1024-0224 Programmatic Form for Olympic National Park

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
OMB Control Number 1024-0224
Current Expiration Date:8-31-2014

Social Science Program
Programmatic Approval for NPS-Sponsored Public Surveys
1.

2.

Project Title: Olympic National Park Wilderness Visitor Survey

Submission
Date

6-25-22012

Abstract: The Olympic National Park Wilderness Visitor Survey will provide the National Park
Service with information about attitudes toward management issues among 3 visitor
groups in the park. The survey also will gather data informing the development of
indicators and standards related to the quality of visitor experiences in the park, as
well as data on visitor characteristics and use patterns. This information will be
incorporated into the park’s current efforts to prepare a Wilderness Stewardship
Plan. The survey is scheduled to be conducted as on-site questionnaires during the
summer of 2012.
(not to exceed 150 words)

3.

Principal Investigator Contact Information
First Name:
Title:
Affiliation:
Street Address:
City:
Phone:
Email:

4.

Robert
Last Name: Manning
Professor
University of Vermont
313A Aiken Center
Burlington
State: VT
Zip code: 05405
(802)656-3096
Fax: (802)656-8683
[email protected]

Park or Program Liaison Contact Information
First Name: Jennifer

Last Name: Chenoweth

Title: Wilderness Planning Specialist
Park: Olympic National Park
Park Planning
Office/Division:
Street Address: 600 East Park Ave.
City: Port Angeles

State: WA

Phone: (360)565-3012

Zip code: 98362
Fax: (360)565-3015

Email: [email protected]

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Project Information
5. Park(s) For Which Research is to be Conducted: Olympic National Park
6. Survey Dates:

7/4/12

TO

8/31/12

7. Type of Information Collection Instrument (Check ALL that Apply)



Mail-Back
Questionnaire


8.

 On-Site
Questionnaire

 Face-to-Face
Interview



Telephone
Survey



Focus Groups

Other (explain)

Survey Justification:
(Use as much space
as needed; if
necessary include
additional
explanation on a
separate page.)

Social science research in support of park planning and management is
mandated in the NPS Management Policies 2006 (Section 8.11.1, “Social
Science Studies”). The NPS pursues a policy that facilitates social science studies
in support of the NPS mission to protect resources and enhance the enjoyment
of present and future generations (National Park Service Act of 1916, 38 Stat
535, 16 USC 1, et seq.). NPS policy mandates that social science research will be
used to provide an understanding of park visitors, the non-visiting public,
gateway communities and regions, and human interactions with park
resources. Such studies are needed to provide a scientific basis for park
planning, development.
Olympic National Park (OLYM) has experienced increasing visitation over the
past decade. Increasing use of the park may negatively affect the quality of
visitor experiences through crowding and resource degradation. A General
Management Plan (GMP) for Olympic National Park (OLYM) was completed in
2008 and provides overall direction for park management for the foreseeable
future. The GMP allows formulation of more specific plans, including a
wilderness management plan. A wilderness management plan is especially
important at Olympic as approximately 95 percent of the park is designated
wilderness under the provisions of the 1964 Wilderness Act. This wilderness
planning effort should be informed by a program of research, including
information from and about wilderness users.
In this project, a study of wilderness visitors at OLYM will be conducted to help
support development of a wilderness management plan. The study will be
guided by NPS’ Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework,
a management-by-objectives approach that requires formulation of indicators
and standards of quality for the wilderness experience, monitoring of indicator
variables, and management actions designed to maintain standards of quality.
The study will be designed to inform the wilderness planning process, and the
VERP framework will be used to guide this process. The analysis of the data
gathered will be used to support decisions related to the protection of
wilderness character and resources. The public purpose of the project is to
provide greater understanding of visitor use and experience to help inform
long-term management of designated wilderness within OLYM. This
information is necessary to fulfill the mandate of the Wilderness Act of 1964
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which states:
that wilderness areas “shall be administered for the use and
enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave
them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and
so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation
of their wilderness character, and for gathering and dissemination
of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness.”
It is critical to understand visitors’ attitudes and behavior to inform park and
wilderness planning and management within the context of contemporary
management frameworks such as Visitor Experience and Resource Protection
(VERP) (Manning, 2001). These frameworks help define quality by setting
management objectives to fulfill park mandates, legislation, and policy. The
VERP process involves identifying indicators and standards of quality;
monitoring indicator variables; and taking management actions to ensure that
quality standards for each indicator are maintained. Indicators of quality are
defined as measurable, manageable variables that act as proxies for the quality
of park resources and experiences. Standards define the minimum acceptable
condition of these indicator variables.
The visual simulation and scaling methods and questions used in this study are
well-established in the field. Numerous studies at many different NPS units
have used similar methods and questions (Manning, 2007). Examples include
visitor surveys in Acadia NP, including studies on the park loop road (Hallo &
Manning, 2011), on the network of historic carriage roads (Jacobi, et al., 1999;
Wang and Manning, 1999), at Schoodic Peninsula (Manning, et al., 2005), and
at the park’s Isle au Haut (Manning, 2007).

9.

Survey Respondent Universe:
Methodology: (Use (a) The respondent universe will be visitors to the trailhead sampling sites, age
as much space as
18 and over, between June 1 and August 31, 2012. The sample will be
needed; if
stratified into 3 study groups:
necessary include
• wilderness day users,
additional
• overnight wilderness users in low-use sections of the park, and
explanation on a
• overnight users in high-use sections of the park
separate page.)
(b) Sampling Plan/Procedures:
The sampling period includes the park's peak use period. Sampling at each site
will be conducted on 10 randomly selected days throughout the period of the
study. The sampling days will be spread out over the days of the week and take
place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sampling will be evenly divided between the
wilderness trailhead locations. Ten days will be sampled at each trailhead
location, with both weekday periods and weekend periods represented
proportional to use. This will ensure that a sufficient number of interviews will
be completed to make inferences to the visitor populations at these all
locations with an acceptable degree of precision. The 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. period
was chosen because it is the time of day when the majority of visitation occurs.

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During each sampling period, a trained surveyor will be stationed at the
various wilderness trailheads. When the sampling period begins, the surveyor
will approach each group exiting the trailhead and ask them to participate in
the survey. If members of the visitor groups agree to participate, the eligible
person in the group whose birthday is closest to the sampling day will be asked
to complete the questionnaire for their personal group. After they complete
the questionnaire, they will return it to the survey attendant. When the
surveyor has completed his/her contact with the group, the surveyor will ask
the next group exiting the trailhead to participate in the survey. This process
will continue throughout the sampling period. These visitors will complete the
on-site questionnaire in the presence of the survey attendant, who will answer
any questions that arise and collect the surveys upon completion. A screening
question will be asked to assure that participants will not be surveyed more
than once.
(c) Instrument Administration:
Visitors to the wilderness portion of the park will be read the following script:
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am. We're conducting a study for Olympic National Park to
better understand visitor use in this area. Participation is voluntary and all
responses are anonymous. Would you be willing to take 10 minutes to help?
If YES: "Thank you. Who in your personal group (who is at least 18 years of age)
has the next birthday? Would you be willing to fill out this survey? Have you
completed a survey at a different location in the park?”
If YES: “Thank you, but we can only accept one response per personal
group. Thank you for your time.”
If NO: “Thank you.”
If NO:"I understand. I hope you enjoyed your visit".
During the survey administration the respondents will be asked to rate a series
of photographs to indicate their acceptable level of crowing based on the
number of people shown in the photographs (see attached photo). The survey
administrator will show the respondents a series of photographs. The
photographs will be shown to the respondent one at a time. The order that
photos will be presented to different respondents will alternate between
incrementally increasing and decreasing the number of people. A total of
eleven photographs (one set of 5 and one of 6) will be used for survey
crowding questions.
(d) Expected Response Rate/Confidence Levels:
The estimated sample size for each of the three visitor groups is expected to
be 312 visitors. The overall survey sample size is expected to be approximately
936 visitors. Based on previous experience in conducting similar surveys, it is
expected that about 80% of visitors (about 750 individuals or 250 visitors for
each of the three types of visitor groups) will be willing to participate. In a
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similar study at the Isle au Haut section of Acadia National Park in 2002, a
response rate of 87% was attained. More recent studies on the Mount Desert
Island portion of Acadia National Park yielded response rates of 83.6% at
Acadia Mountain, 78.5% at Hunter’s Beach, 83.5% at Seawall, 86.3% at Valley
Cove, and 77% at Little Hunter’s Beach. Study findings are estimated to be
accurate within 6 percentage points, based on a sample size of approximately
250 using a 95% confidence level. This will be sufficient for the park’s planning
purposes. The number of people in each visitor party and date and time of
refusals will be recorded and reported on a refusal log.
Number of Initial
Contacts

Expected
Response
Rate

Expected
Number of
Responses

Margin of
Error +/%

936

80%

750

6%

(e) Strategies for dealing with potential non-response bias:
Non-response bias will be examined by comparing selected characteristics of
the sample population with characteristics observed and recorded in every
group contacted (e.g., group size, gender and group type). Additionally, all
visitors approached will be asked to answer three key questions from the
survey:
1. Did you spend the night in the wilderness?
2. How crowded did you feel on this visit?
3. How many times have you been to the wilderness of Olympic National
Park?
These results and observational data will be recorded and compared to results
from respondents completing and returning the questionnaire to see if nonresponse bias is present. The results of the check for non-response bias will be
reported and implications for data interpretation will be discussed in any
reports prepared for the NPS managers.
(f) Description of any pre-testing and peer review of the methods and/or
instrument (recommended):
The questions included in these surveys have been designed and reviewed by
the PI, research staff and graduate students at the University of Vermont, and
NPS park and regional staff. The questions are similar to those used at several
other national park areas in previous studies. Finally, most questions appear in
the NPS/OMB “Pool of Known Questions” (OMB Control Number 1024-0224;
Current Expiration Date 8/31/2014) and have been reviewed and approved by
the NPS Information Collections Review Coordinator. Research methods and
findings from these and related studies in many units of the National Park
System have been compiled into two text books that are used by students,
researchers, and managers to plan, design, administer, and report social
science studies in the field of parks and outdoor recreation (Manning 2007;
Manning 2011).

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Burden Estimates:

We plan to approach at least 936 individuals during the sampling period
(n=936). With an anticipated response rate of 80%, we expect to receive
750 total responses for this collection.
We expect that the initial contact time will be at least one minute per
person (936 x 1 minute = 16 hours). We expect that 186 (20%) visitors will
refuse to participate during the initial on-site contact, for those
individuals we will record their reason for refusal and ask them to answer
the four questions that will be used for the non-response check. This is
estimated to take no more than 2 minutes (186 x 2 minutes = 6 hours) to
complete each session.
For those who agree to participate (n= 750) we expect that 750 will
complete and return the survey, with that, an additional 15 minutes will
be required to complete the follow through (750 response x 15 minutes =
188 hours). The burden for this collection is estimated to be 210 hours.

11.

Estimated Number of Contacts

Estimation of Time

Total Number of Initial
Contacts

936

Estimated Time (mins.) to
Complete Initial Contact

1

Estimated Burden Hours

16

Estimated number of
on-site refusals
Total Number of
Responses

186

On-site Refusal/
nonresponse
Time to complete and
return surveys

2

Estimated Burden Hours

6

15

Estimated Burden Hours

188

750

Estimation of Respondent Burden

Total Burden

210

Reporting Plan: The results of this information collection activity will be presented in an internal
agency report and will be available upon request. A copy of the technical study
report will be archived with the Social Science Division of the National Park
Service for inclusion in the Social Science Studies Collection as required by the
Programmatic Approval Process. The key estimates that will be derived from the
data collected will be descriptive in nature, primarily measures of central
tendency (mean and median), dispersion (standard deviation), and frequency
distributions. Some tests for differences in means and proportions may be done.

References
Manning, R. (2011). Studies in Outdoor Recreation (Third Edition). Corvallis: Oregon State University Press.
Manning, R. (2007). Parks and Carrying Capacity: Commons Without Tragedy. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Manning, R. (2001). Visitor Experience and Resource Protection: A Framework for Managing the Carrying
Capacity of National Parks. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 19(1):93-108.
Manning, R., Lawson, S. and Morrissey, J. (2005). What's Behind the Numbers? Qualitative Insights Into
Normative Research in Outdoor Recreation. Leisure Sciences. 27: 205-224.
Wang, B. and Manning, R. (1999). Computer Simulation Modeling for Recreation Management: A Study on
Carriage Road Use in Acadia National Park, Maine, USA. Environmental Management, 23(2):193-203.
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