ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS OF RATIONING 



Rationing is a procedure for gaining an opening or "slot" in some system. In 

 wilderness, the number of available openings is determined by the area's carrying 

 capacity, a value based upon the manager's judgment as to what constitutes acceptable 

 levels of change in ecological and social conditions (Frissell and Stankey 1972) . 



Given a relatively fixed number of openings that can be distributed to users, 

 wilderness managers are thus faced with the task of allocating these openings in as fair, 

 efficient, and nondiscriminatory a manner as possible. In the following discussion, we 

 will consider five basic rationing sytems that managers might use to limit visitor use. 

 These include: (1) rationing by advance reservation; (2) rationing by lottery; (3) 

 rationing by queuing; (4) rationing by price; and (5) rationing by merit. Each system 

 has certain advantages and disadvantages that must be defined before any system or 

 mixture of systems is adopted. 



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