Treesearch

Existing methods of assessing economic benefits arising from certain physical environments left in a relatively natural condition do not include estimates of external benefits. Existence value is one such external benefit that accrues to individuals who have no intention of ever visiting the area in question. A partial measure of the existence value of National Parks has been found. Additional research in this area should yield information important to land-use decision making.

As use of the snowmobile has increased - nearly 1 1/2 million now in use - the development and maintenance of snowmobile use areas has become a concern. A study made by Bombardier, Ltd., calls attention to safety problems, costs, trail design and maintenance, sign systems, rules and aids for snowmobilers, safety patrols and other services, and safeguards for the environment.

Understanding our visual resources involves a complex interweaving of motivation and cognitive recesses; but, more important, it requires that we understand and can identify those characteristics of a landscape that influence the image formation process. From research conducted in Florida, three major variables were identified that appear to have significant effect upon visual preferences: (1) visual order, (2) visual complexity, and (3) edge relationships. The interaction of these variables produces spatial definition, which promotes or retards a sense of physical, visual, and psychologica...

The natural forest ecosystems of some of our national parks and wilderness areas are endangered by subtle ecological changes primarily because we have failed to understand the dynamic nature of these ecosystems and because protection programs frequently have excluded the very factors that produce natural plant and animal communities. Maintaining natural ecosystems requires that the elemental forces of the past, such as fire, must still prevail.

A review and analysis of the quantitative ranking systems that have been developed during the past decade for measuring environmental quality.

Forest recreation resource planners and managers are busy people. The surge in demand for recreation in recent years, including all kinds of leisure-time activities, has all but overwhelmed the people who must allocate the necessary funds and resources, design and develop the appropriate equipment and facilities, and maintain and manage the recreation resource. This Symposium was designed to help meet these needs of the planner and manager in both the public and private areas of the forest-recreation community.

Cash returns to recreation enterprise labor and management are low. Low returns are associated with poor location, small size, and short season. Land-value appreciation may offset low returns for some operators and explain why they stay in business. Profit maximization is not always the prime entrepreneurial goal: personal and noneconomic considerations or long-run capital gain may have an overriding effect. This situation could change if low returns were coupled with high property taxation over a prolonged period. Recreation researchers could add to existing knowledge by classifying all...

Economic impacts per dollar of tourist expenditure have generally been found to be low compared to other economic sectors in local less-developed areas where recreation development is often proposed as a stimulus for economic growth. Tourism, however, can be economically important where potential or existing recreation attractions can encourage tourist spending in amounts large enough to offset these lower per-dollar impacts. In addition to definitions useful in interpreting the results of impact studies, findings from several investigations of local effects of recreation spending are...

Design and layout of recreation facilities is a problem solving process that must be divorced from the emotionalism that has shrouded outdoor recreation and must deal deliberately with the growing information concerning people and natural resources.

If future recreation consumption and associated intangible values can be predicted, the problem of rapid decision making in recreation-resource management can be reduced, and the problems of implementing those decisions can be anticipated. Management and research responsibilities for meeting recreation demand are discussed, and proved methods for forecasting recreation use and associated qualitative values are presented. The best approach for developing recreation-participation rate equations may be to include a distance factor, recreation-supply variables, socio-economic measurements of...