The Albany Pine Bush Preserve: A case study for relating baseline information to the goal achievement and limits of acceptable change frameworks (New York)

The Albany Pine Bush Preserve (APBP) is a 2,735 acre natural preserve, located near downtown Albany, New York. The natural integrity of the APBP is threatened by the multiple pressures of its urban environment. The managers of the APBP are dedicated to preserving the pine bush ecosystem while providing multiple-use recreation opportunities like hiking, mountain biking and horse-back riding. Nevertheless, there are inherent conflicts and a need for compromise associated with attempting to preserve an area and opening it up to recreational use. These conflicts and need for compromise are apparent in recreation areas across the country; therefore, researchers have developed the Goal Achievement Framework (GAF) and the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) Framework for recreation planning. These planning approaches help managers to address the conflict of preserving a natural area while providing resource based recreation opportunities. This study collected baseline information about visitor characteristics, physical impacts to trails, recreation use numbers on trails and visitor perceptions of trail conditions and management actions from May through August, 2003 and describes how these data relate to the GAF and LAC frameworks. Physical impacts to trails were identified with some trails having trail tread depths greater than two feet. Visitor characteristics and perceptions of APBP trail users were identified through an on-site survey of 217 trail users. Differences between perceptions of walkers and mountain bikers were measured. Also, visitor use estimates showed patterns of highest use during afternoons and evenings, and low use for Saturdays and holidays. This study suggests how the baseline data could be used to evaluate GAF objectives for recreation and help develop desired conditions, standards and monitoring in the LAC framework.