Influences of Engaging in a Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Process on Stakeholder Perceptions of Key Performance Indicators for Trails

Trail use is growing globally. Managers confront the classic dilemma of protecting ecological integrity and providing enriching experiences. They concomitantly face the imperative for sustainability—contemporarily characterized by complexity, uncertainty, conflict, and change. Heightened levels of visitation are cause for immense concerns due to adverse impacts to the environment as well as visitor experiences. COVID-19 exacerbates these challenges as heightened levels of visitation are occurring, while managers simultaneously face decreases in conservation funding, and restrictions on protected area operations. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is an emerging in- novation to collaboratively address social-ecological challenges, such as issues as- sociated with trail use. This research is concerned with exploring the influences of engaging in a PM&E process on stakeholder perceptions of key performance indicators (KPIs) for trails. This study compares stakeholder perceptions of KPIs for trails before and after a PM&E workshop at the Niagara Glen Nature Reserve in Ontario, Canada. Results show that PM&E can facilitate consensus among stakeholders regarding the overall goals of management and associated KPIs for environmental management planning. Stakeholders were shown to experience a real change in their perceptions of KPIs. The PM&E process studied show that participants became more conscious of the wider social realities as well as their perceptions of trail management. The study has important implications for managers concerned with trails and sustainability, including building consensus among key stakeholders to reach management goals, enhancing localized decision making, and building capacity for management towards sustainability. Trails, as well as the wider community can ultimately benefit from participatory approaches to environmental management. Consensus-building through PM&E works to enhance decisions that account for a diversity of perspectives. Stakeholder participation in trail management increases the likelihood that local needs and priorities are met, while allowing stakeholders to build capacity and learn to effectively manage their environments. Furthermore, positive perceptions from being meaningfully involved in PM&E can ensure the support of constituents, which is imperative for the long-term success of management planning.

Trail Use, Motivations, and Environmental Attitudes of 3780 European Mountain Bikers: What Is Sustainable?

Background: The extent to which mountain biking impacts upon the environment is largely determined by rider behaviours. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how mountain bikers interact with the natural environment and explore their attitudes towards sustainability. Methods: 3780 European mountain bikers completed an online cross-sectional survey. Results: Connection to nature was an important source of motivation and the use of mountain bike trails has increased rider’s appreciation of and willingness to protect nature, with a large majority having taken direct action to do so. Mountain bikers are prepared to contribute towards trail maintenance through the provision of labour or financially. Although most mountain bikers make use of wet trails and illegal trails, incidence of conflict is relatively low. A range of characteristics were identified as being fundamental elements of sustainable trails, both in relation to the sustainability of the trail itself and in terms of wider environmental sustainability. Conclusions: European mountain bikers care about the sustainability of the natural environment. Self-reported attitudes and behaviours suggest a willingness to reduce environmental impact and actively protect nature.

Air Pollution and Outdoor Recreation on Urban Trails: A Case Study of the Elizabeth River Trail, Norfolk

Poor air quality represents a significant health risk for individuals engaging in recreation activities outdoors in urban parks and trails. This study investigated temporal variability in particulate matter (PM) exposure along an urban waterfront trail. We also used recreation choice frameworks to examine the effects of visitors’ perceptions of air quality (AQ) and health benefits on trail use. Average air quality during the collection period was “good” (PM10) to “moderate” (PM2.5). We found that PM density was significantly higher (p < 0.001), though still in the “moderate” range, at 7–9 a.m., 11 a.m.–1 p.m., and 3–5 p.m., and on weekends. Visitors’ self-reported perceptions of health outcomes, but not air quality, significantly predicted trail use. Results suggest that these experiential factors may affect recreational choices depending on other factors, such as salience. Further research is merited to determine how experiential factors can be integrated with other theories of motivation to understand recreational decision-making.

Systematic observation of physical distancing behaviors of trail users during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, opportunities for indoor and sometimes outdoor recreation were restricted across the world. Despite restrictions, many greenways and rail-trails saw increased use. Messaging from the federal and state public health authorities stressed the importance of social distancing and other preventive measures in reducing spread of the coronavirus. Little is known about actual behaviors of individuals and groups using these outdoor recreational opportunities. This study used passive infrared cameras to systematically observe physical distancing behaviors on multi-user trails to assess safety implications of trail use during June 2020. Most interactions occurred with the recommended six feet of distance between users. Maintaining six feet of distance is more likely to occur when groups are no larger than one person, users pass while traveling in opposite directions, and trails are wider. Messaging on multi-user trails should target how groups pass other groups such as: ‘keep six feet’ and ‘pass single file’.

Landscape Preferences of Visitors to the Danube Floodplains National Park, Vienna

Successfully managing heavily visited protected riverscapes requires information about visitor preferences for the social, biophysical and infrastructural attributes of river landscapes. This study analyzed the landscape preferences of 520 on-site visitors to the peri-urban Danube Floodplains National Park using an image-based discrete choice experiment. The study explored the effects of various landscape types (water bodies, terrestrial landscapes), recreational infrastructures (trail types, facilities) and trail use conditions (trail user numbers, activities) on respondents’ preferences. The results indicated that natural features, such as floodplain forests in combination with meadows or xeric alluvial biotopes, were preferred, while dense forests and, particularly, open agrarian structures were less preferred. Water bodies with 50% reed cover, few people on the trail, alleys of trees and gravel trails were favored. The outcomes serve as the basis for design recommendations for planned recreational areas surrounding the national park with the aim of absorbing visitors and reducing use pressure on the protected area.

Recreational Trail Impacts and their Spatial Influence on Species Diversity and Composition

This thesis quantifies the differences observed in floral communities exposed to varying degrees of long-term recreational trail use. The study was undertaken in a temperate deciduous forest located in Uxbridge, ON, Canada, which permits hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trail users. Vegetation exposed to trail impacts was sampled using transects which extended from the trail edge to 25m into the forest interior. The results demonstrated that trail-influenced environments experienced significant shifts in composition and reductions in species richness at distances beyond the influence of an edge effect. It was also established that types of recreational trail use do not disproportionately cause greater disturbance or result in greater exotic and invasive species coverage. Multiple regression analysis revealed that when choosing new trail routes, managers can mitigate changes to species composition by selecting areas with steep side-slopes and by avoiding areas with a south facing aspect.

Recreational Trail Impacts and their Spatial Influence on Species Diversity and Composition

This thesis quantifies the differences observed in floral communities exposed to varying degrees of long-term recreational trail use. The study was undertaken in a temperate deciduous forest located in Uxbridge, ON, Canada, which permits hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trail users. Vegetation exposed to trail impacts was sampled using transects which extended from the trail edge to 25m into the forest interior. The results demonstrated that trail-influenced environments experienced significant shifts in composition and reductions in species richness at distances beyond the influence of an edge effect. It was also established that types of recreational trail use do not disproportionately cause greater disturbance or result in greater exotic and invasive species coverage. Multiple regression analysis revealed that when choosing new trail routes, managers can mitigate changes to species composition by selecting areas with steep side-slopes and by avoiding areas with a south facing aspect.

Field Test of a Passive Infrared Camera for Measuring Trail-Based Physical Activity

Introduction: Trails are ubiquitous and far-reaching, but research on the impact trails have on physical activity is limited by the lack of resource-efficient, accurate, and practical systematic observation tools. Commonly used infrared trail sensors count trail use and may broadly differentiate activity (i.e., bicyclist vs. pedestrian), but cannot detect nuances needed for outcomes research such as frequency, intensity, time, and type of activity. Motion-activated passive infrared cameras (PICs), used in ecological research and visitor management in wildlife areas, have potential applicability as a systematic observation data collection tool.Materials and Methods: We conducted a 7-month field test of a PIC as a systematic observation data collection tool on a hiking trail, using photos to identify each trail user's physical activity type, age, sex, and other characteristics. We also tallied hourly trail use counts from the photos, using Bland–Altman plots, paired t-tests, Concordance Correlation Coefficient, Kendall's Tau-b, and a novel inter-counter reliability measure to test concordance against concurrent hourly counts from an infrared sensor.Results: The field test proved informative, providing photos of 2,447 human users of the trail over 4,974 h of data collection. Nearly all of the users were walkers (94.0%) and most were male (69.2%). More of the males used the trail alone (44.8%) than did females (29.8%). Concordance was strong between instruments (p &lt; 0.01), though biased (p &lt; 0.01). Inter-counter reliability was 91.1% during the field study, but only 36.2% when excluding the hours with no detectable trail use on either device. Bland–Altman plots highlighted the tendency for the infrared sensor to provide higher counts, especially for the subsample of hours that had counts &gt;0 on either device (14.0%; 694 h).Discussion: The study's findings highlight the benefits of using PICs to track trail user characteristics despite the needs to further refine best practices for image coding, camera location, and settings. More widespread field use is limited by the extensive amount of time required to code photos and the need to validate the PICs as a trail use counter. The future potential of PICs as a trail-specific PA research and management tool is discussed.