EnviroAtlas Benefit Category: Recreation, Culture, and Aesthetics

• People enjoy spending time in outdoor environments such as natural areas, parks, forests, and other green spaces.
• Each year in the U.S., hundreds of millions of people visit protected lands, such as National Parks, National Forests, National Monuments, National Recreation Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, National Wild and Scenic Rivers, and National Historic Sites. In 2012, the National Park system alone had over 282 million recreational visits¹.
• Outdoor spaces provide opportunities for recreation, adventure, and physical activity. These spaces are important simply because they are unique places that exist. They are also appreciated for their cultural significance, beauty, educational value, abundance of diverse plants and wildlife, and the sense of place they provide.
• Recreation and tourism associated with outdoor environments can play a huge role in local economies. 
• Many groups place high value on historically or culturally important landscapes or on individual species because of their societal significance. Many religions also attach spiritual and religious values to ecosystems or their components².

Stressors and drivers of change

• There are several human activities that can place stress on the natural areas and local parks where people get recreational and cultural benefits.
• Over-exploitation from extractive uses, such as commercial fishing and game hunting, can remove large numbers of species from marine and terrestrial environments, sometimes reducing their numbers to the brink of extinction³.
• People can also harm natural environments and their inhabitant species through overuse. Outdoor recreation may be a positive, healthful activity for humans, but high numbers of visitors to an area can damage plant life, stress local animal populations, and introduce invasive speciesinvasive speciesA type of plant, animal, or other organism that does not naturally live in a certain area but has been introduced there, often by people. An invasive species can spread quickly, especially if it has no natural predators in its new home. An invasive species can hurt native species, disrupt ecosystems, and create problems for people (for example, weeds and insects that damage crops).. Many natural landscape features, such as coral reefs, may also be degraded as a result of too much recreational use.
• Recreation and tourism often result in increased development, which can compromise ecosystem health. 
• Land management and use practices, such as constructing roads to increase access to wilderness areas and building amenities to meet public demand, also affect surrounding ecosystems. Roads contribute to habitat fragmentation, the introduction of invasive species⁴, and animal deaths as a result of collision⁵, in addition to detracting from the overall wilderness experience. Competing land uses such as mining or energy development can remove or degrade an area's recreation potential.
• Further development of outdoor recreation areas may also affect the quality of people's interactions with the environment or simply replace the natural areas that people enjoy. For example, although it may be desirable to stay in a house on the edge of a lake, too much development on a lake edge alters the viewshed and can detract from the overall experience.
• Other stressors on recreation and aesthetic experiences include poor air and water quality; haze can reduce visibility in natural areas such as the Grand Canyon⁶ and poor water quality can reduce aesthetics and potentially preclude some forms of recreation in affected areas. Local urban parks can be affected by over-use, the presence of crime, and the presence of garbage.

​Health impacts and benefits