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County and BLM staff review traffic‑counter data and consider reporting to Public Lands Council
Summary
BLM and county staff told the council they maintain a network of traffic counters (Traffix) across public lands and can provide usage reports; commissioners and council members asked that data be brought to a future meeting for planning and tourism management.
Council members discussed visitor counts, traffic counters and tourism data during the Emery County Public Lands Council meeting and agreed staff should present usage trends at a follow‑up meeting.
BLM staff demonstrated the Traffix traffic‑counter network and said the system includes about 70 counters across the landscape; the county has purchased about 10–12 units. The presenter showed examples of a site record that displays daily, weekly and annual use, and told the council the busiest year recorded at a sample site was 2023 with a drop in 2024. “You can see daily, most of our use on weekends. What time of day people there? Monthly, yearly. Like, you got way more data than you could ever imagine,” the presenter said.
Nut graf: Council members asked for a standing report on visitation data so the council and county can use counts for planning and to address concentrated use areas. Staff agreed the data are accessible and said the BLM or county could present periodic summaries, including trends and site‑level statistics, at future council meetings.
Commissioner Andy (identified in the meeting as a county commissioner with responsibility for travel and public lands) said he had used the counters’ data and suggested the counts should be made routinely available to the council: “So do we have that information? Do we have that data?... It’s just a matter of figuring out how to use it in our planning, and we use it in our planning at the BLM all the time.”
Council members noted other data sources: local QR‑code surveys placed in post offices, transit room tax (bed‑tax) reporting used for trails and events, and RAC (Recreation Advisory Council) presentations that sometimes include counter summaries. Staff proposed assigning Rod and Jim (county/BLM liaisons) to work out who to invite from BLM to present the counters and tourism trends to the Public Lands Council at a future meeting.
Ending: The council asked staff to schedule a data presentation at an upcoming meeting and to follow up with BLM and RAC contacts to assemble traffic‑counter and visitation trend reports.
