Forest Recreation Monitoring

Estimates of national forest recreation use are available at the national, regional, and forest levels via the USDA Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) program. In some resource planning and management applications, analysts desire recreation use estimates for subforest areas within an individual national forest or for subforest areas that combine portions of several national forests. In this research note we have detailed two approaches whereby the NVUM sampling data may be used to estimate recreation use for a subforest area within a single national forest or for a subforest area combining portions of more than one national forest. The approaches differ in their data requirements, complexity, and assumptions. In the "new forest" approach, recreation use is estimated by using NVUM data obtained only from NVUM interview sites within the area of interest. In the "all-forest information" approach, recreation use is estimated by using sample data gathered on all portions of the national forest(s) that contain the area of interest.

In recent years, outdoor recreation has become increasingly important on national forests across the United States. As a result, Forest Service managers provide a diverse set of recreation opportunities to the public and there is greater recognition of the economic activity that public recreation can generate in local communities. Accurate visitation estimates are required for national, regional, and forest-level decisionmaking and planning. Specifically, the estimators are needed to determine benefits and impacts of recreational use on other forest resources and local economies. Estimates also are needed to determine outdoor recreation trends and to quantify the effectiveness of Federal programs. However, prior to the creation of the National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) Program in 2000 (English and others 2002), no statistically based, uniformly applied methodology was used to estimate national forest recreation visitation.

This is the final report of the project "Visitor Monitoring Methods in the Nordic and Baltic Countries". The goal of the project was to develop visitor monitoring methodologies for Nordic and Baltic land management agencies, the work of which is related to visitor management in protected and recreational areas. The report provides an overview of the visitor monitoring methods and guidelines currently available, including state-of-the-art reports and case studies from the Nordic and Baltic countries. The report concludes that there are certain common variables related to monitoring outdoor recreation that are important to all the Nordic and Baltic countries and that could be standardized. Therefore, the project group continues its work in order to produce recommendations for a common visitor monitoring methodology in protected and recreational areas in the Nordic and Baltic Countries. These recommendations will be published in the form of a Nordic-Baltic manual on visitor monitoring practices.

In an increasingly urbanised world more and more people are turning to our forests and woodland for recreation and tourism. Based on a study of forest recreation from across Europe, the editors bring together the expertise of more than 80 leading professionals and academics to provide a clear and concise guide to best practice.