Conflict in the Great Outdoors addresses the different orientations and behaviors within sportsmen categories. A major problem of outdoor recreation management addressed in Hobson Bryan's work is the difficulty in identifying sportsmen subgroups having distinctive preferences and expectations as to the composition of the 'quality' outdoor experience. Land-use managers and planners are faced with the problem of matching resources with more users having increasingly specific motivations. Bryan applies his theory of variations within a leisure activity by addressing what sportsmen do and why they do it in various activities such as mountain climbing, hunting, canoeing, skiing, and backpacking.

Foreword by: David Scott