Recreational Fishing Participation in Utah: Comparing Active and Non-Active Angler Constraint Perceptions With the Use of License Purchase Data

As a leisure activity, recreational fishing provides numerous social, physical, and psychological benefits to its participants. It can also provide socioeconomic opportunities to specific communities, and as an outdoor activity can create support for natural fisheries resources and public lands. License and equipment taxes are also important funding mechanisms for state wildlife managers. Though fishing participation as a percentage of the population has overall decreased in the last century, there is a recent increase in fishing participation. However, participation dynamics result in a shifting cycle of entries, departures, and re-entries to the sport. In an effort to maintain participation and address volatility, national and state fishing organizations and management agencies have developed initiatives that target individuals through a mix of marketing and other programs to either recruit new anglers, retain current anglers, or re-activate currently lapsed anglers. These are commonly referred to as R3 initiatives. Recreation and leisure activity research has previously connected an individual\u27s lapse in participation to the experience of constraints. Specific constraints relate to a variety of factors or scenarios that are categorized into an established dimension hierarchy that includes structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal constraints. Constraints do not always result in participation lapse and self-employed negotiation strategies are often found in individuals who continue to fish despite experiencing constraints. This study applies the established theory of hierarchal leisure constraints and negotiations to a typology that reflects recruited, retained, re-activated and lapsed anglers. This typology was developed using R3 initiative literature and applied by selecting respective participants through patterns in their Utah fishing license purchase history. Results indicate consistent demographic trends established in the literature, with lapsed anglers being more likely to be older than active anglers, and recruited anglers being more demographically diverse and younger on average than other angler groups. Recruited and lapsed respondents were primarily nonresidents, while retained and re-activated anglers were primarily Utah residents. Lapsed and recruited respondents were also more likely to purchase short-term licenses. Family involvement with fishing in Utah was reported frequently, which has previously been identified as a factor influencing participation. The strongest constraints experienced by respondents overall were constraints related to time and fishing quality. Lapsed, retained and re-activated anglers were more likely to report experiencing constraints than recruited anglers. Lapsed anglers were the least likely to use negotiation tactics

A Review of Historic and Modern Oil and Natural Gas Well Drilling and Abandonment in Greeley, Colorado, and the Potential Applications of a Historic Geographic Information System

In Colorado, a majority of existing and planned oil and natural gas operations occur along the populous Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, with a particular focus in Weld County. In recent years, unconventional oil and gas operations have lead to a surge of new activity in the region that has affected both rural and suburban areas, bringing environmental impact and social pros and cons. This has been a source of contention for numerous communities, and has brought legal disputes between local and state officials concerning drilling permission jurisdiction. Simultaneously, the region’s historic link to oil and gas wells has also resulted in decommissioned and abandoned wells that must be documented and monitored after they cease production. Due to intermittent issues in decommissioning (plugging) and documentation, abandoned wells can have problems involving well integrity and site location. In order to properly understand these issues, I look at how historical geographic information systems can be used to identify patterns of well drilling over several decades, with a focus on Greeley, Colorado, in hopes that this information can be used in future planning scenarios

2021-2022 Statewide Utah Angler Survey Report

Continuing an effort that dates to 1967, we collected data through a statewide survey of licensed anglers in an effort to understand their preference and behaviors. Anglers were surveyed across the state of Utah, as well as nonresident anglers who purchased a Utah fishing license. This research was guided by objectives developed by the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) as and our research team at the Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism at Utah State University. In the report, we provide statewide statistics and comparisons between the DWRs five management regions. The objectives and key findings are:Objective 1. Define the characteristics of Utah anglersObjective 2. Produce a snapshot of angling in Utah over a 12-month periodObjective 3. Identify what motivates Utah anglersObjective 4. Identify what fish species anglers expected to catch, caught, and prefer to catchObjective 5. Gauge anglers’ perceptions and knowledge of native and nonnative fish species in UtahObjective 6. Explore Utah anglers’ perceptions of, and experiences with, crowdingObjective 7. Identify potential areas where managers can create or promote opportunities for Utah anglers to combine recreational activities to enhance the angling experienceThe report provides tables and figures and explanations pertaining to each of the research objectives outlined above. In addition, statewide and regional statistics are provided to showcase the unique trends associated with Utah anglers and angling resources in Utah

Depauperate Avifauna in Plantations Compared to Forests and Exurban Areas

Native forests are shrinking worldwide, causing a loss of biological diversity. Our ability to prioritize forest conservation actions is hampered by a lack of information about the relative impacts of different types of forest loss on biodiversity. In particular, we lack rigorous comparisons of the effects of clearing forests for tree plantations and for human settlements, two leading causes of deforestation worldwide. We compared avian diversity in forests, plantations and exurban areas on the Cumberland Plateau, USA, an area of global importance for biodiversity. By combining field surveys with digital habitat databases, and then analyzing diversity at multiple scales, we found that plantations had lower diversity and fewer conservation priority species than did other habitats. Exurban areas had higher diversity than did native forests, but native forests outscored exurban areas for some measures of conservation priority. Overall therefore, pine plantations had impoverished avian communities relative to both native forests and to exurban areas. Thus, reports on the status of forests give misleading signals about biological diversity when they include plantations in their estimates of forest cover but exclude forested areas in which humans live. Likewise, forest conservation programs should downgrade incentives for plantations and should include settled areas within their purview