Treesearch

This paper examines the characteristics of recreational boats and boaters in the United States and the nature and extent of boating activities. The primary sources of the information presented are the United States Coast Guard's Nationwide Boating Surveys conducted in 1973 and 1976. The evidence indicates that boating is a major form of outdoor recreation with a broad base of participation which has experienced continuous growth.

Trends for seven day use activities were compared from national recreation survey data collected in 1965, 1972 and 1977. General increases in involvement of the total population was found for the 1965-1977 period. Little change in participation was found for racial and sex characteristics, but shifts in participation were found for age and education groups that could have significant impacts on the future of outdoor recreation.

Conflict caused by outdoor recreation activity groups competing for the same physical and psychological space has given rise to recreation resource planning, allocation and management problems. Research has shown recreation managers can expect certain types of users to be involved in significant conflict about 25 percent of their occupancy time. Well planned and managed outdoor recreation space can significantly reduce or even prevent conflict.

Since the outburst of interest in outdoor recreation travel in the period following World War II, measurements of outdoor recreation have been made in many ways. The measurement of outdoor recreation is decentralized activity being carried out by a large number of private and federal agencies with a variety of goals and purposes. Future improvements in federal statistics will partially come from the emergence of a combined strategy for statistical data gathering. Partially due to decentralization, such a strategy has not emerged even though the need for trend data is wide-spread. To...

Inconsistency in data collection has confounded attempts to identify and forecast outdoor recreation trends. Problems are highlighted through an evaluation of the methods employed in national outdoor recreation participation surveys and projections. Recommendations are advanced for improving data collection, trend measurement, and forecasting within outdoor recreation.

It seems appropriate (at least to me) that a national symposium focusing on trends in outdoor recreation be held in the Granite State; a state which has played historically a role in the evolution of a variety of recreation activities far out of proportion to its size and population. After all, outdoor recreation is more than 150 years old here in New Hampshire.

After a decade of trial, a change in federal planning philosophy is forcing many state recreation planning programs to change. Ten years of experience showed that plans produced periodically - every five years - grew stale and failed to provide the flexibility necessary to meet changing recreation markets and environmental problems. Recognizing these problems, the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service redrafted its planning guidelines to encourage ongoing planning processes, rather than static plans. This shift in emphasis, designed to give states the flexibility necessary to...

A data base for assessing the availability of land for outdoor recreation does not exist. Information on related issues such as vandalism, easements, and land posting is scanty. Construction of a data base for assessing land availability should be a high priority for USFS and HCRS, and for SCORP's and the RPA and RCA assessments.

Trends in hunting and fishing participation are evaluated on the basis of responses to a telephone survey of the U.S. population conducted as a part of the 1975 National Hunting and Fishing Survey. Probability of participation in hunting and fishing is a function of the respondent's age, sex, income, place of residence, and a number of supply characteristics. The availability of forested acres and total public recreation acres in a participant's state are also significantly related to the probability of hunting and fishing. The probability of non-participation is also evaluated. The impact...

A brief historical overview of skiing is presented, followed by a review of factors such as energy, population trends, income, sex, occupation and attitudes which affect the future of skiing. A. C. Neilson's Sports Participation Surveys show that skiing is the second fastest growing sport in the country. Skiing Magazine's study indicates there are approximately 14 million active skiers in the United States. The U.S. Forest Service's nation-wide study of the skier market indicates there are another 13 million potential skiers.