Natural resource system size can be used for managing recreational use

• Published in: Ecological indicators Vol. 145; p. 109711
• Main Authors: Kane, Derek S., Pope, Kevin L., Koupal, Keith D., Pegg, Mark A., Chizinski, Christopher J., Kaemingk, Mark A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2022; Elsevier
• Subjects: Angler effort; Natural resource management; Recreation; Recreational fisheries; Resource size-use models; Social-ecological systems; Natural resource management; Recreational fisheries; Angler effort; Social-ecological systems; Recreation; Resource size-use models
• ISSN: 1470-160X; 1872-7034
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109711

•The quantity of use that natural resource systems receive is often unknown.•Natural resource system size indicates the quantity of resource use received.•Resource size-use models can improve natural resource management.
Outdoor recreation provides societal benefits that are often measured by the amount of use natural resource systems receive. Still, the amount of resource use natural resource systems receive is often unknown or unstudied. Monitoring and quantifying resource use is often logistically difficult and costly but is paramount to optimize societal benefits. Identifying a simple and readily available metric that can indicate the quantity of recreational use of natural resource systems would benefit natural resource management. Using recreational angler participation data during an 11-year study period from 73 public waterbodies in Nebraska, USA, we developed a resource size-use model that demonstrates the ability of natural resource system size to indicate the quantity of recreational use they receive. We demonstrate how resource size-use models can estimate use for unsampled systems, produce broad-scale estimations of use, guide the allocation of resources, and predict how changes in resource system size may affect use. Resource size-use models provide opportunities to manage recreational use, which has been previously elusive for social-ecological systems.