Information System Data Collection Protocol Development Project. Final Report.

Abstract

The process of managing forest land under multiple use objectives requires a wide range of activities. Providing information is one of those activities and it spans the entire range of units in the Forest Service. While the provision of information is important, it is often considered to be a task that is of lesser importance than other tasks that are perceived to be more directly related to production goals. Further, the provision of information is often viewed as a simple task. That is, if the information is provided that is all that is necessary. In fact, the provision of information has at least five dimensions: the sender, the message, the channel, the receiver, and the setting in which the information exchange takes place. Because the process -of providing information is complex, the evaluation of the process and the evaluation of the results are tasks that require considerable attention. The evaluation processes can be facilitated by the development of a protocol for collecting data which will provide a basis for improving the information providing process. The orienting questions for the development of a protocol that can be used to evaluate the information providing process are: (1) HOW IS THE FOREST SERVICE DOING PROVIDING INFORMATION TO RECREATION USERS? (2) HOW DOES ONE KNOW THAT?