Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring Process: Research Method Documentation

In response to the need for improved information on recreational use of National Forest System lands, the authors have developed a nationwide, systematic monitoring process. This report documents the methods they used in estimating recreational use on an annual basis. The basic unit of measure is exiting volume of visitors from a recreation site on a given day. Sites are stratified by type. Days are stratified by expected volume of exiting recreation visitors. A double sampling strategy is the primary means used to obtain measures of exiting recreation traffic. Where possible, observable counts of other measures highly correlated with visitation, such as fee envelopes, ski lift tickets, or concessionaire reports, are used to reduce variation in visitation estimates. In addition to showing how sampling units were defined, the authors also provide calculations they used in developing estimators for the mean and variance of visitation.