Come?”: A Look at African American and Hispanic Visits to Federal Recreation Areas

ity communities, and to adapt site attributes to better reflect ethnic preferences, increased use by Hispanics and Asians is prompting managers to search for innovative ways to respond to the different natural resource values held by minority visitors (Tierney et al. 1998, Chavez 2001, Chavez 2002). For example, in southern California, some national forest recreation managers have implemented “adaptive management” programming, which includes redesigning recreation amenities to reflect the recreation styles of Hispanic visitors and also including the opinions and preferences of nontraditional cultural groups in recreation planning (Chavez 2002). This study examines African American and Hispanic awareness, knowledge, and use of federal recreation areas and also their attitudes about user fees on national forests. The investigation was prompted by preliminary findings from the National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) survey (National Visitor Use Monitoring Survey [2004]), which showed striking differences between visits made by African Americans and Hispanics to national forests in regions where proportions of these two minority groups are comparatively high (National Visitor Use Monitoring Survey 2004). The present analysis augments the NVUM data by examining household-level data from a national-level data set, the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (NSRE). The NSRE contains data on the public’s awareness of and visitation to federal recreation areas and attitudes and opinions specific to national forest management (Cordell et al. 2004). These data are intended to provide a broader framework for understanding discrepancies between Hispanic and African American visitation to national forests. By examining each group’s views on land management and awareness, we hope to uncover factors that might help explain visitation rate differences displayed in the NVUM data. We might expect Hispanic populations in the Southwest and African Americans in the South to respond similarly to opportunities for outdoor recreation on national forests for several reasons. First, both groups represent significant proportions of the population in their respective regions. Roughly, 25% of the population in four southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina) is African American, and just over one-third of the population in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Nevada is Hispanic (US Census Bureau 2007). Second, both groups live proximal to national forests in their respective regions; third, Hispanics and African Americans are comparable with respect to socioeconomic status (percent of African Americans with a 4-year college degree or higher is 14% and for Hispanics is 10%; the 1999 median household income for African Americans was $29,423 and was $33,676 for Hispanics; US Census Bureau [2004a, 2004b]); and fourth, the groups have displayed similar outdoor recreation styles and preferences that emphasize large extended family gatherings and collective activities (Gramann 1996, Floyd 1999).