Administration - Conference & other proceedings

Schmidly, D. J., & Ditton, R. B. (1978). Assessing human impacts in two national park areas of western Texas. Paper presented at the Conference Proceedings: Recreational Impact on Wildlands, Seattle, WA.

Abstract

This paper presents some of the results of human impact research conducted under contract with the National Park Service in Big Bend National Park (BBNP) and Amistad Recreational Area (ARA) in 1976 and 1977, respectively. Two types of impact, livestock grazing and recreational impact resulting from human use at designated campsites and their effects upon two biotic components (terrestrial rodents and vegetation), were monitored in the riparian habitats of BBNP and ARA. Our results suggest that present levels of recreational usage in the Rio Grande River System have had little significant impact on these biological parameters in riparian habitats. Comparison of our findings with those of other workers suggests that an assessment of the cause (quantification and classification of users) as well as the effect ( measurement of environmental changes) of visitor impacts is necessary to provide managers the information needed to cope with these problems. Management implications of the research are discussed.

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