14 SUSTAINING PLANET, PLACE, AND PEOPLE – Contributions by Kelly Bricker
The influence of early years on research interests…
Perhaps like many of you, I can trace my love of nature experientially back to early childhood and family outings. Summer camp, camping vacations, and simply playing outside dawn to dusk, shaped who I am today. For most of my childhood and early adult years, I had my eye on becoming a veterinarian – my interests were anything wild, anything animal, and anything outside.
What did these early experiences do for me professionally? These shaped my future research interests, I learned being outside by choice and not circumstance, impacts your worldview, provides perspective, keeps you healthy, and reinforces these foundational concepts throughout life (Bricker, Brownlee, & Dustin, 2016; Dustin, Bricker, & Schwab, 2010).
As a wise Senegalese person once said,
“In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.” —
–Baba Dioum, 1968
The colleges and universities I attended have shaped my research and interests. My first introduction to college was Lincoln Land Community College. I took time to explore science programs to support my interest in becoming a Veterinarian. During my first two years of pre-veterinary courses, I realized that becoming a Veterinarian also meant spending many hours in laboratories inside with creatures preserved in formaldehyde, loads of memorization, and heaps of chemistry courses
Looking back, it seems there were limited options and directions to pursue, and due to so many lab and chemistry courses, and I was having difficulty finding the field of study that actually connected me with the health and well-being of animals and the natural world. Today, of course, there are many options, in animal behavior, ecosystems management, and a plethora of specialty areas in conservation.
After obtaining an associate degree in Pre-Vet, and before entering my junior year at Western Illinois University (WIU), I visited campus and met with professors in Zoology and Ecology. During those meetings, one professor mentioned a program that took students off-campus for an entire semester, learning about national parks, public lands, wild places, outdoor education and recreation, the Environmental Conservation Education Expedition, or ECOEE. The possibility of being off-campus for an entire semester in and amongst these wild places brought with it a brand-new enthusiasm for what kind of professional future was possible. The program was my pathway to a new focus in Outdoor Education and Recreation management. I kept a minor in the zoological sciences—perhaps as a backup, as my parents were concerned about a major in “recreation”? This was a time that tourism was not even a major in the U.S.A.
Doc Lupton, the creator and founder of ECOEE, started the program in 1976, I joined the program in 1980, which was a year after the creation of the Wilderness Education Association by Paul Petzoldt, also the founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School or NOLS. ECOEE was an extraordinary experience, integrating outdoor skills and education, with a philosophical and theoretical understanding of how public lands and wilderness are managed.
As part of ECOEE, we travelled for nearly 16 weeks from Illinois to the Western half of the United States, during a time where the only way to touch base at home was via a collect call from a phone booth to my parents or friends back home, and of course hand-written letters and post cards—via snail mail. This was a time in my life where my thinking on life and my place in it was stretched. It was an introduction to wild spaces and places professionally, and how we can minimize impacts as we enjoy them (Bricker & Kerstetter, 2017; Bricker, 2018). It sparked in me a quest for adventure, for journeying into the unknown, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable.
Participation in ECOEE taught me about how one could live comfortably in the outdoors for a month or more, and learn skills, with just the basic necessities fitting into a pack I could carry on my back. It also taught me about the value of simplicity, getting away, back to the basics, and healing and therapeutic qualities of natural environments (Bricker, 2018, 2017; Schwab, Dustin, & Bricker, 2017). For a person from the Midwest, surrounded by cornfields and farms, this time in my life was quite formative, personally and professionally, WIU and the university setting offered many opportunities to learn and venture outward. I was also greatly influenced by Cousteau’s documentaries on our 3 station TV, and my interest in the blue part of our planet peaked. I learned how to scuba dive, exploring many a quarry in central Illinois—imagine the excitement of coming eye to eye with a catfish or crawdad (ha!).
In addition to Doc Lupton and the extraordinary ECOEE experience, I also had professors who took us outdoors to learn, to witness first-hand the complex systems of creeks and rivers, meadows and caves, the geologic history of earth’s transitions, and the intricate signs of the health or degradation of natural ecosystems and their causes…this no doubt has influenced my thinking and passion for our natural world today.
WIU was quite impactful and set the course for my professional life. Experiential learning was at the core – as many of you may already know, experiential education fuels a zest for knowledge, accentuates the ability to absorb the complexities of the world we live in, tests your mettle, and builds self-confidence and empowerment, perspective, and a sense of caring in ways I do not believe would have been possible through traditional classroom experiences at the time. It was also a time where, perhaps due to phenomenal mentors, I believe laid the foundation for my future academic life.
My days of exploring low visibility lakes and quarries on scuba in the Midwest eventually led me to the ocean, and to the Florida National High Adventure Sea Base, to teach sailing, scuba diving, and marine education to Explorer Scouts and children from Miami-Dade schools. Working in the Florida Keys expanded my understanding of the vast blue part of our planet, with coral reefs, shallow bays of turtles and sea grass, and the lungs of the sea, island builders, and breeding grounds for so many ocean dwelling species, the mangrove ecosystem. This work also opened my eyes to the realization that all kids are not as fortunate to have the upbringing others have, specifically to getting outside and enjoying the outdoors throughout childhood and was elated we had a program to help facilitate children’s understanding of the sea (Black & Bricker, 2015).
After a couple of years in the outdoor field, I was fortunate to be able to return to Western and work on my Masters’ degree and, once again travel with ECOEE as an instructor. The graduate teaching position really solidified my interest in Higher Education and the value of a university education for all. And, over the course of several summers I connected with a program called Man and His Land Expeditions, which was run out of Downers Grove Illinois, but based in Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). In the BVI, we had a sailing fleet of 6-8, 52-foot sailboats and taught marine science, sailing, and scuba diving to over sixty high-school aged participants for a month at a time. This experience was life-changing once again, and strengthened my interest in not only the marine environment, but also in culture and communities impacted by tourism and programs like ours (Bricker, Black, & Cottrell, 2012).
Eventually, I journeyed to California to be with the love of my life and learn river rafting which served as a technical skill-based resume builder and eventual mechanism for us to work overseas. Not only did we learn about guiding rivers, we worked with one of the pioneers of adventure travel, George Wendt, and a company that is built on concern for conservation of rivers all over the world, OARS. My husband Nate and I were fortunate to get a position with Sobek Travel, which was an adventure travel program based out of Angels Camp, CA. Our first placement was in Nepal, where we worked managing trekking, white-water rafting and national park visits. Aside from the British Virgin Islands and Canada, I had never been overseas—and especially so very far culturally and geographically from home.
Serving 10 months in Nepal led to other opportunities to travel to several other countries, and over the course of 8 years, we worked with Sobek and affiliates, bearing witness to tourism’s range of impacts within destinations—from the protection of wildlife to the establishment of new opportunities for supporting livelihoods, to increases in crime, and degradation of cultural and natural resources (Bricker, 2018). Throughout these journeys, I witnessed both positive and negative aspects of nature-based marine and terrestrial tourism development. And I grew increasingly passionate about ensuring that our programs were bringing something of value rather than destroying the very places that attracted visitation in the first place (Snyman & Bricker, 2019).
This created a sense of uneasiness, and I was ready to go back to school and learn more about ensuring tourism’s ability to effect positive change. Now armed with an uneasy passion to understand how nature-based travel and recreation can be used as a tool for positive change, I embraced a new life of academe and enrolled in the PhD program at Penn State. I loved my graduate program and the mentors I had the good fortune of learning with. Professor Deb Kerstetter and I found a niche in studying the impacts of tourism on communities in Fiji (see Kerstetter & Bricker, 2009, 2010; Bricker & Kerstetter, 2012; Bricker, Kerstetter, & Beeftink, 2012). I have been fortunate to maintain relationships with my professors at Penn State over my career, as we continue to collaborate and think about problems faced in the world today. These relationships have been and continue to be critical to my professional and personal life—and I believe have helped to shape my research and fuel passions for the work throughout my academic life. So, my recommendation is to not take graduate school selection lightly, it may have significant influence on a lifetime of work.
Atypical Academic Start…
Upon completion of my doctoral program at the Penn State University, my husband and I, through a series of unexpected events, had the opportunity to start our own ecotourism program from scratch in the highlands of Viti Levu in Fiji, and coming full circle with George and Pam Wendt of OARS. And, despite warnings from some academic mentors, that I may committing academic suicide by going overseas, and risking the opportunity to land a tenure-track position at a US-based institution, we moved to Fiji and started a company called Rivers Fiji (https://www.riverofeden.com/).
While I knew there was a university located in Fiji, I anticipated the prospect of at the very least, perhaps volunteering in some capacity. Fortunately, the stars aligned and one-month after arriving in country, a position opened up in ecotourism, I applied, and was successful in landing my first full-time academic appointment. My first full-time academic post was in my opinion the best possible post a person could engage in after completing a PhD. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would be a position that would launch a lifetime of inquiry into ecotourism and associated impacts (Bricker, 2001, 2003; Schultz & Bricker, 2020; Kerstetter & Bricker, 2009; Bricker & Kerstetter, 2012).
As an outsider to the country, I was promoted as an ecotourism “expert” (and yes, it felt pre-mature), and I found myself writing speeches for government ministries on policies and frameworks for ecotourism development. Faculty at USP were also supported with several government granting opportunities, which also helps launch my research and conduct studies with students (Bricker, 2001).
Suffice to say, our years spent in Fiji once again engaged us in a lifetime of lessons. What I learned was that the more diverse perspectives, the healthier the outcome; that management and development of tourism and recreation experiences must be inclusive of empowerment within local communities; and importantly, once tourism is introduced, it will serve as a wedge to increased development, and not always development that effects positive change; I learned the development of nature-based experiences must be inclusive of community concerns and influence, environmental protection, experiential protection, and viewed as a long-term prospect to garner the best of what tourism may bring to destinations, inclusive of its people and the environment which supports them (see Kerstetter & Bricker, 2009, 2010; Bricker, 2001, 2003).
In reflecting on my research contributions to our collective field, the primary goal of my work has been to understand the complex and varied nature of sustainability within nature-based tourism and outdoor recreational endeavours and impacts to communities. This focus is now even broader and continually evolving as I move towards the end of my academic career and have more freedom within the choices I make.
Research interests, somewhat focused…
Specifically, I conduct social science research to comprehend the relationship between socio-economic, environmental, and cultural management and developmental factors which support or negate positive impacts within varying contexts of society (i.e., local to global) and environments. I have come full circle in my life and back to learning about the interactions which take place in complex socio-ecological systems. My interests are with nature-based tourism and outdoor recreational endeavours and their role in sustainable management and development of protected areas and nearby communities. Because of the complex and diverse nature of tourism and outdoor recreation endeavours, protected area managers are continually confronted with a dynamic interplay of shifting challenges interconnected at varying scales.
My research career really began with my dissertation, which was to understand place meanings of recreationists in tourism settings, and local communities, and how these contribute to the multi-dimensional nature and management of quality recreation and visitor experiences and to sustainable communities and ecosystems (Bricker & Kerstetter, 2000, 2002, 2008). With respect to individuals, the results of this work has illustrated that activity experience levels of participants matter when it comes to an emotional bond with landscapes or settings; that the effect of involvement on place attachment differs among groups of recreationists and settings; and that different types of place meanings play an important role in an individual’s preferences for places, as well as the ways in which the individual values places for recreation, leisure and tourism endeavours.
With many colleagues and graduate students, I have worked to understand the impacts of tourism at a community level which has helped to shed light on what residents’ value within their locale, and what is important with respect to managing tourism resources. We have also conducted longitudinal studies to understand nature-based tourism’s impacts on rural communities, which have contributed to knowledge of place meanings and challenges faced during various life stages of tourism development (Bricker, 2001; Schultz & Bricker, 2020; Bricker, Kerstetter, & Beeftink, 2012; Kerstetter, Bricker, & Li, 20.
Since 1999, the results of my research conducted on rural communities in Fiji have contributed to our understanding of how residents value their way of life, the culture and history associated with traditions, and how new technology impacts daily life. These results have also identified the importance of protecting the natural environment as central to the continued maintenance of traditions and lifestyle as well as quality visitor experiences. Overall, these findings lend support for the notion that sense of place is multidimensional and make evident factors that must be considered by planners and marketers in the development of sustainable tourism and outdoor recreation services. Another area of my research has been to understand various management components of sustainable tourism and outdoor recreation including aspects of sustainability certification and quality of life related issues.
We have made some progress in this area through conducting nationwide research on managers’ perspectives of sustainable recreation and tourism on public lands; understanding state wide sustainable tourism certification programs as a management tool for sustainable tourism; and through an exploration of specific state-wide nature-based recreation and tourism initiatives. The results of this research have assisted planners and managers in understanding the sustainability and effectiveness of outdoor recreation management strategies and policy formation.
More recently, I have explored the challenges of sustainability within a range of contexts; considered the relationships between environment, economics, and social aspects of sustainability concepts; explored the relationships between nature-based tourism / outdoor recreation and its impact on quality of life and explored the global impact of tourism development in addressing some of the most critical societal ills the world is facing today, as identified by the United Nations Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals (Bricker, Black, & Cottrell, 2012).
This aspect of my research has been the most rewarding, as my colleagues and I continue to explore how sustainable tourism and outdoor recreation endeavours can effect positive change for people, the environment they are a part of, and the economic structures which support poverty reduction and increased quality of life (Bricker, Tysor, Lackey, Dustin, & Brownlee, 2021). As an example, based on our work in conceptualizing leisure and health related fields, it was a privilege to present with my colleagues at the first-ever Healthy Parks, Healthy People Congress in Melbourne, Australia. I find it very gratifying to be writing on topics that span the sustainability spectrum, and that highlight the importance of healthy ecosystems in our world—which have included concepts such as social and environmental justice, and the importance of leisure and environmental issues to our health and well-being. It is important to note that sustainability in recreation and leisure (i.e. tourism) is evolving—this makes the study of these concepts both interesting and challenging.
With respect to my research and teaching has been closely tied to the service work I have done with international organizations focused on sustainable tourism development and management and utilizing tourism and outdoor recreation as a tool for conservation. My service to these organizations has positively enhanced my research program, and ultimately the classes I teach and continue to develop in sustainable management of tourism. I see research in an ecological way, within a web of relationships tied very closely to all aspects of my work as a professor, enriching my understanding of the world and the challenges we face.
I continue to seek models that effect positive change through tourism. It is helpful to learn from others and build relationships with researchers of diverse backgrounds. For example, a few years ago we had an individual join us from the University of the Arctic in Alta, Norway. We worked with Dr. Rokenes, University of the Arctic on topics relative to guiding and winter recreation, and we received a grant along with 10 international partners, to conduct research focused on winter tourism and recreation management (Gatti, Bricker, & Brownlee, 2018).
As an example of an ecological perspective of research, teaching and service, the grant has enabled our collaboration with Yellowstone National Park, our new graduate course on sustainable tourism and protected area management, and research dollars to support student engaged learning and research. This was an exciting collaboration nationally and internationally, with many opportunities for cross-cultural understanding of protected area management, sustainable tourism, and winter recreation.
One phase of this study was to explore perceptions and Experiences of Winter Tour Operators and Guides in Yellowstone National Park. The implementation of a commercial guide management framework for visiting Yellowstone National Park during winter means that all visitors who wish to visit the park interior via motorized modes of transportation must hire a commercial tour guide. Visitors driving into the park from the Northern Range or entering the park on foot, snowshoes or skis may still enter the park unaccompanied by a guide (Special Regulations, 2013) (Bricker, Brownlee, & Gatti, 2014).
The new commercial guide rule has amplified the role of guides and tour operators in producing the Yellowstone winter experience through their activities involving transportation, education, interpretation and itinerary planning. In spite of their increased significance in the winter Yellowstone experience, tour operators and guides remain an under-researched group. The overall goal of our study was to explore and collect preliminary data on guides’ and tour operators’ experiences and perceptions during winter in Yellowstone. By exploring the perspectives of tour operators and outdoor guides, our hope was to help broaden the scope of existing knowledge on the human dimensions of winter recreation and provides a number of possible directions for future research (Bricker, Brownlee, & Gatti, 2014).
Overall, these interviews with winter tour operation owners, managers, and guides suggest that Yellowstone National Park is a dynamic social and physical entity. Changes were noted in terms of park visitors, the work and concept of “the guide”, and the ecology of Yellowstone due to climate change. In turn, all of these changes are having impacts on the experiences of winter guides and winter tour operators.
This type of exploratory study can be used to support the findings of other studies of visitors, park policies, and the cultural and political context of Yellowstone. In addition to this, the data brings to light a number of possible directions for future research including, the need to understand equity and access in the world’s first national park, related to current park policies, the potential pricing out a majority of Americans, as well as the greater Yellowstone area locals. Our findings raised political questions about equity, access, and who is being left out, as well as more philosophical questions about the purpose of national parks and meaning of the wilderness experience.
I have realized we also need to understand sustainable tourism and park policies better, which includes references to the impacts of recent park policy changes to the social and economic fabric of local communities, in particular West Yellowstone. Related issues to these findings, were the consolidation of local businesses, uneven competition between non-profit tour operators and commercial tour operators, and concerns about the rise of an oligarchy controlling park access.
And lastly, a greater understanding of guiding as a profession is warranted, where we discovered a wide range of perspectives on the role of the winter guide. Our findings led us to several more questions such as, how is the role of the guide evolving in Yellowstone, what are the merits of professionalization, and how does the winter guiding experience in Yellowstone compare to those of guides in other protected areas, both national and internationally? This work on guiding and outfitters has sparked an interest in examining the impact of concessionaire policies in national parks on local communities, and sustainability within operations of national parks. It also has led to writing about the role tourism operators can play in sustainable consumption and production of tourism products in and around protected areas (Lackey & Bricker, 2021; Bricker, 2017).
Years ago, I co-edited and authored a book entitled Sustainable Tourism and the Millennium Development Goals: Effecting Positive Change (Bricker, Black, & Cottrell, 2012). The work reports research from all over the world, with 16 chapters and case studies focused on how sustainable tourism and ecotourism support some of the major challenges that society faces. This was a great project which helped us link local initiatives to global goals and explore where gaps existed. Evolving from our book on the millennium development goals, I am increasingly interested in concepts surrounding health and well-being within communities and building quality of life through nature-based tourism and recreation endeavours. In thinking about the role of nature in quality of life, this has led to a research project and agenda to understand the health and well-being benefits of parks and protected areas.
Through conceptualizing the needs of a healthy parks, healthy people research agenda, to date, we have been funded to better understand the therapeutic benefits of nature-based experiences for America’s Armed Forces personnel, veterans, and their families. The need for this research is grounded in the well-documented incidences of stress-related maladies afflicting returning soldiers and their families, the insufficiency of traditional clinical treatment approaches for remedying these maladies, and the potential of nature-based experiences to be effective treatment alternatives (Bricker, Tysor, Lackey, Dustin, & Brownlee, 2021). In this regard, we viewed the Kendeda Fund’s financial support as the first major catalyst for a much larger and long-term research program to better understand nature’s health promoting properties, not only for veterans and their families, but for America’s citizenry at large (Dustin, Bricker, Tysor, & Brownlee, 2021). What experiences people have in the outdoors really matters! As John Muir once wrote,
When we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
John Muir (My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911, p. 10)
In the end, I believe my professional and academic life has been influenced by my exposure and engagement with the natural world at a young age and throughout my formative years; by extraordinary mentors; through engagement with communities, protected area managers, and problems they face; through my service work with non-profits and other entities. It has also been influenced through my work with curious and engaged students, and by collaborative efforts with many colleagues that I have had the pleasure of being associated with over many years. It is framed in the idea of what we do as individuals, communities, countries and destinations matters—David Orr (1994) supports this idea by stating that we need to learn “how to build local prosperity without ruining some other place, and, to revitalize an ecological concept of citizenship rooted in the understanding that activities that waste resources, pollute, destroy biological diversity, and degrade the beauty and the integrity of the landscape are forms of theft from common wealth…” (p. 168). This ecological approach to how we engage as a field as a field of study, and the impact of our research (in my view) is critical to improving sustainability of natural and cultural resources, and the health and well-being of future generations.
To highlight some of these ideas, I would like to circle back and share a project I have been involved in for over 20 years, Rivers Fiji, which we started with many others during our time in the Republic of Fiji. Rivers Fiji (RF) began white-water rafting and kayaking operations in 1998. In 2000, the company established the Upper Navua Conservation Area (UNCA), a 24-kilometer freshwater river, now protected from commercial extractive use within the primary corridor. This is the first lease for conservation of its kind in Fiji, and possibly all of the South Pacific. This unique conservation effort calls upon tourists’ dollars to support the protection of Fiji’s third largest freshwater drainage – home to unique species of fish, parrots and iguanas, Fiji’s only boa constrictor, and the largest in-tact groves of sago palm, now threatened in the rest of the pacific. We have and continue to learn many ideas and lessons, as the project evolves (Bricker, 2001, 2003; Schultz & Bricker, 2020; Kerstetter & Bricker, 2009; Bricker & Kerstetter, 2012).
. In short, we have learned:
- Ecotourism enterprises must plan for a gradual start
- Education and training among all parties is critical
- Maximize local benefits, maintain equity, transparency
- Evaluation and feedback are key
- Partnerships are essential!
- Infrastructure support is necessary
- Marketing support critical
- Must respect and be sensitive to socio-cultural norms
- Environmental protection with community support is fundamental to any successes
Academic life is a gift. I learn new things every day, as society changes, and the many influences on our planet change as well. I will forever be a lifelong learner, even well beyond retirement. It has been a true honour to engage with so many communities, brilliant and caring people, and academia as a profession.
Written by Kelly S. Bricker, Professor and Director, Hainan University/ASU Joint International Tourism College, School of Community Resources and Development, and Watts College of Public Service and Community Development, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Read Kelly’s letter to future generations of tourism researchers
References by Thematic Area
Sustainable Tourism Frameworks
Bricker, K. S. (2019). Business Models and Sustainable Tourism. In S. McCool and K. Bosak (eds.) A Century Research Agenda for Sustainable Tourism, Edward Elgar Publishing, UK, pp. 126-139.
Bricker, K., & Kerstetter, D. (2017). “Effecting positive change-an introduction.” Journal of Ecotourism, Vol. 16, Issue 3, pp. 201-202. Special Issue: The Future We Want: Effecting Positive Change through Ecotourism, K. Bricker & D. Kerstetter, Eds., October 28, 2017, (Editor reviewed).
Bricker, K. S., & Schultz, J. (2011). Sustainable Tourism in the USA: A Comparative Look at the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. Tourism Recreation Research, Special Issue on Tourism Certification and Indicators. Vol. 36, No. 3, Winter, 215-230.
Bushell, R., & Bricker, K. S. (2016). Tourism in Protected Areas: Developing meaningful standards. Journal Tourism and Hospitality Research (SAGE), Special Issue Tourism and Protected Areas: A review of the last decade, 17(1), pp. 106-120.
Lackey, N. Q., & Bricker, K. S. (in progress). The Global Sustainable Tourism Council Criteria: A Potential Framework for Sustainable Tourism Development in and around National Parks. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration.
Winter, P. L., Selin, S., Cerveny, L., & Bricker, K. S. (2019). Outdoor Recreation, Nature-Based Tourism, and Sustainability, Sustainability 2020, 12(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010081
Nature and Health
Bricker, K., Tysor, D., Lackey, N.Q., Dustin, D., & Brownlee, M. (2021). “Recovering a Sense of Place: River Environments and Veterans with PTSD “(In D. Dustin, D. Tysor, K. Bricker, & M. Brownlee (Eds.) Outdoor Recreation and Our Military Family: Pathways to Recovery. Urbana, IL: Sagamore-Venture Publishing.
Dustin, D., Zajchowski, C., Gatti, E., Bricker, K. S., Brownlee, T. J., & Schwab, K. (2018). “Greening Health: The Role of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism in Health Promotion.” Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, Vol. 36, Number 1, 2018, pp. 116-125.
Dustin, D. L., Bricker, K. S., and Schwab, K. A. (2010). People and Nature: Toward an Ecological Model of Health Promotion, Leisure Sciences, 32 (1), 3 – 14.
Muir, J. (1911). My first summer in the Sierra. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company. [Web] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/1104183/.
Orr, David W. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1994.
Dustin, D., Zajchowski, C., Gatti, E., Bricker, K. S., Brownlee, T. J., & Schwab, K. (2018). “Greening Health: The Role of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism in Health Promotion.” Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, Vol. 36, Number 1, 2018, pp. 116-125.
Schwab, K., Dustin, D., & Bricker, K.S., (2017). “Reframing Humankind’s Relationship with Nature: Contributions from Social Exchange Theory.” Journal of Sustainability Education, 12, 2151-7452.
Nature-based Tourism and Protected Areas
Black, R., and Bricker, K.S. (Eds.) (2015). Adventure Programming and Travel for the 21st Century. Venture Publishing, State College, PA.
Bricker, K.S. (2017). Mass Tourism and the U.S. NPS. Mass Tourism in One World. Edited by David Harrison and Richard Sharpley. CABI, Wallingford, UK (peer reviewed)
Bricker, K.S., Brownlee, M., and Gatti, E. (2014). Human Dimensions of Winter Use in Yellowstone National Park: A Research Gap Analysis (1972-2013). Technical report submitted to the National Park Service.
Bricker, K. S., Winter, P., and Schultz, J. (September 2010). Health and community: Perspectives in Sustainability in USDA FS Managed Lands. Linda Kruger, USDA FS (Eds.), Rural Connections (2010), Vol. 5(1): 38-42. Western Rural Development Center (Editor reviewed).
Bricker, K. S. & Kerstetter, D. (2008). Symbolic uses of river recreation resources: Whitewater Boater’s Special Places on the South Fork of the American River. In S. McCool, R. Clark, G. Stankey & R. Mazza (Eds.), Water and people: Challenges at the interface of symbolic and utilitarian values. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, pp. 147-176.
Bricker, K.S., & Kerstetter, D. (2000). Place attachment and whitewater specialists: A case study on the South Fork of the American River. Leisure Sciences, 22 (4): 233-257.
Lackey, N. Q., & Bricker, K. S. (Accepted, May 2021). A Destination-level Assessment of the Impact of Concessioners on Sustainability: A Case Study of Grand Teton National Park. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration.
Joyner, L., Lackey, N. Q., & Bricker, K.S. (2019). Community Engagement: An Appreciative Inquiry Case Study with Theodore Roosevelt National Park Gateway Communities. Sustainability, 11(24):7147.
Snyman S. & Bricker K. S. (2019). Living on the edge: Benefit-sharing from protected area tourism. Vol. 27, No. 6, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, pp. 705-719.
Gatti, E. T. J., Bricker, K. S., & Brownlee, M. T. J. (2018). Human dimensions of winter use in Yellowstone National Park: A gap analysis (1972–2013). Park Science, 34(1), 70-78.
Sustainable Recreation / Tourism & Communities
Bricker, K. S. (2001). Ecotourism development in the rural highlands of Fiji. In D. Harrison (Ed.), Tourism and the less developed world: Issues and case studies. Wallingford, UK: CABI, pp. 235-250.
Bricker, K. S. (2003). Ecotourism development in Fiji: Policy, practice, and political instability. In R. Dowling and D. Fennell (Eds.). Ecotourism policy and planning, pp. 187-204), Wallingford, UK: CABI Publications.
Bricker K. S., Black, R., and Cottrell, S. (Eds.) (2012). Sustainable Tourism & the Millennium Development Goals: Effecting Positive Change. Jones & Bartlett Publishing, Boston, Mass. USA
Bricker, K. S., Hendricks, W. W., Greenwood, J.B., & Aschenbrenner, C.A. (2016). Californians’ Perceptions of the Influence of Parks and Recreation on Quality of Life. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 34(1), 78-96.
Bricker, K. S., (2018). “Positioning Sustainable Tourism: Humble Placement of a Complex Enterprise.” Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, Vol. 36, Number 1, 2018, pp. 208-214.
Bricker K. S., Black, R., and Cottrell, S. (Eds.) (2012). Sustainable Tourism & the Millennium Development Goals: Effecting Positive Change. Jones & Bartlett Publishing, Boston, Mass. USA
Bricker K. S., Kerstetter, D., Beeftink, K. (2012). Tradition and Place: Tourism Development from Highlands to Islands in Fiji. In, Leisure and Tourism: Cultural Paradigms, Dodd, J. and Sharma, V. (Eds.), Rawat Publishers.
Bricker K. S., Kerstetter, D. (2012). Yasawan Islander’s Perspective on Tourism’s Impact on Health and Well-Being. In, Sustainable Tourism and the Millennium Development Goals: Effecting Positive Change (pp. 153-166), Bricker, K., Black, R., Cottrell, S. (Eds.), Jones and Bartlett Publishers Boston, Mass.
Kerstetter, D. & Bricker, K. S. (2009). Exploring Fijian’s sense of place after exposure to tourism development. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 17 (6), pp. 691-708.
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