Millions of acres of public lands across the Rocky Mountain West are beloved spots for skiing, hiking, biking, fishing, hunting, and camping. Researchers study how these activities interact with the natural environment in a field of study called “recreation ecology.”
It brings together ecological research, about wildlife and landscapes, and combines them with studies about human behavior during recreation. The idea is to both preserve and protect natural resources and environments, while also ensuring access to public lands and positive visitor experiences.
Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Caroline Llanes spoke with Dr. Chris Monz at Utah State University to learn more about the field.
Editor’s note: This interview and this transcript have been edited for length and clarity.
Caroline Llanes: So in your research and in your experience with this topic, what are some of the biggest and most common ways that we see recreation interacting with wild lands and public lands and these ecosystems?
Chris Monz: Am I concerned about a lot of people on designated trails and footpaths? No, not really, because people are doing what we asked them to do, and maybe we need to do some management of that kind of thing. But if it's a designated managed trail and we're telling people, ‘this provides access,’ that's a good thing.
What's most concerning from an ecological perspective is when people and their associated activities start going into new places that were previously unused or at least unused, add, you know, any kind of measurable level and start expanding the footprint, if you will, of recreation activities into new places, particularly in situations where those are unmanaged. So it might be an area where new trails are being formed that are not designated trails, but are simply being formed by human use. At some very low level, that's okay. We've always had dispersed use throughout parks and protected areas, and we wouldn't want to deprive people from that kind of experience. But when that use starts to increase to the point that there's a lot of folks, (and) we're seeing that disturbance spread out into new locations, that's the most concerning.
The other thing that's most concerning is when we have a threatened endangered species and we have potential overlap of people and that threatened and endangered species at susceptible times. So a good example would be peregrine falcon nesting on cliffs during rock climbing season, when the birds are in the nest. They're very susceptible to disturbance and they don't want people around, right? So we need to make a management intervention in those cases and close those particular rock climbing routes just for that period of time. And that's a very common strategy in many places and has been used very effectively.
Llanes: Okay. So when we think about the Rocky Mountain West, you know, places like Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, how do we kind of see these trends and these forms of disturbances play out in these communities and in public lands in these areas?
Monz: So I first started doing this kind of research about 35 years ago. And so I have a long history of working in Colorado, Wyoming, obviously Utah. And so I've seen a lot of changes occur in that time. And the big thing, of course, you know, is that we have a much greater visiting public now in terms of outdoor recreation activities than we ever imagined was going to happen. And a lot of this has been in the last really 15 years or so. We've seen some major changes in youth level going along with that. We basically have an infrastructure of providing outdoor recreation opportunities that was built back in the 1970s. And so as a consequence, we see a lot of issues of crowding, the potential for more management intervention in places. Our popular, world renowned destination sites are getting overrun with folks, and it's not even necessarily from an ecological disturbance perspective, although it is as in some times it's from a managerial and visitor capacity perspective, just getting a parking spot, you know, getting on a trail and not feeling crowded, right? All of these kinds of things have really come to the fore in the last, I would say, ten years.
Llanes: So I know that as part of your research, you have made some policy recommendations for land managers. What are some of those recommendations and what kind of policies can really help local, state and federal land managers when they're thinking about some of these issues and some of these really difficult questions?
Monz: Well, you know, one thing we've done—I’ve spent about the last 17 years really working in Rocky Mountain National Park and Rocky is one of my favorite parks. I started rock climbing there back in the early 1980s. I have a long history that goes back to when I was a kid. And what's been really interesting is to see the changes that have occurred, really, even over the last 15 years, and Rocky, with the demand of folks wanting to go up and experience Rocky Mountain (National Park).
And what we started doing about 6 or 7 years ago and in Rocky is really trying to understand how people move around the park, what kinds of experiences they're looking for broadly through a long term systematic research program that lead to something called a timed entry permit system, which, you know, essentially is a measured or a metered access program that requires that visitors get a reservation and get a time slot that they can enter the park. Now, that may sound incredibly managerially heavy, and I guess it is at some level, but the program has also been very successful. I can't speak for the park, they would need to speak for themselves, but visitors have reported to us that they are content with the program. That the conditions they experienced when they're in the park are good, and that it was not overly burdensome for them to get a reservation to come into the park.
Llanes: That was Doctor Chris Munz. He's a professor of recreation resources management at Utah State University. Chris, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with Rocky Mountain Community Radio.
Monz: Yeah. You're welcome.
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