Visitor impact monitoring in the coastal and barrier island network.

phase of a three-phase study to test candidate variables for future visitor impact monitoring programs at seven important coastal areas managed by the NPS (Table 1). This project is under the auspices of the larger biophysical monitoring effort of the Coastal and Barrier Island Network. We initiated this project with the overall objectives of (1) determining which of the coastal NPS units require visitor impact monitoring programs; (2) developing a clear conceptual model of visitor threats to resources, related vital signs, and relevant indicators of resource condition; and (3) developing and testing accurate monitoring and sampling protocols of the indicators of the visitor-affected resources. Specifically, this paper reports on the results of the initial phase of the study, consisting of site visits to each of the coastal areas and in-depth manager interviews. We had several objectives for this phase of the study. First was to determine which visitor-caused impacts were of concern to managers, and the general magnitude and location of these impacts. Second was to determine a suite of possible indicators to monitor visitor impacts in these environments. And last, we investigated the commonalities of the impact concerns so future protocols could be applied consistently across all network areas. Future phases of this study will develop and field-test specific monitoring protocols.