NF Visitor Use Monitoring Program To Know & Better Serve our NF visitors

How Does NVUM Work? 20% of forests sampled each year Forests identify all road, trail exits & recreation sites Assigned stratified random sample Obtain 24 hour traffic count Conduct 6 hrs onsite interviews

HOW DOES NVUM WORK? PREWORK STRATIFICATION  Site type Overnight Use Developed Sites (OUDs) Day Use Developed Sites (DUDs) General Forest Areas (GFAs) Wilderness View Corridor  Site Day Very High, High, Medium, Low  Proxy or non-proxy

ON-SITE INTERVIEWS  Basic (50%)  Satisfaction (25%)  Economic (25%)  Spanish (as needed) HOW DOES NVUM WORK?

Why We Did It In response to Agency need for Improved understanding of visitor use & satisfaction Reliable, science based visitor data

NVUM Survey Cycles Sampling Cycle #1 10/2000 – 9/2003 Sampling Cycle 2 10/2004 – 9/2008 Succeeding survey cycles – Succeeding survey cycles – Every 5 years

Sampling Calendar

Who Benefits? USFS leaders & program managersUSFS leaders & program managers Congress, & external customersCongress, & external customers The publicThe public The resourceThe resource

NVUM Applications IN PLANNING & MANAGEMENT IN PLANNING & MANAGEMENT Setting Customer Service Standards Required by Exec Order National Recreation Agenda Implementation Strategic & Annual Performance Plans Better service to the public while protecting valuable resources Forest Planning & Monitoring Setting realistic targets & meeting themApplications

In Land Management Decisions Demand and Supply Analysis What do visitors do while on your forest? Where do they do it? Who are they? Applications

In Land Management Decisions – Effects of Forest TOURISM on local communities EmploymentEmployment IncomeIncome Based on: Expenditure data Expenditure data Applications

In Land Management Decisions – Best placement of LIMITED RESOURCES Niche ID Based on current visitor satisfaction Applications

In Land Management Decisions RECREATION NICHE ID Based on Visitor Characteristics AgeAge RaceRace Activity participationActivity participation Outdoor recreationOutdoor recreation expenditure profiles Length of stayLength of stay SatisfactionSatisfaction Applications

Important Definitions National Forest Visit Entry of one person upon a NF to participate in recreation activities. Must be contiguous. Site Visit Entry of one person onto a NF site or area to participate in recreation activities.

More definitions : Recreation trip Duration of time beginning when visitor left home and ending when they get back to their home. Confidence level and error rate Used together to define the reliability of the estimated visits.

Workshop Uinta National Forest

The specific recreation focus of a forest incorporating public expectations with unique social and ecological features of the land What is a Niche RS-FMP: (demand) ( supply ). ? ?

Niche Design SUPPLY Using Infra Site Inventory, ROS, SMS and SOP to develop Forest assets and amenities. DEMAND Using NVUM (forest use data), US Census (population trends) and NSRE (Market Zone resident rec activities) to develop visitor use.

It provides context to help us make decisions. It calibrates our thinking about what is occurring on the forest. Demand It’s important to know what our visitors demand because :

Current Use Estimated use Visitor Origin & Market Zone Visitor Characteristics Visitor Activity Satisfaction and Importance

Visitor Characteristics (from NVUM and Census)

Summary of Visitor Characteristics Most visitors are from the local surrounding counties. There are significantly more young people recreating on this Forest than most other Forests, but visitors represent the age distribution of the market zone. Predominately day-use with some weekend overnight stays.

Segment Shares by Forest NL- Day NL- ON FS NL-ON- Other L- Day L- ON FS L- ON- Other Angeles Eldorado Inyo Modoc Sequoia

Day/Overnight Use of Forest (from NVUM)

Estimated Annual Use (from NVUM)

NEW!!! NRIS-NVUM A database containing ALL Round 1 information Access database Easy to use – queries by forest, region, or nationally, or combinations Some examples follow

NRIS –HD: R4 Visitor Zip Codes

NRIS-HD: Tonto Stratification

NVUM HD- Tonto Interviews

NRIS –HD Tonto Visitation

NRIS –HD: LTBMU Duration

NRIS – HD: LTBMU Activities

NRIS – HD: Region 4 Visitation