Dr. Wayne Freimund

Professor in the Dept. of Environment and Society at Utah State University

Dr. Wayne Freimund is a Professor in the Dept. of Environment and Society at Utah State University and the coordinator of their Moab campus Recreation Resource Management program. Prior to Utah State, he was Department Head of the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at Clemson University, and served as Department Head and Acting Dean of the College of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Montana. As a researcher, Dr. Freimund is an expert in visitor management in national parks. He also specializes in training park managers to address complex visitor management issues. 

The majority of Dr. Freimund’s domestic work relates to visitation and planning in National Parks. The research he conducts helps park managers create long term plans and understand visitor experiences and attitudes. He generally works with western parks and has completed many projects for Arches, Canyonlands, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks - parks he considers to be his favorites. Dr. Freimund’s international work has taken him to many exciting places including Jordan, Brazil, Vietnam, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. Since 1998, Wayne has collaborated with researchers and agencies across Southern Africa where he examines ways people interact with the environment in protected areas to better the understanding of their values and benefits. Dr. Freimund describes this as critical work because many African countries face the same challenges as the United States; however, the pace of the environmental and social change is much faster.