Visitor Experience and Resource Protection

Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) is the U.S. National Park Service's framework for addressing carrying capacity by managing the conditions of both park resources and visitor experiences rather than counting visitors. Set out in the 1997 NPS handbook, VERP reflects the same insight that drove the Limits of Acceptable Change system: there is no single defensible number of visitors a park can hold, so management should instead define the conditions it wishes to maintain and act to keep them within acceptable limits. VERP proceeds by grounding the plan in the park's purpose and significance, dividing the park into management zones with prescribed desired conditions, selecting measurable indicators of quality for resources and experiences, setting standards for those indicators in each zone, monitoring conditions, and managing visitor use whenever a standard is violated. It is the park-planning counterpart to LAC and is woven into the general-management-planning process.