User fees for federal Wilderness have been suggested as a way to reduce deficit spending on Wilderness recreation and supplement decreasing management budgets. This study examines the users of Linville Gorge Wilderness, a federal free area, and Grandfather Mountain Backcountry, a nearby private fee area, to determine if fees would exclude any socioeconomic or other user group who presently uses wilderness and determine if fees are acceptable to users. The study compares users' socioeconomic characteristics and travel cost demand functions and analyzes attitudes towards fees to determine the extent to which fees are likely to change use behavior. No difference is found in the socioeconomic characteristics of the users of the fee and the free area, suggesting fees excluding any for federal Wilderness are equitable, not excluding any socioeconomic group currently using Wilderness. The trip demand functions of the travel cost models for the two areas are statistically the same, suggesting users are making the same economic decision when visiting each area. Fees are found to be acceptable to users if Wilderness will deteriorate without fees and fee revenues are spent on Wilderness management. Users suggest about $25 for an annual Wilderness permit and about two dollars for a daily fee as reasonable amounts. Most users say the fee at Grandfather Mountain does not influence their decision to visit, suggesting fees will not greatly affect demand at federal Wilderness. The site demand function for Linville Gorge predicts a large decrease in demand, but this is common to most travel cost models and does not usually prove true. Further research of the travel cost model and the administrative feasibility of suggested fee levels is recommended. / M.S.

Numerous studies have looked at biotic succession at the aboveground level; however, there are no studies describing fungal community change associated with long-term ecosystem development. To understand ecosystem development, the organisms responsible for shaping and driving these systems and their relationships with the vegetation and soil factors, it is critical to provide insight into aboveground and belowground linkages to ultimately include this new information into ecosystem theory. I hypothesized that fungal communities would change with pedogenesis, that these changes would correlate with vegetation community change, and that they should show change of composition and diversity as the seasons change. Chapter 1 discusses the main topics related to this dissertation. Chapter 2 includes a publication draft that describes a study of sand-dune soil samples from northern Michigan that were analyzed to pinpoint the structural change in the fungal community during the development of the ecosystem. The samples were analyzed by pyrosequencing the soil DNA, targeting the internal transcribed spacer region. Chapter 3 contains a coauthored published paper that describes plant invasion of fields in Virginia to determine how they impact soil bacterial and fungal communities. The bacterial and fungal communities that were invaded by 3 different plant species exhibited similar changes, regardless of plant species, suggesting that some functional traits of invasives may have similar impacts on belowground communities. Chapter 4 remarks the conclusions of this research. / Master of Science / Ecosystems, including the soils underneath, are the environments that surround us perform a large number of critical human-relevant functions (playing roles in production of food, filtration of water for drinking, sequestration of carbon and nitrogen to build soil organic matter, and buffer against flooding). Yet, how these systems naturally develop over time are still in need of detailed study. One particular area of interest and need is the study of belowground fungal communities. It is not commonly known, but plants and ecosystems are highly dependent on the underground web of fungal hyphae that transform nutrients and provide water to plants. A first step in gaining this understanding utilized a natural ecosystem development gradient known as a chronosequence. It was expected that fungal communities would change as soil and ecosystem development progressed and that they would mimic changes in soil and vegetative properties. Discerning if these linkages occur is the first step to assessing how they work together to create ecosystems and their valuable environmental services. Chapter 1 provides a discussion of the main topics in this dissertation. Chapter 2 is at the heart of the dissertation via a study of fungal communities in a developmental soil ecosystem in northern Michigan in addition, in Chapter 3, I include a coauthored published paper that describes plant invasion of fields in Virginia. Chapter 4 remarks on the major conclusions of this Master thesis, supporting the role that vegetation and fungal community change in soil are associated with one another.

Wilderness has inspired the imagination and passion of Americans for the past two centuries. However, the places that are most often designated as wilderness are frequently far away and difficult for most people to access. It is therefore important to understand how the idea of wilderness can be rescaled and rethought to allow for its benefits to be more attainable within common and accessible areas. Interstate rest areas provide an excellent subject to study how a wilderness experience can be designed within an area not typically associated with wild nature. The rest areas on Interstate 64 in Virginia provide a good opportunity to conduct this study due to the variety ecological conditions that the interstate passes through. This thesis explores the varying conditions of all the rest areas on Interstate 64 in Virginia and develops a design for one of them, New Kent County Eastbound at mile marker 213. This design process is a site specific model for designing a wilderness experience at an interstate rest area that provides opportunities to experience local ecology, improve storm water management features, and increase wildlife habitat. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Few wildlife-associated recreation models have examined the contributions of wildlife to recreation experiences. In this study, a mail questionnaire was used to examine the wildlife experiences enjoyed by hunters, birders, environmentalists, wildlife professionals, and forestry professionals. In addition, the study also compared the surveyed groups' socioeconomic characteristics, recreation activities, and organizational affiliations, as well as their perceptions concerning approaches to wildlife management, habitat issues, and the social values attributed to wildlife. While responses often differed according to populations, the surveyed groups enjoyed many of the same wildlife watching experiences and, if they hunted, many of the same hunting experiences. The subjects' outdoor recreation activities and organizational affiliations suggested that the populations' interests in wildlife varied according to primary/secondary- and consumptive/nonconsumptive-orientation. Groups sometimes viewed the social values attributed to wildlife differently, but ecological value of wildlife and the value of wildlife to the enjoyment of future generations were important to all groups surveyed. The social values important to subjects personally sometimes differed from the values they believed justified tax expenditures. Generally, both professional groups agreed with use of five wildlife management approaches, but viewed forest habitat issues differently. The user groups were divided about the use of hunting and timber harvesting to help manage some wildlife species and about the adequacy of forest lands in the Southeast U.S. to meet the needs of some species. The professional groups had similar socioeconomic backgrounds. User groups varied according to age, sex, community type, education, and occupation; however, the user groups had similar household incomes. / Master of Science

Graduates of the Wilderness Education Association (W.E.A.) were surveyed by mail to investigate the effects of their certification on safety, ecological impact, and curriculum standardization of their subsequent leadership activities. Self-reports showed a slight, but not statistically significant, decrease in the number of post- W.E.A. course evacuations and rescues. Graduates reported a moderate W.E.A. influence on their accident records, and knowledge of W.E.A. standard safety practices was low. W.E.A.'s reported influence on the ecological impact of current outdoor leadership activities was stronger than its influence on safety, but graduates revealed only a moderate level of knowledge about ethical use practices. Graduates reported implementing a mean of 4.54 out of 16 W.E.A. curriculum areas into current programs. Thirty-three and one-half percent of the graduates reported not implementing any curriculum areas into current programs. W.E.A. graduates indicated that the course had the greatest influence on the implementation of their outdoor education curriculum areas which had previously not been highly standardized. Implications for certification of outdoor leaders are discussed. / Master of Science

The purpose of this research was to provide an understanding of past efforts to predict recreation choice behavior. Additionally, from this past research in recreation and in the fields of psychology and consumer behavior, a lexicographic semi-order model was selected and tested for applicability in approximating recreation site choices. Testinq this model required initial work in deciding upon physical, social, and managerial attributes of a recreation site which may be relevant to a choice decision. A framework was developed to analyze the multitude of studies dealing with recreation site attributes. Using a microcomputer based data collection instrument in a laboratory situation, the lexicographic semi-order choice model was found to be successful in predicting the elimination of alternatives from a choice set. There was a negative relationship between the level of experience an individual had in backcountry use in the Southern Appalachians and the specificity with which they perceived attributes of the resource. The lexicographic semi-order choice model appears to be a feasible format for developing microcomputer-based decision aids for backcountry recreation site selection. / Ph. D.

South Africa's well-established history of formally protected areas has resulted in it becoming a global leader in resource conservation and a pioneer of new management techniques. Roughly thirty years ago, South Africa became one of the earliest countries in the world to legislatively recognise wilderness. Since the first wilderness areas were designated, use and management issues have become increasingly complex as managers strive to balance the biological and social values of wilderness areas. Consequently, it is imperative that management techniques and strategies evolve to preserve wilderness values and resources in South Africa. Wilderness visitor education and information programs are a critical part of an effective wilderness management strategy. To ensure that wilderness education and information systems are inclusive and able to evolve over time three elements are needed. A management framework must be in place to ensure that a system-wide approach is established and maintained. Once a system-wide framework is established, wilderness education and information systems can be inventoried and monitored against established management goals. This information can then be used to continually refine and improve wilderness information and education systems as they evolve through increased understanding of use and management Issues. Lastly, increased wilderness-specific research and continued testing of current research in the South African context is needed, to ensure that management strategies stay relevant and adaptive. These adaptive management strategies will serve as the foundation for wider coordination of wilderness management and research at the provincial and national levels, further developing South Africa's leadership role in protected area management in Africa and the global community. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Human/wildlife interactions at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge were investigated in this research. Personal interviews and a mapping exercise were used to examine a variety of questions about recreational use. These included visitor backgrounds (their recreational histories, socioeconomic profiles, and past refuge visits), their perceptions (of current and proposed management policies, and visitor effects on wildlife), and their experiences of the refuge (their activities, most memorable experiences and exploration of the environment). Most visitors questioned were middle-aged individuals who resided in New Mexico. The refuge's unique character--its diversity of wildlife and landscape features--was perceived as its greatest asset. Visitors saw the refuge as a wildlife sanctuary, protected and controlled by officials who prevented visitors from having damaging impacts on the resource. While visitors differed by season of visit and purpose of visit, most did agree that the refuge should be managed for the sake of wildlife first. After that, visitors felt that it should be managed for the sake of recreation. Snow Geese responses to certain visitor behaviors were also examined. Simulations of visitor behaviors were made in the presence of small groups of geese. Behavioral observations of geese were made prior to, during, and after simulations. Environmental factors (weather, habitat, and temporal) were also examined. This analysis revealed a general tendency among geese to respond to visitor simulations in characteristic ways. However, variations in geese responses were also observed. Several factors may have most strongly influenced geese behavior. The predictability of visitor behaviors as perceived by geese influenced their patterns of response. Then too, certain environmental factors (habitat and temporal) were important, as well as the particular nature of the animal behaviors themselves. This research indicates that significant transactions occur between people, animals, and the environment. Understanding them is crucial in managing natural resources for ecological as well as recreational values.

Wilderness landscape, a setting common in Romantic literature and painting, is generally overlooked in the art of the Middle Ages. While the medieval garden and the city are well mapped, the medieval wilderness remains relatively trackless. Yet the use of setting to represent interior experience may be traced back to the Neo-Platonic use of space and movement to define spiritual development. Separating themselves as far as possible from the material world, such writers as Origen and Plotinus avoided use of representational detail in their spatial models; however, both the visual artists and the authors who adopted the Neo-Platonic paradigm, elaborated their emotional spaces with the details of the classical locus amoenus and of the exegetical desert, while retaining the philosophical concern with spiritual transition. Analysis of wilderness as an image for spiritual and emotional transition in medieval literature and art relates the texts to an iconographic tradition which, along with motifs of city and garden, provides a spatial representation of interior progress, as the medieval dialectic process provides a paradigm for intellectual resolution. Such an analysis relates the motif to the core of medieval intellectual experience, and further suggests significant connections between medieval and modern narratives in regard to the representation of interior experience. The Divine Comedy and related Continental texts employ both classical and exegetical sources in the representation of psychological transition and spiritual conversion. Similar techniques are also apparent in English texts such as Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon elegies, in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, and Troilus and Criseyde, and in the northern English The Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. These literary texts, further, include both ideas and techniques which are analogous to those of visual arts, where frescos and altarpieces show the wilderness as metaphor for transition, and where manuscript illuminations relate this visual concept to texts. Thus, the wilderness as a landscape of personal crisis becomes in the Middle Ages a significant part of the representation of interior experience in painting and in literature.

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to gain a deep understanding of the shared experiences of therapists who provide counseling in non-traditional, natural environment settings. Eight participants shared their experiences about counseling in nature. The primary research question for this study was: What are the shared experiences of counselors who provide nature-based counseling? A review of the literature of nature-based counseling provided benefits to spending time in nature, descriptions of various types of nature-based counseling, and ethical and legal issues that affect nature-based counselors. Semi-structured interviews comprised of open-ended questions were used to collect data by phone and through the use of video conferencing software. Audio taped interviews were transcribed and analyzed for key words, descriptive terms, and themes. Additional materials provided by counselors were analyzed for themes and overarching themes. A cross-case analysis yielded seven super-ordinate themes. The research question and sub-questions were addressed by the super-ordinate themes. The super-ordinate themes are: 1) Major Tenets, 2) Training and Ethical Concerns, 3) Benefits, 4) Motivations for Using Nature, 5) Beliefs About Human Connection With Nature, 6) Counselor’s Role, and 7) Spirituality. I employed validation procedures throughout my research to ensure accuracy during the data interpretation, which included clarification of my biases, member checking, peer debriefing and peer review, and the use of “thick, rich description.” Implications for counselors and counselor educators are presented, with recommendations for further research. Personal reflections of the researcher were provided.