The natural soundscape is becoming increasingly recognized as a threatened park resource. A
variety of policies, laws, and regulations have rapidly been established that affect the National
Park Service mandate and require the agency and individual parks to protect, preserve, and
restore natural sounds. National Parks are grappling with how to manage the newly legitimized
natural soundscape resource and this research provides some of the first significant knowledge
of visitor experiences of park soundscapes and preferences for management policies. The role
of the natural soundscape in visitor experiences was explored through both interview and
survey data with the primary goal of documenting dimensions of the experiences of natural
sounds. Findings from this research highlight that not only do the majority of winter visitors to
Yellowstone National Park believe that natural sounds are important to their experience of the
park, but that deep meanings and complexity characterize visitor perceptions of the role of the
natural soundscape to the overall value of the park and influence perceptions of the role of
mechanized sounds in the park. While differences among the three primary user groups (crosscountry
skiers, snow coach riders, and snowmobilers) do exist, the data reflects a much greater
degree of common ground and general agreement on most issues related to the park natural
soundscape that were explored in this research