Criterion 6: Socioeconomic Benefits of Forests and their Ecosystem Services

Indicator 14: Outdoor recreational participation and facilities

This indicator provides participation rates for a variety of forest-related recreational activities, and assesses the supply of forest-based recreation facilities and public lands open to recreation in Wisconsin. Data in this indicator is available by county, or can be compiled for a regional or statewide perspective. For this sample indicator, we will be presenting data at a regional scale, specifically the “Northwoods” region of Wisconsin (Florence, Forest, Iron, Langlade, Lincoln, Oneida, Price, and Taylor counties). Although not all indicators will have data to a regional or county scale, this indicator provides a good example of how the scale of the Framework may be adapted to focus at a local level.

Relation to Sustainability

Outdoor recreation is an important basis for tourism and contributes to the health and well-being of communities. Forest-based recreation benefits local economies by drawing in tourists and visitors from outside the region, visitors who then patronize local businesses. Yet forest recreators can also create conflicts over forest use. Different types of land ownership (e.g., industrial forestland, public forests, or conservation easements) provide different recreation opportunities. As many industrial landowners sell their forestland, however, a greater burden is placed on public forests to provide facilities and lands for a large range of recreational uses. Providing enough resources to meet visitor demand can become difficult for public forests with few other recreational resources in the region.

Although it is the goal of many forest properties to provide space and facilities for recreation, too much recreational demand or use may impact the health and sustainability of forest resources in several ways, including trail degradation, soil erosion, and water quality impacts. As available public land is stressed for more recreational use, lands may become degraded or overused without careful oversight.

To meet the demands of forest users while protecting valuable forest resources, it is important to have a clear understanding of recreational trends, as well as current recreational facilities. This indicator will provide forest planners and others with data to plan for sustainable recreation on forest properties.

It is important to note that most metrics included in this indicator deal with recreation supply. To understand the complete picture of recreation supply and demand, metrics in this indicator should be taken as a whole, comparing the number of public lands (metric 14.2), recreation facilities (metric 14.3), trails (metric 14.4), and campsites (metric 14.5), to the amount each of these facilities are used (metric 14.1).

Forest-based recreation relates to several trends in forest sustainability. The Statewide Forest Plan (completed in 2004) identified a number of forest trends and issues in Wisconsin that relate to specific indicators in the Framework. Trends and issues that relate specifically to Indicator 14 are presented below. As the Framework is used to develop the Statewide Forest Assessment, these trends and issues may be assessed and explored further through the metrics presented in this indicator. Identified trends and issues are:

• Trend/Issue 21: Demand for forest-based recreation and associated services is increasing.
• Trend/Issue 22: Forests are in demand for a mix of uses.
• Trend/Issue 35: Less forestland is available for public use.
• Trend/Issue 36: Stakeholders are more involved in forest decisions.
• Trend/Issue 37: Conflicting use of forests is a public debate.
• Issue 39: Role of public forests.
• Trend/Issue 40: Motorized recreation is becoming more popular.
• Trend/Issue 41: More trails are being created and used.
• Issue 51: The cultural values of forests can be hard to quantify and may be underestimated.

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14.1 Participation in Outdoor Recreation

Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) data provides days of participant activity for 95 outdoor recreation activities. For this metric, activities that typically take place in forested settings such as hunting, wildlife watching, cross-country skiing, and hiking are highlighted for analysis. Although all activities presented within this data set can take place in a forest, the data presented below includes participation in all outdoor recreation locations, not just forests. Data is divided within eight regions of the state; Region 2, the Northwoods Region (Florence, Forest, Iron, Langlade, Lincoln, Oneida, Price, and Taylor counties), is presented below.

From this data, we see that certain recreational activities are more popular than others in the Northwoods region. Several of the most popular activities—walking for pleasure, picnicking, snow/ice activities, and day hiking—require few facilities and have low environmental impacts. Other activities such as bicycling, visiting a beach, and developed camping, require more facilities and maintenance to keep them operational. Still other activities—hunting, snowmobiling, off-road ATVing—have large environmental impacts and may conflict with other uses of a property. As forest properties plan for new recreation, or assess existing recreational facilities, this data will provide an important reference point for demand within the region.

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Public Lands Open to Recreation

This metric lists the acres of public land (federal, state, county and municipal) open to outdoor recreation by agency. Data comes from public forestry agencies, and includes federal lands, state parks, and other publicly-owned lands. Acres reported include all land cover types, not just forestlands.

The amount of designated public lands in Wisconsin indicates the importance national and state residents place on having land available for recreation. By comparing the availability of public lands between regions in Wisconsin, we may begin to develop a picture of regional recreational supply.

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14.3 Recreational Facilities on Public Lands

This metric reports the number, acreage, and mileage of recreational facilities on public forests, parks, fish/wildlife areas and other specially designated land. The region used in this metric is slightly different than the “Northwoods” region and includes Forest, Iron Lincoln, Oneida, Price, and Vilas counties, as well as the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Recreational facilities in this region are provided mostly on the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, and a number of county forests.

The number of facilities located on public lands in Wisconsin may give us a good indication of how state citizens value the availability of recreational facilities, as well as which activities are popular within a region. In a region like the Northwoods, where few facilities exist, we may infer that recreation is primarily undeveloped, and centered around activities such as hiking, fishing, and swimming. When compared to regional recreation participation (in metric 14.1), the number of facilities may also give an indication of whether a given region is meeting recreational demand.

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14.4 Recreation Trails

The WDNR-PR tracks the number of miles of trail for walking/hiking, horse, surfaced bike, mountain bike, snowmobile, cross-country ski, and ATV uses. Miles are tracked by whether they exist on state park and forestland, or on state trails. This data is at a statewide scale, and not just the Northwoods region.

The supply of recreational trails in this metric may be compared to the recreational participation data provided in metric 14.1 to gain a picture of whether public trail supply is meeting trail demand.

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14.5 Number of Campgrounds

This metric displays the number of public and private campgrounds, as well as electrical and non electrical campsites. Data comes from the SCORP and 2004 Woodall’s Camping Directory, and is by county. For this sample indicator, data has been compiled for the Northwoods region.

When compared to data from metric 14.1, data presented in this metric will give an idea of how much camping infrastructure exists within a given region, as well as whether existing campsites are meeting demand.

Data Limitations/Considerations

SCORP data provide an inventory of all land that is open to outdoor recreation, not only forestland or those areas specially designated for outdoor recreation. SCORP data may vary by county, as counties providing the data may not adhere to standard protocols.

Related Indicators

In developing this Framework, several other state and national criteria and indicator-based initiatives were used as a model. Indicators presented in this report therefore relate directly to indicators used in the model reports. Related indicators are listed below.

• Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters and Forest Service State and Private Forestry Base 18 Indicators of Sustainability: Indicator 13 [exit DNR]
• Montreal Process 2003: Indicator 35, 36, 37, 42 [exit DNR]
• Montreal Process Proposed 2010: Indicator 41, 42 [exit DNR]
• Forest Stewardship Council Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship: Principle 5 [exit DNR]

References

WDNR. 2006. The 2005-2010 Wisconsin Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. PR-026-2006. Available on-line: [http://dnr.wi.gov/planning/scorp]

National Survey on Recreation and the Environment: [http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/trends/Nsre/nsre2.html]

Woodall’s Publication Corp. 2004. The 2004 Woodall’s Camping Directory.

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