See Facilities Created or Improved and Educational & Interpretive Programs Produced PM Info Sheets for additional relevant definitions for this PM.

Served – Having used a facility, participated in an educational or interpretive program, or received technical assistance. The number of people served is calculated using one of the following methodologies:

• Annual Visitor Attendance: The number of people served by using facilities calculated using daily traffic counts at entrances. Traffic counts should be reduced by the number of non-reportable vehicles (see definition below) entering the facility daily.
• Participation Counts: The number of people served by educational and interpretive programs calculated using sign-in sheets or other approved participation records at each event. There will likely be a double counting of people tracked under this PM, and the number of people receiving BMP assistance  (tracked under the Parcels with Stormwater Retrofits PM) and undergoing watercraft inspections (tracked under the Watercraft Inspections for Invasive Species PM). These totals should also be accounted for under this PM.
• User Tracking: The number of people served tracked though the number of ticket sales, vehicle parking tickets, camping registrations, etc.

Nonreportable Vehicles - The entry into a facility by agency employees, their families, concessioner employees, members of cooperating associations, agency contractors, and service personnel are subtracted from the daily vehicle counts (National Park Service Definition).

Technical Assistance – EIP partners provide technical assistance to property owners, businesses and local agencies in developing and implementing EIP projects. Technical Assistance programs provide highly skilled staff support and education to the general public on defensible space, water quality best management practices and invasive species projects. 

Information on people served should be compiled during the year and entered into the EIP Database by the implementing entity’s reporting manager by December 31st of that year. EIP managers will start compiling reported data in October and will continue through December each year. Any information reported after December 31st will not be included in that year’s reporting totals.

Daily traffic counts should be multiplied by the appropriate constant multipliers, such as persons-per-vehicle (PPV), for each facility (see agency guidance below). The number of people served by educational and interpretive programs, or technical assistance programs, is calculated using sign-in sheets or other accepted participation counts, such as number of tickets sold, to record the number of participants at each event. For example, CA Parks interpretation presenters or tour guides count the number of participants at each event. Similarly, facility use can be calculated through user tracking. See specific agency guidance for visitor use multipliers and procedural information for the different facilities and programs in the Tahoe Basin, including:

• CA State Parks Department Operations Manual – CA State Parks takes daily vehicle counts using standard guidance, and provides annual visitation statistics and monthly visitor attendance reports. CA State Parks also uses revenue tracking to report on the number visitors via paid vehicles, camper registrations and educational and interpretive program participation.
• NV State Parks Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park Master Development Plan – NV State Parks collects data from staff and mechanical traffic counters at park entrance stations, and provides annual visitation statistics and monthly park visitor reports, using official State Parks guidance.

• USDA Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) Program – US Forest Service - Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (USFS-LTBMU) conducts visitor use monitoring every 5 years using standard US Forest Service guidance through the NVUM Program. Visitor counts are conducted for each National Forest and data is submitted to National Headquarters for analysis; information is not analyzed specifically for the Tahoe Basin. USFS-LTBMU should report the number of visitors recorded in Tahoe Basin National Forests in 2010 each year until new data is collected in 2015, and so forth. USFS-LTBMU should also report the number of ski tickets sold each year as facility use.