Life Sciences Commons^™

Recreation, Livestock Grazing, And Protected Resource Values In The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Lael Palmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis reports the results of a project which identified differences in characteristics of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument user groups as they related to their perceptions of how they experience the Monument as recreationists. It explored opinions of four groups: hikers vs. hunters and pre-designation users vs. post-designation users. Responses of these groups were compared for attribution of perceived resource damage, feelings of crowding, acceptability of management action, and importance of identified monument values to their visit. In addition, characteristics of the users were examined to determine if demographic characteristics accounted for differences in perception toward the resources. Finally, how …