BFL Recreation Study Site Instructions

Before beginning the Recreation Study, please make sure that you have read and understand the General Instructions, Study Site Instructions, and the Survey Instructions on this web site or in the BFL research kit. The instructions for the recreation protocol assume that you understand the BFL site selection process, habitat calculations, and protocols. In this section we will describe only the parts of the Recreation Study protocols that are new or different from the regular BFL protocols.

Selecting Study Areas

For the purpose of this project, we are restricting the study to high-use recreation areas on National Forest lands. These areas may include overnight camping or day-use activities such as picnicking and boating. Relatively undisturbed, low impact sites receiving minimal use, such as hiking trails and a few dispersed camp sites, are not suitable for this study. The recreation study area will contain three survey points, one within the high-use recreation zone, one near the edge of the recreation zone, and a control site in nearby undisturbed forest. These three survey points will be grouped for comparative analyses. All three survey points, therefore, must be located within the same contiguous forest patch so the effect of fragmentation is minimized.

If you are a past BFL participant, please look at the location of your existing BFL sites on or near National Forest land and see if there are high-use recreation areas nearby in similar habitat. Your old BFL sites that meet these criteria can be grouped with study sites within the recreation area.

SITE MAP