Food Storage on the Appalachian Trail: A Theory of Planned Behavior Approach to Understanding Backpacker Bear Canister Use

Improper food storage fuels human-bear conflicts in parks and protected areas around the globe. Bear-resistant food storage canisters provide an extremely effective solution for reducing food-related human-bear conflicts, especially for overnight visitors in backcountry settings. However, the success of this intervention depends on recreationists’ willingness to use and comply with such food storage methods. This study used internet-based surveys to identify Appalachian Trail backpackers’ attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions regarding the use of bear canisters through an application of the Theory of Planned Behavior. Results indicate attitudes and subjective norms provide potential leverage points for messaging under voluntary conditions; messaging incorporating attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control may help influence food storage behavior under required conditions. Specific recommendations for effective, theory-based interpretation strategies aimed at reducing human-black bear conflicts on the Appalachian Trail are provided.

Virginia

This Article addresses developments in Virginia oil and gas law for the period from September 1, 2019, to September 1, 2020. During this period, the Supreme Court of the United States heard the Atlantic Coast Pipeline case, providing a significant ruling that allowed the pipeline to cross underneath the Appalachian trail. Additionally, Judge Chadwick S. Dotson of the Circuit Court of Wise County and the City of Norton issued an opinion regarding the mining of uranium in the Commonwealth.

No Façade to Hide Behind: Long-Distance Hikers’ Journeys Through Self and Society

This ethnographic study uses a phenomenological approach to better understand how Appalachian Trail (AT) and Long Trail (LT) thru-hikers create meaning and make sense of their experiences while hiking. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews with 13 hikers, I analyze hikers’ initial reasons for hiking, their reflections while on the trail, and the impacts thru-hiking had on their self-concepts and social lives. Key findings demonstrate how life on the trail contrasts with hikers’ everyday lives in society and thus suggest ways that their experiences on the AT/LT may give insight into nature, community life, personal change, and the process of personal reflection. In particular, this study suggests that long-distance hiking builds personal skills and confidence. Further, this research uses a phenomenological approach as well as the concepts of liminality and communitas to analyze the creation of an alternative trail subculture and new personal identities on the trail, including trail families.

Sharing the hero's journey: blog posts from the Appalachian Trail.

This chapter focuses on a hiking choice that, like the hero's journey, embraces difficulty. The researchers studied online blogs posted by thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail (the AT). The term thru-hike describes a typically long-distance hike that traverses an acknowledged 'trail' from end-to-end. Thru-hiking the 2190 mile (3525 km) AT requires months of planning and effort and thousands of dollars to pay for related expenses. More than that, participants expect to undergo extensive physical and emotional hardship. The trail is challenging, often dangerous and fraught with uncertainty. It demands much of its participants, yet hikers are both willing and even eager to undertake those demands. Over 2000 hikers attempt a thru-hike on the AT annually (Littlefield and Siudzinski, 2012).

Roughing It: Evaluating a Novel Experiential Design Course on Resiliency, Self-Leadership, and Engineering Design Self-Efficacy

Despite continuous calls in literature for an increase in women in engineering, U.S. numbers hover around 20% women graduating with undergraduate degrees in engineering. Although diversity, inclusion, and engineering education researchers have made great strides in understanding the development of engineering identity and capturing the experiences of struggling women and underrepresented students, many women students still experience “chilly” climates in daily interactions in engineering education environments. Women need mentorship, peer support, and mastery experiences that build Self-leadership, resilience, and engineering self-efficacy beliefs to persevere and flourish in such environments. The current work explores the effectiveness of a novel experiential design intervention on these factors for women engineering students. Specifically, we assess the value of a unique experiential design course where women engineering students hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail guided by women engineering faculty members, and then participated in a follow-on design thinking project. Results suggest such interventions may be effective methods to improve student outcomes.