Information Collection Request Sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Approval; Natural Sounds/Quiet Valuation Survey: Focus Group Pre-Test, 83868-83870 [2016-28017]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 225 (Tuesday, November 22, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 83868-83870]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-28017]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NRSS-NSNSD-22441; PPWONRADN1, PPMRSNR1Y.NS000 (177)]


Information Collection Request Sent to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for Approval; Natural Sounds/Quiet Valuation Survey: 
Focus Group Pre-Test

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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[[Page 83869]]

SUMMARY: We (National Park Service, NPS) have sent an Information 
Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. We summarize 
the ICR below and describe the nature of the collection and the 
estimated respondent burden. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995 and as part of our continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and 
respondent burden, we invite the general public and other Federal 
agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this IC. This 
collection is scheduled to expire on November 30, 2016. We may not 
conduct or sponsor and you are not required to respond to a collection 
of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

DATES: To ensure that your comments on this ICR are considered, OMB 
must receive them on or before December 22, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Please direct all written comments on this ICR directly to 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Attention: Desk Officer for the Department of the 
Interior, to OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov (email) or 202-395-5806 (fax); 
and identify your submission as ``1024-0296 NATSOUND''. Please also 
send a copy of your comments to Phadrea Ponds, Information Collection 
Coordinator, National Park Service, 1201 Oakridge Drive, Fort Collins, 
CO 80525 (mail); or phadrea_ponds@nps.gov (email). Please reference 
Information Collection ``1024-0296 NATSOUND'' in the subject line. You 
may also access this ICR at www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to 
review Department of the Interior collections under review by OMB.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Frank Turina, Night Skies and Natural 
Sounds Division, National Park Service, 1201 Oakridge Drive, Fort 
Collins, Colorado 80525 (mail); Frank_Turina@nps.gov (email). Please 
reference Information Collection ``1024-0296 NATSOUND'' in the subject 
line.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract

    Under the Organic Act of 1916 (54 U.S.C.100701), the NPS is charged 
with conserving the scenery, natural and historic objects, and wildlife 
in its units. The acoustical environment or soundscape is a fundamental 
aspect of NPS units and critical to visitors' interaction with and 
interpretation of said resources. While the NPS has policies in place 
to monitor and manage acoustical conditions, it does not have 
information on how visitors value preserving natural sounds and/or 
reducing noise impacts. We are planning to conduct a stated-preference 
survey of visitors, however additional testing is needed to ensure that 
the future results are as reliable as possible.
    Between 2011 and 2014, researchers at the U.S. Department of 
Transportation Volpe Center (DOT) requested and received OMB approval 
(OMB Control Number 1024-0269) to conduct a series of focus groups to 
pre-test materials for a stated-preference valuation study designed to 
estimate values for maintaining and enhancing natural soundscapes. The 
findings from the study indicated that in order to advance the project, 
another expert panel should be convened to determine how to address the 
issues raised by the focus groups. A subsequent peer review of this 
work commissioned by Night Skies and Natural Sounds Division (NSNSD) 
indicated that fundamental aspects of the survey, notably the framing, 
presentation and format of the valuation scenario, required 
restructuring. The purpose of this ICR is to request approval to 
continue survey development and pre-testing activities that were 
initiated in 2013. This continuation will involve a series of eight 
focus groups in two NPS units (four per unit). The intent of the focus 
groups is to refine and test existing survey materials. Specifically, 
previous pre-testing efforts indicated that further refinement and 
testing of stated-preference questions was necessary. Best practice 
guidelines in the conduct of stated-preference studies require that 
survey content, language and instructions be clearly understood by 
respondents. Failure to continue testing the instrument could possibly 
compromise the accuracy of information collected through the survey 
when it is implemented

II. Data

    OMB Control Number: 1024-0269.
    Title: Natural Sounds/Quiet Valuation Survey.
    Type of Request: Renewal of a currently approved collection.
    Affected Public: Park visitors; individual and general households.
    Respondent Obligation: Voluntary.
    Frequency of Collection: One time.
    Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 80 respondents. This 
collection will involve eight two-hour focus group sessions. We 
estimate that each group will have at most 10 participants.
    Annual Burden Hours: 160 hours; two hours per respondent.
    Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-Hour Cost'': 
None.

III. Comments

    A Notice was published in the Federal Register (81 FR 63492) on 
September 15, 2016, stating that we intended to request OMB approval of 
our information collection described above. In that Notice, we 
solicited public comment for 60 days ending November 23, 2013. We 
received the following two substantive comments in response to that 
Notice:
    Comment #1 received October 31, 2016. ``I have reviewed the 
National Park Service's (NPS) Proposed Information Collection; Natural 
Sounds/Quiet Valuation Survey, notice and request for comments that 
appeared in the September 15, 2016 Federal Register (81 FR 63492). 
According to the notice, the NPS plans to conduct a stated-preference 
survey of visitors in two park units in order to estimate individual 
values for maintenance of improvement of acoustical conditions within a 
national park setting, including a series of focus groups in two NPS 
units. This ``sampling'' of two NPS units is far too small for the NPS 
to determine park users objections to noise inflected on our National 
Parks. In particular, Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest 
continue to be adversely impact by U.S. Navy jets (https://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2015/05/11/is-noise-from-navy-jets-a-threat-to-olympic-national-park-kilmer-wants-soundings/). In 
addition, the Navy has proposed expanded its electronic warfare testing 
over Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest (https://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/11/09/navy-olympic-national-park-look-jet-noise.html). In summary, the NPS proposed information collection 
will be woefully inadequate unless it includes Olympic National Park 
users.''
    NPS response on October 31, 2016: ``Thank you for your response to 
the 60 day Federal Register Notice (81 FR 63492) dated September 15, 
2016 for the Proposed Information Collection: Natural Sounds/Quiet 
Valuation Survey. To be clear, this request is not for the final study 
on this topic. This request is for sole purpose of conducting a series 
of focus groups at two National Parks. These focus groups will be used 
test the reliability and to validate the question we intend to use in 
the final version of the survey. In order to conduct these focus groups 
the request must receive OMB; therefore a Federal Register Notice is 
required. The questions will be calibrated as a result of the focus 
groups. We will not conduct a ``full''

[[Page 83870]]

survey until the questions are peer reviewed and deemed reliable by a 
panel of non-NPS social scientists. The final version of the survey 
will be submitted to OMB for review and a separate Federal Register 
Notice will be published at that time. Neither the date nor the parks 
to be used in the study have been determined. Thank you again and your 
comment and our response will be reported to OMB in our request for 
approval--of the focus groups.''
    Comment #2 from the American Motorcyclist Association dated 
November 3, 2016 (received by postal mail November 7, 2016): This 
comment addressed the following issues: (1) Whether additional data 
collection is necessary, and a request for consultation in drafting 
language for policies addressing excessive noise; (2) A recommendation 
to measure vehicle noise levels according to established methods, and 
to consider the implications of alternative study funding sources; and, 
(3) A request to consider alternative data collection modes that may be 
less burdensome to visitors such as internet administration or mail-
back postcards.
    NPS response on November 8, 2016: Further refinement and testing of 
survey materials is necessary because previous focus group results, and 
an expert peer review, indicated that fundamental aspects of the 
valuation scenario and questionnaire were not functioning properly. No 
new noise measurement efforts will be conducted in conjunction with 
this study. Rather, existing recordings will be utilized to test 
respondent sensitivity to noise, and elicit a value for reducing or 
eliminating noises. To ensure that these audio recordings are properly 
and consistently administered to visitors in the full survey, it will 
be necessary to intercept them in the park units. NPS will take 
whatever measures are feasible to minimize respondent burden in the 
full survey.
    We again invite comments concerning this information collection on:
     Whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the agency to perform its duties, including whether the 
information is useful;
     The accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information;
     Ways to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; and
     Ways to minimize the burden on the respondents, including 
the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. Before including your address, phone number, email 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you 
should be aware that your entire comment, including your personal 
identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.

    Dated: November 16, 2016.
Madonna L. Baucum,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. 2016-28017 Filed 11-21-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-52-P