Wildland encounter norms across time and activity type: Stable preferences and shifting thresholds

Abstract

Social and ecological conditions are constantly changing, but research concerning how visitors to wildlands perceive such changes across time is both limited and narrow. With a focus on the social settings of recreation experiences, this study provides an understanding of how perceptions of wildland visitors have changed over time. Specifically, across three time periods (1989, 1994, and 2022) within a wildland unit in Montana (USA), we found that preferences for encounters with other visitors remained relatively stable, levels of acceptable encounters (or thresholds) increased across time in some instances, and levels of acceptable encounters varied across the activity types that visitors encountered. By expanding evaluative norms research to include both activity type and multiple time periods, we contribute to both theory and application of wildland recreation management.

Keywords:

• Limits of acceptable change
• solitude
• wilderness character
• trends
• norm stability

Ethics statement

The study was approved by the University of Montana Institutional Review Board (certificate number: #56-22).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the City of Missoula, MT, USA and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service. The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official U.S. Department of Agriculture or U.S. Government determination or policy.