Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States of America.
Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 May 11;17(5):e0268303. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268303. eCollection 2022.
Limited information and resources have caused many parks and protected areas (PPAs) to functionally manage recreationists as a single homogeneous group, despite potential negative social and ecological consequences. We aimed to evaluate the homogeneity of recreationists at the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) by 1) quantifying frequencies of consumptive (i.e., hunting), intermediate-consumptive (i.e., fishing), and non-consumptive recreational-activity groups (e.g., wildlife viewing), and 2) evaluating sociodemographic differences among these groups. We used onsite surveys to determine that Valentine NWR supports heterogeneous groups of recreationists. The intermediate-consumptive group was most frequent (77% of all parties). All three recreational-activity groups varied in party size, distance traveled, household income, population type (urban or rural residence), and vehicle type (two-wheel or four-wheel drive). Tracking and accounting for diverse recreationists will equip managers with the ability to sustain recreational activities while also preserving ecological systems.
有限的信息和资源导致许多公园和保护区（PPAs）将娱乐者作为一个单一的同质群体进行功能管理，尽管这可能会带来负面的社会和生态后果。我们旨在通过以下两种方法来评估瓦伦丁国家野生动物保护区（NWR）娱乐者的同质性：1）量化消费性（即狩猎）、中等消费性（即钓鱼）和非消费性娱乐活动群体（如观鸟）的频率；2）评估这些群体之间的社会人口统计学差异。我们使用现场调查来确定瓦伦丁 NWR 支持异质的娱乐者群体。中等消费性群体最为常见（所有群体的 77%）。所有三种娱乐活动群体在聚会规模、旅行距离、家庭收入、人口类型（城市或农村居民）和车辆类型（两轮或四轮驱动）方面存在差异。跟踪和记录不同的娱乐者将使管理者有能力维持娱乐活动，同时保护生态系统。
