CONGRUENCY AMONG EXPERIENCE DIMENSIONS, CONDITION INDICATORS, AND COPING BEHAVIORS IN WILDERNESS

Understanding the way that policy translates into experiences, percept ions, and behaviors is important to managing recreation in wilderness. The limits of acceptable change (LAC) planning system wins used to st ructure a relationship between three constructs: experience dimensions (goals), conditions of concern (condition indicators), and coping beh aviors (actions) in wilderness recreation. The Wilderness Act of 1964 served as a conceptual basis, providing five descriptors: natural, sol itude, primitive, unconfined, and remote; these were used to develop e xperience, condition, and behavior measures. Recreationists from two w ildernesses in the southeastern United States were sampled and asked t o participate in a mail survey. Results indicated that wilderness expe rience dimensions existed that reflected the five descriptors, and tha t these dimensions were congruent with the constructs representing per ceived conditions and coping behaviors. Natural and solitude aspects o f the recreational experience were most significant in the relationshi ps among constructs. Results suggest that recreationists use behaviors to control and manage conditions, and thus their experience, in wilde rness.