Portland State University PDXScholar Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations Geography 5-31-2014 Where Do Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest Visitors Go and Which Roads Do They Use To Get There? An Analysis of the Spatial Data from the 2013 Sustainable Roads Workshops Rebecca J. McLain Portland State University, [email protected] David Banis Portland State University, [email protected] Alexa Todd Portland State University Mike Psaris Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geog_fac Part of the Geographic Information Sciences Commons, and the Physical and Environmental Geography Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details McLain, R., D. Banis, A. Todd, and M. Psaris. May 31, 2014. Where do Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest visitors go and which roads do they use to get there? An analysis of the spatial data from the 2013 Sustainable Roads Workshops. Prepared for the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and Sustainable Roads Cadre. This Report is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Where Do Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest Visitors Go and Which Roads Do They Use To Get There? An Analysis of the Spatial Data from the 2013 Sustainable Roads Workshops Prepared by: Rebecca McLain, David Banis, Alexa Todd, and Mike Psaris (Portland State Department of Geography) Prepared for: The Wilderness Society/Sustainable Roads Cadre May 31, 2014 1 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Data processing challenges ......................................................................................................................... 4 Data analysis ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Density and diversity maps overview ......................................................................................................... 6 Map Set 1: Combined workshops destination and road densities ............................................................. 7 Figure 1 – Combined workshops destination and road densities............................................................ 9 Map Set 2: District destination and road densities ................................................................................... 10 Figure 2 – Destination and road densities for the Mt Baker Ranger District ......................................... 12 Figure 3 – Destinations and road densities for the Darrington Ranger District ..................................... 13 Figure 4 – Destination and road densities for the Skykomish Ranger District ....................................... 14 Figure 5 – Destinations and road densities for the Snoqualmie Ranger District ................................... 15 Map Set 3: Residential area destinations and road densities .................................................................. 16 Figure 6 – Boundaries of the Residential Areas .................................................................................... 19 Figure 8 – Destinations and road densities for the Mountain Loop Residential Area ........................... 21 Figure 9 – Destination and road densities for the Highway 2 Residential Area..................................... 22 Figure 10 – Destination and road densities for the Everett/Skagit Residential Area ............................ 23 Figure 11 – Destination and road densities for the North/East King Residential Area .......................... 24 Figure 12 – Destination and road densities for the Pierce/South King Residential Area ....................... 25 Map Set 4: Activity destination and road densities................................................................................... 26 Table 1: Activity categories and example activities ............................................................................... 26 Figure 13 – Destination and road densities for hiking ........................................................................... 30 Figure 14 – Destination and road densities for strenuous recreation ................................................... 31 Figure 15 – Destination and road densities for motorized recreation .................................................. 32 Figure 16 – Destination and road densities for observation ................................................................. 33 Figure 17 – Destination and road densities for camping/relaxation ..................................................... 34 Figure 18 – Destinations and road densities for sociocultural activities ............................................... 35 Figure 19 – Destinations and road densities for winter recreation ....................................................... 36 Figure 20 – Destination and road densities for collecting/harvesting ................................................... 37 Map Set 5: Values destination and road densities ................................................................................... 38 Table 2 – Values categories and examples of values............................................................................. 38 Figure 21 – Destination and road densities for access/proximity ......................................................... 41 2 Figure 22 – Destination and road densities for serenity/solitude ......................................................... 42 Figure 23 – Destination and road densities for aesthetic ...................................................................... 43 Figure 24 – Destination and road densities for nature/wilderness ....................................................... 44 Assessing diversity of uses ........................................................................................................................ 45 Table 3 – Diversity of use at high density destinations for activities..................................................... 45 Table 4 – Diversity of use at high density destinations for values ......................................................... 46 Map Set 6: Activity and value diversity for roads ..................................................................................... 47 Figure 25 – Activity diversity for roads .................................................................................................. 49 Figure 26 – Values diversity for roads ................................................................................................... 50 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 51 Appendix A – Combined workshops road density summary ..................................................................... 53 Appendix B – Residential areas: High density destinations ....................................................................... 55 Appendix C – Map of high destinations and roads.................................................................................... 56 Appendix D - Kernel density and diversity index methods ........................................................................ 57 Figure C-1 – Comparison of Shannon and Simpson index weights........................................................ 59 3 INTRODUCTION This report provides an overview of the key patterns that emerged from the spatial analyses of the destination and route data collected during the 2013 Sustainable Roads workshops on the Mount Baker Snoqualmie (MBS) National Forest. We excluded the pilot workshop data from the analyses because a somewhat different process was used to collect the mapped data. The data used in the analysis was collected from 262 participants in eight workshops (Bellingham, Sedro-Woolley, Darrington, Monroe, Everett, Seattle, Issaquah, Enumclaw). During the workshops, participants mapped up to eight destinations of importance to them, and in most cases, also mapped the routes they took to each destination. For each destination and its associated route, participants also provided the following information. Name of the place Why the destination is especially important What activities or work the participant does there How often the participant visits the place in a typical year What type of transportation the participant uses to get there Of the 262 participants, 252 provided useable data for destinations and 246 provided useable data for roads. The dataset used in the spatial analysis contained 1733 records for destinations and 1609 records for roads. We entered the worksheet data for the destination and road mapping exercise into an Excel spreadsheet. The activities associated with each destination were grouped into eight categories (camping/relaxation, collecting/harvesting, hiking, motorized recreation, observation, sociocultural, strenuous recreation, and winter recreation). Although most people listed no more than two activities for a location, some people listed up to six different activities for certain destinations. The description of why a participant visited a particular location was similarly classified as a set of eight different values. Given the way the question was