Officials at Los Padres National Forest recently signed up to participate in a one-year visitor survey called the National Visitor Use Monitoring program.
Done in partnership with California State University, San Marcos, the survey will be conducted by interviewers stationed at pre-selected points in the forest. The survey began earlier this month and will last through September of 2009. There’s no penalty for not stopping to answer questions.
According to a press release from the U.S. Forest Service, the national survey is developed for all federal land management agencies to measure visitor activities.
The interviewers, stationed at key forest roads or exits from recreation areas, will ask national forest visitors what activities they participated in that day and how much time they devoted to each form of recreation. Visitors will also be asked how satisfied they were with the facilities. Interviewers will also count the number of people per vehicle or party sampled.
The numbers, locations, and activities will be analyzed at a national tabulation center. Results from the yearlong study, performed every five years, will be published along with results from other national forests. The information might be used for allocating funds to recreation programs at each participating forest. U.S. Forest Service officials also plan to use the survey results to better meet the public’s recreational needs.
This article appears in Oct 23-30, 2008.