Experiences of campers and campsite impacts in the St. Regis Canoe Area Wilderness

Abstract

Visitors who camped during the summer of 2007 in the St. Regis Canoe Area (SRCA) in the Adirondack Park, New York, were surveyed via an on-site interview and diary about 14 detracting situations or problems they may have experienced, how they coped with these situations, and how they rated satisfaction with various attributes of the trip. Campsite condition assessments were also conducted at 56 SRCA campsites. Data for camper experiences on a specific site were matched with the campsite assessment for that site to create a single data set with trip information related to a specific campsite. Three research propositions were explored and supported by the analysis: visitors perceive problems with both social and resource conditions; visitor satisfactions were aff ected by social conditions and resource conditions; and campers used coping mechanisms to deal with problems and intended to modify future behavior in response to on-site conditions.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2009 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Dawson, Chad P.; Schuster, Rudy M.; Propst, Blake M.; Black, Corenne. 2010. Experiences of campers and campsite impacts in the St Regis Canoe Area Wilderness. In: Watts, Clifton E., Jr.; Fisher, Cherie LeBlanc, eds. Proceedings of the 2009 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-66. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 224-230.