Recreation Use-patterns and Their Implications for Management of Conservation Areas

R. W. BODEN*, Ph.D. (ANU) &

J. D. OVINGTON, D.Sc. (Sheff.) Department o f Forestry, Australian National University, Canberra, A C T 2600, Australia

A B S T R A C T

As the public becomes more mobile and has more leisure time available, conflicts between conservation and recreation interests can be expected to increase, particularly in areas, such as national parks, that have been set aside to fulfil multiple purposes. Unfortunately, recreational use varies in intensity within any area, and patterns o f attendance differ markedly with the season o f the year, day o f the week, and time o f day. The extent of, and reasons for, this variability, and some management implications, are discussed, using the Australian Capital Territory as an example.

INTRODUCTION

The extreme time-peaking of recreation demand is one of the most serious economic and management problems in the whole outdoor recreation field (Clawson & Knetsch, 1966). This is particularly obvious at national parks such as the Ayers Rock-Mt Olga National Park in Central Australia (Ovington et al.,

1972), where environmental conditions are severe and tourism is restricted by climatic and other conditions to a relatively short period of the year. Clearly, the management of areas used for both recreation and conservation purposes must be designed to cope with the period of maximum recreational use. At this time the environmental impact of recreation is generally greatest, and, in comparison with other times, there is more likelihood of site deterioration due to over-use, with a consequent decline in quality for both recrea- tion and conservation.

Unfortunately, many statistics of recreational use are presented on an annual basis, and obscure the marked seasonal, weekly, and daily, variations which occur owing to factors such as climate and the con- temporary social pattern. Recent studies in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) have examined present outdoor recreation use in relation to climatic

* Present address: Department of The Environment and Conservation, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.

and social patterns as a basis for planning and management of recreation-conservation areas (Boden, 1971). Using the ACT as a case-history, in this paper we attempt to draw attention to the problems associated with variability in recreational behaviour.

STUDY AREA

The ACT covers about 910 square miles (2,357 km 2) of southeastern Australia, and was annexed from the State of New South Wales (NSW) for the establish- ment of the capital city of Canberra. The Territory is divided by the Murrumbidgee River, flowing in a northwesterly direction. South and west of this river the country is mountainous, rising from 3,000 ft (914 m) to about 5,000 ft (1,524 m), with occasional peaks of more than 6,000ft (1,829 m). The south- west area is largely tree-covered, with indigenous eucalypt forest and exotic plantations of pine species. Its rugged nature and wetter climate means that land- use is mainly for water catchment, forestry, and outdoor recreation. North and east of the river the countryside is of undulating plains with an elevation of about 1,800 ft (549 m) above sea-level. These plains have been extensively cleared and altered for grazing and subsequent urban development. Some of the residual hills, which rise up to 2,600 ft (793 m), were cleared for grazing in the latter part of the last century, and have since been planted with native eucalypts and exotic conifers, mainly Pinus radiata.

The city of Canberra (Lat. 35o18 ' S, Long. 14906 ' E) is located in the north-east of the Territory, in the valley of the Molonglo River. This is now dam- med to form Lake Burley Griffin, which was estab- lished for aesthetic and recreational purposes. Canberra, the largest inland city in Australia, has about 150,000 people; the number has increased by almost 10 per cent per annum over recent years. As many new residents come from the coastal cities of Sydney and Melbourne, it is understandable that they seek to return to the coast for recreation.

265 Biological Conservation, Vol. 5, No. 4, October 1973--~ Applied Science Publishers Ltd, England, 1973--Printext in Great Britain

266 Biological

The south coast of New South Wales, about 90 miles (145 kin) or approximately 3 hours by car from Canberra, is a major recreational outlet for day and weekend use and vacations in summer. Many Canberra residents maintain vacation homes on the south coast.

Nevertheless, Canberra citizens make considerable use of recreation areas and facilities within the ACT. Furthermore, Canberra's tourist population is growing rapidly, and is now estimated at over one million people per annum. The tourist population fluctuates through the year: many tourists arrive at Easter (March or April) and in the three main school vacation periods, namely May, August to September, and January. Although most tourists stay for only one or two days, visiting areas of historic and political importance within the city, many visit the near-by countryside for pleasure driving, nature viewing, camping, and picnicking.

The climate of Canberra, as it affects outdoor recreation, is typified by warm, relatively dry summers, mild, calm, cloudless autumns, cold and dry winters, and cold, windy, variable spring conditions. Snow is of limited extent in winter and largely confined to the steep ranges west of Canberra above 5,000 ft (1,524 m), where it usually lies for 3 to 4 months in each year. Variable snow seasons, and the fact that most of the high country is protected water catchment, have limited development of snow sport facilities.

Climate, and the attractive scenery associated with the Murrumbidgee River and Lake Burley Griffin, result in an outdoor recreation pattern that is based heavily on pleasure driving, with transit picnicking in autumn, winter, and spring, whilst, in summer, such river- and lake-based activities as swimming, sun- bathing, canoeing, sailing, and fishing, are more popular. Hunting indigenous wildlife for sport is now prohibited, although, in the last century, wallaby and kangaroo shoots were a major pastime.

Organized sport occupies the time and energy of more than 25 per cent of the Canberra population on Saturdays in winter, thus effectively reducing the number of people visiting rural areas then. Attendance at organized sport on Saturday in winter is much greater than in summer, when more people participate in unorganized recreation which is often related to the water resource.

OUTDOOR RECREATION USE-PATTERNS

Travel Owing to the virtual absence of public transport

and the high proportion of car ownership, most of Canberra's outdoor recreation involves car travel.

Conservation

More than 90 per cent of Canberra families own a car, and more than 30 per cent own two or more cars. There were 2.56 persons per registered vehicle in the ACT in 1967, compared with 2-88 for Australia as a whole and, since 1960, one car or station wagon has been added to the total number of vehicles registered for each 2.0 to 2-5 persons added to the Canberra population.

The number of persons per vehicle visiting recrea- tion areas varies from one to eleven, almost regardless of size of vehicle, and very few vehicles contain only one person. The mean number of people per vehicle varies from 3-1 to 3.9, with a tendency for more people per vehicle at holiday weekends--probably because Canberra residents take visitors with them on outdoor recreation outings. These values differ from 'travel to work' and 'travel to shop' car occupancy rates of 1.2 and 2.0, respectively.

The average number of people per car often differs markedly from the average number of people in groups participating in outdoor recreation areas, as the occupants of several cars commonly meet for combined activities. Responses to a visitor survey in a local nature reserve indicated that between 23 and 28 per cent of respondents intended to meet other groups while at the reserve.

These transport and grouping patterns are relevant in designing picnic and parking facilities, and suggest that people prefer the flexibility in travel gained by using their own vehicle, and can afford the added cost of travelling independently.

Seasonal Variation in Visitor Use The ratios of January (summer) to July (winter) use

for sites providing different recreational opportunities vary widely, tending to be large (60 to 1) where swimming is the main activity and small (3 to 1) where picnicking and sightseeing are the main interests. The marked effect of recreational facilities on the seasonal variation in recreation use is illustrated for two areas near Canberra, which are relatively close together but differ in recreational opportunity (Fig. 1). The figure is based on the total number of parked cars counted at 15.00 hours on each day over a period of two years. The parking capacities of the two areas were similar.

Variation in use within a season can often be related to weather conditions. The small numbers of visitors in February for both 1969 and 1970 shown in Fig. 1 were due to wet Sundays reducing attendance, and emphasize the importance of weather and the need to collect visitor records over a number of years in order to obtain real trends in changes in use. Similarly, when car counts at 15.00 hours at the Cotter Reserve, 14 miles (23 kin) from Canberra, are plotted against

4000

NO. OF PARKED CARS AT 15.00 HRS.

Fig. 1.

32

NR;TLoTOONO

/2 E.S ,ER EASTER

,"., / . . . . \ , " ,

1968 1969 1970 MONTH

Seasonal variation in the use o f two recreational areas at the Cotter Reserve, Australian Capital Territory.

daily rainfall and temperature at 15.00 hours for thirty consecutive Sundays (Fig. 2), a close corre- lation exists between temperature and attendance for most days. The main exception is public holiday weekends when, almost regardless of weather, large numbers of people, particularly tourists, visit the reserve. (The apparent anomaly on the Australia Day holiday, with a large number of visitors present and a rainfall of 47 points (12 ram), is explained by the fact that the rain fell during a storm occurring late in the day at 18.00 hours. Whilst the overall attendance

was not lessened, the length of visit was reduced for many groups.)

Clearly, where visitor facilities are provided at public expense, and sites are drastically altered to meet the needs of peak summer demand, every attempt should be made to encourage use there throughout the year before developing alternative sites for non- resource-based winter activities, such as picnicking. One way in which this may be done is to determine the environmental factors and facilities which attract people to particular situations in winter, and then

TEMP o C

f 16

23 "l

RAINFALL MM

0

800"

NO 600• OF CARS 400.

Boden & Ovington : Recreation Use-patterns and Their Conservation Implications 267

Fig. 2.

! , , I ,I I AUSTRALIA

,A.OOR /% /, oAY

OCT NOV DEC JAN F£8 MAR APR

Temperature and daily rainfall records in relation to number of parked cars at Cotter Reserve, Australian Capital Territory, from October 1969 to April 1970.

268 Biological Conservation

500,

Fig. 3.

. . . . SATURDAY

SUNDAY

f °U / y 51 v

0 ,

O.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00

TIME OF DAY HOURS

Cumulative arrivals and departures at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Australian Capital Territory, from 10.00 to 18.00 hours for Saturday 3 October and Sunday 4 October 1970.

attempt to provide some of these at all highly- developed sites.

Daily Variation Sunday is the main day for outdoor recreation in

the Canberra region, and attendance at recreation areas then far exceeds any other day of the week-- except when public holidays occur. For the ACT, Cotter Reserve daily car counts in 1970 at 15.00 hours indicate that 19-2 per cent of the visits were made on the 252 week-days, 17.7 per cent on the 49 Saturdays, 52.6 per cent on the 52 Sundays, and 10.5 per cent on the 12 public holidays. In 1969, 65.6 per cent of all visits were on Sundays and public holidays. Generally,

Saturday attendance at outdoor recreation areas is about one-third of the Sunday figure, and reflects an existing social pattern in the local community, based on Saturday morning retail trading (6 per cent of the workforce are sales workers), a high level of Saturday overtime in the building industry (22 per cent of the work-force), organized sport, and a traditional pattern where the first day of a weekend is devoted to home-care activities.

A reduction in Sunday use-concentration might result if more people could transpose Sunday activi- ties to Saturdays or week-days. This is being done voluntarily by some people, to avoid the crowded conditions on Sunday, and more visitors might be encouraged to adopt this practice if entrance fees to

40'

%OF TOTAL

VISITS

] o-~o I ~,-12o I ,2,-180 [ ,81-24o I 2,,;-3oo [ 3o,-36o [ 3¢,-42o J 42,-,8o I LENGTH OF STAY IN MINUTES

Fig. 4. Frequency of group visits of different time-lengths at Tia~inbilla Nature Reserve, Australian Capital Territory.

Boden & Ovington : Recreation Use-patterns and Their Conservation Implications

recreation areas were introduced on Saturdays and Sundays, with a higher fee on Sunday. An example illustrating the difference between Saturday and Sunday is given in Fig. 3 for the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, about 20 miles (32 kin) from Canberra. This figure also illustrates the changing intensity of use occurring within a day, and the pattern of people arriving and departing regularly throughout the day. This recreational behaviour occurs consistently in the ACT outdoor recreation areas, and reflects the mobility afforded by virtually unrestricted use of motor-cars. Many people are constantly on the move, visiting several places in one day, seldom staying long at each, and spending a large part of the outing driving in the car.

Thus recreational use is not only concentrated into one day of the week but also into the early afternoon, when more than one-third of the total number of visitors for the day may be present.

Spatial Concentration There is similar direct and indirect evidence showing

that recreational use is highly concentrated within conservation areas providing for outdoor recreation. Indirect evidence is found in the length of time people spend in the nature reserve in the Territory. For example, a recent visitor survey at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, based on self-administered questionnaires, indicated that approximately 36 per cent of Sunday visiting groups stayed for one hour or less (Fig. 4), and clearly a stay of this length does not allow time to move far from the roads into the 11,500 acres (4,658 ha) reserve.

Direct evidence, based on observation, aerial survey assessment and response to questionnaires, indicated that only 27 per cent of visiting groups to Tidbinbilla used at least one of the several nature trails provided, even though these trails are readily accessible and clearly shown on maps and notice-boards. The trails were especially created on the valley-foot slopes away from the intensive use-zone on the valley floor which is visited by almost all groups.

At the microsite level, the evidence in the ACT supports the view of Darling & Eichhorn (1967) that such localized public use of national parks may initiate ecological processes which are far more destructive than are changes due to grazing animals or natural processes. For example, a plan of a typical wear-pattern surrounding a picnic table in a local outdoor recreation area is illustrated in Fig. 5. A zone completely bared of vegetation extends for about 2 ft (ca 60 cm) from each table, grading to a zone of variable wear determined partly by access paths, partly by location of facilities such as barbecues

269

and garbage containers, and partly by obstructions to movement such as trees and boulders. For an isolated table there is relatively little effect beyond a distance of 5 ft (150cm) from the table. Detailed studies of the surface soils around picnic tables have shown a significant decrease in soil organic matter and a significant increase in soil compaction, as measured by using a soil penetrometer, in the medium- and heavy-use zones.

~i ; - . ~ .';~,.'>,*" .'L"~ oO~"~.~; '' : "2 ~ ,9 t)~k_~ ,-4k~'ff-'l I

~ ~,~ c, ~ ; , . , ; 2.~ ,~ .~, ~ ,. ,~

a %'~-" " TO

Fig. 5.

5 FT,

0 1"5 M,

TASTE ~ ORASS ~ SO,t .A.Eo

Typical wear-pattern around picnic table at Cotter Playground, Australian Capital Territory.

S U M M A R Y A N D C O N C L U S I O N S

Management of areas fulfilling multiple functions is necessarily more complex than when a single mono- culture crop is being raised. The growth in public recreation associated with greater mobility, affluence, and leisure time, is causing increasing concern to conservationists in areas such as national parks, which are established and managed to fulfil conserva- tion and recreation roles. The difficulty of reconciling different interests arises partly through lack of ecological knowledge relevant to the management of semi-natural areas, and partly because of failure to foresee the implications of increased recreational activity. If the two interests are to be reconciled, greater knowledge is required of recreational behaviour in particular situations.

270 Biological Conservation

Greater attention needs to be directed to the temporal and spatial pattern of recreational activities in order to identify peak periods of use, for it is at such times that deterioration in quality occurs and conflicts are most likely to arise. There is also a general need to devise management techniques to encourage more uniform use and to reduce the intensity of use at peak periods. Nevertheless, in some circumstances, marked peaking of recreation use may be advantageous to conservation interests, e.g. in a coastal dune area which is a breeding ground for sea-birds, and where tourism is greatest during the non-breeding period.

Currently, urban and regional planning is attracting increasing interest throughout the world, and Canberra is often cited as a good example of a highly-planned city. It also provides an example of the need, in locating and planning new cities, to ensure that adequate consideration is given to fulfilling the outdoor recreation needs of citizens and tourists in the surrounding countryside. Such plans need to be dynamic and long-term, for recreation is both growing rapidly and changing in nature.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to the Department of the Interior and the National Capital Development Commission of Australia, for providing financial assistance for this study. We are also grateful to several colleagues who have read drafts of this paper and have offered helpful comments.

References

BODEN, R. W. (1971). Changing Land Use in the Canberra Region. Ph.D. Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra: 367 pp., illustr. (unpublished).

CLAWSON, M. t~ KNETSCH, J. L. (1966). Economics o f Outdoor Recreation. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland: xx -t- 328 pp., illustr.

DARLING, F. F. & EICHHORN, N. O. (1967). Man and Nature in the National Parks--Reflection on Policy. Conservation Foundation, Washington, D.C. : 80 pp.

OVINGTON, J. D., GROVES, K. W., STEVENS, P. R. & TANTON, M. T. (1972). A Study of the Impact of Tourism at Ayers Rock-Mt Olga National Park. Aust. Govt Pub. Serv., Canberra: 142 pp., illustr.

Manifesto on the Need to Ban Mechanical Underwater Fishing Weapons

Underwater hunting has offered many exciting and fascinating experiences to many people, but has, unfortunately, also resulted in serious damage to the underwater world. The perfected weapons and the ever-increasing number of underwater hunters have led to a decimation of the fish populations; in fact, in many areas fish have been practically exterminated. This is dramatically demonstrated to anyone who went diving along the Mediterranean coast some 20 years ago and who visits the same area today. Many tropical coral reefs, too, are bare and desolate. What is to be done?

As I was one of those who popularized this sport, perhaps my opinion should be heard. I am profoundly convinced that only drastic measures will help. Protected zones and underwater parks are an excellent idea and certainly important, but they are not sufficient. Fishing licences do not really help, either, because efficient controls are practically impossible. The only way to eradicate this evil at its roots is a world-wide banonallmechanical underwater weapons. At first glance such an undertaking would seem impractical and hopeless. For manufacturers and retail shops this would mean a loss of business. But would it really be a loss in the long run? I think the contrary is true: if the fish populations are being destroyed, then diving loses much of its appeal--then the sale of diving equipment, underwater cameras, and other accessories, will be reduced accordingly.

We who love underwater sport must have one guiding principle, regardless of sacrifice and financial losses: to maintain and further our sport. Therefore I invite all sport divers to join me in this attempt to save our sport:

(1) Let us influence all diving organizations to ban the use of mechanical underwater weapons. (2) Let us try to persuade the manufacturers, distributors, and vendors, to phase out the manufacture and sale of mechanical underwater weapons. (3) Let us use our influence on legislators of all countries to bring about laws prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and use, of mechanical under- water weapons.

For the time being, hunting with the hand-spear could still be permitted. This type of hunting requires considerable skill and is fair since it gives the fish a good chance to escape. But the use of rubber or spring-loaded spear-guns (to say nothing of explosives) gives Man an excessive and unfair advantage over marine animals. This perversion of the original con- cept of underwater hunting must come to an end; it must be spontaneously abandoned and legally suppressed.

HANS HASS, Opernr ingh l f , Wien 1, Aus t r ia