Just days ago I drew attention to what I considered to be a revealing, and thoroughly offensive, slide presentation originating from Utah State University's Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism.

I said:

"for those wishing to better appreciate what's been going on behind the scenes, I can share with you a few slides from a powerpoint presentation titled "Our Federal and State Partners: Opportunities for Partnerships in Tourism" . This is one of several informative  documents available on the State of Utah's travel-tourism website"

Today I see in the news the item pasted below. It says the Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism is being paid $200,000 to survey the recreation preferences of visitors to the Uinta national Forest.
I'd like to believe that the survey will be on the level and that its interpretation will accurately reflect public opinion. But is that possible when the Forest Service is paying to have the survey performed and has gone specifically to academic departments that have already done so much to promote the Corporate Takeover of Nature agenda???

The USFS has  paid a fortune for similar surveys in all parts of the country. Here's a link to one I described in 2000 that took place here in Oregon. I titled my blog entry "BEWARE the goons in orange vests"

Scott

--- begin quoted ---

October 07, 2006
Visiting Uinta National Forest? Prepare to be surveyed
CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald

If you visit Uinta National Forest over the next year, don't be alarmed to find orange-vested interviewers in unexpected places.

And be kind.

Utah State University students will be interviewing thousands of visitors to Ashley, Uinta and Wasatch-Cache national forests at 600 locations over the next year, said Dave Hatch of Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

Interviews are voluntary and take from five to 15 minutes, he said. Only one person 16 years old or older per group of visitors will be interviewed.

"Just try to be kind to them, and honest with information," Hatch said. "It is a random survey."

Interviewers will set up interview sites along forest roads and trailheads and each site will be marked by road signs, said Lorraine Januzelli of Wasatch-Cache National Forest in a statement.

Though the interview is anonymous, those interviewed will be asked their home zip code, how many people are with them, the purpose of their visit, how long they plan to stay, what other places they are visiting, the reason they chose the route they are traveling, and how many times in the past year they have visited the national forest they are in.

Visitors will also be asked if they have been primitive camping, fishing or hiking, whether they visited a designated wilderness area, lodging facilities or day-use sites, including picnic areas, interpretive sites or developed swimming or skiing areas. Interviewers also will ask visitors to rank their satisfaction with their visit on a scale of one to five, five being very satisfied.

The $200,000 project is part of a nationwide effort in which every national forest interviews a sampling of patrons every five years across four seasons, Hatch said. The surveys will be completed by Sept. 30, 2007 and the results will take about a year to compile. Results are expected to be released to the public sometime in 2008.

Survey results will be used to determine how to better accommodate visitor needs and desires, planning for future capacity, and identifying changes in trends and demographics, said Januzelli.

"Likewise, this information will be incorporated at the national level to help ascertain trends and preferences nationwide," she said. "Local and state organizations may also use the survey data to refine tourism strategies or economic development initiatives."

The USU students who will conduct the surveys are part of the Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism which works "to help Utah's citizens make good decisions ... to enhance both community and environmental sustainability, and to train future professionals in effective decision-making," according to a statement on the group's Web site.

Comments (2) >>

ee said:

The surveys that the forest service is performing is part of the National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM). A program mandated by congress that all forests collect their recreation statistics the same. The surveys try to divide each forest into 5 categories, wilderness (trail heads), day use areas, overnite use areas, general forest areas, and view corridors. The surveys do a fairly poor job of expressing what the public wants to say about the site they are visiting or the forest service in general. The forest that is conducting the surveys has the option to contract out, usually to universities which pay about $8/hr or hire for the position. I performed these surveys for 1 year as a temproary forest service employee. People don't like being monitored and asked to pull over at a random location in the middle of a forest. It is my understanding that funding is going to be allocated to recreation programs based on the number that comes out of these surveys. After performing these surveys for one year I found them to be completely inaccurate. The surveys have been created to randomly figure out what people are doing on the forests, how often they are doing it, and where they are going. A tuesday morning in a campground doing surveys is just plain silly when everyone knows that it was full on the weekend and now they have all gone home. I found the equipment that we used to count cars or people at trailheads to be completely unreliable. I tried to do an accurate and competant job but the program (NVUM) is completely flawed.

November 12, 2006

Scott said:

I've followed the NVUM issue with great interest and would love to speak with you or communicate further by e-mail. Please get in touch. Contact info is on this website. Thanks.

November 12, 2006

Write comment

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment