Florida is a popular tourist destination, averaging over 140 million visitors annually. Approximately half of visitors go to a natural area as part of their vacation. Many Florida residents also recreate locally in natural areas. Across the United States, outdoor recreation is influential to the economy, contributing over $600 billion dollars per year, and supporting over 6 million jobs.

Participation in outdoor recreation contributes to support for natural areas. There are a variety of benefits that come from having visitors to your site: opportunities for the public to learn about conservation, gaining support from the public for natural areas management, receiving visitor feedback, and potentially acquiring new volunteers or funding.

Balancing Recreation and Conservation

Just like amusement parks and other attractions specifically designed with human interaction in mind, planning for natural areas should consider how visitors will interact with the site. Recreational planning is a proactive approach that balances the needs of visitors and the environment.

Instead of excluding visitors, consider how to create quality recreation opportunities that meet diverse needs and preferences. First, identify what opportunities you want to provide for visitors. Think about the benefits they may receive from your management. Will they learn about plants and animals, enjoy peace and solitude, or appreciate new experiences with friends and family? For example, some visitors may prefer limited infrastructure and remote trails, while others might need extensive infrastructure to access the site.

Next, consider the range of opportunities you can provide based on the characteristics of your site. At one end, opportunities may exist in primitive areas with very low level of development; at the other end, there may be opportunities in urban areas with very high level of development. Primitive sites are natural or undeveloped, have a low density of people, and are indirectly managed for recreation opportunities. Urban sites are modified or developed, have a high density of people, and are directly managed for recreation opportunities. The Recreation Setting Spectrum demonstrates incremental opportunities exist between these two extremes, depending on the characteristics of your site (Figure 1).

As visitors engage with natural areas, there will inevitably be some negative impacts. It is important to take time in advance to identify potential concerns at your site, set the standard for what acceptable impacts are, define corrective actions to be taken should and issue arise, evaluate your plan, implement action, and adjust management as needed.

Effective Recreation Management

There are a variety of management approaches for addressing impacts at your site:

• Visitor vs Site Management:
  • Visitor management relies on direct communication with visitors to educate or regulate their behavior.
  • Site management prioritizes manipulation of the site to influence visitor interaction.

• Indirect vs Direct Management:
  • Indirect Management focuses more on educating visitors, and less on using physical barriers to allow visitors to make the correct behavior choices for the site. This is often the more cost-effective option, and provides freedom of choice among visitors, but may result in some negative impacts still occurring.
  • Direct Management uses physical barriers, on-site enforcement/tour guides to get correct behavior. This is often the more expensive option and may been seen as “intrusive” by visitors but often results in visitors following the correct behavior choices.

What You Can Do

By allowing the public to engage with natural areas, we reap economic, social, and environmental benefits. Proactive planning by site managers ensures that everyone may enjoy the benefits of nature, while also meeting the needs of the site. As NATA’s Managing for Visitors and Volunteers in Natural Areas instructor says, “Don’t be surprised, plan for it.” Recreational planning is a crucial aspect of natural areas land management. Follow these steps to help others continue to enjoy the great outdoors while preserving nature’s beauty for future generations.

Learn more through the Natural Areas Training Academy

We prepare Florida’s natural areas managers to balance visitors and their natural area in our Managing Visitors and Volunteers in Natural Areas course. This training provides guidance on how to integrate visitors and volunteers into natural areas management. For more information on this course and others, visit our website: https://programs.ifas.ufl.edu/nata/.

Other Sources of Information on Recreation Planning

Planning for the Many Benefits of Nature-Based Recreation, Stein

Defining and Managing the Quality of Wilderness Recreation Experiences, Manning and Lime

The Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) System for Wilderness Planning, Stankey, Cole, Lucas, Peterson, and Frissell

The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum: A Framework for Planning, Management, and Research, Clark and Stankey

The Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) Framework – A Handbook for Planners and Managers, National Park Service

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