Survey can be found here.
There are 76 ODNR state park managers, of which, the survey was distributed to 63. I received 40 responses to my survey. When asking park managers to define a local resident, some answers were inconclusive due to the way the question format collected data, so the results for that question only include 35 responses.
Out of all state park visitors, I took interest in local residents, and made the distinction that local residents are their own category of visitor, because unlike all other categories of visitors they cannot leave if they don’t like their state park and/or how it’s managed. My inference is that local residents are influenced by state parks because of their proximity, and local residents influence state parks as property owners and taxpayers.
I needed park managers to define from their perspective a local resident because there is no one universal idea of what constitutes a ‘local’. I also wanted insight on relations between park managers and local residents, and I figured one way to see that is through communication frequency/methods.
It’s worth noting that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the predominant age group that park managers identified, 40-49 years old, is older than the median age in Ohio, 39 years old.
The 40-49 age group makes up 12% of the Ohio population, while almost all other age groups make up 13% each. (U.S. Census Bureau 2022)
Because within Ohio, 40-49 year olds are not a predominant age group, within state parks, there is a chance that the 40-49 age group isn’t statistically the predominant age group. Despite this, the 40-49 age group is perceived the most by park managers, meaning their voices reach park managers more often than other age groups, whether or not they are actually statistically predominant.
U.S. Census Bureau (2022). American Community Survey 1-year estimates. Retrieved from Census Reporter Profile page for Ohio <http://censusreporter.org/profiles/04000US39-ohio/>
