Environmental impacts associated with recreational horse riding
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Book chapter↗
Geology topics
J. L. Marion
Publications and source records attributed to J. L. Marion.
Managing impacts of camping
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Book chapter↗
Camping impact management on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail
This report addresses the management of overnight use and associated impacts along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail (A.T.). This effort was initiated in response to agency and Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) management concerns regarding the resource and social impacts of increasing overnight visitation, particularly in high use areas. Report findings and recommendations are primarily based on series of on-site investigations at 17 problem areas selected by A.T. clubs and ATC staff. However, the report?s recommendations also draw on an examination of relevant A.T. legislative, agency, and organization guidance and visitor impact management knowledge derived from research and management experience.
Book↗
Identifying and assessing ecotourism visitor impacts at selected protected areas in Costa Rica and Belize
Protected area visitation is an important component of ecotourism, and as such, must be sustainable. However, protected area visitation may degrade natural resources, particularly in areas of concentrated visitor activities like trails and recreation sites. This is an important concern in ecotourism destinations such as Belize and Costa Rica, because they actively promote ecotourism and emphasize the pristine qualities of their natural resources. Research on visitor impacts to protected areas has many potential applications in protected area management, though it has not been widely applied in Central and South America. This study targeted this deficiency through manager interviews and evaluations of alternative impact assessment procedures at eight protected areas in Belize and Costa Rica. Impact assessment procedures included qualitative condition class systems, ratings systems, and measurement-based systems applied to trails and recreation sites. The resulting data characterize manager perceptions of impact problems, document trail and recreation site impacts, and provide examples of inexpensive, efficient and effective rapid impact assessment procedures. Interview subjects reported a variety of impacts affecting trails, recreation sites, wildlife, water, attraction features and other resources. Standardized assessment procedures were developed and applied to record trail and recreation site impacts. Impacts affecting the study areas included trail proliferation, erosion and widening, muddiness on trails, vegetation cover loss, soil and root exposure, and tree damage on recreation sites. The findings also illustrate the types of assessment data yielded by several alternative methods and demonstrate their utility to protected area managers. The need for additional rapid assessment procedures for wildlife, water, attraction feature and other resource impacts was also identified.
Environmental Conservation↗
Trail impacts and trail impact management related to ecotourism visitation at Torres del Paine National Park, Chile
Protected area visitation and ecotourism in Central and South America are largely dependent upon a relatively undisturbed quality of natural resources. However, visitation may impact vegetation, soil, water, and wildlife resources, and degrade visitor facilities such as recreation sites and trails. Findings are reported from trail impact research conducted at Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile. The frequency and magnitude of selected trail impacts and the relative effect of the amount of use, vegetation type, trail position, and trail grade are investigated. Findings differed from previous studies in that amount of use was significantly related to both trail width increases and trail erosion. Management actions to minimize trail impacts are offered.
Torres del Paine National Park↗
Visitor impact assessment and monitoring systems: Evolution and current development
Managers of protected areas are increasingly concerned with recreation impacts to the resource and how they should be managed. Impact management programs must be based on information about the severity and extent of impacts and how they are changing over time. This information need has generated considerable interest in the development of visitor impact assessment and monitoring (VIAM) systems. Over the past three decades VIAM systems have been implemented in various protected areas. This paper provides a historical review of VIAM systems and discusses the current areas of refinement in their methodology. Potential areas of future research are also outlined.
Book chapter↗
Development of the United States Leave No Trace programme: A historical perspective
This paper describes the historical development of the U.S. Leave No Trace (LNT) educational program. It begins with a review of the need for the program and traces it?s conception and early development in the 1970`s, revitalization in 1991, creation of Leave No Trace, Inc., and the current status. The paper concludes with a discussion of the program?s elements that have made it successful and recommendations for the development of similar educational programs.
Book chapter↗
Determining the ecological footprint of recreation activities to support management decision
This paper reviews recreation impacts, impact monitoring methods, and impact management strategies and actions for managing visitation in mountain environments.
Book chapter↗
The role of recreation ecology in sustainable tourism and ecotourism
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Book chapter↗
Trail resource impacts and an examination of alternative assessment techniques
Trails are a primary recreation resource facility on which recreation activities are performed. They provide safe access to non-roaded areas, support recreational opportunities such as hiking, biking, and wildlife observation, and protect natural resources by concentrating visitor traffic on resistant treads. However, increasing recreational use, coupled with poorly designed and/or maintained trails, has led to a variety of resource impacts. Trail managers require objective information on trails and their conditions to monitor trends, direct trail maintenance efforts, and evaluate the need for visitor management and resource protection actions. This paper reviews trail impacts and different types of trail assessments, including inventory, maintenance, and condition assessment approaches. Two assessment methods, point sampling and problem assessment, are compared empirically from separate assessments of a 15-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Results indicate that point sampling and problem assessment methods yield distinctly different types of quantitative information. The point sampling method provides more accurate and precise measures of trail characteristics that are continuous or frequent (e.g., tread width or exposed soil). The problem assessment method is a preferred approach for monitoring trail characteristics that can be easily predefined or are infrequent (e.g., excessive width or secondary treads), particularly when information on the location of specific trail impact problems is needed. The advantages and limitations of these two assessment methods are examined in relation to various management and research information needs. The choice and utility of these assessment methods are also discussed.
Journal of Park and Recreation Administration↗
Trekking poles: Can you save your knees and the environment?
The increasing use of trekking poles has stimulated a growing awareness of some environmental and social impacts associated with their use. These impacts have not been documented in the scientific literature. This article reviews the impacts of trekking pole use to provide a basis for further dialogue, and suggests how they may be altered or used in ways that will minimize impact.
Register↗
Recreation impacts and management in wilderness: A state-of-knowledge review
This paper reviews the body of literature on recreation resource impacts and their management in the United States, with a primary focus on research within designated wildernesses during the past 15 years since the previous review (Cole 1987b). Recreation impacts have become a salient issue among wilderness scientists, managers and advocates alike. Studies of recreation impacts, referred to as recreation ecology, have expanded and diversified. Research has shifted its focus more towards questions driven by wilderness and park planning frameworks such the Limits of Acceptable Change and the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection. This paper begins by providing an overview of recreation impacts and their significance in wilderness, followed by a review of research approaches and methods. Major findings from recent studies are summarized. The contribution of this knowledge base to management decisionmaking and practices is examined. The paper concludes with a discussion of major knowledge gaps and suggested areas for future research.
Book chapter↗
Camping impact management at Isle Royale National Park: an evaluation of visitor activity containment policies from the perspective of social conditions
A survey of backcountry and wilderness campsites at Isle Royale National Park reveals that the park?s policies for managing visitor impacts have been remarkably effective in limiting the areal extent of camping-related disturbance. However, the dense spatial arrangement of designated campsites within backcountry campgrounds has also contributed to problems with visitor crowding and conflict. Only 9% of the sites had no other sites visible, while 22% had three or more other sites visible. Mean intersite distance was only 76 feet, and 34% of the sites are within 50 feet of another site. Visitor education programs and selected relocation of sites could reduce these social problems.
Book chapter↗
Wilderness campsite conditions under an unregulated camping policy: an eastern example
This study identified and assessed 110 campsites in seven designated wilderness areas in the Jefferson National Forest of Virginia. The campsites were unevenly distributed within each wilderness, concentrating along trail corridors and near popular destination areas. With a few exceptions, most campsites surveyed were in good condition. The findings indicate that management actions should be directed at reducing both the number of campsites and the problems associated with campsite expansion. The Forest?s unregulated camping policy could be focused through educational programs to encourage dispersed camping or camping containment to further reduce social and resource impacts.
Book chapter↗
The influence of sampling interval on the accuracy of trail impact assessment
Trail impact assessment and monitoring (IA&M) programs have been growing in importance and application in recreation resource management at protected areas. Census-based and sampling-based approaches have been developed in such programs, with systematic point sampling being the most common survey design. This paper examines the influence of sampling interval on the accuracy of estimates for selected trail impact problems. A complete census of four impact types on 70 trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park was utilized as the base data set for the analyses. The census data were resampled at increasing intervals to create a series of simulated point data sets. Estimates of frequency of occurrence and lineal extent for the four impact types were compared with the census data set. The responses of accuracy loss on lineal extent estimates to increasing sampling intervals varied across different impact types, while the responses on frequency of occurrence estimates were consistent, approximating an inverse asymptotic curve. These findings suggest that systematic point sampling may be an appropriate method for estimating the lineal extent but not the frequency of trail impacts. Sample intervals of less than 100 m appear to yield an excellent level of accuracy for the four impact types evaluated. Multiple regression analysis results suggest that appropriate sampling intervals are more likely to be determined by the type of impact in question rather than the length of trail. The census-based trail survey and the resampling-simulation method developed in this study can be a valuable first step in establishing long-term trail IA&M programs, in which an optimal sampling interval range with acceptable accuracy is determined before investing efforts in data collection.
Landscape and Urban Planning↗
Characterizing backcountry camping impacts in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
This investigates resource impacts on backcounty campsites in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Study objectives were to enhance our understanding of camping impacts and to improve campsite impact assessment procedures by means of multivariate techniques. Three-hundred and eight campsites at designated backcountry campgrounds, and 69 additional unofficial campsites were assessed. Factor analysis of 195 established campsites on eight impact indicator variables revealed three dimensions of campsite impact: area disturbance, soil and groundcover damage, and tree-related damage. Four distinctive backcountry campsite types were identified, three of which were derived from cluster analyses of factor scores. These four backcountry campsite types characterize the intensity and areal extent of resource impacts, and they vary in locational and environmental attributes. At an aggregate level, different campsite types contributed unequally to the cumulative level of impact. The dimensional structure and typology developed in this study demonstrates that campsite impacts can be viewed and examined holistically with the use of multivariate methods. Implications for assessment procedures, management and further research are discussed.
Journal of Environmental Management↗
Offroad vehicle riders in Big Cypress National Preserve: Results from a survey of permit holders
A survey of 800 offroad vehicle (ORV) owners at Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, was conducted to obtain information on visitor characteristics and management preferences. This report characterizes survey results for riders of all-terrain vehicles, swamp buggies, standard 4-wheeled street vehicles, and airboats. Riders tended to feel satisfied with their ORV experiences and Preserve conditions. Riders were strongly opposed to management approaches that would restrict use or require certain behaviors. More favored were management actions to encourage low impact use practices
Research/Resources Management Report.↗
May the forethought (and studies) be with your campsite-protection planning!
Visitation has reached record levels along the Appalachian Trail, a 2000+ mile footpath extending from Maine to Georgia along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. Camping impacts associated with this use have also expanded rapidly in recent years, particularly in popular National Parks and at attraction features such as lakes and ponds. This article reviews recreation ecology research on camping impacts and their relationship to amount of use and environmental attributes. Management options for responding to camping management problems are described, including the manipulation of use-related, environmental, and managerial factors.
Register↗