Climbing out of Poverty: The Economic Impact of Rock Climbing in and around Eastern Kentucky’s Red River Gorge

Maples, James N.; Sharp, Ryan L.; Clark, Brian G.; Gerlaugh, Katherine; Gillespie, Braylon

doi:10.5406/jappastud.23.1.0053

Cited by 19 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…An email distribution report shows that 2,223 individuals opened the email, 414 of whom clicked the survey link. The resulting response rates (12% of emails opened, 19% of which led to survey access) are low, but comparable to similar research involving organizational partners (Maples et al, 2017;Mueller & Graefe, 2018). The response can also be considered in relation to SLCA membership.…”

Section: Survey Responsementioning

confidence: 58%

Sustaining Civic Recreation: Understanding What Shapes Climbers’ Contributions to Local Resource Stewardship and Advocacy

Carter¹

2023

JOREL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A new form of recreation-focused collective action has grown over recent decades. Practitioners of shared outdoor recreation interests are coordinating to meet stewardship and advocacy goals. Such "civic recreation organizations" blur the lines between voluntary sport clubs, interest groups, and resource management, promising concentrated recreational benefits and offering the potential for positive impacts for other user groups and stakeholders, land managers, and perhaps even the general public. This study draws insights from leisure, voluntary contributions, and social exchange research to examine how the relationship between a recreationist and a civic recreation organization, recreational commitment, and the likelihood of receiving tangible benefits may impact recreationist's propensity to contribute to civic recreation through organizational membership, donations, and volunteering. The analysis offers theoretical insights into how trust and recreational commitment might support sport-centered local civic environmentalism, with practical implications for civic recreation leaders.

show abstract

Section: Survey Responsementioning

confidence: 58%

Sustaining Civic Recreation: Understanding What Shapes Climbers’ Contributions to Local Resource Stewardship and Advocacy

Carter¹

2023

JOREL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While the Red hosts many events for climbers throughout the year, the largest is Red River Gorge Climber's Coalition's annual festival called Rocktoberfest with approximately 1,200 attendees per year (Maples, 2020). Every October, sponsor booths encourage participants to try out climbing gear, play games, and buy merchandise and food.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climbers for Bat Conservation: creating a citizen science program in Red River Gorge Kentucky

Gross,

Siebka,

Schorr

et al. 2023

Front. Commun.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, North American bat populations have been presented with new conservation threats including white-nose syndrome. As these threats continue to impact bats it is important to locate and study these populations. Though most bats tend to roost and hibernate in caves, still many roost in cracks, crevices, and other hard to reach places. Rock climbers recreate on a large array of rock features that are inaccessible or unknown to bat biologists and could serve as a valuable resource in identifying the location of bat species for conservation efforts. Yet, developing and maintaining a productive relationship between recreationists and the conservation community can be challenging, making environmental communication vital to successful collaborative efforts. We explored rock climbers' willingness to participate in a citizen science program for reporting bat sightings through Climbers for Bat Conservation (CBC) while at Red River Gorge (RRG), Kentucky. We utilized a mixed methods case study consisting of a world café facilitated dialog with members of a local climbing organization, bat biologists, land managers, and landowners (n = 18) as well as semi-structured interview data (n = 12) collected at a local climbing festival. Results indicate mutual importance given to bats, climbing, and conservation from world café attendees. Additionally, attendees identified three key parts of a bat observation that would be critical data for rock climbers to report which included presence of a bat, the location, and the climbing route name. Finally, attendees identified having a local climbing ranger or climbing liaison as important to organizing other climbers to submit data. Interview data revealed that the most mentioned barriers to submitting a bat report were awareness of CBC, time, convenience, forgetfulness, fear of route closures, and access to a phone. A discussion follows detailing how this information may be used to further the design and implementation of a citizen science program as well as increase climber engagement at RRG.

show abstract

“…Our overall aim was to evaluate the effects of rock climbing on cryptogam communities while accounting for issues of site selection bias and spatial gradients in use intensity. We focused this work at the Red River Gorge (RRG) in Kentucky, where rock climbing development has increased dramatically in recent years (Maples et al, 2017). The Red River Gorge is a major climbing destination with more than 2500 routes, and it was estimated that almost 7500 climbers visited in 2015 alone.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Red River Gorge is a major climbing destination with more than 2500 routes, and it was estimated that almost 7500 climbers visited in 2015 alone. (Maples et al, 2017). The specific objectives of our study were to: (1) quantify differences in cryptogam species abundance, richness and composition across a gradient of climbing disturbance intensity; and (2) evaluate the importance of abiotic controls on metrics of species diversity and abundance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rock climbing disturbance severity and abiotic gradients interact to determine cryptogam diversity and community structure

Reding

Davies

Klips

2022

Applied Vegetation Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Questions: Plant communities are shaped by interactions between natural and anthropogenic disturbances and underlying environmental conditions. We asked how disturbance by rock climbing alters patterns of cryptogam species diversity and composition along elevational abiotic gradients.Location: Red River Gorge, Kentucky, United States of America.Methods: Surveying was completed within 19 climbing routes on sandstone "slabs."Quadrats were placed at three different vertical positions (elevations) and three different horizontal positions (center of the route, route margin, off-route). The former provides a gradient of light and moisture availability while the latter corresponds to climbing impact. Cryptogam species cover was visually assessed in all quadrats.Quadrat microtopography was quantified as well as route-level Heat Load Index and Climbing Use Intensity. We assessed differences in species richness and Shannon diversity (H) among quadrat positions and evaluated differences in species and cryptogam morphological type abundance and composition.Results: Significant differences existed in richness H, and total cryptogam abundance between quadrat vertical and horizontal positions with a significant interaction between these two factors. Cryptogram abundance was greatest in off-route quadrats and increased with elevation in such settings. Abundance was consistently lower in on-route quadrats and, here, did not change with elevation. Richness and H were greatest in off-route quadrats and declined with increasing elevation in on-route quadrats. Significant differences in community composition existed as a function of vertical and horizontal position. On-route quadrats were associated with crustose and granulose species, while foliose and squamulose lichens, and bryophytes were associated with off-route quadrats.Conclusions: Cryptogam composition and abundance were associated with varying intra-route environmental conditions, and off-to on-route disturbance gradients.

show abstract

Climbing out of Poverty: The Economic Impact of Rock Climbing in and around Eastern Kentucky’s Red River Gorge

Cited by 19 publications

References 6 publications

Sustaining Civic Recreation: Understanding What Shapes Climbers’ Contributions to Local Resource Stewardship and Advocacy

Sustaining Civic Recreation: Understanding What Shapes Climbers’ Contributions to Local Resource Stewardship and Advocacy

Climbers for Bat Conservation: creating a citizen science program in Red River Gorge Kentucky

Rock climbing disturbance severity and abiotic gradients interact to determine cryptogam diversity and community structure

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About