ABSTRACT
Decades ago, environmental advocates realized that when people develop a sense of place in the natural world through outdoor recreation, they are more likely to support pro-environmental policies (Marafiote). Indeed, John Muir states, “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and the mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as foundations of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life” (48). Published in 1901, these words are still true today; people flock to wilderness places, looking for “escape” from civilization. The irony of outdoor recreation is that although engaging in this behavior is likely to increase one’s sense of place and pro-environmental sentiment (e.g., Brooks, Wallace, and Williams; Buell; Cantrill; Cresswell; Dickinson; Ewert, Place, and Sibthorp; Kyle, Absher, and Graefe), it also has the potential to degrade the very places in which recreators seek to experience the natural world. In this chapter, we examine how this irony is revealed in the discourse of outdoor recreators. Specifically, we argue that this discourse encourages finding a place of one’s own as key to an ideal recreation experience in the natural world.
