DOI: 10.3886/icpsr07680
title: Outdoor Recreation Survey, 1977: Federal Estate Survey
title: Archival Version

description: This data collection contains survey responses gathered by
 the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Outdoor
 Recreation in the summer of 1977 from visitors to 153 federal land
 management areas, and during the following fall and winter when
 individuals were queried at 35 additional areas. The purposes of the
 study were to determine the importance of outdoor recreation to the
 American people, patterns of recreational land use, trends in
 recreation, the users of federal land, and the deterrents,
 satisfactions, and preferences for outdoor recreation. People who were
 interviewed ranged from urbanites out for an afternoon at New York
 City Gateway National Recreation Area to backpackers returning from a
 two-week adventure in the Bitterroot Wilderness of the Nezperce
 National Forest in Idaho. Respondents were asked to report which
 activities among a list of 30 they had participated in during the last
 12 months, which ones they planned to participate in during the
 current trip, and which they hoped to take part in in the next 12
 months. They also were asked the purpose of their current trip, their
 level of satisfaction with their experiences so far, suggested
 improvements to the specific recreation area, their opinions of the
 importance of outdoor recreation in general, the importance they
 placed on having outdoor recreation facilities within walking distance
 and within one hour's driving distance, the impact of the price of
 gasoline on the number and duration of auto trips taken to outdoor
 recreation areas, and preferences for allocation of federal recreation
 funds in the future. Personal information includes respondents' age,
 sex, race, highest level of schooling completed, occupation, income,
 urban or rural residence, and state of residence. The United States
 Department of the Interior also conducted a separate but related
 telephone survey during the same year on a national sample of
 respondents (see OUTDOOR RECREATION SURVEY, 1977: GENERAL POPULATION
 SURVEY [ICPSR 7679]). The primary reason for conducting two separate
 studies was to ensure representative samples for comparing recreation
 characteristics of the entire citizenry of the United States with
those who pursue recreational activities on federal land.
description: Multistage, stratified, random probability sampling was
 employed. The first sampling unit was the land area involved, with each
 discrete land area being stratified by federal agency (e.g., national
 parks for the National Park Service, and national forests for the
 United States Forest Service). For analytic purposes, approximately 40
 areas were selected for each of the three largest providers of public
 recreation, i.e., National Park Service, National Forest Service, and
 the Corps of Engineers. Areas of the other four land managing agencies
 were selected proportional to the total opportunities they provided.
 The area listing included only those with recreation facilities
 managed by a federal agency. Within each federal agency, land areas
 were chosen at random with probabilities proportionate to official
 yearly visitation statistics after first being stratified by the
 appropriate federal regions. Thus, a park with two million visitors
 had twice the chance of being chosen at random as a park with one
million visitors.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Outdoor Recreation Survey, 1977: Federal Estate Survey
description: Recreators on the federal estate (i.e., all
 federally-owned land managed at least in part for public outdoor
recreation activity).
description: The codebook is provided by ICPSR as a Portable
 Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe
 Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software,
 such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.