FNR4080 Exam 2

ADA - title 2

Public services and transportation (public entities): requires only that the public entity ensure that all of its programs are accessible when viewed in its entirety

Universal Design (from ADA)

The design of products and environments to be useable by all, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. Meant to be seamless or invisible

5 general considerations when deciding where to site a facility

• Balance ecosystem conservation with development (err on the side of the ecosystem)

• Use surrounding context (Avoid overlaying familiar, traditional patterns)

• Allow simplicity of function

• Manage for waste – do not over use

• Plan for the long-term

How does site design relate to ROS zones?

Before sites are built, recreation opportunities need to be assessed, including what opportunities already exist and what new ones can be made; relates to recreation potential

Checklist for sustainable building design

• Natural Factors

• Topography

• Water Bodies

• Pests

• Cultural Resources

• Sensory Experience

3 types of building materials and how they relate to sustainability

1. Primary: Materials found in nature

   • Locally produced

   • Less energy to develop and transport

2. Secondary: Materials made from recycled products

   • Can require high energy for production

   • Ensure that it functions well and is safe

3. Tertiary: Human-made materials

   • Have varying degree of impact (plywood to plastics)

   • Pay attention to all petroleum products (not just fuel)

Explain the difference between the two types of expenses

1. Capital: start-up costs/initial expenses

   • funding for equipment, land, and buildings

   • looks several years into the future

2. Operating: annual expenditures

   • labor (salaries, benefits)

What are 3 different mechanisms to fund recreation used by public agencies?

1. property taxes

   • backbone of local government finance

   • includes taxation of real estate and personal property

2. sales taxes

   • largest single source of state tax revenues, second largest for municipalities 

   • hotel-motel tax (bed tax)

   • manufacturers’ excise tax on recreation equipment

3. bonds

   • borrowing money to fund large capital projects (like a new stadium)

Basics of a budget table

includes costs, revenue, margins, and estimations/projections of future values

Examples of private and public recreation revenue sources

• Concessionaire: revenue from Timberland Lodge stays from The Shining goes back to USFS

• Ziplining in Costa Rica

• Guide companies, rental equipment (kayaking tours, renting hiking sticks)

Ecotourism definition

responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people

Fundamental concepts of planning

existing condition → management actions → desired condition

Name the four key elements for planning trails

1. Trail function

2. Trail design

3. Trail layout

4. Trail slope and tread

Explain: 1) Trail function

Trail function = trail PURPOSE

• 2 types: primary (trail is the attraction) & secondary (trail gets people to the attraction)

• Primary: multi- or single-purpose

  • consider the opportunities being provided (physical fitness, escape, etc.)

Explain: 2) Trail design

Considerations:

• Trail configuration: overall length and shape

• Trail surface width: 10 ft for typical 2-way rural, 12 ft for urban

• Clearing width: 2 ft on either side, area on either side of trail

• Clearing height: 8 ft, area above trail to ensure users are not hit by vegetation

Explain: 3) Trail layout

How does the trail move through the landscape?

Related to trail function, linear or loops, points of interest, aesthetic 

Explain: 4) Trail slope and tread

• Slope (grade): key factor contributing to tread stability 

  • grade below 10%, less than 7% is ideal

  • switch backs are a strategy to avoid steep slopes

• Managing drainage and erosion

  • sidehill trails are better on slopes

  • out-sloped: water naturally flows off

  • coweeta/grade dip or water bars (remove water running down a trail)

  • hardening primitive trails with drainage issues

• Tread type

  • depends on function, ROS category, financing

  • smoothness and durability depends: rocks/roots OK on primitive, not on urban

  • compaction depends: equestrian are loose

4 factors that determine an aesthetic scene and are important for designing trails

1. Complexity: richness of elements in setting

2. Coherence: orderly and organized—does it make sense?

3. Legibility: can I move through the area and make sense of where I go? is it memorable?

4. Mystery: is there something interesting around the corner? do I want to continue?

4 key elements to planning campgrounds

1. Type

2. Campsite design

3. Management 

4. Landscaping

Explain: 1) Campground types

• Can range from primitive to developed

  • backcountry, sporting (hunting) camps, family (most common, diverse campsite types)

• Campsites

  • back-in, pull-off, pull-through

  • group, accessible for people with disabilities, specialized sites (tent- or RV-only)

Explain: 2) Campsite design

• Layout: amenities, barriers, vegetation, access

• “Furniture:” consider what is appropriate for expectations

  • fire ring, table, grill, hooks, water, electricity, storage (bear box)

• Universal design 

Explain: 3) Campground management

• Facilities

  • amenities for each site vs. shared

  • campsite designs and facilities for different types of users

• Access/parking

• Acquiring a site

• Campground host

Explain: 4) Landscaping campgrounds

• Screening

  • native veg often—avoid human barriers

• Drainage

  • campsite should be level and water directed offsite 

  • sloped surface away from site; catch basins if needed

• Grading

  • natural surfaces often

  • soil compaction is OK if drainage is acceptable

How does hunting fit into the concept of “ecotourism?”

• Hunting, when managed properly with good science, ensures responsible travel

• Animals die all the time; hunting mimics that and can help cull populations

• Big tradition, especially for rural families

Basic rules for good wildlife management

Overall: “the science and art of managing wildlife and its habitat, for the benefit of the soil, vegetation, and animals, including humans”

• based on solid biological info

• includes management of humans because our activities affect wildlife

• benefit plants and other animals, not just one species of wildlife

• puts animal numbers at a level we can live with—not too many, not too few

• balances animal numbers with the habitat (food, shelter, water, and space) available for those animals

• balances conservation (wise use) of the resource—not total preservation (non-use) of the resource

Hunting licenses

• Sales of which provide a big portion of wildlife conservation funds (declining)

• Many types of hunting licenses, depending on age, ex-military, target animals, etc

  • There are exemptions

Hunting permits

• You need a license but don’t always need a permit!

  • varies by state, species, season

  • in FL, no permit needed to hunt squirrels but needed for deer

Hunting seasons

seasons differ between hunting zones and DMUs within the zones

What is environmental interpretation?

first defined by Freeman Tilden: it’s a communication process, which reveals meanings and relationships about cultural, historical, natural, and recreational resources

Role of environmental interpretation in recreation and tourism

focus on audience members/visitors, not just facts. Help people understand themselves by finding meaning through nature

4 goals of interpretation

1. attracting people to exhibit/program

2. hold people’s attention

3. teach people new info

4. motivate people to take action

4 broad categories of interpretive programs

1. exhibits and signs

2. talks

3. tours (guided)

4. self-guided tours

4 elements of good interpretive programs

1. thematic

2. well-organized

3. relevant to target audience and age-appropriate

4. pleasurable and memorable (elaboration likelihood)

Implementation of interpretation steps

1. test mock-ups and conduct focus groups with target audience

2. test different materials for attracting, holding, teaching, motivating powers

3. portfolio reviews with members of the audience and experts

4. ongoing monitoring of the entire exhibit process

Explain the “thematic” (1) element of environmental interpretation programs

provides a focus; different from a topic

Topic = subject matter

Theme = specific message about subject matter

Explain the “well-organized” (2) element of environmental interpretation programs

• written at an 8th grade level

• told with images, artifacts, text

• memorable: 3-5 new ideas or main ideas, supporting a theme

Explain the “relevance to audience” (3) element of environmental interpretation programs

connect new info to audience’s existing knowledge; explain how the new info impacts or affects the lives of audience members

Example: Eglin Air Force Base & longleaf pine management: put signs up at golf courses

Explain the “pleasurable and memorable” (4) element of environmental interpretation programs

derives from many qualities: humor, interaction, questions, provocation, props, revelation, emotion

will vary by audience and age group 

How does recreation impact soil?

Primarily by causing compaction and erosion

Characteristics: aeration, temperature, moisture, nutrition, organisms

How does recreation impact water?

Primarily by introducing pollutants and destroying riparian areas

Main characteristics affected: pollution, dissolved oxygen, aquatic plant and animal growth

How does recreation impact vegetation?

Primarily through trampling, scarring, and removal

Main characteristics affected: plant cover, growth rate, repro capacities

How does recreation impact wildlife?

Primarily through killing and unintentional disturbance

Main characteristics affected: altered pop structures, spatial distribution & abundance, and behavior (repro)

Spatial patterns of impact

3 zones:

1. Impact zone

2. Intersite zone

3. Buffer zone (should not require management) 

Resistance 

ability to absorb use without being disturbed (NOT grass on dunes)

Resilience

 ability of a site to recover from impact (like FL forests)

Temporal zone patterns

Impact occurs quickly then spreads out.

• Site expansion and satellite campsites

• Trail widening and multiple, braided trails

• Wildlife impacts depend on species

• Water quality fluctuates or gradually declines

Costs and benefits of Rapid Estimation Procedure

Benefits:

• Quick and efficient

• Indicators already chosen

• Indicators are mostly objective and measurable

• Results in an overall site index

Costs:

• Indicators already chosen

• Measurement is really estimations

How do you weight impacts in the Rapid Estimation Procedure?

Scale of 1-5, increasing in importance

Congestion vs crowding?

congestion refers to the physical conditions of high density, but crowding is a perception that there are too many people

Importance and challenges of crowding

Usually non-linear curves, which are hard to measure because it is subjective

Harms user experience

4 types of recreation conflict

1. Outdoor recreation vs. other resource uses

2. Outdoor recreationists vs. resource managers

3. Interactivity conflict

4. Intra-activity conflict

Asymmetrical conflict

one-way conflict

Ecological carrying capacity

maximum number of users above which the resource quality could not be sustained

Social carrying capacity

maximum number of users above which recreation experience diminishes

Carrying capacity (in terms of rec management)

Formula-based planning strategy which assumes people are the problem

Tries to stop or control use

2 ways to manage recreation conflict

1. Formula-based: identifies max number of people

2. Standards-based: level of impact; uses limits of acceptable change

Problems with carrying capacity approach

Too many variables to consider, assumes people are the problem, being set too low results in loss of recreation opportunities, but the opposite results in resource and experience degradation 

Root causes of recreation problems

1. incorrect management 

2. sensitive resource 

3. user behavior

3 types of problem behaviors: unintentional

1. unavoidable: soil compaction

2. uninformed: feeding wildlife

3. unskilled: someone who is bad at operating a boat gets it stuck in the shallow grasses

6 types of problem behaviors: intentional

1. Careless: knows something is wrong but does it anyway 

   • playing loud music

2. Releaser-cue: seeing others do something wrong makes you feel like it’s okay to do it too

   • Ignoring switchbacks/short-cutting on trails

3. Responsibility-denial: knowing something is wrong but rationalizing it 

   • not paying entrance fee because they’re a taxpayer 

4. Status-confirming: doing something to make you look good in a group 

   1. graffiti with friends

5. Protest: doing something to prove a point

   • Area is closed for restoration, but someone pushes tape out of the way because "they've been coming here forever” and want to prove that they can

6. Material gain: taking something, usually to sell it

   • Stealing an arrowhead to later sell

Indirect management vs direct

• Indirect: influencing or modifying behavior; individual retains freedom to choose

• Direct: high degree of control; regulation

Indirect management approaches examples 

• Modification of the physical setting

• Information and education programs

• User involvement

• Fees or other economic considerations

Direct management approaches examples

• Rules and regulations

• Direct enforcement

• Physical barriers

5 categories of management strategies and tactics

• Site Management

• Rationing and Allocation

• Regulation

• Deterrence and Enforcement

• Visitor education

Limits of Acceptable Change purpose and development

Developed by USFS for Wilderness Areas to move beyond carrying capacity and on impacts of recreation

Indicator

Quantitative measure of an impact; variable used to reflect the overall condition of a rec opportunity

Qualities of a good indicator

• Efficient to measure

• Related to visitor use

• Related to concerns (social or ecological)

• Responsive to management

• Objective and repeatable

Inventorying/monitoring definition

Repetitive sampling of the same thing (indicators) over time to document a change

Standards 

Subjective evaluations of the most appropriate compromise between use and resource protection = thresholds 

Should be informed by science but not derived from

How are indicators and standards related?

Indicators must meet standards.

Standards reflect where impacts become unacceptable, which is measured by indicators

How are standards and objectives related?

Standards are a measure to ensure objectives are met

How do standards/objectives relate to zoning for recreation opportunities?

Different zones have different opportunities and therefore different objectives, which will have different standards 

Why is LAC used?

To know when to conduct management and what type to use

LAC step 1 & associated fundamental planning concept

Identify area issues and concerns (FPC 3: desired condition)

LAC step 2 & associated fundamental planning concept

Define and describe opportunity classes (FPC 1: existing condition)

LAC step 3 & associated fundamental planning concept

Select indicators of resource and social conditions (FPC 1: existing condition)

LAC step 4 & associated fundamental planning concept

Inventory resource and social conditions (FPC 1: existing condition)

LAC step 5 & associated fundamental planning concept

Specify standards for resource and social indicators for each opportunity class (FPC 3: desired condition)

LAC step 6 & associated fundamental planning concept

Identify alternative opportunity class allocations reflecting area issues and concerns and existing resource and social conditions (FPC 3: desired condition)

LAC step 7 & associated fundamental planning concept

Identify management actions for each alternative (FPC 2: management actions)

LAC step 8 & associated fundamental planning concept

Evaluation and selection of a preferred alternative (FPC 2: management actions)

LAC step 9 & associated fundamental planning concept

Implement actions and monitor conditions (FPC 2: management actions)

What is the North American Model of wildlife conservation?

Fish and wildlife belong to all people and are to be managed in trust for their benefit & funding assurances to state fish and wildlife agencies to support science-based management of fish and wildlife

Hunting and habitat conservation funding

The U.S. FWS administers the allocation of these funds to states based on state land mass & total hunting licenses sold.

So, hunting license & equipment sales directly fund much of the state wildlife & habitat conservation programs.

In some states these revenues fund most or even 100% of state agency programs.

Hunting’s contribution to natural resource conservation

Hunting as a tool for game species population management