Bo Shelby

Comparative analysis of crowding in multiple locations: results from fifteen years of research.

Abstract Crowding is one of the most frequently studied phenomena in the outdoor recreation literature, but almost all the research focuses on single populations or settings and individual‐level analysis. The present study uses comparative analysis of aggregate data to explore questions that single studies cannot answer. Data come from more than 17,000 individuals in 35 studies of 59 different settings or activities located throughout the northeast, midwest, and northwest United States and New Zealand. All the studies used the same single‐item measure to assess visitor judgments of crowding. Dividing the nine‐point response scale to reflect the percentage of respondents reporting some degree of crowding produced a single crowding rating for each setting. Crowding scores ranged from 12 to 100%, with a mean of 57% (standard deviation, 22%). The analyses suggest that crowding varies by time, resource availability, accessibility and convenience, and management strategy. Factors that did not affect crowding in...

Backcountry encounter norms: theory, method and empirical evidence.

Efforts to understand the impacts resulting from visitors in backcountry settings have increasingly turned to normative explanations. This paper builds on earlier review articles by providing a con...

Norms, standards, and natural resources

The normative approach in natural resource management illustrates the progress that has been made in advancing theory and application in outdoor recreation research. This article integrates findings from a number of different studies to highlight the utility of the normative approach and provide an example of how efforts focused on a particular theoretical approach can enhance the quality of scientific research. Findings from both social and ecological impact studies are examined. Topics include norms for encounters, ecological impacts, aesthetic impacts, and instream flows. A number of considerations for future research are presented, including the definition of norms, norm salience, norm consensus, question construction, and statistics for measuring norms.

Differences in reported satisfaction ratings by consumptive and nonconsumptive recreationists.

This paper theorizes that participants in consumptive and nonconsumptive activities differ in terms of the specificity and clarity of their recreation goals and their control in achieving these goa...

Displacement and Product Shift: Empirical Evidence From Oregon Rivers

Satisfaction has frequently been suggested as a goal for recreation management, but empirical research has not supported the simple bivariate density-satisfaction model. Explanations for these findings have included displacement (those dissatisfied with crowding or resource impacts move to more remote sites) and product shift (users respond to increasing densities by changing their definitions of recreation experiences). This paper explores these hypotheses using data gathered on the Rogue River in 1977 and 1984 and the Illinois River in 1979. In a situation where use levels are increasing, it is predicted that 1) users are more likely to be displaced or change experience definitions than to become dissatisfied, 2) reasons for displacement will include social and environmental factors, 3) experience definitions will change toward higher density experiences, 4) encounter norms will change to higher levels, 5) perceived crowding will not change, and 6) satisfaction will remain high. These predictions were g...

A conceptual framework for carrying capacity determination

Abstract Establishing a carrying capacity involves both descriptive and evaluative components. The descriptive component includes management parameters, the factors that managers can manipulate, and impact parameters, which describe the consequences of different management regimes. Different types of capacities (ecological, social, physical, or facility) focus on different types of impact. The evaluative component involves value judgments regarding the type of experience to be offered and specific standards defining the important dimensions of that experience. Capacity determination requires integration of both components; carrying capacity can be defined as the level of use beyond which impacts exceed acceptable levels specified by evaluative standards. Conditions necessary for capacity determination are specified, and extensions made by Graefe et al. beyond this model are discussed.

Resource and activity substitutes for recreational salmon fishing in New Zealand

Abstract This article develops a typology of substitution alternatives to clarify the relationship between resource and activity substitutes. The present study examines anglers’ perceptions of resource and activity substitutes for salmon angling on the Rakaia and Waimakariri Rivers. Both rivers are noted for good quality fishing and are close enough for day trips from Christchurch, the major population center on New Zealands South Island. For resource substitutes, most anglers indicated that rivers distant from Christchurch were not substitutes because the drive took too long; the expense and low salmon numbers were less frequently cited reasons. For rivers close to Christchurch that were not considered substitutes, fewer salmon and poor fishing conditions were the more common reasons. Anglers were also asked about trade‐offs between the Rakaia and Waimakariri. Responses indicated that the two rivers are not considered equal in value even though they are most often named by anglers as the best substitute...

Comparing methods for determining visitor evaluations of ecological impacts: site visits, photographs, and written descriptions

This study applies and extends work on landscape assessment by comparing three methods for gathering evaluative data from users of wilderness campsites. On the basis of previous studies, it was hyp...

Expectations, preferences, and feeling crowded in recreation activities.

Abstract Efforts to reduce crowding often assume that increased density or encounter levels cause increased crowding. However, the social psychology literature argues that crowding involves an evaluative dimension and is thus susceptible to subjective factors. This paper explores the individual and combined effects of encounters, expectations, and preferences on perceived crowding, using six data sets representing over 3,000 people engaged in three different recreation activities. Results show independent effects of encounters, seeing more people than expected, and seeing more than preferred. In addition, regression equations including preference and expectation variables better predict perceived crowding than encounters alone. Results suggest that perceived crowding can be reduced by providing information that makes expectations realistic and allows visitors to select the densities they prefer.

Types of Norms for Recreation Impacts: Extending the Social Norms Concept

Evaluative information about appropriate use conditions is a necessary component of managing impacts in recreation settings. Social norm theory, which suggests there may be group agreement about ap...