National Visitor Use Monitoring
Prework Data Verification
NRIS NVUM Prework Database v1.45
October 2007
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NATIONAL VISITOR USE MONITORING PRE-WORK....................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Help/Contacts................................................................................................................................................ 4
Pre-work ........................................................................................................................................................ 5
Pre-work Data Verification ........................................................................................................................ 5
Map Point Verification .............................................................................................................................. 7
Background Information ............................................................................................................................. 8
Purpose ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
Stratification of Sites & Areas ................................................................................................................... 8
What to look for in Round 1 data to improve Round 2 data ...................................................................12
Critical Review of the NVUM Round 1 Results using NRIS HD-NVUM 1.2 .........................................12
Table 1 Description...................................................................................................................................12
Interpreting the Results .............................................................................................................................13
Table 31 Description.................................................................................................................................14
Interpreting the results: .............................................................................................................................15
Review results from each completed survey day ......................................................................................17
Table 31 Description.................................................................................................................................17
Interpreting the Results .............................................................................................................................18
Review Activity participation information ................................................................................................19
Table 13 Description.................................................................................................................................19
Interpreting the Results .............................................................................................................................20
Review Proxy Summary Results ................................................................................................................21
Table 32 Description.................................................................................................................................21
Interpreting the Results .............................................................................................................................23
Information Available from the Pre-work Access database: ...................................................................24
APPENDIX A: NATIONAL VISITOR USE MONITORING DEFINITIONS .......... 28
APPENDIX B: CORRECTING LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE FOR NATIONAL
VISITOR USE SAMPLE POINTS ....................................................................... 38
Overview and History: ..............................................................................................................................40
Overview and History: ..............................................................................................................................40
Summary of Tasks ....................................................................................................................................40
ArcMap and Importing Coverages ...........................................................................................................40
Add X-Y Data ...........................................................................................................................................45
Checking & making corrections to the latitude and longitude ..................................................................50
2
National Visitor Use Monitoring Pre-Work
Introduction
Welcome to the next round of National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM). NVUM is an
on-going national monitoring program that uses a stratified random sample to develop
statistically sound estimates of visitor use, characteristics, satisfaction, and spending
information relevant to each national forest. Results from individual forests are combined
to provide regional and national estimates and descriptions of visits.
Each national forest and grassland participated in the NVUM program between January
2000 and September 2003 (round 1). The second round of sampling will occur during
fiscal years 2005-2009. Having two rounds of sampling can enable forests to examine
trends in visitor volume and characteristics. To complete this project there are two main
phases of work. First, forests supply “pre-work” the year prior to on-site sampling. The
pre-work defines the sampling frame and establishes the context for actual data
collection. Second, the forests conduct on-site visitor surveys during the assigned survey
year. Since both the sampling schedule and the final visit estimates depend directly on the
pre-work, it is critical that each forest do the best job possible in this stage.
This document provides direction on how to accomplish the pre-work. Appendix A
contains definitions used throughout the document, Appendix B provides detailed
directions on mapping.
Your forest is scheduled to begin on-site visitor surveys October 1, 2008. The pre-work
phase must be completed by May 1, 2008 to allow adequate preparation time for
development of the assigned sample and scheduling of interviewer staff to accomplish the
on-site surveys. To complete the pre-work process the forest staff must review and verify
information they supplied during the first round of survey work. The NVUM team will
then use this updated information to select a sample of survey days and provide the forest
a one year sample calendar that will run from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009.
For those who are familiar with NVUM from round 1, note that several things have been
changed. These changes will need to be incorporated when updating the database.
Changes include:

Round 1 Forest data has been preloaded into an Access database and must be verified

The Access database has additional fields to fill in such as District Code,
Congressionally designated area code, INFRA number

Round 1 Forest maps have been digitized and location points must be verified

A “very high” use level category has been added

The Closed (C) category has been renamed to No Use (N)

The use levels set by the forest must now be recorded in the database

Some Proxy Codes have been deleted, others added

Site names now require clear descriptive names
3

View Corridors- the definition of what travelways are allowed has changed. There is
now a drop down list of all nationally and regionally designated scenic travelways - if
these occur on the forest they can be listed in the VC category. Some round 1 View
Corridors may still qualify, while new ones may be added.
Help/Contacts
If you still have questions about the pre-work process after reviewing the basic training
materials, help is available from your regional coordinator and NVUM team.
NVUM Assistance Contacts
Regional Coordinators:
R1: Lis Novak (lnovak@fs.fed.us)
406. 329-3576
R2: Pam DeVore (pdevore@fs.fed.us)
303.275-5043
R3: Dennis Garcia (dggarcia@fs.fed.us)
505.842-3443
R4: Laura Conroy (lconroy@fs.fed.us)
801.625-5152
R5: Frances Enkoji (fenkoji@fs.fed.us)
707.562-8846
R6: Chuck Frayer (cfrayer@fs.fed.us)
503.808-2446
R8: Greg Barnes (gmbarnes@fs.fed.us)
270.924.2089
R9: Leon LaVigne (llavigne@fs.fed.us)
414.297-1313
R10: Neil Hagadorn(nhagadorn@fs.fed.us)
907.586-9336
NVUM National Coordinators:
NRIS help desk
503.668.1798 for prework database
questions
Sue Kocis (skocis@fs.fed.us)
517.355-7740 x 119 – pre-work
stratification questions
Don English (denglish@fs.fed.us)
202.205-9595 – study design and data
4
Pre-work
The first step to prepare for survey work is to verify and correct pre-work information the
forest did previously and fill in several new data fields. Pre-work consists of listing all of
the developed sites (such as campgrounds, visitor centers, and picnic areas) and access
points (to capture Wilderness and General Forest Area visitors). For each site or access
point, each day of the year must be classified according to the expected exiting volume of
recreation visitors. Categories include no use (formerly called closed), low, medium,
high, or very high last exiting use days. Placing these “site-days” into the correct
categories should result in a more accurate visitation estimate.
The location of the sites and access points used in round 1 of sampling has been digitized.
The missing lat/ longs must be filled in and existing one must be verified. The forest staff
will also need to populate several new fields in the database including district code,
congressionally designated area code, and for developed sites, the INFRA number.
NVUM is supplying all forests with their round 1 information including:

A spreadsheet (Access database) that contains all the Forest’s pre-work including lists
of sites/ areas and high, medium, low, or no use recreation days

A GIS layer so the forest can develop a map of the sites and areas (latitude and
longitude info).

NRIS HD-NVUM 1.2 database tables that provide analysis of round 1 data, assisting
the forest to identify areas that could be improved to provide a more accurate sample
in round 2.
Pre-work Data Verification
All Forest data entered in the pre-work database must be verified for accuracy and
changed if necessary.
1. First, develop a good understanding of the NVUM stratification process for sites and
days (see the following section). Talk with people on the forest who participated in
round 1.
2. Obtain and review the updated round 1 data for your forest. The Round 1 estimates
were updated in August 2006 and may not be the same as found on your old Forest
NVUM report from round 1. To obtain a copy of this database visit the following web
site: http://fsweb.nris.fs.fed.us/installation/index.php and choose the HD –NVUM
program to download.
3. While reviewing round 1 results note any areas with a large confidence interval width
(over 15%) and information such as activity participation that differs from forest staff
expectations. Talk with District and Forest staffs and note their concerns.
4. Review the round 1 calendar of assigned sample days for a sense of what sites/ areas
were initially surveyed. This information is located in Table 33 of the NRIS HDNVUM 1.2 database.
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5. Use the NRIS HD-NVUM 1.2 database, Tables 1, 13, 31, 32, and 33 to review round
1 data. This analysis provides more visual information about data distributions that
may help identify areas needing improvement in round 2.
6. Go to the pre-work database and use the analysis tools provided to identify areas of
data improvement needed.
7. Go through all the sites and areas listed and verify, delete, add, or change the
information for sites needing improvement.

If possible, find the original high, medium, and low use limits used by the forest.
This will assist in understanding how the initial categorization was done.
Remember to incorporate the Very High use level where helpful. Fill in the new
fields for forest use levels.

Make sure to fill in new fields such as INFRA number, Congressionally
Designated Areas, and District Codes.

For all sites make sure the latitude and longitude are correct

For all sites make sure the site name is descriptive

Check Proxy codes to ensure they are still valid and updated to meet new
definitions.

Redo View Corridor travelways to meet the new definition. See Appendix A for
full definition. The drop down list of potential travelways to include is in the
Access Database.

For GFA and View Corridors identified as either high speed or having unsafe
interview locations, try to move the exit interview point to roads that are lower
speed (less than 35mph) or that have safe interview locations (see Access
database Travel Way Safety report).
8. Run the data check reports in the pre-work database as a final test of the information
to verify everything has been done correctly.
6
Map Point Verification
In round 1 the forest labeled all the sites and areas listed on the spreadsheet on a forest
base map. These point locations have now been digitized and must be verified. Accurate
identification of all points is important for several reasons. First, this information allows
anyone to find the survey point for interviewing. Second, creation of a permanent record
that can be housed in the forest GIS database is very useful for multiple resource analysis.
In addition, the point location is used for distance calculations for economic analysis.
Following are the basic steps to download the database into GIS. Detailed instructions
with graphics on how to load the database from NRIS are in Appendix B.
1. Take the Dbase (dbf) file provided from the Access database and turn it into a
GIS layer for forest use. The dbf file is a database file (actually in dBase format)
that links up with ArcView and ArcMap.
2. Using ArcMap or ArcView import the local forest layers such as roads, township/
range and county lines, recreation sites, forest boundaries, etc. This will set the
local projection and coordinate system automatically.
3. Add the x, y point data by importing the dbf file.
4. Plot items 2 and 3 information as a large map (at least 3 x 4 feet). Some users may
opt to use the map in the ArcMap or ArcView application. In either case a hard
copy map should be plotted.
5. The recreation planner should then take this map and verify the point location of
all sites and areas listed as follows:
a. For sites sampled in round 1- locate as close to actual interview site as
possible
b. For sites not sampled in round 1- locate within ¼ mile of actual site.
However, make sure the site is at least in the correct developed site or on
the correct road or trail.
6. Note any NVUM point locations that are not in their correct location. Identify the
true location of these points. Working with GIS, identify the correct latitude and
longitude of these points.
7. Make any changes in the Access database. The database has a data entry form that
allows updates to the lat/ long information without going through every site
record.
7
Background Information
In order to verify forest information supplied in round 1, a basic understanding of the
NVUM process and definitions is needed. This section provides an overview, however,
for detailed information visit the web site for examples of forest reports and a report that
provides the statistical methodology and sampling details behind the NVUM process. The
web site is http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum.
Purpose
The basic sampling unit for the NVUM program is called a ‘site-day’ which represent a
unique combination of a recreation site or area on a particular calendar day. The purpose
of the pre-work process is to categorize every site-day on the National Forest into five
recreation site categories and five use levels. The NVUM team then selects interview
sample days on the Forest within each category through a stratified random sample
procedure. The survey data collected on these interview days is then expanded to
represent the unsampled days within each stratum, to estimate a visitor use number.
Making the best possible decisions on classifying each of the site-day combinations on
the Forest is critical to obtaining quality recreation use numbers.
Stratification of Sites & Areas
Stratification improves the quality of the recreation use estimate. By grouping site-days
that are most alike together, and separating groups with the greatest differences, the
variability of the visitation estimate is reduced, which improves the overall standard error
of the estimate. NVUM uses three types of information to define the sampling strata for
the sites and the days the sites are open for recreation use. These strata are site type,
proxy information type, and day type (expected exiting visitation volume). Not all
forests will have all strata. For example, a forest may not have a designated Wilderness,
therefore no Wilderness sites or areas will be identified. The three basic information
levels are listed below.
Information Level 1 – Site Type Stratification: The forest previously categorized every
recreation site and access point on the Forest into one of six site/area types. These were:
Day Use Developed Sites (DUDS), Overnight Use Developed Sites (OUDS), General
Forest Areas (GFA), Wilderness (W), Viewing Corridors (VC), and Off Forest
Recreation Activities (OFF). The OFF category will no longer be used. Definitions for
the other five site types are listed in Appendix A.
Information Level 2 - Proxy Information Type: For each site type (DUDS, OUDS,
etc.), both proxy and non-proxy sites need to be identified. The forest identified sites with
proxy information in round 1 and also identified the type of proxy information available.
Proxy definitions and the types of proxy allowed have changed somewhat since round 1.
It is important to revisit the proxy sites and determine the appropriate proxy code using
the current definitions.
Proxy measures are a known count of something that is directly related to recreation
visitation to a Forest Service site or area by an individual, a group, or a vehicle on Forest
Service System lands. Some examples include fee envelopes, fee receipts, mandatory
permits, permanent traffic counters, registration forms, or ticket sales. Typically, such
8
information is collected for all days for a given site however sometimes this information
may only be available for a portion of the year. For sites where proxy information is
available only for a portion of the year, the site must be listed twice in the pre-work- once
for the proxy period and once for the non-proxy period. Proxy information must meet
several criteria before it can be used:
1. The proxy information must represent all users of the site.
2. The count must be known to be without error.
3. Only certain kinds of proxy data are considered acceptable (Refer to Appendix A
for proxy definitions).
4. The data is already being collected for another reason and is not an additional
burden to either the Forest or the Concessionaire. Note that several forests
identified proxy in round 1 only to find during the sample year that the data was
not available. Make sure to change these sites from proxy to non-proxy.
5. At least 80% of users comply with the proxy.
6. There are enough site-days and a high enough visitation level within a proxy code
(in the same site type) to make it worthwhile to dedicate at least 5 sample days to
the proxy.
Information Level 3 – Day type & Use Level, Volume of Exiting Visitation: Each
recreation site or access point was further divided into a unit of measure called a site day.
A site day is defined as one calendar day at one Forest Service recreation site or access
point. For example, the Clear Creek Picnic Area is identified as a site and is open to the
public from May 1 through August 31; therefore there are 123 open site days and 242
closed/no use site days. Each day the site was open was then categorized as a very high,
high, medium, or low use day. Any day the site or access point is administratively closed,
inaccessible, or expected to receive no last exiting recreation use is labeled “no use”
(formerly called “closed”). In round 2, an additional use level, VERY HIGH, has been
added.
Note: The Very High category is new for Round 2. It is not required. If used, it must be
used with discretion. Many forests felt this additional category would be helpful to
distinguish high use sites that have very different types of visitors than other sites. For
example, within Day Use Sites are Ski Areas, Visitor Centers, Golf Courses, and Picnic
sites. By listing Ski Areas in Very High, these visitors will be sampled separately from
the other sites.
The site day stratification is done from a Forest perspective, not
a district perspective. In round 1 each forest defined the break point between
high, medium, and low for their forest. For example in Day Use non-proxy sites the forest
may have defined low as 1-30 last exiting recreation vehicles, medium as 31-70, and high
as 71 or more. For Wilderness points they may have defined low as 1-10, medium as 1120, and high as 21 or more exiting hikers. The forest may still have records of how they
defined these break points. If not, look at the way sites were labeled and estimate the
break points.
9
In round 1 some forests made the mistake of taking a district rather than a forest
perspective and days that were not really high use got labeled and sampled incorrectly.
This caused a higher confidence interval width.
Very high, high, medium, low, and no use is categorized based upon last exiting
recreation traffic volume, not actual occupancy of a site. For example, Saturday in
a campground may be high occupancy because every site is full, but may actually be a
low last exiting traffic day in NVUM. Since visitors are counted when they are leaving,
the visitor use statistics and site-day stratification must also be based upon last exiting
visitors not occupancy levels.
What is the correct proportion of very high, high, medium, and low use days? There are
no hard and fast rules however a general guideline is no more than 2-5% of days in very
high, 10% in high, 40% in medium and 45% in low. The most important dividing line
between use stratum is the range of use expected within each. The days within each use
stratum should be as alike as possible.
Road speed at exit points can influence the number of people who stop for interviews. In
round 1 we found visitors are less likely to stop on roads with speeds over 35mph. Try to
move the exit interview location to roads or locations along the road with slower speeds.
For example, a major forest road with a speed of 45mph could be broken into multiple
exit interview points at road intersections with slower road speeds.
Updating View Corridor Information
The definition for which travelways are allowed in the View Corridor stratum has
changed. Travelways listed in round 1 may still qualify but should be checked against the
following criteria. Many other travelways on the forest may now qualify under the new
definition.
To determine which travelways to list, gather all travelways information relevant to the
forest including those listed in round 1, any scenic roads on the drop down list of the
Access database, and any other non-FS managed travelways on the forest with scenic
qualities that are at least in part dependant upon the national forest scenery.
Consult with the Forest Engineer and Forest Landscape Architect to be sure no important
scenic travelways are overlooked.
Next, apply the Scenic Management System or Visual Management System criteria to the
list developed above. All forests have previously conducted a scenic inventory for Forest
Planning, although in same cases this inventory may be hard to locate or may be
outdated.
Apply the SMS or VMS criteria only to non-forest service travelways. Landscapes are
viewed to varying degrees from different locations and subsequently differ in their
importance. To assist scenic inventory and analysis, this importance can be ranked by
concern levels. Concern levels are a measure of the degree of public importance placed
on landscapes viewed from travelways. They are divided into three levels; high, medium
and low. Then depending upon the type of road, a rating of 1, 2 or 3 is given. List only
those travelways that meet concern levels 1 or 2 as shown in Table 1 Appendix A under
the View Corridor definition.
10
Apply this scenic criteria to the travelways identified. Then edit the NVUM Access
database, View Corridor tab with this information. Additional information to add in this
database include the begin milepost of the travelway, the segment length in miles, and the
latitude and longitude information. If there is an interview spot along this travelway use
the latitude and longitude of this point. If there is no interview spot use the latitude and
longitude of the begin milepost. Appropriate interview spots include rest areas or viewing
areas with a restroom in which a mixture of highway traffic stops. View points without a
restroom should not be used because almost 100% of the people who stop would be
viewing scenery and all commuter traffic would pass by. This would not give an accurate
percent of commercial to noncommercial and recreation use on the road.
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What to look for in Round 1 data to improve Round 2 data
Taking a critical look at the pre-work done in round 1 of sampling will greatly improve
the visitor information obtained in round 2. There are two main sources of information to
review round 1 data that will help identify areas in need of improvement. First, review
the round 1 information for your forest by using the NRIS_HD-NVUM 1.2 database
tables, including the table showing round 1 forest sample calendar. Next, review the prework Access database information and associated analysis tools. All corrections are made
in the pre-work Access database.
Critical Review of the NVUM Round 1 Results using NRIS HD-NVUM 1.2
Previous versions of the forest report that were sent to your forest are obsolete and are
replaced with the information contained in the NRIS HD-NVUM 1.2 database at the
following web site: http://www.nris.fs.fed.us/installation/index.php. The new database is
user friendly and provides summary tables for all the information collected in round 1.
The tables most relevant for this review are Tables 1, 13, 31, 32, and 33. Explore this
database, print out relevant tables, and discuss the results with other forest planners and
recreation folks. Note any criticism of information in the tables that might need to be
investigated in round 2. NVUM will not be able to provide site specific information.
However, the accuracy of the overall forest information can be improved, especially
descriptive information about visitor characteristics, satisfaction and economic spending.
The information in these tables can help the forest determine whether or not the
distribution of high, medium, and low days for each site type can be improved. Examples
of how to examine and then use the information to identify needed changes follows. The
detection of systematic errors is the primary goal of this review, not trying to
correct a particular site that was sampled in round 1.
Table 1 Description
The results of the recreation site/area stratification and sample days
accomplished by the national forest are displayed in Table 1. The population
of available site days for sampling was constructed from information provided
by forest personnel in the pre-work completed in round 1.
Variables in Table 1 include site type, proxy code, use level, the number of
days in the strata population, the number of days sampled, and the sampling
rate. Site types (column 1) are Day Use Developed Sites, Overnight Use
Developed Sites, General Forest Areas, and Wilderness. Forest personnel
categorized every site or area on the forest into one of these four categories
based upon the strict definitions found in Appendix A.
If a site or area already collected use information (such as fee envelopes, ski
lift tickets, daily use records, etc.) the site was labeled as a proxy site. If a site
or area had a proxy count the code for that proxy count is listed in column 2
(see Appendix A for code definitions). Column 2 will be blank for those sites
or areas without proxy information.
Every site and area on the forest was categorized as high, medium, low, or no
last exiting recreation use. Column 3 shows the use level for each of the site
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types. The concept of “last exiting recreation use” is very important to
understand when interpreting results. It does not mean the total recreation use
on a given day. For example, Saturdays in campgrounds were typically
labeled as medium or low “last exiting recreation use” even though the
campground might be full. This is because people were not exiting the
campground for the last time on their visit on Saturdays.
The combination of site type and use level/proxy code created sampling
stratum. Sample days were drawn from each of these strata. Column 4 of
Table 1 displays the total number of days that were available for sampling,
column 5 displays the number of days sampled per stratum, and column 6
shows the sampling rate (column 5 divided by column 4).
Table 1 Site days and percentage of days sampled by stratum
Site type
Proxy
Code
# Days in
population
Use Level
# Days
sampled
Sampling
Rate (%)
DUDS
HIGH
106
11
10.4
DUDS
MEDIUM
281
11
3.9
DUDS
LOW
744
9
1.2
GFA
HIGH
674
22
3.3
GFA
MEDIUM
1722
26
1.5
GFA
LOW
17581
26
.2
OUDS
HIGH
37
9
24.3
OUDS
MEDIUM
19
9
47.4
OUDS
LOW
344
9
2.6
OUDS
FE4
747
6
0.8
OUDS
RE2
651
5
0.8
WILDERNESS
HIGH
20
9
45.0
WILDERNESS
MEDIUM
123
9
7.3
WILDERNESS
LOW
738
9
1.2
23,787
170
.007
Totals
Interpreting the Results
Reviewing the sample frame created by forest personnel helps managers
understand how many days were sampled at each of the different types of
recreation sites or areas. This provides a greater understanding of how the
resulting visitation estimates were derived.
Reviewing the number of days in each stratum provides a picture of where
forest personnel felt recreation use occurs and at what intensity. For example,
the Sherwood National Forest shows 17,581 low last exiting recreation visits
for the General Forest Area strata (column 4, row 6). There are 674 days
shown with high last exiting recreation use in the General Forest Area strata
(column 4, row 4). In General Forest Areas on the Sherwood National Forest
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there are a lot more site days with very few last exiting recreation vehicles
than high use days.
Comparing the use level ratings to site capacities (people at one time, or
PAOT) may help program managers better understand the current distribution
of the recreation opportunity spectrum (ROS) across the forest as a whole.
Usually ROS is looked at in terms of acres provided. This information gives a
feel for site days utilized between the developed and undeveloped ends of the
ROS spectrum.
Table 31 Description
Table 31 provides detailed information on how the recreation visit estimate
was calculated for the selected national forest. The information is displayed by
stratum which is a combination of the site type (column 1) and use level/proxy
code (column 2). Column 3 “average number of visits per day” is obtained
from the sample survey as the average visits for the stratum. Column 4 is
obtained by multiplying column 3 by the total number of site days (see Table
1) in that stratum. Column 5 is the associated error term of the site visit
estimate at the 80% confidence level. Columns 6 through 9 provide details
about the interviews obtained within each stratum. Individuals who agreed to
be interviewed (column 6) are those who completed more than Question 1 on
the interview form. The number of completed interviews (column 7) is people
who agreed to be interviewed and were last exiting the targeted recreation site;
therefore they answered all questions on the survey form. Column 8 “average
number of completed interviews per day” is calculated by dividing the number
of complete interviews (column 7) by the number of completed sample days
within that stratum (Table 1 column 4). Column 9 is the number of sample
days for which no last exiting recreation interviews were obtained.
Table 31 Nonproxy summary results by sampling stratum
Stratum
Site
Type
Use
Level/proxy
code
DUDS
High
DUDS
Medium
80%
Confidence
Interval (%)
No. of
Individuals
who
Agreed to
Interview
46,475
19.2
127
95
8.6
0
28.3
7913
13.0
45
41
3.7
0
Average
No. of
Visits
Per Day
Site
Visit
Total
438.4
No. of
Complete
Interviews
Average
No. of
Complete
Interviews
Per Day
No. of
Days with
No
Complete
Interviews
DUDS
Low
9.8
7256
31.3
25
23
2.6
3
OUDS
High
1.0
38
13.6
53
28
3.1
1
OUDS
Medium
10.4
198
19.9
22
11
1.2
2
OUDS
Low
10.1
3,467
21.7
29
15
1.7
5
OUDS
FE4
10.0
7,415
11.6
33
25
4.2
1
OUDS
RE2
1.2
766
69.4
5
11
1.2
2
GFA
High
47.8
32,219
9.1
207
137
6.2
3
GFA
Medium
44.0
75,682
9.1
206
123
4.7
3
14
GFA
Low
18.3
321,140
14.8
70
41
1.6
12
WILD
High
7.2
144
15.1
8
7
.8
4
WILD
Medium
3.1
380
21.4
6
5
.6
6
WILD
Low
3.2
2,339
25.9
2
2
.2
7
TOTAL
649,558
Interpreting the results:
Table 31 provides useful information about the distribution of existing
recreation use on the national forest.
Many forests have a large percentage of their recreation use in the General
Forest Area (GFA) low use stratum. Because developed sites such as picnic
areas (DUDS) and campgrounds (OUDS) have a short use season in many
parts of the country, and the General Forest Areas are open year round, it
makes some intuitive sense that this stratum would receive higher use. When
examining the forest niche it’s useful to note which site types receive the most
use.
How many complete interviews were obtained for each stratum? If a
particular stratum, for example Wilderness low, has no complete interviews,
then one cannot be certain data in the other tables, such as demographics or
satisfaction, apply to people visiting the forest on Wilderness low use days.
However, if Wilderness medium and high use level days had a significant
number of complete interviews, the remaining descriptive information about
Wilderness visitors likely applies. In most cases, when an insufficient number
of interviews were obtained, the information is suppressed in table outputs.
Was the National Forest Visit confidence interval width 15% or less? The
NVUM program has a fifteen percent confidence interval width (error rate)
target. This is a very acceptable target for large scale national and regional
samples. If the forest confidence interval width is greater than fifteen percent
of the total visitation estimate, this could indicate wide variability in observed
use within some stratum that could be corrected in round 2. For example, the
example forest has a 31.3 % confidence interval width for DUDS Low. This
interval indicates the forest should look very closely at how all the sites were
divided into high, medium, low and no use/closed. By looking closely at the
site visit average by stratum, the forest may be able to narrow down the areas
of high variability that contributed to the large confidence interval width.
For example as shown in Table 1, the range of site visits per day on the
example NF in the GFA stratum was 47.8 site visits per day in the High
stratum, 44.0 in medium, and 18.3 in low. Since the high and medium stratum
average is about the same, the forest could possibly reallocate some high and
medium days to obtain a greater difference between these two stratum
averages.
At this point it may also help to print out a copy of the Site/Strata report from
the pre-work database. This report will provide a list of every site or area in
15
the pre-work and show which days were listed as high, medium, and low for
every site.
Another way to detect the source of variability that causes large confidence
interval widths is to look at the individual stratum variability. As shown in
Table 31 on the example NF, the GFA Low stratum had high variability (31.1)
A primary cause for this is that during GFA survey days a wide range of
visitation estimates was observed. For example on the medium use survey
days the number of last exiting visitors may have been 0, 50, 20, 5, and 200.
This is a wider range than if the number of last exiting visitors observed had
been 120, 45, 18, 30, and 62, even though the average of the two sets of
numbers is exactly the same. Better classification of days may help reduce the
variability observed within each stratum. In particular, are there large numbers
of zero traffic days in medium or higher strata? Are there large numbers of
higher visitation days in low strata?
Were there at least 30 last exiting recreation interviews obtained in all
site type strata? The minimum recommended sample for statistical analysis
for any visitor characteristics for a sample stratum is 30 observations. If the
forest did not obtain at least 30 interviews from last-exiting recreation visitors,
identify which stratum received a smaller number and investigate whether this
could be improved through redistribution of the high, medium, low, and
closed use levels. As shown in Table 31, the example NF had a total of 16 last
exiting Wilderness recreation interviews, 8 in high, 6 in medium, and 2 in
low. Essentially, there were not enough interviews obtained in the Wilderness
stratum to provide statistically reliable use estimates. The forest should
examine the sites listed in this stratum and the distribution of high, medium,
and low days. How do visitors access Wilderness? What times of year and
days of the week are visitors most likely to be exiting the Wilderness? On
what days and which locations could more interviews be obtained? Are these
areas adequately captured with existing stratification or should changes be
made?
How many interviews were obtained? Table 31 also shows the example NF
averaged .8 last exiting recreation interviews per day in the Wilderness
stratum. The forest should consider categorizing high and medium days so
that more interviews are obtained. Remember the goal is to detect systematic
errors in categorizing sites, not fix just those sites selected for sampling. There
are many reasons for a low number of interviews on any particular day
including weather, road speed, eagerness of interviewer to stop visitors, and
lack of visitors. Keep these in mind before jumping to conclusions that any
one stratum was done “wrong”.
How many zero interview days did the Forest have? As shown in Table 1,
in the General Forest Area Low site type, the example NF sampled 26 days.
On 12 of the 26 days (Table 31) there were no interviews obtained. The forest
might want to revisit the sites listed in GFA and especially those days labeled
low use. They may wish to show more no use days on days likely to produce
no last exiting recreation visitors.
16
Review results from each completed survey day
The forest can review how well their round 1 sample calendar and subsequent sample
days performed by studying Table 33 of the NRIS HD-NVUM 1.2 database. A random
number selection process was used to pick sample sites out of the population of site days
listed in the pre-work. However, forests noticed some sites got selected for interviewing
more than others. This usually happened when a particular site was the only one in its site
type that had high or medium use days. This can be verified by looking at the high and
medium days in the pre-work database. The new “very high” category may be useful to
isolate special sites within a site type, allowing the forest to label more than one site with
high or medium use.
The limitations put on the selection of sample days may also cause one site to be sampled
more than others. The program limits the number of sites to sample on any particular
calendar day to 2 per forest. Typically, the summer season has many sites showing high
or medium use every weekend. Consequently almost every weekend day has 2 sites
allocated for sampling. Thus, a high or medium site day outside this season may have a
higher probability of getting sampled. For example, an OUDS site with high use days in
the shoulder or winter season is likely to get picked.
Table 31 Description
Table 33 is provided for the purpose of helping managers see how all the
components of the completed sample fit together. By reviewing each sample
day’s basic information, a manager can judge how well the prework was done
and how other factors such as weather, site closures, or other factors may or
may not have affected the sample days accomplished.
Columns 1 and 2 describe the site type and use level or proxy code of the
particular sample day. Column 3 shows the date the sample day was
accomplished. Column 4 gives the assigned site number of the site and
column 5 gives the name of the site or area sampled. Column 6 is the
calculated exiting traffic count. Exiting traffic count is the estimate of total
daily exiting traffic units for that sample day. A traffic unit may be people
and/or vehicles. It was calculated from information recorded by the
interviewer including a hand tally count, traffic count, and interviews. Column
7 displays the number of individuals who agreed to the interview and column
8 shows how many of those in column 7 completed a full interview. They
completed a full interview if they were last exiting recreation users at the site
listed in column 5 on the day listed in column 3.
17
Table 33 Results from each completed survey day
Stratum
Site
Type
Use
Level or
Proxy
Code
Date
Sampled
Site
No.
DUDS
Low
1/1/2002
9
West
Fork
Picnic
DUDS
Low
1/5/2002
15
Smokey
Ski
Area
GFA
High
7/4/02
23456
FS Rd
22 jct
with FS
Rd 42
Site
Name
Exiting
Traffic
Count
15.8
550
No. of
Individuals Who
Agreed to
Interview
No. of
Complete
Interviews
5
2
50
45
20
19
Interpreting the Results
Some forests had a low number of complete interviews at sites they thought
would have a fair amount of recreation use. By reviewing Table 33 managers
may be able to better understand how their sample turned out as it did. If there
was a high number of people who agreed to be interviewed (column 7) but a
low number of complete interviews (column 8) it could mean there was
recreation use at the site on the day shown but no one was last exiting the site
on that day. It was not uncommon for forests to mislabel high last exiting
recreation use days, confusing it with actual site use on any particular day.
This was especially true in Overnight Use Developed Sites.
A good review by knowledgeable forest employees of information in Table 33
will greatly assist forest managers in improving their prework prior to
participating in the NVUM sample a second time. Once the information is
reviewed and a stratum with high variability is identified (for example GFA
Medium), the sample day information can be reviewed to detect potential
systematic categorization errors.
The exiting vehicle count represents an estimate of the total recreation traffic
for the interview day, and the number of last exiting recreation interviews
obtained affects the calculation of recreation visits. The ratio of the hand tally
count (which counted exiting traffic) and the ratio of last exiting recreation
visitors to other visitors are used to calibrate the traffic count. If fewer than 30
visitor contacts were made in a particular stratum a regional average is used to
obtain the proportion of last exiting recreation traffic. Therefore, another
source of variability is the lack of interviews on a sample day.
Some questions to investigate when reviewing all this information include:
1. Look up the site name for the site numbers with very high or low numbers in the
stratum. Are these truly high or low use areas?
18
2. Notice the date the sample occurred. Is this usually a high use day for that
particular site?
3. Are there other sites that were not sampled that are like the sample sites and may
also have particular problems with use level categorization?
Review Activity participation information
Table 13 Description
Visitor activity participation such as that provided in Table 13 is a good
indicator of the types of recreation opportunities and settings in current
demand by recreation visitors. Column 1 lists the specific outdoor recreation
activity measured. First, survey respondents were asked to pick all the
recreation activities they had participated in during their current National
Forest Visit. Columns 2 and 3 summarize this information in percent and list
the total number of respondents who picked this activity. Survey respondents
could pick more than one of the 26 activities measured so column 2 may total
over 100%.
Survey respondents were asked to select just one of their activities as their
main reason for the National Forest Visit. These responses are summarized in
columns 4 and 5 as percentages and the total number of respondents who
picked this activity as their main activity. In some cases respondents picked
more than one main activity, so column 4 may total more than 100%.
Table 13 Activity participation
Activity
%
Participation
Participation
(n)
% Main
Activity
Main Activity
(n)
Developed Camping
8.9
29.3
2.9
71
Primitive Camping
5.1
73
.7
7
Backpacking
1.9
54
.9
27
Resort Use
1.9
50
.3
5
Picnicking
3.0
132
.3
19
52.7
744
5.3
95
Visiting Historic Sites
2.1
35
0
0
Nature Center Activities
1.7
63
0
0
Nature Study
5.7
113
.1
.1
Relaxing
44.6
702
6.6
143
Fishing
14.5
267
8.6
119
Hunting
3.9
44
3.3
36
OHV Use
5.5
117
1.9
47
16.7
265
1.3
22
.7
4
.6
2
Viewing Natural
Features
Driving for Pleasure
Snowmobiling
19
Activity
Motorized Water
Activities
%
Participation
Participation
(n)
% Main
Activity
Main Activity
(n)
3.7
74
.7
14
.2
5
.1
.1
33.3
683
10.7
231
.7
13
.6
10
Bicycling
2.3
53
.7
10
Non-motorized Water
3.7
78
1.2
18
35.2
54
34.3
52
Cross-country Skiing
2.7
14
1.3
10
Other Non-motorized
13.5
283
5
83
Gathering Forest
Products
2.5
55
1.2
11
Viewing Wildlife
30.9
578
.3
6
-
-
-
-
2.0
45
1.1
18
Other Motorized Activity
Hiking / Walking
Horseback Riding
Downhill Skiing
Sightseeing
No activity reported
Interpreting the Results
Table 13 indicates that viewing natural features (52.7%), relaxing (44.6%),
downhill skiing (35.2%), hiking/walking (33.3%), and viewing wildlife
(30.9%) were the top five recreation activities (column 2, rows 6, 10, 22, 18
and 26) pursued by survey respondents on the Example National Forest. When
survey respondents were asked to identify their main recreation activity for
their current National Forest Visit their top five choices were downhill skiing
(34.3%), hiking/walking (10.5), fishing (8.6%), relaxing (6.6%) and viewing
natural features (5.3%), (column 4, rows 22, 18, 26, 10, and 6).
Clearly downhill skiing is a primary destination activity on the Example
National Forest because 35.2% of all respondents said they had participated in
skiing (column 2, row 22) and 34.3% of respondents said it was their main
activity (column 4, row 22) during their National Forest Visit.
Were a sufficient number of interviews obtained from visitors who
participated in the motivational activities offered on the forest? Sufficient is
defined by each forest with respect to the importance of a particular activity
on the forest. If the forest thinks certain activities were over or under
represented in the activity participation numbers, they should look at the
number of interviews obtained for a particular activity and identify where
these activities occur. Then, identify the NVUM sites or areas that would
capture this use and access whether the high, medium, low and closed/no use
site days shown in round 1 had the potential to adequately capture these types
of activities. If not, make corrections.
Table 13 shows that 0.7% of visitors participated in snowmobiling. Is
snowmobiling a large use on the forest? Example 1 explains how to get a
20
general idea if snowmobiling was under-sampled in the survey. The pre-work
GFA exit points shown open in winter should be reviewed. Were an adequate
amount of site days shown open at the appropriate times to capture
snowmobiles? Were the appropriate winter capture points shown in the prework as a site in GFA? Or, was it a late or low snow year that caused the
problem? If not, change the pre-work to improve the chances of capturing
snowmobile use. To get a rough feel for how accurate the % participation
might be multiply the National Forest Site Visit number for the forest as a
whole by the % for that activity. This will give an approximate maximum
number of people who may have participated in the activity. Since this was a
multiple choice question in the survey the % participation will not total 100%.
Example 1: Snowmobiling
Four interviews in which visitors said they participated in snowmobiling were obtained
on the Example NF. The calculated NVUM participation rate for snowmobiling is 0.7%.
There were 649,558 site visits on this forest (Table 1 column 4). Initially the forest
recreation folks felt that snowmobiling was much higher. However, 0.7 % of 649,558
equal 4,547 snowmobile site visits. The snowmobile season is about 120 days long, use is
primarily on weekends. Are there more than 38 people snowmobiling on an average
winter day (4,547  120)? Does that number seem reasonable? If not, the forest needs to
take a close look at the sites and areas listed in the database and determine which of these
sites would have best captured the activity use in question. Then examine how the high,
medium, low and closed/no use days for those sites were labeled.
Example 2: Hunting
Olympic National Forest managers believe big game hunting is a motivational activity
with high use on their forest. Forty-one interviews in which visitors said they participated
in hunting were obtained on the forest. The calculated NVUM participation rate for
hunting was 4.3%. There were 512,838 site visits to the Olympic NF at the 80%
confidence level  12.7%. Using the same method as in Example 1 we calculate about
22,052 hunting site visits. There are two main hunting seasons on the forest (deer and elk
seasons) which total about 80 days. Are there about 275 people hunting on the forest each
day (or some version of that emphasizing more weekend and opening day use)? If not,
identify where the major exit points for hunters are on the forest. Then look at whether
these sites were shown as open or close/no use during the hunting season. If open, were
the high, medium, and low exiting recreation days shown correctly?
Review Proxy Summary Results
Table 32 Description
Table 32 provides detailed information on how the recreation use estimates at
proxy sites were calculated. Each national forest provided the actual proxy
count for each proxy site during the year sampled. Proxy data for each site is
assumed to be a very accurate record of actual site use. It is the one place in
21
the NVUM data where the annual site visit estimate is accurate at the site
level.
Column 1 gives the site type of the specific recreation site for which the proxy
count was reported. Column 2 describes the type of proxy that was counted.
The assigned site number is given in column 3 and the name of the recreation
site is reported in column 4. The site number was assigned to the recreation
site in the NVUM Prework Database. Columns 5 through 9 describe how the
total proxy use estimate for each site was calculated. The number of days
surveyed at each site is shown in column 5.
Note that not all proxy sites were surveyed. However, each proxy stratum did
have assigned survey days. The information collected on these survey days
was then applied to all other sites within the proxy stratum. Column 6 displays
the total number of completed interviews obtained on the accomplished
survey days. Column 7 displays the proxy number reported by the selected
national forest. This number was obtained from the forest, not through
sampling. In order to convert the proxy count into a site visit estimate, several
questions were asked of visitors. The responses to these questions were then
used to calculate the conversion factor shown in column 8. The annual site
visit estimate (column 9) is then calculated by multiplying the reported proxy
number by the conversion factor (column 7 x column 8).
Table 32 Proxy summary results
Site
Type
Proxy
Site
No.
Survey
Days
Site Name
No. of
Complete
Interviews
Proxy
Number
Reported
by
Forest
Conversion
Factor
Annual
Site Visit
Estimate
OUDS
FE4
14
Vigilante
Campground
1
4
222
3.12
692
OUDS
FE4
15
Moose Creek
Campground
0
0
196
3.12
611
OUDS
FE4
16
Park Lane
Campground
1
4
409
3.12
1274
OUDS
FE4
17
Kading
Campground
2
10
166
3.12
517
OUDS
FE4
18
Cromwell/Dixon
Campground
1
7
409
3.12
1274
OUDS
FE4
19
Spend Grove
Campground
1
0
547
3.12
1704
OUDS
FE4
21
Copper Creek
Campground
0
0
431
3.12
1343
OUDS
RE2
8
Eagle Gulch
Cabin
0
0
66
1.3
86
OUDS
RE2
9
Thompson
Cabin
2
2
117
1.3
152
OUDS
RE2
10
Bar Gulch
Cabin
0
0
95
1.3
123
22
Site
Type
Proxy
Site
No.
Survey
Days
Site Name
No. of
Complete
Interviews
Proxy
Number
Reported
by
Forest
Conversion
Factor
Annual
Site Visit
Estimate
OUDS
RE2
11
Strawberry
Cabin
0
0
37
1.3
48
OUDS
RE2
12
Kadin Cabin
1
1
97
1.3
126
OUDS
RE2
13
Indian Flats
Cabin
2
2
80
1.3
104
OUDS
RE2
20
Cummings
Cabin
0
0
99
1.3
128
Interpreting the Results
In the example shown above, seven sites are listed in the OUDS/ FE4 (number
of fee envelopes collected for each campsite) stratum (column 4, rows 1-7).
Within this stratum 6 survey days were accomplished (column 5, rows 1-7)
but two of those sites had no survey days (column 5, rows 2 and 7). In most
cases, if no survey days are shown, that particular site was not picked for
sampling. The forest staff reported a total of 2,380 fee envelopes collected
(column 7, rows 1 - 7) at these seven sites. From the 25 interviews done at
these sites (column 6, rows 1-7) and the questions they answered related to
this proxy code on the survey form, a conversion factor was developed
(column 8).
This factor converts the proxy count of “number of fee envelopes collected” to
a “site visit” estimate. The conversion factor in this case takes into account the
number of people per envelope and the number of envelopes a group filled out
during the average stay. Each proxy code has its own conversion factors that
are calculated using the results of questions asked visitors at the particular
proxy sites.
The data provided in Table 32 is useful for site, district, and forest planning.
The information is valid at the site level because the proxy counted all the use
at each specific proxy site. Comparing the reported use to site capacity can
give planners a good sense of site utilization. This allows for work force
planning and other resource allocation decisions. For example, the forest is
considering how cost effective it is to maintain and rent their cabins. By
looking at the information supplied in this table we see that seven cabins were
rented a total of 591 times (column 7, rows 8-14) adding up to 767 site visits
(column 9, rows 8-14). Strawberry Cabin was rented out 37 times for a total of
48 site visits. If the forest had other cabins used to capacity they might
consider encouraging rental towards Strawberry Cabin.
Is the proxy numbers reported by the forest in round 1 reasonable for that site?
Do the conversion factor and its resulting Site Visit estimate make sense for
that site? The forest needs to evaluate whether or not the proxy information
reported provided an accurate picture of site visits. Proxy information was
converted to site visit estimates by the NVUM team. For example, the proxy
DUR4 means a daily use record of sites occupied. This number was reported
23
by the forest. NVUM then converted the DUR4 number to site visits.
Information used came from the surveys that asked visitors at DUR4 sites: 1)
how many nights did you stay in this site and 2) how many people were in this
site with you. The DUR4 number reported by the forest was then divided by
the average number of nights a person stayed at the site, then multiplied by the
average number of people per site, which produced the site visit estimate.
One way to test how reasonable the number is would be to divide the total site
visit estimate for that site by the number of open site days. For example, on
the Gifford Pinchot NF, for Iron Creek CG, an Overnight Developed Site with
proxy code DUR4, the forest shows 136 open site days and reported 3,519
occupied sites during that time. From the interviews at DUR4 sites the
average number of people per site was calculated and the conversion rate of
2.09 is used to convert the daily site occupancy (# reported by forest) to site
visit estimates. There are two ways to check how good this information is.
First, divide the proxy number reported (3,519) by the open site days (136).
The result is 25.8 sites occupied each day of the use season. Does Iron Creek
CG have at least 25 sites? If not, the wrong units were reported as the proxy
number or the wrong proxy code was used.
Another way to look at this information is to divide the site visit estimate by
the total number of open days (7,346 / 136 = 54). Is it reasonable to see about
54 people on the average at this site each day? Remember, this is only a rough
measure since the conversions were developed from interviewing at all the
DUR4 sites and there are differences between sites.
Information Available from the Pre-work Access database:
There are two very useful reports that can be run from the “Edit Site Calendar” tab. These
are “Check dates” which will show any missed or double counted days for the site you
are working on, and “Site Description” which will print out all the descriptive
information related to the site you are working on. The remaining reports are run from the
“reports” tab. After opening the “reports” tab there are three drop down choices for
reports: “site reports”, “calendar reports”, and “other reports”. Following is a description
of each report and how it might be useful for prework.
Site Reports:
Report: Single site
Use this report to obtain information about just one site listed in the prework.
Report: Site List (all)
This report will provide a list of all sites and areas listed in the database for your forest. It
summarizes all information entered about each site except the calendar of open and
closed days. Output will be by site type (Day Use Developed, Overnight Developed,
etc.).
24
Are all qualifying developed sites listed? Review the definitions for qualifying site
types in Appendix A. Update the database as needed.
Are the site names descriptive enough so that anyone on the forest knows the site or
area that is meant? If not, improve the site name. In round 1, forests were not required
to name GFA sites with descriptive names. This caused problems for interviewers trying
to locate their interview spot. In round 2, make sure site names are a clear description of
the location. For example: change “site 61” to “FSR 22 at jct with FSR 26”. Also Day
Use Developed and Overnight Developed site names must match those used in the
INFRA Developed Sites Module. The INFRA connection will allow for additional
analysis between the two databases in the future.
Hint: It is now possible to add a detailed description of how to get to the site. On the main
input screen of the Pre-work Database click on the Description box and type in direction
to the site.
Are Wilderness portals adequately captured by the sites or areas listed?
Are visitors to the General Forest Area adequately captured? Are there any unique
ways of entering GFA that are not captured- for example river use?
Are complexes composed of multiple site types broken out correctly in the prework? There are many cases where a site composed of multiple facilities was broken into
separate strata and caused confusion on the part of the interviewer. In cases where there
are no separate entrances for parts of a complex, list the complex by the predominate use
and do not list the smaller pieces separately. Example: A campground has a few picnic
sites or a shelter WITHIN the campground. The campground was listed in the OUDS
strata and the picnic shelter was listed in the DUDS strata. When the interviewer was
assigned the DUDS shelter to interview at, they interviewed everyone who exited the
campground. When they were assigned the campground as an interview day (OUDS)
they interviewed everyone who exited the campground, including people who used the
picnic shelter. In this case, it would be best to delete (make inactive) the DUDS shelter
and just list the site as a campground. When someone uses the shelter, they will be
counted as part of the campground use.
Are all INFRA numbers entered in the INFRA field correct? NVUM preloaded the
infra numbers but there were cases where more than one infra number was listed for one
site and other cases where one infra number was used for multiple sites. Use the infra
number for the largest PAOT area of the complex listed. Infra numbers are not listed for
GFA or View Corridors.
Report: Site List (select district)
Same as above except for a selected district.
Report: Site Lat/Longs
This report displays a list of the latitude and longitude values for all sites and areas. Use
this report is you are just working on verifying and correcting latitude and longitude
information. You can make hard copy changes to the report and then have one person
make all the needed changes at once.
Report: Site Directions and Comments
25
This report will be useful once the forest receives their sample calendar. It can be used
for contracts or to give interviewers so they can find the exact location of the interview
sites.
Report: Travel Way Safety:
This report provides a summary of which travelways were identified in the GFA and
View Corridor strata as being high speed roads, having unsafe interview locations or
both. To improve sampling use this list to review the exit points identified and try to
move the sample locations to either low speed roads or safe interview locations. Forests
did not have much success in obtaining interviews from visitors on high speed roads.
Report: Travel Way Safety-all
This report is similar to the Travel Way Safety report but lists ALL exit points with their
road speed and whether the interview location is labeled safe or unsafe.
Report: Site Errors
This report automatically scans all data entered for the forest and gives a list of any errors
that need to be corrected. Run this report prior to sending your final NVUM data back to
the team.
Report: Proxy List
Lists all site names with proxy codes.
Report: Nonproxy List
Lists all nonproxy site names and site numbers.
Calendar Reports:
Report: Site Day List
This report summarizes the use levels by calendar day assigned to each site.
Report: High/ Very High Days
This very useful report will list all the high and very high use days by month. It is very
helpful to use when you think you have too many days in this stratum and want to find
which sites they were assigned to. Since “very high” was not an option in round 1, no
days will appear as very high until changes are made in the prework database.
Reports: Strata Distribution – Round 1 & Strata Distribution – Round 2
These reports used together or alone are extremely useful for checking how the
stratification of all sites and days is distributed. The report from round 1 can be compared
to the report from round 2 to see changes made throughout the database. For example,
many forests in round 1 used “low” on their lesser used forest road exit points for all 365
days of the year. Through sampling in round 1 they found these roads often had no use.
In round 2 the forest may show many of these exit roads as “inactive” or label weekdays
and the off season as “closed/no use”. This extent of this change can be monitored by
comparing these two reports.
Report: Site Day List (select district)
26
Same as Site Day report except for a specified district.
Report: Site Day Charts (legal)
This report provides a table and graph which illustrate the distribution of high, medium,
low and closed site days by month. The report is available by site type. For example for
all Day Use Developed sites the output shows the distribution of open sites days for each
month of the year. At a glance the forest can see how they categorized use for the entire
year. This same report can be run to show only days that were selected for sampling on
the forest in round 1.
Does the distribution of open recreation site days by month reflect the forests local
knowledge of peak and low use months? If not, this may indicate improperly labeled
high, medium, low and closed days. This analysis is available for each site type which
will allow the forest to zero in on any potential problem areas.
Does the distribution of selected of sample days in round 1 (by month and site type)
follow the same pattern as the distribution of open recreation site days looked at
above? By comparing the graph of all open site days to the graph of selected sample
days, the forest can see how well the selected round 1 sample compared to the
distribution of use during the year. If the graphs do not show a similar distribution, this
may indicate the selected sample was not representative of overall use on the forest and
could explain some of the error.
Are seasonal fluctuations in use captured? The Forest really needs to look closely at
whether or not special seasonally use activities will be captured based upon which sites
and areas show open days. For example if snowmobiling is a high use activity on the
Forest, are a proportionate amount of days shown as open with high or medium use at the
sites where this use can be captured? For big game hunting season- did the forest show
high or medium use days when big game hunters are most likely to be EXITING the
forest for the day? Are the correct exit locations shown?
Report: Site Day Calendar (legal)
This report gives a calendar of assigned site days and use levels for forest.
Other Reports
Report: Scenic Byway List
This report automatically gives a list of qualifying scenic byways for the View Corridor
stratum for the forest being edited.
Reports: Contacts
This report gives the names of individuals who edited the database on your forest.
Report: Proxy List
This report will give all available proxy codes and their meaning.
Report: Holidays
This report lists the observed federal holidays for each year.
27
Appendix A: National Visitor Use Monitoring Definitions
NAME
Abbreviation
DEFINITION
UNITS OF MEASURE
NF Visit
NFV
The entry of one person upon a national forest to participate
in recreation activities for an unspecified period of time. A
national forest visit can be composed of multiple site visits.
Site Visit
SV
the entry of one person onto a national forest site or area to
participate in recreation activities for an unspecified period
of time
Site Day
A day that a recreation site or area is open to the public for
recreation purposes
Recreation
trip
The duration of time beginning when the visitor left their
home and ending when they got back to their home
Variance
The mean of the squares of the variations from the mean of
a frequency distribution; a set of n measurements y1, y2,
y3…yn, with a mean y is the sum of the squared deviations
divided by n-1.
Standard
deviation or
standard error
The square root of the variance; a statistic used as a
measure of dispersion in a distribution, the square root of
the arithmetic average of the squares of the deviations from
the mean
Coefficient of
variation
The standard error divided by the mean
Confidence
interval
A statistical range with a specified probability that a given
parameter lies within the range
Error rate
The coefficient of variation multiplied by the specified
confidence interval width
Confidence
interval &
error rate
Used together these two terms define the reliability of the
estimated visits. The confidence interval defines the range
of values around the estimated visits with a specified level
of certainty. The error rate is the upper and lower bounds of
the confidence interval. The lower the error rate and the
higher the confidence level the better the estimate. An 80
percent confidence interval is very acceptable at a broad
national or forest scale. The two terms are used to
statistically describe the estimate. For example: at the 80
percent confidence level there are 209 million national
28
forest visits plus or minus 17 percent. In other words we are
80 percent confident that the estimated number of national
forest visits lies between 173.5 and 244.5 million.
SITE TYPES
Day Use
Developed
Site
DUDS
Sites that meet the INFRA definition development scale for
Moderate, Heavily, or High degree of modification. These
are sites that provide for visitor comfort, convenience
and/or educational opportunities. Sites with facilities that
provide for health and safety only are not considered
developed sites. DUDS may include the following; picnic
sites (family and group), fishing sites (sometimes), fish
viewing sites (sometimes), information sites (sometimes),
interpretive sites (sometimes), playgrounds, downhill ski
areas, wildlife viewing sites (sometimes), developed caves,
winter play sites, and any other sites opened only for day
use. Group proxy sites (15 or more people) have different
proxy codes than family proxy sites. Some developed sites
listed in INFRA do not count as DUDS in NVUM. This
includes trailheads, boat launches, parking lots, OHV
staging areas, Scenic Overlooks, or Ranger Stations.
In Alaska and other very remote areas the same definition
applies including listing developed Shelters (outside
Wilderness) as DUDS. Whenever the development scale of
the site has a high degree of modification which may
include outhouses, shelters, and fire rings, list the site as a
DUDS. In the case of low use Shelters, the “use level”
category can be used to minimize interviewing on 0 use
days. For example, list open site days as Low only on
weekends and show Closed the rest of the year even though
the site is not physically closed- use is the same as if it were
closed.
Note that in Region 10 it was decided NOT to list Shelters
in Wilderness as DUDS, which is the same rule as applies
to other regions. Also note that the Interpretive programs on
the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, although listed in
INFRA as an interpretive site are NOT considered DUDS in
NVUM. This travel route should be listed in the View
Corridor stratum.
Overnight
Developed
Site
OUDS
sites with facilities that meet the INFRA definition for
development scales of Moderate, Heavily, or High degree
of modification. These sites include campgrounds (family
and group), fire lookouts and cabins available for overnight
lodging (including all those outside designated Wilderness
29
in Alaska), resorts, lodges, hotels, horse camps, and any
other overnight developed sites on NFS lands whether
managed by the Forest Service or private business
(concession or special use permit). Proxy group
campgrounds (sites that hold 15 or more people) have
different proxy codes than family proxy campgrounds.
Following are things that may be considered as overnight
developed sites in INFRA that do not count under the
NVUM OUDS strata:
Wilderness
W

Recreation residences - they are counted as part of
GFA use at the time of the interview.

Organization Camps (church, scout, etc) - use will
be counted at the end of the year through the SUP
use reports and added to the total use on the forest.

Lesser-developed campgrounds such as small
hunters camps (with limited facilities) - the use will
be captured under GFA strata. If the facilities are
rustic and are not designed for the comfort and
convenience of the visitor the sites are not
developed sites for the purpose of the NVUM
project.

Do not include any facilities located on private
property, even when located within the Forest
boundary – however if there are trails or access
points where people go from the private property to
the Forest to recreate they should be included as a
GFA exit point.

Recreation events will not be listed on the
spreadsheet - Forests will track this use separately
using a special events form, reporting the total
number of visitors on a quarterly basis. This use will
be added to the totals at the end of the year.

Cabins outside Wilderness should be listed as
OUDS
Areas in the Forest that are part of the National Wilderness
Preservation System. List all trailheads and other access
points such as boat take-outs. Proxy counts would include
mandatory wilderness permits required of ALL users (day
and overnight).
In Region 10 and other very remote, low use Wilderness
capturing visitors has proven extremely difficult. For
30
remote Wilderness with cabins, list the cabins as an exit
point. Do this only if it is highly unlikely those cabin users
would be caught elsewhere. For example, cabins in
Wilderness along the Appalachian Trail would not be listed
as access points because the cabin users would also be
captured as they exit along the AT trail. However cabins in
Wilderness with NO trail access would serve as the only
likely place the visitor would ever get captured, and should
then be listed.
Wilderness users in the lower 48 are usually captured at
trailheads, boat take-outs, or roads as they exit the
Wilderness. However, in Alaska most Wilderness access is
by boat or float plane. Capturing this use is challenging. For
example, in Year 1 2.4 million acres of designated
Wilderness were within the sample area, yet there were only
37 miles of trail. Air carriers and boat harbors were used to
capture these visitors and yielded only 31 interviews on 30
sample days. 21 Wilderness days were sampled at boat
harbors. On nine days (42%) interviews were obtained and
on 8 days no traffic counts were obtained. Air carrier
sample points were also mixed. Wilderness had 4 sample
days at air carriers, which yielded no interviews at all (0%),
and no traffic counts on 2 of those days. As a result of this,
both Wilderness cabin use and Outfitter Guide use of
Wilderness have been added to the Wilderness use counts in
Alaska.
List each Wilderness cabin separately as a Wilderness exit
point. These will be proxy sites. A special sampling strategy
for cabins has also been developed. Special procedures for
sampling cabins are outlined in the Interviewer handbook.
List boat docks/harbors and air carriers that may serve as
Wilderness exit points in the pre-work. When rating the
open site days as high, medium, or low, remember you are
rating high, medium or low exiting Wilderness use at the
harbor or air carrier, not general use or even general forest
use.
Outfitter & Guide use of Wilderness will be reported on the
quarterly “Recreation Special Event and Organization
Camp report submitted during the sample year. In Alaska
this use is proxy and should be listed in the proxy data as
PTC1.
General
GFA
Include all dispersed recreation use other than Wilderness
(hiking, fishing, water sports, etc.). There are differences
31
Forest Area
between the NVUM and INFRA definition of General
Forest Areas (GFA). For the NVUM project the entire
dispersed area of the forest is considered one big GFA and
is not broken down by county or district as it is in INFRA.
Roads included in the GFA category are almost always
forest service managed or maintained roads. In some
instances non-forest service roads are entered ONLY
because they are the most logical place to stop visitors who
have actually recreated ON the general forest area accessed
by the road.
General Forest Areas in Alaska are often accessed by water
or air transportation. The visitors NF experience may occur
many miles from their transportation take-off point.
Therefore, boat harbors and air carriers are major exit
sample points to capture GFA visits in Alaska. This strategy
provided mixed results during Year 1 sampling. GFA had
21 sample days at air-carriers, which yielded interviews on
12 days (57%). No traffic counts were obtained on 16 of
those days. Seven GFA days were sampled at boat harbors
and yielded NO interviews (0%). On 4 of those days no
traffic counts were obtained. The forest said there was a
difference in obtaining visitor information from fixed wing
versus helicopter air carriers. There was also a problem
getting information and permission to interview at some air
carrier exit points.
Special attention must be paid to the categorization of boat
docks/ harbors during the forest pre-work. Make sure there
will be recreation use, or at least the chances of finding at
least one recreation visitor are fairly high. This means
listing the area as closed/0 use during the off-season.
Boat harbors are difficult to categorize and sample because
1) some have multiple docks and one parking lot 2) some
have multiple docks and several parking lots 3) some have
mixed use but a different proportion of each type of use
(rec/ nonrec) on each dock in the same harbor. It’s critical
during the pre-work to visit the boat harbors to determine
the actual situation.

If there are multiple boat ramps or docks that 1)
serve the same type of users (recreation and
commercial) and 2) all users go to the same parking
lot, then list the boat harbor as just one site.

If there are multiple boat ramps or docks that go to
different parking lots associated with the harbor
complex, break the boat harbor into the logical
32
components; matching boat ramps to parking lots
and list each as a separate site in the pre-work. List
all ramps to the same parking lot together unless
they serve very different users. For example Sealing
harbor has multiple ramps going into the same
parking lot. Its possible to get a 24- hour count in
the parking lot and interview in the parking lot.

Note: when combining separate ramps into one site
it may change the use stratum- for example each
separate ramp was listed as low use but when 5
ramps are combined they become 1 medium use
site….

If there are multiple boat ramps or docks but these
serve different types or proportions of users, list
each ramp or dock as a separate site. For example, at
Ketchikan harbor one dock is primarily commercial
fisherman, one is tour boat operators, one is a
mixture of private boats commercial and recreation,
and yet another is primarily out of area boat
moorage. All the docks need to be listed as separate
sites in the pre-work. None are representative of the
other.

Exclude strictly commercial docks from the prework because the likelihood of finding National
Forest visitors is very slim.

If some ramps get more use than others don’t list
them together.
Categorization of Air Carriers
Air carriers may be located at public float docks or private
commercial docks. When listing air-carriers as GFA or
Wilderness exit points list only those where visitors end up
setting foot ON national forest land, not just fly over it.
Before committing data sources as proxy in the pre-work
track down the data source and make sure the proxy data is
both available and useful for the study. If the data available
doesn’t fit one of the already established proxy codes but
you think it might be useful call Don English to discuss.
Several types of counts that qualify as proxy are possible.

Total craft landing at a float pond or dock. In this
case we will need interviews to calibrate the number
of landings for national forest recreation versus total
landings.
33

Total aircraft landing on the national forest land.
Cordova was able to get this for the pilot study but
we aren’t sure this is commonly available
information.
Outfitter Guide use reports as proxy for GFA use: Outfitter
and Guide reports are not permitted as proxy for GFA
because of the possibility of double counting the same
visitors. An exception can be made in special cases where
the forest has a very remote area only used by O&G and can
provide an accurate count for that area only.
View
Corridor
VC
Measures the number of visitors who only pass through the
NFS lands to view the scenery. These visitors travel on
non-forest service managed corridors such as state,
interstate, or county highways, rivers, trails, trains, and
boats, but the visitor does not actually recreate on the
Forest. View Corridor listed travelways are ALWAYS nonforest service owned. Airplane travel that does not originate
on NFS lands is not included in this stratum. To identify
travelways for Round 2:
Gather all travelways information relevant to the forest
including those listed in round 1, any scenic roads on the
drop down list of the Access database, and any other nonFS managed travelways on the forest with scenic qualities
that are at least in part dependant upon the national forest
scenery.
Consult with the Forest Engineer and Forest Landscape
Architect to be sure no important scenic travelways are
overlooked.
Next, apply the Scenic Management System or Visual
Management System criteria to the list developed above.
All forests have previously conducted a scenic inventory for
Forest Planning, although in same cases this inventory may
be hard to locate or may be outdated.
Apply the SMS or VMS criteria only to non-forest service
travelways. Landscapes are viewed to varying degrees from
different locations and subsequently differ in their
importance. To assist scenic inventory and analysis, this
importance can be ranked by concern levels. Concern levels
are a measure of the degree of public importance placed on
landscapes viewed from travelways. They are divided into
three levels; high, medium and low. List only those
travelways that meet concern levels 1 or 2 as shown in the
table below.
34
Apply this scenic criteria to travelways identified in Step 1.
Then edit the NVUM Access database, View Corridor tab
with this information. Additional information in this
database page include the begin milepost of the travelway,
the segment length in miles, and the latitude and longitude
information. If there is an interview point along this
travelway use the latitude and longitude of this point. If
there is no interview point use the latitude and longitude of
the begin milepost.
Table 1. Scenic Management System Concern Levels for
Travelways (SMS handbook page 4-8).
HIERARCHY OF CONCERN LEVELS
Interest in Scenery
High
Medium
Low
Primary Travelway high
use
1
2
2
Primary Travelwaymoderate use
1
2
2
Primary Travelway- low
use
1
2
3
Secondary Travelwayhigh use
1
2
2
Secondary Travelwaymoderate use
1
2
3
Secondary Travelwaylow use
1
2
3
Important note: This category caused the most overcounting of national forest visits in the old RIM system.
Many forests used this category to “up” their use numbers
by counting all traffic on interstates that passed near their
forest. THIS IS NOT ALLOWED. The VC count is only
for those travelways that visitors purposely choose to view
national forest scenery. This number is separate from the
National Forest Visit total that will be reported. Playing
games here will NOT increase national forest visits.
Off Forest
Recreation
OFF
In Round 1 some Forests choose to list off site Visitor
Centers, Interpretive Programs, etc that are not on FS land
but FS recreation dollars are spent on them. In Round 2, the
35
Activities
forest should move any qualifying roads or trails into the
View Corridor stratum. The remaining items listed in OFF
will not be counted or sampled and need not be updated.
USE LEVELS- all but the Closed strata are defined by the forest
No use
N
A site or area is administratively closed, inaccessible, or
expect to see less than one last exiting person from dawn to
dusk. Formerly labeled “closed”.
Low
L
At least 1 last exiting recreation person is expected from
dawn to dusk
Medium
M
Defined by forest
High
H
Defined by forest
Very High
V
use for sites that have high use AND the visitor
characteristics are very different from other sites within the
stratum
PROXY CODES
Daily Use
DUR4
Record of
sites occupied
Daily use record of sites with PAOT of 14 or less, use for
OUDS campgrounds where either FS or concessionaire
records occupied campsites on a daily bases, can also use
for DUDS picnic sites
Daily Use
Record of
group sites
occupied
DUR5
Daily use record of sites with PAOT of 15 or more, use for
OUDS campgrounds where either FS or concessionaire
records occupied campsites on a daily bases, can also use
for DUDS picnic sites
Fee
Envelopes
per person
FE1
NO LONGER USED- USE FR1
Fee
Envelopes
issued per
vehicle
FE3
Fee envelopes issued per vehicle, use in OUDS and DUDS
Fee
Envelopes
issued per
site
FE4
Fee envelopes issued per family site with a PAOT of 14 or
less, use in OUDS and DUDS. For PAOT of 15 or more use
FR5.
Fee Receipts
issued per
person
FR1
Fee receipts or tickets sold to individual people only. Do
not use for ski area winter use. Use in DUDS where a daily
pass is sold or individual ticket sales indicate use. Do not
use for OUDS.
Fee Receipts
issued per
FR2
Fee receipts or tickets sold per group of 14 or less people
36
small group
Fee Receipts
issued per
vehicle
FR3
Fee receipts or tickets sold per vehicle.
Fee Receipts
issued per
large group
FR5
Envelopes, permits, or tickets sold per large group of 15 or
more people.
Mandatory
Permit issued
per person
MA1
Use in Wilderness only. Mandatory permit issued per
person for day AND overnight use of entire area
Mandatory
permit issued
per small
group
MA2
Use in Wilderness only. Mandatory permit issued per small
group for day AND overnight use of entire area
Permanent
Traffic
Counter that
counts people
PTC1
Use in any stratum where every person using the site is
counted by the counter, count must be one-way
Permanent
PTC2
Traffic
counter that
counts groups
NO LONGER USED- USE OTHER CODES
Permanent
Traffic
Counter that
counts
vehicles
PTC3
Use in any stratum where every vehicle using the site is
counted by the counter, count must be one-way and
adjusted for axles
Registration
Forms per
person
RF1
NO LONGER USED- USE RE1
Registration
Forms per
group
RF2
NO LONGER USED- USE RE2
Registration
forms per
room
RF4
NO LONGER USED- USE RE4
Registration
forms by
individual
RE1
Use in OUDS lodges, cabins, resorts, where managers
report total number of person nights sold from registers
Registration
forms by
RE2
Use in any stratum where 14 or fewer people register as one
37
small group
small group. One registration = one group
Registration
forms by
room
RE4
Registration forms for room nights sold use for OUDS
lodges, resorts, etc where owner can report total number of
room nights sold. Do not use for DUDS, campgrounds, huts
or dorms that hold more than one group in one room at a
time.
Skier Visits
SV1
Use for DUDS ski areas where ski area provides the total
number of skier days on a report rather than the number of
lift tickets sold. The ski area has adjusted this to reflect
season pass use, etc.
Skier Tickets
issued per
individual
ST1
Use for DUDS ski areas (winter only) where the ski area
reports total tickets sold but does not distinguish between
season passes or daily passes.
Special Use
SUP1
Permit issued
per individual
NO LONGER USED- use other appropriate code for
individual counts
Special Use
permit issued
per group
SUP2
NO LONGER USED- USE SUP4 or other appropriate code
Special use
permit per
site or cabin
SUP4
Use for OUDS cabins, resorts where one permit is issued
per group of 14 or fewer people per visit (not for entire
season); also FS cabins rented under G-T permits. For
larger groups use FR5
Toll booth
person count
TB1
Use when GFA is close to forest boundary and there are no
non toll booth entries into the area, use for DUDS and
OUDS only if every person that enters has to pay (no
season passes)
Toll booth
car count
TB3
Use when GFA is close to forest boundary and there are no
non toll booth entries into the area, use for DUDS and
OUDS only if every vehicle that enters has to pay (no
season passes)
Appendix B: Correcting Latitude and Longitude for
National Visitor Use Sample Points
CORRECTING LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE FOR NATIONAL VISITOR USE
SAMPLE POINTS............................................................................................... 38
Overview and History: 40
Summary of Tasks
40
ArcMap and Importing Coverages
Add X-Y Data 45
40
38
Checking & making corrections to the latitude and longitude
39
50
Overview and History:
The pre-work round one potential sampling points are identified by the forests and are
presented in the software for round two. The location information is presented so that the
units can validate the location, to enable the HD module to present maps with point
location information, and to allow the units to relocate previous sample points.
The scope of the work is limited to checking the coordinates of the points and to facilitate
the corrections. The work as defined here is intended to work with the ArcMap tool. This
work is not intended to correct the current GIS coverage for your sites or sample points.
The work is intended to be within ¼ mile of the actual survey site point.
Once all the potential sample points have been corrected use the round two database to
edit and correct the latitude and longitude.
The complexity of correcting point on your coverage should be discussed with your GIS
specialists and is not within the scope of this document.
Summary of Tasks
The following tasks assume that the user has access to the round one data base file (dbf),
ArcMap, a local coverage of boundaries of the unit, access to the Cartographic Feature
Files (CFF), Primary Base, Secondary Base or a Visitor Use Map GIS Coverage, and has
a basic understanding of how to use ArcMap. New users to ArcMap may want to ask
their local GIS specialists for assistance with this process. These tasks are:





Import an existing coverage of the forest.
Import the CFF files or a copy of your secondary base maps if it exists.
Add x-y data from the dbf file for the survey points.
Display and identify your site data.
Review and correct the information if needed.
ArcMap and Importing Coverages
The user is asked to import an existing coverage that delineates the unit boundaries. This
will automatically set the projection and coordinate systems. Next import a coverage with
the location of the developed sites, roads, trails and congressionally designated areas. The
best source for this is the scanned and corrected visitor maps that were used in round one.
If this is not available then secondary based maps, primary base maps, or the CFFs can be
used. Contact your GIS specialist for local file directories where these reside.
40
Open Arc Map As shown below; Start, Programs, ArcGIS, ArcMap.
41
When ArcMap is opened then start a new map:
Select the ArcCatalog button:
42
In ArcCatalog navigate to the location of the administrative boundary coverage; in this
case it is the Coconino Administrative Boundary Polygon. Select drag and drop this
coverage onto the Layers pane in ArcMap.
43
Next import the scanned and corrected visitor map. In this example the Coconino North
Visitor Map is selected:
Here is the final map, note the layers and working map areas:
44
Add X-Y Data
Select tools and Add XY data.
Change the “Y” coordinates to latitude and click OK:
45
Here is the final map with the sample points shown in red. Note the location of the
cursor’s coordinates on the status bar, the bottom right hand side.
46
Change the coordinate display to show lat and longitude in degree, minutes and seconds
by doing a right click on “Layers” and selecting “Properties” as shown.
Select Degree Minutes Seconds as shown and click OK:
47
48
Here is the final map that is produced at a smaller scale.
49
Checking & making corrections to the latitude and longitude
Pick the blue I from the tool bar and click on the point of interest. It will display a box
with the current point information:
Note the existing point information will be located on the in the Identify Results box.
Near the bottom is the latitude and longitude coordinates.
If you want to correct the point information move the cursor to the location where the
point should be and note the latitude and longitude listed on the status bar.
50
51