Attitudes of local park visitors: Assessing the social impacts of the South East Queensland Horse Riding Trail Network

SEBASTIAN ROSSI; CATHERINE PICKERING; JASON BYRNE

Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts

Lugar: Brisbane; Año: 2013 p. 68

9781922216434

The visitor survey was conducted to provide qualitative and quantitative information about issues that concern them. The surveys used were: 1) a core survey with minor modifications from the original survey pilot tested by Rossi and Pickering in 2010, 2) an extended survey including questions regarding change in status of the sites and, 3) an extended survey including questions regarding visitor values. The survey instruments were tested during a pilot survey, and minor refinements made before the main field work. The field work for the survey of park visitors commenced in April 2011 and was completed in October 2011 with a total of 715 people surveyed across six parks/reserves including: South-section of DAguilar National Park, North-section of DAguilar National Park, Nerang National Park, Tewantin National Park, Mapleton Forest Reserve and Glass House Mountains National Park. To obtain detailed information from a large number of users for one Park, the South-section of D?Aguilar National Park was surveyed intensively over 6 days during the extended Easter period in 2011. For this Park, 75% of visitors were given the core survey, and 25% were given the extended survey including questions regarding the change in status of the Park. For the other 5 parks/reserves the extended survey including questions regarding visitor values was given to visitors in September-October 2011 to assess if patterns of use, attitudes and values were consistent across different parts of the Horse Riding Trail Network in a range of parks/reserves. Across all those surveyed (79% response rate), the most popular activities were bushwalking (281 respondents), mountain biking (262), running (62), trail bike riding (28) and picnicking (22). The types of activities varied dramatically among sites, with hiking the only activity undertaken in all Parks. High number of visitors reported to encounter horse riders in the Horse Trail Network, however only 12 horse riders were surveyed during this project. Most of the visitors of the SEQ-HTN were highly educated people between 24 and 54 years old visiting the areas very often. The attitudes to non-motorised activities conducted in the Horse Trail Network were overall positive or neutral. However, many visitors had negative or strongly negative attitudes towards motorised activities. Activities considered having the largest number of social and environmental impacts were trail bike riding and four wheel driving. Commonly perceived impacts were making too much noise, the potential for collision or injury, damaging plants or animals and frightening wildlife.