Measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 require changes in the ways that people travel, gather, and recreate in outdoor spaces. In 2020, to limit human-to-human transmission of COVID-19, US park and protected area managers at all levels of governance implemented closures and restrictions on the types of activities and facilities available for public use. At the same time, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined suggestions for social distancing, wearing face masks, and limiting travel and group sizes for social gatherings. This thought piece explores potential shifts in park accessibility and human behaviors that may lead to cascading impacts on visitor spatial use, terrestrial flora and fauna, and park management. We discuss potential changes in visitor spatial behavior and possible subsequent ecological impacts on terrestrial flora and fauna. Additionally, we connect these topics with management implications and emphasize adaptive management and continued monitoring to address current and future pandemic-related issues. We provide park managers, researchers, and other professionals with expected social and ecological implications resulting from managerial and behavioral shifts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we suggest management approaches to address and monitor these impacts. This information can help shape how park managers respond to the ongoing pandemic and future human health issues that impact park visitors and flora and fauna. Finally, we offer suggestions for where prospective researchers can direct their focus, especially in areas where recreation ecology and human disease management intersect.

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Recent advances in geospatial technology resulted in GPS and GIS-based approaches becoming more common in visitor use management studies. Many of these studies focus on describing the spatial and temporal patterns and trends of use. While these descriptive data are useful, recent reviews of the recreation literature using GPS and GIS techniques suggest that spatial technologies should be linked to aspatial approaches – such as visitor surveys – to better understand the experiences and behaviors of visitors. However, these calls in the literature have not provided directions for how such an integration could be achieved in a way that is useful to both scientists and managers. This paper presents a multi-faceted methodological approach employed in a study of visitor use and experience at String and Leigh Lakes in Grand Teton National Park, WY. We used an intentional, integrated approach, where aspatial data was linked to three different types of spatial data to better understand the social and ecological environments of SLL and their influence on visitor experiences. Visitors completed questionnaires before and after their experience at SLL that were combined with GPS-based tracking data. We related both the survey results and GPS tracking data to a GIS analysis of mapped, biophysical user-created resource impacts. We also paired spatial-aspatial data in an experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of visitor messaging. The deliberate combination of aspatial and spatial data allowed us to investigate site-specific management concerns and theory-based questions. We found that paired spatial-aspatial data provided a more nuanced understanding of the relationships between the social, experiential, and biophysical factors measured in our study. Overall, this paper provides a method for thoughtfully integrating GPS and GIS-based techniques with questionnaires in a way that contributes to both the science and management of visitor use in parks and protected areas.

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