1 / 17

Public Knowledge of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve

Public Knowledge of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve. Bob Buerger, Jeffery Hill, James Herstine, and Anthony Snider University of North Carolina Wilmington. Purposes/Mission of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve. Education Research Resource protection Informed management

babu
Download Presentation

Public Knowledge of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Public Knowledge of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve Bob Buerger, Jeffery Hill, James Herstine, and Anthony Snider University of North Carolina Wilmington

  2. Purposes/Mission of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve • Education • Research • Resource protection • Informed management • Traditional uses

  3. North Carolina Coastal Reserves • Coastal Reserve Program comprised of 10 sites • Four have National Estuarine Research Reserve designations • Total of 27 NERR sites nationwide • Undeveloped coastal and estuarine sites • Access varies: foot, automobile or boat

  4. Rationale for Study • To more fully understand the character of visitor use on the North Carolina Coastal Reserve

  5. Methodology • Face-to-face on-site interviews conducted by reserve staff • May-October, 2007 • Four coastal reserves: • Rachel Carson NERR • Currituck Banks NERR • MasonboroIsland NERR • Bird Island Coastal Reserve

  6. Survey Instrument • Site managers participated in survey development • Pre-test April-May, 2007 • Thirty-one questions • Closed- and open-ended questions • Quantitative and qualitative data • 521 usable surveys resulted

  7. Results: Visitor Demographics • Highly educated • Wealthy • Older • Racially homogenous

  8. General Results: Site Fidelity • Site fidelity appears to be very high: 1) Almost twice as many users are repeat visitors; 2) most users primarily returned to the Reserve at which they were surveyed

  9. General Results: Site Conditions • Users are satisfied with current reserve conditions: 1) The majority of users believe the environmental conditions at the reserve site at which they were surveyed have remained the same over time; 2) recreational use is not negatively changing the character of the site

  10. General Results: Management Satisfaction • Users are satisfied with current management: 1) The majority of users believe the site at which they were interviewed is properly managed; 2) the majority of users do not currently believe that there should be increased enforcement of current regulations

  11. General Results:Ownership • Users are familiar with ownership: Just over half of all users were aware that the state owns the Reserve site of interview

  12. General Results:Management • Users are unfamiliar with management: Very few respondents could identify the specific state agency that manages the Reserve site of interview

  13. General Results:Mission • Users are unfamiliar with mission: Very few respondents knew the mission of the NCNERR/NCCR program.

  14. Conclusion • While the public may be satisfied with the present condition of the Reserves, they are not aware of the mission or management of the Reserve system

  15. Management Implications • As the number of visitors using the Reserves increases, use impacts may increase as well • A public education and awareness program should be developed that focuses on users becoming knowledgeable stewards of the Coastal Reserve System

More Related