Advancing novel approaches for visitor monitoring and management on federal public lands

2023-2025
Bureau of Land Management
Department of Interior Office of Policy Analysis
USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station
US Geological Survey

This project is developing and testing innovative approaches aimed at improving the accuracy of visitor monitoring, standardizing information collection methods, and making estimation easier for agency staff. Objectives include identify visitor monitoring strategies, techniques, and data sources that have not been widely adopted by federal land management agencies, then evaluating how well new monitoring techniques and data can improve existing techniques. Analyses are examining the congruence between ground-truth data such as field counts and surveys with novel data sources such as mobile device location data geolocated social media content at selected study sites. The team is creating recommendations to guide the development and uptake of novel visitor monitoring approaches and data by land management agencies, and hosting an interagency workshop to discuss the current state of knowledge and best practices for using novel approaches for visitor monitoring on federally managed lands. This information benefits the Department of Interior’s efforts to accommodate growing visitation numbers and to enhance visitor experiences on public lands, and helps the Department better determine both the benefits and impacts of recreational use on public lands and local communities.