Common access tradition and wilderness management in Norway: A paradox for managers

Many European countries, including Norway, have a right of common access tradition toward wildland areas for recreational activity. The “right of any one to move freely over all wildlands except farm fields and gardens” can serve as a paradoxical barrier to managing wildland areas and users for outdoor recreation. This article discusses the apparent paradox between free access and management of wildland recreation, the underlying principles of both concepts, and proposes an integrative basis for how the two concepts can serve the same major goal—freedom of access and use of wildland recreation areas without disturbance to other users or the resource base. A Norwegian field study is presented with campfire data and management strategies to illustrate the integrative nature of common access and wilderness management principles for the managing of wildland recreation opportunities.     

Managing Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) in Parks and Protected Areas: A Case Study of Rondeau Provincial Park (Ontario, Canada)

The Carolinian Life Zone in southwestern Ontario, Canada is valued because it represents an almost disjunct ecosystem (i.e., one that is typical of the mid-Atlantic United States, rather than the rest of Canada or the nearby states in the United States). The landscape of the Carolinian Life Zone has undergone dramatic transformation, especially in recent decades as agriculture, urbanization, and recreation have intensified. One of the most apparent changes is the invasion of exotic plant species that exacerbates the need for mass restoration efforts. Within the Carolinian Life Zone, Rondeau Provincial Park has experienced an influx of nonindigenous, invasive species in recent years. Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is one example. The infestation is still relatively localized to (mainly) the park, slowly spreading, and manageable as long as something is done immediately. We examined the effects of hand-pulling and mulching, cut stump and glyphosate application, cut stump alone, and the EZJect Capsule Injection System (using glyphosate) on the management of A. altissima within the park. Cut stump and glyphosate treatment was most effective and efficient in its control of young A. altissima shoots because it limits disturbance and has acceptable capital and operating costs. Hand-pulling and mulching was the second choice, mainly because of the risk of additional disturbance that increased shoot densities 1 year after treatment. Cut stump alone was not effective, worsened the infestation, and is not recommended for this species. The EZJect system was effective at managing mature, seed-producing shoots, although the somewhat higher capital costs mean that the system probably should be purchased for management of several invasive tree species to make it more cost-effective.     

A Combined Park Management Framework Based on Regulatory and Behavioral Strategies: Use of Visitors' Knowledge to Assess Effectiveness

In light of the increasing mandate for greater efficiency in conservation of natural reserves such as national parks, the present study suggests educational approaches as a tool to achieve conservation purposes. Currently, the management of human–wildlife interactions is dominated by regulatory strategies, but considerable potential exists for environmental education to enhance knowledge in the short run and to prompt attitude change in the long run. A framework for conservation based on both traditional regulatory- and behavior-oriented strategies was proposed whereby the level of knowledge that park visitors have acquired comprises an obvious outcome and establishes a basis upon which the effectiveness of regulatory- and behavior-based regimes could be assessed. The perceptions regarding park-related issues of two distinct visitor groups (locals and nonlocals) are summarized from a survey undertaken in Vikos-Aoos national park. The findings suggest a superficial knowledge for certain concepts but little profound understanding of the content of such concepts, indicating that knowledge-raising efforts should go a long way towards establishing a positive attitude for the resource. Visitors' poor knowledge of the park's operation regulation contest the efficiency of the presently dominant regulatory management regime. While geographical distances did not appear to significantly differentiate knowledge between the two groups, wilderness experience (as certified by visits to other parks) was proved to be an impetus for generating substantial learner interest in critical park issues among nonlocal visitors. School education and media were found to be significant knowledge providers.     

Personal Wilderness Relationships: Building on a Transactional Approach

Wilderness managers are charged with the challenging goal of balancing resource protection and experience quality across a broad, value-laden landscape. While research has provided insight into visitors’ motivations and their meanings for wilderness, a struggle exists to implement experiential concepts within current management frameworks. This research posits the human experience of wilderness to be an evolving, enduring relationship, and that research needs can be addressed by conceptualizing and investigating an individuals’ personal wilderness relationship. The purpose of this study was to explore wilderness relationships of visitors to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. A predictive model was proposed to investigate the internal dimensions of a visitor’s wilderness relationship. A mail-back questionnaire was distributed during the summer of 2007, resulting in a sample of 564 respondents. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results from testing several relationship models provided support for a multidimensional structure consisting of five factors with a single overarching relationship factor. The preferred relationship model indicated the importance of identities and attachment in place relationships. Trust and commitment toward management were also important considerations. This research provided the preliminary evidence for a multidimensional wilderness relationship model and complements a perspective of wilderness experiences as wilderness. Findings may help to reframe decision-making and public-input processes that guide management actions to increased wilderness character protection and facilitate quality wilderness experiences.     

The change of European landscapes: human-nature relationships, public attitudes towards rewilding, and the implications for landscape management in Switzerland

The rewilding of landscapes is one of the most important and intensively discussed landscape changes occurring in Switzerland, as the need for agricultural and forest land is decreasing. To ensure that decisions concerning future landscape management will be supported by the public, it is crucial to take public opinion into account. Hence the present study aims to assess the public attitudes towards nature and "rewilding" processes. In order to analyze these attitudes, we sent a standardized questionnaire to 4000 randomly selected households throughout Switzerland. A cluster analysis led to a typology with four different types of human-nature relationship ("nature lovers", "nature sympathizers", "nature-connected users" and "nature controllers") that each characterize a particular attitude towards nature. These human-nature relationship types differ in their attitudes towards rewilding as well, allowing a rough classification of the sample into wilderness opponents (51.1%) and wilderness proponents (49.9%). However both groups agree with regard to their opinion concerning the rules and regulations that should apply in future wilderness areas. The parallels of the human-nature relationship typology of this survey with other typologies, and the implications for further research are discussed. We can conclude that, due to the differences concerning the attitudes towards wilderness between the human-nature relationship types, between the rural and urban dwellers, and between the language regions, a uniform strategy for the designation and management of wilderness areas in Switzerland is not possible. We recommend that, when managing landscape change, all stakeholders are included in a participatory process and we advise a thorough assessment of the attitudes of the involved persons towards nature and rewilding at the start of such processes. Such an assessment would facilitate the identification of well-defined target groups allowing specific interventions and management actions customized to the needs and characteristics of each of these groups. In addition we see the commonalities between wilderness opponents and wilderness proponents concerning the rules in wilderness areas as an ideal starting point for a successful participatory process.     

Carrying capacity as "Informed Judgment": the values of science and the science of values

Contemporary park and wilderness carrying capacity frameworks rely on formulation of standards of quality, which are defined as minimum acceptable resource and social conditions. Formulation of standards of quality involves elements of both science and values, and both of these elements must be integrated into informed judgments on the part of park and wilderness managers. That is, managers must ultimately make value-based judgments about the maximum acceptable level of visitor-caused impacts to the resource base and the quality of the visitor experience. However, such judgments should be as informed as possible by scientific data on the relationships between visitor use and resulting impacts and the degree to which park and wilderness visitors and other interest groups judge such impacts to be acceptable. Such information represents the “values of science” to managing carrying capacity in parks and wilderness. A growing body of literature has begun to address the corresponding “science of values,” and how this type of information might be integrated in park and wilderness management. Visitor-based research has employed normative theory and techniques to explore the acceptability of a range of resource and social impacts related to visitor use, and findings from these studies are being integrated into a body of knowledge and applied in management decision-making. Conceptual and methodological extensions of the normative approach are currently being explored in a variety of park and wilderness contexts, and new theoretical and empirical approaches are being adapted to address trade-offs inherent in carrying capacity. In these ways, the science of values is progressing to meet the opportunities and challenges of the values of science to park and wilderness management. The concept of carrying capacity, along with the theoretical and methodological approaches described in this paper, can be extended to a large number of natural resource and environmental issues.     

Perceived Effects of Setting Attributes on Visitor Experiences in Wilderness: Variation with Situational Context and Visitor Characteristics

Understanding how setting attributes influence the nature of the visitor experience is crucial to effective recreation management. Highly influential attributes are useful indicators to monitor within a planning framework, such as Limits of Acceptable Change. This study sought to identify the setting attributes perceived to have the most profound effect on the ability to have “a real wilderness experience” and to assess the degree to which attribute importance varied with situational context and visitor characteristics. To this end, exiting hikers were surveyed at moderate and very high use trailheads in Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA (USA), and Three Sisters Wilderness, OR (USA). They were asked about the degree to which encountering varying levels of different setting attributes would add to or detract from their experience. Attributes with the largest range of effect on experience, based on evaluations of different levels, were considered most important. The most influential attributes were litter and several types of campsite interaction—people walking through camp and number of other groups camping close by. The perceived importance of setting attributes did not vary much between wilderness locations with substantially different use levels, suggesting that conclusions are robust and generalizable across wilderness areas. There also was little difference in the perceptions of day and overnight visitors. In contrast, we found substantial variation in the perceived importance of setting attributes with variation in wilderness experience, knowledge, attachment, and motivation. Our results validate the emphasis of many wilderness management plans on indicators of social interaction, such as number of encounters.     

A Comparison of Urban-Proximate and Urban-Distant Wilderness Users on Selected Variables

/ The underlying premise of this study is that wilderness areas attract visitors desiring or expecting different wilderness experiences. In this study, wilderness areas were dichotomized according to distance from a large urban center (urban-proximate vs urban-distant). Four wilderness areas in southern California were used as the study sites. Comparisons were made on selected attributes commonly associated with the wilderness experience. Differences were observed on a number of variables such as acceptable number and type of encounters with other visitors, management preferences, and preferred group sizes. The findings of this study are congruent with those from previous studies and suggest that distance to large urban centers may be a functional variable in explaining differences among selected wilderness attributes.KEY WORDS: Expectancy theory; Normative standards; Wilderness; Wilderness experience; Urbanization     

Protected forests in Europe approaches-harmonising the definitions for international comparison and forest policy making

Comparison of forest protection between regions in Europe is extremely difficult, because there is such wide variation of strategies, procedures and constraints; the way forests have been used historically and their present closeness to nature also varies, and furthermore so does the definition of what constitutes a forest. For the European Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) in 2003, forest protection has been harmonised into three categories for the sake of comparison: protection to safeguard biodiversity, protection of landscape and specific natural features, and protective forest functions.There is no single, uniform and universal model and no internationally agreed target with respect to the percentage of forests which should be protected. What is more important than a fixed percentage level of forested area (e.g. 5 or 10%) is that the protection network should be biogeographically and ecologically representative and accordingly distributed on a regional basis. Long-term practical experience and research have proved that conservation of different species of organisms can be assured by appropriate silvicultural management of multifunctional production forests. Consequently, the focus of debate in Europe appears to shift more and more from total protection in segregated areas to 'precision protection' and to combining protection and timber production in the holistic, integrated concept of modern management of forest areas.Advances in regional ecological planning and the growing adoption of naturalistic forest management practices have slowed the decline of the biological diversity in the multifunctional production forests. However, this fact is not yet widely and sufficiently acknowledged and appreciated. There is consequently a political and scientific need for continued study of the effects of naturalistic silvicultural management on the biodiversity of forests. Information from such research is crucially needed before new and additional protection networks and schemes are set up on a large-scale. Protection by voluntary contracts between parties is a workable model concept for European forestry based on private forest ownership. In small private forests, patches of forest worth protecting are often small and located within production forests.Forest certification can contribute to the efforts of maintaining biodiversity in multifunctional production forests and offers an instrument of independently monitoring and verifying that forests are managed according to the agreed criteria. Forest certification is not an alternative or a means of increasing forest protection, because as a voluntary process it cannot guarantee the permanence of protected areas or deal with issues of finance and compensation.     

The role of population projections in environmental management

California and other regions in the United States are becoming more populated and ethnically diverse, and thus, ecological impacts on the wildland–urban interface are a significant policy concern. In a socioeconomic assessment focused on the geographic regions surrounding four national forests in southern California, population projections are being formulated to assist in the update of forest plans. In southern California, the projected trend of explosive population growth combined with increased ethnic and racial diversity indicates four challenges for environmental management. First, patterns of recreation use on wildlands are likely to change, and management of these areas will have to address new needs. Second, as land-management agencies face changing constituencies, new methods of soliciting public involvement from ethnic and racial groups will be necessary. Third, growth in the region is likely to encroach upon wildland areas, affecting water, air, open space, and endangered species. Fourth, in order to address all these concerns in a climate of declining budgets, resource management agencies need to strengthen collaborative relationships with other agencies in the region. How environmental managers approach these changes has widespread implications for the ecological sustainability of forests in southern California.     

Wilderness politics: Public participation and values

This article deals with wilderness politics in relationship to values and public participation; these terms are defined for the purpose of the study. It is argued that the survival, quantity, and quality of wilderness everywhere will basically be determined by the political and governmental processes through values. Yet there is a strong tendency in these processes to avoid value exposure and emphasis.Much of governmental approach toward wilderness affairs hinges upon economic development, technoscientific facts, and short-term considerations, in contrast to the intangible noneconomic and long-term values of wilderness. By not articulating nd involving wilderness values more in public participation and the political processes, the public often misses opportunities for influencing far-reaching wilderness decisions. In short, wilderness values need to be more explicitly and implicitly stated and implemented politically.More study and emphasis need to be given to wilderness values per se. It is necessary to develop more innovative ways of educating the public on wilderness values in terms of their lives and of ensuring that their value inputs are effectively incorporated into public participation and political processes. The last section of this article is devoted to efforts by the author and others to identify and describe wilderness tropical forest values.     

Defining acceptable conditions in wilderness

The limits of acceptable change (LAC) planning framework recognizes that forest managers must decide what indicators of wilderness conditions best represent resource naturalness and high-quality visitor experiences and how much change from the pristine is acceptable for each indicator. Visitor opinions on the aspects of the wilderness that have great impact on their experience can provide valuable input to selection of indicators. Cohutta, Georgia; Caney Creek, Arkansas; Upland Island, Texas; and Rattlesnake, Montana, wilderness visitors have high shared agreement that littering and damage to trees in campsites, noise, and seeing wildlife are very important influences on wilderness experiences. Camping within sight or sound of other people influences experience quality more than do encounters on the trails. Visitors’ standards of acceptable conditions within wilderness vary considerably, suggesting a potential need to manage different zones within wilderness for different clientele groups and experiences. Standards across wildernesses, however, are remarkably similar.     

The application of spatial‐perceptual wilderness mapping to protected areas management in New Zealand

The paper examines the application of a spatial‐perceptual approach to the wilderness management issue of preserving natural ecological processes while also permitting appropriate wilderness use in protected areas. An approach to delimit the spatial extent of multiple perceptions of wilderness held by backcountry users is used—the wilderness perception mapping (WPM) methodology. The results obtained from employing the WPM.methodology are considered for the North West Nelson region of New Zealand. The map product provides new and useful information that has applicability to protected areas management. The role of WPM is discussed with reference to wilderness management in North West Nelson and New Zealand, and to protected areas management in general. The study demonstrates how a technology can be combined with a critical and sensible analysis of needs and procedures to give useful results, and highlights the value of applied interdisciplinary research.     

Research Gaps Related to Forest Management and Stream Sediment in the United States

Water quality from forested landscapes tends to be very high but can deteriorate during and after silvicultural activities. Practices such as forest harvesting, site preparation, road construction/use, and stream crossings have been shown to contribute sediment, nutrients, and other pollutants to adjacent streams. Although advances in forest management accompanied with Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been very effective at reducing water quality impacts from forest operations, projected increases in demand for forest products may result in unintended environmental degradation. Through a review of the pertinent literature, we identified several research gaps related to water yield, aquatic habitat, sediment source and delivery, and BMP effectiveness that should be addressed for streams in the United States to better understand and address the environmental ramifications of current and future levels of timber production. We explored the current understanding of these topics based on relevant literature and the possible implications of increased demand for forest products in the United States.     

How important is wilderness? Results from a United States Survey

The designation and management of federal wilderness areas has generated much controversy in the United States. The decade of the 1980s has been a difficult one for public land managers as there has been growing opposition to their traditional “conserve but use philosophy.” Public lands are to be managed for the public benefit. Unfortunately there has been little survey research to find out what the attitudes of the public are towards the management of federally designated wilderness. We report the results of a national survey of 2670 residents of wilderness counties. We found that the presence of wilderness is an important reason why 53% of the people moved to or live in the area; 81% felt that wilderness areas are important to their counties; and 65% were against mineral or energy development in wilderness areas. On some issues there was less agreement as 43% of the respondents wanted more access to wilderness, and 39% were in favor of additional wilderness with 26% undecided. There were no large differences between counties and regions despite the differences in economic and social characteristics and the historical contexts within which they evolved.     

The (un)common good: diverging justifications for wilderness making in a modified landscape

ABSTRACT

Wilderness is most often conceived as comprising large remote areas where evidence of human influence is slight. Little attention has been afforded to the study of wilderness ‘making’ in smaller landscapes that have been heavily modified by human activity. This paper addresses this knowledge deficit by employing the pragmatic sociology of Boltanski and Thévenot to analyse a case study of wilderness making in the west of Ireland. The application of this framework illustrates how contending positions on ‘why’ wilderness making should occur and ‘how’ it should be conducted reflect ethical frameworks rooted in different conceptions of the ‘common good’ presented by the idea of wilderness. The paper demonstrates the difficulties with developing such a new nature-based concept in the absence of conventional (received) ideas of wilderness by revealing how the diverging justifications used suggest incommensurability in the competing notions of wilderness that are formulated and advanced.     

Assessing the Transactional Nature of Wilderness Experiences: Construct Validation of the Wilderness-Hassles Appraisal Scale

Concerns over the increasing popularity of wilderness recreation have resulted in attempts to determine the amount of use that different areas can tolerate without adverse affects to the resource. Early attempts to establish recreational carrying capacities focused on managers' assessments of biophysical impacts. The perceptions of wilderness visitors, however, are now considered integral to capacity decisions. This study used a stress appraisal framework to understand wilderness visitors' perceptions of on-site conditions. It was based on the premise that negative appraisals of wilderness conditions produce stress and that individual perceptions vary based on personal and situational characteristics. The purpose of the study was to assess the validity of a wilderness-hassles appraisal scale by testing hypothesized relationships between experience-use history (EUH), place attachment, and stress appraisal. Data collection occurred through a postal survey of hikers (n = 385) contacted in the High Peaks and Pemigewasset Wilderness Areas during the summer of 2004. An exploratory factor analysis indicated that stress appraisal is a multi-dimensional construct. Validity testing procedures were restricted to those dimensions that were consistent between study areas and provided partial support for the hassles scale. As hypothesized, EUH did not influence perceptions of wilderness conditions. Place attachment, on the other hand, was positively correlated with stressful appraisals of social and managerial conditions. Although Kruskall Wallis tests revealed significant differences in visitors' perceptions of managerial conditions between study sites, perceptions of social conditions did not vary significantly. Implications for management and recommendations for further refinement of the wilderness hassles construct are discussed.     

FOREST HYDROLOGY ISSUES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: A CONSULTANT'S VIEWPOINT1

ABSTRACT: Forest hydrology should be a mature science with routine use of hydrological procedures to evaluate the effect of past, current and proposed harvesting practices on water resources. It is not. However, water users are pressuring forest managers to exercise their role in managing forested watersheds for water supply. Most forest managers are poorly equipped to carry out this role. Forestry schools need to ensure that their graduates, whether employed in forest management positions or as specialists in watershed management, understand that all forestry operations may affect instream or downstream water users. Specialists in forest hydrology should be fully aware of the following: (1) climate and watershed characteristics influence streamflow in separate ways; (2) forestry practices produce changes in water yield and quality, and that only these changes need to be evaluated to estimate their effects; (3) watershed storage is a critical factor in evaluating the effects of harvesting on streamflow; and (4) the effect of harvest on one watershed cannot be extrapolated to another without consideration of the processes affected. Research is needed to assist watershed managers in applying models to watersheds for which climate and streamflow data are insufficient. Research is also needed to incorporate climate, streamflow and other data for hydrological models into geographic information systems. Joint research projects are needed to develop physical relationships between stream channel characteristics of importance to fisheries biologists and streamflow characteristics affected by forest harvest.     

Adaptive Capacity and Community-Based Natural Resource Management

Why do some community-based natural resource management strategies perform better than others? Commons theorists have approached this question by developing institutional design principles to address collective choice situations, while other analysts have critiqued the underlying assumptions of community-based resource management. However, efforts to enhance community-based natural resource management performance also require an analysis of exogenous and endogenous variables that influence how social actors not only act collectively but do so in ways that respond to changing circumstances, foster learning, and build capacity for management adaptation. Drawing on examples from northern Canada and Southeast Asia, this article examines the relationship among adaptive capacity, community-based resource management performance, and the socio-institutional determinants of collective action, such as technical, financial, and legal constraints, and complex issues of politics, scale, knowledge, community and culture. An emphasis on adaptive capacity responds to a conceptual weakness in community-based natural resource management and highlights an emerging research and policy discourse that builds upon static design principles and the contested concepts in current management practice.     

The aesthetics of forestry: What has empirical preference research taught us?

Multiple-use forest management has come to include an attention to scenic values, and methods are being developed to incorporate aesthetic considerations into decision making. A considerable body of scientific research has been conducted exploring public preferences for forest landscapes and intersubjective and contextual influences upon their perception. This research is surveyed. Findings regarding the perception of forest conditions, such as tree density and size, ground cover, species makeup and nonmanagement are considered. The scenic effects of forest treatments such as thinning, burning, and chemical application are outlined. Findings for harvest and regeneration practices such as clear-cutting, shelterwoods, selection cuts, and slash treatments are reported. Advances that consider the effects of time upon forest beauty and experiences are explored, along with a problem in multiple-use evaluation of scenic changes. Research on these topics and on observer intersubjective problems and general theory development is supported as a course of advancement in the field.