Recommendations

With the information from this study, I present some recommendations and important considerations for governments and other decision-makers seeking economic development in northern Maine. First, decision-makers need to consider the extent to which outdoor-recreation tourism can expand in this setting. If

communities successfully attract these tourists, will they see evidence of logging and choose not to return? In this setting, it may be necessary to focus on activities and populations more tolerant of logging evidence; Chapter 1 suggests that these are older, more socially conservative visitors, with larger households.

Additionally, governments may want to consider ways to make these forest settings more suitable for recreation. One way to do this is the acquisition of some lands for public management, which can then be focused on the overall community development, instead of single-business prot. The frequent turnovers in forest land ownership in the last 20 years have, and will continue to, create opportunities for public land purchases (Kay, 2017). Theoretical literature also suggests that public ownership is the best approach for increasing outdoor-recreation-based tourism (Vail & Hultkrantz, 2000). Aside from public ownership, governments can advocate for land trusts and recreational access easements; especially with improvements for recreational use, these have been shown to positively aect local economies (Paul, 2011). All of these measures to ensure recreational use availability are becoming more important, as landowners are increasing access restrictions and reducing

Maine's open land access tradition (Kay, 2017). This includes recent fee hikes at the NMW gates; with a signicant fee increase, visitor numbers this year have declined by 12% (A. Cowperthwaite, personal communication, September 2017).

If governments or conservation organizations do choose to purchase forest lands, they must be aware that to encourage outdoor recreation they will have to maintain the signicant infrastructure necessary for visitors. The largest component of this is the road network, which, in the NMW, is vast, and is maintained entirely by the landowners without any supplement from user fees. Even for a relatively small parcel of land, road maintenance would require consistent funding. Other

components include gate stang, building maintenance, campsite upkeep, etc. In the NMW these are currently paid for with gate fee revenue, but would still require logistical management and oversight from a landowner.

An alternative to public lands is government regulation of harvesting practices on private lands. As discussed by Teisl and Boyle (2006), the public increasingly expects to have some inuence on private forest management decisions. The Forest Practices Act, which restricted clearcut sizes in Maine beginning in 1991, and a 2000 Maine public ballot referendum on clearcuts demonstrate this trend (Bell et al., 2006; Legaard, Sader, & Simons-Legaard, 2015). Alternative policies may incentivize recreation-friendly forest management decisions. These policies may address the additional costs that stem from allowing recreators on properties managed for logging, or the costs of harvesting in ways that are more friendly to recreation. Policies should also recognize that dierent types of landowners have dierent priorities for their landholdings; for example, The Nature Conservancy, a nonprot, has very dierent goals for its land in the NMW than does Seven Islands Land Company, a for-prot timber harvesting company. Any potential regulations should carefully examine costs and benets to both the tourism and forest products industries, and should incorporate non-market values of forestland.

Finally, it is important to note that the private landownership and working forest nature of the NMW (and most of the forestland in Maine) will probably continue to be the norm for some time, so governments should also consider

development strategies within that framework. I recommend strategies for economic diversication beyond recreation and amenity-based migrants, a recommendation mirrored by other researchers (Vail, 2010). However, if that diversication includes other forest products industries, decision-makers must consider the incentives those industries create for forest management, and the resulting impacts on outdoor recreation (whether positive or negative). Finally, governments may want to consider the possibility of making logging evidence less objectionable to outdoor recreators, a possibility I examine in Chapter 3.

Chapter 3

THE EFFECTS OF INFORMATION ON RECREATOR ATTITUDES TOWARD LOGGING EVIDENCE

3.1 Introduction

The rst two chapters of this thesis demonstrate the economic importance of recreation and the forest products industry, as well as the potential for

incompatibility between the two.

In Chapter 2, I discuss the struggles of traditionally timber-dependent towns, especially in northern Maine. Maine has seen about half its forest products industry jobs disappear in the last 15 years, and eight mills have closed or downsized between 2013 and 2016 (J. L. Anderson & Crandall, 2016; Industry Employment & Wages, n.d.). Most northern township populations have declined since 2000 (Milneil, 2017); at the extreme, some towns have voted to deorganize (Brino, 2016).

An important strategy for resilience and economic stability in these towns is economic diversication, which, in many cases, includes both forest products industries (Burns, 2017; Fishell, 2017; Mill shakeups in Maine, 2016) and

outdoor-recreation-based tourism (C. Winstead, personal communication, October 17, 2017). Outdoor recreation has also been shown to have the potential for large economic impacts, and already makes a signicant economic impact in Maine: the Outdoor Industry Association estimates that, annually, outdoor recreation in the state generates $8.2 billion in consumer spending, $2.2 billion in wages, and $548 million in tax revenue (The Outdoor Industry Association, 2017).

Because of the remaining large timber products industry in the Maine, and because 90% of the state is forested, outdoor recreation in Maine frequently takes place in a working forest. However, my work in Chapter 1 and other literature

demonstrates that recreators frequently nd logging evidence undesirable (British Columbia Ministry of Forests, 2003; Gundersen & Frivold, 2008; Lindhagen & Hornsten, 2000; Paquet & Belanger, 1997; Shelby et al., 2005). For example, in Chapter 1, I nd that about 40% of a representative sample of Mainers nd seeing or hearing evidence of logging at a recreational site not at all desirable, whereas only 20% nd it somewhat or highly desirable. Additionally, Chapter 2

demonstrates that logging evidence in recreational areas is associated with fewer visitors stating that they would return, and an economically signicant expected reduction in visitor spending.

In Chapter 1, I explore demographic characteristics associated with attitudes toward logging in recreational settings. I nd that greater age and more socially conservative attitudes are associated with more positive attitudes toward seeing or hearing logging evidence in recreational areas. I propose that both greater age and socially conservative attitudes may be associated with increased familiarity with the forest products industry, and that this familiarity leads to more positive attitudes. This idea is supported by Zajonc's (1968) seminal paper in psychology, where he proposes and demonstrates this "familiarity principle."

This evidence and theory suggest that familiarization with the forest products industry may reduce recreators' negative attitudes toward logging. This proposed causality is supported by empirical literature, which shows an association between having worked as a forester and acceptability of logging evidence (Berninger et al., 2010; Gundersen & Frivold, 2008; McCool et al., 1986; Paquet & Belanger, 1997). This type of familiarization could help the sectors to coexist and would be highly useful for communities that rely on both.

The objective of this research is to assess whether greater familiarity with the forest products industry, through exposure to an experimental information

While some literature has analyzed the eects of information on attitudes toward overall forest management policies (Berninger, Kneeshaw, & Messier, 2009; Bright & Manfredo, 1997; Brunson & Reiter, 1996), this study is the rst to examine the eect of information on how desirable site visitors nd a recreational setting with forestry evidence. Additionally, the informational message in this work focuses on both the human and forest impacts of the forest products industry in the state, an approach not taken by any other studies. Finally, it is the rst research that I know of that explores the eects of information on attitudes toward forest management practices in Maine.

To explore this question, I conducted a mixed-mode survey of visitors to Maine's North Maine Woods, a 3.5 million acre gated area, much of which is working forest and open to recreation. In a case-control design, a random sample of visitors were shown informational materials about Maine's forest products industry and then asked about their attitudes toward evidence of logging in recreational areas. An ordered logistic regression was carried out on this data to assess the eect of the informational intervention on logging preferences.

I nd no evidence of information aecting recreator attitudes toward logging evidence, a result which has implications for traditionally timber-dependent communities, as well as for professional forestry organizations trying to increase public acceptance of their work.