Michael E. Patterson

An hermeneutic approach to studying the nature of wilderness experiences.

The most prevalent approach to understanding recreation experiences in resource management has been a motivational research program that views satisfaction as an appropriate indicator of experience quality. This research explores a different approach to studying the quality of recreation experiences. Rather than viewing recreation experiences as a linear sequence of events beginning with expectations and ending with outcomes that are then cognitively compared to determine experience quality, this alternative approach views recreation as an emergent experience motivated by the not very well-defined goal of acquiring stories that ultimately enrich ones life. Further, it assumes that the nature of human experience is best characterized by situated freedom in which the environment sets boundaries that constrain the nature of the experience, but that within those boundaries recreationists are free to experience the world in unique and variable ways. Therefore this alternative approach seeks a more context specific description of the setting/experience relationship that is intended to complement more general management frameworks (e.g., the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum) developed in conjunction with the motivational research program.

Barriers to Effective Natural Resource Planning in a "Messy" World

In the increasingly wicked and messy world in which natural resource planners function, traditional rational-comprehensive planning processes seem to function poorly, exacerbating already contentious situations, leading to decision paralysis and public dissatisfaction. New paradigms for natural resource planning have been recommended by many academics, planning theorists, and practitioners. Understanding the barriers experienced in current planning processes may suggest design criteria for these new processes. This study of planners, using a qualitative methodology, in four typical Western U.S. planning situations revealed some fundamental barriers to their effectiveness. These included lack of agreement on goals, rigidity in process design, procedural obligations and requirements. and a lack of trust. More fundamentally, institutional barriers in the design of natural resource planning processes often lead to these more operational level issues. The authors pose a heuristic model for understanding the linkages among these barriers.

Environmental Meaning and Ecosystem Management: Perspectives from Environmental Psychology and Human Geography

The contribution of human dimensions research to the ecological paradigm emerging in natural resource management involves the development of contextually rich, and spatially and historically specific, understandings of places. As an eclectic and integrative field of inquiry, environmental psychology offers a growing body of research that promotes a view of the person as a social agent who seeks out and creates meaning in the environment. As developed in environmental psychology, research from the adaptive, goal‐directed, and sociocultural paradigms is reviewed to illustrate alternative approaches to studying environmental meaning. These paradigms, taken together, provide complementary conceptual approaches for assessment and mapping of the diverse and often competing environmental meanings that various constituencies attach to natural resources. From human geography, the concept of place offers a framework for integrating environmental meanings into ecosystem management. Place constitutes a concrete focal...

Women, Wilderness, and Everyday life: A Documentation of the Connection between Wilderness Recreation and Women's Everyday lives

Past research provides evidence that outdoor recreation can aid in our deconstruction of gender and gender stereotyping (Henderson, Bialeschki, Shaw, & Freysinger, 1996). Outcomes from recreational experiences can transfer into other realms of daily life, resulting in a heightened sense of empowerment and social change for women (Henderson, 1996). Scarce, however, are conceptual frameworks for understanding how and why meaningful changes take place when women experience the outdoors. In examining the connection between wilderness recreation and social change for women, data were collected from twenty-four qualitative interviews with women who recreate in wilderness. Analysis indicated wilderness recreation can influence womens everyday lives in the forms of self-sufficiency, a shift in perspective, connection to others, and mental clarity.

Paradigms and problems: The practice of social science in natural resource management

Increasingly, natural resource management is seeing calls for new paradigms. These calls pose challenges that have implications not only for planning and management, but also for the practice of science. As a consequence, the profession needs to deepen its understanding of the nature of science by exploring recent advances in the philosophy of science. We believe that one of the problems inhibiting a better understanding of science is a strongly ingrained belief that science is about methodology. This perspective is reflected in Hetherington, Daniel, and Browns (1994) recent criticism of Bengstons (1994) methodological pluralism. To initiate discussions that may help bring about a reconsideration of the nature of science, we offer a two‐part definition of science. The first portrays science as a systematic endeavor that shares a common process without mandating a common methodology. The second part is an attempt to highlight and promote an exploration of the normative structure that underlies science.

The urbanization of wildlife management: Social science, conflict, and decision making

Increasing urbanization of rural landscapes has created new challenges for wildlife management. In addition to changes in the physical landscape, urbanization has also produced changes in the socio-cultural landscape. The greater distancing from direct interaction with wildlife in urbanized societies has led to the emergence of a culture whose meanings for wildlife are less grounded in the utilitarian/instrumental orientation of rural agrarian systems. Urban perspectives on wildlife are comprised of more highly individualized emotional/symbolic values. This shift creates two problems with respect to managing wildlife in an urbanizing landscape. First the increased diversity in values and meanings increases the likelihood for social conflicts regarding wildlife management while at the same time making socially acceptable resolutions more intractable. This in turn requires fundamental changes in decision-making paradigms and the research approaches used to inform decision making. Second, as remaining rural communities feel the pressures of urbanization, wildlife conflicts become conflicts not just over wildlife but conflict over larger socio-political concepts such as equity, tradition, private property rights, government control, power, and acceptable forms of knowledge. This paper examines the wildlife management implications of changes associated with increasing urbanization and employs two case studies to illustrate these issues. First a study of a controversy over urban deer management provides insights into how to map conflicting values and search for common ground in an urban culture with increasingly individualistic values for wildlife. Specifically, the analysis illustrates that common ground may, at times, be found even among people with conflicting value systems. The second case study examined a ranching community faced with predator reintroduction. This case study illustrates tensions that occur when the community of interest (i.e. a national public) is broader than the community of place in which the problem occurs. In this latter situation, the debate centers around more than just different views about the rights of animals. It also entailed the rights of individuals and communities to decide their future. The conclusion discusses the need for wildlife institutions to adapt their underlying decision making philosophy including the way science is integrated into decision making processes in light of the changes in social context caused by urbanization.

Snapshots of What, Exactly? A Comment on Methodological Experimentation and Conceptual Foundations in Place Research

Place ideas in natural resource management have grown in recent years. But with that growth have come greater complexity and diversity in thinking and mounting confusion about the ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying any specific investigation. Beckley et al. (2007) contribute to place research by proposing a new methodological approach to analyzing attachments to place and exploring the relative importance of biophysical versus sociocultural attributes in determining place attachment. While our thinking has benefited from their contributions to place research, we see an increasing need to clarify the multiple and competing paths for place research easily obscured in the heap of similar-sounding place concepts. Our commentary cautions against philosophically unguided methodological experimentation and offers some critique of their conceptual approach to place.

The wolf viewing experience in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.

Reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park created an opportunity to recreationally view wolves in a manner that was unanticipated both in terms of frequency and popularity. During the summer and winter of 1999/2000 the authors conducted interviews to gain insight into the wolf watching experience. Results indicate that the Lamar Valley offers visitors an engaging wolf viewing experience opportunity that may be characterized as accessible authenticity. Visitors engaged in extended viewing events, which were characterized by anticipation, emotional involvement, drama, and mystery. Many of these elements were present even when respondents did not see wolves. The discussion considers the viewing experience in the Lamar Valley in light of other wildlife viewing opportunities.

Evaluating the Construct Validity of Sense of Belonging as a Measure of Landscape Perception

The construct validity of measures of sense of belonging to a recreational landscape is examined. The evaluation of construct validity emphasizes two concerns: (1) the empirical relationship between measures of two theoretically distinct concepts (belonging and visual preference); (2) the empirical relationship between measures of these concepts and theoretically relevant visitor characteristics. Visitor responses to photo-based measures of belonging and visual preference, as well as a verbal measure of belonging, were obtained during on-site interviews at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, Tennessee. The results suggested that the photo-based measures of visual preference and belonging were highly correlated, but the verbal measure of belonging was not highly correlated with either photo-based measure. Thus, although the convergent validity of the belonging measures was not supported, the results did support the discriminant validity of the verbal measure of belonging. In addition, concurrent validity was supported by the finding that visitor characteristics that were conceptually linked to belonging were related to measures of belonging. Overall, the majority of results supported the construct validity of a verbal measure of belonging. However, unexpected differences between the verbal and photo-based measures suggest several interpretations related to construct validity that focus on the spatial representation of belonging measures and the social context of the landscape.

Place Mapping and the Role of Spatial Scale in Understanding Landowner Views of Fire and Fuels Management

Place mapping is emerging as a way to understand the spatial components of peoples relationships with particular locations and how these relate to support for management proposals. But despite the spatial focus of place mapping, scale is rarely explicitly examined in such exercises. This is particularly problematic since scalar definitions and configurations have implications for research results. In this study, we examine the relationship between place meanings and views on fire and fuels management through in-depth interviews and computer-based mapping with forest landowners. While landowners readily described and mapped special places, these places did not influence views on fire and fuels management, views that were situated almost entirely at larger scales and explained by broader worldviews and political ideologies. Because research results may be an artifact of measurement, place-mapping efforts need to carefully consider scale to ensure that public views are appropriately characterized for decision makers.