DISCUSSION/ 

 RECOMMENDATIONS 



Station placement is 

 critical to achieve a 

 high registration rate. 



The study resulted in the development of a useful sampling tool for estimating 

 current recreation use. This "tool" provides a means of updating use estimates for 

 several years following field sampling. However, the sampling model is not recommended 

 for general use because of high costs and certain weaknesses that must yet be corrected. 

 The study yielded information that should make it possible to substantially reduce 

 costs and improve sampling efficiency in future studies. 



Sample Design 



Sampling costs can be minimized by sound selection of sample size and allocation 

 of sampling effort. Depending upon the characteristics of the population to be sampled, 

 stratification may result in a gain in precision of estimates. However, stratification 

 is unnecessary and complicates calculations where the population is homogeneous. 



The most serious weakness in our sampling model was in the allocation of sampling 

 effort. The sampling effort was subjectively allocated disproportionately between 

 strata, but the analysis revealed that sample allocation was not optimum. In terms 

 of maximum sampling efficiency and precision of estimates, some strata were sampled 

 too heavily while other strata were not sampled heavily enough. Sampling effort 

 should have been concentrated in the moderate-to-heavy-use strata, and little or no 

 sampling should have been done in the light-use strata. 



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