Outdoor recreation participation and views on resource development and preservation

Abstract

Views on the preservation of resources versus their development for recreation are compared among participants in three types of outdoor recreation: “appreciative”; activities (cross‐country skiing, hiking, and canoeing); “consumptive”; activities (fishing and hunting); and “mechanized”; activities (motorboating, snowmo‐biling, and trail biking). The results from a 1984 questionnaire survey conducted in Edmonton and Calgary, Canada, indicate a stronger preservationist orientation among participants in appreciative activities, whereas (with the exception of hunters) participants in consumptive and mechanized activities hold stronger pro‐development views. These differences cannot be attributed to simultaneous variations in socioeco‐nomic characteristics or environmental attitudes among the recreational groups. The findings suggest that differences in outdoor recreational activity preferences represent an important source of variation in views about appropriate levels of preservation versus development of Alberta's natural and wildernesss resources.