Abstract
Shifting national priorities and social values surrounding public lands recreation requires making informed decisions that reflect diverse demands of visitors who perpetuate recreation management. Likewise, current trends in recreation literature and changing trends in recreational activities on public lands indicate a need for research on visitor’s recreation desires and outcomes in order to best meet federal multiple-use mandates and provide satisfying recreational experiences. Developing a better understanding of visitors desired recreation benefits or experiences can enhance the recreation planning process by promoting management strategies those users can sustain, and that have tangible influences on the recreation settings they want to perpetuate. This dissertation presents three linked studies spanning three adjacent Bureau of Land Management Field Offices in southeastern Idaho. The design of each study centers on the outcomes-focused management (OFM) framework currently utilized by the Bureau of Land Management, and that guides recreation planning or management. Likewise, each study explores the influence that visitors’ perceived recreation benefits have on their intention to return to public lands or their support for different management strategies designed to address site-specific recreation management concerns. More specifically, each chapter has the following discrete focus: (1) The relationship between community recreation benefits and their relationship with likelihood of return recreation visitation; (2) Preferences for Special Recreation Permit implementation at an off-road vehicle recreation area; and (3) Factors influencing support for a campground reservation system along a recreational river. Chapter 1 employed quantitative methods to reestablish baseline information related to recreational visitor uses and compare findings across two adjacent parcels of public land. Chapters 2 and 3 utilized qualitative methods to develop deeper understanding of how and why recreationists might support or be impacted by proposed future management actions in high use recreation destination areas. Each chapter includes management implications which can inform future recreation planning efforts related to recreation on public lands.