A Selection of Research Papers: draft and published.
William T. Borrie --- College
of Forestry
- Why Primitive Experiences
in Wilderness?
The U.S. Wilderness Act of 1964 calls for “outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined experience”. As part of an effort by the USDA Forest Service Wilderness Monitoring Committee to understand wilderness character, this paper examines the intellectual origins and problematic ideals of the notion of primitiveness. They may not be as politically appropriate and benign as when they were first suggested. [Paper]
- Winter Visitors to
National Parks embrace a diversity of values, and it is suggested that those values underlie conflicting attitudes towards park management actions. [Abstract]
- Public Purpose Recreation Marketing: A focus on the relationships between the public and public lands.
Public purpose marketing emphasizes factors such as trust, commitment and social responsibility that recreation managers need to consider in relating and communicating with the public. [Abstract]
- The Dynamic, Emergent, and Multi-phasic Nature of On-site Wilderness Experiences.
The wilderness is not a single,
coherent experience, but rather a multi-faceted experience that ebbs and flows
across time. Describes ten
dimensions of the wilderness experience and shows how they change across the course
of wilderness experiences in the Okefenokee Wilderness of southern
- Approaches to Measuring Quality of the Wilderness Experience.
Setting standards for the maintenance of quality wilderness experiences will require sophisticated measurement techniques. This paper describes four main approaches. [Abstract]
- Crossing Methodological
Boundaries: Assessing Visitor Motivations and Support for Management
Actions at
A quick description of winter
visitor experiences and attitudes towards management options designed to
protect wildlife in
- Women, Wilderness, and Everyday Life (written with Sarah Pohl and Michael Patterson).
Examines the connection between wilderness experiences and social change for women. [Abstract]
- Disneyland and Disney World: Constructing the environment, designing the visitor experience.
Disney is the expert at providing locations and experiences for the recreational visitor. As managers move more towards a customer-driven approach, will Disney become the standard against which they are judged ? [Abstract]
- The Threats of Technology to Wilderness
Discusses some of the pro's and con's of technology in and about wilderness. What does technology do for us and to us ? To whom do the benefits accrue, and who bears the costs ? [Abstract]
- The Impacts of Technology on the Meaning of Wilderness
Technology not only changes the wilderness experience, but it has the potential to change the very meaning of wilderness. Technology can manipulate our wants, needs, and expectations. Technology raises a particular view of wilderness to greater prevalence. And technology may mask our ability to distinguish and determine what is lost in so doing. [Paper]
- Protected Area Planning Principles and Strategies
Discusses the need for planning frameworks for the management of protected areas and some principles of visitor management. The use of carrying capacity approaches is critiqued, and the advantages of the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) system are discussed. [Abstract]
- Factors that Limit Compliance with Low-impact Recommendations (written with James Harding & David Cole).
Knowing what to do may not be the only limiting factor in recreationists following Leave No Trace recommendations. Knowing when, why, and how it is socially appropriate to follow low-impact recommendations may be just as important. [Abstract]
- Examining Winter Visitor
Use in
Describes quantitative and
qualitative research conducted with snowmobilers and cross-country skiers in
- Appropriateness to pay: Is Wilderness a unique recreation experience?
Considers the appropriateness of user fees for wilderness locations. Why are some visitors offended ? They can pay, will pay, but do not feel they should pay. [Abstract]
- Benefits-Based Management
Describing the application of
Benefits-based Management to a local community parks and recreation setting in
- The Problems of Post-hoc Questionnaires
Questions the use of mail-back questionnaires for accurate description of actual events, conditions, and feelings during a recreational experience. Includes discussion of cognitive psychology and survey research methods. [Abstract]
- The Authentic Wilderness Experience ?
Describes six dimensions of a wilderness experience (oneness, humility, primitiveness, timelessness, solitude and care), that were developed from the writings of wilderness scholars such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Sigurd Olson.[Abstract]
- Heidegger, Leisure and Wilderness
Can the work of continental philosopher Martin Heidegger provide a philosophical underpinning for works examining the leisure experience in wilderness ? Examines some of the intriguing similarities between Heidegger's ideas and the concepts of leisure and wilderness.[Abstract]
- The Priming Hypothesis
Why does our understanding of behavior performed in the past help us predict behavior in the future ? Examines the theories that explain the role of previous behavior on intentions for future behavior. The priming hypothesis is found to be able to predict finding that neither the trait, consistency, nor attitude change hypotheses can explain. [Abstract]
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Last updated: January 2005.