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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Forest Service: Recreation

The recreation program of the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service provides high-quality outdoor recreational opportunities on forests and grasslands, while sustaining natural resources.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • The Recreation Program has a clear purpose and adequate long-term performance measures, but the Forest Service strategic plan does not make good use of these measures.
  • Although each Recreation Fee Demonstration Project completed a business plan prior to implementation, not all National Forests have completed business plans for recreation areas. This may lead to situations where resources are not effectively targeted due to program design issues or inconsistent data.
  • Independent evaluations have identified business system information data gaps needed to improve financial and management decisions that enhance visitor satisfaction. However, key recommendations for improving data reliability and use remain to be implemented.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Amending the Forest Service strategic plan to include Recreation Program performance measures that better link improvements in program performance with achievement of strategic goals.
  • Optimizing available resources by completing business plans for each National Forest or Grassland recreation area.
  • Improving revenue and cost data for the program, using actual utilization and service delivery cost data, and implementing key recommendations on data reliability and use.

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