Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Significantly, Stanley Park also has considerable ecological importance and
constitutes a contemporary urban ecotourism resource. Great blue herons, the largest in
the heron family with a wing span of up to 2 metres and a bird species considered
vulnerable because of the loss of its natural habitat, has recently staged a revival in the
park with about 80 adult herons nesting in the park in 2004. The species was first
identified in the park in the 1920s, but they had deserted the park by 1998. The return of
the birds has turned them into something of a tourist attraction. However, as well as being
noisy the colony is also quite smelly during springtime because of the waste of nesting
chicks and adults and the regurgitation of crab and fish by parents in the feeding of
chicks. Indeed, park officials have received a number of complaints from people living in
apartments near the colony (Hutchinson 2004) that illustrates the potential conflicts that
may arise between different users of urban space. See http://www.parks.vancouver.bc.ca/.
GEOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES TO URBAN RECREATION
Despite the growth in geographical research on leisure and recreation (Coppock 1982),
the focus on urban issues remained neglected, as Patmore (1983:87) noted, in that 'in the
past geographers, with their inherently spatial interest, have tended to concentrate on
outdoor recreation in rural areas, where spatial demands, and spatial conflicts have been
the greatest'. This is a strange paradox according to Patmore (1983) since
the greatest changes in recreation habits [since the early 1930s] have taken
place in two opposing directions. High personal mobility has extended
opportunities away from the home and brought a growing complexity to
the scale and direction of leisure patterns. Conversely, the home has come
to provide for a greater range of leisure opportunities, and home-centred
leisure has acquired a greater significance. The family has become
socially more self-sufficient, its links with the immediate community and
with its own extended kinship network weaker. Social independence has
been underpinned by greater physical independence of homes in the
expanding suburban communities, by the weakening need for communal
space that comes with lower housing densities and the command of
greater private space.
(Patmore 1983:87)
For the geographer, understanding the spatial implications of such processes and the
geographical manifestation of the urban recreational demand for and the supply of
resources requires the use of concepts and methodologies to understand the complexity
and simplify the reality of recreational activities to a more meaningful series of concepts
and constructs. However, one area that has been largely neglected in reviews of urban
recreational activities is the historical dimension. Although Towner (1996) provides an
all-embracing review of tourism and leisure in an historical context, it is important to
acknowledge the significance of social, political, economic and geographical factors
which shaped the evolution of modern-day urban recreation. For this reason, no analysis
