Use of a Public Fishing Area Determined by Vehicle Counters with Verification by Trail Cameras

Abstract

This study was performed in order to determine visitation at remote areas that would be unaffordable due to logistic reasons. Four Trafx TM 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.