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Hi. I'm Chris Armatas with

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the Rocky Mountain Research Station,
and I work in Missoula, Montana.

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My program focuses in three areas.

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Recreation management,
which is really a long term

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legacy with the Aldo Leopold Wilderness
Research Institute.

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A lot of recreation management
research was really focused there

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and started there.

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I also work around public engagement.

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So say you got 150 people in a room

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for a forest plan
revision or a comprehensive river

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management plan revision,
or a recreation program

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or any number of issues that you may need
public input on.

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How do you do that in a structured way
that can be really challenging?

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a lot of times I'll work on methods
and ways to hear from folks

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so that when the plan rolls out
or the choice is made,

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the folks really feel like
they've been heard and the public

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can see their imprints, on a decision.

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And then maybe the third area
is kind of collaborative management,

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collaborative governance.

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and working across, various
stakeholder groups and various people

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with different interests.

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And so if you can get them
all in the same room

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to talk through those issues
and identify a problem together

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then that has more lasting impacts,
and more resilient decisions.

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Overall.

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my work is focused on people

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as a social scientist, really trying
to understand what people are interested

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in, what supports their well-being,
being drawn from Forest Service lands.

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Why that's important to them.

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And so that's the main understanding
that I'm aiming to get through

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pretty much all of my work.

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And that's really important for managers,
because ultimately managing

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our public lands is a people management
process in large part.

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so understanding people
and what they're into and interested in

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and what they value
can be really important,

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when it comes time to planning,
you know, often you need social science.

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You need to understand
recreation experiences, whether they want

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spontaneous trips or they want a place
that has limited signage

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really want that freedom
to access and explore within an area.

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And it's really hard to know
beyond anecdotes, what visitors want.

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And so we've been working over the last
several years to co-develop or co-produce

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visitor surveys with managers
that would really apply across, units.

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and an understanding
that supports their decision

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making that is more on target than if
you were to do it in the more traditional

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way, without their support.