The Carrying Capacity of Public Wild Land Recreation Areas: Evaluation of Alternative Measures

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Abstract
Carrying capacity is the use level at which total satisfactions or benefits are maximized. Highest use levels may not result in maximum total satisfactions because some visitors seek solitude and undisturbed environments. Since satisfaction scales achieve only ordinal levels of measurement, the point where loss of solitude and naturalness offsets benefits derived from increased use levels cannot be established through scaling visitors' satisfactions. Alternatively, capacity is “the use level demanded after considering costs.” An operational measure is achieved through use of a lottery. An area is divided into zones varying by use level limits. The chances (cost) of winning a permit to any zone are inversely proportional to the severity of limits on the zone applied for. An individual may “try for” only one zone per day. People seeking solitude will probably try for access to more severely limited use zones than others will. Thus individuals are matched with desired experiences. When zone sizes and limits are adjusted to demand, the resulting total area use level is the capacity.

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