Camping in clearcuts: The impacts of timber harvesting on USFS campground utilization

Abstract

This research applies a temporally and spatially explicit model to analyze timber harvesting's impact on campground utilization on United States Forest Service (USFS) land across the Western U.S. Timber harvesting and camping can occur near one another due to multiple-use management strategies used by the USFS. However, intensive forest management can change the degree of perceived naturalness of a forest and may therefore negatively impact recreation. We investigate several facets of harvesting activity, such as proximity to camping, type of harvesting, regional differences, and persisting lagged impacts of timber harvesting. We find that harvesting activity significantly decreases campground reservations during the year of harvest, and this loss in campground utilization can be expected to have negative impacts on nearby tourism-dependent economies. Management implications•Intensive forest management generally negatively impacts campground utilization during the years of operations•Public land managers, such as the USFS, may seek to locate timber harvesting operations further from campgrounds if they wish to not negatively impact campground usage•Alternative, less-intensive, forms of forest management decrease nearby campground utilization less than timber harvesting, so do not necessarily need to be located further from campgrounds to avoid losses in their utilization•Decreased campground visitation due to timber harvesting may imply lower visitation to nearby gateway communities, and therefore less economic stimulation and spending in their economies, which may create an incentive for gateway communities to be involved in the harvest planning process