Recreational Beneficiaries and their Landscape Dependencies across National Estuary Program Sites: Tillamook Bay (OR) and Tampa Bay (FL), USA

This study aims to characterize the value associated with nature-based recreational opportunities 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 beneficiaries in Tillamook Bay, OR, and Tampa Bay, FL estuaries. We used the InVEST recreation model to assess the spatial distribution and intensity of recreation in both estuaries, then inform site selection in subsequent analyses. We evaluated photo content and collected observational data at sites with the highest utilization. Surveys of location attributes helped determine the availability of ecosystem service ecological end-products. Ordination techniques were employed to evaluate similarities in natural and human-made attributes across stations and establish groups of stations that could offer comparable recreational experiences. Recreational ‘experiencers and viewers’ were the dominant beneficiary group, as they took the most photos and were most often encountered during passive onsite observations. Composite features (e.g. viewscapes) were the predominant ecological end-products. Counter to hypothesized outcomes, there was no detectable difference in the number of recreational beneficiaries predicted between estuaries after accounting for site-scale variability. Locations with multiple natural and human-made attributes, including access points, had more recreational users. Onsite observations also revealed a potential need for more safe and equitable access options in high-use locations. Findings highlight the importance of recreational ‘experiencers and viewers’ valuing habitat mosaics, even across vastly different geographical settings. This exploration of how humans derive well-being from coastal landscapes is crucial to ecosystem-based management.

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. For this study, the InVEST tool was used to identify geotagged photographs publicly published (but anonymously credited) on Filckr.com from Tillamook Bay and Tampa Bay estuaries. At photography hotspots, the 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.  The manuscript framed the results in a context useful for National Estuary Program managers in both Tillamook Bay and Tampa Bay.

Citation

Littles, C., N. Lewis, T. Dewitt, AND M. Harwell. Recreational Beneficiaries and their Landscape Dependencies across National Estuary Program Sites: Tillamook Bay (OR) and Tampa Bay (FL), USA. Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK, 19(1):2276756, (2023). [DOI: 10.1080/26395916.2023.2276756]

DOI: Recreational Beneficiaries and their Landscape Dependencies across National Estuary Program Sites: Tillamook Bay (OR) and Tampa Bay (FL), USA