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Recreation specialization was examined as an underlying element of behavior that varies with the type and importance of environmental settings desired by recreationists. Subjects were backcountry hikers from three Intermountain West primitive areas who responded to a mailed questionnaire that assessed their level of hiking specialization and preferences for 38 environmental setting attributes. These attributes were representative of physical, social, and managerial settings. All three types of setting attributes exhibited significant relationships, with the degree of hiking specialization suggesting that specialization may be a useful concept for explaining developmental related changes in environmental perception. The results were interpreted as suggesting that current recreation management practices that focus on broad generalizations about recreation activities may be insensitive to the array of diversity sought by the recreating public.