If you care about Wildland Recreation…

Protect the Recreation Experience!HOW? Monitor your SOCIAL and PHYSICAL INDICATORS.

Pam Foti, Ph.D.Parks and Recreation ManagementNorthern 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: Surveys Citizen Task Force Scoping Meetings Workshops Public Meetings Regional/Local Offices Presentations to Groups Citizen Reps on Boards Site Visits w/Groups Public 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 5th 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) – 10-15 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?