NEW OFFERING

Managing the Surge: Readiness for Increased Visitation

A two-day, in-person training for $9995 (travel included)

This course is tailored for parks currently experiencing a significant increase in visitor numbers or anticipating such growth in the coming years. It provides the tools and strategies park staff need to effectively analyze and better manage increased visitation -- and to better prepare for future problems and opportunities.

Providing Key Tools and Models

Managing the Surge offers an overview of key visitor use management (VUM) principles and models including the Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework, a proven approach adopted by six U.S. federal land management agencies including NPS.

Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework

Participants will learn how to use this framework to analyze visitor use impacts and issues; establish management direction; identify strategies; and to implement, monitor, and adapt these strategies over time. The course also introduces the Sliding Scale of Analysis, which helps determine the appropriate level of analysis needed to effectively address visitation issues.

Your Park’s Challenges

During the two days we will also take time to understand your park’s current and anticipated visitor use challenges and to consider numerous examples from other parks. Drawing on scientific literature, the program helps participants understand the difference between crowding and congestion and identify which type of management actions should be considered in each case.

Related to your park’s specific challenges, various tools to help guide decision-making will be explained, including the relationship between use and impact and the Continuum of Visitor Use Management Interventions.

Effective Stakeholder Engagement

Implementing new visitor use policies often requires meaningful engagement with stakeholders and the public, so the course also dedicates time to best practices in public engagement based on the facilitator’s extensive experience working with parks and protected areas across the United States.

Overall Training outcomes:

  • Gaining a shared understanding of the visitor use challenges specific to your park.

  • Enhancing knowledge of general principles and models of visitor use management.

  • Building expertise in best practices for public engagement on visitor use issues.

  • Developing a comprehensive understanding of the Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework—a flexible, adaptive process utilized by six federal land management agencies to effectively manage visitation.

Visitor Use Management Consulting

In addition to Managing the Surge we provide visitor use assessment, research, facilitation and writing that helps resource managers understand challenges in new ways and see new possibilities for responding to them. Contact us for examples of our prior VUM work and references to previous clients.

Charles with the team at Great Smoky Mountains National Park