Managing the “Commons” on Cadillac Mountain: A Stated Choice Analysis of Acadia National Park Visitors' Preferences

Abstract

Stated choice analysis was used to assess visitors' preferences for alternative combinations of public access, resource protection, visitor regulation, and site hardening to manage the Cadillac Mountain summit. Results provide insight into visitor preferences concerning the management of national park icon sites like the summit of Cadillac Mountain. These areas have received limited research attention. Results suggest that visitors consider resource protection to be a priority and are willing to accept regulation of visitors' behavior onsite reinforced with the use of moderately to highly intensive management structures, but generally don't support limiting the freedom to visit.

Keywords:

• crowding
• national park icon sites
• resource impacts
• stated choice analysis
• tragedy of the commons

Acknowledgments

The research presented in this paper was part of a larger study of visitor use to support Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) planning in Acadia National Park, and is based on the first author's Masters Thesis at Virginia Tech. Financial support for this research was provided by the USDI National Park Service and the University of Vermont. The authors would like to thank Don Anderson of StatDesign Consulting in Evergreen, Colorado, for his assistance developing the experimental design used in this study. The authors would also like to thank Aurora Moldovanyi and Brett Kiser for there assistance in administering the study questionnaire, Charlie Jacobi and other park staff at Acadia National Park for their contribution to this research, Dr. Robert Manning of the University of Vermont for his involvement in the study, and Drs. Joe Roggenbuck and Jeff Marion of Virginia Tech for their scholarly review of this manuscript. Finally, the authors would like to thank Len Hunt of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources for his review of and assistance with statistical modeling used in the study.

Notes

∗Described narratively within scenarios.

∗∗Described narratively and depicted in computer generated photographs within scenarios.

∗p < .05.

∗∗p < .01.

∗∗∗p < .001.