Anza Borrego Desert State Park - California State Parks - State of ...

Final Report – October 2001
How do Visitors Evaluate the Management of Anza
Borrego Desert State Park?
An aspect of management equally important as identifying and characterizing Anza
Borrego’s visitors is examining visitor support for management actions. Gaining insight
into support for potential management actions is invaluable to managers who must make
decisions that would greatly affect visitor experience in the park. Likewise, management
actions that have little support from visitors may prove to cause future conflict if
implemented.
Measurement of Management Support
Respondents were asked to express their support of or agreement with various
management actions. Respondents were to rate their support from one, “strongly
oppose” to five, “strongly support” on a series of management actions given the
conditions of the Park on their visit. The management actions were generated from
information supplied by Anza-Borrego Staff, planning, and policy documents.
Table 35 illustrates the most and least supported management actions on average
(sorted in descending order by the ranking of the visitor center respondents). The means
range from “oppose” (2.0) to “strongly support” (4.7). The general trend in the data is that
actions related to the preservation of the park’s resources are viewed as more important
than changes in facilities, or development targeting recreational use, visitor concerns or
local interests. That the resources should be protected gained (on average) the most
support in four of the six sample sites. This item was among the top three in the
remaining two sites as well. On average, visitors “support” the current management of
camping and traffic. The least supported management actions are related to providing
more camping or off-road use and offering more emphasis to locals on decision making.
Differences in mean and median indicate a skewed distribution in the data. An example
of this can be seen in the Visitor Center respondents’ assessment of horseback, off-road
and mountain bike management. While the medians are five, indicating that at least half
of the respondents strongly support the current management, the means are closer to
neutral. This indicates that a sizable minority opposes the action and strongly opposes
the current management of these recreation types. In most other cases, the assessment
of management actions is quite constant across actions and sites. There is little
seasonal difference in the respondents’ reactions to these questions (Table 36).
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