APPLYING THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS TO OFF-ROAD VEHICLE MANAGEMENT IN ENDANGERED SPECIES HABITAT: A CASE STUDY OF DUXBURY BEACH, MASSACHUSETTS

by

Maura Flight

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the

Degree of Masters of Economics

ABSTRACT

“Environmental Management is essentially an exercise in conflict analysis, evaluation, and action characterized by socio-economic, environmental and political value judgements.” (Harrison, Qureshi, & Wegener, 1999)

The case of off-road vehicle management at Duxbury Beach is a classic example of this definition of Environmental Management. Duxbury Beach is a sandy, 4.5 mile barrier beach in southeastern Massachusetts. It is both a popular recreational area and a critical endangered species habitat for the Atlantic Coast Piping Plover. The principal conflict has revolved around the impact of vehicle use on plover habitat. Current management is characterized by a vehicle beach permit system, an enforceable maximum daily vehicle limit, and a labor-intensive endangered species monitoring and education program during high vehicle use. The debate among the many stakeholder organizations is over the details of this management plan, particularly the level of the daily limit, with the goal of sustaining multiple dimensions of the beach resource. Defining the criteria to assess management options has seemed like an exercise in futility given the opposing public positions of diverse decision-makers. This thesis attempts to gain insight into this decision-making process by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process, a formal multicriteria assessment method of conflict analysis. The results indicate an unexpected degree of agreement amongst the surveyed stakeholders.