Search

Health benefits of outdoor recreation have been broadly demonstrated and land managers recognize the equity implications of providing safe and inclusive outdoor spaces. Data on public lands visitation and outdoor participation show that Hispanic recreationists are less likely to engage in outdoor leisure than White persons. Early studies of outdoor preferences of Hispanic persons identified a desire for large-group settings and social activities. To update our understanding of outdoor recreation needs, preferences, and constraints, we collaborated with a Latinx organization in Portland, Oregon (USA). We collaboratively designed three focus groups that combined structured engagement, cognitive sorting, and participatory mapping to elicit desired outdoor activities and settings and identify constraints and opportunities. Results suggest that urban Hispanic recreationists seek a variety of human-powered, motorized, and contemplative outdoor activities and gravitate toward familiar settings. Predominant barriers relate to a lack of experience with outdoor activities and gear and lack of exposure to public land settings. Study Implications: Early studies about Hispanic outdoor participation emphasized preferences for social activities in group settings. Urban Hispanic recreationists in our study sought a diversity of human-powered, motorized, and contemplative outdoor activities. Guided group outings and Spanish-language materials were identified as steps to increase participation. Barriers included a lack of awareness of prospective recreation sites, the absence of recreation partners, and unfamiliarity with outdoor gear. Agencies seeking to enhance access may gain the greatest efficiencies by enabling guided group events providing gear, instruction, and companionship. Outreach efforts in Spanish detailing information about setting and safety features would be well received.

Long distance trails offer distinctive opportunities for people to connect with natural and cultural heritage through recreation, tourism, and stewardship. Such connections can lead to broad suppor...

Many veterans returning from military deployment experience stress- or trauma-related symptoms that make reintegration with civilian society difficult. Nature exposure and outdoor recreation can be important parts of alternative and complementary approaches to reduce symptoms and build on veterans’ pre-existing strengths. Multiple outdoor programs now exist for veterans; many of these occur on federal public lands and present a variety of needs, opportunities, and challenges. This paper relies on interviews (n = 36) with public land managers, program providers and participants, health professionals, and veterans to enhance understanding about outdoor programs for veterans (OPVs). We develop a typology of OPVs to help land managers understand current and potential programs, and then describe programs’ varying dimensions. We examine opportunities and challenges for land managers in their interactions with OPVs. Results inform policymakers and public officials interested in developing more effective institutional partnerships and programs that engage and serve veterans and their communities. Study Implications: With growing scientific evidence of the benefits of nature-based therapy, nature exposure, and outdoor recreation for veterans, programming for veterans on public lands has proliferated. Public land-management agencies vary in the extent to which they have systematically organized to provide opportunities for veterans, developed partnerships to support veterans’ health, and explicitly acknowledged agency roles in serving veterans. We describe seven types of outdoor programs for veterans (OPVs) that currently serve this population: supported outdoor activity; guided outdoor activity; retreat; outdoor job training; stewardship or service; horticulture, farming or gardening; and animal-assisted therapy. Each OPV type has different needs for infrastructure, outdoor spaces, and administrative or programmatic engagement. OPVs occurring on public lands typically involve one or more partner organizations, such as commercial outfitters and guides, health providers, veterans’ associations, foundations, corporations, and research institutions. There is potential for public land-management agencies to expand their role as institutional leaders in support of veterans’ health by facilitating the use of public lands as therapeutic landscapes. By enhancing new and existing relations with OPV providers, health providers, and other government agencies, public land agencies could expand benefits to veterans and spur broader societal benefits.

National forest law enforcement officers regularly encounter “nonrecreational” campers whose tenure exceeds established stay limits (generally 2 weeks). Some long-term occupants are homeless and seek use of the forest as a temporary or long-term residence. Long-term nonrecreational campers present myriad concerns for forest officials, who seek to balance public access and resource conservation. In addition to biophysical impacts because of waste, disposal of chemicals, soil compaction, and damage to vegetation, nonrecreational campers can alter the social environment being shared with other forest visitors. For this exploratory study, US Forest Service law enforcement officers (n = 290) were surveyed to assess officer perceptions of the frequency of encounters, trends, and types of nonrecreational campers. We provide a descriptive summary of major findings and point out regional variations and trends. Officers perceive regional variations in the frequency of encounters with nonrecreational or homeless campers as well as types of campers encountered.

Landscape values mapping (LVM) is a participatory process used to gather public input for park and forest management. Respondents assign landscape values or ecosystem benefits to places on a map using a typology that usually includes the value “recreation.” Whereas other landscape values in the typology reflect personal guiding principles and enduring beliefs, recreation represents a diverse set of human behaviors influenced by their values and beliefs. For a more accurate comparison to other mapped values, and to better inform land managers of the underlying factors determining people's preferences, it is important to deconstruct the values that people draw upon when mapping recreation. In this study, we compare maps that included and excluded “recreation” in the values options. In the absence of recreation, other values surfaced variably by individual, providing insight to its complexity and suggesting that LVM exercises that incorporate recreation may not be eliciting underlying, and often conflicting, values.

Long-term occupancy by homeless individuals in U.S. national forests and grasslands results in persistent management challenges and resource concerns. Management challenges associated with non-recreational campers (homeless long-term occupants) include: maintaining sanitary conditions, public safety, vandalism, and conflict with other forest visitors. These management challenges may already be a substantial concern for district rangers and law enforcement officers (LEOs) in many parts of the U.S. This exploratory study compares the social impacts of various types of non-recreational campers across different forest types in the U.S. In this paper, we compare the prevalence, social impacts, and types of criminal behavior associated with non-recreational campers, along a rural to urban forest continuum. ANOVA analysis reveals that transient retirees are most frequently encountered by law enforcement, with no differences apparent among forest types. Teens and runaways were least often encountered, but this group demonstrated a significant difference in frequency of encounters between rural and urban locations. In terms of conflict, LEOs reported that Forest Service staff are the group most frequently experiencing conflict with non-recreational campers, with no significant differences found among the forest types. With respect to unlawful behavior among the homeless on national forest lands, LEOs reported having to respond to stay violations most often, with no differences found among different forest area types. This paper considers these outcomes and the management challenges they represent.

Six Rapid Rural Appraisal tools were tested by exploring four questions about gender and forests in two communities in the State of Washington. Tools selected include: Who Counts Matrix, Pebble Sorts (2), Participatory Mapping, Visioning, and an Interview Guide. The resulting data were supplemented by a questionnaire and ethnographic methods. The four questions asked whether men and women think differently about the forest, engage with the forest differently, go to different natural places, and have different visions of the future of the forest and their community. The results showed surprisingly comparable engagement with the forest by men and women and similarities in their visions of the future. In contrast, differences were found in the ways women and men think about the forest and the places they visit. The significant demographic shift toward an older population was also of interest. The use of Rapid Rural Appraisal tools in this setting was instructive, and further application is warranted, particularly when considering collaborative forest management.

Ongoing revitalization of the &gt, 5000-year-old tradition of using trees for vital culture and heritage activities including carving and weaving affirms Alaska Native resilience. However, support for these sustained cultural practices is complicated by environmental and political factors. Carving projects typically require western redcedar (Thuja plicata) or yellow cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) trees more than 450 years of age&mdash, a tree life stage and growth rate inconsistent with current even-aged forest management strategies. Herein, we qualitatively assess the significance of wood products to rural communities and Indigenous cultures with implications for natural heritage sustainability. In partnership with Alaska Native Tribes, we engaged local youth programs to lead community discussions throughout southeast Alaska to provide specificity to the suite of cultural activities linked to regional forest lands. Results from 58 discussions across 11 southeast Alaska communities (primarily Alaska Native participants) highlighted the cultural importance of forest products including totem poles, dugout canoes, longhouses, woven hats, and woven baskets. Findings indicated spiritual well-being, health, education, tourism, and income are attributed to these products. Participant-suggested management strategies for increasing supply and expanding access to trees on public lands included: engaging local artisans in forest planning, selecting and delivering specific trees to roads as part of ongoing timber sales, allowing bark removal prior to forest-timber sales, simplifying the tree-acquisition permit process, and setting aside cultural forest groves to sustain trees seven generations into the future. By facilitating discussions, this study fostered relevant place-based youth and community engagement, benefiting youth and enhancing community knowledge transfer while simultaneously summarizing the significance of forest products for resilient culture and heritage activities. Forest management plans aiming to support Alaska Native lifeways may benefit from improved understanding of Indigenous perspectives and worldviews, designation of &ldquo, culture market values&rdquo, and &ldquo, culture targets&rdquo, can help deliver a broad array of ecosystem services.

Cruise-ship tourism is one of the fastest growing industry sectors, with itineraries that regularly visit marine parks and protected areas. UNESCO Marine World Heritage (MWH) Sites feature some of the world&rsquo, s most exceptional ecosystems, resulting in some cruise lines targeting these sites. To understand the extent of cruise ship visitation and determine perceptions of cruise ship sustainability within and across environmental, economic, and sociocultural dimensions, we conducted an online survey of 45 (out of 50) sites. The survey included responses about the characteristics of cruise ship visitation, strategies for sustainably managing ships, and ideas for encouraging sustainable practices. Among the 45 respondents, 30 (67%) indicated that their MWH site hosts cruise ships or cruise ship passengers, and 25 sites have cruise ships that enter the protected area marine waters. Most sites (62%) indicated an increase in cruise visitation over the last three years. While most sites regulate ballast water (73%) and wastewater (73%) discharge, common concerns focused on ship air emissions and wildlife interactions. Lack of funds generated by cruise ships toward community infrastructure was noted. MWH site managers expressed interest in developing site networks to facilitate sharing of ideas as a first step for increasing sustainability across all sites.

To respond to changing demands for outdoor experiences on public lands, managers and researchers specializing in outdoor recreation and tourism are calling for a shift in the way we think about, study, and manage recreation. New and updated conceptual frameworks and management tools are needed to guide agency decision-makers as they face complex and dynamic outdoor recreation management challenges. This article introduces a research strategy that seeks to align management needs with actionable research on sustainable recreation and tourism. We describe eight Research Focus Areas (RFAs) proposed in the strategy. These RFAs were identified and developed through a collaborative process involving researchers and practitioners from government, academia, industry, and non-profit sectors. We emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary, interagency collaboration to solve modern challenges in outdoor recreation management from the site to landscape scale. Subscribe to JPRA

This article describes how GIS is increasingly being used to explore, analyze, and visualize qualitative social data across space. The authors applied a number of geovisualization and analysis approaches to spaces identified on maps by survey participants, in the context of a Human Ecology Mapping (HEM) project in western North Carolina. HEM is an applied research endeavor that has been used in a number of other locations to tease out relationships between people and landscapes by identifying both the activities people do in certain locations and the values they hold about those locations. The authors' western NC project gathered location information through participant sketch mapping, and activities, values, and social/demographic data in a survey. They combined these in a GIS and present a selection of visualization and analyses that demonstrate the effectiveness of GIS techniques in understanding places, how they are used, and which people use them for what purposes.

• The effectiveness of participatory GIS approaches at engaging different publics was explored.

Indigenous peoples, local communities, and other groups can use counter-mapping to make land claims, identify areas of desired access, or convey cultural values that diverge from the dominant paradigm. While sometimes created independently, counter-maps also can be formulated during public participation mapping events sponsored by natural resource planning agencies. Public participation mapping elicits values, uses, and meanings of landscapes from diverse stakeholders, yet individuals and advocacy groups can use the mapping process as an opportunity to make visible strongly held values and viewpoints. We present three cases from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State to illustrate how stakeholders intentionally used landscape-values mapping workshops to amplify their perspectives in attempts to further political outcomes. We combine geospatial analysis with qualitative data to explore ways that landscape-values mapping were used as a political tool and how social scientists engaged in similar efforts can defend the scientific integrity of results.

In the United States, over 191 million acres of land is managed by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, a federal government agency. In several western U.S. states, organized collaborative groups have become a de facto governance approach to providing sustained input on management decisions on much public land. This is most extensive in Oregon, where at least 25 "forest collaboratives" currently exist. This affords excellent opportunities for studies of many common themes in collaborative governance, including trust, shared values, and perceptions of success. We undertook a statewide survey of participants in Oregon forest collaboratives to examine differences in motivations, perceptions of success, and satisfaction among Forest Service participants ("agency participants"), who made up 31% of the sample, and other respondents ("non-agency") who represent nonfederal agencies, interest groups, citizens, and non-governmental groups. We found that agency participants differed from non-agency participants. They typically had higher annual incomes, and were primarily motivated to participate to build trust. However, a majority of all respondents were similar in not indicating any other social or economic motivations as their primary reason for collaborating. A majority also reported satisfaction with their collaborative-despite not ranking collaborative performance on a number of specific potential outcomes highly. Together, this suggests that collaboration in Oregon is currently perceived as successful despite not achieving many specific outcomes. Yet there were significant differences in socioeconomic status and motivation that could affect the ability of agency and nonagency participants to develop and achieve mutually-desired goals.

Landscape values mapping has been widely employed as a form of public participation GIS (PPGIS) in natural resource planning and decision-making to capture the complex array of values, uses, and interactions between people and landscapes. A landscape values typology has been commonly employed in the mapping of social and environmental values in a variety of management settings and scales. We explore how people attribute meanings and assign values to special places on the Olympic Peninsula (Washington, USA) using both a landscape values typology and qualitative responses about residents' place-relationships. Using geographically referenced social values data collected in community meetings (n = 169), we identify high-frequency landscape values and examine how well the landscape values are reflected in open-ended descriptions of place-relations. We also explore the various interpretations of 14 landscape values used in the study. In particular, we investigate any overlapping meanings or blurriness among landscape values and reveal potentially emergent landscape values from the qualitative data. The results provide insights on the use of landscape values mapping typologies for practitioners and researchers engaged in the mapping of social values for PPGIS.

Natural resource managers need up-to-date information about how people interact with public lands and the meanings these places hold for use in planning and decision-making. This case study explains the use of public participatory Geographic Information System (GIS) to generate and analyze spatial patterns of the uses and values people hold for the Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado. Participants drew on maps and answered questions at both live community meetings and online sessions to develop a series of maps showing detailed responses to different types of resource uses and landscape values. Results can be disaggregated by interaction types, different meaningful values, respondent characteristics, seasonality, or frequency of visit. The study was a test for the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service, who jointly manage the monument as they prepare their land management plan. If the information generated is as helpful throughout the entire planning process as initial responses seem, this protocol could become a component of the Bureau’s planning tool kit.

In recent decades, scholars have developed ideas about therapeutic landscapes that explore how social processes, symbolism, and physical features generate diverse meanings. We examine here how therapeutic landscapes are produced and utilized for outdoor programs for military veterans, particularly veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress. Outdoor programs for veterans (OPVs) provide restorative opportunities through nature immersion and outdoor recreation. OPVs involve diverse social settings, activity types, durations, geographic and land management contexts, and degrees of therapeutic intervention. In many combinations they can generate therapeutic landscapes conducive to some degree of recovery. Our analysis relies on qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews with OPV providers and participants, mental health specialists, and public land officials. Arguing against a reductionistic approach, we suggest that the diversity of OPVs and disparate character of activities, locations, and dosages may contribute in important ways to the efficacy of these programs. Ironically, the very qualities that present challenges for measuring and evaluating the benefits of OPVs may prove to be advantageous with respect to therapeutic outcomes. We highlight how public lands present a distinctive set of attributes that make them particularly well-suited to provide therapeutic opportunities, and that agency policies can shape the development of therapeutic landscapes.

National forests have a wealth of natural amenities that attract over 175 million recreational visitors a year. Although natural amenities draw visitors to national forests, many of the recreational activities that they engage in require built amenities, such as roads, campgrounds, boat ramps, and trails. We estimate regression models of the effect of two common built amenities—campgrounds and picnic areas—on national-forest visitation controlling for natural amenities and accounting for the endogenous relationship between visitation and built amenities. We found that campgrounds and picnic areas are significantly and positively correlated with visitation.

Systems-based land management frameworks such as ecosystem services can improve cultural resource management and outdoor recreation in natural areas. We analyzed data from a participatory mapping survey of forest values from an ecological restoration area in the East Cascades, which provide conceptual and methodological tools that can be utilized in land management more widely. We also consulted archaeological, paleo-ecological, and traditional land use data to link heritage values with cultural landscapes. Heritage benefits mapped by respondents were associated with connections to landscapes, sites and resources, and with outdoor recreation. Respondents noted connections to historic vocational identities such as mining and logging, as well as sacred and spiritual activities associated with American Indian Tribes. These heritage connections and benefits were closely tied to natural resources, such as timber, mountains, watersheds, and forest products. In some cases, heritage and biophysical ecosystem services share synergies with regard to potential land management effects, while others would result in tensions or trade-offs for various beneficiaries. Integrated resource management provides a more holistic and informed view of land values that move beyond cultural and biophysical dichotomies, expanding the potential for managing outdoor recreation and heritage.

This Special Issue addresses the intersections of outdoor recreation, nature-based tourism, and sustainability. Outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism provide essential benefits to individuals, communities, and society and thereby contribute to sustainability. Equitable provision of opportunities, cultural variations in desired experiences, barriers to outdoor recreation, and diverse perceptions of both nature and recreation add to the complexity in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism service delivery. Outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism occur within a socioecological system with feedback loops to changing social, economic, technological, and ecological conditions. On a global scale, climate change and other disturbance factors are impacting ecosystems and opportunities, increasing the importance of adaptation strategies for longer-term planning. Population growth and regional shifts in demographics and distribution (e.g., urbanization), as well as socioeconomic trends, affect who engages in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism, opportunities sought, nature access, and governance of outdoor services. Overall the complexity of sustainable outdoor recreation and tourism may suggest a need for different approaches to service delivery, culture change among service providers and managers of natural spaces, and novel approaches to inclusive governance and shared stewardship. Given the clear importance of outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism to society, we invite you to consider this initial introduction to our assembled collection, which is meant to advance our understanding of the intersections of outdoor recreation, nature-based tourism, and sustainability.

In order to inform natural resource policy and land management decisions, landscape values mapping (LVM) is increasingly used to collect data about the meanings that people attach to places and the activities associated with those places. This type of mapping provides geographically referenced data on areas of high density of values or associated with different types of values. This article focuses on issues and challenges that commonly occur in LVM, drawing on lessons learned in the US Forest Service Olympic Peninsula Human Ecology Mapping Project. The discussion covers choosing a spatial scale for collecting data, creating the base map, developing data collection strategies, the use of ascribed versus assigned values, and the pros and cons of different mapping formats. Understanding the common issues and challenges in LVM will assist policy makers, land managers, and researchers in designing a LVM project that effectively balances project goals, time and budgetary constraints, and personnel resources in...

Values mapping that represents how humans associate with natural environments is useful for several purposes, including recognizing and addressing different perceptions of natural resource ownership and management priorities, documenting traditional ecological knowledge, and spatially identifying the public's perception of economic and non-economic services provided by natural resources (McLain et al. 2013). The majority of this work has been conducted in developing countries and with disenfranchised communities, where participatory mapping associated with natural resource management is more widely practiced. As access to GIS technology has expanded, however, several projects have tested the benefits of values mapping for natural resource management decisions in industrialized countries (e.g., Brown 2005; Klain and Chan 2012). This article discusses one such effort: the use of spatial values mapping to incorporate the concerns of Latino forest users into federal and state policies on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Smart growth strategies of infill and compact growth in existing suburban cities will most likely not be sufficient to absorb a new US household growth in the future. To meet housing demands and preferences, master-planned communities will continue to be built in outlying exurban areas. However, little is known about the impacts these communities may have on the surrounding physical, built and social environment in the exurban landscape. In this paper, we provide a review of the literature of what is known about the drivers behind the development of master-planned communities and the physical, built and social impacts of these developments on the surrounding exurban landscape. We then provide a case study of an exurban area outside of Seattle, Washington containing a large master-planned community. Through focus group interviews, we explore residential motivations to move to the area, and the benefits and challenges of living in an exurban landscape with a newly built master-planned community. Using qualitative data analyses, we find that residents are drawn to this exurban area for the abundance of natural amenities and outdoor recreation opportunities. However, the new master-planned community development presents many benefits and challenges for those living in the area; particularly the residential perceptions of impacts that the development has had on the surrounding natural and built environment. These real and perceived impacts of the master-planned community development has compounded and magnified the impacts to the social environment throughout the entire exurban community. Implications for planners and suggestions for future research are given.

Ecosystem-based planning and management have stimulated the need to gather sociocultural values and human uses of land in formats accessible to diverse planners and researchers. Human Ecology Mapping (HEM) approaches offer promising spatial data gathering and analytical tools, while also addressing important questions about human-landscape connections. This article reviews and compares the characteristics of three HEM approaches that are increasingly used in natural resource management contexts, each focused on a particular aspect of human-environmental interactions. These aspects include tenure and resource use (TRU), local ecological knowledge (LEK), and sense of place (SOP). We discuss their origins, provide examples of their use, and identify challenges to their application. Our review serves as a guide for environmental managers, planners, and communities interested in gathering spatial data on aspects of human ecology important in ecosystem-based management and planning, and for scientists designing socioecological research.

Urban areas in the western United States have experienced significant population growth in outlying communities, particularly those close to natural and rural amenities. A comparative case study of three exurban communities in King County (Seattle), Washington allows close examination of the complex dynamics and competing interests that shape the physical and social landscapes of exurbia. Working lands once held by corporations are being sold or redefined for residential development. Developers navigate complex land use and urban containment policies and negotiate with local officials to create new communities within or adjacent to historic settlements. The dynamics of these shifting landscapes from productivist to post-productivist regimes have underlying causal mechanisms that come into focus when viewed through a political ecology lens. This chapter explores the interests and negotiated approaches of various actors (local governments, developers, real estate professionals, and residents) in southeastern King County who are involved in creating exurban landscapes. We focus on three neighboring exurbs (Maple Valley, Black Diamond, and Ravensdale) each located 25 miles from Seattle along the state highway 169. While these communities exist within the same geo-physical landscape and share a common economic history, the development choices are vastly distinct. While designed to bring the consumer closer to nature and rural life, these exurban developments have transformed rural areas into manufactured exurbs that bring the city closer to the rural and confound previous definitions of exurbia.

Public land management agencies, such as the USDA Forest Service (USFS), utilize partnerships to accomplish a variety of tasks and meet specific targets. However, public agency personnel invest considerable time and energy to develop and maintain partnerships. Research on partnering motivations typically focuses on volunteers, nonprofit organizations and corporations, leaving the motivations of public agency personnel relatively unknown. This paper presents findings from a multiple partnership case study design on six national forests. The Public Lands Partnership Model (PLPM) is presented as a conceptualization of 13 motivations, classified into 3 distinct motivation types (i.e., interpersonal, intrapersonal, and institutional), that influence the propensity of agency personnel to partner. Additional influences, such as national forests’ external environment and internal commitment, need further exploration to confirm the PLPM and generalize results to the USFS and other agencies engaged in public land m...

This paper explores opportunities for administrative discretion in decision-making for natural resource management. We carried out an exploratory study in the USDA Forest Service to understand factors affecting administrative actions related to recreation use in riparian areas. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 resource professionals from a national forest in the northwest region of the United States. Questions focused on professional judgments about recreation in riparian areas, administrative actions related to management of these activities, and the potential for personal values to influence decisions. We analyzed the transcribed interviews using Atlas.ti, coding the data for salient themes. In this paper, we discuss perceptions of resource professionals about the potential for personal values to influence administrative actions and decisions. We highlight four distinct realms in the planning process where expanded discretionary capacity exists and values may emerge. Finally, we suggest ways to reduce the potential influence of value-based judgments in decision-making.

U.S. Forest Service managers are required to incorporate social and biophysical science information in planning and environmental analysis. The use of science is mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, and U.S. Forest Service planning rules. Despite the agency's emphasis on 'science-based' decision-making, little is known about how science is actually used in recreation planning and management. This study investigated the perceptions of Forest Service interdisciplinary (ID) team leaders for 106 NEPA projects dealing with recreation and travel management between 2005 and 2008. Our survey data show how managers rate the importance of social and biophysical science compared to other potential 'success factors' in NEPA assessments. We also explore how team leaders value and use multi-disciplinary tools for recreation-related assessments. Results suggest that managers employ a variety of recreation planning tools in NEPA projects, but there appears to be no common understanding or approach for how or when these tools are incorporated. The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) was the most frequently used planning tool, but the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework was the most consistently valued tool by those who used it. We recommend further evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each planning tool and future development of procedures to select appropriate planning tools for use in recreation-related NEPA assessments.

A Web-based survey of wildland fire managers in federal agencies in the western United States explored fire science information needs and sources, why particular sources are used, and barriers to obtaining and using information. The fire managers we surveyed rely heavily on internal agency information sources (colleagues, technical experts, and resource advisors) and are more likely to face barriers in their ability to access and use relevant information (lack of time, funding, and personnel) than problems with the quality or availability of data. Information accessibility and applicability are important to managers when deciding which information sources to use. Managers frequently access research provided by US Forest Service Research and Development specialists and university scientists through various publications, the Internet, and direct communication with scientists. Understanding the types of information fire managers need, the sources they access for information, and the barriers they face in obtaining and using information may lead to improved fire science and its dissemination, as well as more effective and efficient fire management.

Federal land management agencies, such as the USDA Forest Service, have expanded the role of recreation partners reflecting constrained growth in appropriations and broader societal trends towards civic environmental governance. Partnerships with individual volunteers, service groups, commercial outfitters, and other government agencies provide the USDA Forest Service with the resources necessary to complete projects and meet goals under fiscal constraints. Existing partnership typologies typically focus on collaborative or strategic alliances and highlight organizational dimensions (e.g., structure and process) defined by researchers. This paper presents a partner typology constructed from USDA Forest Service partnership practitioners' conceptualizations of 35 common partner types. Multidimensional scaling of data from unconstrained pile sorts identified 3 distinct cultural dimensions of recreation partners--specifically, partnership character, partner impact, and partner motivations--that represent institutional, individual, and socio-cultural cognitive domains. A hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis provides further insight into the various domains of agency personnel's conceptualizations. While three dimensions with high reliability (RSQ = 0.83) and corresponding hierarchical clusters illustrate commonality between agency personnel's partnership suppositions, this study also reveals variance in personnel's familiarity and affinity for specific partnership types. This real-world perspective on partner types highlights that agency practitioners not only make strategic choices when selecting and cultivating partnerships to accomplish critical task, but also elect to work with partners for the primary purpose of providing public service and fostering land stewardship.

Interdisciplinary teamwork has become a foundation of natural resources planning and management in the US. Yet, we know little about the degree of interdisciplinary collaboration of natural resource planning teams. We conducted 10 case studies of Forest Service NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) teams working on projects related to the 2005 Travel Management Rule. Although teams' critical tasks were similar, we found wide variation in interdisciplinary teamwork approaches. We propose three typologies of teamwork processes and discuss relationships between teams' work approaches and process outcomes. Rather than being easily labelled as holistically ‘collaborative’ or ‘non-collaborative’, teams may more typically move in and out of different modes of collaboration (or non-collaboration) throughout the different stages of teamwork processes. Results suggest that greater external pressure may lead teams to adopt a more internally collaborative approach and that empowering leadership styles may enhance ...

Promotion of effective science exchange between government scientists and managers requires thoughtful arrangement and operation of research and management functions. The U.S. Forest Service was established at the peak of the Progressive Era, when science exchange was designed to occur between researchers and resource managers who worked in distinct arms of the agency, but shared similar goals of effective forest management. In this article, the authors explore the implications of diminished agency capacity for science exchange interactions between researchers and managers in recreation management. Managers and researchers identified their current interactions, their perceptions of ideal interactions, and barriers to achieving those ideals. Reductions in agency capacity for recreation management have resulted in the erosion of interactions between managers and researchers. However, effective science exchange does occur, but requires innovative and adaptive approaches.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is incorporated into the planning and decision-making culture of all natural resource agencies in the U.S. Yet, we know little about how the attitudes and internal interactions of interdisciplinary (ID) teams engaged in NEPA processes influence process outcomes. We conducted a web-based survey of 106 ID team leaders involved with environmental analyses (EA) or environmental impact statements (EIS) for projects dealing with recreation and travel management on national forests. We explore how they define success in these processes and identify factors most powerfully associated with perceptions of positive outcomes. The survey revealed a tremendous diversity in definitions of success. Strong correlations between the perceived importance of particular indicators of success and their achievement suggest that pre-conceived notions may often help to shape process outcomes. Regression analyses revealed the following factors as the best predictors of ID team leaders' perception of an “excellent outcome”: achievement of the agency mission, whether compromise had taken place between the interested parties, team satisfaction and harmony, timely process completion, and project implementation. Yet, respondents consistently ranked compromise with interested parties and team member satisfaction among the least important measures of successful NEPA processes. Results suggest that clarifying appropriate measures of success in NEPA processes across the agency could make ID team performance more consistent. The research also suggests that greater attention to ID team interactions, both internally and between teams and interested publics, could result in better outcomes.