Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU

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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Fort Collins Science Center is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research on understanding what influences annual National Park System (NPS) recreational visitation. The National Park Service has been collecting visitor use data at parks since at least 1904, which is then used in many different programmatic capacities, including park-level planning and understanding how parks provide ecosystem service benefits to visitors and local economies. However, forecasting future park visitation relies on simple trend analyses and ⿿professional judgement⿝ by park staff. There is a significant need to develop rigorous statistical modelling capabilities beyond the current state of forecasting used by the National Park Service. The ultimate goal of this research effort is to estimate accurate and valid forecasting models of visitation to our Nation⿿s most iconic preserved resources. The opportunity is being offering to CESU partners that have the capability to conduct econometric modelling research on annual NPS visitation. In addition to directly working with the Fort Collins Science Center, it is expected that close collaboration with a statistician from the National Park Service Social Science Program will be leveraged for the analysis. Through this CESU agreement, the federal and state CESU partners will cooperate fully in development of a research program, and will produce final products that may be used in support of management needs of the National Park Service. It is anticipated that the results of this effort will have significance for local, regional, and national level decision-making related to visitor use of parks and other protected areas. The cooperation between USGS and its CESU partner brings a combination of expertise to address this objective that is greater than that possessed by either partner on its own.

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