Modelling demand for recreation in English woodlands

Summary Previous models to describe the desire for recreation at English forest sites have tended to use fairly crude and regional measures. This study demonstrates how forest recreation demand can be modelled quite locally and using just site-specific characteristics or simple measures of available population as input. A field survey of 33 Forestry Commission sites was made in order to collect data on attractive features at each site. These data were supplemented with variables to indicate the availability of competing woodlands and population totals within set travel distances. The outputs were simple but robust stand-alone functions to describe visits across many sites.