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Texas park survey yields surprising results |
Mike Leggett |
Who uses Texas state parks? That's what folks at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville have been asking for the last five years.
Now, after surveying about 27,000 of the millions of people who visit the state's 113 parks, historic sites and natural areas each year, a portrait of an average park visitor is emerging, and it may not be what you would expect.
The portrait is of a middle-aged, white person who likes hiking and camping and is as likely to arrive at the park alone or in the company of adults rather than children.
The survey results, which have been released to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department but not the public yet, show that, overall, about one in three adult visitors brings a child with them. During the summer the number of adults bringing a child climbs to just about 43 percent.
The survey also says that while Hispanics make up about 37 percent of the Texas population, they comprise only about 11 percent of state park visitors.
TPWD already is working to boost hunting through heritage and family education programs and will use the latest study results to chart a similar course for state parks in the future, says Carter Smith, TPWD executive director.
"The findings of this research now give us a tangible baseline of our current customer demographics and patterns of recreational use," Smith says. "Just as importantly, however, the study points out the fact that we are still not reaching key target audiences at our parks, namely families and Hispanic visitors, at our most desired levels.
"We believe a big part of the explanation of that finding relates to the lack of mentors within families who truly know how to fish, camp, hunt, canoe, set up a tent or build a safe campfire," Smith says. "As a result, those skills and outdoor experiences are not being passed down to younger generations.
"One way we are addressing that is through the new Outdoor Family program launched by the state parks division. It is aimed at giving families those kinds of outdoor skills while experiencing overnight visits in their state parks."
State Parks director Walt Dabney says some of the issues with Hispanic visitors are geographical and some issues are institutional. Park use by that group is much higher in South Texas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley, for instance.
"Hispanics like to come enjoy a location with an extended family," Dabney says. "We may have some design challenges in that our campsites are sized for groups of 4-8 persons. We may need to look at some series of 'small group sites.' We also do not have some facilities that we really need to attract groups out to parks.
"A group recreation facility is one very important structure that is needed in many parks and for which we have had no funds available in my 11 years," Dabney says.
Dabney says the department, through increased appropriations during the last two legislative sessions, has begun to expand operations and improve facilities at many parks. However, the problems with park visitation and facility use extend well beyond pulling in a specific group of visitors.
Dabney says he was surprised by the survey finding that "families are coming without children. Young families with school children in many cases did not grow up camping and also are busy doing other activities.
"Many of our visitors are probably more mature white couples, whose kids are gone from home and may or may not be retired," Dabney says.
Parks programs such as Texas Outdoor Family, Texas Geocaching Challenge and free fishing in state parks are designed to attract families to parks activities, which in turn expose them to different parks and the facilities and outdoor attractions of those parks.
In March, the department plans to start a new Web site that will include videos and virtual tours of the parks and facilities.
Dabney says all the parks initiatives are designed to hold onto the traditional users and to expand facilities and programs that will bring in new user groups. "We are not going to do anything to intentionally diminish the use of any group, (but) we need to do a much better job of marketing our sites as family parks," he says.
The results of the survey are expected to be posted soon to the TPWD Web site.
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