Fermata is not a company of academics. We are a group of interpreters, designers, journalists, writers, and planners who demand accurate data as the underpinnings for our work. Usually we can locate the research information that we need. However, there have been cases when we were forced to do the research ourselves.

Often we partner with academics and other researchers to acquire the information that we need. We have partnered with the U.S. Forest Service Research Group in Athens, GA (who conducts the National Survey of Recreation and the Environment) on a number of projects where we needed to know more about regional recreation activities. The NSRE provides us with state-by-state recreation trend data for our assessments.

Our most extensive work in research has focused on birding and wildlife viewing. Fermata has partnered with Robert Ditton and David Scott (Texas A&M), as well as John Stoll (University of Wisconsin – Green Bay), to survey birders and other wildlife viewers in a number of U.S. locations. John Stoll also joined us for a study of two California wildlife festivals.

Links to our publications and survey reports can be found below.

American Birders Part 1: A Research Report in the IRIS Series
A Survey of Two California Nature Festivals
Avitourism in Texas
Measuring Specialization Among Birders: Utility of a Self-Classification Method (Human Dimensions in Wildlife)
Platte River Nature Recreation Study
Platte River Birding and the Spring Migration: Humans, Value, and Unique Ecological Resources (Human Dimensions in Wildlife)
Understanding the Diversity of Eight Birder Subpopulations…(Journal of Ecotourism)
Wildlife-Associated Recreation Along the New Jersey Delaware Bayshore