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Emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive forest insect from Asia, has impacted vast areas in the United States and European Russia. To proactively understand the social impact of an EAB invasion in Europe and the USA, this study analyzed visitors’ preferences and preference heterogeneity for EAB-impacted forest scenarios in Vienna, Austria (n = 510) and Minneapolis, USA (n = 307). An image-based discrete choice experiment with latent-class analysis among on-site completed questionnaires in Vienna indicated four different visitor segments based on trade-offs among biophysical, social and viewscape elements. Within the forested environment, two segments placed greater importance on (bio)physical attributes and two on social aspects. Although all segments preferred a non-impacted ash forest, only one of the four identified the attribute describing EAB impacts and forest management as the most important attribute. Rather, visitor numbers and background viewscapes were more important than EAB impact and management to differentiate landscape preferences for three of the four segments. Differences in preferences were found between the Vienna and Minneapolis samples. Vienna respondents showed a higher preference for more natural conditions, disliked more the initial stage of EAB impact and placed more importance on background viewscapes and visitor numbers. Forest managers and greenspace planners need to consider the entirety of the forested condition, social and visual, for effective management and address that visitors differ in their preferences for all of these conditions.

Bark beetle outbreak impacts are occurring at reportedly unprecedented levels. Despite previous research on the aesthetic and economic impacts of terrestrial pest infestations, minimal visitor behavioral response research exists. As beetle infestation progresses, both tree appearance and landscape change can negatively impact visitation and visitor revenue. Given the multiple-use mandate of most forests, this lack of research is surprising. To meet this gap, this study simulated impacts of varied beetle outbreak levels, management approaches, and visitor characteristics on interference with forest visitors’ experience and intended displacement. Visitors at two forested US state park study sites, one with significant bark beetle impact and the other with much less, responded to onsite questionnaires with digitally calibrated photos depicting a variety of beetle-impacted forest scenarios. Up to 80 percent of visitors indicated forest scenarios with significant bark beetle impact would interfere with their experience, and 70 percent reported they would not visit or be displaced. Analyses revealed forest fore- and midground conditions with varying levels of impact significantly predicted both experience interference and displacement. The relative importance of social, biophysical, and managerial conditions differed between models. Results inform management and planning efforts as well as advance understanding of the biophysical and social factors influencing interference and intended displacement.

Knowledge about the recreation quality expected by forest visitors and the perceived impacts is necessary to be able to manage forests on a sustainable basis. While the ecological impacts of recreation use have been a central topic in forest recreation research for ~ 30 years in Europe (e.g. Volk, 1979 ; Weiger, 1982 ; Volk et al. , 1995 ; Schemel and Erbguth, 2000 ; Ingold, 2005 ), social impacts such as user confl icts – in particular crowding – have rarely been investigated. This is surprising, as most forests – particularly those in Central Europe – are within the reach of many day users from urban areas or are situated within city limits. As a result, most of these forests face high and increasing recreational use pressure. Therefore, crowding may become a more prominent issue in recreation management. In times of multi-purpose forestry ( Font and Tribe, 1999 ), the recreational use of forests is gaining greater importance and the need for information about crowding has become apparent for sustainable forest management in Europe. However, the current status of European crowding research has neither, so far, been summarized nor analysed. The objective of this paper is to review the fi ndings and the methodological approaches Crowding in European forests: a review of recent research and implications for forest management and policy

Summary Urban forest management needs information about the amount and kinds of recreation use, in particular about emerging recreational activities such as Nordic walking and winter bicycling. Between 2003 and 2004, year-round use levels of recreational activities were investigated in a forest in Vienna using permanent time-lapse video recording and counts by human observers on sampling days. The amount of use, yearly, weekly and daily use patterns, as well as the group size of the traditional activity groups were compared with Nordic walking and winter bicycling to characterize these activities and to better understand recreation use. For all activity groups, the rates of participation varied signifi cantly across most of the time dimensions, and the relationships between the time of day and rates of participation were different for individuals and groups. Nordic walkers displayed a temporal use pattern similar to that of jogging with workday evening and weekend morning use peaks, while winter bicycling was similar to bicycling activities with afternoon use peaks during snowy periods. Nordic walking and winter bicycling activities added to the multiuse character of the heavily used forest, but seemed not to increase the potential for user confl icts because of the current low participation rates and the Nordic walking group’s avoidance of times of heavy use.