Definition of Terms

NVUM has standardized definitions of visitor use measurement to ensure that all national forest visitor measurements are comparable. These definitions are the same as established by the forest Service since the 1970s, however the application of the definition is stricter. Visitors must pursue a recreation activity physically located “on” Forest Service managed land in order to be counted. They cannot be passing through; viewing from non-Forest Service managed roads, or just using restroom facilities. The NVUM basic use measurements are national forest visits and site visits. In addition, information about the visitor’s trip is also collected. Along with these use measurements basic statistics, which indicate the precision of the estimate, are given. These statistics include the confidence level, and error rate. The definitions of these terms follow.

National forest visit - the entry of one person upon a national forest to participate in recreation activities for an unspecified period of time. A national forest visit can be composed of multiple site visits.

Site visit - the entry of one person onto a national forest site or area to participate in recreation activities for an unspecified period of time.

Recreation trip – the duration of time beginning when the visitor left their home and ending when they got back to their home.

Confidence level and error rate - used together these two terms define the reliability of the estimated visits. The confidence interval defines the range of values around the estimated visits with a specified level of certainty. The error rate (which is never a bad thing like making an error on a test) is the upper and lower bounds of the confidence interval. The lower the error rate and the higher the confidence level the better the estimate. An 80 percent confidence interval is very acceptable at a broad national or forest scale. The two terms are used to statistically describe the estimate. For example: At the 80 percent confidence level there are 209 million national forest visits plus or minus 17 percent. In other words we are 80 percent confident that the true number of national forest visits lies between 173.5 million and 244.5 million.

CHAPTER 1: SAMPLE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

The NVUM Process and Definition of Terms

To participate in the NVUM process, forests first categorized all recreation sites and areas into six basic categories called “site types”: Day Use Developed Sites (DUDS), Overnight Use Developed Sites (OUDS), Wilderness, General Forest Areas (GFA), On-Forest Viewing Corridors (OFVC), and Off-Forest Recreation Activities. Only the first four categories are considered “true” national forest visits and were included in the estimate provided. Within these broad categories every open day of the year for each site/area was rated as either high, medium or low exiting recreation use. Sites and areas that were closed or had “0” use was also identified. Each day on which a site or area is open is called a site day and is the basic sampling unit for the survey. Results of this forest categorization are shown in Table 1.

A map showing all General Forest Exit locations and On-Forest Viewing Corridors was prepared. Both the categorization and the map are archived with the NVUM data for use in future sample years. NVUM also provided training materials, equipment, survey forms, funding, and the protocol necessary for the forest to gather visitor use information.

NVUM terms used in the site categorization framework are defined below:

Site day - a day that a recreation site or area is open to the public for recreation purposes.

Site types -- stratification of a forest recreation site or area into one of six broad categories as defined in the paper: Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring Process: Research Method Documentation, May 2001, English et al. The six categories are Day Use Developed sites (DUDS), Overnight Use Developed Sites (OUDS), General Forest Areas (GFA), Wilderness (WILD), On-Forest View Corridors (OFVC), and Off-Forest Recreation Activities (Off Forest).

Proxy – information collected at a recreation site or area that is related to the amount of recreation visitation received. The proxy information must pertain to all users of the site, it must be an exact tally of use and it must be one of the proxy types allowed in the NVUM pre-work directions (fee receipts, fee envelopes, mandatory permits, permanent traffic counters, ticket sales, and daily use records).

Nonproxy – a recreation site or area that does not have proxy information. At these sites a 24-hour traffic count is taken to measure total use for one day at the sample site.

Use level strata - for either proxy or nonproxy sites, each day that a recreation site or area was open for recreation, the site day was categorized as either high, medium or low exiting recreation traffic, or closed. Closed was defined as either administratively closed or “0” use. For example Sabino Picnic Area (a DUDS nonproxy site) is closed for 120 days, has high exiting use on open weekends (70 days) and medium exiting recreation use on open midweek days (175 days). This accounts for all 365 days of the year at Sabino Picnic area. This process was repeated for every developed site and area on the forest.

Constraints On Uses of the Results

The information presented here is valid and applicable at the forest level. It is not designed to be accurate at the district or site level. The quality of the visitation estimate is dependent on the preliminary sample design development, sampling unit selection, sample size and variability, and survey implementation. First, preliminary work conducted by forests to classify sites consistently according to the type and amount of visitation influences the quality of the estimate. Second, visitors sampled must be representative of the population of all visitors. Third, the number of visitors sampled must be large enough to adequately control variability. Finally, the success of the forest in accomplishing its assigned sample days, correctly filling out the interview forms, and following the sample protocol influence the error rate. The error rate and coefficient of variation will reflect all these factors. The smaller the error rate, the better the estimate. Interviewer error in asking the questions is not reflected in this error rate.

Some forest visitors were counted and included in the total forest use estimate but were not surveyed. This included visitors to recreation special events and organization camps.

The Forest Stratification Results

The results of the recreation site/area categorization and accomplished sample days done by this forest are displayed in Table 1. This table describes the population of available site days open for sampling. This information was obtained from work done by the forest prior to the actual surveys. Every site and area on the forest was categorized as high, medium, low, or closed exiting recreation use. This categorization was then used to randomly select sampling days for this forest. The project methods paper listed on page one describes the sampling process and sample allocation formulas in detail. Basically, at least eight sample days per stratum are randomly selected for sampling and more days are added if the stratum is very large. Also displayed on the table is the percentage of sample days per stratum accomplished by the forest.

Table 1. The population of available site days open for sampling and the percentage of days sampled within each stratum on the Nez Perce National Forest.

	Nonproxy		Proxy
Strata	Total days in nonproxy population	Days sampled # percent	Total days in proxy population	Days sampled # percent
OUDS H	141	9 6.4
OUDS M	1447	14 1.0
OUDS L	8683	11 .1
DUDS H	294	10 3.4
DUDS M	1582	12 .7
DUDS L	5300	10 .2
Wild H	499	10 2.0
Wild M	1463	13 .9
Wild L	4931	9 .2
GFA H	1478	20 1.3
GFA M	2108	17 .8
GFA L	10358	12 .1
TOTALS	38284	147	0	0

CHAPTER 2: VISITATION ESTIMATES

Visitor Use Estimates

Nationally there were 209 million national forest visits plus or minus 17 percent error rate at the 80 percent confidence level. These visitors participated in 257 million site visits that included 14.3 million Wilderness visits. Additionally, another 258 million people enjoyed viewing national forest scenery from non-Forest Service managed travel ways. A national report with additional information is available (http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/recuse/recuse.shtml).

Region 1, the “Northern Region” includes national forest system lands in Montana, North Dakota and portions of northern Idaho and northwest South Dakota. It received 13.2 million national forest visits +/-23 percent at the 80 percent confidence level. As shown in Table 2, three national forests in region 1 were sampled in the first year of the project. The results from these forests were then expanded to estimate total regional recreation use as explained in the project methods paper listed on page 1.

Table 2. Annual recreation use estimates by forest for region 1. 1/

	National Forest Visits		Site Visits		Wilderness Visits
Forest	Visits (millions)	Error Rate +/- %	Visits (millions)	Error Rate +/- %	Visits (millions)	Error Rate +/- %
Beaverhead-Deerlodge	1.1	18.7	1.3	17.6	.016	30.0
Flathead	1.4	7.5	1.6	6.8	.022	22.1
Nez Perce	0.5	18.2	0.6	19.1	.039	42.6
R1 expanded use estimate for CY 2000 2/	13.2	23.0	15.3	21.9	.337	25.1

1/ Region 1, the “Northern Region” includes national forest system lands in Montana, North Dakota and portions of northern Idaho and northwest South Dakota.

2/ Calendar year

The Nez Perce National Forest participated in the National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) project from January 1 through December 31, 2000. The main contact person was Lori Doman. the forest was assigned 168 sample days and accomplished 152 (90 percent) of them. Sixteen Forest Service employees conducted the interviews; one person did 80 percent of the interviews. Both the K-Hill pneumatic traffic counter and the Trailmaster Infrared counter were used in the project. The K-hill gave inconsistent counts about 20 percent of the time. the forest coordinator said the sample year would reflect lower than normal recreation use because the forest was closed to recreation and also affected by closures on adjacent forests from mid-July to mid-October due to large fires. Fires closed the main fork of the Salmon River for 3 weeks during the main use season.

Recreation use on the Nez Perce National Forest for calendar year 2000 at the 80 percent confidence level was 518,646 national forest visits +/-18.2 percent. There were 635,659 site visits, an average of 1.2 site visits per national forest visit. Included in the site visit estimate are 38,740 Wilderness visits.

A total of 609 visitors were contacted on the Nez Perce National Forest during the sample year. Of these, 21 percent refused to be interviewed. Of the 479 people who agreed to be interviewed, about 31.5 percent were not recreating, including 3.1 percent who just stopped to use the bathroom, 14 percent were working, 11.5 percent were just passing through, and 4 percent had some other reason to be there. About 68.5 percent of those interviewed said their primary purpose on the forest was recreation and 20 percent of them were exiting for the last time. Of the visitors leaving the forest that agreed to be interviewed, about 55 percent were last exiting recreation visitors (the target interview population).

Description of Visitors

Basic descriptors of the forest visitors were developed based upon those visitors interviewed then expanded to the national forestvisitor population. About seventy-five percent of the Nez Perce National Forest visitors were male and 25 percent were female (Table 3). About thirteen percent of the visitors were under age 16 and not interviewed. About 3 percent of the visitors were over 70 years old and the 41-50 year old age group comprised almost 30 percent of the visitors. See Table 4 for a complete age group break-out.

Table 3. Gender distribution of Nez Perce National Forest visitors.

Gender

74.7 percent males

25.3 percent females

Table 4. Age distribution of Nez Perce National Forest visitors.

Age Group	Percent in group
Under 16	13.0
16-20	0.8
21-30	6.0
31-40	19.0
41-50	29.7
51-60	23.2
61-70	4.8
Over 70	3.5

Visitors categorized themselves into one of 7 race/ethnicity categories. Almost 99 percent of the visitors were ethnically white. Table 5 gives a detailed breakout by category.

Table 5. Race/ethnicity of Nez Perce National Forest visitors.

Category	Total percent national forest visits
Black/African American	0.0
Asian	0.0
White	98.7
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.1
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0.0
Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino	0.4
Other	0.8

Eight percent of forest visitors were from another country. The survey did not collect country affiliation. Visitors most frequently reported zip codes are shown in Table 6. The forest can determine what percent of local visitor use they have by comparing the local forest zip codes to those listed. The zip code data for the forest will also soon be available on a database. This information can be used with programs such as “fipzip” for more extensive analysis.

Table 6. Zip codes of Nez Perce National Forest recreation visitors.

Zip Code	Frequency	Percent
83530	50	20.7
83501	17	7.0
83536	9	3.7
83843	9	3.7
83525	6	2.5
83539	5	2.1
83549	5	2.1
83554	5	2.1
99403	5	2.1
83522	4	1.6
83541	3	1.2
83543	3	1.2
83544	3	1.2
83642	3	1.2
83702	3	1.2
80424	2	0.8
83523	2	0.8
83533	2	0.8
83535	2	0.8
83555	2	0.8
83605	2	0.8
83687	2	0.8
83835	2	0.8
97463	2	0.8
98944	2	0.8
99163	2	0.8
99402	2	0.8
87 other zip codes	1 each

Average number of people per vehicle and average axle count per vehicle in survey

There was an average of 2.1 people per vehicle on the forest with an average of 2.1 axles per vehicle. This information in conjunction with traffic counts was used to expand observations from individual interviews to the full forest population of recreation visitors. This information may be useful to forest engineers and others who use vehicle counters to conduct traffic studies.

CHAPTER 3: WILDERNESS VISITORS

Several questions on the NVUM survey form dealt directly with use of designated Wilderness. Wilderness was sampled 32 days on the forest. There were 40 percent male and 60 percent female visitors to Wilderness on the forest. See Table 7 for the age distribution.

Table 7. Age distribution of Wilderness visitors on Nez Perce National Forest.

Age group	Percent in group
Under 16	9.6
16-20	0.0
21-30	9.1
31-40	8.1
41-50	61.8
51-60	3.6
61-70	7.8
Over 70	0.0

The majority of the Wilderness visitors were ethnically white (99 percent). See Table 8 for race/ethnicity distribution.

Table 8. Race/ethnicity of Nez Perce National Forest Wilderness visitors.

Category	Total percent national forest visits
Black/African American	0.0
Asian	0.0
White	99.0
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.0
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0.0
Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino	0.0
Other	1.0

The Wilderness visitors were from a wide variety of zip codes. The distribution of Wilderness visitor zip codes is shown in Table 9.

Table 9. Zip codes of Nez Perce National Forest Wilderness visitors.

Zip Code	Frequency	Percent
83501	2	10
99163	2	10
01884	1	5
07642	1	5
19520	1	5
33549	1	5
77090	1	5
83014	1	5
83522	1	5
83539	1	5
83549	1	5
83560	1	5
83605	1	5
83661	1	5
83687	1	5
83706	1	5
99347	1	5
99403	1	5

The average length of stay in Wilderness on the forest was 34.9 hours. In addition, all visitors were asked on how many different days they entered into designated Wilderness during their national forest visit even if we interviewed them at a developed recreation site or general forest area. Of those visitors who did enter designated Wilderness, they entered 1.2 different days.

Eighteen percent of those interviewed in Wilderness said they used the services of a commercial guide.

Table 10 gives detailed information about how the Wilderness visitors rated various aspects of the area. An example of how to interpret the information: Visitors rated the importance of the condition of forest trails a 5.0 (very important) and they rated their satisfaction with the condition of forest trails a 2.0 (somewhat satisfied). This means the forest could increase visitor satisfaction on the condition of forest trails. Ninety-eight percent of visitors said the condition of forest trails was fair.

Wilderness visitors on the average rated their visit 5.1 concerning crowding (on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means hardly anyone was there and 10 means the area was very crowded), meaning they felt there were an average number of people there. Sixty-six percent of visitors rated crowding a 6.

Table 10. Satisfaction of visitors at designated Wilderness on Nez Perce National Forest.

Item Name	Item by percent response category by* P F A G VG	Mean Satisfaction Of visitors**	Mean Importance To visitors**
Scenery	0 0 0 73 27	4.3	4.3
Available parking	0 0 0 22 78	4.8	4.7
Parking lot condition	0 0 0 100 0	4.0	4.5
Cleanliness of restrooms	0 0 0 0 100	5.0	4.5
Condition of the natural environment	0 0 0 7 93	4.9	4.3
Condition of developed recreation facilities	0 0 66 0 34	3.7	2.8
Condition of forest roads	18 7 66 9 0	2.6	3.4
Condition of forest trails	0 0 0 47 53	4.5	4.5
Availability of information on recreation	7 66 9 18 0	2.3	2.0
Feeling of safety	0 0 0 16 84	4.8	4.9
Adequacy of signage	0 0 0 82 18	4.2	3.6
Helpfulness of employees	0 0 0 100 0	4.0	3.0
Attractiveness of the forest landscape	0 0 0 73 27	4.3	4.2
Value for fee paid	0 0 0 19 81	4.8	4.8

* Scale is: P = poor F = fair A = average G = good VG = very good

** Scale is: 1= not very satisfied /important 2 = somewhat satisfied/ important 3 = moderately satisfied/ important 4 = satisfied/ important 5 = very satisfied/ important

The Wilderness visitors on the forest spent an average of $83.30 within 50 miles of the Wilderness. They also spend an average of $1,771.19 annually on all outdoor recreation related expenditures (see Table 11).

Table 11. Average per person national forest trip expenditures within 50 miles of recreation site for Wilderness visitors to Nez Perce National Forest.

Expenditure category	Average expenditure $00.00
Government owned lodging	0.00
Privately owned lodging	0.00
Food/drink at restaurants and bars	30.56
Other food and beverages	21.54
Gasoline and oil	15.28
Other transportation (plane, bus, etc.)	0.00
Activities (including guide fees and equipment rental)	0.00
Entry, parking, or recreation use fees	0.00
Souvenirs/ clothing	0.00
Any other expenses	0.00

CHAPTER 4: DESCRIPTION OF THE VISIT

Through the interview process a description of what visitors did during their national forest visit was also developed. This basic information includes participation in various recreation activities, length of stay on the national forest and at recreation sites, visitor satisfaction with national forest facilities and services, and economic expenditures.

The average length of stay on Nez Perce National Forest for a national forest visit was 32.7 hours. Fifty-three percent of visitors stayed overnight on the forest.

In addition, visitors reported how much time they spent on the specific recreation site at which they were interviewed. Average time spent varied considerably by site and is displayed in Table 12.

Table 12. Nez Perce National Forest site visit length of stay (in hours) by site/type.

Site Visit Average	DUDS	OUDS	Wilderness	GFA
31.7	11.2	28.6	34.9	45.4

The average Nez Perce National Forest visitor went to 1.2 sites during their national forest visit. Forest visitors sometimes go to just one national forest site or area during their visit. For example, downhill skiers may just go the ski area and nowhere else. Almost eighty-three percent of visitors went only to the site at which they were interviewed.

During their visit to Nez Perce National Forest the top five recreation activities of the visitors were viewing wildlife/nature, general relaxation, driving for pleasure, hiking/walking, and visiting historic sites. The visitor picked one of these activities as their primary activity for their current recreation visit to the forest. The top primary activities were hunting, viewing wildlife/nature, general relaxation, fishing, driving for pleasure, and primitive camping (Table 13). Please note that the results of the NVUM activity analysis DO NOT identify the types of activities visitors would like to have offered on the national forests. It also does not tell us about displaced forest visitors, those who no longer visit the forest because the activities they desire are not offered.

Table 13. Activity participation and primary activity for the Nez Perce National Forest.

Activity	Percent participation	Percent who said it was their primary activity
Camping in developed sites (family or group)	16	6
Primitive camping	31	10
Backpacking, camping in unroaded areas	16	2
Resorts, cabins and other accommodations on Forest Service managed lands (private or Forest Service run)	7	3
Picnicking and family day gatherings in developed sites (family or group)	24	8
**Viewing wildlife, birds, fish, etc on national forest system lands	72	18
**Viewing natural features such as scenery, flowers, etc on national forest system lands	32	9
Visiting historic and prehistoric sites/area	35	3
Visiting a nature center, nature trail or visitor information services	13	1
Nature Study	26	0
General/other- relaxing, hanging out, escaping noise and heat, etc,	65	17
Fishing- all types	30	11
Hunting- all types	28	20
Off-highway vehicle travel (4-wheelers, dirt bikes, etc)	14	6
Driving for pleasure on roads	58	10
Snowmobile travel	5	5
Motorized water travel (boats, ski sleds, etc)	9	3
Other motorized land/air activities (plane, other)	1	0
Hiking or walking	55	4
Horseback riding	5	1
Bicycling, including mountain bikes	3	0
Non-motorized water travel (canoe, raft, etc.)	6	4
Downhill skiing or snowboarding	1	0
Cross-country skiing, snow shoeing	3	2
Other non-motorized activities (swimming, games and sports)	11	2
Gathering mushrooms, berries, firewood, or other natural products	14	2

* less than 1 percent participation

** first version of survey form used October through March had these two viewing categories combined as viewing scenery

Use of constructed facilities and designated areas

Twenty-five percent of the last exiting recreation visitors interviewed were asked about the types of constructed facilities and special designated areas they used during their visit. The most used facilities were forest roads, developed campgrounds, hiking trails, and picnic areas. The most used specially designated areas were Wilderness, Scenic Byways and Off-Highway Vehicle areas. Table 14 provides a summary of reported facility and special area use.

Table 14. Percentage use of facilities and specially designated areas on the Nez Perce National Forest.

Facility/ Area Type	Percent who said they used (national forest visits)
Developed campground	45
Swimming area	6
Hiking, biking, or horseback trails	34
Scenic byway	19
Designated Wilderness	23
Visitor center, museum	16
Forest Service office or other info site	15
Picnic area	33
Boat launch	17
Designated Off Road Vehicle area	10
Other forest roads	51
Interpretive site	5
Organization camp	9
Developed fishing site/ dock	9
Designated snowmobile area	0
Downhill ski area	0
Nordic ski area	2
Lodges/Resorts on National Forest System land	4
Fire Lookouts/Cabins Forest Service owned	13
Designated snow play area	0
Motorized developed trails	9
Recreation residences	0

Economic Information

Twenty-five percent of visitors interviewed were asked about the primary destination of their recreation trip. Since some people may incorporate a visit to the national forests as only part of a larger trip away from home, not all visitors chose the national forest as their primary destination. Eighty-eight percent of visitors went only to this national forest on their trip. Of the 12 percent of visitors that went to other areas, 16 percent said this forest was their primary trip destination.

Visitors were asked to select one of several substitute choices, if for some reason they were unable to visit this national forest. Their responses are shown in Table 15. Over sixty-two percent of the visitors would have gone somewhere other than this forest to pursue the same activity, while 8.2 percent would have come back to this forest another time.

The average recreation visitor on the forest was away from home on their trip for 131.3 hours. Eighty-eight percent of the visitors went only to this national forest on their trip and 12 percent said they had gone to other places such as other national forests, parks or recreation areas.

In the 12 months prior to the interview the visitors had come to this forest 3.3 times to participate in their identified main activity.

Table 15. Substitute behavior choices of visitors on Nez Perce National Forest.

Substitute Choice	Percent who would have…
Gone somewhere else for the same activity	62.5
Gone somewhere else for a different activity	11.0
Come back another time	8.2
Stayed home	6.0
Gone to work at their regular job	3.0
None of these	9.2

Average yearly spending on outdoor recreation

In a typical year, visitors to this forest spent an average of $1,702.70 on all outdoor recreation activities including equipment, recreation trips, memberships, and licenses.

Visitors average spending on a trip to Nez Perce National Forest

Visitors estimated the amount of money spent they spent within a 50 mile radius of the recreation site at which they were interviewed during their recreation trip to the area (which may include multiple national forest visits, as well as visits to other forests or parks). Table 16 shows average estimated expenditures by ten categories. These expenditures are higher than the true average spending per person per national forest visit. To obtain a correct average spending per national forest visit, these figures would have to be reduced to account for spending that is attributable to visits to other areas, and for visitors who make several separate national forest visits during their stay in the area. It is recommended that forests work with economists in their forest and region to obtain the correct spending profiles and estimate the economic impacts of this spending.

Table 16. Average per person national forest trip expenditures on the Nez Perce National Forest within 50 miles of recreation site.

Expenditure Category	Average expenditure $00.00
Government owned lodging	1.66
Privately owned lodging	2.09
Food/drink at restaurants and bars	12.20
Other food and beverages	7.59
Gasoline and oil	21.64
Other transportation (plane, bus, etc.)	17.81
Activities (including guide fees and equipment rental)	13.84
Entry, parking, or recreation use fees	3.66
Souvenirs/ clothing	11.09
Any other expenses	3.21

Visitor Satisfaction Information

Twenty-five percent of visitors interviewed on the forest rated their satisfaction with the recreation facilities and services provided. Although their satisfaction ratings pertain to conditions at the specific site or area they visited, this information is not valid at the site-specific level. The survey design does not allow enough responses for every individual site or area on the forest to draw these conclusions. Rather, the information is generalized to overall satisfaction with facilities and services on the forest as a whole.

Visitors’ site-specific answers may be colored by a particular condition on a particular day at a particular site. For example, a visitor camping in a developed campground when all the forest personnel are off firefighter and the site has not been cleaned. Perhaps the garbage had not been emptied or the toilets cleaned during their stay, although the site usually receives excellent maintenance. The visitor may have been very unsatisfied with the cleanliness of restrooms.

In addition to how satisfied visitors were with facilities and services they were asked how important that particular facility or service was to the quality of their recreation experience. The importance of these elements to the visitors’ recreation experience is then analyzed in relation to their satisfaction. Those elements that were extremely important to a visitor’s overall recreation experience and the visitor rated as poor quality are those elements needing most attention by the forest. Those elements that were rated not important to the visitors’ recreation experience need the least attention.

Tables 17 through 19 summarize visitor satisfaction with the forest facilities and services by site type. In Table 17 note that visitors said the availability of information on recreation is important (3.9) to the quality of their recreation experience and they rated their satisfaction with the availability of recreation information as somewhat satisfied (3.9). The item by response category column in the second column of the table gives more information about how visitors answered the satisfaction question. For example, for availability of information on recreation, 18 percent rated their satisfaction with the availability of recreation information as fair, 13 percent as average, 34 percent as good, and 35 percent as very good. Improving the availability of recreation information at Day Use Developed sites may increase visitor satisfaction.

Table 18 summarizes information about visitor satisfaction with Overnight Developed sites such as campgrounds and resorts on the forest and Table 19 summarizes the visitor’s satisfaction with the general forest areas. Wilderness satisfaction is reported in Table 10.

Table 17. Satisfaction of visitors at Day Use Developed Sites on the Nez Perce National Forest.

Item Name	Item by percent response category by* P F A G VG	Mean Satisfaction Of visitors**	Mean Importance To visitors**
Scenery	0 0 5 3 92	4.9	4.7
Available parking	21 0 0 30 49	3.9	3.8
Parking lot condition	0 21 17 20 42	3.8	3.6
Cleanliness of restrooms	0 0 10 23 67	4.6	4.4
Condition of the natural environment	0 0 0 51 49	4.5	4.6
Condition of developed recreation facilities	0 0 2 48 50	4.5	4.1
Condition of forest roads	0 5 40 47 8	3.6	3.3
Condition of forest trails	0 0 36 26 38	4.0	2.8
Availability of information on recreation	0 18 13 34 35	3.9	3.9
Feeling of safety	0 0 30 26 44	4.1	4.2
Adequacy of signage	0 0 52 21 27	3.7	4.2
Helpfulness of employees	0 0 21 0 79	4.6	4.4
Attractiveness of the forest landscape	0 0 3 30 67	4.6	3.9
Value for fee paid	0 0 4 23 73	4.7	4.3

* Scale is: P= poor F = fair A = average G = good VG = very good

** Scale is: 1= not very satisfied /important 2 = somewhat satisfied/ important 3 = moderately satisfied/ important 4 = satisfied/ important 5 = very satisfied/ important

Table 18. Satisfaction of visitors at Overnight Developed Sites Nez Perce National Forest.

Item Name	Item by percent response category by* P F A G VG	Mean Satisfaction Of visitors**	Mean Importance To visitors**
Scenery	0 0 0 9 91	4.9	4.9
Available parking	7 0 10 39 44	4.1	3.3
Parking lot condition	7 0 6 39 48	4.2	4.0
Cleanliness of restrooms	0 0 7 50 43	4.4	4.6
Condition of the natural environment	7 0 0 42 51	4.3	4.8
Condition of developed recreation facilities	8 0 0 51 41	4.2	4.6
Condition of forest roads	2 8 40 8 42	3.8	3.3
Condition of forest trails	10 2 0 78 10	3.8	3.0
Availability of information on recreation	7 0 8 81 4	3.7	4.6
Feeling of safety	0 2 44 8 46	4.0	3.7
Adequacy of signage	0 0 5 4 91	4.8	4.7
Helpfulness of employees	0 2 0 13 85	4.8	4.6
Attractiveness of the forest landscape	7 0 0 7 86	4.6	3.7
Value for fee paid	0 0 0 0 100	5.0	4.2

* Scale is: P = poor F = fair A = average G = good VG = very good

** Scale is: 1= not very satisfied /important 2 = somewhat satisfied/ important 3 = moderately satisfied/ important 4 = satisfied/ important 5 = very satisfied/ important

Table 19. Satisfaction of visitors in General Forest Areas on Nez Perce National Forest.

Item Name	Item by percent response category by* P F A G VG	Mean Satisfaction of visitors**	Mean Importance to visitors**
Scenery	0 0 6 8 86	4.8	4.7
Available parking	0 5 10 17 68	4.5	3.8
Parking lot condition	0 0 13 10 77	4.6	4.3
Cleanliness of restrooms	15 7 2 13 63	4.0	4.0
Condition of the natural environment	0 2 0 23 75	4.7	4.6
Condition of developed recreation facilities	0 0 7 58 35	4.3	3.4
Condition of forest roads	15 6 11 46 22	3.5	4.1
Condition of forest trails	0 2 43 32 23	3.7	4.0
Availability of information on recreation	11 17 4 27 41	3.7	3.5
Feeling of safety	0 0 7 16 77	4.7	4.1
Adequacy of signage	7 18 13 24 38	3.7	4.1
Helpfulness of employees	0 8 0 16 76	4.6	3.9
Attractiveness of the forest landscape	0 0 1 22 77	4.8	4.6
Value for fee paid	0 5 0 7 88	4.8	4.6

* Scale is: P = poor F = fair A = average G = good VG = very good

** Scale is: 1= not very satisfied /important 2 = somewhat satisfied/ important 3 = moderately satisfied/ important 4 = satisfied/ important 5 = very satisfied/ important

Crowding

Visitors rated their perception of how crowded the site or area they were recreating in felt to them. This information is useful when looking at the type of site the visitor was using since someone visiting a designated Wilderness may think 5 people is too many while someone visiting a developed campground may think 200 people is about right. Table 20 summaries mean perception of crowding by site type on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means hardly anyone was there, and a 10 means the area was perceived as overcrowded.

Table 20. Perception of crowding by visitor on the Nez Perce National Forest by site type (percent site visits).

Perception of crowding	Overnight Developed Sites	Day Use Developed Sites	Wilderness	General Forest Areas
10 Over crowded	7	6	0	0
9	0	0	0	0
8	0	0	0	0
7	5	0	0	16
6	0	7	66	4
5	41	3	0	22
4	0	12	27	5
3	8	32	0	19
2	2	25	0	13
1 hardly anyone there	37	15	7	21

Other comments from visitors

Visitors were asked if there were any accommodations or assistance that the forest could offer that would be helpful to the visitor and anyone in their group to improve their recreation experience. If the forest received any responses, they are summarized below.

Table 21. List of comments received from visitors on the Nez Perce National Forest.

Site Name

Is there any other accommodation or assistance we could offer? Comments

Allison Creek Picnic Area Day Use

Need better service

Heaven’s Gate Interp

Day Use

Improve road

Updated roads/ maps

Fish Creek Road 221

General Forest Area

Make parking lot larger

Signs

Cocoa and hot dogs at trailheads

Papoose Creek

General Forest area

Fix the road

Pittsburg Saddle

General forest area

Clean up rebarb at upper landing

Slate Creek

General forest area

Improve road maintenance on Slate Creek Road

North Fork Slate Creek

Overnight sites

No ATVs in National Forest

Windy Saddle

Overnight sites

Fresh drinking water

A way to notify people in medical emergency

Rev 12 Sept 2001

Rev 8 Feb 2002 (revised percent of male/female wilderness visitors)

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: SAMPLE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

Table 2. Annual recreation use estimates by forest for region 1. 1/