Programmatic statement

NPS Form 10-201 (Rev. 09/2016) OMB Control No.

National Park Service Expiration Date

PROGRAMMATIC REVIEW AND CLEARANCE PROCESS

FOR NPS-SPONSORED PUBLIC SURVEYS

The scope of the Programmatic Review and Clearance Process for NPS-Sponsored Public Surveys is limited and will only include individual surveys of park visitors, potential park visitors, and residents of communities near parks. Use of the programmatic review will be limited to non-controversial surveys of park visitors, potential park visitors, and/or residents of communities near parks that are not likely to include topics of significant interest in the review process. Additionally, this process is limited to non-controversial information collections that do not attract attention to significant, sensitive, or political issues. Examples of significant, sensitive, or political issues include: seeking opinions regarding political figures; obtaining citizen feedback related to high-visibility or high-impact issues like the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park, the delisting of specific Endangered Species, or drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

SUBMISSION DATE: 9/12/2017

PROJECT TITLE: Glen Canyon, Capital Reef, and Grand Staircase Escalante Visitor Use and Experience Study

ABSTRACT: (not to exceed 150 words)

As part of a network of federally protected areas under the management of the Department of Interior in southern Utah, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capital Reef National Park, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument have become some of the most highly visited areas in Utah. As visitor use increases to these protected areas it is important to identify, understand, and monitor key components of the visitor experience. This study seeks to understand visitors’ travel patterns to these areas as well as information sources that informed their visit and expectations; as well as motivations, expectations, and perceptions of their experience, as it relates to current social and ecological conditions in these units. On-site semi-structured interviews will be conducted from September to October of 2017. All adults (aged 18 and older) in the sampling area during the sampling period will be eligible to participants in the interviews.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION:

Name: B. Derrick Taff, Assistant Professor Title: Assistant Professor

Affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University Phone: 814-867-1756

Address: 701H Donald H Ford Building, University Park, PA 16802

Email: [email protected]

PARK OR PROGRAM LIAISON CONTACT INFORMATION:

Name: John Spence, Chief Scientist and Terrestrial Natural Resources Branch Chief

Park: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Address: 691 Scenic View Drive, P.O. Box 1507

Phone: (928)-608-6267

Email: [email protected]

Name: Terry Fisk, Resource Management and Science

Park: Capitol Reef National Park

Address: HC 70 Box 15 Torrey, Utah, 84775

Phone: (435)-425-4140

Email: [email protected]

Name: Jabe Beal, Outdoor Recreation Planner

Park: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Address: P.O. Box 225, Escalante, UT, 84726

Phone: (435)-826-5601

Email: [email protected]

PROJECT INFORMATION:

Where will the collection take place? Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capital Reef National Park, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Sampling Period Start Date: September 20, 2017 Sampling Period End Date: October 7, 2017

Type of Information Collection Instrument: (Check ALL that Apply)

Mail-Back Questionnaire X Face-to-Face Interview Focus Groups

On-Site Questionnaire Telephone Survey

Other (List)      

Will an electronic device be used to collect information? No X Yes – Type of Device: Digital Recorder

SURVEY JUSTIFICATION:

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 and development.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capital Reef National Park, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument preserve massive swaths of natural and cultural resources, spanning across the majority of southern Utah. But, as visitation to these sites continues to increase, so does the significance of informed visitor management to properly plan and protect the social and ecological systems in the area. Impacts from increased use are already evident in the protected areas in southern Utah. Non-federal promotional campaigns such as “Life Elevated” and “Mighty Five” are believed to have increased visitation on federal lands in Utah by unprecedented numbers. However, very little is known regarding extent to which the increase in visitation is impacting natural resources, such as the fragile desert landscape, or social conditions, such as visitor experiences, at these three units. Connected through the popular Utah Scenic Byway 12, recreational opportunities are often interlinked, where visitors may use the same visitor center and/or trailhead to access multiple park, recreation area, or monument units in one given trip.

Given the increasing challenges such as crowding, depreciative behaviors, and associated impacts to the ecological resources, managers at these units are seeking information regarding actual and expected visitor experiences, that will help guide future management and visitor use at these sites. This study will provide information regarding the following: visitor demographics; visitors’ travel patterns; information sources that informed their visit and expectations; visitor motivations, expectations, and perceptions of their experience, as it relates to current social (e.g., visitor experience given the increase in visitation) and ecological conditions (e.g., proliferation of unmanaged trails and campsites and resource damage due to depreciative behaviors and overuse) at these units. This information will help management understand desired conditions, suitable uses, acceptable levels of impact, and potential visitor outreach opportunities for these areas.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY:

1. Respondent Universe:

All adult visitors 18 years or older visiting Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capital Reef National Park, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, for 10 sampling days (Table 2), between September 20 and October 7, 2017.

2. Sampling Plan / Procedures:

A qualitative, semi-structured interview approach will be applied given the limited understanding of the visitor use and experience, and ecological conditions described above. Specifically, management recommended four sampling areas where intercepts with front country and backcountry visitors would be most feasible and fairly regular given the vast landscape with dispersed use across the units. Respondents will be intercepted by trained researchers at two visitor centers (Escalante Interagency and Capitol Reef) and the Escalante Canyon Trailhead/Hole-In-The-Rock-Road and Boulder Mail-Trail, which access numerous front country and backcountry destinations across the units (see Table 1). Using approximately 1-hour intervals (dependent upon visitation), the interviewer will randomly intercept visitors at each sampling area. Sampling will be stratified by day of the week (weekend and weekday) and location during the sampling period of September 20 to October 7, of 2017. Visitors will be approached between the hours of 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Face to face, semi-structured interviews will be completed on site. Although this is a qualitative sample where inferential statistics will not be feasible, if the visitor refuses, information will be recorded to help examine non-response bias as described in the section below.

Table 1. Example On-site Sampling Schedule

	Sampling Days Per Site
Location	September	October	TOTAL
Capitol Reef Visitor Center	1	1	2
Escalante Interagency Visitor Center	1	1	2
Boulder Mail-Trail	2	1	3
Escalante Canyon Trailhead/Hole-In-The-Rock-Road	2	1	3
TOTAL	6	4	10

Table 2. Estimated Number of Visitor Contacts during Sampling Period

	Estimated Number of Visitor Contacts
Location	September	October	TOTAL
Capitol Reef Visitor Center	8	8	16
Escalante Interagency Visitor Center	8	8	16
Boulder Mail-Trail	16	8	24
Escalante Canyon Trailhead/Hole-In-The-Rock-Road	16	8	24
TOTAL	48	32	80

3. Instrument Administration:

The initial contact with all visitors will be used to explain the study and determine their interest in participating in the study. This should take approximately 1 minute. The interviewer will employ the following script when working with potential respondents:

“Excuse me, my name is __________. I am conducting short interviews for Glen Canyon [Capital Reef or Grand Staircase] to better understand the types of experiences visitors seek while recreating here. Your participation is voluntary and your responses will be anonymous. It will take about 15 minutes to complete. Are you 18 years of age or older and willing to participate?”

 If NO: “Do you mind if I ask: what is the primary activity you will be taking part in during your time at Glen Canyon/Capital Reef/Grand Staircase?

Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope you enjoy your visit.”

If YES: “I’d like to record our conversation so I can share this information with the Recreation Area/Park/Monument staff later. Is this OK with you?”

If NO: “Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope you enjoy your visit.”

If YES: “Excellent, we will begin the interview now.”

A semi structured script will be used to conduct the interviews. The script contains non-controversial OMB Pool of Known Question topics. The majority of the questions have prompts, which the trained interviewer will employ to help aid in the discussion of a given topic, if needed.

4. Expected Response Rate / Confidence Level:

Based upon similar methods, we anticipate that we will ask a total of 80 individuals to be interviewed. Of these, we estimate that about 70% agree to participate (n=56) and the remaining 20% will refuse (n=24); however we expect that approximately 19 (80%) of those will agree to answer the non-response bias questions, and estimate that 5 individuals will completely refuse to participate.

Table 3. Expected Response Rates

Respondent Group	Initial Contacts	Acceptance 70%	Non-respondents (Soft refusals) 30%	Non-response survey 80%	Hard Refusals 20%
Capitol Reef Visitor Center	16	11	5	4	1
Escalante Interagency Visitor Center	16	11	5	4	1
Boulder Mail-Trail	24	17	7	5.5	1.5
Escalante Canyon Trailhead/Hole-In-The-Rock-Road	24	17	7	5.5	1.5
TOTAL	80	56	24	19	5

5. Strategies for dealing with potential non-response bias:

Non-response question for non-respondents:

“Do you mind if I ask: What are the primary activities you participated in or plan to participate in [SITE NAME] during your visit?

The interviewers will also record the following observational information in a survey log:

• time and day of contact,

• location,

• group size,

• any potential language barrier,

• gender

This process will continue throughout the sampling period at each location. Given that this is a qualitative sample where inferential statistics will not be feasible, this information will be used to explore whether there were any non-response biases from any demographic that may not have been represented through the qualitative sample. Any non-response bias findings will be reported in final summaries to the units.

6. Description of any pre-testing and peer review of the methods and/or instrument:

This study uses similar methods and semi-structured interview questions that have been used in other NPS visitor use monitoring studies submitted by researchers at Penn State University through the NPS Programmatic Review Process. The questions are taken from the NPS Pool of Known Questions; however, they have been adapted when appropriate for context at these units. The questions in this collection designed, reviewed and pretested by the following: PI, research staff, graduate students, and social scientists in the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management Department at Pennsylvania State University with expertise in social science research; as well as colleagues at Virginia Tech University, and staff at the Park units. Pre-testing for clarity and estimated burden time was conducted with graduate and undergraduate students at Pennsylvania State University. Finally, based upon recommendations of the pretests, questions were reduced and truncated, to only include approved pool of known questions/topics (or slight variations specific to the units and the context of an interview format), with the intent to reduce respondent burden time.

BURDEN ESTIMATES:

We plan to approach 80 potential participants. From the 80 originally contacted, we expect that approximately 70% (n=56) will agree to complete the interview. We anticipate that it will take at least one minute for the initial contact and an additional 15 minutes to complete the on-site interview (56 x 16 minutes = 15 hours). This initial interaction with all visitors intercepted, and with those that agree to participate will total 15 hours and 20 minutes.

We expect that approximately 30% (n=24) of all visitors contacted will refuse to participate in the study. For those individuals, we will record their refusal and ask them to answer the non-response check question (additional observational data will be recorded on the survey study log, as mentioned above). Based on similar studies by the researchers, we anticipate that roughly 20% of the visitors refusing to complete the on-site interview will also refuse to answer the non-response questions as well (n = 5). We estimate that the remaining 19 visitors refusing to participate in the study will agree to answer the non-response question will spend one minute answering the non-respond questions (19 x 1 minute = 19 minutes). Therefore, the total burden for this collection is estimated to be no more than 16 hours.

Table 4. Expected Burden Estimates

	Responses	Completion Time (minutes)	Burden Hours
		Initial Contact time added to completion time
Completed questionnaire	56	16	15
Non-response survey	19	1	<1
Total Burden Requested:			16

REPORTING PLAN:

Analyze interviews and prepare report: November 2017 – March 2018

1. All interviews will be transcribed and coded following the constant comparative analytic framework to generate themes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). For example, three researchers -- to allow for triangulation, including the PI -- will individually code the interviews for themes. Once coded separately, these researchers will come to consensus through an iterative analysis and review process to determine salient themes;

2. Product: draft reports with thematic analysis of interviews;

3. Product: compiled final report for unit management, reviewed by unit staff and peer-reviewed by relevant social scientists.

References:

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

NOTICES

Privacy Act Statement

General: This information is provided pursuant to Public Law 93-579 (Privacy Act of 1974), December 21, 1984, for individuals completing this form.

Authority: National Park Service Research mandate (54 USC 100702)

Purpose and Uses: This information will be used by The NPS Information Collections Coordinator to ensure appropriate documentation of information collections conducted in areas managed by or that are sponsored by the National Park Service.

Effects of Nondisclosure: Providing information is mandatory to submit Information Collection Requests to Programmatic Review Process.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement

We are collecting this information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501) and is authorized by the National Park Service Research mandate (54 USC 100702). This information will be used by The NPS Information Collections Coordinator to ensure appropriate documentation of information collections conducted in areas managed by or that are sponsored by the National Park Service. All parts of the form must be completed in order for your request to be considered. We may not conduct or sponsor and you are not required to respond to, this or any other Federal agency-sponsored information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB has reviewed and approved The National Park Service Programmatic Review Process and assigned OMB Control Number 1024-0224.

Estimated Burden Statement

Public Reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 60 minutes per request, including the time it takes for reviewing instructions, gathering information and completing and reviewing the form. This time does not include the editorial time required to finalize the submission. Comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form should be sent to the Information Collection Clearance Coordinator, National Park Service, 1201 Oakridge Dr., Fort Collins, CO 80525.

RECORDS RETENTION - PERMANENT. Transfer all permanent records to NARA 15 years after closure. (NPS Records Schedule, Resource Page 1 of 8

Management And Lands (Item 1.A.2) (N1-79-08-1)).