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Jeff Marion, Ph.D.

Jeff is a Research Biologist at the Eastern Ecological Science Center at Blacksburg, VA.

Jeff Marion grew up exploring the woods, streams, and caves of Kentucky, developing strong interests in nature study and high adventure outdoor activities. One of four Eagle Scouts in his family, he served for five summers at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, teaching backpacking and climbing skills. Coursework in biology, ecology, and geology at Wittenberg University led to a B.S. in Biology (1979), and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Recreation Resources Management from the University of Minnesota (1982/84). Graduate studies focused on recreation ecology research, combining strong personal interests in the ecological sciences with his continuing passion for outdoor recreational pursuits, particularly backpacking, climbing, caving, and canoeing. His doctoral research measured camping-associated environmental impacts in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to investigate relationships between biophysical impacts, amount ofuse, and plant community, soil, and ecological classifications.

Following a year teaching park management at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls campus (1984-85), Dr. Marion was employed as a Research Biologist with the National Park Service, Mid-Atlantic Region, duty-stationed at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Initial studies focused on visitor impact and carrying capacity research for rivers within three of the Region’s parks. In 1989, his duty station moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, where he established a Cooperative Park Studies Unit in the College of Natural Resources, Virginia Tech. Initial research focused on studies of campsite impacts and monitoring protocols at Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Big Bend National Parks. In 1994, he was moved to the National Biological Survey and in 1997, to the U.S. Geological Survey, though he remained at Virginia Tech as Unit Leader of a Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Field Station.

At Virginia Tech, he is an Adjunct Professor in the Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Department, where he works with graduate students in conducting his program of recreation ecology research. Studies have expanded to include a current focus on formal and informal trails, visitor impacts to cliffs, and the efficacy of management actions designed to avoid or minimize visitor impacts. Most studies are funded by the National Park Service but studies have also been conducted on National Forests, Fish and Wildlife Refuges, and in Central and South American protected natural areas that serve as ecotourism destinations.

A founding member of the Board of Directors of Leave No Trace and Chair of the LNT Educational Review Committee for ten years, he helped develop Leave No Trace principles, practices, educational materials, and courses. He is the author of the national Leave No Trace program's offical book: "Leave No Trace in the Outdoors," endorsed by the federal land management agencies His active involvement with this work continues and was extended to

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Pristine site camping

Sustainable Management of Campsites: Research on the Appalachian and Pacific Crest National Scenic Trails

Current and increasing visitation to protected natural areas has the potential to negatively impact natural resources and threaten the quality of visitors’ experiences. In backcountry and wilderness settings land managers have often allowed visitors to select and create their own campsites, which surveys reveal are often close to water, formal trails, and other campsites. This research is focused...
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
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Sustainable Management of Campsites: Research on the Appalachian and Pacific Crest National Scenic Trails

Current and increasing visitation to protected natural areas has the potential to negatively impact natural resources and threaten the quality of visitors’ experiences. In backcountry and wilderness settings land managers have often allowed visitors to select and create their own campsites, which surveys reveal are often close to water, formal trails, and other campsites. This research is focused...
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Trails in flat terrain with wet soils are also unsustainable

Sustainably Designed Trails: Recent Recreation Ecology Findings on Design Factors Affecting Soil Loss

An estimated 146 million Americans participated in more than 10.9 billion outdoor recreation activities in 2017. Virtually all protected natural areas have recreational trails as an essential infrastructure component to accommodate these outdoor recreation activities and visitor access, supporting a diverse array of opportunities and experiences that include nature study, hiking, camping, mountain...
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Ecosystems, Environments Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
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Sustainably Designed Trails: Recent Recreation Ecology Findings on Design Factors Affecting Soil Loss

An estimated 146 million Americans participated in more than 10.9 billion outdoor recreation activities in 2017. Virtually all protected natural areas have recreational trails as an essential infrastructure component to accommodate these outdoor recreation activities and visitor access, supporting a diverse array of opportunities and experiences that include nature study, hiking, camping, mountain...
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A visitor on a steep informal trail

Research and Management of Informal (Visitor-Created) Trails in Protected Areas

Protected area managers provide formal trail systems to accommodate recreational visitation on resistant “hardened” treads, while protecting off-trail vegetation, soils, and wildlife. When formal trail networks fail to provide visitors the access and experiences they require, visitors frequently venture “off-trail” to fish, hunt, explore, climb, or engage in other off-trail activities. Even...
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Ecosystems, Environments Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
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Research and Management of Informal (Visitor-Created) Trails in Protected Areas

Protected area managers provide formal trail systems to accommodate recreational visitation on resistant “hardened” treads, while protecting off-trail vegetation, soils, and wildlife. When formal trail networks fail to provide visitors the access and experiences they require, visitors frequently venture “off-trail” to fish, hunt, explore, climb, or engage in other off-trail activities. Even...
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Researchers on cliff face investigating the effects of climbing on rare cliff plants.

Assessing Recreational Impact to Cliff Habitats and Rare Plants

Protected natural areas, including parks, forests, wilderness, and wildlife refuges, have a dual mandate to protect natural resources and accommodate recreational visitation. Recreational activities that occur on trails (hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding) and on recreation sites (picnicking, camping) can benefit from the development of a sustainable infrastructure of facilities that...
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Ecosystems, Environments Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center
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Assessing Recreational Impact to Cliff Habitats and Rare Plants

Protected natural areas, including parks, forests, wilderness, and wildlife refuges, have a dual mandate to protect natural resources and accommodate recreational visitation. Recreational activities that occur on trails (hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding) and on recreation sites (picnicking, camping) can benefit from the development of a sustainable infrastructure of facilities that...
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Filter Total Items: 119

Assessing and Understanding Trail Degradation: Results from Big South Fork National River and Recreational Area

This report describes results from a comprehensive assessment of resource conditions on a large (24%) sample of the trail system within Big South Fork National River and Recreational Area (BSF). Components include research to develop state-of-knowledge trail impact assessment and monitoring methods, application of survey methods to BSF trails, analysis and summary of results, and recommendations
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Ecosystems, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Modeling areal measures of campsite impacts on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail to enhance ecological sustainability

Campsite impacts in protected natural areas are most effectively minimized by a containment strategy that focuses use on a limited number of sustainable campsites that spatially concentrate camping activities. This research employs spatial autoregressive (SAR) modeling to evaluate the relative influence of use-related, environmental, and managerial factors on two salient measures of campsite impac
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Leave no trace communication: Effectiveness based on assessments of resource conditions

The efficacy of different Leave No Trace (LNT) communication interventions designed to persuade forest visitors to practice low-impact camping behaviors were evaluated. Three depreciative campsite behaviors—littering, tree damage, and surface disposal of human waste—were evaluated by before-and-after resource condition assessments. Three LNT communication interventions were evaluated against a con
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Application of airborne LiDAR and GIS in modeling trail erosion along the Appalachian Trail, New Hampshire, USA

Recreational activities can negatively affect protected area landscapes and resources and soil erosion is frequently cited as the most significant long-term impact to recreational trails. Comprehensive modeling of soil loss on trails can identify influential factors that managers can manipulate to design and manage more sustainable trails. Field measurements assessed soil loss as the mean vertica
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

The influence of layout on Appalachian Trail soil loss, widening, and muddiness: Implications for sustainable trail design and management

This research investigates the influence of layout and design on the severity of trail degradation. Previous trail studies have been restricted by relatively small study areas which provide a limited range of environmental conditions and therefore produce findings with limited applicability; this research improves on this limitation by analyzing a representative sample of the Appalachian Trail wi
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Informing planning and management through visitor experiences in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Policies mandate that managers at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument must balance recreational opportunities with a variety of resource management and utilization activities across a vast and diverse landscape containing numerous Wilderness Study Areas and other lands containing spectacular resources. This balancing act is stressed by increasing levels of use and recent changes in managem
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Recreational impacts to wildlife: Managing visitors and resources to protect wildlife

Publication Abstract: Visitor use management is essential for maximizing benefits for visitors while achieving and maintaining desired resource conditions and visitor experiences on federally managed lands and waters. Visitor capacity, a component of visitor use management, is defined as the maximum amounts and types of visitor use that an area can accommodate while achieving and maintaining the
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Mapping the relationships between trail conditions and experiential elements of long-distance hiking

Trail users that experience acceptable social and ecological conditions are more likely to act as trail stewards, exhibit proper trail etiquette, and use low-impact practices. However, the relationships between specific trail conditions and experiential elements of long-distance hiking are not well understood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify how trail conditions influence part
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Conflicting messages about camping near waterbodies in wilderness: A review of the scientific basis and need for flexibility

The preceding article by C. B. Griffin examines the differences in recommended camping distance from waterbodies from a perspective that there should be consistency between the guidance provided by land management agencies and low impact education and communication programs, such as Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly. We concur that regulatory and messaging consistency is a beneficial mutual goal an
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Understanding and mitigating wilderness therapy impacts: The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument case study

Studies demonstrate that wilderness therapy programs can be beneficial for participants; however, little research has explored the ecological impacts of these programs. A prominent wilderness therapy organization utilizes vast tracts of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) for programming. This study examines the specific ecological impacts stemming from the program in GSENM, co
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Applying recreation ecology science to sustainably manage camping impacts: A classification of camping management strategies

Wilderness and other protected natural areas such as national forests, parks, and refuges are managed to provide high-quality recreational opportunities while preserving natural resource conditions. In managing recreation visitation, land managers could allow visitors to create their own infrastructure of trails and campsites, or they could choose to apply an impact management strategy to provide
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

“Naturalness” in designated Wilderness: Long-term changes in non-native plant dynamics on campsites, Boundary Waters, Minnesota

Wilderness areas in the United States are preserved for their untrammeled naturalness and opportunities for unconfined recreation. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has these qualities, but long-term recreation visitation pressures on campsites can cause significant ecological changes. This article explores changes on campsites, specifically examining non-native plant ecology over 3 decade
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Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
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Leave No Trace This Summer as You Explore the Outdoors

It’s Great Outdoors Month! As the weather warms up and more people head out to explore the outdoors, the U.S. Geological Survey has tips for...

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Leave No Trace this Summer as You Explore the Outdoors

With summer officially here, it’s a great time to explore the outdoors! As people go hiking, camping, wildlife viewing and engage in other recreation...

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