Trossachs Tourism Management Programme - Environmental Monitoring Final Report

Executive Summary

1. In the report we set out proposals for a monitoring system to address the issue of sustainability in tourism development in the Trossachs. The need for monitoring is a clear response to identified national and local needs for the assessment of environmental capacity, and for the development of a soundly-based regime for management of the area's resources for tourism and recreation. The particular characteristics of the Trossachs area require the monitoring system to be sufficiently flexible to handle a range of types of habitat and levels of visitor activity; varied levels of current impact on sites; and different forms and degrees of current and future management of the land, both for recreation and tourism and for other uses.

2. While it would be highly desirable to produce a very simple and economical system, the monitoring framework needs to be sophisticated enough to cope with the area's complexity, and rigorous enough to provide reliable results as a solid basis for policy and management. In our view the system should focus on measuring impact at sites, aiming to identify forms of change and damage that require management, rather than on trying to establish a relationship between levels of use and impact (die concept of ecological carrying capacity) which is highly problematical: This would need much better information on visitors than is currently available or can be economically gathered, and remains ultimately a matter of subjective judgement. Since there appears to be no ready-made model for a monitoring system that can be adopted, we propose a matrix approach to cover a range of type sites with different levels of use, scales of damage, and degrees of current management.

3. Using criteria derived from the matrix approach, we propose a selection of twelve sites in the Trossachs for monitoring: 3 mountain paths, 4 low-level paths, 4 lochshores, and one scenic driving route:

From our field inspections it is our view that key elements of these sites, particularly the unmanaged mountain paths and some of the lochshores, need urgent and substantial remedial work rather than monitoring. However we consider that this set will provide a good spectrum of sites for monitoring, in terms of variety of habitat, form and scale of impact, and level of current use.

4. For these sites we set out a programme of specific detailed baseline and monitoring procedures, focusing on key environmental indicators, which aims to combine relative simplicity and economy of operation with scientific validity. We estimate the baseline survey required for the 12 sites would take about 84 person-days of field and office work.

5. In terms of relating environmental monitoring to visitor numbers, we judge the existing information base on visitor patterns to be inadequate, particularly as regards activity at sites. Currently planned survey and counting programmes will provide- only broad indicative data. To establish even fairly general relationships between use and impact would need an enlarged and co-ordinated network of people counters and more intensive survey of visitor activity. Survey should also address visitor attitudes and perceptions of the Trossachs environment to complement the site monitoring and to provide an assessment of likely responses to site management.

6. The first steps needed to put the monitoring programme into action are to review the list of sites, and to make the baseline survey. The work could be handled either by consultants or by staff of partner agencies; we estimate around 84 person-days for the first two years, and 35-40 days each year thereafter, to run the programme. To ensure that management action follows from monitoring results, we recommend the formulation and agreement of a system of Limits of Acceptable Change at an early stage. Once the full monitoring programme is in place it could be enlarged in scope to address wider issues, both of environmental impact and of social and economic effects of tourism and recreation in the Trossachs area.

CONTENTS

i Acknowledgements

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

1.2 Requirements of the brief

1.3 The Trossachs context

2. CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND TO THE MONITORING PROCESS

2.1 The objectives

2.2 Practical Constraints

2.3 Relating site monitoring to visitor numbers

2.4 Carrying capacity

2.5 Limits of acceptable Change

2.6 Developing a monitoring framework

2.7 Wider methodological issues

2.8 Summary points

3. SITE SELECTION AND DESCRIPTION

3.1 Principles of site selection

3.2 The site list

3.3 Recreational impact spectrum of sites

3.4 Description of individual sites

3.4.1 Ben Led!

3.4.2 Ben A'n

3.4.3 Ben Venue

3.4.4 Strathyre

3.4.5 Falls of Leny

3.4.6 Callender Crags and Bracklin Falls

3.4.7 Doon Hill and Lemahamish Pool

3.4.8 Loch Lubnaig

3.4.9 Loch Venachar

3.4.10 Loch, Achray

3.4.11 Loch Drunkie

3.4.12 Duke's Pass

4. BASELINING AND MONITORING METHODS

4.1 General requirements and constraints

4.2 Selecting key indicators

4.3 Baselining and monitoring: footpaths

4.4 Baselining and monitoring: lochshores

4.5 Baselining and monitoring: scenic drives

4.6 Organising all baselining and monitoring

4.7 Additional and alternative monitoring methodologies

5. DATA ON RECREATION AND TOURISM

5.1 The data context

5.2 The current information base

5.2.1 General failings of existing information

5.2.2 Counts and counters

5.2.3 Current survey

5.3 Improving the information base

5.3.1 Visitor counters

5.3.2 Impressions of visitors

5.4 Summary points

6. THE WAY FORWARD: IMPLEMENTING THE MONITORING PROGRAMME

6.1 First steps

6.2 The scale of effort

6.3 Who does the monitoring?

6.4 Following through

6.5 Developing the monitoring programme

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY