more work with fewer people, and often monitoring and analysis of dat