Negotiating Constraints to Recreation in Everglades National Park Among Underserved South Florida Residents

Underserved South Florida residents face significant constraints to visiting Everglades National Park, with barriers identified at individual, interpersonal, contextual, and systemic levels. This study reveals that while these constraints limit park visitation, residents employ both collective and individual strategies to negotiate them. The research highlights the importance of place-based approaches in understanding wilderness recreation among traditionally underserved communities, offering critical insights for park managers aiming to better serve diverse urban populations like Miami-Dade County's 2.7 million residents, 71.6% of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino. By using semistructured interviews, the study provides a nuanced, qualitative perspective that critiques quantitative modeling approaches, emphasizing the need for collective negotiation strategies to address these barriers.

Fox Rushing, J., Thomas, E. R., Thomsen, J. M., Armatas, C. A., & Rice, W. L. (2025). Negotiating Constraints to Recreation in Everglades National Park Among Underserved South Florida Residents. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 115(10), 2406–2421. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2025.2493826