Scaling Up and Scaling Out: Engaging Wildlife Managers in System-Wide Visitor Use Thinking

Abstract

Many U.S. public land management agencies commit to simultaneously maintaining and improving natural resources conditions (e.g., wildlife, wildlife habitat, wetlands, forests) and visitor experiences. This challenging balance necessitates the use of recreation frameworks, collaboration, and an understanding of social-ecological systems to uphold agency visions. However, frameworks require managers to have prior knowledge about on-site conditions, and investigations are generally pursued for single sites or a handful of sites experiencing similar visitor use related issues (e.g., a visitor use management plan for Joshua Tree National Park, a recreation impact assessment for the White Mountain National Forest). Increasingly, managers need to consider protected area systems spanning large geographies (e.g., state, country). This can be challenging when agencies are constrained by staffing abilities to conduct comprehensive assessments of on-site conditions, when there have been limited past assessments of social conditions for select public lands in the system, or when systems are increasingly diverse and composed of many different land designation types (e.g., state wildlife management area, state game area, managed waterfowl production area, grouse enhanced management sites). However, social scientists are well positioned to aid resource managers in understanding visitor use patterns across their systems in collaborative and scientifically-sound ways. Accordingly, the intent of our research is to bolster the site selection process for visitor use studies within public land systems. We describe a story of success involving Michigan-based wildlife managers and social scientists using a Delphi method to structure mutual learning and the Integrated Recreation Amenities Framework to conceptualize and categorize public lands to meaningfully select 10 sites for a visitor use study that are representative of the state’s wildlife area system of 200+ sites.