Perry’s research team recognized for 2024 USFS Chief’s Honors Award
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EmailDr. Bess Perry’s project team received the 2024 United States Forest Service Chief’s Honors Award, which recognizes the accomplishments of Forest Service individuals and teams throughout the agency and their contributions to the communities they serve.
Dr. Bess Perry’s research project team was recognized for the 2024 United States Forest Service Chief’s Honor award. The Chief’s Honor award is for an exceptional project which recognizes the accomplishments of Forest Service individuals and teams throughout the agency and their contributions to the communities they serve. Perry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Sustainability, exploring sustainable protected area management and outdoor recreation.
Perry’s awarded project is titled “Understanding the drivers and effects of recreation displacement in southern California national forests.” Aside from Perry, the project team includes colleges from Kansas State University- Dr. Brian Peterson and USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station- Drs. Alyssa Thomas, Jose Sanchez, Stacy Drury, Francisco Escobedo, and Peter Wohlgemuth.
The project team aims to better understand what environmental, social, and managerial conditions (e.g., fire risk, crowding, road closures) affect recreational visitors to the Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland National Forests in southern California. By understanding how these managerial conditions change visitation patterns, the research team can examine the ways in which visitors change their plans, if at all, and the influences and tradeoffs involved in these decisions. With this information, the team can help the Forest Service provide messaging about alternative experiences in ways that resonate with visitors and keep them recreating in safe and sustainable ways.
Perry’s work on this project has also included many CSUS students to engage in real-world research experiences at the graduate and undergraduate level. At the undergraduate level, the team created a cross-university community engaged learning experience that was conducted spring 2025 semester with the CSUS 477 Nature-Based Tourism course and a park planning and design class at Kansas State University. This course provided hands-on experience by having students from each institution work in teams to examine issues in forests in southern California, the Upper Midwest, and the Great Plains.
