Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

Background
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner to help summarize, compare, and develop guidance related to federal land and water management agencies’ current methods for collecting information on visitor numbers and other visitor-related data. This project will expand USGS knowledge of methods used to estimate visitation and other visitor data on federally managed lands and waters, with a goal of providing information that is useful to federal agencies that manage public lands and waters for recreation.

Grant Details
The overarching objective of the agreement is to foster collaborative and cooperative research between the USGS FORT science center and CESU scientists on the use of various approaches for visitor monitoring and management on federal public lands. The specific objectives include summarizing and comparing federal land and water management agencies’ current methods for collecting information on visitor numbers and other visitor data, developing guidance and resources to support the development of improved and more consistent approaches to data collection for visitor numbers and other visitor data across land and water management agencies.

The project will involve describing case studies where visitation estimation methods have been successfully applied, including initial and ongoing costs; describing options for estimating visitation and other visitor characteristics beyond those currently being used by federal land and water management agencies; describing best practices for various data collection methods, with decision support information to indicate when each method is appropriate, to improve consistency/comparability in visitation datasets across agencies.

Eligibility Requirements
This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program. Eligible recipients must be a participating partner of the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.

Period of Performance
This is a discrete body of work that is anticipated to be completed over the course of two years. Although this funding opportunity only covers phase one of this work, there is the potential for two phases.

Phase one of the project describes three objectives, as outlined below.

Grant Value
It is anticipated that one award will be made with the potential for a second award. The initial allocation of funding in the amount of $58,000 is estimated to be available for this agreement FY 2024. A second award to complete phase two will be made in an amount up to $80,000 dependent upon availability of funding in fiscal year 2025.

Place of Performance
The successful applicant(s) must have strong working knowledge of visitor use management; visitor counting methods, and public lands in the western United States.