General Management Plan
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CRATERS of the MOON
General Management Plan |
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A general management plan is needed to guide the management, development, and use of Craters of the Moon National Monument for the next 10 to 15 years. Since major redevelopment of management and visitor facilities in the monument as part of the Mission 66 program in the late 1950s and early 1960s, use has continued to increase, and visitation patterns have changed. These changes have led to traffic congestion, insufficient parking, and conflicts between visitor and staff activities (such as maintenance vehicles traveling through congested areas at the visitor center and campground and employees being disturbed in their residences by visitors).
Employee housing is highly visible, providing little privacy. The transition from the high-speed main highway to the park road and resources is through a congested developed area. The main park road goes through the campground, and the fee collection station also is in the campground. This diminishes the camping experience in that area. Many facilities in Craters of the Moon National Monument are outdated and do not provide enough space to support current levels of use or management. Actions to correct these deficiencies are proposed in this general management plan.
The approved resource management plan for the monument (NPS 1987) focuses on management concerns, prescribes ways to correct deficiencies in baseline information, and includes recommendations for actions to solve specific resource management problems. In the general management plan, the major actions needed to enhance management of natural resources are emphasized. Since the resource management plan is subject to frequent revisions, the current plan should always be referred to when the general management plan is used.
The Craters of the Moon National Monument Backcountry/Wilderness Management Plan (NPS 1989a) guides the use of remote areas and establishes the framework for implementing the "limits of acceptable change" system to monitor and correct adverse effects on the monument's resources.
The draft Craters of the Moon General Management Plan/Environmental Assessment contained a proposed plan, along with an environmental assessment of the plan and three alternatives. Analysis of the effects of the proposed action revealed that there would be no significant impacts from implementation of this plan. The finding of no significant impact is reproduced in appendix A of this document.