Foreword: This report is one in a series of reports updating statistics in the book, Outdoor Recreation for 21st Century America, published by Venture Publishing in 2004 (http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/trends/or21c.html). The report series is entitled Recreation and Tourism Statistics Update (RTSU). This RTSU focuses on participation in outdoor activities by the local population who live around one of our country's National Forests. In future RTSU reports, we will focus on additional National Forests throughout the South and Nation. All statistics are based on the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (NSRE). (Click here to see a listing of the recreation statistics provided in this report. Click on the table title to pull up any table of interest.)

Introduction

The NSRE is a general population telephone survey. It focuses on outdoor recreation activities wherever they may occur, not just those in the national forest. The value of this information lies in the insights it provides into overall population demands for outdoor recreation. Population-wide demands can represent broad interests which a national forest might serve.

We refer to the multiple counties ringing a national forest as that forest's local area. A local area is roughly defined to include all counties whose center point lies within 75 miles (straight-line distance) of the county or counties within which the national forest land is located. This 75-mile distance is generally considered to be about an hour and a half to two hours driving distance. The local area for the forest featured in this RTSU report is shown in Figure 1 . National forest land is highlighted in green. Other colors indicate population density for each county in the local area. (Click here to see a list of the local area counties with total population, land area in square miles, and population density.)

A total of 57 tables are included as links in this report. In these tables are shown local population and demographic characteristics, population-wide outdoor recreation activity participation rates, and participation rates for a number of demographic strata. An outdoor recreation participation rate is the proportion of people 16 or older living in the local area counties who indicated in the survey that they had participated in an outdoor activity 1 or more times during the past 12 months. Also shown in the tables is the estimated number of people living in the local area who participated in each outdoor activity (number of participants). Number of participants was derived by multiplying the participation rate for each recreation activity by the corresponding population age 16 and older. Population numbers were based on July 1, 2004 Census estimates.

Approach for Estimating Local Participation Rates

Age 16-34 35-54 55 & older

Sex Males Females

Race/Ethnicity White Black or African-American Asian & Pacific Islander American Indian or Native American Hispanic or Latino

(Click here to see the local area population for each of the above 30 population strata.)

The NSRE data set is large and includes interviews of more than 81,000 persons age 16 and older nationwide. Being this large, the NSRE data allowed participation rate estimates for more than 150 sub-state local areas. For each local area, participation rate estimates were produced for 56 different outdoor activities within each of the 30 demographic strata. An example is estimates of mountain biking participation for Asian females, age 35-54. In total, there are 1,680 such estimates-56 activities times 30 demographic strata. If an activity/strata combination did not have a minimum of 25 sample observations within the local area, then progressively larger-scale estimates were used as a better estimate of local participation. Scale levels above the local area included state, census division, census region, and finally national. If a national or census region estimate had to be used because the local sample sizes were too small for a particular activity and demographic strata (i.e., <25), they were adjusted to local conditions based on participation rate estimates of the total local population.

Using the Tables in This Report

Within each table individual activities are listed down the left hand side (as row labels) and age group is listed across the top (as the column labels). Age groups include 16-34, 35-54, and 55+. The numbers within each table report participation rate (%) and estimated number of participants (#) for each activity across the 3 age groups. A summary column to the far right is provided to show participation rates and number of participants for all residents of the local area age 16 and older. (The number of participants in the 3 age groups may not sum exactly to the number for participants age 16 and older due to rounding.)

For the total population and all race-by-sex demographic group tables, population estimates (Census, 2004) for the three age categories in the national forest local area appear in a footnote at the bottom of each table. The sum of these population estimates equals the population of people age 16 and older.

Each table may be transferred and/or printed individually for use in other reports or in presentations. Each can also be compared with statistics in any of the other 54 tables. There is no information about where the participation occurs. It may be on a national forest, on private land, or in any other outdoor setting. Estimates within tables indicate what people are doing for outdoor recreation in the general local area of the national forest. This is critical information for national forest planners as the agency seeks to serve and provide outdoor recreation opportunities for an increasingly diverse American public with different preferences. This information is complementary to National Visitor Use Monitoring statistics which report visitation specifically to national forests. The NSRE provides a broader look at outdoor recreation and potential other markets for national forests.

Links to Outdoor Recreation Participation Tables