Soundscape Survey Recruitment

Volunteers are needed to conduct a Soundscape Survey examining backcountry visitors’ soundscape perceptions and experiences in Mount Rainier National Park. The administration of this study involves three interrelated components or methods conducted at Van Trump Park and Clover Lake.

Volunteer Needs
We need two volunteers per site to conduct two separate, yet complimentary tasks.
Tasks that volunteers will need to conduct:

Administer a visitor survey.

1. This task includes intercepting hikers as they are heading back to their car and asking them to participate in the survey. If the visitor accepts, the volunteer would explain the survey and then allow the visitor to complete the questionnaire. The volunteer will need to discretely observe the visitor as they complete the survey to make sure things are completed correctly. The volunteer will also keep a detailed log of acceptances and refusals throughout the day.

Conduct sound source logging.

1. In addition to the visitor survey, a volunteer will be needed near each survey location to conduct sound source logging using a Palm Pilot PDA. This task consists of logging the sounds heard while sitting at a designated location.
2. The logged sounds will be used to correlate to visitor survey responses to understand what visitors perceive hearing and what sounds are actually present.

Skills needed to conduct these two tasks:

For administering the visitor surveys:

1. Ability to hike up to 3 miles (one-way) on varied and often steep terrain in a reasonable amount of time.
2. Typically, these volunteers need to be personable and comfortable speaking with the public– enough so that they don’t mind interrupting a visitor’s hike to ask them to help the park service out. They also should not mind getting “refusals” as these can sometimes be common (although less likely at our two study locations).
3. Volunteers need to have a high degree of personal accountability to ensure timely and consistent presence on scheduled sampling days, as the tasks are to be conducted at very specific times for consistency between sampling dates across the summer; previous experience with data collection or scientific studies, is desirable, but not necessary.
4. Volunteers need to be very attentive to details and have a good sense of quality control in the data collection process.

For the sound source logging:

1. Ability to hike up to 3 miles (one-way) on varied and often steep terrain in a reasonable amount of time.
2. Volunteers need to be able to listen very attentively and not get distracted by other aspects of the surrounding (wildlife, views, etc.).
3. Volunteers need to be somewhat “techno-savvy” to work with the Palm Pilots and to react to any “issues” that may arise with using the Palm Pilots.
4. Volunteers need to be able to sit for up to 7 hours without any human contact and maintain attention to the quality of their work despite the “slower” nature of the sound source logging task.

Volunteers with previous sound source logging and/or visitor survey research experience are particularly desirable, although all volunteers will need to undergo project-specific training before conducting these tasks.

On each sampling day, we will begin collecting data at 10:30 AM and continue until approximately 5:00 PM. This means that volunteers will need to be setup at the survey locations by 10:30 AM. At Van Trump Park this means finding parking near the Comet Falls Trailhead and hiking up the trail (approximately 1.5-2 hours hike). At Clover Lake – this means getting to the Sunrise Point parking lot and hiking to the survey locations (approximately an hour hike). In particular, to allow enough time for training (on volunteers’ first work days)
and setup prior to the scheduled start time for sampling, volunteers should plan to meet with project staff (i.e., the graduate students and/or interns).

Volunteers working at Van Trump Park:

• On the volunteer’s first work day, meet project staff in Longmire at the Wilderness Information Center at 8:15 AM.
• On all subsequent work days (i.e., after being trained by project staff) , meet project staff in Longmire at the Wilderness Information Center at 8:30.

Volunteers working at Clover Lake:

• On the volunteer’s first work day, meet project staff at the Sunrise Point parking area at 8:45 AM.

• On all subsequent work days (i.e., after being trained by project staff), meet project staff at the Sunrise Point parking area at 9:15

For more information and/or to schedule volunteering with the Soundscape Survey please contact Brett Kiser at bkiser@rsginc.com or by calling 802-295-4999.