TITLE:
Use of a Public Fishing Area Determined by Vehicle Counters with Verification by Trail Cameras
AUTHORS:
Greg Simpson
KEYWORDS:
Public Areas, Visitation, Use Survey, Trafx Counters, Trail Camera
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.9 No.5,
May
28,
2018
ABSTRACT:
This study was performed in order to determine
visitation at remote areas that would be unaffordable due to logistic reasons. Four
TrafxTM vehicle counters, each programmed with different settings, were placed
along the lone access road to remotely sense the daily use activities and count
accuracy at the New Underwood Lake Public Water Access Area. Use was
corroborated during daylight hours with game cameras. Data was stratified
between weekdays/weekends due to differences between the two periods. Two
counter settings, threshold and delay, were best when set at a value of 8, but
a value of 16 for delay provided almost equal results. Overall, there were 38
counts of use per day for a total of 2318 over the 61 day period. This study
demonstrated how vehicle counters, in combination with game cameras for
verification, can aid managers for determining use in remote access areas. Future
work may lead to identifying details for producing a surrogate to traditional
angler use surveys.