Baseline and Trend Information on Wilderness Use and Users

Description of Information Collection

The following describes the information collection to be extended: Title: Baseline and Trend Information on Wilderness Use and Users. OMB Number: 0596-0108. Expiration Date of Approval: May 31, 1999. Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved information collection. Abstract: The Wilderness Act of 1964 directs that the National Wilderness Preservation System (System) be managed to protect natural wilderness conditions and to provide outstanding opportunities for the public to find solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreational experiences. To meet the requirements of The Wilderness Act of 1964 and to help the Forest Service enhance visitors' recreational experiences, the agency monitors trends of visitor recreational activities. Forest Service personnel also want to ensure that visitors' recreational activities do not harm the natural resources of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The agency is expanding the scope of the survey to include wilderness areas about which the agency has little information in regard to visitor recreational trends. Data from this information collection will be maintained at the interagency (Agriculture and Interior) Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute in Missoula, Montana. The Forest Service will use information from this collection: (1) to establish visitor recreational use baselines; (2) to monitor visitor recreational use trends; (3) to gain an understanding of how the agency's management of the National Wilderness Preservation System influences a visitor's wilderness experience; and (4) to help understand how to educate visitors, so they may enjoy their wilderness experience without leaving permanent reminders of their visits, such as damaged vegetation, litter, and polluted streams. The information also will be used for planning management direction for various wilderness areas managed by the agencies in the Departments of Agriculture and Interior. Respondents will be visitors, or potential visitors, to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Forest Service personnel will conduct face-to-face, on-site interviews with visitors as they enter the System or will send mailback survey forms to visitors at their homes, using addresses that visitors provide when visiting the System. Forest Service personnel will contact visitors at nonwilderness sites to ask if they have plans to visit the System. When unable to conduct face-to-face interviews with potential visitors, the agency will send mailback survey forms to the homes of those who visited nonwilderness areas, using addresses provided by them as they entered the nonwilderness sites. In some cases, the agency forms will be made available on a self-service basis to visitors in trailhead displays. Respondents will be asked questions that include how many times they visit, when they plan their next visit, or if they plan to visit at all. Respondents will be asked, when visiting, if they come in groups, and, if so, the size of those groups. Respondents will be asked how long they stay when visiting? Do they use equipment, such as stoves, or use wood for fires while visiting, and do they have preferences for social conditions? For example, do they like or will they accept crowded conditions, such as crowded camping areas, designed to limit negative effects to the natural resources, such as soil compaction, damage to tree roots, and negative impacts to water quality? Do respondents support various wilderness management strategies, such as limiting visitor use of wilderness areas to lessen negative effects to the wilderness environment? Do they support

separating uses, such as designating some campsites for use only by groups with pack animals, to avoid conflict? Data collected in this information collection is not available from other sources. Estimate of Burden: 15 minutes. Type of Respondents: Visitors or potential visitors to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Estimated Number of Respondents: 3000. Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 1. Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 750 hours.

Comment Is Invited

Comments are invited on (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the stated purposes and the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

Use of Comments

All comments received in response to this notice, including name and address when provided, will be summarized and included in the request for Office of Management and Budget approval. All comments also will become a matter of public record.

Dated: March 16, 1999. Robert Lewis, Jr., Deputy Chief for Research & Development. [FR Doc. 99-6931 Filed 3-19-99; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3410-11-P