Recreation, tourism and nature in a changing world : proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 2010

Proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 201

Understanding track/trail experiences in National Parks: A Review

This desktop project aimed to draw attention to the various factors associated with track usage and visitor experience in national parks. The results will help to inform park managers how best to develop a strategic position on tracks and trails based on visitor experiences. This advice will be of assistance to managers for ongoing work regarding visitation planning and policy. The Blue Mountains National Park (BMNP), Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), and the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (CERRA) are employed as case studies to examine best practice research into track/trail experiences. The technical report series present data and its analysis, meta-studies and conceptual studies, and are considered to be of value to industry, government and researchers. Unlike the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centres Monograph series, these reports have not been subjected to an external peer review process. As such, the scientific accuracy and merit of the research reported here is the responsibility of the authors, who should be contacted for clarification of any content. Author contact details are at the back of this report

Master of Science

thesisThe Lake Mountains is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - Salt Lake Field Office's (SLFO) largest management area within the wildland-urban interface. According to Radeloff, Hammer, Stewart, Fried, Holcomb, and McKeefry, the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is "the area where houses meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland vegetation." The Lake Mountains is a set of mountains bordered on the east by the town of Saratoga Springs and to the north and west by Eagle Mountain City. Due to its accessibility and proximity to residential areas, the Lake Mountains provide an opportunity for different recreational activities, ranging from target shooting, hiking, mountain biking, hunting, camping, bird watching, and viewing cultural resources. Most notably, the Lake Mountains receive 20,000 to 50,000 visitors per year with associated impacts that include public safety hazards, increased potential of wildfire, cultural resource damage, and property damage (e.g., bed post being shot through window), and litter. Currently, the BLM is conducting a Land Use Plan Amendment for 8,124 acres of the Lake Mountains to help mitigate these impacts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assist the BLM with their plan amendment, as well as the overall management of the Lake Mountains by addressing three objectives: 1) to analyze user preferences for terrain and infrastructure in the Lake Mountains area; 2) to display visitor preferences through recreation suitability maps; and 3) to determine adequate recreation zones based on the data to prevent and reduce recreational conflict within the WUI. I used a mixed-methods approach involving semi-structured interviews (n = 20) and survey questionnaires (n = 405) distributed onsite to a representative sample of Lake Mountains recreationists. The preference ratings for variables contained in the questionnaire were indexed, mapped, and analyzed using traditional recreation suitability mapping (RSM) techniques. The findings showed that target shooters and OHV riders had similar preferences to each other. Moreover, campers and hikers shared similar preferences to each other in this study

Perceptions of Fairness and Allocation Systems

This paper explores the conditions of acceptability of differing allocation systems under scarcity and evaluates what makes a price system more or less fair. We find that fairness in an allocation arrangement depend on the institutional settings inherent in the situation, such as information, transparency and competition and the perceived institutional quality (e.g., fiscal exchange and institutional trust). Results also indicate that the solution “weak people first” is seen as the fairest approach to an excess demand situation, followed by “first come, first serve”, the price system and an auction system. On the other hand, a random procedure or an allocation through the government is not perceived to be fair. Moreover, economics students seemed to be less sceptical towards the price system than other subjects although we observe that female students are more sceptical than male students.Fairness, Allocation System, Excess Demand, Price System, Institutions

Wilderness Solitude in the 21st Century

Recent advances in mobile communication technology have led to a decrease in opportunities for individuals to experience alone-time within daily life. As a result, the solitude offered by wilderness landscapes has become all the more valuable. Past research on wilderness solitude has been divided into two distinct frameworks: the Social-Spatial Perspective and the Humanistic Perspective. This distinction has severely limited the development of a comprehensive research model that incorporates all the possible conditions relating to wilderness solitude. This study synthesized past research and theory to create a quantitative model of wilderness solitude which includes elements from both research perspectives, while incorporating novel conditions that relate to digital connectivity. Study participants were wilderness visitors to Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex during the summer and fall of 2017. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four components of wilderness solitude. These components suggest that our interpretation of the “opportunities for solitude” clause within the Wilderness Act of 1964 ought to consider the themes of Societal Release, Introspection, Physical Separation and De-tethering from Digital Connectivity

Visitor Characteristics, Attitudes, and Management Preferences of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex (BMWC) encompasses 3 federal wilderness areas and spans over 1.5 million acres of iconic mountains and valleys in northwestern Montana. Here visitors can find a plethora of recreation opportunity that give access to some of the most rugged country that can be found in the lower 48 states. However, managing wilderness areas comes with the challenge of both preserving the natural resources found within their borders and enabling opportunities for recreational experiences. Wilderness social scientists always have striven to determine the type of visitors coming to wilderness, and see what sorts of experiences they pursue. Many attempts have been made to use the pristine conditions in the BMWC to collect data on visitor use. Using two previous studies as a foundation, this research focused on developing an updated survey with the goal of discerning visitor use within the complex, experiences sought after, management conditions tolerated, and noteworthy management actions that potentially need to be undertaken going forward. These goals were addressed with the development of an onsite survey that was administered during the summer of 2018 at eight selected high use trailheads found throughout the complex. Of those responding to the onsite questionnaire (n=209), a majority of (81.1%) of visitors have had previous experience in the Bob Marshall and indicated that they were most influenced by the prospect of immersing themselves in the various dimensions of wilderness character such as solitude, remoteness, and natural settings. The type of recreation use was primarily hikers (64.6%) that traveled in small groups of two to three individuals. A second follow up survey was solicited to visitors via email to collect more in depth data about perception toward management and conditions within the backcountry. Of those respondents (n=58), visitor attitude toward management conditions was overall reported to be positive with a vast majority (93.1%) of respondents claiming high satisfaction for their trip. Using these results, anecdotal experiences, and reviewed literature, additional commentary was generated addressing possible future pitfalls that could be experienced based upon various types of feedback provided by visitors. This study will be one of many that will continue to observe the ever changing dimensions of outdoor recreation visitor use and behavior

Hikers' attitudes to the National Hikingway system in the south-western Cape

Includes bibliography.This research report sets out to determine the trail facility preferences (social carrying capacity) for National Hikingway trails in the south-western Cape. It was found that social carrying capacity is a complex concept, based on perceptive experiences and relative social values. It is not so much the level of use that determines SCC, but a user's perceptions of types and levels of use that are apparent in a recreation area. The major line of investigation was a cross-sectional attitude study to ascertain trail facility preferences of mountaineers in the study area: the first step was to the establish the social milieu of mountaineering in order to place the research in an ethical and historical context; next, the literature on outdoor recreation was reviewed and the major trends in research identified in an attempt to place the research in a methodological paradigm; thirdly, the overview and principles established in steps 1 and 2 of the report were used to develop an attitude survey on NHW trail facility preferences. While a range of preferences was found to exist, it was found to be more supportive of the status quo than expected. An anticipated gradation of preferences according to one's level of hiking experience was not statistically supported by sub-group analysis. The survey results emphasise the importance of evaluating conceptual perspectives with empirical analyses. Social and ecological interests are best served by providing a range of trail types characterised by various trail facilities, to cater for high and low carrying capacity preferences. Trail management should consider traditional recreational uses in an area, current land uses and the future needs of mountaineers in the region