An Assessment of Recreation Impacts in Alpine and Subalpine Areas of Grand Teton National Park: Preliminary Findings

Abstract

Changes to resource conditions due to recreation use were examined in select locations in Grand Teton National Park. The study focused on assessing areas off designated trails and sites, where visitor use can often result in rapid and undesirable resource impacts. Preliminary results suggest that while resource change is significant in some locations, impacts tend to be limited spatially to areas surrounding popular destination sites. In addition, several alpine and subalpine locations of known recreation use showed little or no resource change outside of designated trails and sites. This work provides a baseline condition assessment that allows for an examination of change over time and an evaluation of the effectiveness of visitor management actions.