Isle au Haut is a relatively remote island outpost of Acadia National Park located seven miles south of Stonington, Maine. About half the island, or 2700 acres, is in park ownership; the rest consists of the community of Isle au Haut. The explosion of recreational use nationwide in the 1960s and 1970s was felt at Isle au Haut, and it helped create a contentious relationship between the park and island residents.

Because of this, legislation was enacted in 1982 by the U.S. Congress requiring the NPS to establish a visitor capacity for park lands. Such a capacity was adopted in 1989. Due to increases in use, the NPS recently decided to revisit the Isle au Haut visitor capacity issue. A visitor experience resource protection (VERP) planning process started in 2001. Social science and visitor impact studies were conducted in 2001 and 2002, and are continuing in 2003. Results of this research and the planning process will be posted here as they become available.