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We used a national household survey to examine knowledge, attitudes, and preferences pertaining to wildland fire. First, we present nationwide results and trends. Then, we examine opinions across region and race. Despite some regional variation, respondents are fairly consistent in their beliefs about assuming personal responsibility for living in fire-prone areas and believing that residents of such areas should follow government guidelines for managing fire risk. However, we find divergence of opinion on "trusting forest professionals" between African-American and Caucasian people. Across all survey questions related to fire management and public confidence, African-Americans appear to be relatively more concerned than Caucasian or Hispanic people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's connection to land is an important contributor to identity in traditional southern society. In small southern communities, to know where someone lives is to know who someone is because place assigns biography. Studies have investigated the physical and economic implications of landscape change in the South, but comparatively little research focuses on the impacts to culture of urban growth. We consider how sense of place (as an indicator of culture) may be impacted, over time, by physical and structural changes in a locale. This point of departure examines the temporal dimension of sense of place, or how place perceptions may vary as familiar places and practices are altered by landscape moderations. We review the literature on sense of place and changing Southern landscapes and also offer a conceptual framework for analyzing sense of place over the long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on African American and Hispanic visits to federal recreation areas. According to the data on file with Donald English of the Visitor Use Monitoring Project based in Washington, D.C., African American visits account for very low percentages of visits to national forests across the U.S. On the other hand, Hispanic visits to national forests in the Southwest are high. It is posed that factors such as private landownership and social definitions of place may be integral in considering African American use of wildland public recreation regions in the Southern states in the U.S.

This research considers acculturation by Mexican and Chinese groups in the United States and how participation in five nature-based outdoor recreation activities may be an indicator of acculturation to American society. We argue that the greater incidence of professional human capital among Chinese immigrants helps this group acculturate more quickly than Mexicans, who are more likely to be labor immigrants and that as a result, Chinese immigrants will be more likely than Mexican immigrants to participate in nature-based outdoor recreation activities. We also posit that US-born Chinese have a greater likelihood of participation compared to US-born Mexicans. Results show Chinese immigrant participation is distinguished only slightly from Mexican immigrant participation; no differences were found between US-born Chinese and US-born Mexicans. Within-group comparisons show immigrant Chinese participation to be more aligned with US-born Chinese participation than immigrant Mexican participation to US-born Mexican participation. Results from this study are intended to help raise awareness among environmental professionals of the different ways nature may be perceived by various cultural groups and also to alert managers of the important role natural resources can play in acculturating immigrants to US society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the values immigrant groups or U.S.-born racial and ethnic minorities attribute to wilderness. However, the views of these groups are important to wilderness preservation because of increasing diversity along ethnic, cultural, and racial lines in the United States. We examine the proposition that wilderness is a social construction (valued primarily by U.S.-born Whites) by comparing wilderness values for immigrants and U.S.-born minority respondents to Whites. Results from 10 wilderness value items show immigrants are significantly less likely to indicate on-site use value. Among U.S.-born racial/ethnic groups, Black respondents were least likely to indicate values associated with visitation and off-site use but as likely as Whites to indicate a value for continued existence of wilderness. U.S.-born Asians and Latinos were also less likely than Whites to indicate values relating to wilderness on-site use. Implications of findings for wilderness as social construction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use national-level data to test a modified version of Stern, Dietz, & Guagnano's causal model of environmental belief and behavior. We focus mainly on ethnic variation in environmental belief, as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), and ethnic variation for four environmental behaviors: environmental reading, household recycling, environmental group joining, and participation in nature-based outdoor recreation. Blacks and foreign-born Latinos were less likely than Whites to score higher on the NEP. Any behavioral differences between Whites and the respective minority groups were expected to diminish with the inclusion of the NEP as an intervening variable in the model between ethnicity and behavior. However, ethnic differences remained stable and strong even when environmental belief was added. Overall, Asian American and U.S.-born Latino environmentalism was most similar to Whites. African American concern and behavior was least similar to White environmentalism. Gender, age, and liberal political orientation were also consistent explicators for both environmental concern and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective memory can be used conceptually to examine African-American perceptions of wildlands and black interaction with such places. The middleAmerican view of wildlands frames these terrains as refuges—pure and simple, sanctified places distinct from the profanity of human modification. However, wild, primitive areas do not exist in the minds of all Americans as uncomplicated or uncontaminated places. Three labor-related institutions—forest labor, plantation agriculture, and sharecropping—and terrorism and lynching have impacted negatively on black perceptions of wildlands, producing an ambivalence toward such places among African Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the research on environmental justice centers on environmental hazards. This article offers an overview of the emergence of environmental justice issues in outdoor recreation management and research. The authors argue that a major challenge to future research on environmental justice in outdoor recreation is clarifying definitions of environmental justice and generating awareness of the different dimensions of environmental justice. The authors also examine recent empirical studies of environmental justice issues related to outdoor recreation and other resource amenities. Based on an overview of the literature and these recent studies, the authors set forth some broad outlines to guide future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A portion of the 1995 National Survey on Recreation and the Environment examined public opinion toward user fees as a means of funding recreation services on public lands, including campgrounds, boat ramps, trails, picnic areas, historic sites, restrooms, parking areas, special exhibits & presentations, visitor centers, and other facilities. Respondents were offered five choices to fund these services including fees only, fees and taxes, taxes only, don't provide the service, and don't know. Sample frequencies indicated that over 95 percent of the respondents felt that fees or a combination of fees and taxes should be used to fund at least one of the services. Boat ramps, campgrounds, and special exhibits drew die most support for users fees with over 80 percent of respondents indicating that user fees should be charged to cover at least part of the costs of providing these services. User fees were least favored for picnic areas, historic sites, and restrooms. Restrooms were the only case in which less than 50 percent of the public favored the use of fees to cover at least part of the provision costs. The only service for which at least 50 percent of the public did not feel taxes should be used at least in part to cover the costs of provision was for boat ramps. Logistic regression models were used to examine the socioeconomic factors explaining support for fees. The model included variables on age, ethnicity, income, household size, education, gender, and region of the country'. Findings were somewhat mixed. However, in a general fee model and in a number of specific service models, income and ethnicity surfaced as significant explanatory variables, indicating that concerns about fairness in the implementation of fees are not unfounded. Moreover, a number of regional differences emerged indicating differing levels of support for user fees around the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive Summary: We compare wildland activity choices for a sample of rural African Americans and Whites who visited wildland settings in and around the Apalachicola National Forest. We also look at intra-racial (same race, different gender) variations for activity participation. This research extends previous research focused on the visit/not visit wildland question by examining activity choice by race and gender for those who do visit. Our results show no racial differences for consumptive activities like fishing and hunting; however, African Americans are significantly less likely than Whites to participate in most forms of nonconsumptive activities like camping and hiking. Greater gender differences in activity participation were found for Whites than for African Americans. We discuss management implications and ways forest managers may attract more African Americans to participate in forest-based outdoor recreation. This includes target marketing strategies that promote fishing and group activities on the Apalachicola National Forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that African Americans have less favourable impressions about wildlands and recreate on wildland areas less frequently than do whites. However, most of these investigations have been conducted on non-rural populations. Rural perceptions of wildlands and visitation to such areas have received relatively little attention. In this exploratory study, we propose that race operated on wildland recreation visitation through the different meanings rural blacks and whites attribute visitation through the different meanings rural blacks and whites attribute to wildlands. We examine this hypothesis with a structural model which specifies wildland meaning as an intervening with a structural model which specifies wildland meaning as an intervening factors between race and visitation. Single equation results show blacks visit wildlands less, and have less favorable definitions of wildlands, compared to whites. However, when wildland meaning is included in the structural model, racial differences become insignificant. This suggests that the meanings different racial groups attach to wildlands help explain visitation. Both sex and age are also significant predictors of both wildland meaning and visitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]