64 



Evaiuation of the Green River Study as I see it 



One of the most striking items of information to come out of the 1 99 1 Study, to me at least, is illustrated by 

 the chart below from page 189 of the study 



Table 72. Satisfaction levels for first-time and repeat visitors. 



On page 18 of the study, it says, "Green Rjver managers must decide what type of experience is to be 

 managed for and who that experience is to be created for " This decision has not been made yet, to my knowledge, and 

 would seem to be the first thing to be done Will the Green River be managed for the 3% that are dissatisfied or for the 

 97% that are satisfied with their experience'' On page 24 the statement is made that "The maintenance of carrying 

 capacity in the Green River corridor probably has more to do with the quality of expenence preferred by visitors than 

 it has with any absolute limit to the number of people which should not be transgressed" The study also stated on 

 page 59 that " it is the success or failure of management that will determme whether repeat users keep coming back" 

 What these statements say is that the vast majority of visitors are satisfied with their experience on the Green River and 

 that the management decisions that are to be made will be responsible as to whether the repeat visitors will return or 

 not return, i.e. the success or failure of the commercial outfitters. 



Many other conclusions can be drawn from this study such as the demographics of the users, time and money 

 spent, levels of satisfaction and type of use. One other important finding comes from the Table 98 on page 258 The 

 perceptions of problems by major activity This shows that, in descending order, litter on the banks, litter in the river, 

 changes in river flows, not enough campsites, toilets between access points, law enforcement, human waste, access to 

 river, toilets at access points, people dnnkmg, quality of campsites, information services, and access to trails and roads 

 are the problems identified by users. Crowding and too many guides are not on this list and do not seem to be 

 considered by the study to be major problems 



