In order to effectively mange the wilderness resource, managers must understand the visitor as well as the biological environment. The information needed to manage wilderness include data on visitor characteristics and their use patterns.

The designation of wilderness within the Shawnee National Forest provided an opportunity to study wilderness users in a part of the country where previous user-studies were rare. A basic understanding of the visitor is needed before other research and management issues can be addressed.

STUDY METHODS

The objectives of this Shawnee Wilderness Study were:

1. To describe the demographic characteristics and the recreation use patterns of the visitors to the wilderness within the Shawnee National Forest;

2. To identify variations in use by wilderness, season and week day vs. weekend day; and

3. To estimate money spent by wilderness users in southern Illinois.

The Shawnee National Forest is located in the southern part of Illinois. The Forest consists of 265,3000 acres, 25,549 acres of which are designated wilderness. This study was conducted on five of the seven wilderness areas totaling 14,956 acres. The areas included were: Bay Creek, Burden Falls, Garden of the Gods, Lusk Creek and Panther Den. Two areas, Bald Knob and Clear Springs, were not included.

As mentioned, the purpose of this research was to describe the visitors of five wilderness areas and to measure their expenditures in the surrounding communities. To accomplish this, a questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was designed to obtain baseline data on use, visitor characteristics, and economic expenditure of visitors within the southern Illinois region. Eighteen access points were identified at the five wilderness. Questionnaires were put on the windshield of each vehicle parked in the selected access locations. A twelve-month sampling period was used. Sampling was carried out four days per week: two days randomly chosen during the week and both weekend days. Surveys were distributed on 228 days over a one-year period (367 days), May 15,1991 to May 15, 1992.

A total of 325 questionnaires over the twelve-month period were returned, for an overall response rate of 33 percent (985 total questionnaires were distributed). Individual wilderness differed with respect to response rate. For example, Bay Creek had a 23 percent response rate while Panther Den had 37 percent respond. With a few exceptions, all sampling locations were visited an equal number of times. Questionnaire distribution rates varied across the four seasons (Table 1).

Table 1. Sample Days Season Number of Days Surveyed Summer 83 Fall 52 Winter 50 Spring 43 Overall 228

DESCRIPTION OF WILDERNESS

Bay Creek. The Bay Creek Wilderness is 2,866 acres and located within the Vienna Ranger District in Pope County. There are no developed parking areas, only pull-off sites. The "trails," approximately 14.05 miles, are mostly old roadbeds. Maintained trails made up only 1.15 miles.

Burden Falls. Burden Falls Wilderness is 3,671 acres and lies within the Vienna Ranger District. The majority of the area is in Pope County,

28 • Illinois Parks & Recreation • March/April 1994

with a very small portion in Saline county. Burden Falls is located immediately north of the Bay Creek Wilderness. There are three semi-developed parking areas, with a gravel base. One of the parking areas is located at the trailhead for Burden Falls itself, a spectacular seasonal waterfall. There are approximately 9.3 miles of roads and 5.0 miles of maintained trails.

Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods Wilderness encompasses 3,268 acres, with portions in four counties: Gallatin, Hardin, Pope and Saline. The Elizabethtown Ranger District administers the area. Access is gained mainly from two points located on the eastern boundary. These include a large paved parking lot for Garden of the Gods Recreation Area and a smaller gravel lot about 0.25 miles from the large paved lot. The area has approximately 1.0 miles of road and 8.35 miles of maintained trail. The area is known for its spectacular vistas from the high rocky outcrops.

Lusk Creek. The Lusk Creek Wilderness is 4,466 acres and located in Pope County. The Vienna Ranger District has jurisdiction of the area. Main access is gained off a county road. The area contains approximately 16.5 miles of roads and 11.9 miles of maintained trails.

Panther Den. The Panther Den Wilderness is the smallest of the wilderness at 685 acres. It is located in Union County and managed by the Murphysboro Ranger District. To the north, Panther Den shares a common boundary with the Crab Orchard Wilderness within the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. Access to the area is gained from a county road. A small pull-off at the end of the road crosses 1.0 miles of private land to the boundary. There are 0.85 miles of trail and 4.1 miles of roads within the boundaries.

RESULTS

VISITATION PATTERNS
Outdoor Activities. Sightseeing and dayhiking were the most popular activities of visitors to the Shawnee National Forest Wilderness during the first year after wilderness designation. These findings were found at all of the five study wilderness except Bay Creek Wilderness (Table 2). At Bay Creek, nearly all of the groups were hunting. Other activities frequently participated in by the visitors to the five wilderness were rockclimbing and photography.

When the visitors were asked their outdoor activities on visits to the areas during previous years, the same activities were most popular. These findings indicate wilderness designation has not changed visitors activity patterns — at least for the first year after wilderness designation.

Use Distribution. To measure the relative amount of use at the wilderness, the number of vehicles were counted, at each of the access sites, when the study questionnaires were placed on the visitors' vehicles. The average vehicle counted per visit by the study personnel were then used as a measure of use for comparative purposes.

The major use seasons for the wilderness were generally spring and fall (Table 3). Summer was the second most popular season for Garden of the Gods.

During the week, the heaviest use occurred on weekends versus weekdays (Table 4). During the weekend, the heaviest use time periods were in the afternoon after 2 p.m.

Table 2. Outdoor Activities by Wilderness
Activity	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Groups)
Sightseeing	69	65	78	21	59	64
Dayhiking	57	55	76	16	65	58
Horse Riding	8	19	0	10	8	12
Fishing	4	7	4	5	3	5
Rockclimbing	35	25	43	5	36	30
Backpacking	33	11	13	0	8	13
Camping	10	18	22	21	9	16
Hunting	16	20	15	95	16	22
Photography	35	36	35	21	22	32
Other	6	23	13	10	16	17

Table 3. Mean Vehicle Count by Wilderness and Season
Season	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den
Spring	1.18	0.98	0.22	0.06	0.95
Summer	3.57	0.40	0.15	0.05	0.40
Fall	3.73	0.83	0.23	0.16	1.49
Winter	1.25	0.42	0.11	0.07	0.76

Table 4. Mean Vehicle Count by Time and Day and Period of Week
	Period of Week
Time of Day	Week Day	Weekend & Holiday
10 a.m. -12 a.m.	1.09	1.45
12 a.m. - 2 p.m.	1.12	1.62
2 p.m. - 4 p.m.	1.02	2.58
4 p.m. - 6 p.m.	0.99	4.85

Illinois Parks & Recreation • March/April 1994 • 29

Table 5. Frequency of Visits
Visits	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Groups)
First Time Visitors	43	26	28	10	18	27
Repeat Visitors	57	74	72	90	82	73
Average # of Years Visiting	9	12	16	7	7	11
Average Visits per Year	4	7	12	5	6	5

Table 6. State of Residence
State	Percentage of Groups
IL	80
KY	8
IN	4
MO	3
Other	5

Table 7. State of Residence by Wilderness
Area	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den
(Percent of Groups)
Southern Illinois	20	47	54	42	79
Nonlocal Illinois	53	30	28	53	19
Outside Illinois	27	23	18	5	2

Table 8. Group Size by Wilderness
Group Size	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Persons)	(Percent of Groups)
1	14	8	15	26	11	12
2-3	55	44	46	42	58	48
4-6	22	23	28	31	21	23
7+	9	25	11	1	10	17
Average	3.3	5.5	3.6	2.7	3.5	4.3

Frequency of Visits. Visitors to the Shawnee Wilderness were predominantly repeat visitors, 73 percent of the group (Table 5). First-time visitors were most numerous at Garden of the Gods, 43 percent. Bay Creek had the lowest number of first-time visitors (10 percent) of any of the five wilderness.

Repeat visitors have been visiting the areas for an average often years. Further, they visited almost seven times per year, on the average (Table 5).

Residence of Visitors. Comparing groups from state of residence, Illinois made up 80 percent of the total use groups (Table 6). More than half of the groups (52 percent) were from southern Illinois. Kentucky, Indiana and Missouri combined made up fifteen percent of the groups.

This pattern varied by wilderness. Garden of the Gods had the largest proportion of groups from outside both southern Illinois and Illinois (Table 7). Nearly all of the groups visiting Panthers Den were from Illinois. In fact, 79 percent of these groups were from southern Illinois.

USER GROUP CHARACTERISTICS
Size of Group. The groups visiting the wilderness generally contained 4.3 people (Table 8). The group size varied by wilderness. For example, the groups visiting Bay Creek were on the average the smallest with 2.7 people and the largest at Lusk Creek with 5.5 people. Most of the groups were no doubt family groups, except at Bay Creek with its predominance of hunting groups.

Group Demographics. Adult males represented more than one-half of the visitors to the five wilderness (Table 9). This percentage was constant for all the wilderness except Bay Creek. Nearly all the visitors to Bay Creek (90 percent) were adult males.

Children (less than 16 years of age) were the most predominant at Burden Falls and Panthers Den.

GROUP RESPONDENT CHARACTERISTICS
Age. The average age of the people filling out the questionnaires was 39 (Table 10). It was interesting to find very few of the respondents were 65 years or older.

Occupation. Respondents held a variety of occupations (Table 11). One-third had professional or technical positions. Laborers and managers were the next most common occupations. Twelve percent of the respondents were students.

There was little variation over the five wilderness with regards to this occupation category. Bay Creek had the highest percentage of persons in laborer occupations (35 percent). Panther Den had the highest percentage of students (28 percent),

30 • Illinois Parks & Recreation • March/April 1994

likely due to its proximity to Southern Illinois University (Table 11).

Education. The respondents were highly educated. More than 75 percent had at least some college and forty-seven percent a college degree (Table 12). Nearly one-third of the respondents visiting Panthers Den had post graduate academic training.

Outdoor Club Membership. The majority of the group respondents were not affiliated with organized outdoor type clubs (Table 13).

Overall, 20 percent were members of nature preservation groups (Sierra, Nature Conservancy, etc.). About one-eighth (13 percent) were members of a wildlife preservation group (World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, etc.). The category "Other Club" had an overall response of 16 percent. The majority of the clubs mentioned in the category "Other Club" were oriented toward hunting (National Rifle Association, Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, etc.) (Table 13). Panther Den, Garden of the Gods and Lusk Creek had the most respondents that were affiliated with some group or club.

RESPONDENT KNOWLEDGE OF WILDERNESS
Wilderness Designation. Many of the group respondents did not know the areas were designated wilderness. Only 56 percent knew of the wilderness designation (Table 14). The major exception was Bay Creek with 80 percent of the respondents knowing of the wilderness designation.

Lusk Creek respondents were often confused because an officially designated nature preserve is encompassed by the wilderness.

Management Agency. Many of the group respondents did not know the wilderness were managed specifically by the U.S. Forest Service (Table 15). However, when asked whether the wilderness were owned by the state or federal government, 82 percent said federal — the correct response.

VISITOR EXPENDITURES
The third objective of this research was to estimate the amount of money spent by wilderness visitors in the southern Illinois region. The following information gives a breakdown of expense category and compares the wilderness to one another.

Visitor expenditures on a per person trip basis were calculated for each wilderness. For the five wilderness combined, the "total" expenditure was $21.02 per person per trip. Bay Creek, with its heavy population of hunting parties, had the highest average expenditure; while Lusk Creek had the lowest.

Table 9. Group Demographics by Wilderness
Gender/ Age	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Palls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Visitors)
Adult, Male	60	56	48	90	52	56
Adult, Female	26	32	27	7	26	29
Child, Male	10	8	19	3	19	12
Child, Female	4	4	6	0	3	3

Table 10. Age of Group Respondents by Wilderness
Age	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Years) (Percent of Respondents)
16-24	22	6	6	0	22	12
25-44	60	56	68	79	59	60
45-64	13	29	24	21	19	24
65+	0	0	2	0	0	4
Average	34	43	39	41	34	39

Table 11. Occupation of Group Respondent by Wilderness
Occupation	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Respondents)
Professional/ Technical	37	32	37	23	30	33
Managerial	9	16	15	18	11	14
Laborer/ Craftsman	17	21	21	47	16	21
Student	20	6	7	0	28	12
Clerical/Sale	9	14	11	0	3	5
Retired	2	4	7	0	2	8
Other	6	7	2	12	10	7

Table 12. Education of Group Respondent by Wilderness
Education	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Respondents)
Grade School	0	1	0	0	0	1
Some High School	6	1	0	0	3	2
High School Grad	20	19	11	10	10	16
Trade School	2	6	2	5	2	4
Some College	19	25	43	42	32	29
College Grad	27	25	24	26	21	24
Post Grad	26	23	20	5	32	23

Illinois Parks & Recreation • March/April 1994 • 31

Table 13. Outdoor Club Membership of Group Resident by Wilderness
Club	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Respondents)
Nature	22	21	13	5	25	20
Wildlife	22	9	11	16	17	13
Hiking	4	1	0	0	2	1
Photography	2	0	2	0	0	1
Nature Study	2	5	0	0	2	6
Youth	4	5	9	0	9	6
Other	12	19	13	16	13	16

Table 14. Respondents' Knowledge of Wilderness Designation
Designation	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Respondents)
Primitive Area	9	12	13	0	9	10
Nature Preserve	9	26	8	5	9	16
Refuge	1	3	5	0	5	4
Park	11	0	3	5	0	3
Wilderness	59	47	60	80	68	56
Recreation	14	12	11	5	9	11

Table 15. Respondents' Knowledge of Managing Agency
Manager	Garden of the Gods	Lusk Creek	Burden Falls	Bay Creek	Panthers Den	ALL
(Percent of Groups)
Agency:
Forest Service	56	71	79	50	65	67
Park Service	13	2	0	14	2	4
State DOC	5	9	6	7	12	9
Other	26	18	15	29	21	20
Level Of Government:
Federal	80	80	80	81	89	82
State	15	16	15	13	11	14
Other	5	4	5	6	0	4

Table 16. Group Expenditures by Wilderness (in dollars)
Category (n size)	Garden of the Gods (48)	Lusk Creek (141)	Burden Falls (44)	Bay Creek (17)	Panthers Den (59)	ALL (309)
Food	11.50	6.83	6.33	16.57	7.22	7.81
Transportation 6.87		3.05	4.87	8.78	3.17	3.96
Lodging	5.00	3.13	2.53	10.10	3.43	3.55
Guide/License	.01	.06	.78	2.36	.01	.21
Other	.94	.26	.86	.00	.16	.39
Total	24.31	13.33	15.37	37.81	23.42	15.92

On the average, people spent $7.81 on food, except at Bay Creek where visitors spent $16.75 per person per trip on food. Garden of the Gods also had a high food expenditure ($11.50), which could be explained by the large amount of nonlocal use. The lowest food expenditure was at Burden Falls ($6.33).

Comparing the wilderness, using total expenditure data, Bay Creek had the largest per person per trip expenditure ($53.05). Both Lusk Creek and Burden Falls had low total expenditures with $17.78 and $18.05 respectively (Table 16).

SUMMARY

The Department of Forestry, Southern Illinois University, studied the visitors to five wilderness located within the Shawnee National Forest. The study period was May 15, 1991 to May 15, 1992. A total of 325 user-groups completed and returned questionnaires. The five wilderness were: Bay Creek, Burden Falls, Garden of the Gods, Lusk Creek, Panther Den.

Sightseeing and dayhiking were the most popular outdoor activities during the first year after wilderness designation. It was interesting to learn these were also the same most popular activities of visitors prior to wilderness designation. Therefore, it appears wilderness designation has not affected visitors' activities.

The major use periods were on weekends after 2 p.m. and during the spring and fall.

Most (73 percent) of the groups visiting the first year after wilderness designation had visited the areas during previous years. Nearly all (80 percent) of the groups were from Illinois. On the average, about 4.3 people were in the groups.

The group respondents completing the questionnaires were on the average 39 years of age. The respondents had a variety of occupations. Professional/technical people were the most frequently represented. Three-fourths of the respondents had at least some college.

Only 56 percent of the group respondents were aware the areas had been designated wilderness. Most (82 percent) knew a federal agency managed the wilderness. However, only two-thirds knew that agency was the U.S. Forest Service.

Finally, the visitors spent on the average $21 per person in southern Illinois during their visit Food represented more than one-third of this expenditure.

Dwight McCurdy, Robert Gentry and John Burde are researchers, Department of Forestry, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. This study was financed by the U.S.D.A., McIntire Stennis Program.

32 • Illinois Parks & Recreation • March/April 1994