Environmental Ethics

Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring 1982

The Decline and Fall of Quality Recreation Opportunities and Environments?

User satisfaction as the ultimate goal of recreation planning and management is contested by a discussion of human adaptability which makes it possible for people to adjust to a progressively lower quality of recreation opportunities without loss of satisfaction. Recreation planning and management based on such satisfaction levels are then shown to perpetuate a deterioration in the quality of recreation environments themselves. To arrest this trend, a new goal for recreation planning and management is proposed based on the equation of quality of opportunity with diversity of environmental settings. The article concludes with a discussion of this goal in light of the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) concept developed recently by members of the United States Forest Service.