First come, first served or lottery—Informing recreation allocation strategies with visitor preferences

Public lands provide extensive recreation opportunities for activities including camping and cabins, biking, horseback riding, hiking, and fishing. Due to increasing visitation and the associated impacts to natural resources and the visitor experience, recreation managers may decide to adopt a recreation allocation strategy to limit the number of visitors at a given time. Allocation includes allotment (splitting between groups such as commercial use and private use) and rationing (a mechanism for allocating within groups). The main strategies used for rationing include first come, first served, pricing, reservations, lotteries, and merit.  Music courtesy of Souvenir Thread Read the Science You Can Use and access the related content on Treesearch.