Changing demographics are already having a profound impact on the way Wyoming's public lands are used, from Glendo Reservoir in southeast Wyoming to Grand Teton National Park in the northwest.

The state's federal and state land managers gathered Monday for a recreation summit meeting in Casper, and discovered changes are on their doorstep.

"We're already seeing it at Glendo Reservoir," said Todd Thibodeau of the State Parks Department. Visitors are older, with more physical challenges, more money, traveling farther and with more equipment, he said.

"Glendo used to be primarily for weekend fishing," Thibodeau said. Now, more people are staying there for summer-long visits and water sports are the dominant feature, creating clashes between jet-skiers and fishermen.

The demand for workers in the service industries around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks are attracting more and more Hispanic workers, said Joan Anselmo, public affairs officer for Grand Teton National Park. "They like family picnics in the park on Sundays, and we're trying to outreach to them," she said, with more family-oriented activities.

Other land managers report an increase in people wanting more motorized access, needing rescuing more often and pushing their own limits.

"We're seeing off-road-vehicles go where they've never gone before, penetrating wilderness areas," said Jerry Reese, forest supervisor of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.

"We're seeing a big increase in historic trails tourism, on a level we'd never imagined," said Gary Long, a recreation specialist for the Bureau of Land Management's Lander office. "We're also seeing sport climbing at levels we've never seen before, with a heavy dependance on motorized transportation."

Carol "Kniffy" Hamilton, Bridger-Teton National Forest supervisor, said her staff is overwhelmed by growing numbers of search and rescue operations. "We used to have one a year," she said. "Now it more like 10 a year."

The rescue operations go after Generation Xers who've gotten in trouble with extreme sport challenges, as well as older baby boomers intent on their own wilderness adventures, she said.

None of this was news to Emilyn Sheffield, chairperson for the Department of Recreation Administration and Parks Management at California State University in Chico.

"The West is changing," she said, with larger populations and shifts in ethnic concentration accelerating economic and technological change.

The good news for Wyoming is that while it is growing and experiencing changes that the rest of the West is seeing, the changes are relatively moderate and therefore manageable, said Sheffield. California and Arizona, with huge populations and rapid change stand in marked contrast to Wyoming's pace.

Citing census figures, Sheffield said Wyoming's Hispanic population is growing at a rate of 6-12 percent. What that means to recreation managers is that Hispanic customers enjoy recreating as families, use highly developed recreation sites, like recreation programs and more law enforcement and favor taxes to pay for recreational amenities, she said.

Sheffield said hunting will largely vanish with the baby boomers, but fishing will continue. Boomers will continue active lifestyles.

"You have people jumping out of planes when they're 50," she said. "They're not aging the way they're supposed to." As they retire, land managers can anticipate boomers will take their education and managerial skills and create a host of "Friends of" organizations and insert themselves into land use planning on a massive scale, Sheffield said.

Generation X, those coming behind the boomers, are more attracted to extreme sports, she said, simply to distinguish themselves from boomers. "Young people now treat a brush with death as a badge of honor," she said.

Having fun is big business, she said. In 1999, consumers spent 4.2 percent of their money on recreation equipment, 4.5 percent on footwear, 4.7 percent on clothing and 8.2 percent on recreation transportation - bikes, boats, RVs, motorcycles and other motorized equipment.

"Motorized recreation is not going away," she warned, not when people are spending ever increasing amounts of money. Pointing to a Ford Explorer ad, Sheffield said the "No boundaries" theme is scary for public lands, because it encourages an appetite for extreme experiences - often going where they shouldn't.