John Daigle

Media Expertise

  • American Indians and Climate Change
  • Indigenous Voices in Adaptation Planning

Research Interests

  • Cultural Impacts of Large-Scale Environmental Changes
  • Forest Resource Management
  • Sustainability Science
  • Outdoor Recreation Planning and Management
  • Social Research Methods for Natural Resource Professionals
  • Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Management

Research Projects
Sustaining Wabanaki Traditions through Adaptation: Preparing for the Emerald Ash Borer in Maine

News and Updates

Degrees

  • University of Massachusetts, Ph.D. (Forestry)
  • Colorado State University, M.S. (Recreation Management and Landscape Architecture)
  • University of Maine, B.S. (Recreation and Parks Management)

Courses

  • SFR 228: Forest Recreation Management
  • SFR 301: Field Course in Parks, Recreation and Tourism
  • SFR 434: Recreation Site Planning and Management
  • SFR 479/613: Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors
  • SFR 480: Wilderness and Protected Areas Management
  • SFR 491: Parks, Recreation and Tourism Capstone

Profile

John Daigle is a tribal member of the Penobscot Indian Nation and a program leader for the Parks, Recreation and Tourism program at the University of Maine. Throughout his career he has been fascinated by the connections people make with places and with the socio-cultural functions of outdoor activities that connect people, identity, and meaning. His research has focused on identifying these connections in order to assist with the management of outdoor recreation. This has involved examining ways to create bridges between educators, policy makers, stakeholders, and natural resource managers in order to facilitate planning around threats such as invasive species and climate change.

Daigle is involved with the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) project. His research team seeks to study and facilitate the ways that Wabanaki basket makers, tribes, state and federal foresters, university researchers, landowners, and others can come together to prevent, detect, and respond to the potential threat of the EAB in Maine. Daigle worked closely with members of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network to assist in the development of a television program for the SSI Emerald Ash Borer project. This included planning with the film crew for several field trips with basket tree harvesters, conducting discussions with the producer, and editing the television program script.

Daigle has also helped mobilize climate change planning by developing a framework for collaboration among various stakeholders and the Wabanaki Nations of Maine. In 2008, he became part of an interdisciplinary team of faculty at the University of Maine tasked with identifying potential climate scenarios and their probabilities for Maine for the remainder of the 21st century. Daigle led a team that explored the meaning of a changed environment as it relates to the Indigenous peoples of Maine and continues efforts with planning and management for the Emerald Ash Borer in Maine.

John Daigle currently advises or co-advises three Ph.D. students, two M.S. students, and one M.F. student. All students are fully or partially supported by extramural funds from the National Science Foundation, Maine Agricultural Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, and Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and private non-profit entities such as Friends of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation and Friends of Acadia. His most recent graduated Ph.D. students work in state government positions in Maine and Colorado but others hold positions at the University of Maine, Clemson, Plymouth State University, College of the Atlantic, Marshall, University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, and Radford.

In addition to his teaching and research duties, Daigle is on the editorial boards of Forest Science and International Journal of Wilderness. He previously served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Wildlife Management and Monographs and Human Dimensions of Wildlife. He currently serves on the board of Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation. In past years he served on the board of The Nature Conservancy of Maine.

Selected Publications

Daigle, J.J., Michelle, N., Ranco, D.J., Emery, M.R. 2019. Traditional lifeways and storytelling: Tools for adaptation and resilience to ecosystem change. Human Ecology, Published online October 19, 2019.

Daigle, J.J., Straub, C.L., Leahy, J.E., De Urioste-Stone, S.M., Ranco, D.J. & Siegart, N.W. 2018. Campers and behaviors of firewood transport: An application of involvement theory and beliefs about invasive forest pests. Forest Science, 65(3), 363-372. doi: 10.1093/forsci/fxy056

De Urioste-Stone, S.M., McLaughlin, W.J., Daigle, J., & Fefer, J.P.* 2018. Applying the case study methodology to tourism research. In R. Nunkoo (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in tourism and hospitality management, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Horne, L., De Urioste-Stone, S.M., Daigle, J. & Noblet, C. 2018. Using pile sorts to understand perceptions of climate change. WIT Transactions of Ecology and the Environment, 227, 175-183.

Kuentzel, W. F., Daigle, J. J. Chase, L. C., and Brown, T. L. 2018. The social amplification of risk and landowner liability fear in the U.S. Northern Forest. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 21: 51-60.

Fefer, J., De Urioste-Stone, S.M., Daigle, J. & Silka, L. 2018. Understanding the perceived effectiveness of applying the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework for recreation planning: A multi-case study in U.S. National Parks. The Qualitative Report, 23(7), 1561-1582

Daigle, J.J., Opuszynski, W., and Laroche, M. 2017. Fifteen years of change: Campsites in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. International Journal of Wilderness 23(1): 18-24.

Constanza, K.K.L., W.H. Livingston, D.M. Kashian, R.A. Slesak, J.C. Tardiff, J.P. Dech, A.K. Diamond, et al. 2017. The precarious state of a cultural keystone species: Tribal and biological assessments of the role and future of black ash. Journal of Forestry. 115: 435-446.

Fefer, J.P., S. De Urioste-Stone, J. Daigle, and L. Silka. 2016. Using the Delphi technique to identify key elements for effective and sustainable visitor use planning frameworks. SAGE Open, April-June: 1-16.

Collum, K. K., and J. J. Daigle. 2015. Combining attitude theory and segmentation analysis to understand travel mode choice at a national park. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 9: 17-25.

Daigle, J. 2015. Alternative Transportation Practice in U.S. National Parks: A systematic-wide transit inventory and exploration of opportunities and challenges going into the future. Ch. 13. (p. 168-180) In: Orsi, F., ed., Sustainable Transportation in Natural and Protected Areas. Earthscan Routledge, London.

Collum, K., and J. Daigle. 2015. The shift from automobiles to alternatives and the role of intelligent transportation systems. Ch. 5. (p.57-69) In: Orsi, F., ed., Sustainable Transportation in Natural and Protected Areas. Earthscan Routledge, London.