Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

2015 Accomplishments (By Project Objective)

Objective 1: Demonstrate and expand the evidence for the role of park and outdoor recreation services in promoting physical activity and associated preventative health benefits, particularly among youth, as well as constraints to this activity

• One paper published and multiple presentations delivered on linkages between university campus practices and design and student wellbeing and learning.
• Data from multiple studies of recreation outcomes on public lands in Alaska were analyzed and substantial progress was made on related The analysis and resulting project reports and journal articles will report on a novel survey method of assessing outcomes of recreation.
• The Health subgroup organized several calls through the year, building collaborative relationships that led to development of two proposals.

Objective 2: Demonstrate and expand the evidence for the role of park and outdoor recreation services in promoting environmental literacy among youth, and document the long-term influences of early lifespan connections with nature.

• The study "Childhood Experiences in Nature:  Impacts Across the Life Span" examined a range of free play, educational, and recreational activities in childhood and their impacts on environmental attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions of nature in young adulthood.  Several analyses of data 2012 data collected in 2012 were completed, which resulted in two research presentations and a book chapter.   
• The study "Collecting Biodiversity: The Objects, Places, and Experiences of Childhood" examined childhood nature collecting, nature connectedness, and outdoor engagement among university students in Sweden.  Data were collected through a survey in early 2015 and a related research presentation was delivered.
• Research related to the Florida National Scenic Trail resulted in better understanding the demographics of trail users, motivations for using the trail, description of type of use, and useful management strategies to improve how land managers can improve recreation opportunities for those visitors.
• The “More Kids in the Woods” Project completed it's third year. Program outcomes were evaluated to improve the program.

Objective 3: Demonstrate and expand the evidence for the role of park and outdoor recreation services in promoting community vibrancy and resilience.

• Thirty-three semi-structured interviews with wounded veterans were transcribed and analysis was begun to determine veteran motivations and perceived benefits associated with outdoor recreation and restorative activities in outdoor spaces.
• Planning was completed for a survey of non-veteran hosts of outdoor recreation events, to determine community benefits and associated resilience indicators. A website and social media sites are being used to capture comparison data across nature-based programs that serve military veterans.
• Over 800 Maine residents were surveyed to understand the capacity of tourism destinations in Maine to adapt to opportunities, while mitigating for negative shocks associated with social, economic and environmental changes. Deeper understanding of tourism's vulnerability to climate change and potential behavioral changes was generated. The project identified four major factors influencing vulnerability and potential travel behavior based on climate impact statements.
• Two surveys, community member focus groups, and community leader interviews were completed on a Minnesota Sea Grant-funded project to build climate readiness in communities dependent upon outdoor recreation and tourism as their primary economic drivers. This project is an interdisciplinary effort to predict changes in tourism demand based on alterations to visitors' travel patterns given changing environmental and climate conditions under moderate and high-level emissions scenarios. Other aspects of this project include assessing current capacities for climate adaptation and estimating the economic impacts of changes in tourism demand.
• Interviews were conducted and data analysis began on a project to assess communities' adaptive capacity to climate change in a region of coastal North Carolina. The project seeks to assess the adaptive capacity of rural, low-lying communities that are primarily dependent on natural resource based industries, including recreation and tourism, to the impacts of salinization, sea level rise and flooding.
• A survey of 3,000 outdoor recreationists was completed and analyzed as part of a study to assess connections between recreation, place attachment, and pro-environmental behavior. A set of 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted with volunteers at a national wildlife refuge to obtain qualitative insights on linkages between conservation recreation, local community involvement, and pro-environmental behavior.
• A multi-faceted research program generated an estimate of the economic impact of bicycling industry in Minnesota, systematically estimated bicycling infrastructure usage in the state, and estimating the health effect of bicycle commuting. Data was collected through interviews with key informants (e.g. manufacturers, parts suppliers, distributors, retailers), visitor profile studies of selected bicycling events in Minnesota, and secondary data analysis.   

2015 Training, professional development, and information dissemination

Objective 1: preventive health benefits

• Presentation: Davison, A., and Scholl, K. (April 2015). Nature as a mechanism to enhance mindfulness. Midwest Symposium on Therapeutic Recreation - St. Louis, MO.
• Presentation: Scholl, K. (September, 2015). Presentation to Restorative and Healing Environments course INTDSGN:4184. Elements of Designing Nature Trails and College Campus Green Spaces. University of Northern Iowa. Cedar Falls, IA
• Presentation: Scholl, K., and Betrabet-Gulwadi, G. (October 2014.). Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces. Highlights and Literature Review for 2014 Graduate College Faculty Showcase
• Findings from research in Alaska were presented to the various agencies involved, researchers involved in the NE 1962 Hatch Multi-state project, various other researchers at Arizona State University and Colorado Mesa University, and a  snowmobile club in Fairbanks. Findings were disseminated to recreationists through newsletters and websites targeted at off-road vehicle groups, hunters, and anglers.

Objective 3: Community vibrancy and resilience

• Results of research on wounded warrior program were disseminated via website, social media, and webinars. The website is http://reworrr.blogspot.com . The Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/reworrrs/ .  Results are also being shared via a new network of organizations involved in outdoor recreation for veterans called the R4 Alliance (http://r4alliance.org/).
• Presentation: De Urioste-Stone, S.M. (2015). "Resilience of rural Maine communities to climate change: A pilot study of the nature-based tourism industry." ADVANCE Grant Awardee Luncheon, Pecha Kucha. March 26, Orono, Maine. (Invited).
• Presenation: De Urioste-Stone, S.M. (2015). "Stakeholder perceptions on vulnerability and adaptive capacity of tourism destinations to climate change in Maine." School of Biology and Ecology Spring Seminar Series. March 20, Orono, Maine. (Invited).
• Presentation: De Urioste-Stone, S. (2015). "B2B Resident Survey: Quality of Place, Sustainable Economic Development and Community Resilience", for the Social Science and Diadromous Fish Restoration in the Penobscot Watershed. NOAA. February 6, Orono, Maine. (Invited).

Jordan, R. C., A. E. Sorensen, and D. Clark. 2015. Urban/suburban park use: links to personal identities? Current World Environment. 10(2): 355-366.

Larson, L. R., R. C. Stedman, C. B. Cooper, and D. J. Decker. 2015. Understanding the multi-dimensional structure of pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology 43:112-124. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.06.004

Parsons, A. A., G. M. Besenyl, A. T. Kaczynski, S. A. Wilhelm Stanis, C. E. Blake, and D. Barr-Anderson. 2015. Investigating issues of environmental injustice in neighborhoods surrounding parks. Journal of Leisure Research 47(2): 285-303.

Paudyal, R.  and Stein, T.V. 2015. Trail uses trend and its association with temporal and meteorological patterns in Ocala section of Florida Trail. Paper presented at the 2015 International Symposium on Society and Resource Management.  June 13-18. Charleston, SC.

Scaccia, M., and S. M. De Urioste-Stone. 2015. Understanding the role of climate change on guiding Maine’s tourism industry to the Katahdin region. Annual report. Baxter State Park. 11pp.

Scholl, K. G., and G. Betrabet Gulwadi. 2015. Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces. Journal of Learning Spaces 4(1).

Schultz, C. L., S. P. Sayers, S. A. W. Stanis, L. A. Thombs, I. M. Thomas, and S. M. Canfield. 2015. The impact of a signalized crosswalk on traffic speed and street-crossing behaviors of residents in an underserved neighborhood. Journal of Urban Health 92(5): 910-922.

Sorensen, A. E., D. Clark, and R. C. Jordan. 2015. Effects of Alternative Framing on the Publics Perceived Importance of Environmental Conservation. Frontiers in Environmental Science: Interdisciplinary Climate Studies. 3(36).DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2015.00036

Stein, T.V.  and Paudyal, R. 2015. Why Take a Hike on a Long Distance Trail? Integrating Tourism and Recreation through Research. Invited Seminar at the School for Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia. August 21. Mawson Lakes, Australia.

Tidball, K. G. 2015. Hunting and the Return of the Warrior: Therapeutic Possibilities for the Chase. Pages 153-160 in D. L. Dustin, K. Bricker, K. A. Schwab, M. Brownlee, K. Schwab, and N. Lundberg (editors) This Land Is Your Land: Toward a Better Understanding of Nature's Resiliency-Building and Restorative Power for Armed Forces Personnel, Veterans, and their Families. Sagamore Publishing, Urbana Illinois.