Recreational Beneficiaries and Landscape Dependencies across two National Estuary Program (NEP) Sites

Estuaries provide many opportunities for the public to engage in nature-based recreation. This presentation characterizes the value associated with that utilization and identify estuarine attributes most valued by users. With the National Ecosystem Service Classification System as a framework, we assessed the relationship between recreational beneficiary subclasses and ecological end products available to those beneficiaries in Tillamook Bay, OR, and Tampa Bay, FL, estuaries. The InVEST recreation model helped assess the spatial distribution and intensity of estuarine-based recreation. We evaluated photo content and collected complementary observational data at high-use sites within each estuary. Surveys of onsite habitat attributes gave an indication of ecosystem service ecological end product availability. Findings highlight the propensity of recreational “experiencers and viewers” to value habitat mosaics, even across estuaries with vastly different geographical settings. Understanding how humans derive well-being from coastal landscapes is crucial to ecosystem-based management that accounts for diverse uses and users. As such, results are presented with the audience in mind – managers as staff at the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (National Estuary Program).

Impact/Purpose

Understanding how people interact with nature when they are recreating can reveal their preferences for specific environmental features. That information can be useful in making better-informed management decisions about what habitat attributes and locations are valued for: recreational use; prioritization of sites for conservation or restoration from a recreational-use perspective; and development of safe access to sites valued for recreation. This study, presentation to the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership Coordination Meeting described a project that examined geotagged photographs publicly published (but anonymously credited) on Filckr.com from Tillamook Bay and Tampa Bay estuaries. Images were analyzed to identify recreational activities being undertaken along with the natural features of the estuaries associated with those activities. Additionally, field observations were conducted those hotspots in both estuaries to determine whether the published images corresponded to people's recreational activities and the local natural features. Viewing scenery and using trails were two of the most frequent recreational activities observed in the images and in person. This presentation frames the results in a context useful for National Estuary Program managers in Tillamook Bay.

Citation

Littles, C., N. Lewis, T. DeWitt, AND M. Harwell. Recreational Beneficiaries and Landscape Dependencies across two National Estuary Program (NEP) Sites. Tillamook Estuaries Partnership Coordination Meeting, Newport, OR, September 08, 2022.