A Walk in Park for UCI Student

Why don’t more people visit national parks?

For Derek Christopher Martin, a graduate student in UC Irvine’s School of Social Sciences, it’s the $75,000 question.

Martin, 33, won that much in a scholarship that will enable him to finish his doctoral dissertation, “Race and Wildland Recreation Participation: Inside the Ethnicity and Marginality Perspectives.”

He was one of eight students nationwide to win a Canon National Parks Scholarship to research social and environmental issues that affect the parks. To answer the question, he plans to use in-depth interviews with blacks and whites from various socioeconomic backgrounds, including those who visit the wild lands and those who don’t.

Other leisure scholars have theorized that the answer is money and ethnicity. Martin believes learned behavior plays a role.

“You have to be taught to play tennis or volleyball and some people, both blacks and whites, aren’t exposed to the outdoors as young people,” he said.

Born in Tennessee, Martin comes from mixed-race parents--a Canadian father and Jamaican mother--and enjoys almost any type of active leisure activity, especially hiking, camping, kayaking and rock climbing.

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