June 15, 2011
Comment Period for the Draft Report and Recommendations of the OMBIL PSA - Suspense 29 July 2011
Over the past several years, there have been numerous requests from projects to add and/or delete Project Site Areas (PSAs), or to change the area type designation of various PSAs in the Operations and Maintenance Business Information Link (OMBIL). These requests generally involve combining existing recreation areas into one area, dividing an existing area into two or more different areas, or changing the PSA area type from a non-recreation category to a recreation category or vice versa. A great many of these changes are being requested as part of a legitimate and understandable effort to better align visitation reporting with the way that project work and budget plans are formulated.

With the link between OMBIL, RecBEST, RecSTATUS, and VERS, consistent guidance defining a recreation area PSA is needed. With this in mind, a moratorium was placed on making any changes to Recreation PSAs in OMBIL until such guidance could be developed. A PSA Project Delivery Team (PDT) was formed to establish criteria for identifying a Recreation Area PSA including definitions and criteria for each subtype.

The proposed definitions and criteria established by the PDT are attached. An additional Q & A section identifying questions that arose during the process and responses to each is included.

RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE:

1. Establish standards for recreation PSAs. 2. Create recreation PSAs for qualified visitor centers. 3. Require all recreation PSAs to have a single managing agency. 4. Create ability to recognize multiple PSAs that comprise a single recreation area. 5. Add a "Land Access Point" subtype. 6. Provide definitions for each recreation PSA subtype. 7. Provide guidance on use of managing agency categories.

Once these guidelines are adopted, each project will review their OMBIL PSAs and identify any necessary changes to meet the new definition and criteria. Change requests will be submitted to the District POC for review and approval before forwarding to the Division POCs and the OMBIL NRM User's Group for action.

The final list of Recreation PSAs for the project will then be used to establish the areas in VERS.

This effort will result in more consistent numbers being reported for the budget process.

We realize this list may not be all inclusive. Please ensure that this information is shared with field offices. Comments and concerns should be consolidated at the District and sent electronically to Dena Williams, LRN, by COB 30 June 2011.

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