National Visitor Use Monitoring Results
August 2002
USDA Forest Service
Region 1
LEWIS AND CLARK NATIONAL FOREST
Prepared by:
Susan M. Kocis
Stanley J. Zarnoch
Ross Arnold
Larry Warren
Scope
and purpose of the National Visitor Use Monitoring project
CHAPTER
1: SAMPLE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
The
NVUM Process and Definition of Terms
Constraints
On Uses of the Results
The
Forest Stratification Results
Table
1. Population of available site days for
sampling and percentage of days sampled by stratum
CHAPTER
2: VISITATION ESTIMATES
Table
2. Annual Lewis & Clark NF
recreation use estimate
Table
3. Number of last-exiting Lewis &
Clark recreation visitors by site type and form type 1/
Table
4. Gender distribution of Lewis &
Clark NF recreation visitors
Table
5. Age distribution of Lewis & Clark
NF recreation visitors
Table
6. Race/ethnicity of Lewis & Clark
NF recreation visitors
Table
7. Zip codes of Lewis & Clark NF
recreation visitors
Average
number of people per vehicle and average axle count per vehicle in survey
CHAPTER
3: WILDERNESS VISITORS
Table
8. Age distribution of Lewis & Clark
NF Wilderness visitors
Table
9. Race/ethnicity of Lewis & Clark
NF Wilderness visitors
Table
10. Zip codes of Wilderness visitors
Table
11. Satisfaction of Lewis & Clark NF
Wilderness visitors
CHAPTER
4: DESCRIPTION OF THE VISIT
Table
12. Site visit length of stay (in hours)
by site/type
Table
13. Lewis & Clark NF activity
participation and primary activity
Use
of constructed facilities and designated areas
Table
14. Percentage use of facilities and
specially designated areas
Table
15. Substitute behavior choices of
recreation visitors
Average
yearly spending on outdoor recreation.
Visitors’
average spending on a trip to the forest
Visitor
Satisfaction Information
Table
16. Satisfaction of recreation visitors
at Developed Day Use sites
Table
17. Satisfaction of recreation visitors
at Developed Overnight sites
Table
18. Satisfaction of recreation visitors
in General Forest Areas
Table
19. Perception of crowding by recreation
visitors by site type (percent site visits)
Table
20. List of comments received from Lewis
& Clark NF recreation visitors
The National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) project was implemented as a response to the need to better understand the use and importance of and satisfaction with national forest system recreation opportunities. This level of understanding is required by national forest plans, Executive Order 12862 (Setting Customer Service Standards), and implementation of the National Recreation Agenda. To improve public service, the agency’s Strategic and Annual Performance Plans require measuring trends in user satisfaction and use levels. It will assist Congress, Forest Service leaders, and program managers in making sound decisions that best serve the public and protect valuable natural resources by providing science based, reliable information about the type, quantity, quality and location of recreation use on public lands. The information collected is also important to external customers including state agencies and private industry. NVUM methodology and analysis is explained in detail in the research paper entitled: Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring Process: Research Method Documentation; English, Kocis, Zarnoch, and Arnold; Southern Research Station; May 2002 (http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum).
In conjunction with guidelines and recommendations from the Outdoor Recreation Review Commission, the USDA-Forest Service has estimated recreation use and maintained records since the 1950s. Many publications on preferred techniques for estimating recreation use at developed and dispersed recreation sites were sponsored by Forest Service Research Stations and Universities. Implementation of these recommended methodologies takes specific skills, a dedicated work force, and strict adherence to an appropriate sampling plan. The earliest estimates were designed to estimate use at developed fee recreation facilities such as campgrounds. These estimates have always been fairly reliable because they are based upon readily observable, objective counts of items such as a fee envelope.
Prior to the mid-1990s, the Forest Service used its Recreation Information
Management (RIM) system to store and analyze recreation use information. Forest managers often found they lacked the
resources to simultaneously manage the recreation facilities and monitor
visitor use following the established protocols. In 1996, the RIM monitoring protocols were no
longer required to be used.
In 1998 a group of research and forest staff were appointed to investigate and pilot a recreation sampling system that would be cost effective and provide statistical recreation use information at the forest, regional, and national level. Since that time, a permanent sampling system (NVUM) has been developed. Several Forest Service staff areas including Recreation, Wilderness, Ecosystem Management, Research and Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment are involved in implementing the program. A four-year cycle of data collection was established. In any given year, 25 percent of the national forests conduct on-site interviews and sampling of recreation visitors. The first 25 percent of the forests included in the first four-year cycle completed sampling in December of 2000. The second group of forests began sampling October 2000 and completed sampling September 2001. The last 25 percent of the first, four-year cycle forests will complete their sampling in September 2003. The cycle begins again in October 2004. This ongoing cycle will provide quality recreation information needed for improving citizen centered recreation services.
This
data can be very useful for forest planning and decision making. The information provided can be used
in economic efficiency analysis that requires providing a value per National
Forest Visit. This can then be compared
to other resource values. The
description of visitor characteristics (age, race, zip code, activity
participation) can help the forest identify the type of recreation niche they
fill. The satisfaction information can
help management decide where best to place limited resources that would result
in improved visitor satisfaction. The
economic expenditure information can help forests show local communities the
employment and income effects of tourism from forest visitors. In addition, the credible use statistics can
be helpful in considering visitor capacity issues.
NVUM has standardized definitions of visitor use measurement to ensure that all national forest visitor measurements are comparable. These definitions are basically 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. Along with these use measurements basic statistics, which indicate the precision of the estimate, are given. These statistics include the error rate and associated confidence intervals at the 80 percent confidence level. 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
level provides a specified level of certainty for a confidence interval
defining a range of values around the estimate.
The error rate (which is never a bad thing like making an error on a
test) is expressed as a percent of the estimate and can be used to obtain 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 level is very acceptable for social science
applications at a broad national or forest scale. The two terms are used to describe the
estimate. For example: At the 80 percent confidence level there are
240 million national forest visits plus or minus 15 percent. In other words we are 80 percent confident
that the true number of national forest visits lies between 204 million and 276
million.
To participate in the NVUM
process, forests first categorized all recreation sites and areas into five
basic categories called “site
types”: Day Use Developed Sites (DUDS),
Overnight Use Developed Sites (OUDS), Wilderness, General Forest Areas (GFA),
and View Corridors (VC). Only the first
four categories are considered “true” national forest visits and were included
in the estimate provided. Within these
broad categories (called site types) every open day of the year for each
site/area was rated as high, medium or low last exiting recreation use. Sites/areas that are scheduled to be closed
or would have “0” use were 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 View
Corridors was prepared and 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 five broad categories as defined in the paper: Forest Service National
Visitor Use Monitoring Process: Research Method Documentation, May 2002,
English et al. The categories are Day
Use Developed sites (DUDS), Overnight Use Developed Sites (OUDS), General
Forest Areas (GFA), Wilderness (WILD), and View Corridors (VC). Another category called Off-Forest Recreation
Activities (OFRA) was categorized but not sampled.
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 site 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 last 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 last
exiting recreation use on open weekends (70 days) and medium last 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.
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 will reflect all these factors.
The smaller the error rate, the better the estimate. Interviewer error in asking the questions is
not necessarily reflected in this error rate.
Large error rates
(i.e. high variability) in the national forest visit (NFV), site visit (SV) and
Wilderness visit estimates is primarily caused by a small sample size in a
given stratum (for example General Forest Area low use days) where the use
observed was beyond that stratum’s normal range. For example, on the Clearwater National
Forest in the General Forest Area low stratum, there were 14 sample days. Of these 14 sample days, 13 days had
visitation estimates between 0-20. One
observation had a visitation estimate of 440.
Therefore, the stratum mean was about 37 with a standard error of
116. The 80% confidence interval width
is then 400% of the mean, a very high error rate (variability). Whether these types of odd observations are
due to unusual weather, malfunctioning traffic counters, or a misclassification
of the day (a sampled low use day that should have been categorized as a high
use day) is unknown. Eliminating the
unusual observation from data analyis could reduce the error rate. However, the NVUM team had no reason to
suspect the data was incorrect and did not eliminate these unusual cases.
The descriptive information about national forest visitors is based upon
only those visitors that were interviewed.
If a forest has distinct seasonal use patterns and activities that vary
greatly by season, these patterns may or may not be adequately captured in this
study. This study was designed to
estimate total number of people during a year.
Sample days were distributed based upon high, medium, and low exiting
use days, not seasons. When applying
these results in forest analysis, items such as activity participation should
be carefully scrutinized. For example,
although the Routt National Forest had over 1 million skier visits, no sample
days occurred during the main ski season; they occurred at the ski area but
during their high use summer season.
Therefore, activity participation based upon interviews did not
adequately capture downhill skiers. This
particular issue was adjusted. However,
the same issue- seasonal use patterns- may still occur to a lesser degree on
other forests. Future sample design
will attempt to incorporate seasonal variation in use.
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 results of the recreation site/area stratification and sample days accomplished by this forest are displayed in Table 1. This table describes the population of available site days open for sampling based on forest pre-work completed prior to the actual surveys. Every site and area on the forest was categorized as high, medium, low, or closed last exiting recreation use. This stratification 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.
|
Nonproxy |
Proxy |
||||
Strata |
Total days in
nonproxy population |
Days sampled # Percent |
Total days in
proxy population |
Days sampled # Percent |
||
OUDS H |
9 |
8.7 |
2,620 |
13 |
0.5 |
|
OUDS M |
770 |
11 |
1.4 |
|||
OUDS L |
3,565 |
10 |
0.3 |
|||
DUDS H |
139 |
9 |
6.5 |
169 |
4 |
2.4 |
DUDS M |
295 |
9 |
3.1 |
|||
DUDS L |
632 |
8 |
1.3 |
|||
Wild H |
413 |
12 |
2.9 |
|
|
|
Wild M |
945 |
12 |
1.3 |
|||
Wild L |
1,686 |
9 |
0.5 |
|||
GFA H |
6,520 |
34 |
1.2 |
|
|
|
GFA M |
2,805 |
33 |
0.5 |
|||
GFA L |
10,910 |
13 |
0.1 |
|||
TOTALS |
28,783 |
169 |
0.6 |
2,789 |
17 |
|
Visitor use estimates are available at the national, regional, and
forest level. Only forest level data is
provided here. For national and regional
reports visit the following web site: (http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum).
National
Forest Visits |
Site
Visits |
Wilderness
Visits |
|||
Visits |
Error Rate |
Visits |
Error Rate |
Visits |
Error Rate |
12.3
% |
529,809 |
11.8
% |
30,907 |
31.6
% |
The Lewis and Clark national
forest participated in the National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) project from
October 2000 through September 2001. The
main contact people were Ron Yates, Larry Dobb and Barbara Long. The forest was assigned 194 interview days
(including 8 viewing corridor days) and accomplished all of them (accomplished
100 percent). Forest fires did affect
use during at least two sample days. The
forest had fire restrictions in effect late summer. Also, the forest had an unusually low snow
year, which affected the ski areas.
Streams also dried up earlier than usual which affect fishing. The forest coordinators felt the pneumatic
tube counter worked well 70% of the time and the infrared counter worked well
90% of the time used.
Recreation use on the forest for fiscal year 2001 at the 80 percent
confidence level was 0.48 million national forest visits +/- 12 percent. There were 0.53 million site visits, an
average of 1.1 site visits per national forest visit. Included in the site visit estimate are
30,907 Wilderness visits.
A total of 1,108 visitors were contacted on the forest during
the sample year. Of these, 4.2 percent
refused to be interviewed. Of the 1,061
people who agreed to be interviewed, about 42 percent were not recreating,
including 14 percent who just stopped to use the bathroom, 8 percent were
working, 11 percent were just passing through, and 9 percent had some other
reason to be there. About 58 percent of
those interviewed said their primary purpose on the forest was recreation and
85 percent of those people were exiting for the last time. Of the visitors leaving the forest agreeing
to be interviewed, about 49 percent were last exiting recreation visitors (the
target interview population). Table 3
displays the number of last-exiting recreation visitors interviewed at each
site type and the type of interview form they answered.
Form Type |
Day Use |
Overnight |
General Forest |
Wilderness |
Basic |
33 |
117 |
34 |
|
Satisfaction |
51 |
22 |
53 |
15 |
Economics |
31 |
16 |
53 |
16 |
1/ Form type means the
type of interview form administered to the visitor. The basic form did not ask either economic or
satisfaction questions. The Satisfaction
form did not ask economic questions and the economic form did not ask
satisfaction questions.
Basic descriptors of the
forest visitors were developed based upon those visitors interviewed then
expanded to the national forest visitor population. Tables 4 and 5 display gender and age
descriptors.
Gender |
Female 21.1 |
Age Group |
Percent in
group |
Under 16 |
|
16-20 |
2.9 |
21-30 |
9.9 |
31-40 |
18.8 |
41-50 |
24.4 |
51-60 |
16.3 |
61-70 |
7.6 |
Over 70 |
2.2 |
Visitors categorized themselves into one of
seven race/ethnicity categories. Table 6
gives a detailed breakout by category.
Category |
Total percent national forest
visits |
Black/African American |
|
Asian |
0.7 |
White |
97.6 |
American Indian/Alaska Native |
1.0 |
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander |
0.0 |
Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino |
0.3 |
Other |
0.4 |
Four 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 7. 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.
There were about 200 different zip codes reported. This information can be used with programs
such as “zipfip” or census data for more extensive analysis.
Zip Code |
Frequency |
Percent |
48 |
8.8 |
|
59404 |
40 |
8.2 |
59422 |
28 |
5.7 |
59401 |
21 |
4.3 |
59425 |
21 |
4.3 |
59410 |
12 |
2.5 |
59457 |
10 |
2.0 |
59601 |
10 |
2.0 |
59645 |
9 |
1.8 |
59436 |
8 |
1.6 |
59403 |
7 |
1.4 |
59053 |
6 |
1.2 |
59102 |
6 |
1.2 |
59414 |
5 |
1.0 |
59443 |
5 |
1.0 |
59486 |
5 |
1.0 |
59011 |
4 |
0.8 |
59416 |
4 |
0.8 |
59483 |
4 |
0.8 |
Other zip codes |
180 |
49.6 |
There
was an average of 2.8 people per vehicle with an average of 2.2 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.
Several questions on the NVUM survey form
dealt directly with use of designated Wilderness. Wilderness was sampled 33 days on the
forest. There were 82.1 percent male and
17.9 percent female visitors to Wilderness on the forest. Tables 8 and 9 display the age distribution
and race/ethnicity of Wilderness visitors.
Age Group |
Percent
in group |
Under 16 |
|
16-20 |
5.1 |
21-30 |
15.7 |
31-40 |
28.8 |
41-50 |
13.3 |
51-60 |
12.1 |
61-70 |
17 |
Over 70 |
0.7 |
Category |
Total
percent national
forest visits |
Black/African American |
|
Asian |
0.0 |
White |
88.4 |
American Indian/Alaska Native |
0.0 |
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander |
0.0 |
Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino |
11.6 |
Other |
0.0 |
The Wilderness visitors were from a wide variety of zip
codes. The distribution of Wilderness
visitor zip codes is shown in Table 10.
There were about 50 different zip codes reported.
Zip Code |
Frequency |
Percent |
7 |
8.6 |
|
59422 |
7 |
8.6 |
59404 |
5 |
6.2 |
59911 |
4 |
4.9 |
59401 |
3 |
3.7 |
59602 |
3 |
3.7 |
20112 |
2 |
2.5 |
59410 |
2 |
2.5 |
59414 |
2 |
2.5 |
59425 |
2 |
2.5 |
59433 |
2 |
2.5 |
59485 |
2 |
2.5 |
59601 |
2 |
2.5 |
07675 |
1 |
1.2 |
other zip
codes |
38 |
45.6 |
The average length of stay in Wilderness on the forest was
74.7 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 1.3 different days.
Less than one percent of those interviewed in Wilderness said
they used the services of a commercial guide.
Table 11 gives detailed information about how the Wilderness
visitors rated various aspects of the area.
An general example of how to interpret this information: If the visitors
had rated the importance of the adequacy of signage a 5.0 (very important) and
they rated their satisfaction with the adequacy of signage a 3.0 (somewhat satisfied) then the forest might be
able to increase visitor satisfaction.
Perhaps twenty-nine percent of visitors said the adequacy of signage was
poor. The forest could target improving
this sector of visitors for increased satisfaction by improving the signage for
Wilderness.
Wilderness visitors on the average rated their visit 3.4 (on a
scale from 1 to 10) concerning crowding, meaning they felt there were
relatively few people there. Zero
percent said the area they visited was overcrowded (a 10 on the scale) and 34.6
percent said there was hardly anyone there (a 1 on the scale).
Item Name |
Item by Percent response by * P
F A
G VG |
Mean ** Satisfaction Of Visitors (n) |
Mean ** Importance To Visitors (n) |
||||
Scenery |
0 |
0 |
14.1 |
85.9 |
4.9 15 |
4.8 13 |
|
Available parking |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
100 |
5.0 14 |
3.9 12 |
Parking lot condition |
0 |
0 |
3.9 |
0 |
96.1 |
4.9 14 |
3.6 12 |
Cleanliness of restrooms |
0 |
0 |
4 |
56.3 |
39.7 |
4.4 11 |
4.2 9 |
Condition of the natural environment |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
94 |
4.9 15 |
4.9 13 |
Condition of developed recreation facilities |
0 |
0 |
0 |
80.1 |
19.9 |
4.2 3 |
3.8 4 |
Condition of forest roads |
0 |
14.7 |
14 |
58.8 |
12.5 |
3.7 15 |
4.2 13 |
Condition of forest trails |
0 |
0 |
0 |
35.2 |
64.8 |
4.6 15 |
4.5 12 |
Availability of information on recreation |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- 9 |
- 8 |
Feeling of safety |
0 |
0 |
0 |
34.2 |
65.8 |
4.7 15 |
3.8 13 |
Adequacy of signage |
0 |
0 |
0 |
36.9 |
63.1 |
4.6 15 |
4.1 13 |
Helpfulness of employees |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- 7 |
- 5 |
Attractiveness of the forest landscape |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
100 |
5.0 15 |
4.9 13 |
Value for fee paid |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- 0 |
- 2 |
* Scale is: P = poor F =
fair A = average G = good
VG= very good
** Scale is: 1= not important 2= somewhat important 3=moderately important 4= important 5 = very important
The interview process a developed a description of visitor
activity during their national forest visit.
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 this forest for a national
forest visit was 27.4 hours. Forty-seven
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.
Site Visit Average |
DUDS |
OUDS |
Wilderness |
GFA |
6.1 |
25.4 |
74.7 |
27.2 |
The average recreation visitor went to 1.1 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. Eighty two
percent of visitors went only to the site at which they were interviewed.
During their visit to the forest, the top five recreation
activities of the visitors were viewing wildlife, viewing natural features,
general/relaxing, hiking/walking, and driving for pleasure (see Table 13). Each visitor also picked one of these
activities as their primary activity for their current recreation visit to the
forest. The top primary activities were
hunting, general/relaxing, downhill skiing, hiking/walking, and driving for
pleasure (see 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.
Activity |
Percent participation |
Percent who said it was their primary
activity |
Camping in developed sites (family or
group) |
5.3 |
|
Primitive camping |
7.9 |
2.9 |
Backpacking, camping
in unroaded areas |
15.6 |
4.4 |
Resorts, cabins and
other accommodations on Forest Service managed lands (private or Forest
Service run) |
3.9 |
0.9 |
Picnicking and family
day gatherings in developed sites (family or group) |
14.9 |
1.3 |
**Viewing wildlife,
birds, fish, etc on national forest system lands |
80.2 |
1.9 |
**Viewing natural
features such as scenery, flowers, etc on national forest system lands |
75.2 |
2.8 |
Visiting historic and
prehistoric sites/area |
2.7 |
0.4 |
Visiting a nature
center, nature trail or visitor information services |
0.7 |
0 |
Nature Study |
12.4 |
1.1 |
General/other-
relaxing, hanging out, escaping noise and heat, etc, |
63.9 |
14.8 |
Fishing- all types |
21.6 |
4.8 |
Hunting- all types |
21.7 |
20.4 |
Off-highway vehicle
travel (4-wheelers, dirt bikes, etc) |
5.3 |
0.8 |
Driving for pleasure
on roads |
42.2 |
6.6 |
Snowmobile travel |
2.1 |
0.5 |
Motorized water travel
(boats, ski sleds, etc) |
0 |
0 |
Other motorized land/air activities (plane,
other) |
0 |
0 |
Hiking or walking |
47.6 |
9.3 |
Horseback riding |
6.5 |
3.7 |
Bicycling, including
mountain bikes |
4.4 |
0.5 |
Non-motorized water
travel (canoe, raft, etc.) |
5.4 |
2.6 |
Downhill skiing or
snowboarding |
13.3 |
13.0 |
Cross-country skiing,
snow shoeing |
1.8 |
1.3 |
Other non-motorized
activities (swimming, games and sports) |
6.8 |
0.1 |
Gathering mushrooms,
berries, firewood, or other natural products |
9.7 |
1.4 |
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 top five most used
facilities/ areas were: forest service
roads, downhill ski areas, hiking trails, lodges/resorts, and scenic
byways. Table 14 provides a summary of
facility and special area use.
Facility
/ Area Type |
Percent who said they used (national
forest visits) |
Developed campground |
|
Swimming area |
0.0 |
Hiking, biking, or horseback trails |
15.3 |
Scenic byway |
10.8 |
Designated Wilderness |
1.1 |
Visitor center, museum |
3.3 |
Forest Service office or other info site |
0.9 |
Picnic area |
6.3 |
Boat launch |
2.8 |
Designated Off Road Vehicle area |
2.8 |
Other forest roads |
42.9 |
Interpretive site |
3.1 |
Organization camp |
0.0 |
Developed fishing site/ dock |
0.9 |
Designated snowmobile area |
0.9 |
Downhill ski area |
18.0 |
Nordic ski area |
0.0 |
Lodges/Resorts on National Forest System land |
12.0 |
Fire Lookouts/Cabins Forest Service owned |
0.0 |
Designated snow play area |
0.9 |
Motorized developed trails |
9.4 |
Recreation residences |
1.8 |
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. Of the 10
percent of visitors that went to other sites, 40 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.
The average total time that recreation visitors to the forest were away from home on their trip was 89 hours.
In the 12
months prior to the interview the visitors had come to this forest 3.8 times to
participate in their identified main activity.
Substitute Choice |
Percent who would have… |
Gone somewhere else for
the same activity |
|
Gone somewhere else for
a different activity |
3.4 |
Come back another time |
14.6 |
Stayed home |
7.4 |
Gone to work at their
regular job |
4.4 |
None of these |
1.1 |
In a typical year, visitors to this forest spent an average of
$3019.20 on all outdoor recreation activities including equipment, recreation
trips, memberships, and licenses.
Visitors estimated the amount of money spent per person 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). This information is available in a separate report and data file that can be used for planning analysis.
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 usually have 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 firefighting 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 16 through 18 summarize visitor satisfaction with the forest facilities and services at Day Use Developed sites, Overnight Developed sites and General Forest areas. Wilderness satisfaction is reported in Table 11. To interpret this information for possible management action, one must look at both the importance and satisfaction ratings. If visitors rated an element a 1 or 2 they are telling management that particular element is not very important to the overall quality of their recreation experience. Even if the visitors rated that element as poor or fair, improving this element may not necessarily increase visitor satisfaction because the element was not that important to them. On the other hand, if visitors rated an element as a 5 or 4 they are saying this element is very important to the quality of their recreation experience. If their overall satisfaction with that element is not very good, management action here can increase visitor satisfaction.
Item Name |
Item by Percent response by * P F
A G VG |
Mean ** Satisfaction Of Visitors (n) |
Mean ** Importance To Visitors (n) |
||||
Scenery |
0 |
0 |
36.7 |
63.3 |
4.6 49 |
4.3 48 |
|
Available parking |
0 |
0.5 |
12.6 |
32.1 |
54.8 |
4.4 41 |
4.5 41 |
Parking lot condition |
0 |
0 |
12.6 |
58.3 |
29.1 |
4.2 40 |
4.0 40 |
Cleanliness of restrooms |
6.3 |
6.7 |
20.2 |
33.6 |
33.2 |
3.8 40 |
4.5 40 |
Condition of the natural environment |
0 |
0 |
0 |
49.3 |
50.7 |
4.5 48 |
4.6 48 |
Condition of developed recreation facilities |
0 |
7 |
18.9 |
45.8 |
28.4 |
4.0 32 |
4.4 30 |
Condition of forest roads |
1.7 |
12.4 |
24.6 |
33.5 |
27.8 |
3.7 38 |
4.3 39 |
Condition of forest trails |
0.3 |
0 |
23.7 |
60.3 |
15.7 |
3.9 23 |
4.5 25 |
Availability of information on recreation |
0 |
0.7 |
37.6 |
37.5 |
24.2 |
3.9 24 |
3.8 23 |
Feeling of safety |
0 |
0 |
6.8 |
32.3 |
60.9 |
4.5 47 |
4.7 46 |
Adequacy of signage |
0 |
6.3 |
7.4 |
41.9 |
44.4 |
4.2 49 |
4.5 47 |
Helpfulness of employees |
0 |
0 |
0 |
33.4 |
66.6 |
4.7 37 |
4.8 37 |
Attractiveness of the forest landscape |
0 |
0 |
0 |
35.2 |
64.8 |
4.6 48 |
4.4 48 |
Value for fee paid |
0 |
0 |
6.8 |
49.3 |
43.8 |
4.4 19 |
4.7 23 |
*
Scale is: P = poor F = fair A = average
G = good VG = very good
**
Scale is: 1= not important 2= somewhat
important 3=moderately important 4= important 5 = very important
n= number of responses on which rating is based.
.
Item Name |
Item by Percent response by * P F A G
VG |
Mean ** Satisfaction Of visitors (n) |
Mean ** Importance To Visitors (n) |
||||
Scenery |
0 |
0 |
0 |
100 |
5.0 21 |
4.9 17 |
|
Available parking |
0 |
0 |
0 |
30.8 |
69.2 |
4.7 18 |
4.3 14 |
Parking lot condition |
0 |
0 |
31.3 |
28.6 |
40 |
4.1 17 |
3.9 13 |
Cleanliness of restrooms |
0 |
15.1 |
12.6 |
16.2 |
56 |
4.1 18 |
4.7 14 |
Condition of the natural environment |
0 |
0 |
0 |
20.5 |
79.5 |
4.8 21 |
4.7 17 |
Condition of developed recreation facilities |
0 |
0.7 |
15.3 |
34.5 |
49.5 |
4.3 19 |
4.2 14 |
Condition of forest roads |
5.4 |
5.7 |
35.6 |
19.7 |
33.6 |
3.7 20 |
3.5 16 |
Condition of forest trails |
0 |
0 |
24.9 |
35.9 |
39.2 |
4.1 15 |
4.2 11 |
Availability of information on recreation |
0 |
0 |
2.8 |
34 |
63.2 |
4.6 11 |
4.2 10 |
Feeling of safety |
0 |
0 |
1 |
16.8 |
82.1 |
4.8 21 |
4.8 17 |
Adequacy of signage |
4.3 |
0 |
10.4 |
18.8 |
66.5 |
4.4 21 |
4.5 17 |
Helpfulness of employees |
0 |
0 |
0 |
11.6 |
88.4 |
4.9 14 |
3.9 10 |
Attractiveness of the forest landscape |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
100 |
5.0 20 |
5.0 16 |
Value for fee paid |
0 |
0 |
2 |
39.8 |
58.2 |
4.6 12 |
4.7 9 |
*
Scale is: P = poor F = fair A = average
G = good VG = very good
** Scale is: 1= not important 2= somewhat important 3=moderately important 4= important 5 = very important
(n) = number of responses upon which this rating is
based
Item Name |
Item by Percent response by * P F A G VG |
Mean ** Satisfaction Of Visitors (n) |
Mean ** Importance To Visitors (n) |
||||
Scenery |
0 |
8.8 |
16.3 |
74.8 |
4.7 45 |
4.5 45 |
|
Available parking |
0 |
0 |
19.7 |
30.5 |
49.8 |
4.3 28 |
3.2 28 |
Parking lot condition |
0 |
2.4 |
19.4 |
17.4 |
60.8 |
4.4 22 |
3.2 24 |
Cleanliness of restrooms |
0 |
0 |
18 |
12.9 |
69.1 |
4.5 16 |
4.1 24 |
Condition of the natural environment |
0 |
0 |
7.1 |
38 |
55 |
4.5 45 |
4.6 45 |
Condition of developed recreation facilities |
0 |
0 |
0 |
42.1 |
57.9 |
4.6 12 |
3.8 15 |
Condition of forest roads |
0 |
11.5 |
29.1 |
40.3 |
19.1 |
3.7 43 |
4.1 44 |
Condition of forest trails |
3.7 |
2.8 |
28.1 |
40.9 |
24.6 |
3.8 30 |
3.8 35 |
Availability of information on recreation |
4.2 |
3.6 |
20.3 |
21.7 |
50.2 |
4.1 22 |
4.1 24 |
Feeling of safety |
0 |
1.7 |
13.7 |
28.6 |
56 |
4.4 42 |
4.2 43 |
Adequacy of signage |
3.9 |
5.5 |
27.7 |
27.2 |
35.7 |
3.9 44 |
4.2 45 |
Helpfulness of employees |
0 |
0 |
2.4 |
7.6 |
90 |
4.9 18 |
4.4 19 |
Attractiveness of the forest landscape |
0 |
0 |
15.7 |
12.1 |
72.2 |
4.6 45 |
4.6 45 |
Value for fee paid |
0 |
0 |
6.4 |
0 |
93.6 |
4.9 7 |
4.5 11 |
*
Scale is: P = poor F = fair A = average
G = good VG = very good
** Scale is: 1= not important 2= somewhat important 3=moderately important 4= important 5 = very important
(n) = number of responses upon which this rating is based
Visitors rated their perception of how
crowded the recreation site or area 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 19 summarizes 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.
Overnight
Developed Sites |
Day Use Developed Sites |
Wilderness |
General Forest Areas |
|
10 Over
crowded |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
23.9 |
5.7 |
0 |
7 |
19.5 |
6.1 |
0 |
5.3 |
6 |
0 |
11.7 |
8.5 |
10.1 |
5 |
28.7 |
13 |
22 |
14.8 |
4 |
0 |
1.3 |
15.6 |
11.6 |
3 |
18.1 |
25 |
7.3 |
14.8 |
2 |
1.7 |
10.8 |
6.3 |
16.8 |
1 Hardly
anyone there |
32.1 |
8.2 |
34.6 |
26.7 |
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. Visitor responses are summarized below.
Site Name |
Is there any other accommodation or assistance we could
offer? Comments |
Picnic
tables at Marinas Pass site |
|
|
More
handicap camping areas |
|
Picnic
Tables, Bear Proof garbage |
Grand
View Picnic |
Better
signs |
Dry Wolf
CG |
Signs
that are more easily understood |
Moose
Creek CG |
Improve
older bathrooms |
Daisy
Dean TH |
Develop
more campsites - longer spurs, $4 to much for extra vehicle -$2 would be OK |
Mill
Falls CG |
Restroom
could smell better |
Sun
Canyon Resort |
Should
have more mileage signs |
|
Trash
Dumpsters |
06 TR
270/For Bdry Sect 8 |
Open off
road vehicle trails that have been closed - don't close down anymore ORV
trails. |
06 Spring
Crk Road 274/ FS Bdry |
More
available FS employees to sweep road, etc |
07
SheepCk Rd #119 Hwy 89 |
Trail
maintenance & maps for mountain bike trails |
11-07
Divide Rd #839 Hwy 89 |
Road
improvement - big potholes |
15-07
Belt Park Rd FS Bdry |
Open more
trails for (motorcycles, 4 wheelers and snowmobiles. |
18-07 Dry
Ford Rd #120 Hwy 89 |
Balloons
locating the elk!! |
|
Wish
there was some way of knowing availability of camp spots up the road before
coming all the way in w/ 30' camp trailer. |
01-
Benchmark Overflow |
Not all
people left their campsite clean |
01-
Mortimer TH |
Felt some
areas over used |
01- S. Fk
Teton TH |
Available
water pumps |