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If you were in the White Mountain National Forest this year, on a trail or at a scenic overlook, you might have been approached by someone like Ethan O’Leary with a tablet and some questions.
O’Leary, a 23-year-old graduate student studying recreation administration at the University of New Hampshire, is part of a survey crew that heads out to the White Mountain National Forest every five years, asking some of the six million people that visit every year about their experience.
The survey is for The National Visitor Use Monitoring program, which collects data from every National Forest and Grassland across the country. Over a single year, surveyors compile information about the type, the quantity, the quality and location of recreational use.
That data helps the national forest better anticipate and address any needs.
“They use that to influence decisions like budgeting, trail maintenance, where to allocate resources, knowing what's more popular or less popular and everything in between,” O’Leary said. “If there's a site where people are indicating higher trail impacts, they'll use that data to send more people out there [and] do more trail maintenance.”
For employees of the Forest Service, the survey is a big lift. They survey between 250 to 300 days a year in addition to their regular roles. So, the Forest Service partnered with UNH, which involves students and local residents to get it all done.
That’s where O’Leary comes in. Over the summer, he surveyed around 25 spots in the Whites. He spends six hours at each of his assigned sites, asking willing visitors a standard list of questions.
The day we joined him, he was at the Rocky Gorge Scenic Area, a popular spot right off the Kancamagus Highway. He set up a folding table at the exit and approached everyone he could on their way out.
“[I’m] kind of getting an idea of what visitors are doing when they’re here,” O’Leary said. “So that could include how much money they're spending, what activities they're doing, how much time they spend, if they're camping out, where they're camping. Everything A-to-Z for your trip here.”
O’Leary says he’s probably asked these questions over 300 times. He’s got it down to a science — no more than ten minutes per survey.
He’s also perfected his set up. He brings extra clothes, water, a snack (today it’s trail mix), an iced tea and lemonade, and a book to pass the time.
“Honestly, this to me is kind of like my version of chilling,” he said. “It just gets me out in the woods. It gets me out interacting with people that are really passionate from all over the place, international [visitors], national visitors, whoever it is.”
Some days he has to hike over three miles to set up for the survey. And sometimes he doesn’t see a single person for all six hours. Other times, he talks with people almost nonstop. He says people have even waited while he finished up one survey just so they can talk to him.
“Visitors are really passionate about the impacts that they're seeing. So hearing about pollution and stuff, and people talking about how they pick up trash on their way out, things like that,” O’Leary said.
The survey results have become even more valuable in recent years. The most recent survey report in 2020 showed a huge spike in visitation to the White Mountains: a 62% increase or around 2 million people. In congressionally designated wilderness areas, visitation saw approximately a 300% increase.
“During COVID, we sort of coined this term ‘outdoor recreation renaissance,’” said Michael Ferguson, an associate professor at UNH’s Department of Recreation Management and Policy who has partnered with the Forest Service in the White Mountains for eight years to conduct these surveys. “We've seen a large influx in first-time users on these public lands, and there's a growing interest in things like accessibility, infrastructure and education. But the flip side to that coin is that we also saw a lot of people getting in over their heads.”
Ferguson says the Forest Service has used information from the 2020 survey data to direct resources to high use sites and boost efforts to educate visitors on the fundamentals of preparedness and general etiquette, like "Leave No Trace," especially in high use sites.
The big question Ferguson hopes the 2025 survey answers is: Will this record surge in visitation continue? Anecdotally, he says, they’re still seeing a lot of people.
“And so with this record-breaking visitation on one side, the shrinking federal budget on the other side, it's a collision course,” said Ferguson.
The Trump administration has proposed significant cuts to the Forest Service for 2026. And White Mountain National Forest employees were among thousands of federal staffing cuts earlier this year.
“We're asking our public lands to do more with less, which is a narrative that these public lands have been dealing with for a long time,” said Ferguson. “The critical piece and the saving grace is that if we act on real, grounded data and trends, we can make informed decisions.”
As O’Leary's been out in the White Mountain National Forest all summer, he says as he’s seen more people step up to help, even among the Forest Service.
“[It’s] actually a really nice thing to see,” he said. “It's not just like seasonal workers that are getting thrown at the really gross bathrooms and stuff like that on the Kancamagus [Highway]. Everyone is pitching in to really help out, like, we're going to go out ourselves and get it done and make sure that the visitors are having a positive experience.”
