Treesearch

A large and growing body of research on outdoor recreation and the wilderness experience has been conducted over the nearly 50 years since passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. A number of conceptual and empirical frameworks have emerged from this body of knowledge that can be used to help define and manage the wilderness experience.

Does research help managers provide opportunities for visitors to have high quality experiences in wilderness? Difficulties in applying visitor experience research result from several factors: the nature of wilderness itself, the character of the wilderness visitor experience challenge as a research and management topic, and the paradigm of research applications employed by wilderness scientists. Many wilderness visitor research applications seem to be built upon a "hypodermic needle" model of knowledge transfer rather than the more interactive approach needed in a context of rapid policy...

What information is needed to facilitate enhanced management of visitor experiences in wilderness? The final session of the workshop comprised a facilitated process with the 20 participants to identify research and information needs to support wilderness visitor experience management. The Wilderness Act and the previous presentations and discussions not only provided a context for this process but also a foundation of knowledge and managerial experience. Forty-four topics were identified in an initial roundtable listing. Participants then clarified topics and ranked them using a simple...

This essay describes five major critiques of the wilderness idea and how wilderness managers might shape experience opportunities in wilderness in response. These challenges include the notions that the wilderness idea separates people from nature, that it denies the human story in "pristine" lands, that it privileges a kind of recreation favored by elites and consumed by gadgets, that it distracts attention from the environmental crisis at home, and that wilderness management is based on an outmoded concept of naturalness. My suggestions include management directives and educational...

It is suggested that the wilderness experience is a restorative experience that results from the interconnectivity between naturalness/ remoteness and privacy/unconfinement and the four components essential for an environment to be restorative. A model-framework is offered to illustrate the linkages among the environmental, social, and restoration components of wilderness experiences, and the consequences/ threats to the wilderness experience. It is concluded that the wilderness manager of the future will be a "human dimensions restoration manager," with a role not much different from that...

Wilderness areas provide a sanctuary from human domination, for the plants and animals that exist there and also for the visitors who come there to escape the demands and pressures of modern society. As a place of refuge and sanctuary, we have found wilderness to allow experiences of connection, engagement and belonging. Two studies help illustrate the role of wildness (freedom from intentional human control) in wilderness, one focusing on gendered experiences of wilderness and another considering spiritual experiences in wilderness. Following the intent of Howard Zahniser, architect of...

We assessed the degree to which visitor experiences vary between (1) very high use and moderate use places and (2) day users and overnight users. The study was conducted at 10 trailheads in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA, and the Three Sisters Wilderness, OR. Some visitors were asked about trip motivations as they started their trip; others were asked what they experienced after their trip. Questionnaire items were drawn from Recreation Experience Preference (REP) scales, experiences consistent with wilderness, including a number of items regarding the privacy functions of solitude and...

Different conceptions of experience and experience quality can explain ambiguous relationships among use density, crowding, experience and experience quality. We employed multiple methods to quantify experiential dimensions at a popular lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA. Comparing weekdays to weekends, when use density is typically four times as high, we assessed the sensitivity of various experiential dimensions to variation in use density. Use density profoundly affected the setting attributes that people experienced. However, differences related to use density diminished when...

In the last decade, increasing concern has been expressed about the impact of new technologies - especially communication technologies - on the wilderness experience. Many authors have suggested a tipping point has been reached, with new technologies changing the very nature of the 'traditional' wilderness experience in various ways. The loss of direct experiences creating new perceptions of risk among wilderness users has been a common complaint. As very few wilderness researchers have conducted empirical studies on this issue, I review these anecdotal, deterministic concerns in this body...

As devices like personal locator beacons become more readily available, more visitors may bring them into wilderness and use them to request rescues and may develop unrealistic expectations of rescue. In an exploratory study in 2009, 235 overnight visitors to the King Range Wilderness in California completed a written survey. Of the respondents, 40 percent considered themselves to be risk-takers. Of those, 80 percent admitted to having done something in a wilderness that they knew at the time was unsafe, and 85 percent admitted to having done something that in retrospect they considered...