On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The pandemic is rapidly altering daily life and leading to changes in the way we spend time outside. In an effort to gather timely and relevant data on national recreation patterns, before, during, and after the pandemic, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics worked quickly with its academic partner, Pennsylvania State University, to offer guidance to land managers, recreation providers, and outdoor enthusiasts across the country. In total, 1,012 outdoor recreationists were surveyed through the Leave No Trace community in a 48-hour window beginning on the morning of April 9th. Our hope is that the results of this rapid assessment will provide valuable information for managing the changing recreation use of public lands, predicting spikes in recreation, and offering insight for land managers as they work to protect the natural world. The following tables, figures, and corresponding brief descriptions are intended to provide initial results of this research effort. Further results are forthcoming.

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Over the past decade, many national park units in the United States broke visitation records. Arches National Park (UT, USA) is no exception. Between 2011 and 2021, visitation increased 74%. As part of considering management options to address the issues from sustained and concentrated visitation, Arches implemented a pilot timed entry system from 3 April to 3 October 2022. This article compares visitor perceptions, characteristics, and support for management actions before and during the pilot timed entry system using data from visitor intercept surveys. Findings suggest visitors experience quality improved across the park and on hiking trails during the pilot timed entry system. Visitor characteristics were extremely similar, and there were no differences in local residency, group size, vehicle occupancy, race, ethnicity, first time visitation, education level, or household income. Visitors were more likely to plan for the trip further in advance and were less likely to re-enter the park during the pilot timed entry system. Lastly, visitors demonstrated more support for timed entry and lower levels of support for expanding parking, site specific reservations, and temporary closures during the pilot timed entry system. These results reflect unique insights for managers considering managed access systems like timed entry to sustainably manage visitor use in parks and protected areas.