Public Land Management Agencies Research Articles

Crawling with a vehicle: Rock-crawlers’ recreation specialization, motivation, and sources of challenges

Rock crawling, an off-road vehicle (ORV) activity for which drivers use highly modified ORVs to climb over extreme terrain and rock obstacles, is an outdoor adventure activity. This thrill-seeking outdoor activity requires specialized skills and knowledge to overcome challenges and remain engaged. This study aims to investigate the relationship between rock crawlers' motivations and the sources of challenges, as well as variations in that relationship due to the different levels of specialization among rock crawlers. A total of 377 rock crawling participants completed the online survey, with 11% self-classifying as novice rock crawlers, 46% as intermediate rock crawlers, and 43% as advanced rock crawlers. Through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), four motivation factors and seven sources of rock crawling challenges were identified. The results of canonical correlation analysis revealed positive associations between rock crawlers' motivations, including socialization, relaxation and freedom, self-expression, and sense of achievement, and the sources of challenges such as environmental uncertainty, activity difficulty, and competition in rock crawling. Furthermore, the results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated variations in rock crawlers’ motivations and sources of challenges across the three specialized groups. Management implicationsThe study aims to assist public land management agencies in integrating social science research into the decision-making process and sustainable management for off-roading on public land. To operate a sustainable rock crawling program, management should emphasize: (1) providing sufficient accommodations and access to fulfill socialization needs while ensuring safety; (2) organizing special events or competitions to enhance rock crawlers’ psychological well-being and life satisfaction; (3) executing targeted marketing campaigns to attract committed or advanced rock crawlers, thereby contributing to the local economy; and (4) advocating for clean energy consumption and regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

36 Beyond Environmentally Adapted, Towards Ecologically Purposed: Sheep Production in the Us West

Abstract Consumer demand for sheep products is robust, the annual consumption of U.S. lamb is steadily rising, and the number of U.S. sheep farms is increasing. Nevertheless, the U.S. sheep industry continues to lose market share to foreign competitors and the breeding ewe inventory has declined 30% since 2002. This decline has been more drastic in the upper U.S. Mountain West states, where ewe inventories have declined 37% compared with the national average decline of 26%. This is problematic given the Mountain West generates one-third and one-half of the total U.S. lamb crop and wool revenue, respectively. This depopulation trend indicates obstacles unique to the Mountain West, which are not experienced elsewhere in the nation. Mountain West sheep production systems depend on both private and public rangelands for grazing, which must co-exist with many other goals for public lands, including species conservation and critical wildlife habitat. Extensive conversion of native rangeland to croplands, rural housing, and degraded grasslands has simultaneously resulted in a substantial loss of wildlife habitat, thus creating competing ideologies for how remaining rangelands should be managed. Accordingly, public land management agencies are constantly pressured to change land management plans to accommodate public agendas aimed at restricting or halting livestock grazing on public lands with the assumption wildlife habitat will automatically improve. Such exclusion of grazing from public lands has negatively impacted operational capacity of sheep ranches, thus posing serious threats to the U.S. sheep industry and its contributions towards national food security, rural communities, and rangeland conservation. Therefore, to maintain grazing access to public lands, sheep producers and land managers urgently need tools (e.g., management, genetic) to optimize both conservation and production outcomes synergistically. However, ecological and sheep genetic outcomes have thus far been considered separate rather than integrated goals. Traditional genetic improvements in sheep production are focused strictly on the sheep without regard to the ecological outcome. In other words, the “ecosystem” is only considered to achieve profitable production within that environment. With this in mind, can sheep research move beyond the traditional focus of “environmentally adapted” flocks to “ecologically purposed” flocks? We propose that heritable ecologically focused traits can be identified and used to complement the overall sheep genetic improvement goals of the industry while creating precision-based solutions for sustainable habitat management, such as mitigating catastrophic wildfire risk, halting noxious weed invasion, and shaping vegetative structure of native plant communities towards desirable rangeland and conservation goals. We believe such outcomes extend beyond shaping public opinion about sheep grazing but also towards introducing novel value-based marketable products from the sheep industry.

Transformative potential of nature-based values that influence the relationships between reported and intended pro-environmental behavior

Protected area landscapes embody multiple values of nature that can create meaning in everyday life. Though the values ascribed to these environments theoretically inspire changes in human behavior, surprisingly few studies have empirically evaluated how ‘specific values’ affect actions that benefit the environment. We used Public Participation in Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) methods to evaluate the relationships among four nature-based values and the patterns of both reported and intended behavior among visitors to Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA (n = 667). We found that wilderness, recreation, ecological integrity, and scientific qualities of places were particularly important for characterizing the Denali landscape and accounted for more variation in intended than reported pro-environmental behaviors. We provide new insights on how nature-based values underpin the decisions of visitors and lead to transformative changes after experiencing a high profile, charismatic protected area. Understanding the reasons why people forge connections with natural areas and modeling how these associations relate to different types of behavior advances knowledge of how to effectively build environmental stewardship and guide public land management decisions. Management implicationsFindings from this study provide public land management agencies with insight on what people value in protected areas, the locations they appreciate, and how their experiences may influence their behaviors after returning home. We contend that “nature-based values” that encompass recreation, ecological integrity, wilderness, and scientific qualities of nature are particularly important to visitors and can provide a basis for communication about high and low priority places, as well as spatially explicit guidance for management agencies. Also, we show that as nature-based values increase, so do the reported and intended actions of people who visit Denali National Park and Preserve. As such, these multiple values of nature should be harnessed to inspire and energize more environmentally friendly practices in the future.

Prioritizing science efforts to inform decision making on public lands

Public land management agencies in the US are committed to using science‐informed decision making, but there has been little research on the types and topics of science that managers need most to inform their decisions. We used the National Environmental Policy Act to identify four types of science information needed for making decisions relevant to public lands: (1) data on resources of concern, (2) scientific studies relevant to potential effects of proposed actions, (3) methods for quantifying potential effects of proposed actions, and (4) effective mitigation measures. We then used this framework to analyze 70 Environmental Assessments completed by the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado. Commonly proposed actions were oil and gas development, livestock grazing, land transactions, and recreation. Commonly analyzed resources included terrestrial wildlife, protected birds, vegetation, and soils. Focusing research efforts on the intersection of these resources and actions, and on developing and evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation measures to protect these resources, could strengthen the science foundation for public lands decision making.

Integrating traditional ecological knowledge into US public land management: Knowledge gaps and research priorities

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is an understanding of natural systems acquired through long-term human interactions with particular landscapes. Traditional knowledge systems complement western scientific disciplines by providing a holistic assessment of ecosystem dynamics and extending the time horizon of ecological observations. Integration of TEK into land management is a key priority of numerous groups, including the United Nations and US public land management agencies; however, TEK principles have rarely been enshrined in national-level US policy or planning. We review over 20 years of TEK literature to describe key applications of TEK to ecological understanding, conservation, restoration and land management generally. By identifying knowledge gaps, we highlight research avenues to support the integration of TEK into US public land management, in order to enhance conservation approaches and participation of historically underrepresented groups, particularly American Indian Tribes, in the stewardship of ancestral lands critical to the practice of living cultural traditions.

Understanding Perceptions of Climate Change Scenario Planning in United States Public Land Management Agencies

As climate change increasingly challenges the capacity of traditional decision-making modalities to contend with mounting complexities and uncertainties, natural resource management agencies have increasingly turned to nontraditional modes of planning and decision-making such as ‘futuring. Futuring methods, such as scenarios, have been increasingly utilized around the world. In the US, however, there has been a limited uptake of these tools across public land management and a preference for more traditional forecasting tools. This article explores some possibilities about why this is the case and aims to identify potential pathways forward. Drawing on 28 exploratory interviews with public land managers from the US Forest Service and others, a variety of benefits to scenario use were identified including: (1) mitigation of climate skepticism; (2) more robust capture of uncertainty, complexity, and the potential for surprise posed by climate change; and (3) potential for social learning. Barriers identified included: (1) difficulty in understanding the process, (2) bureaucratic concerns about time, staffing, and funding, and (3) a lack of an agency ‘champion’. However, concerns about the epistemological and institutional fit of nontraditional planning and decision-making tools like scenario processes predominated across the interviews. Interviewees also identified what we call ‘streamlining’ and ‘mainstreaming’ as potential pathways to integrate scenario processes into planning and decision-making.

A microeconometric analysis of wildfire suppression decisions in the Western United States

Full suppression strategies remain the dominant option in wildfire management, despite a large body of research demonstrating the ecological and economic benefits of allowing unplanned wildfires to burn under favorable conditions. Consequently, empirical research identifying and understanding the factors that contribute to these decisions within public land management agencies has become of critical importance in efforts to improve management outcomes. This paper assesses the importance of a set of institutional and socioeconomic factors with a random utility model of incident commander suppression decisions. We compare the importance of these factors on chosen strategies before and after an update to federal fire policy implementation guidance and an associated change to federal fire budgeting policy implemented in Fiscal Year 2010. We find that while the update to federal fire policy guidance may have been effective at increasing the probability that managers adopted a strategy other than full suppression, the subsequent increase in suppression budget allotments offset this impact, rendering no true difference in probabilities after the policy change.

Scenario planning as a tool to manage tourism uncertainties during the era of COVID-19: a case study of Arizona, USA

ABSTRACT As the tourism industry faces a long road to full recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study utilized a scenario planning method to depict widely contrasting conditions in which tourism recovery in the U.S. state of Arizona will need to navigate. To collect data, we held a scenario planning session in June 2020 with 24 participants representing various stakeholder groups, such as public land management agencies, tourism businesses, destination management organizations, and a multidisciplinary panel of experts from the fields of public health, transportation, travel and tourism, and epidemiology. Six critical drivers of tourism recovery were identified, which included public health status, performance of the economy, destination availability, government policy, consumer confidence, and leadership messaging. Among these six critical drivers, public health status and performance of the economy were determined to be the two most influential and most uncertain determinants of tourism recovery and were used to develop four plausible scenarios consisting of a worst-case, best-case and two mid-level scenarios. As social inequities and economic and public health devastation appeared in the scenarios, the crucial methodological contributions and implications for tourism stakeholders, including destination communities, destination managers and local governments, are discussed.

Elucidating social-ecological perceptions of a protected area system in Interior Alaska: a fuzzy cognitive mapping approach

The Interior of Alaska is one of the few remaining places in the world with intact ecosystems. Protected areas in this region, particularly Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, are high-profile tourism destinations situated in a rural landscape that is inhabited by a diverse array of stakeholders. Public land management agencies are faced with the challenging task of engaging these rural residents in discussions about their relationships with a rapidly changing landscape to understand change and growth. This study evaluated residents’ perceptions of social and ecological dynamics of protected areas in Interior Alaska using data from fuzzy cognitive mapping exercises that were part of focus groups and interviews across six local communities. Guided by an exploratory resilience framework, we established a baseline understanding of features that characterized social and ecological conditions at a regional scale. Results showed how residents valued a variety of socio-cultural, socioeconomic, and ecological features of the landscape. The region was predominantly characterized by tourism, sense of community, subsistence, and wilderness. Climate change and large-scale development were the primary drivers of change. Our findings also showed that although the characterization of the region was shared in many ways, there were nuanced differences articulated by residents in each community that warrant attention. These findings provide a structured platform for building resilience and interpreting variability in visions for the future.

How Cattle and Wild Ungulate Use of Riparian Areas Effects Measures of Streambank Disturbance

Improper management of cattle near streams can negatively affect the processes that support stream and riparian ecosystems. To judge the success of riparian management strategies, public land management agencies often evaluate two metrics of livestock disturbance, stubble height and streambank alteration. There are concerns associated with how well these disturbance metrics reflect livestock use and incorporate additional effects due to wild ungulates. We sought to address these questions in 39 riparian areas by using time-lapse cameras to estimate ungulate use and then measuring near stream ungulate disturbance in these same reaches. We found daytime measures of livestock use were related to stubble height and streambank alteration. Explaining the variation in the relationship between stubble height and livestock use was improved by incorporating covariates, whereas covariates did little to improve our understanding of streambank alteration. This suggests greater flexibility in how different stream reaches are managed when stubble height is the guideline. As streambank alteration was explained solely by ungulate use, the simplest way to reduce disturbance was to reduce use. In most stream reaches, the additive presence of wild ungulates was minimal but sufficient to be included in the best models describing the effects of ungulate disturbance. On most days, no cattle were seen in the evaluated riparian reaches. Although large groups of cattle (> 20 individuals) were occasionally observed within riparian areas, they generally occurred in small groups of one to four individuals. Across the riparian reaches we evaluated, cattle presence and density were generally low enough that metrics of livestock disturbance suggested little risk to stream conditions important to aquatic biota. However, there were some riparian areas where cattle stayed too long or occurred in large enough numbers that their use along the streambanks could negatively affect stream habitat conditions.

Understanding the role of local knowledge in the spatial dynamics of social values expressed by stakeholders

Understanding the myriad reasons why people value protected areas provides insight on how to align the decisions made by public land management agencies with diverse stakeholder interests. This study drew on survey data collected within the context of Denali National Park and Preserve to better understand the spatial dynamics of social values reported by frontcountry and backcountry recreationists that held differing degrees of local knowledge. Using a Public Participation in Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) exercise and Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) mapping application, we observed differences in the point allocation and spatial distribution of social values associated with a protected area landscape. Wilderness, aesthetics and ecological integrity were the primary social values embodied by places within Denali. Backcountry recreationists engaged with a broader range of values and derived deeper benefits from recreation and therapeutic qualities of the landscape, whereas frontcountry recreationists expressed multiple, concentrated values for places in Denali that were accessible and symbolically important. We also observed that local knowledge provided a useful basis for better understanding social values, yet variation in knowledge was not spatially manifested. Our findings therefore advance the spatial prioritization of conservation initiatives that aim to represent and legitimize the voices of stakeholders in protected areas.

Outdoor Programs for Veterans: Public Land Policies and Practices to Support Therapeutic Opportunities

Abstract Many veterans returning from military deployment experience stress- or trauma-related symptoms that make reintegration with civilian society difficult. Nature exposure and outdoor recreation can be important parts of alternative and complementary approaches to reduce symptoms and build on veterans’ pre-existing strengths. Multiple outdoor programs now exist for veterans; many of these occur on federal public lands and present a variety of needs, opportunities, and challenges. This paper relies on interviews (n = 36) with public land managers, program providers and participants, health professionals, and veterans to enhance understanding about outdoor programs for veterans (OPVs). We develop a typology of OPVs to help land managers understand current and potential programs, and then describe programs’ varying dimensions. We examine opportunities and challenges for land managers in their interactions with OPVs. Results inform policymakers and public officials interested in developing more effective institutional partnerships and programs that engage and serve veterans and their communities. Study Implications: With growing scientific evidence of the benefits of nature-based therapy, nature exposure, and outdoor recreation for veterans, programming for veterans on public lands has proliferated. Public land-management agencies vary in the extent to which they have systematically organized to provide opportunities for veterans, developed partnerships to support veterans’ health, and explicitly acknowledged agency roles in serving veterans. We describe seven types of outdoor programs for veterans (OPVs) that currently serve this population: supported outdoor activity; guided outdoor activity; retreat; outdoor job training; stewardship or service; horticulture, farming or gardening; and animal-assisted therapy. Each OPV type has different needs for infrastructure, outdoor spaces, and administrative or programmatic engagement. OPVs occurring on public lands typically involve one or more partner organizations, such as commercial outfitters and guides, health providers, veterans’ associations, foundations, corporations, and research institutions. There is potential for public land-management agencies to expand their role as institutional leaders in support of veterans’ health by facilitating the use of public lands as therapeutic landscapes. By enhancing new and existing relations with OPV providers, health providers, and other government agencies, public land agencies could expand benefits to veterans and spur broader societal benefits.

Partnerships to Take on Climate Change: Adaptation Forestry and Conifer Strongholds Projects in the Northwoods, Minnesota, USA

Abstract Northeastern Minnesota forests are vulnerable to declines in boreal tree species at their southern range limits. Temperate tree species may have a competitive advantage in this region as the climate warms. Enhancing the adaptive capacity of northern forests requires a multifaceted approach, one that involves cooperative relations given the region’s complex ownership patterns. In this context, a nongovernment conservation organization and public land-management agencies are partnering to test climate-informed forest management approaches, including: (1) Resilience, targeting northern conifer planting at “climate-resilient sites” with suitable microclimates to sustain boreal species over time; (2) Transition, catalyzing the shift to a temperate forest matrix using within-range plantings of native, climate-adapted tree species. Deployed together, Resilience and Transition strategies can help the Northwoods shift towards future forest conditions. Results from this work will help land managers make informed decisions about forest management and enhance landscape resilience in a changing climate.

Fee hikes at state parks in Georgia: Effects on visitation, revenues, welfare, and visitor diversity

Public land management agencies that provide outdoor recreation opportunities face financial constraints. Raising access fees is one approach to enhance fiscal sustainability. However, increased access costs may reduce visitation. Actual visitation changes are contingent on visitors’ price sensitivity, and these changes will influence revenue collection, visitor composition, changes in visitor welfare, and local economic impacts. Importantly, higher entrance fees may disproportionately affect visitors of different ethnicities and individuals from low-income populations. In this study, we developed a travel cost model using data collected during 2010 from 1,309 visitors across three state parks in northern Georgia to estimate the structure of recreation demand and the effects of potential fee increases across diverse populations. Results were applied to simulate the effects of various entrance fee levels on park revenue, visitor diversity, and visitor welfare, accounting for differential responses to fee hikes across different racial/ethnic groups. We found visitor demand to the parks was largely inelastic, signaling that decreases in visitation effected by a modest fee increase (e.g., from $5 to $8) would lead to higher total revenues. At higher fee values, decreased visitation offset potential revenue gains. Hispanics were less sensitive to entrance fee hikes than other visitors, suggesting that shifting fee structures could also impact visitor composition. If fees were to increase at state parks, the proportion of Hispanic visitors at parks would likely grow. This means that Hispanics would bear a disproportionate share of the cost burden under increasing fee scenarios. Additionally, state park recreation demand was highest among low-income visitors, suggesting that fee increases could have particularly significant negative impact on that group. To balance the possibly competing agency objectives of revenue generation and increased diversity, park managers may benefit from greater ex ante information provided by an applied framework like that developed in this analysis. Such analyses are expected to better inform management and policy makers concerning the likely economic effects of variation in state park access costs, including disproportionate impacts on racial/ethnic minorities. Subscribe to JPRA

Tradeoffs between US national forest harvest targets and fuel management to reduce wildfire transmission to the wildland urban interface

US public land management agencies are faced with multiple, often conflicting objectives to meet management targets and produce a wide range of ecosystem services expected from public lands. One example is managing the growing wildfire risk to human and ecological values while meeting programmatic harvest targets for economic outputs mandated in agency budgets. Studies examining strategic management tradeoffs on federal lands and program efficiencies are rare. In this study we used the 79 western US national forests to examine tradeoffs between forest management scenarios targeting wildfire risk to the wildland urban interface (WUI) and those meeting agency convertible volume production targets. We quantified production frontiers to measure how the efficiency of meeting harvest volume targets is affected by prioritizing treatments to areas that transmit fire to the WUI. The results showed strong tradeoffs and scale effects on production frontiers, and more importantly substantial variation among planning areas and national forests. Prioritizing treatments to reduce fire transmission to the WUI resulted in an average harvest volume reduction of about 248 m3 per ha treated. The analysis also identified opportunities where both management objectives can be achieved. This work represents the first large-scale tradeoff analysis for key management goals in forest and fuel management programs on national forests.

Values, Motivations, and Intentions to Engage in Proenvironmental Behavior

Knowledge of the relationships among psychological constructs such as values and motivations that influence proenvironmental behavior provides public land management agencies with guidance on how to minimize stakeholder impacts on the environment. A rich body of research has demonstrated that values form a tripartite structure underlying environmental concern, encompassing biospheric, egoistic, and altruistic values; however, recent work has suggested hedonic values are also an instrumental basis for environmental concern. Few studies have tested this proposition. We contend that hedonic values are instrumental in explaining the psychological processes that gird individual decisions, particularly in nature-based settings where stakeholder decisions are compelled by leisure pursuits. Our results indicate that place-based motivations, particularly escape from the pressures of everyday life, can help close the prominent value–action gap and explain why outdoor recreationists engage in minimum-impact activities specified in the U.S. Leave No Trace educational outreach program.

Effectiveness of prescribed fire to re-establish sagebrush steppe vegetation and ecohydrologic function on woodland-encroached sagebrush rangelands, Great Basin, USA: Part I: Vegetation, hydrology, and erosion responses

Pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodland encroachment has imperiled a broad ecological domain of the sagebrush steppe (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem in the Great Basin Region, USA. As these conifers increase in dominance on sagebrush rangelands, understory vegetation declines and ecohydrologic function can shift from biotic (vegetation) controlled retention of soil resources to abiotic (runoff) driven loss of soil resources and long-term site degradation. Scientists, public land management agencies, and private land owners are challenged with selecting and predicting outcomes to treatment alternatives to improve ecological structure and function on these rangelands. This study is the first of a two-part study to evaluate effectiveness of prescribed fire to re-establish sagebrush steppe vegetation and improve ecohydrologic function on mid- to late-succession pinyon-and juniper-encroached sagebrush sites in the Great Basin. We used a suite of vegetation and soil measures, small-plot (0.5 m2) rainfall simulations, and overland flow experiments (9 m2) to quantify the effects of tree removal by prescribed fire on vegetation, soils, and rainsplash, sheetflow, and concentrated flow hydrologic and erosion processes at two woodlands 9-yr after burning. For untreated conditions, extensive bare interspace (87% bare ground) throughout the degraded intercanopy (69–88% bare ground) between trees at both sites promoted high runoff and sediment yield from combined rainsplash and sheetflow (~45 mm, 59–381 g m−2) and concentrated flow (371–501 L, 2343–3015 g) processes during high intensity rainfall simulation (102 mm h−1, 45 min) and overland flow experiments (15, 30, and 45 L min−1, 8 min each). Burning increased canopy cover of native perennial herbaceous vegetation by >5-fold, on average, across both sites over nine growing seasons. Burning reduced low pre-fire sagebrush canopy cover (<1% to 14% average) at both sites and sagebrush recovery is expected to take >30 yr. Enhanced herbaceous cover in interspaces post-fire reduced runoff and sediment yield from high intensity rainfall simulations by >2-fold at both sites. Fire-induced increases in herbaceous canopy cover (from 34% to 62%) and litter ground cover (from 15% to 36%) reduced total runoff (from 501 L to 180 L) and sediment yield (from 2343 g to 115 g) from concentrated flow experiments in the intercanopy at one site. Sparser herbaceous vegetation (49% cover) and litter cover (8%) in the intercanopy at the other, more degraded site post-fire resulted in no significant reduction of total runoff (371 L to 266 L) and sediment yield (3015 g to 1982 g) for concentrated flow experiments. Areas underneath unburned shrub and tree canopies were well covered by vegetation and ground cover and generated limited runoff and sediment. Fire impacts on vegetation, ground cover, and runoff and sediment delivery from tree and shrub plots were highly variable. Burning litter covered areas underneath trees reduced perennial herbaceous vegetation and increased invasibility to the fire-prone annual cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.). Cheatgrass cover increased from <1% pre-fire to 16–30%, on average, post-fire across the sites and was primarily restricted to areas around burned trees. High herbaceous cover (73%) under burned trees at the less degraded site resulted in similar low total runoff and sediment from concentrated flow experiments as pre-fire (136–228 L, 204–423 g). In contrast, fire-reduction of litter (from 79% to 49%) resulted in increased total runoff (from 103 L to 333 L) and sediment yield (from 619 g to 2170 g) from concentrated flow experiments in burned tree areas at the more degraded site. The experimental results demonstrate pinyon and juniper removal by prescribed fire can effectively re-establish a successional trajectory towards sagebrush steppe vegetation structure and thereby improve ecohydrologic function. Responses to burning at the more degraded site suggest results should be interpreted with caution however. Although burning substantially increased perennial grass cover and reduced fine-scale runoff and erosion at the more degraded site, poor sagebrush recovery, delayed litter recruitment, and persistent high concentrated flow erosion at that site suggest not all sites are good candidates for prescribed fire treatments. Furthermore, high levels of cheatgrass in burned tree areas (~30% of area) at both sites increases wildfire risk, but cheatgrass is expected to decline over time in absence of fire. Our results in context with the literature suggest fire-surrogate tree-removal treatments (e.g., tree cutting or shredding) may be more appropriate on degraded sites with limited pre-treatment sagebrush and perennial herbaceous vegetation and that seeding may be necessary to improve post-fire establishment of sagebrush steppe vegetation structure and associated ecohydrologic function under these conditions. Lastly, vegetation, runoff, and erosion responses in this study are not directly applicable outside of the Great Basin, but similar responses in woodland studies from the southwestern US suggest potential application of results to woodlands in that region. The concept of re-establishing vegetation structure to improve ecohydrologic function is broadly applicable to sparsely vegetated lands around the World.

A GPS tracking study of recreationists in an Alaskan protected area

Understanding human movement and behavior in parks and protected areas is an integral part of managing social-ecological systems. In particular, spatial travel patterns of recreationists and their impacts on ecosystems have been studied in many protected area contexts. However, there is limited knowledge of recreation behavior in areas with little to no infrastructure or without formal trail systems. Drawing from Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking data, we identified travel patterns of recreationists in a nearly trail-less backcountry setting in Alaska. Specifically, we investigated the spatial and temporal dynamics of recreation use in relation to resource conditions experienced in Denali National Park and Preserve during the high-use season of 2016. We observed that recreationists' travel routes were heavily concentrated along the Denali Park Road and exhibited different spatial patterns for day and overnight backcountry use. Also, informal campsite locations, delineated using multi-day GPS tracking data, showed uneven distributions within the park. This study provides recommendations for public land management agencies in the US and highlights the need for more systematic evaluations of concentrated use in parks and protected areas.

Latino Outdoors: Using Storytelling and Social Media to Increase Diversity on Public Lands

In 2013, for the first time in United States history, more than 50% of children younger than age one were minorities. Latinos are the nation’s largest-growing minority group, and by 2050 are estimated to comprise 28% of the total U.S. population. Despite the exponential growth of minorities generally and Latinos in particular, landmanagement agencies have been slow in responding to these major racial and ethnic demographic shifts, particularly within the context of outdoor recreation activities. The purpose of this article is to show how Latino Outdoors is providing diverse and family-focused outdoor-recreation opportunities by using storytelling and cuttingedge social-networking technology to build avenues for access to public lands and a Latino-centered message of environmental awareness and belonging. In the past four years, Latino Outdoors grew from one person to 180 volunteers, 44 of whom function as volunteer leaders, and two paid full-time employees, all of whom have together organized outings in 14 states across the country. Storytelling and social media work as mechanisms to communicate the value of nature and interaction with the natural environment as part of a modern Latino identity. Engaging with cultural and ethnic diversity, Latino Outdoors and its partners have built a national network that values and advocates for the wealth of experiences that the environment and recreation can provide to the over 57 million Latinos in the United States, who are underserved by public land-management agencies. Through its use of storytelling and its online presence, the organization is creating a space for new social and cultural meanings of the outdoors using counternarratives that question normative American outdoor experiences that privilege an able-bodied white middle-class user. Latino Outdoors’ staff promotes shared narratives in the conversation about the nation’s changing meaning of outdoor experiences within an increasingly diverse society. A storytelling focus could be applied within recreation programs for the purposes of creating more culturally sensitive services, understanding land-use differences both within and across racial/ethnic groups, and developing mechanisms for collaborative goal setting that includes diverse community voices. Subscribe to JPRA

In Defense of Wilderness

No More Deaths provides humanitarian aid across several different public land jurisdictions, from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to the National Park Service, to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Each of these public lands agencies partners with the US Border Patrol in doing immigration control and drug interdiction, while also engaging in their own efforts to pick up trash left behind by undocumented border crossers and protect natural resources from degradation caused by border enforcement and smuggling activities. In their effort to “clean up” public lands, land managers broadly define litter to include humanitarian supplies, such as water, food, and blankets, left by No More Deaths and other humanitarian groups. These efforts, therefore, serve not only to restrict the provision of humanitarian aid but also to erase all evidence of the presence of undocumented border crossers and their passage across the landscape. While the scale of this dual apprehension and erasure effort has reached unprecedented levels in recent decades, it is by no means new. Throughout the twentieth century, these same public land management agencies worked both to physically remove and erase the presence of local Anglo ranchers, Native Americans, and neighboring Mexicans. Contemporary efforts of removal and erasure of undocumented border crossers, therefore, are part of a long lineage of defining who belongs and who does not belong on these public lands. In this article, I argue that the work of No More Deaths also has dual roles, as it both provides direct humanitarian aid to undocumented border crossers and works to counter the erasure effort of public land managers.