Fiscal Year 2016 End-of-Year Recreation Management Information System Data Call

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240
http://www.blm.gov

August 9, 2016

In Reply Refer To:

8300 (250/410) P

EMS TRANSMISSION 08/18/2016

Instruction Memorandum No. 2016-131

Expires:  09/30/2016

To:                   All Field Officials

                        Attn:  State Recreation Program Leads, State National Conservation Leads and Outdoor Recreation Planners

From:               Assistant Director, Resources and Planning

Subject:           Fiscal Year 2016 End-of-Year Recreation Management Information System Data Call                                                          DD: 09/16/2016; 09/28/2016                                                                                                                               

Program Area: Recreation and Visitor Services and National Conservation Lands.

Purpose:  This Instruction Memorandum (IM) informs state directors and field managers about the fiscal year (FY) 2016 End-of-Year (EOY) Data Call for the Recreation Management Information System (RMIS) and requests all field offices (FO) to complete the data call.  This IM also requests State Recreation Program leads, or their designee, to complete a review of their data after all state and FO data has been entered into RMIS.  Each of the above requirements has a specific deadline.

Policy/Action:  All field, district and state offices are requested to update required RMIS data for the period October 1, 2015, to September 30, 2016.  An estimate of visitation from September 16 to 30, 2016, may be necessary in order to complete the FY data.  All offices should enter their data into RMIS through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Application Security System (BASS), a link can be found at the BLM RMIS INFO intranet site.

This year’s data call focuses on:

• Visits to public lands and waters, plus special recreation permits for both commercial and non-commercial private use;
•  National Conservation Lands visitation for office, recreation management areas (RMA), sites, rivers, roads, trails or areas;
• Review, edit and update the Travel and Transportation Management module for each office;
• Update any changes to shooting and hunting closure data in the Shooting/Hunting module
• Update recreation sites as to current fee status;
• Number of Recreation Use Permits issued; and
• Partnership and Agreement updates. 

Reporting guidance for all of the above is detailed at the RMIS User Information Website and more generally described in the Background section below.

Once FOs have completed their work, State Recreation Program leads must review their respective FOs’ data for completeness and accuracy.  When the review is complete, a confirmation memorandum should be sent to the Recreation and Visitor Services Division Chief (WO-250).  This memorandum should identify both unresolved issues that need attention and any necessary justification of the data.  The RMIS Team listed at the RMIS INFO site will be available the week of September 19, 2016 to help with the data quality review. 

Timeframe: State and FO data are to be entered into RMIS by September 16, 2016.  The deadline for the State Recreation Program lead to review their state and FO data and send their confirmation memorandum is September 28, 2016.  The system will be closed to any FY 2016 data adjustments at midnight on September 30, 2016.

Budget Impact: This planned workload was included as part of the FY 2016 base Recreation (L1220) budget.  Use Program Element MA (Evaluate Recreation Areas) when reporting labor for both collecting and entering RMIS data.

Background: The RMIS is BLM’s official repository for data relating to the recreational and social use on public lands and waters, including National Conservation Lands.  It is an internal system accessible only by BLM personnel.  Data within the system includes, but is not limited to, the number of recreation visits, recreation visitor days, type of activities, permits issued, recreation site details, Travel and Transportation Management Areas which contain the off-highway-vehicle designation acreage, and partnership agreement details.

The RMIS is accessed through BASS.  This security system requires each user to complete a 1260-12 software application permission form with the necessary signatures.  Completed forms can be faxed or scanned/emailed to the National Operations Center and your account will be created in both BASS and RMIS.  Please note, authorization of guest or read-only status still requires a 1260-12 form to be completed. 

National Conservation Lands data review and cleanup is the emphasis for this year.  If your office, RMA, site, river, road, trail, or area designation is within or contains National Conservation Lands, data must be verified for completeness and accuracy.

Instructions for this module have been posted at online.

Updating of the Travel and Transportation Management module as well as the Recreational Shooting and Hunting module remain emphasis areas in RMIS and offices should check this data for accuracy. 

The RMIS User Information Website serves as a helpful resource for users and guests and can be reached at online..  This website provides links to the Login to BASS, an electronic copy of the 1260-12 form, RMIS 4.0 User Guide, eight RMIS training modules on the National Training Center Knowledge Resource Center, and Guidelines for Reporting Recreation Visitation and reference documents such as:  Techniques and Equipment for Gathering Visitor Use Data on Recreation Sites.”

Manual/Handbook Sections Affected:  None.

Coordination:  This IM was coordinated with WO-410, National Conservation Lands.  Continued coordination and communication will be provided to all RMIS end users via email.

Contact: An updated RMIS Team Contact List for use by the State Recreation Program Leads and FO users is available online. Users in each state are directed to a primary RMIS contact for assistance in completing this EOY data call.  If your primary RMIS contact is unavailable, anyone on the list may be contacted.  If you have questions or need additional information regarding this data call, please contact David Baker, Outdoor Recreation Planner (OC-520) by telephone at 303-236-6313 or by email at djbaker@blm.gov.

Signed by:                                                                   Authenticated by:

Kristin Bail                                                                  Robert M. Williams

Acting, Assistant Director                                          Division of IT Policy and Planning,WO-870

Resources and Planning