Mitigating Undesignated Trail Use: The Efficacy of Messaging and Direct Site Management Actions in an Urban-Proximate Open Space Context

Abstract

The use and creation of undesignated recreational trails can lead to erosion, vegetation damage, unsafe trail conditions, and impacts to local wildlife. The mitigation of undesignated trail use is typically addressed indirectly through minimum-impact visitor education programs such as Leave No Trace, or directly through closures or sanctions. In this study, researchers collaborated with City of Boulder, Colorado Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) staff to develop a quasi-experimental field study that examined the effectiveness of indirect (messaging) and direct (barriers) management approaches to mitigating undesignated trail use. The study applied a Theory of Planned Behavior framework, utilized Leave No Trace messaging, and employed a method to pair survey and direct observation data. A total of 2232 visitor parties were observed, and 147 surveys were collected. The combined direct (barrier) and indirect (messaging) intervention was the most effective at mitigating undesignated trail use. Implications for management and future research are discussed.

Walking Off-Trail in National Parks: Monkey See Monkey Do

“…The impact of normative beliefs was evident in shaping expectations and encouraged visitors to walk off-trail. This finding adds consistency and resonates with previous research, where the reference group of "other visitors" has been a key influential social group in motivating off-trail acts such as going beyond safety barriers (Girasek et al, 2016;Hayes, 2008;Schwartz et al, 2018); permitting pets off-leash (Bowes et al, 2017); and swimming in restricted water catchments (Girasek et al, 2016;Parkin & Morris, 2005). This copying behavior is seen as norms rationalization, where other visitors' behaviors are used to justify off-trail walking behavior.…”

“…Thus, individuals who hold positive attitudes toward off-trail walking are more likely to non-comply. This has been shown in non-compliant studies such as staying on marked tracks (Kidd et al, 2015;Schwartz et al, 2018), offleash dog walking (Bowes et al, 2017), littering (Al-mosa et al, 2017;Brown et al, 2010), and hunting (Castilho et al, 2018), where visitors had a positive attitude toward noncompliance and therefore enacted their intentions. Thus, it is hypothesized that:…”

“…The equation used to calculate subjective norms (SN) is SN % P (NBj  MCj) (Ajzen, 1991(Ajzen, , 2005. Past studies have reported certain social groups such as other visitors (Bhati & Pearce, 2016;Girasek et al, 2016;Ham et al, 2008;Schwartz et al, 2018), and friends (Hu et al, 2018), and park enforcement officers (Dangi & Gribb, 2018) to be useful in understanding non-compliant behaviors. Thus, it is posited that:…”

“…In addition, not all non-compliant behaviors are volitional and could be triggered by external factors such as perceived overcrowding (Sim et al, 2018), lack of signage (Bradford & McIntyre, 2007) or misinterpretation of signage (Sever & Verbic, 2018). More importantly, the TPB (Ajzen, 1991) has demonstrated to be valuable in understanding earlier compliant studies such as walking dogs off-leash in parks (Bowes et al, 2017), hunting intentions in parks (Castilho, Vleeschouwer, Milner-Gulland & Schiavetti, 2018), and staying on marked tracks (Kidd et al, 2015;Schwartz et al, 2018).…”

Leave No Trace Communication: Effectiveness Based on Assessments of Resource Conditions

“…The TPB is one of the most frequently cited and influential models for the prediction of human behavior (Ajzen, 2011). A foundational premise of the TPB is the notion that behavioral intentions—sometimes also considered as motivations (Ajzen, 1991)—are the most proximate predictor of one’s actual behavior (Schwartz et al, 2018). As a general rule, the stronger the intention, the more likely a person will perform a behavior (Madden et al, 1992).…”