Recognizing, addressing, and adjusting for underlying assumptions is important for visitor use research and management in parks and protected areas. To identify assumptions in visitor use management research and applications, a Delphi approach was used to understand if and how assumptions appear in the visitor use management domain. We engaged eight visitor use experts in the United States over three questionnaire-based iterations, resulting in a list of 28 assumptions in visitor use management and associated research. Top-ranked assumptions were further explored to begin a conversation around how these assumptions may impact the research and management of visitor use in parks and protected areas. Overall, this study contributes to a growing body of knowledge regarding best practices related to visitor use management across public lands and other natural areas within the United States.

Parks and protected areas are commonly managed to prevent and mitigate visitor-related impacts. Related, indicators of quality and associated thresholds help park managers make decisions in the interest of providing optimal outdoor recreation experiences and resource protection. Given the prominent role of visitor thresholds in management decisions, a better understanding of how park experiences influence visitor thresholds is long overdue and essential for successful park management. This study provides results and explanation of when and how a visitor’s park experience may influence their acceptability of social, managerial, and resource conditions. Researchers selected visitor use management data from four distinctly different parks to model how and when indicator type, park setting, and past use history moderates the relationship between visitor experiences and visitor thresholds. Results reveal that indicator type and park setting are significant moderators, suggesting that the strength of the relationship between visitor experiences and visitor thresholds may often vary depending on situational park factors.

"Conservationist" and "environmentalist" are two prominent environmental social identities often perceived as conflicting, particularly on wedge issues like hunting. While these groups may hold differing philosophies, their beliefs could overlap, revealing opportunities for collaboration in conservation. We examined environmental identities among U.S. college students across 22 states (n = 17,203) from 2018 to 2020, assessing identity, wildlife values, and positions on polarizing issues. Students were classified into four groups: conservationists (8 %), environmentalists (9 %), pluralists (59 %) who expressed both identities, and eco-agnostics (24 %) who expressed neither. Environmentalists, the most diverse group demographically, exhibited mutualistic wildlife value orientations, while conservationists, the least diverse, expressed domination-centered value orientations. Conservationists broadly supported hunting and gun rights, while environmentalists favored animal rights. Despite these differences, both groups scored equally high on conservation caring, and all groups-including ecoagnostics-broadly approved of hunting for altruistic reasons (e.g., ecological benefits, reducing crop damage). Our findings highlight distinct yet overlapping environmental identities shaped by demographic and value-based factors. These identities, while appearing polarized, share relational values (e.g., conservation caring, altruistic motivations) that present opportunities for collaboration. Although based in the U.S., these findings have global relevance and reflect the impact of broader trends (e.g., urbanization) on shifting wildlife values. Understanding environmental identities offers a framework to align conservation efforts across diverse cultural contexts, promoting a more inclusive and unified approach to global conservation challenges.

National Park Service Civil War battlefields recently experienced increased recreational use, which may be opposed to the purpose of historic value that these sites were created to preserve. Manassas National Battlefield Park, which was originally dedicated as a site to preserve Confederate heritage, presents interpretive themes that focus on the victorious military strategies of Confederate troops, which the general public may not be receptive toward. To investigate this potential disconnect, an online panel survey was deployed to investigate perceptions of welcomeness and belonging of visitors and non-visitors, and in what ways interpretive preferences related to their moral foundations. Results suggest that although non-visitors feel less welcome onsite, none of the perceived barriers significantly affected these feelings. Results indicated that highlighting interpretive themes built on multiple moral foundations could be an important component for expanding interpretation at Manassas (and other similar sites) to be relevant for an increasingly diverse American public.

The unrelenting visitation to national parks calls for the continued understanding of how certain conditions shape the visitor experience and for researchers to apply the best visitor-use management practices. This study investigated perceptions of crowding, specifically using photographic panels and the possible influence of extraneous variables in those photographs. Surveys were conducted at a national park in which participants were asked to rate the acceptability of people at one time (PAOT) on a trail at a popular overlook. Participants were given one of two sets of photographic panels depicting two different skyscapes, a Bright Sky and a Gray Sky. Respondents who were given the Gray Sky photographs reported lower levels of acceptability of PAOT compared to the Bright Sky respondents. This underscores the need to further examine how extraneous variables (e.g. environmental conditions) in photographs used for visitor-use management research may influence participant responses.

According to the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective, an individual's demographic characteristics interact and affect their social position and, therefore, their access to services or resources. The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how the combination of visitors' demographic characteristics affects their probability of activity participation in a U.S. national park. We employed binary logistic regression models to determine these multiplicative effects of demographic characteristics on activity participation. The results indicate differences in the probability of participation in specific activities like camping, rock scrambling, technical climbing, and picnicking. Though there were few clear linear trends present overall for the models, the results provide validity for use of this data analysis tool to identify activity participation trends with an intersectional approach at other parks and protected areas.

Urban and urban-proximate national park sites provide diverse leisure opportunities for residents, yet potential barriers and constraints for visitation exist. We examined constraints prior to, during, and regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Washington, D.C. Metro area at Rock Creek Park and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Visitors and non-visitors (n = 840) responses were assessed for differences in their (1) demographic characteristics and leisure activities, (2) perceived constraints, and (3) the (a)temporal dimensions of these constraints (i.e. considering or despite COVID-19). Findings illustrate constraints were largely similar for both populations, but non-visitors reported significantly more physical limitations during the pandemic; overall, this demographically diverse group reported significantly less knowledge related to national park site visitation. Findings help point park managers towards information, outreach, and social support as potential tools to improve the visitor experience in these and other national park unit settings.

Este año se cumplen 200 años de relaciones diplomáticas entre Estados Unidos y Argentina, que han implicado la cooperación en una amplia gama de campos, incluido el turismo. En procura de identificar nuevos enfoques para mejorar la capacidad de los parques nacionales para la planificación y gestión del uso público que sean de mutuo beneficio y desarrollar otras formas de ofrecer experiencias de mayor calidad a los visitantes, la Embajada de los Estados Unidos de América en Buenos Aires, la Sociedad George Wright, el Servicio de Parques Nacionales de los Estados Unidos y la Administración de Parques Nacionales de la Argentina propusieron el “Programa Binacional de Intercambio para Mejorar las Experiencias de los Visitantes en los Parques Nacionales” como un intercambio de aprendizaje conjunto entre los dos países. Este artículo presenta la sistematización de la experiencia de la aplicación y adaptación del Modelo Interinstitucional de Manejo de Visitantes de los Estados Unidos de América para la gestión del uso público en cinco parques nacionales de la Argentina. Ofrece una visión general del marco, resume el proyecto desarrollado con los parques y, lo que es más importante, discute las lecciones aprendidas y las recomendaciones para la futura implementación del modelo en Argentina, y posiblemente, en otros países de América Latina.

This year marks 200 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and Argentina, which has involved cooperation across a wide range of fields, including tourism. In the interest of finding new approaches to improve the capacity of nation­al parks for public use planning and management and develop mutually beneficial ways to deliver higher-quality visitor experiences, the United States of America Embassy in Buenos Aires, the George Wright Society, the US National Park Service, and the Administration of National Parks in Argentina proposed the “Binational Exchange Program to Enhance Visitor Experiences in National Parks” as a co-learning exchange between the two countries. Through a critical review, this article focuses on the application and adaptation of the US Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework for public use management in five national parks in Argentina. The article offers an overview of the framework, summarizes the project developed with the parks, and, more importantly, discusses lessons learned and recommendations for future implementation of the model in Argentina and, possibly, other countries in Latin America.

Declines in hunter numbers across the United States make hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) a high priority for wildlife management. As wildlife management agencies and nongovernmental organizations seek to reach new audiences, college campuses present a unique opportunity to cultivate nontraditional path hunters. Despite recent proliferation of R3 initiatives, little research has evaluated effects of hunting programs on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of new hunters. We designed and implemented Getting Started Outdoors: Hunting 101 workshops specifically targeting college students without previous hunting experience, and we assessed workshop efficacy with a theoretically-grounded approach to workshop evaluation. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis of surveys conducted before, shortly after, and 12-18 months after workshops, we assessed impacts of R3 efforts at large public universities in 16 different U.S. states. Across all states, 19 workshops attracted 314 total participants, with 255 completing both pre- and post-workshop assessments and 133 completing the follow-up surveys. Workshops significantly increased participants' confidence in hunting, reduced barriers related to inadequate knowledge and skills, and fostered positive views of hunters and hunting. Immediately after workshops, most participants said they would definitely (50%) or probably (34%) hunt in the future; 82% said they would likely (or very likely) purchase a hunting license. Over one year after the workshops, 34% of workshop participants reported having hunted, and another 45% said they would probably hunt in the future. Overall, workshops attracted a diverse population of potential hunters, increased interest in future hunting, and created hunting advocates. Findings highlight the potentially powerful impact that R3 programs focused on diverse college students can have on the future of hunting across the United States.

Interpretive signage is often used to influence visitor travel patterns and assist in wayfinding in parks and protected areas. However, there are few tools for managers to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of different interpretive signage. This study was conducted to demonstrate the utility of using GPS data loggers as an evaluative tool to determine if signage influences visitor concentrations, visitors’ time allocation, and visitor travel directionality. Researchers distributed GPS data loggers to all travel parties who voluntarily participated. Analysis revealed that GPS data loggers and complimentary GIS analysis were useful for evaluating the influence of different signage treatments on visitor patterns of use, location of use, and timing of use. These findings suggest that managers tasked with interpretation and visitor orientation consider using GPS trackers and GIS to better understand their visitors’ and plan where to focus messaging and interpretive efforts to meet managerial goals and objectives.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (Harpers Ferry), located in the eastern United States (U.S.), was estab-lished to interpret and preserve cultural and historic resources related to the U.S. Civil War. Natural resource protection for threatened and endangered plant species, as well as peregrine falcon reintroduction efforts, are also within the park's mandate. However, growing outdoor recreation participation makes resource protection and accommodating visitor use at Harpers Ferry difficult. Rock climbing was recently regulated by the park, placing certain areas off limits to climbers. At the request of the park, in Summer 2021, we surveyed past, present, and future rock climbers' (n = 361) perspectives of barriers and constraints for visitation to inform future management. Past use history and recreation specialization were analyzed as potential explanatory pre-dictors for perceived constraints. Results illustrate the modest role of past use history in influencing certain constraints (i.e., parking), resounding support for seasonal falcon nesting closures, and the stability of climbers' responses across specialization groups. These findings contribute to knowledge regarding the relationship be-tween specialization, past use history, and leisure constraints. Furthermore, they advance the practice of envi-ronmental management through in-depth understanding of a significant user group, who can help promote the long-term protection of sensitive resources.Management implications:center dot Rock climbing is increasingly regulated by protected area managers.center dot Species protection and resource stewardship rely on climber support and compliance.center dot Past, current, and future rock climbers mostly share similar perceived constraints.center dot Falcon nesting closures were supported; parking and communication were barriers.center dot Climbers can assist as resource stewards if engaged effectively by managers.

Researchers and managers of parks and protected areas often employ normative theory or a normative approach when attempting to understand and manage visitor use and related impacts. Normative theory and associated approaches use indicators, thresholds, and evaluative dimensions to estimate visitor opinion about desired resource or experiential conditions. However, visitors' desired conditions are often difficult to study longitudinally. Researchers used Cumberland Island National Seashore (CUIS) and its visitors to investigate the stability of crowding thresholds by comparing 2011 and 2018 visitor survey results. Daily maximum visitation levels remained constant between 2011 and 2018 as did visitors' preferred conditions. However, the use levels that may lead to potential displacement and visitors' acceptance of higher use both increased, suggesting visitors may expect conditions to remain the same but be increasingly tolerant of more visitors at specific attraction sites. Potential implications and further research related to normative theory and norm stability are discussed.

As visitation to park and protected areas increases globally, public land managers seek to increase the implementation of simple and cost-effective methods to collect indicator and threshold data to address environmental and visitor experience concerns. Unmanned aerial vehicles, also referred to as drones, may be a logical addition to monitoring regimes. This study examined the outcome of using overhead drone imagery to monitor two management-selected indicators, visitor-created trails, and vegetation loss, in a newly established Kansas state park, Little Jerusalem Badlands. Images were analyzed by SamplePoint software in 10x10 meter grids with 100 sample points each. Within the first five months of the park opening, vegetation loss was observed in key areas of Little Jerusalem at rates varying from 2.7% to 42.3%. The formation of one visitor-created trail also occurred during this time. These results confirm the benefit of using drones for long term monitoring of environmental indicators that will aid land management agencies in decision-making to reduce recreational impacts associated with visitor use.

River recreation often contributes to ecological degradation – a primary concern for river management professionals. Using social science data to inform ecological management helps mitigate recreational impacts, particularly at sites that experience high recreation use. This paper demonstrates the utility of an approach to collect, display, and use social data based on an indicators and thresholds approach at Buffalo National River in Arkansas (BUFF). Specifically, we presented a series of digitally manipulated photographs to river recreationists at BUFF that depicted varying levels of use, or density of use, to identify social thresholds – the levels of use deemed unacceptable by river users. We coupled the photos with quantitative questionnaires and found that paddlers, anglers, and campers thought that moderate to high‐density levels were unacceptable. Pairing such data with empirical evidence of ecological degradation born from recreation use (e.g., erosion, water quality issues) provides a robust and defensible justification for a range of management actions, including altering use levels and river access. The research methods presented in this paper are transferable to a range of high‐use rivers and waterways, and thus provide a blueprint for river professionals who by design or default interface with recreation and ecological resources. In the end, combining social and ecological data can fortify management decisions and decrease associated conflicts among important groups of river recreationists.

The purpose of this study was to explore spatially heterogeneous relationships between campsite condition class and its associated variables in Clifty Wilderness, Daniel Boone National Forest, KY, USA. To account for local dynamics, we used a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, which has rarely been applied in pre-vious recreation resource monitoring research. The GWR model effectively visualized local variations in modeling the campsite condition class, with improvements in model performance over the corresponding or-dinary least squares model. Findings of this study could contribute to exploring spatial variations of condition class, ultimately providing guidelines for location-based park and protected area management.Management implications: The findings of this study could play an important role in facilitating guidelines for location-based park and protected area management.

Participant-driven videography (PDV) consists of research participants using a camera to record videos about a subject or experience, giving participants control and minimizing researcher assumptions. This multi-case study demonstrates the application of PDV to parks and protected area (PPA) research, and concludes with recommendations for its future application in such research. In interviews conducted remotely with national park stakeholders, participants were asked to conduct a ‘virtual tour’ using video and audio while identifying attributes of importance. Analysis includes a priori coding of videos and transcripts to highlight variables of importance based on visual and auditory clues. SWOT analysis exploring the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of applying PDV to PPA research indicates its utility for gaining qualitative insights into PPA management above and beyond more common qualitative approaches.

Visual-based methods are common in visitor use management research because they often support empirical evaluations of structural norms, particularly related to crowding in parks and other protected areas. Consequently, researchers and managers continue to investigate method bias and improve visual-based approaches and tools. This study continues this improvement process by assessing whether the order of photographs viewed by park visitors in a field setting influences their norms and thresholds related to crowding. To accomplish this, a study was conducted at Buffalo National River, Arkansas, using sequential and nonsequential photograph presentation order. Results indicate that photograph presentation order had limited to no effect on park visitors' normative thresholds and associated norms - a finding both supported by and incongruent with previous photo order studies. As a result, this research contributes to the growing body of work in the study of research methods for protected area and visitor use management.

The popularity of viewing wildlife, specifically brown bears (Ursus arctos), is increasing rapidly throughout North America. In addition, population distributions of both humans and brown bears are expanding, creating larger areas of overlap and an increased possibility of human-bear interactions. In order to prevent negative encounters and injury to either species, park managers must continue to work to encourage appropriate behavior among local citizens as well as park visitors. Human behavior, however, is a result of many complex factors, including emotion and cognition. Despite this, the effects of emotions on human-wildlife conflict remain unstudied and therefore may limit success of any mitigation efforts. In this study we employed a quantitative self-assessment questionnaire, distributed online to a representative sample of the general U.S. public, to understand the relationship between emotion and behavior within the context of human encounters with bears. Questionnaires used video clips as visual methods to illustrate a variety of brown bear encounter scenarios based on setting, the bear's age or sex class, and bear behavior. Following each video, respondents were asked to rate the intensity of their affective responses using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and then rate the likelihood of performing several listed actions as well as the perceived appropriateness of each action. Results demonstrate significant variation in negative affect and relative consistency in positive affect across brown bear encounter scenarios. In general, respondents seemed to be aware of appropriate behavior during encounters with brown bears, but affective responses may limit their ability to behave accordingly. Further, feelings of fear and hostility increased the impact of current emotion on in-the-moment decisions. These results and suggestions provided by respondents were then used to create a set of meaningful recommendations to improve the efficacy of current bear management and safety education.

The popularity of viewing wildlife, specifically brown bears (Ursus arctos), is increasing rapidly throughout North America. In addition, population distributions of both humans and brown bears are expanding, creating larger areas of overlap and increased possibility of human–bear interactions. Unfortunately, many who encounter brown bears may have never received any form of bear safety training or education. As a result, it is important for wildlife and park managers to understand the general level of bear safety knowledge and identify potential areas of improvement. To do so, this study employed a quantitative self-assessment questionnaire, distributed online to a representative sample of the American public in October of 2019. The questionnaires asked respondents about their experience viewing bears and then asked them to rate the likelihood of performing several actions as well as the perceived appropriateness of each behavior for 12 different bear viewing scenarios. Of 511 complete responses, 40% reported seeing a wild brown bear but the majority struggled to identify brown versus American black bears (U. americanus) in photographs, suggesting species-specific behavioral recommendations may be ineffective. Further, several factors were significant predictors of an individual's perceived appropriateness of the listed human behaviors, including age, gender identity, source of bear safety information, and experience with bears. Results were then used to develop a set of meaningful recommendations to improve the efficacy of current bear management and safety education. Primary recommendations include the following: 1) Increase the focus on appropriate rather than inappropriate behaviors, explaining the reasoning behind such suggestions; 2) Pay special attention to overly confident individuals or those with more experience; and 3) Use photographs, videos, and virtual reality experiences to better prepare visitors for a range of potential encounter scenarios.