Participatory science and technology for visitor use monitoring

2024-2027
Allegheny National Forest
Finger Lakes National Forest
Green Mountain National Forest
Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit
Plumas National Forest
Tahoe National Forest
White Mountain National Forest
US Forest Service Recreation, Heritage, and Volunteer Resources

The purpose of this project was to investigate the potential to incorporate crowd-sourcing technology and a community science approaches into current practices for monitoring use of public lands. The study researched whether new technologies could be used to collect information on visitors as well as visitation by evaluating where and when a participatory science effort and mobile phone technologies are useful approaches for characterizing visitor use. The study built on previous research exploring whether participatory science is an avenue for collecting information from visitors and potentially reducing the cost of data collection for visitor use monitoring. This research directly informed the management of recreation opportunities on national forests and grasslands.