Utah Outdoor Recreation Asset Database: Purpose, Structure, and Development

To help inform the development of Utah\u27s firsts strategic plan, the state\u27s Outdoor Adventure Commission was tasked by the Legislature to develop a database that capable of quantifying the amount and location of outdoor recreation assets throughout the state. This brief describes the purpose, structure, and development of the Utah Outdoor Recreation Asset Database

Conservation Conversations Webinar Summary - Conservation and Outdoor Recreation: Challenges and Solutions to Keeping our Parks and Public Lands From Being Loved To Death

Americans love their public lands. They have turned to them to connect with their families, to maintain an active lifestyle, and to escape 24-hour news cycles that seem to bring nothing but bad news. The recreational use that our public lands receive is not a new trend however. Over the past 10-years, visitation to all types National Park Service units (e.g., parks, monuments, historic sites, etc.) has increased by 16%, with national parks alone seeing a 28% increase in visitation. Visitation to many national parks reaches record levels every year. At the same time, the ecosystems of our parks and public lands are changing notably. National parks as a whole are warming at twice the rate as the rest of the country. As a result, we are losing some of the outstanding resources our parks and public lands were established to protect in the first place. Many national forests are struggling to maintain trails and campgrounds under the weight of more intense and diverse use. Visitation to national forests is up 5% over the past ten years as well. More use of our forests has been associated with the increased occurrence of human-caused wildfire. The challenges of visitation are being seen in our state park systems as well. Visitation to state parks is up nearly 11% across the country since 2009. Simultaneously, operating budgets have declined by over 21%. Recent research has estimated that we will need $42 billion dollars in additional appropriations and revenues to state park systems to meet projected demand. These are complex resource management challenges that will require focused and coordinated policy efforts to address. The two panel discussions that were part of this webinar bring together representatives of the National Park Service, the USDA Forest Service, the National Association of State Park Directors, and leading academic institutions to identify policy and management solutions to keeping America’s parks and public lands from being loved to death

Design Recommendations Guide for Built Elements Within the Santa Clara River Reserve

MISSION... To preserve the cultural heritage, open space, recreational opportunities, and resource values of the Santa Clara River Reserve for our communities through a Recreation and Open Space management Plan that provides for resource protection, interpretative education, traditional use, and planned recreation. GOAL... To foster a sense of place that balances the need for resource protection with the need for recreational opportunities that offer a range of experience outcomes. The Plan will identify educational opportunities that inform the public about sensitive resources and cultural heritage, and be responsive to changing community needs through adaptive management strategies

How Will Climate Change Affect Freshwater Fishing?

This fact sheet reviews how climate change can affect freshwater fishing in the United States. Climate change can affect the availability and diversity of target species, the environmental and aesthetic quality of fishing sites, as well as the policies used to manage freshwater fishing

An Overview of State Funding for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism in Utah

The state of Utah supports outdoor recreation and tourism through a variety of legislative appropriations, revenue generating mechanisms, taxes, and federal programs that are administered by the state. This review provides an overview of the various programs and funding mechanisms that currently exist within Utah, describes how and to what extent they are funded, outlines how they support outdoor recreation and tourism, and highlights opportunities where the state can strategically capitalize on existing programs

The Impact of Climate Change on Inland Recreational Fishing

This fact sheet reviews the state of scientific knowledge regarding how climate change can impact inland recreational fishing. Climate change impacts inland recreational fishers in three dominant ways: 1) by affecting fish abundance and diversity; 2) by altering environmental conditions at inland recreational fishing sites; and 3) through indirect management actions and policies put in place to mitigate the undesirable impacts of climate change on fish species and inland recreational fishing settings

Outdoor Recreation Across the Western United States: A Comparative Analysis Focused on State Agencies, Policies, Programs, and Resources

Outdoor recreation is an invaluable part of the Western lifestyle. State governments in the contiguous western U.S. (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) are increasing investment in outdoor recreation within their state borders to ensure continued and expanded access to outdoor recreation opportunities and to enhance the outdoor recreation economy in their states. This report provides an objective inventory and comparison of how states across the Western U.S. fund, manage, and support outdoor recreation. Based on findings across the states, we provide recommendations tailored to state legislatures and state government entities regarding how outdoor recreation management may be improved and how additional funding could be generated to support outdoor recreation opportunities. Standard across the western states are the existence of state park agencies, tourism offices, offhighway vehicle programs, and boating programs. Beginning in 2013, Utah opened the first Office of Outdoor Recreation in the nation. Today, seven of the eleven western states have followed Utah’s lead and opened similar offices. However, there appears to be little coordination and collaboration across state entities that manage or support outdoor recreation. Statutory bodies, like Utah’s Outdoor Adventure Commission, are a step in the right direction to provide formal mechanisms for collaboration and ensure efficient use of state resources. Research outside of the context of outdoor recreation suggests these statutory bodies are most successful when they have a formal mandate, discretionary authority to guide certain aspects of their member agencies’ actions, and control over state resources that benefit their member agencies. Collaboration between state entities and federal land management agencies similarly appears to be uncommon, occurring in an ad-hoc manner. Integrating federal agency leadership into statutory bodies that provide formal mechanisms for collaboration would help to align state-led policy and state-funded projects with federal policy and project priorities. Federal partners can serve in ex-officio and non-voting capacities on state commissions to serve this purpose. Previous research suggests building formal mechanisms for collaboration between state entities and federal land management agencies can help align state and federal management priorities in outdoor recreation management. There are notable differences in the manner by which state governments fund outdoor recreation efforts. If there is an additional need for funding for specific programs, states may consider adding userspecific fees. For example, RV registration fees fund a Recreation Vehicle fund in Idaho to develop RV facilities in the state. Similarly, OHV registration and/or sticker fees support off-highway vehicle grants in each of the western states. Other avenues of increasing revenue for state programs include: charging differential entrance fees to state parks for non-residents (Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming), diverting sales tax to support outdoor recreation infrastructure grant programs (Utah), and diverting lottery funds to support outdoor recreation grant programs (Oregon and Washington). The policy and administrative recommendations above are only a few that have broad applicability across the West. There are numerous other recommendations focused on specific state programs and policies throughout the report. While this report is by no means a comprehensive inventory of how the western states fund, manage, and support outdoor recreation, it provides a solid starting point for state governments and legislatures to compare outdoor recreation management in their state with that of other western states and spark discussion of ideas to improve outdoor recreation opportunities

Asking for a fee - even a small one - changes the way people use the outdoors, especially for those with low incomes

Is exploring nature still attractive for people when they have to pay? In new research Chase C. Lamborn and Jordan W. Smith look at the effects of a 3 charge to access hiking and biking trails in a Utah forest. They find that even a low fee meant that people on low incomes would seek cheaper or free alternatives, often ..

Empowering Positive Partnerships: a review of the processes, benefits and challenges of a university and charity social and emotional learning partnership

‘Working in partnership to transform society through education’ is the inspirational mission statement of our Faculty of Education. But what can and does ‘working in partnership’ mean in practice? This paper outlines a partnership development story with a charity and a university Faculty. There is limited research surrounding academic partnerships with social enterprises, although no shortage of claims to be ‘working in partnership’. This is a research informed review of a social and emotional learning partnership between the charity Family Links and Canterbury Christ Church University which we suggest has had a profound and positive impact on individuals and organisations. We draw on theory based partnership evaluation frameworks and partnership review data, including filmed interviews with project participants, training evaluations and action research case studies to tell this story and discuss the processes, benefits and challenges of our partnership. The impact of key actors’ personal responses to participation and subsequent empowerment as agents of change is highlighted. The active nurturing of emotional leaders and agreeing and reviewing protocols at all levels are key review recommendations. The complexity of measuring improved wellbeing outcomes for learning communities as a desired goal is also highlighted

Validating the Use of Social Media Data to Measure Visitation to Public Lands in Utah

Using social media data for tourism research can reduce the financial cost and time for data collection. More importantly, social media data cover larger spatial and temporal scales that allow researchers to answer questions which cross-sectional designs do not. However, for tourism planners, destination managers, and on-site operators, the acquisition and use of social media data to estimate visitation can be challenging. The purpose of this study is to determine the ability of social media data to proxy visitation data collected through traditional means on public land within Utah, USA. We collected annual visitation data from U.S. federal agencies and social media data from two platforms. Our study found social media posts in the national forests and parks of Utah were significantly related to on-site observed visitation data. We suggest that social media posts can be used by tourism planners, destination managers, and on-site operators to understand tourism demand