Recreation and Tourism Study Funded

University of Vermont Extension natural resources specialist Lisa Chase
recently received a grant to study rural recreation and tourism. Partners
in the collaborative study are Roel Boumans of the Gund Institute for
Ecological Economics; Todd Comen of the Institute for Integrated Rural
Tourism; Dick Foster of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and
Markets; and Bruce Lauber of Cornell University's Department of Natural
Resources.
The “Participatory Modeling of Recreation and Tourism in the Northern
Forest” study received a total of $68,973. It will examine six sites --
two in New York, two in Vermont, and two in New Hampshire -- over a
three-year period. Workshops in each community will focus on how
recreation and tourism are related to the economic, social, and
environmental factors in each area, and how to make that relationship more
harmonious.
Researchers will quantify the data gathered from the sites as they attempt
to develop a generalized model of the inter-relationship between
recreational tourism and the communities it supports. Planned results of
the study are a scholarly research article that examines the hypothesis of
a general model, a practical report for Northern Forest communities to
use, and a user-friendly computer analysis that will help communities
examine the impact of recreation and tourism opportunities.
The Northern Forest stretches from eastern Maine through New Hampshire and
Vermont into northern New York, a span of 26 million acres that is home to
about one million residents. NSRC received nearly $1.8 million in research
grants to look at various aspects of the Northern Forest and the
communities it supports; the money funds 25 proposals between $13,000 and
$224,000. Don DeHayes, dean of the University of Vermont's School of
Natural Resources, credits Senate Appropriations Committee on the Interior
members Patrick Leahy (Vermont) and Judd Gregg (New Hampshire) with the
organization's success in receiving this grant funding.
The U.S. Forest Service has been monitoring the Northern Forest ecosystem
for 40 years at its Hubbard Brook research station. The NSRC grant expands
on that work by "weaving together a network of sites and studies so we can
better understand all the social, economic and natural challenges facing
our region," Gregg said.