Research: an essential ingredient in the outdoor recreation mix - ORRRC At 40!

Parks & Recreation, August, 2002 by Alan Ewert

The answer becomes "no" if we consider the long-term impact our outdoor recreation research has had on the public welfare. True, some of our research has aided decision-making in designing more efficacious management strategies, and yes, we do have a better understanding of some of the theoretical models, such as specialization and optimal arousal, subscribed to in the field of outdoor recreation. But is our research fully addressing the important and contemporary issues our society needs from outdoor recreation?

Back in the 1960s, the ORRRC report discussed the role that research would play in helping managers properly determine the carrying capacity for a specific location, the effects of urbanization on outdoor recreation use patterns, the growing importance that values would play in natural resource decision-making and the importance of multidisciplinary research approaches. What's bothersome is that these ideas were set forth more than 40 years ago, yet much of the outdoor recreation research being conducted today still involves many of these issues.

That being the case, I'd like to highlight one of the abandoned recommendations of the ORRRC report that held great promise for the research side of the equation--establishing the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation. Although I'm not advocating a reawakening of this sleeping giant, one of the roles perceived as integral to the BOR was creating the Research Advisory Committee, which would provide coordination and depository functions for the broad and often eclectic field of outdoor recreation research. After all, while there are many organizations involved in outdoor recreation research, there is little overall coordination, even at the federal and state level, thereby creating many inefficiencies and redundancies.

In sum, what can one say about the state of outdoor recreation research on the 40th anniversary of the ORRRC report? Outdoor recreation research has certainly become more sophisticated and capable of tackling complex issues. This evolution is ironic, however, if one believes that the issues haven't seemed to change all that much since the early 1960s. There has certainly been a broadening of the researcher cadre with the inclusion of other academic disciplines, such as environmental psychology and social psychology, but has this greater breath come at the expense of reduced depth in the number of researchers primarily looking at recreation-related phenomenon?

Finally, are we still looking at the right questions? Issues such as carrying capacity are important, but do they address any of the current social ills plaguing our society? Would we better fulfill the mandate of the ORRRC by developing a fuller understanding of issues such as how the outdoor environment can be used therapeutically, or how families and individuals can be strengthened? Would improving our understanding of how outdoor recreation can be better used to contribute to the overall wellness of individuals and our society be a worthy objective? Similarly, how can outdoor recreation be used to develop within our citizens a better understanding of ecological processes, and how we humans interact and depend upon those processes?