Non-Consumptive Activities on a Public Hunting and Fishing Area

Abstract

The activities of all 1513 individuals who visited a public hunting and fishing area near Spearfish, South Dakota, USA, were recorded from May 16 to August 16, 2006. Over the entire period, slightly less than 60% of the visitors were engaged in fishing, and they accounted for nearly 80% of the total visitation time. Over 40% of the visitors were primarily there for non-consumptive (not hunting or fishing) reasons, including touring (sight-seeing), dog training and exercising, and swimming. Less than 1% of the visitors were there for photography. The percentage of visitors fishing decreased from a high of over 65% in the first 31-day period to less than 50% in the third 31-day period, with nearly all of the non-consumptive activities showing a reverse trend. The percentage of visitors swimming or conducting dog activities doubled from the first to third periods. The percentage of time that visitors spent fishing decreased over time, while the time spent on non-consumptive activities increased. However, the increase in non-consumptive activity time was not necessarily in proportion to the increase in the number of visitors involved with non-consumptive activities. By the final period, more visitors were at the area for touring, dogs, and swimming, than for fishing, but fishing still accounted for most of the visitation time. These results indicate an abundance of non-consumptive activities on a public area purchased and maintained with revenue from consumptive hunting and fishing activities, creating the opportunity for user conflicts and potentially threatening the user-pay model of natural resource conservation.