Can cultural values be a source of conflict among groups sharing natural resources?
Recreation visitors come to public lands during their leisure time, and conflicts can become personal. How can managers deal with these challenges? “When people are on public recreation lands, to some extent normative culture follows; oftentimes, people’s culture is acted out on public lands,” Johnson says. “Riparian areas are a big attraction for Latino groups. Some celebrate allday worship services, enjoy picnics where they play music and have large meals. Traditional users in the South are not used to this—they have strong ideas about how the public areas ought to be used, especially areas they consider their own.
