Page 45 - A bird’s-eye view of recreation - Rogier Pouwels

The design dimension evaluates the effect of management plans toward realization of both recreation and nature goals. Plans for both nature enhancement and recreational access should be subjected to this evaluation. Few researchers have used models and monitoring data to integrate recreation and nature goals in evaluating future designs of an area, including Poe et al. (2006), Henkens et al. (2006) and Liley et al. (2006). In these models functional relationships are established between attributes managers can control and desired management goals.
Integration is possible only when the impacts of recreation and wildlife on each
other are well understood. This is indicated by the arrow between the monitoring
dimensions. However, monitoring is rarely integrated. Social scientists tend to monitor 3 motivation and experience of visitors and ecologists tend to focus on recreation impact
on animal behavior. Within the proposed framework, monitoring research should
result in a description of the functional relationships between attributes that managers
can control and the outcomes that managers seek (Cole 2004). Goal setting is rarely
integrated. The inability to resolve the competing values of a diverse public (Cole 2004)
make it difficult to establish agreed upon standards (Seidl and Tisdell 1999). Most so-
called integrated goals are in fact nature goals that restrict recreation behavior within a
certain distance or period of time from nests or colonies of sensitive birds (e.g. Moran-
Lopez et al. 2006).
3.2 Recreation impact
Research examining the impact of recreation on animals is diverse (Hill et al. 1997, Blanc et al. 2006). This research can be categorized into four types (Gill 2007): change in distribution; change in behavior; change in demography; and change in population size and persistence. First, densities of birds are lower near paths (Vos and Peltzer 1987, Van der Zande and Vos 1984, Yalden and Yalden 1990, Riffel et al. 1996, Miller et al. 1998, Langston et al. 2007, Mallord et al. 2007 and O'Connell et al. 2007). Vos and Peltzer (1987) also illustrate that the intensity of use increases the distance over which this reduction occurs (Fig. 2).
Linking ecological and recreation models
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