Combining environmental values with perceptions of infrastructure development ─ The Management Options Matrix

Population growth and competing recreational, environmental, and economic pressures increasingly threaten urban-proximate protected areas throughout the world. In the Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah, proposed ski resort development on and near protected areas has elicited strong resistance from environmental groups and human-powered backcountry recreationists, such as backcountry skiers, for over thirty years. Recent collaborative planning processes (i.e., Mountain Accord) have been unable to reconcile the interests of backcountry recreationists and the local ski industry. This study examined the environmental values and perceptions of one stakeholder group, backcountry skiers, toward infrastructure development in order to test a new research and management tool, the Management Options Matrix. Results indicate relationships between backcountry skiers' environmental values and development perceptions that can help inform future collaborative planning processes in the Wasatch. These findings have implications for managers in Northern Utah, as well as public land managers working in other park and protected area contexts that experience high visitation and conflict over limited resources.Management implications●Managers seek tools that help categorize specific constituent group's values and perceptions, as well as interpret how they may inform management solutions.●The paper presents five different groups of management options addressed to the specific environmental values of the target group and development themes present in the study population.●This approach allowed the organization of protected area users' comments into defensible categories that provide managers with population-specific information to craft durable, collaborative solutions.