Southwestern Region
333 Broadway SE [map]
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 842-3292
TTY: (505) 842-3198

Recreational Facility Analysis

Public Participation

Your participation is important to ensure that the results of the RSFMP process meet visitor needs and offer the best recreation opportunities in places important to people.

Recreation managers invite you to work with them to identify how to best address these sites and specifically react to their proposed programs of work. We recognize the importance of these sites and welcome your comments and suggestions during this process. For more information about RFA, or to contact a national forest recreation manager, please refer to our contact list.

Background

Many of the developed recreation sites in the Southwestern Region national forests and grasslands were built 30-50 years ago. Since then, visitor preferences and demographics have changed. Some sites no longer serve projected recreation demand; some facilities are in poor shape and do not meet visitors' expectations.

To respond to these conditions and national direction, national forests and grasslands in the Southwestern Region and throughout the nation, are implementing the Recreation Facility Analysis (RFA) process for developed recreation sites.

The result of RFA is a proposed program of work with a list of prioritized actions to more effectively manage recreation sites on each national forest.

What is RFA?

RFA is an analysis tool developed nationally to help forests align their developed recreation sites with the unique characteristics of the forest, projected recreation demand, visitor expectations, and revenue. RFA is driven by three strategic goals:

1. Provide recreation opportunities best suited to each national forest and grasslands;
2. Operate and maintain recreation sites to meet national quality standards;
3. Eliminate/reduce the current maintenance backlog by 20 percent in the next 5 years.

A seven-step process is used to evaluate and prioritize sites for action. The results are contained in 5-year proposed program of work (PPOW). Public feedback is sought to ensure that these actions are sound and responsive to visitor needs. Annually, as phases of the programs of work are implemented; additional public participation will be conducted at that time. The national deadline for preparing programs of work for implementation is December 31, 2008.