Social conditions, visitor flow & travel simulation model for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness: 2nd edition

Social conditions and visitor flows on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) on the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota were monitored during the seasons of greatest visitor use (May-September) in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, four spatially defined areas within BWCAW were observed by technicians and both the number of encounters and typical visitor behavior were approximated. During the day travel encounters on the water were observed, and in the early mornings and evenings both campsite encounters and occupancy conditions were recorded. The qualities of other relevant variables were also measured such as weather and aircraft over-flights. In 2011 all trip leaders of permitted overnight boating trips into the BWCAW were contacted and invited to complete an online or hard copy survey reporting their trip itinerary such as lakes visited, length of stay, and party size as well as other variables related to their wilderness trip such as number and type of watercraft used. Between 2012 and 2019 the BWCAW VisSim 3.0 visitor travel simulation model, included in this package, was developed to assist managers in understanding visitors' use of backcountry campsites at the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Northern Minnesota, USA. The model accounts for the unique travel patterns of visitors as they choose from 61 entry points and travel through 95 backcountry travel zones and Canada's adjoining Quetico Provincial Park. The model is based on actual itineraries contributed by nearly 12,000 BWCAW visitor groups after their trips in 2011 (this represents 56% of all trips taken during the 2011 permit season) and has been updated to incorporate modern (2020) design concepts and software technology for simulation processing.
The purpose of the 2010 data collection was to gather data about wilderness visitor encounters in four areas of the BWCAW. Efforts in 2011 were intended to gather data about BWCAW visitor travel patterns throughout the wilderness and use these data to parameterize a computer simulation model of visitor travel patterns to be used as a tool by wilderness managers to aid in resource management decisions, which was originally developed in 2012 and updated in 2019. In general, there was a need to assess the impacts of visitor use of the BWCAW, define "crowding" and how that affects visitor attitudes when seeing other visitors and how it affects their wilderness experience. Determine visitor trends and how they are likely to change, and in addition determine whether "destination" type trips will continue to increase and if so, what are the likely consequences on travel zones?
This data publication is a 2nd edition of Douglas et al. (2014, https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2014-0010). This second edition adds a third part to the archive: BWCAW VisSim 3.0 Travel Simulation Model, which uses visitor flow census data collected in the second phase of the project to simulate travel patterns across the BWCAW. This part consists of the simulation model BWCAW VisSim 3.0 (\Supplements\BWCAW_VISSIM_3_v2019.mox), which is implemented as an ExtendSim® simulation model as well as a user’s guide describing model features and a tutorial illustrating how to run the model which are included in the technical report. We recommend the use of this newer edition.