Ambitious survey planned on public lands access

SNRE Associate Professor Pete Fix, who has conducted recreation surveys for state and federal agencies over the past 12 years, is undertaking his most ambitious Alaska project to date — with help from an Extension team.

Working under a three-year $399,407 cooperative agreement from
the Bureau of Land Management, the research team will train others to survey
recreational and subsistence users of public lands across Alaska. The
information, collected mostly on site, will help agencies determine how
Alaskans and other visitors access public lands, whether access is adequate for
different stakeholders and how it can be improved.

“Hopefully it will lead to better planning for access to
federal lands in the region,” says Fix.

Rural and subsistence users of public lands will be surveyed
at two conferences, but the largest effort will take place this coming summer. Six
aides, most likely college students, will survey users of public lands at designated
locations between Memorial Day and Labor Day. In the Interior, for instance,
they plan to interview travelers at the Coldfoot visitor center, the Wickersham
Dome trailhead, Nome Creek Valley, Tangle Lakes, Denali National Park, Public
Lands Information Centers in Fairbanks and Tok, and at the Tetlin National
Wildlife Refuge. Locations are equally varied in Southcentral and Southeast.

Using iPads and paper surveys, the aides will interview in
the same locations several times through the summer. “I’ll be paying people to
hang out there,” Fix jokes.

Fix said help from an Extension team is key to the statewide
survey.  Lisa Wedin, a program assistant
in Anchorage, will provide coordination, training and logistics help for the
aides, who will survey individuals traveling by cruise ship, ferry, airplane,
car and bicycle.  Jasmine Shaw in Sitka
will also help with logistics. Thorne Bay Agent Karen Petersen will advise on
the survey in Southeast and Extension Evaluation Specialist Alda Norris is
helping with the online survey design.

Samples will be taken on certain dates, timed to take
advantage of the height of the fishing season at the Russian River, for
instance,  and moose hunting in the Nome
Creek Valley. Samples will target local and non-local users, who will be asked
to answer a longer follow-up survey by email. All told, Fix hopes to get 1,800
surveys answered in the Interior, 2,700 in Southcentral and 2,100 in Southeast.  All the information will be assembled and
analyzed by the end of 2017.

Fix said the recreational use surveys should help with
long-range planning on how to improve the visitor experience.