Treesearch

This paper presents an examination of trust in the Forest Service to manage threatened and endangered species as measured through a survey of residents of four Southwestern States. Of particular interest were variations by ethnic/racial group, gender, concern about threatened and endangered species, and self-assessed knowledge. Increasing diversity in the United States makes explorations of trust in natural resource managing agencies especially important to understand. Expected trust levels among groups of color compared to Whites was not especially clear to us. Some very convincing...

Measuring cultural diversity in recreation has become an important topic because of the increasing coverage of and interest in ethnicity and cross-cultural aspects of recreation. Introducing theories and methods from established disciplines other than leisure studies/recreation and park studies is necessary to understand this important issue. In this article, we first define recreation and examine different aspects/domains of recreation cross-culturally. To examine different domains of recreation cross-culturally, we need to have an unambiguous cultural definition as a basis to measure...

In many developing countries, local residents play an important role in the management of protected areas because they represent potential users of natural protected areas (NPA) resources, they receive the benefits (or costs) of developing naturebased recreation, and they are the group most closely interested in the management of an area located near them. In this study, we evaluated the perceptions of local residents toward developing nature-based recreation programs in a protected area in northern Mexico. Personal interviews in three cities were used to assess barriers to recreation...

The use of the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) framework, widely used in planning and managing wildland recreation in the United States, was tested for managing recreation opportunities in southern Durango, Mexico. Two natural protected areas were used as case studies to evaluate the ROS criteria and standards for land classification of outdoor recreation opportunities. Personal interviews were used to learn visitors’ characteristics and the recreation activities they performed during their visits. Other pieces of information consisted of maps, aerial photos, field trips, and...

Diversity at outdoor recreation sites, particularly those near large and diverse urban populations, is occurring across the United States. It is likely that individuals who belong to these changing groups bring a set of values and behaviors to public lands that differ from that of White visitors, and perhaps, land managers. Reported here are findings from studies conducted on four national forests in southern California. We examined the participation, preferences, and perceptions of diverse recreation visitors, focusing on Latinos. Studies like the ones reported here provide land managers...

The purpose of this report is to identify research gaps related to the race/ethnicity and leisure literature. This was done by first highlighting the trends involved in the ethnicity and leisure literature, and then presenting five gaps found in the literature for future researchers to consider.

In the mid-1990s, picking bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn) fiddleheads became a popular activity on the Mountaintop (formerly Arrowhead) Ranger District (MRD) of the San Bernardino National Forest in California. Concerned that fern picking was affecting the resource and that pickers were making large profits by selling the ferns, the MRD developed a program to charge a commercially based fee and limit fern picking to designated areas. Several years after implementation, MRD staff asked scientists to evaluate the program. Biologically, bracken ferns are very resistant, and there...

Resource managers in Oregon State Parks and the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (U.S. Forest Service) identified a need to better understand the needs of existing and potential stakeholders who may visit public recreation lands in Oregon. Specifically, this research was designed to understand the perceptions of racial and ethnic minorities in Oregon. A series of focus groups were completed in the state of Oregon to understand ethnic minorities’ interests and needs related to outdoor recreation, and how agencies such as Oregon State Parks, the...

A major shift has occurred in the ethnic and racial profile of the United States, with large increases in the Latino population. Beyond the demographic profiles are the influences on other aspects of life in the United States, including urban-proximate natural resource recreation area management. Latino groups may have different expectations about natural resource recreation areas, different barriers to participation, and different site development preferences than other groups. The information provided in this article is based on 17 research projects over the past 16 years conducted...

In spite of a continuingly diverse public, particularly in urban areas, the majority of forest visitors are White. Researchers have offered up a number of factors that reflect differing motivations and constraints to national forest recreation among individuals from a variety of racial backgrounds. Some of these constraints may be addressed through improved communication with diverse publics, best understood through a needs analysis. This paper presents findings from a needs analysis conducted among residents of Los Angeles County. Individuals identified as Asian, African American, Latino,...