[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 166 (Tuesday, August 28, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49305-49306]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-4205]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


30-Day Notice of Submission to the Office of Management and 
Budget; Opportunity for Public Comment

AGENCY: Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: Under provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 5 
CFR Part 1320, Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements, the National 
Park Service (NPS) invites public comments on a proposed new collection 
of information (OMB 1024-XXXX).

DATES: Public comments on this Information Collection Request (ICR) 
will be accepted on or before September 27, 2007.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments directly to the Desk Officer for the 
Department of the Interior (OMB 1024-XXXX), Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, by fax at 202/395-6566, or by 
electronic mail at [email protected]. Please also send a copy of 
your comments to Patricia A. Taylor, University of Wyoming, Department 
of Sociology/Dept. 3293; 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071; or 
via phone 307/766-6870; or via e-mail at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. James Gramann, NPS Social Science 
Program, 1201 ``Eye'' St., NW., Washington, DC 20005; or via phone 202/
513-7189; or via e-mail at [email protected]. You are 
entitled to a copy of the entire ICR package free-of-charge.
    Comments Received on the 60-Day Federal Register Notice: The NPS 
published a 60-Day Notice to solicit public comments on this ICR in the 
Federal Register on December 6, 2006 (Vol. 71, No. 234, Page 70786-
70787). The comment period closed on February 5, 2007. After multiple 
notifications to stakeholders requesting comments, the NPS received 
five comments as a result of the publication of this 60-Day Federal 
Register Notice.
    One respondent was concerned over the number of surveys the NPS 
conducts and the potential for bias in all surveys. However, there is 
no duplication of information with this study, as the Comprehensive 
Survey of the American Public is the only national survey that focuses 
on issues of importance to the NPS. Moreover, it is the only national 
survey that contacts non-visitors to National Park System units. In 
addition to visitors, non-visitors comprise a population of vital 
interest to the NPS. Two of the respondents wanted to be reassured that 
the results of the survey would be communicated to them directly 
(American Recreation Coalition and National Parks Conservation 
Association). One respondent suggested a number of questions, which 
were, or are now, part of the survey, with one exception. America 
Outdoors suggested a question on attitudes toward fees to enter the 
park. This question is quite ``layered'' in that there are several 
different kinds of fees (the annual parks pass, the specific fee for 
one park, additional access fees for special areas, and passes for the 
disabled). Moreover, the recent national survey for the Departments of 
the Interior and Agriculture for the Interagency America the Beautiful 
Pass addressed these issues only one year earlier. Therefore, this 
question is not included in the 2007 NPS Comprehensive Survey. Finally, 
the National Park Hospitality Association was fundamentally concerned 
with the ``creation'' of resources such as soundscape, and suggested 
that such questions be removed from the survey. The General Authorities 
Act of 1970 and the 1978 amendment to the Act known as the Redwood 
amendment, as well as the National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 
1998, contain the basis of the NPS management policies on natural 
resources, including soundscapes. The soundscape management policy of 
the NPS is detailed in section 4.9 of ``Management Policies 2006'' of 
the NPS, which states (NPS 2006:56) that ``Using appropriate management 
planning, superintendents will identify what levels and types of 
unnatural sound constitute acceptable impacts on park natural 
soundscapes.'' This survey will assist in that planning process.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: 2007 National Park Service Comprehensive Survey of the 
American Public.
    Bureau Form Number(s): None.
    OMB Number: To be requested.
    Expiration Date: To be requested.
    Type of request: New Collection.
    Description of Need: The NPS conducted its last comprehensive 
survey of the American public in 2000. That survey provided valuable 
information on patterns of use and nonuse of parks and on the 
demographic characteristics of visitors and non-visitors that have been 
used to inform NPS decision-making. However, since 2000 many events and 
actions have occurred with the potential to affect the public's 
knowledge, behavior, and opinions regarding the NPS and the National 
Park System. Examples include the terrorist attacks of September 11, 
2001, higher fuel prices, and several catastrophic hurricanes and 
wildfires. In addition, the U.S. population has aged and become more 
racially and ethnically diverse since the last comprehensive survey.
    Although the NPS and its research partners regularly survey 
visitors to selected National Park System units, these separate surveys 
cannot be rolled up into a description of visitors at the national and 
regional levels, nor do they describe the knowledge, attitudes, and 
behaviors of non-visitors and former visitors. Furthermore, individual 
park visitor surveys are not able to show trends in the knowledge, 
opinions, and behavior of the U.S. population over time. This 
information is essential to informing many important planning and 
management decisions of the NPS, ranging from visitor services, fee 
policy, and resource management actions to civic engagement and 
visitors and non-visitors over time can also provide a perspective on 
how national and regional populations are changing in their knowledge 
of the National Park System and in their use of parks, including 
leisure travel patterns, perceived service quality, and constraints to 
park visitation.
    The method of information collection for the 2007 survey will be a 
nationwide telephone survey of households conducted using a random-
digit-dial (RDD) telephone sample,

[[Page 49306]]

disproportionately stratified by the seven NPS administrative regions 
(including the states of Alaska and Hawaii). In each of the seven 
regions, 500 completed interviews of about 15 minutes length will be 
obtained, for a total of 3,500 completions. The data collected from the 
comprehensive survey will profile patterns in visitation and non-
visitation to the National Park System. These findings will be 
described in a national technical report and in reports for each of the 
seven NPS regions. Thematic reports on specific policy and management 
issues included in the survey will be produced, and a summary reported 
tracking changes in key variables between 2000 and 2007 will be 
written. In order to produce the best survey possible, the NPS has been 
and will continue to conduct development work in the form of 
pretesting, cognitive interviews, and focus groups to inform survey 
design.
    The increase in the popularity of cell phones calls into question 
the adequacy of conventional land-line sampling frames from which 
households are selected through random digit dialing (RDD). Looking to 
the future, survey methodology will need a mechanism to sample 
additional cell users. In this survey, an add-on of a cell phone user 
sample will form a benchmark to compare sampling differences with the 
RDD results. The cell user sample will be compared to the land-line 
sample, looking at demographic characteristics of respondents, park 
visitation rates, and attitudinal variables. This information is needed 
by NPS to determine whether changes in measures tacked over time 
represent actual shifts in knowledge, attitudes, or behavior or are 
instead artifacts of differences in responses between cell-only 
households and households with land-lines.
    Comments are invited on: (1) The practical utility of the 
information being gathered; (2) the accuracy of the burden hour 
estimate; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (4) ways to minimize the burden to 
respondents, including use of automated information collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology. Before including 
your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal 
identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your 
entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be 
made publicly available at any time.
    While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.
    Frequency of collection: Once.
    Description of Respondents: United States residents.
    Estimated average number of respondents: 4044 respondents (Final 
Survey: 4,000; Developmental Work: focus group = 12, cognitive 
interview = 12, pre-test calling = 20).
    Estimated average number of responses: 4044 responses.
    Estimated average time burden per respondent: Final Survey: 15 
minutes/respondent; Developmental Work: focus group = 90 minutes/
respondent, cognitive interview = 120 minutes/respondent, pre-test 
calling = 15 minutes/respondent.
    Frequency of response: 1 time per respondent.
    Estimated total annual reporting burden: 1047 hours.

    Dated: August 22, 2007.
Leonard E. Stowe,
NPS, Information Collection Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 07-4205 Filed 8-27-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-53-M