Perceptions of Stakeholders Regarding Wilderness and Best Management Practices in an Alaska Recreation Area Emily F
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Managing Sport and Leisure, 2015 Vol. 20, No. 1, 36–55, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13606719.2014.940692 Perceptions of stakeholders regarding wilderness and best management practices in an Alaska recreation area Emily F. Pomeranz1, Mark D. Needham2 and Linda E. Kruger3 1Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; 2Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA; 3USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, Juneau, AK, USA This article focuses on the collaborative and voluntary Wilderness Best Management Practices (WBMP) for managing recreation in Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness in Alaska. Stakeholder defi- nitions of wilderness, opinions about the WBMP, and whether these opinions are reflective of their perceptions of wilderness are examined. Interviews with tour operators, agency personnel, cruise industry representatives, and local residents showed that most expressed some degree of purism in their definitions of wilderness (e.g. solitude and minimal impact), although cruise representatives had less purist definitions. With the exception of cruise representatives, most felt that the wilderness character of this area is threatened by vessel traffic. Most supported the WBMP as alternatives to regulations because they allowed for freedom and input, but many felt that these practices may be unable to address future impacts. A few small and more purist operators felt that if the wilderness characteristics were threatened, they might support regulations. Others, however, displayed a type of cognitive dissonance by expressing concern over threats to this wilderness, yet rejecting regu- lations that may be needed for protecting the wilderness experiences they value the most. Keywords: wilderness, stakeholders, collaboration, best management practices, codes of conduct, recreation management INTRODUCTION power is shared and stakeholders take col- lective responsibility for their actions and The increasing popularity of nature-based subsequent outcomes from those actions” recreation activities coupled with their (p. 190). Collaboration “involves individuals potential impacts on social and biophysical or groups moving in concert in a situation conditions (e.g. crowding, erosion, and in which no party has the power to litter) has led resource managers to search command the behavior of the others” (Won- for innovative and adaptable methods of dolleck & Yaffee, 2000, p. xiii). management (Manning, 2011; Needham & Collaboration can be challenging when Rollins, 2009). One increasingly popular stakeholders involved share different per- form of adaptable management is the ceptions about the resource being managed reliance on stakeholder collaboration to (Bryan, 2004). These different cognitions understand and ameliorate impacts of are particularly relevant and complicated in recreation. Selin and Chavez (1995) defined places labeled as “wilderness” because this collaboration as “a joint decision-making has both a legal definition in some countries, approach to problem resolution where as well as competing and changing social # 2014 Taylor & Francis Wilderness and Best Management Practices 37 interpretations (Cronon, 1996; Shultis, 1999). process are reflective of their perceptions Since the passage of the United States (U.S.) of wilderness. Wilderness Act in 1964, designated wilder- ness areas within the U.S. National Wilder- CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION ness Preservation System (NWPS) have been important resources for recreationists Collaboration has been examined in various seeking relatively remote and primitive recreation management contexts such as nature-based experiences. If stakeholders designation of river use (Plummer, 2006), disagree about what it means to have a wild- regulations on hunting (Sandstro¨m, 2009), erness experience, however, they may also local recreation policies (Bramwell & disagree on the best approaches for mana- Sharman, 1999), and restrictions on commer- ging the experience or setting. Understand- cial tour operators (Pomeranz, Needham, & ing different stakeholder definitions and Kruger, 2013a, 2013b). Collaboration is an perceptions of wilderness is important for emergent process where stakeholders are collaborative processes associated with independent, solutions emerge by dealing managing use in these areas because recog- constructively with differences, joint owner- nizing potential contradictions may help ships of decisions are involved, and stake- managers understand some barriers to holders assume collective responsibility for achieving successful collaboration and future directions (Gray, 1989). In contrast other long-term management goals (Gray, to regulation, collaboration provides a 1989; Lauber & Decker, 2011). decision-making process that offers opportu- The U.S. Congress has designated nities to explore new sources of knowledge, millions of acres of federal land to be empowers individuals normally excluded managed as wilderness areas as part of from external mandates, creates a sense of the NWPS and in accordance with the Wild- shared ownership over decisions, and erness Act. Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilder- should be adaptable to change given its evol- ness in Alaska is one of these areas, and ving nature (Bryan, 2004; Lauber & Decker, impacts from increasing visitation in this 2011). area prompted the U.S. Forest Service in One potential barrier to collaboration 2007 to implement a collaborative process arises from differences in how participating for creating and managing voluntary codes stakeholders and managers value the of conduct known as the Wilderness Best resource being managed (Wondolleck & Management Practices (WBMP) for this Yaffee, 2000). When these differences occur, area. Stakeholders (e.g. agencies, tour oper- individuals may be loath to cooperate due ators, cruise lines, and local residents) have to fear of compromising their values (Bryan, participated in this collaborative WBMP 2004). This can be problematic, as research process by helping to create and implement has shown that successful collaborative its guidelines, manage the area through self- endeavors are predicated on willingness to enforcement to ensure that guidelines are compromise (e.g. Selin, Schuett, & Carr, not violated, monitor and evaluate the 2000). Collaboration should help to develop success of these guidelines and stakeholder a shared resource identity among stake- interactions, and update and revise this holders and encourage those with different process. This article examines stakeholder values to recognize that “in spite of our differ- definitions and perceptions of wilderness, ences, we are all in this together” (Bryan, opinions about the WBMP for managing 2004, p. 892). Creating common goals is an recreation use in this area, and whether important step in collaboration and allows these opinions about this collaborative for institutionalization of collaboration that 38 Pomeranz et al. should foster efficient and coordinated pro- personal benefits of experiencing wilder- cesses (Lauber, Stedman, Decker, Knuth, & ness); (b) scientific (i.e. significance of wild- Simon, 2011). Understanding stakeholder erness as a pharmacological resource, values and goals associated with resources habitat for threatened or endangered such as wilderness areas may provide species, and place to research human behav- insight into conflicts faced in collaboration, ior); (c) symbolic and/or spiritual; and (d) and mediators might then be positioned economic (i.e. bequest, existence, and better to achieve compromise that builds option values). on shared goals despite potentially divergent Wilderness as a legal land designation in values. the U.S. was classified in the 1964 Wilderness The idea of wilderness has been defined Act as: and redefined many times. Once a place to be feared and conquered, by the end of the In contrast with those areas where man and nineteenth century, wilderness was con- his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the structed as a romanticized and pristine earth and community of life are untrammeled space in stark contrast to rising urbanization by man, where man himself is a visitor who and industrialization (Cronon, 1996; Hanni- does not remain. gan, 1995). Various scholars attempted to define wilderness and describe its value, This wilderness construct was tangibly thereby making a case for its protection. defined as an area of “undeveloped federal Leopold (1941), for example, described the land” with “outstanding opportunities for value of wilderness as a “base-datum of nor- solitude or a primitive unconfined type of mality” for landscapes and their biota recreation”, and “ecological, geological, or (p. 3). The scientific view of wilderness as a other features of scientific, educational, dynamic and complex ecological system scenic or historical value” (Wilderness Act, has been referred to by some as “wild com- 1964). This definition presents a particular munity” (Allen, 1979; Nelson & Callicott, concept of wilderness where humans are 2008; Spurr, 1963). Marshall (1930) had a viewed as largely separate from nature. more human-oriented definition by identify- Tucker (1982) viewed this definition of wild- ing wilderness as primitive and far from erness as “an attempt to create what are modern sources of transportation where essentially ‘ecological museums’ in scenic one must rely only on oneself to survive and biologically valuable lands” (p. 131). and achieve physical, mental, and aesthetic This conceptualization of wilderness