PADDLE CANOEISTS ENCOUNTER NORMS IN MINNESOTA BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA WILDERNESS

Encounter norms offer recreation managers a potentially invaluable sou rce of information to assist in the development of standards concernin g quality of visitor experiences. However, it has been debated whether such norms are measurable, and if so, whether the), accurately repres ent visitors' preferences about acceptable levels of use. This 1991 st udy explored backcountry encounter norms in the semiprimitive nonmotor ized management zone of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWC AW). Camper parties to this portion of the BWCAW (approximately 82% at the time of the study) were surveyed using ''trip diaries'' to report daily on their actual encounters and preferences for acceptable use l evels that would nor spoil their sense of being in the wilderness. Fin dings suggest personal and social encounter norms can be defined by mo st paddle canoeists that accurately express desired encounters with ot her parties. However, variability among social encounter norms was dis covered. Results suggest that BWCAW managers should consider encounter norms as a key source of information for future management decisions. Moreover, future normative research should focus on developing a bett er understanding of normative consensus issues. Although much research has examined normative consensus, few findings specify what constitut es sufficient agreement among encounter norms.