Using Gis To Integrate Information On Forest Recreation

Using GIS to integrate information on forest recreation
Journal of Forestry; Bethesda; Jan 1999; Michael Wing;Bo Shelby;

|Volume:  |97 |
|Issue:  |1 |
|Start Page:  |12 |
|ISSN: |00221201 |
|Full Text: |
|Copyright Society of American Foresters Jan 1999 |

[Headnote]
Managers of forested areas must contend with many issues. The integration and analysis of recreational use patterns through a geographic information system (GIS) may assist managementefforts.With the spatial component provided by GIS, managers can identify heavily used areas, allocate resources where they are most needed, and take steps to minimize conflicts among users. Although the examples in this study were drawn from McDonald Forest in Oregon, managers of other forests could use similar methods to conduct GIS analyses in their own jurisdictions.

Recreation resourcemanagers and planners are being asked to accommodate a growing number of users and all their various activities. The presence of an educated and interested populace and planning frameworks that encourage and sometime mandate public input further complicate managerial tasks. These challenges require that managers be knowledgeable about use levels and basic user characteristics, which are essentialcomponents of effective management (Watson 1990). Monitoring recreation conditions and soliciting feedback and opinions from interested users can help in long-term planning and provide barometers for assessing the effectiveness of management strategies. Managers, however, need more effective techniques to analyze survey data and answer questions regarding resource conditions.
Geographic informationsystem (GIS) technology is a useful tool for many forestry-related analyses. Increasingly, organizations involved in forest management are using GIS to capture and analyze spatial phenomena. Applications to forest resource management, for example, have increased dramatically in the past 10 years. One field that could benefit from additional GIS analysis is recreation research (Cole 1989; Confer etal. 1992; Meighen and Volger 1997).
Summaries and applications of recreation survey results have typically not fully addressed the spatial nature of use patterns and user statistics. Instead, single summary statistics are often used, even if users have traversed different paths through large areas. In some cases, use of entire wilderness areas and national forests has been summarized with a singlestatistic: "30 percent of all users are hikers," for example, or "the forest receives 65,000 visits per year." Although this approach is appropriate for recreation resources with narrow geographical ranges or uniform patterns of use, it may reduce the usefulness of data from recreation studies. In areas with multiple paths and destinations, for example, greater specificity may be needed toexamine patterns of use.
Forest planners and managers can benefit in several ways from greater spatial accuracy in user density information. On the many publicly owned forests that accommodate timber production and research as well as recreation, management activities like harvesting and road closures can significantly affect recreation conditions (Vining et al. 1984; Hull 1988; Brunson and Shelby1992). Potential impacts include fewer trees, compacted soils with no ground cover, increased slash, and areas closed to recreation. Yet planners might be able to avoid or reduce conflicts if they knew which roads and trails were visited most frequently before scheduling management activities. And knowing what areas of the forest are used by which activity groups may also help direct management...