Forest survey underway

People may see more U.S. Forest Service and contract employees working in developed and dispersed recreation sites and along Forest Service roads on the Flathead National Forest in the coming months.

They will be wearing bright orange vests and be near a sign that says “Traffic Survey Ahead.” These folks may be out in all kinds of adverse weather conditions.

The surveyors are waiting to talk to motorists, so please pull over 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 ongoing national forest survey already has been conducted once on every national forest in the country. It is now returning five years later to update the information previously gathered, as well as to look at recreation trends over time.

The information is useful for forest planning and even local community tourism planning, forest officials said.

It provides the national forest managers with an estimate of how many people actually recreate on federal lands and what activities they engage in while there. 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.

 This recreation visitor program gathers basic visitor information. All responses are totally confidential; in fact, a person’s name is never written anywhere on the survey. The basic interview lasts about eight minutes. Every other visitor is asked a few additional questions, which may take an additional five minutes.

 Information collected will be used in local forest planning, at the state planning level and even by Congress.

 For more information go to http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum.