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KETCHIKAN, Alaska. Soon, you may see Forest Service employees wearing bright orange vests near a sign that says
Traffic Survey Ahead. Surveys are taking place on developed and dispersed recreation sites and Forest Service roads and trails on the Hoonah and Sitka Ranger Districts. Please take a few minutes for an interview. These well-trained interviewers want
to know about your visit to the national forest. All information you give is confidential and the survey is voluntary. This on-going national forest survey has already been conducted once on every National Forest in the country. We are returning five years later to update the information previously gathered and look at recreation
trends over time. The information is useful for forest planning and local community tourism planning. It provides the National Forest managers with an estimate of how many people recreate on federal lands and what activities they engage in. Other important
information forest and tourism planners need includes how satisfied people were with their visit and the economic impact of your recreation visit on the local economy. Many small towns are struggling and they hope that tourism may help strengthen their communities.
This is one way to estimate the effects. This recreation visitor program gathers basic visitor information. The interview lasts about 15 minutes. The questions visitors are asked include: where they recreated on the Forest, how many people they traveled
with, how long they were on the Forest, what other recreation sites they visited while on the Forest, and how satisfied they were with the facilities and services provided. About a third of the visitors will be asked to complete a confidential survey on recreation
spending during their trip. All responses are confidential, a person’s name is not written anywhere on the survey. Information collected in this national study will be used in local Forest planning, at the state planning level, and even by Congress. The more they know about the visitors, especially their satisfaction and
desires, the better managers can provide for their needs. Although the survey is entirely voluntary, we would appreciate it if visitors stop and answer a few questions. It’s important for surveyors to talk with local people as well as out-of-area visitors so all types
of visitors are represented in the study. Even if you answered the survey questions once already, we would like to talk to you about each of your national forest visits. If you see surveyors again, please stop for another interview.
For more information, contact the Hoonah Ranger District at 907-945-3631 or the Sitka Ranger District at 907-747-6671. If you have any questions about this program visit
http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum. -end- |
