Usage and evaluation of nonformal environmental education services at a state park: are anglers catching more than fish?

Abstract

Although park naturalists should be inclusive in their attempts to reach a variety of audiences, visitors having a consumptive resource orientation may get overlooked. The activity involvement, place attachment and resource knowledge scores of trout anglers at Montauk State Park (Missouri, USA) were combined into a typology that consisted of four levels of recreation specialization (least, moderately, very and most). This continuum was used to explain anglers’ usage and evaluation of nonformal environmental education services at the park. A total of 532 trout anglers completed questionnaires during the summer of 2003. Results showed that specialized anglers participated more in educational opportunities than those who were less specialized. Each of level of the continuum was mutually exclusive. Nearly three‐fourths of the trout anglers (72.8%) believed that environmental education was important and that the park was doing a good job of providing this type of service. A positive trend between levels of specialization and evaluation of environmental education was observed. This study indicated that a segmentation procedure based on recreation specialization can be useful to accomplish some key park management objectives, such as environmental literacy.