ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF A CAVE TICKET RESERVATION SYSTEM: APE CAVE INTERPRETIVE SITE, MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL VOLCANIC MONUMENT

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument (MSHNVM), part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, is experiencing heavy visitation at some of its most popular recreation areas. As a result, there have been increasing challenges impacting the monument. The Ape Cave Interpretive Site is the most popular site on the South side of the Monument with an estimated 100,000 visitors a year. Recently increased human traffic in caves has become a national point of ecological concern. In 2006 White Nose Syndrome, a fungus native to Europe, was introduced in a cave in New York. Since that time, millions of bats have died as the disease has been spread by both bat and human vectors. Additionally, the Ape Cave Interpretive Site has experienced vandalism, overcrowding, and illegal roadside parking, preventing emergency vehicle access. In 2021, MSHNVM began requiring online timed-ticket reservations to visit the Ape Cave Interpretive Site. MSHNVM placed a capacity limit on vehicles per day, broken into four two-hour time windows, 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm. In order to better understand the impacts of the Ape Cave permitting system on visitation patterns and improve safety, we tracked visitor contacts with Rangers during the 2022 Summer season. We compared visitor use at different recreation sites, in conjunction with days of the week and average daily temperature/precipitation. This project will allow us to better allocate resources and assess the functionality of the Ape Cave ticketing system on both visitor experience and resource protection.