Scenarios & examples

Joe’s trip Joe Smith and his wife Mary have birthdays 3 days apart – with Joe’s being first. To celebrate, Joe and Mary pack up their kids and go on a trip! The Smith family left home on Thursday, July 14 and traveled to Mary’s aunt’s house and arrived around 3 pm. Joe’s birthday – July 13 (Wed) Mary’s birthday – July 16 (Sat)

Scenario a On Friday, Joe and his family went to Falls Picnic Area (FS) for an afternoon of relaxation and hanging out. They arrived around 1 pm and left about 5 pm. You are conducting NVUM interviews on Friday at Falls Picnic Area. You see the Smith family packing up, so you ask if you can interview them.

INTERACTIVE: Question: Who do you interview? Voting response: Joe Mary Either Joe or Mary Any one of the kids

Continued… Friday night they again spent the night with Mary’s aunt. On Saturday morning, the family headed up the road to Deer Creek Campground (FS).

Scenario b Their first stop was the trailhead for the nearby wilderness area, where they went for a hike. They got to the trailhead around 10 am. They finished their hike around 1230 pm. They then headed to Deer Creek CG and checked in around 1 pm. The family set up their campsite and then went for a walk along the creek. They spent the night in the campground, and on Sunday, around 11 am they check out and head home. You are conducting NVUM interviews on Sunday at Deer Creek CG. The Smith family are headed out of the campground, so you ask to conduct an interview.

INTERACTIVE: Question: Who do you interview? Voting response: Joe Mary Mary’s Aunt Either Joe or Mary One of the kids Follow up – when was forest arrival: When was site arrival?

Example 1 – Dinkey Creek CG, Resort, DUDS complex Sierra NF – Region 5 Situation: You are sampling the Dinkey Creek Complex. The area is a dead-end FS road that provides access to several campgrounds (proxy), day use sites, recreation residences, a resort (proxy), general forest area, and a forest service work center.

Scenario A You are assigned an OUDS (overnight use developed site) survey day with FE4 proxy code. All the family CGs are handled by the same concessionaire and were listed as one site- Dinkey Creek CG. Would you use a traffic counter? Where would you set up for interviews? Hint: You need to capture ALL campers except group site users.

INTERACTIVE: Question: Where would you put the counter? Show graphic for Dinkey Creek (next slide). Draw a line at the most appropriate spot for the counter.

Scenario B Today you are assigned the Dinkey Creek nonproxy Day Use sites for sampling. Do you need a traffic counter for this survey day? If so, where should it be set up? Should you use a hand tally counter on this sample day? If so, what is counted with the hand tally counter? Where should the interview site be set up? How can you be sure people used the developed day use sites targeted for this sample day (ie: they were not just day users at the resort or hanging out with friends at the campground?

Interactive for scenario B Again, place counter where you think it would work best. Ask the questions one at a time – many of these might work better with phone discussions.

Scenario c Now you are assigned the Dinkey Creek nonproxy GFA interview day. Where should the traffic counter be placed? Where would you conduct the interviews? Would you count a visitor who stayed in the campground or resort as a GFA user? If so, under what circumstances? On the interview form how would you record someone who said they were just staying at their recreation residence? On the interview form how would you record someone who stayed on the private property? On the interview form how would you record someone who was working at the lodge?

Interactive for scenario C Again, place counter where you think it would work best. Ask the questions one at a time – many of these might work better with phone discussions.

Example 2 – Winter general forest area Situation: It’s the middle of a wonderful cold winter with over 10 feet of snow on the ground and more coming tonight. You’ve been assigned a sampling day at the snowpark on Mystic Mountain.

questions Describe how you would prepare for the sample day (what you would bring, how you would check out with your boss, etc.). Describe any special safety considerations. You’ve arrived at the site and snowplows are running. Snow is falling lightly with a midday storm predicted. Would you use a traffic counter? If so, which type? Where would you locate it? What special things would you consider as you set it up? After you set up a pneumatic traffic counter a snowplow came by and pulled it off the road into never never land. How will you get the traffic counts now? The snowpark has mixed uses: cross country skiers, snowmobilers and tubers. Some folks are just using the warming shelter while their kids play in the snow. Which of these users would qualify for a recreation interview?

INTERACTIVE – EXAMPLE 2 These questions are perhaps best answered by discussion over the phone

Example 3 – Bell mountain wilderness and General forest area Coconino NF – Region 3 Situation: Bell Mountain in Sedona Arizona is a major hiking attraction. People come from all over the world to explore the “vortex”, climb, and enjoy the beautiful red rock country. A major high speed highway parallels the mountain. There is a large vista and parking area as one point of access. The other access is totally unmanaged. Many visitors park on the highway shoulder along a 2 miles stretch of road. They come and go in all directions. There can be over 100 vehicles parked at any time.

questions Where should the traffic counter(s) be placed? Is there an alternative to using the counter(s)? If so, explain. Also explain how reliable that estimate might be. Where would you conduct interviews? Describe the site set up.

INTERACTIVE for EXAMPLE 3 Show location graphic – Answer questions 2 and 3 via discussion; maybe selecting a person or two to ‘volunteer’ answers.

Example 4 – Major potty stop/trailhead DUDS non-proxy Ochoco NF – Region 6 Situation: Along Highway 26 there is a beautiful trailhead in old growth ponderosa pine. The Ochoco NF provides 5 picnic tables and a restroom. There are also 3 trails taking off into the woods. The site is both a summer hiking/horse/mt. bike site and winter cross-country ski site. The site is accessed by a pullout from the highway with undesignated parking. Vehicles can pull into the site in either direction. Lots of people stop here just to use the bathroom but some do take a picnic break or go for a hike/ski on one of three trails. Trail #3 is used about 3 times more than trails #1 and #2.

questions For a DUDS interview day where would you place the traffic counter? How do you account for people just stopping to use the restroom? Do you interview them? On a DUDS day, if someone is hiking the trails but didn’t use the picnic tables do you interview them? For a GFA interview day where would you place the counter or counters? Do the 3 different trails pose a sampling problem? Where would you conduct interviews? For the GFA day how would you record traffic count information on the daily summary form?

INTERACTIVE for EXAMPLE 4 Show location graphic – Answer questions 2 onward via discussion; maybe selecting a person or two to ‘volunteer’ answers. Could re display graphic for GFA interview (question 4)

Example 5 – bass lake day use area, non-proxy Chequamegon & Nicolet NF – Region 9 Situation: Bass Lake Day use area is a very popular fishing, swimming, and boating area on the forest. In fact, it was rated a very high use area for most of the summer and showed up 42 times on the survey calendar. The site is accessed by slower speed Forest Service roads. One road accesses a boat launch and the other the Picnic Area/ Beach.

questions Do the people using the boat launch count as part of the DUDS use? Where should the traffic counter be placed? Since it’s going to be set-up 42 different times, would you do anything different? Since the site gets about 80% local use and lots of repeat use do you have any special concerns about sampling here so many times? If so, what are those concerns and how might you address them?

INTERACTIVE for EXAMPLE 5 Show location graphic – Answer questions 1 and 3 via discussion.

Example 6 – cottonwood cove, DUDS non-proxy Lake Mead – National Park Service Situation: You are sampling the Cottonwood Cove Picnic Area. There are 5 picnic tables but the parking area is very large and mostly used by boaters, swimmers, fishermen, and campers. There are upwards of a thousand people in this parking lot on hot weekends.

questions Where should you set up the traffic counter? What do you count on the hand tally counter? Where do you set up for interviews? Who do you interview? If a person at the picnic area also went boating and swimming, would they still qualify for the DUDS interview?

INTERACTIVE for EXAMPLE 6 Show location graphic – Answer questions discussion.