Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Winter Visitors To Yellowstone National Park, Their Value Orientations And Support For Management Actions, William T. Borrie, Wayne A. Freimund, Mae A. Davenport

Society and Conservation Faculty Publications

The idea of a National Park contains a diversity of values and missions. This paper takes a multi-dimensional, context- specific approach to measuring the perceived values of Yellowstone National Park. It is an initial step in recording how perceptions of National Parks are changing over time. Responses of 1064 winter visitors to 24 park value items were factor and cluster analyzed to produce four groups. Examination of the relationship between cluster membership and support / opposition to a variety of management actions showed significant differences for all 19 proposed actions. Groups of visitors with different value orientations showed correspondingly different …