Estimates of national forest recreation use are available at the national, regional, and forest levels via the USDA Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) program. In some resource planning and management applications, analysts desire recreation use estimates for subforest areas within an individual national forest or for subforest areas that combine portions of several national forests. In this research note we have detailed two approaches whereby the NVUM sampling data may be used to estimate recreation use for a subforest area within a single national forest or for a subforest area combining portions of more than one national forest. The approaches differ in their data requirements, complexity, and assumptions. In the "new forest" approach, recreation use is estimated by using NVUM data obtained only from NVUM interview sites within the area of interest. In the "all-forest information" approach, recreation use is estimated by using sample data gathered on all portions of the national forest(s) that contain the area of interest.

Despite decades of academic work and practical management applications, the concept of visitor capacity remains controversial and inconsistently operationalized. Nevertheless, there are situations where development of a numerical estimate of capacity is important and where not doing so has resulted in land management agencies being successfully litigated. This report is a guide to developing estimates of numerical visitor capacity, with particular emphasis on wilderness. It reviews capacity concepts, surveys available approaches to capacity determination, and outlines a generic process. Appendices provide information on relevant legislation and policy, as well as detailed examples and templates.

A pilot sampling design is described for estimating site visits to National Forest System lands. The three-stage sampling design consisted of national forest ranger districts, site days within ranger districts, and last-exiting recreation visitors within site days. Stratification was used at both the primary and secondary stages. Ranger districts were stratified based on Bailey's ecoregions, while site days were stratified based on site type, season, and day type. Statistical methodology is presented to derive site-visit estimates at the site day, ranger district, and national levels. Results are presented to illustrate the magnitude of the site-visit estimates, their variability, and confidence intervals. With such information, an evaluation of the stratification variables is presented using the design effect and the relative hypothetical efficiency. Sample size analysis is performed to provide recommendations for future sample surveys to meet specified levels of precision.

This report summarizes more than 30 years of the literature on net economic value of outdoor recreation on public lands. The report provides average net willingness to pay or consumer surplus per day for 30 recreation activities at the national level. Values per day by recreation activity are also presented by census region of the United States. Detailed tables provide the average value per day as well as the standard error for calculating confidence intervals. Guidance for using these values in performing benefit transfer to unstudied sites is also provided. The report provides a link to a Web site where the spreadsheet that underlies the averages calculated in this report is available.