Do Recreation Motivations and Wilderness Involvement Relate to Support for Wilderness Management? A Segmentation Analysis

Abstract

Surveys show relatively little support for use restrictions to protect wilderness experiences. However, such conclusions based on aggregate data could hide important differences among visitors. Visitors with more wilderness-dependent trip motives were hypothesized to be more supportive of use restrictions. Using survey data from visitors to 13 wildernesses, cluster analysis of motivations and wilderness involvement generated three clusters that differed in sensitivity to social conditions and support for use restrictions. The group with motives most aligned with the Wilderness Act was slightly more adversely affected by social conditions and more supportive of regulations. However, none of the groups supported use restrictions to protect opportunities for solitude.

Keywords:

• cluster analysis
• solitude
• urban-proximate
• wilderness experiences
• wilderness zoning

Notes

∗p <.05.

∗∗ p <.01.