SUMMARY 



Increasing levels of demand on a diminishing wilderness resource, combined with the 

 objective of preserving the natural ecological integrity and the unique recreational 

 qualities of wilderness, are making the task of wilderness management increasingly 

 difficult. Managers have a variety of tools to contend with some of these problems, 

 including rationing. 



Five basic systems of rationing can be defined: (1) rationing by request; (2) 

 rationing by lottery; (3) rationing by queuing; (4) rationing by price; and (5) ra- 

 tioning by merit. Each system has certain systematic advantages and disadvantages 

 associated with it. 



Currently there are few guidelines for adopting rationing. The manager's most 

 effective tool is a set of principles that allow him to place rationing in the proper 

 perspective as a management strategy. Combinations of systems that offset the res- 

 pective disadvantages of each system appear to be the best overall strategy, par- 

 ticularly when the systems require visitors to place a value on the wilderness 

 opportunity. It is important that objective and systematic sources of feedback be 

 established to permit evaluation of rationing programs. 



PUBLICATIONS CITED 



Behan, R. W. 



1974. Police state wilderness: a comment on mandatory wilderness permits. J. For. 

 72(2) :98-99. 

 Fazio, James R. , and Douglas L. Gilbert. 



1974. Mandatory wilderness permits: some indications of success. J. For. 

 72(12) :753-756. 



Frissell, Sidney S., and George H. Stankey. 



1972. Wilderness environmental quality: search for social and ecological harmony. 

 In Proc. Soc. Am. For. Annu. Meet., Hot Springs, Arkansas, p. 170-183. 

 Gilbert, C. Gorman, George L. Peterson, and David W. Lime. 



1972. Towards a model of travel behavior in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Environ. 

 Behav. 4(2) : 131-157 . 

 Greist, David A. 



1975. Risk zoning: a recreation area management system and method of measuring 

 carrying capacity. J. For. 73 (1 1) : 71 1 -714 . 



Hardin, Garrett. 



1969. The economics of wilderness. Nat. Hist. 78(6): 20-27. 

 Helgath, Sheila F. 



1975. Trail deterioration in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. USDA For. Serv. , 

 Res. Note INT-193, 15 p. Intermt. For and Range Exp. Stn. , Ogden, Utah. 



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