If you care about Wildland Recreation… Protect the Recreation Experience! HOW? Monitor your SOCIAL and PHYSICAL INDICATORS. Pam Foti, Ph.D. Parks and Recreation Management Northern Arizona University

My Background in Wildland Recreation

The Foundation  The Limits of Acceptable Change (1) Specification of acceptable and achievable resource conditions. (What do you want on site?) (2) Analysis of the relationship between existing conditions and those judged acceptable. (What do you have on-site?)  BASELINE DATA & INVENTORIES.

The Foundation  The Limits of Acceptable Change (3) Identification of management actions judged to best achieve desired conditions. (What will you do to get to where you want to be for your desired conditions?) (4) A program of monitoring and evaluating management effectiveness. (How do you know if change occurs if you don’t go out and look in a systematic manner?)  MONITORING

Social Indicator Assessment Protecting the Recreation Experience!

Social Indicator Assessment  There are many ways to gather social indicator information: SurveysCitizen Task Force Scoping MeetingsWorkshops Public MeetingsRegional/Local Offices Presentations to GroupsCitizen Reps on Boards Site Visits w/GroupsPublic Interest Center Citizen Advisory Boars Citizen Interest Advocates

Focus on Social Surveys  Social Survey Project Timeline: 6-8 months preparation of study/survey 3-6 months administration of survey …(or more) 3-4 months analysis/reporting TOTAL: 1-2 Years

Focus on Social Surveys  Basic Question: What do you want to know? Who are your visitors? (Socio-Economic/Demographics) What do they want? (Benefits) Where are they from? (In-State/Out-of-State/International) Why do they visit your site? (Activities/Resources) How long do they stay? Are they a new visitor or returning? How much will they pay? (Also…Fee satisfaction) Are they satisfied with their visit? What problems did they perceive? What do they want YOU (as management) to do? Specific site/activity/user questions.

Focus on Social Surveys  Basic Question: What population do you want to survey? General Population  Rare, Difficult to Access, Low Response Rate Field Office/State Office Mailing List  Common, Easy Access, Low to Moderate Response Rate Site Users  Common, Easy Access, Moderate to VERY High Response Rate Example: Climbing Study - 95%+ Response Rate.

Focus on Social Surveys  Basic Question: How will you conduct your survey? On-Site (Bothersome to visitors and time consuming to you) Mail Survey (Poor response rate…unless targeted) Phone Survey (Nobody is answering) On-Line Survey (New and upcoming…could be effective) On-Site Contact with Follow-Up Mail or On-Line (Can be very effective!)

Focus on Social Surveys  Basic Question: Who will you survey? SAMPLING Universe (Everyone…but, why?) Random (Easy with a list; difficult in the field) Purposeful (Good for field application; Example: every 5 th person) “A sample cannot be considered representative of a population unless all members of that population have a known chance of being included in the sample.” (Dillman)

Focus on Social Surveys  Basic Question: Who can implement your survey? In-House  Time, Prep Work, Perceived Bias Contract w/Private Enterprise or University  Effective and efficient, but…$$$$ Always Consider: OMB Involvement  Add 4-6 months onto the Survey

Focus on Social Surveys  Costs: Extremely Variable! $10,000-$300,000 (included multiple social input methods) Standardization across the BLM can DECREASE costs, however, it may limit the information you want!

Focus on Social Surveys  What to AVOID: A survey in newspapers or newsletters where an individual can submit multiple responses.  NOT representative and not a valid and reliable data collection approach.

Focus on Social Surveys  EXAMPLES: Paria Canyon User Survey Variables  Field contact with follow-up mail/on-line survey Questions only. Grand Canyon-Parashant NM Social Indicator Survey  AZ Strip mailing list with mail survey and follow-ups Questions and results.

Let’s take a breathing break!  A question for you: IF you could ask your visitors ONE question, what would it be?  OK… Questions about social surveys? Issues to discuss?

Physical Indicator Assessment Protecting the Recreation Experience BY Protecting the Resource Base.

Physical Indicator Assessment  Physical Impact Project Timeline: 2-3 months preparation of study/survey 3-6 months administration of survey 3 months analysis/reporting TOTAL: 1 Year

Physical Indicator Assessment  Building a System that WORKS! FEASIBILITY IS THE KEY…  Managerial Decision Making What do you want to know? Why do you want to know this? What will you do with the information?  Time to implement  Money to implement  Personnel (how many, how much time)

It’s all about answering QUESTIONS!  What type of questions? Why? How?

Physical Indicator Assessment  Recreation Impact Monitoring: A developed system Validity in data Replicated over time Feasible to implement Records changes over time Provides information for managerial decisions

Physical Indicator Assessment  What is a Recreation Impact Inventory? Universe Sample 90-95% of Sites Rapid Site Inventory (RSI) – minutes/site What have you got on-site? Initial Inventory…then: 5, 7, 10+ years.

Physical Indicator Assessment  What is Recreation Impact Monitoring? Purposeful sampling of selected sites as indicators of change. Includes extreme/heavy impacted sites + % of other sites. How will you know if change occurs or is occurring on-site? Systematic data collection over time: every year, every other year, every third year, etc.

Physical Indicator Assessment  Recreation Impact Monitoring Variables: What should the variables measure?  Measurable/Quantifiable  Sensitive  Reliable (replication over time)  Efficient  Cost-Effective  Significant to Site Problems  May be very SPECIFIC to site!

Physical Indicator Assessment Some Standard Recreation Impact Variables for the Southwest

Recreation Impact Monitoring Variables?  Identify a recreation impact variable that might be UNIQUE to your area.

Physical Impact Assessment  Methods Dynamic Stream of Information… moving with the recreation  Photos, GIS Coordinates, Condition Class, Multiple Parameters Dispersed Recreation  Road Descriptors, OHV Assessment, Recreation Nodes, Climbing Impacts, OHV Climbing Impacts, Shooting Impacts Backcountry  Specific Area Assessment REMEMBER…Recreation impact monitoring is longitudinal trend analysis.  (See GSENM Monitoring Table: Old & New)

Physical Impact Assessment  Analysis Data Base Development Analysis (Making the connections) Reports/Presentations How do you organize all this?

Physical Impact Assessment  Who can do the work? In-House  Time consuming, consistency, long-term commitment, perceived bias Contract with Private Sector, Non-Profit, University  $$$

Physical Impact Assessment  Costs: Depends of the area size and number of impacts. Measuring tool: How many field days and transportation? Paria Canyon (Backcountry Monitoring)  $1,500/year, 36 miles of slot canyon SDNM (Dispersed Monitoring)  $10,500 entire monument (496,000 acres) – every 3 years GSENM (Backcountry Monitoring)  $8,000/year, 12 areas/year, on-going GCNP (Backcountry Inventory)  $37,000 for 32 backcountry zones, 757 sites

Physical Impact Assessment  What to Avoid: One time assessment with no follow-up monitoring. Too much detail or too much site work…too time consuming. Too complicated to understand/implement…poor data. Data collection that is not useful in managerial decision making.

Physical Impact Assessment  Examples: Inventory Form: Indian Creek Climbing Area Monitoring Form: AZ Strip Backcountry w/Standards Monitoring Form: SDNM Dispersed w/Targeted Forms:  Road Descriptor Form  Off Road Impact Form  Recreation Node Form  Climbing Impact Form  OHV Climbing Area Impact Form  Butterfield State Route Interval Form  Shooting Impact Form

Thank You…Questions?