VERP and Cades Cove

Growing levels of visitation at national parks across the nation are increasing the challenges to the National Park Service (NPS) in fulfilling its mission to “provide for the enjoyment of park visitors” and “preserve park resources for future generations.” The 1978 National Parks and Recreation Act requires the NPS to address the complex issues of visitor use management and “park carrying capacity” – the types and levels of visitor use in each park that can be accommodated while sustaining acceptable resource and social conditions. To accomplish this mission, NPS has developed a planning tool called “Visitor Experience and Resource Protection” (VERP)

VERP provides a general framework for analysis and action rather than a rigid procedure. The goals of the VERP process for Phase II of Cades Cove planning, to be met through the involvement of a wide variety of experts, NPS staff, and the public, are to:

VERP is not simply defining the allowable number of visitors in an area at one time, but rather a means to define what the desired conditions are for natural and cultural resources and visitor experiences and to establish a process for assessing those conditions. During the next six months, the study team will use the VERP process to define the desired Cades Cove visitor experience and resource protection factors. Generally speaking, this is done for each area within the Cove, depending on the kinds of resources in each area, the expected visitor experience, and the level of management in that area.

To establish effective evaluation factors for these areas requires considerable research, much of it on-the-ground. A key approach will be to survey visitors to assess how they view conditions in Cades Cove and how those conditions influence their visitor experience.

Once we understand the desired future condition, both in terms of quality of visitor experience and resources, indicators of quality can be selected. These need to be sensitive to changes as well as something that can be monitored. For each indicator, a standard will then be developed to define the minimum condition to be maintained. In the Phase II effort these standards will be expressed as a range and used to refine the draft action alternatives so that each alternative can achieve the desired future condition. This assures a set of workable draft alternatives that will enable the Park to fulfill its mission in Cades Cove. The establishment of indicator monitoring and management actions to ensure that established standards are maintained will be addressed in future study phases.

Study the VERP manual

Learn more about carrying capacities

Learn more about managing individual areas of Cades Cove
(coming Spring 2006)

Learn more about visitor surveys conducted in Cades Cove in 2005

See the preliminary list of visitor experiences