ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with outdoor recreation, specifically user patterns and impacts of recreational use on urban woodlands presented in two case studies of woodland adjunct to two Bavarian cities in southern Germany. Woodlands in and near urban areas provide many ecosystem services. They often not only host high biodiversity and improve the urban climate; generate direct economic benefits from timber harvesting. They also provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, aesthetic enjoyment and contact with nature for city dwellers. In Germany, the public has the right by law to access all forests, including privately owned land. Sometimes intensive recreational use has to be tolerated by forest owners. Recreational use of urban forests leads to pressures not only on urban forest ecosystems but also on their ability to provide multiple ecosystem services. Visitor management and steering visitor flows are important tools to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban woodlands. The chapter demonstrates recreation patterns and uses are different for each urban area.
