This study explores the social dimension of forestry road access management in the Ontario
Ministry ofNatural Resource's Wawa District (northern Ontario). Road access restrictions in the
District are often implemented for the protection of remote tourism values, and many
recreationists have expressed strong opposition to these restrictions. This study examines the
issue from two perspectives. First, it determines residents' satisfaction levels with current
forestry road management, and explores how satisfaction varies with user characteristics.
Second, it determines residents' evaluations of the desirability of specific road access tools and
controls, such as signs, gates, and physical impediments, and explores how these evaluations
vary. The user characteristics considered include age, community of residence, use frequency,
familiarity, environmental beliefs, and recreational activities pursued. The results provided
varying degrees of evidence for the relationships between the user characteristics and satisfaction
and management tool evaluations. However, although all user characteristics considered were
shown to have some predictive ability, there was low support for all models and much variation
was left unexplained for both satisfaction and management tool evaluations, suggesting that there
remain other unidentified factors influencing these social dimensions of forestry road
management
