Cover Page

Contents

Preface
Letter

SECTION I

Orientation
Summary

SECTION II

History
Needs
Geography
Historic Sites
Competitors
Economic Aspects

SECTION III

Federal Lands
State and Interstate
Local

SECTION IV

Division of Responsibility
Local
State
Federal
Circulation

SECTION V

Educational Opportunities

The United States Forest Service

Functions.—The principal function of the Forest Service is to bring about the best use of the forest land of the United States, including approximately 615 million acres now classed as forest land and an indeterminate area (upward of 50 million acres) of potential forest land no longer needed for agriculture. Three lines of action and responsibility are involved:

(a) Administration and use of the resources (timber, forage, recreation, wildlife, water) of 165 million acres of national forests, including extension of these forests through purchase, exchange, or otherwise.

(b) Promotion of the best use of the forest lands not in Federal ownership, through cooperation with and education of the owners (public and private).

(c) Research to develop the scientific bases for the best utilization of forest lands and the products thereof, regardless of ownership.¹⁵

---

¹⁵ National Resources Board, op. cit., p. 24.

---

Objectives.—The following is a statement of the objectives of the national forests:

The national forests are managed on the principle of providing "the greatest good to the greatest number in the long run." Under this policy the Forest Service recognizes that some lands are so valuable for recreation that no commercial exploitation should be permitted on them. Other lands are much more valuable for the timber, forage, and water power which they can produce, and on these lands recreation receives no consideration. On still a third sort of area some of the recreational values are safeguarded at the same time that the development of commodities is permitted.

In national forest recreational development the stress is laid not on preserving the primeval but in providing healthy outdoor recreation. Camping, the development of health resorts, and general frolicking are encouraged. As a result national forests in addition to providing some superlative areas and primeval areas, provide wilderness areas, camp grounds, residence areas, and outing areas for millions of people.¹⁶

---

¹⁶ U. S. Forest Service, A National Plan for American Forestry, op. cit., p. 483.

---

The Forest Service Manual makes the following statement:

National forests have for their objects to insure a perpetual supply of timber, to preserve the forest cover which regulates the flow of streams, and to provide for the use of all resources which the forests contain in the ways which will make them of the largest service. Largest service means greatest good to the greatest number in the long run. It means conservation through use, with full recognition of all existing individual rights and with recognition also that beneficial use must be use by individuals; but without the sacrifice of a greater total of public benefit to a less. In other words, the forests are to be regarded as public resources to be held, protected, and developed by the Government for the benefit of the people.¹⁷

---

¹⁷ U. S. Forest Service, Forest Service Manual, Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office, p. 3—A.

---

The Recreation section of the Manual reads in part as follows:

It is not the purpose of the Forest Service to duplicate within the national forests the functions, methods, or activities of national, State, or municipal park services, nor to compete with such parks for public patronage or support. Recognition must, however, be given to the occurrence within the national forests of mountains, cliffs, canyons, glaciers, streams, lakes, and other landscape features; natural formations such as caves or bridges; objects of scientific, historic, or archeological interest; timber, shrubs, and flowers; game animals and fish; and areas preeminently suited as sites for camps, resorts, sanitoria, picnic grounds, and summer homes. These utilities which singly or in combination afford the bases for outdoor recreation, contributing to the entertainment and instruction of the public or to public health, constitute recreation resources of great extent, economic value, and social importance. No plan of national forest administration would be complete which did not conserve and make them fully available for public use. Their preservation, development, and wise use for the promotion of public welfare is an important and essential feature of forest management which adequately should be coordinated with the production of timber and forage and the conservation of water resources. The areas now constituting the national forests have been used for recreational purposes since the first settlement of the country, and such use naturally will grow as the population increases and as wild land is converted to cultivation.

The circumstances prevailing upon a given area must necessarily determine whether recreation shall be dominant, equal, or subordinate in relation to other forms of use. Major timber, grazing, or water values should not be sacrificed to minor recreation values. On the other hand, major recreation values should never be sacrificed to minor timber, grazing, or water values. Where recreation and other forms of use conflict, the first step should be to determine whether careful planning will not secure maximum utilization of one resource with minimum injury to the other. In timber sales, for example, the leaving of protective strips along roads and surrounding parks and camp grounds may make it possible to utilize practically all the marketable timber without impairing the scenic or recreational values. Rigid protection of an area from grazing during the summer camping season may make possible its use for grazing purposes before camping begins or after it ends. Proper sanitary facilities and requirements may render unobjectionable the recreational use of a watershed constituting a municipal water supply. If, however, a conflict between two forms of use cannot be reconciled, then the use of greatest importance should take precedence over the others, and where recreational utilities are clearly of minor importance they may be disregarded or suppressed.

Existing national, State, and municipal parks are important primary elements in any comprehensive regional plain of recreational development. The relation of forest recreational development to other national, State, county, municipal, organizational, or private activities in the same field should be systematically analyzed and correlated so as to enhance rather than compete with such activities.¹⁸

---

¹⁸ U. S. Forest Service, Forest Service Manual, op. cit., p. 98—L.

---

The forested areas have always been the recreational field of the people living nearby, and with better roads and increasing use of automobiles, they are now extensively used by people in an ever-widening circle. Recreation in the national forests has been a process of natural evolution and sought for by the public without, at first, much stimulation by the Forest Service. The early annual expenditures for recreational use were small, about $10,000 a year up to 1924, but they are now increasing.¹⁹ In 1933 there was appropriated $28,000 for recreational surveys and plans; more than $100,000 for recreational development; $135,000 for fish and game propagation, and $16,000 for fish and game surveys and plans. Other recreational expenses, such as road and trail construction and maintenance, are paid out of other appropriations.²⁰

---

¹⁹ U. S. Forest Service, Report of the Forester, 1925, Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office.

²⁰ U. S. Forest Service, Report of the Forester, 1933, p. 22.

---

Several different types of recreational forest areas are recognized:

Superlative areas include national parks and areas in the national forests that meet similar standards.

Primeval areas (sometimes called natural areas) are tracts of virgin timber in which human activities have never upset the normal processes of nature. Thus they preserve the virginal growth conditions, which have existed for an inestimable period.

Wilderness areas are regions which contain no permanent inhabitants, possess no means of mechanical conveyance, and are sufficiently spacious that a person may spend at least a week or two in travel in them without crossing his own tracks.

Roadside areas refer to the timbered strips adjoining the more important roads, and also include strips of timber left along lakes, rivers, and boat routes.

Camp-site areas include areas specially designated for the use of camping.

Residence areas provide space for private homes, hotels, and resorts, group camps, stores, and services of various sorts. These sites are usually leased, with an annual rental.

Outing areas are intermediate between primeval areas acid commercially operated timber tracts.²¹

---

²¹ S. Doc. No. 12, op. cit.

---

The terms actually in use by the Forest Service differ from the above designations and include "Natural areas", "Primitive areas" (corresponding with "Wilderness areas") and "Recreational areas."

The following concise statement of recreational use of the national forests is made by the Forest Service:

The national forests are rich in scenic beauty. They have the double attractiveness of a country that is largely wilderness yet is easily accessible because of thousands of miles of good roads and trails. They are the home of game and fish; the refuge and breeding grounds of much of the wildlife that remains. Their wide distribution and extent, and their proximity to thousands of communities make them natural centers of summer recreation. Within their boundaries travelers by motor, by wagon, on horseback, or on foot, campers, hunters, and fisher men, amateur photographers, hikers, naturalists—in fact all who wish to come—have equal opportunity. Care with fire and cleanliness in camp are all that are necessary to make the visitor and the vacationist welcome.

The Forest Service looks upon the recreational possibilities of the forests as public resources, to be wisely used and carefully safeguarded, along with the timber, water, and other resources for the conservation and management of which the forests were established. Everything possible is done, within the limits imposed by available time and funds, and by the necessity of giving first attention to the primary purposes of the forests, to develop the recreational resources and to make them available for public use.

For the erection of summer homes, hotels, resorts, and other structures for recreational purposes, individuals, associations, or commercial companies may secure special-use permits. These are usually granted for an indefinite period, but where the proposed development involves a considerable investment by the permittee the permit may be granted for a term of not more than 30 years. In most cases it has been found that the indefinite period permit is entirely satisfactory to the permittee. Not more than 5 acres may be allowed to any single person or association.²²

---

²² U. S. Forest Service, Vacation in the National Forests, Washington, D. C. Government Printing Office, 1930, p. 1.

---

Recreational Use of the National Forests.—The national forests have a high value for recreation. The recreational use as a rule is secondary to the primary objective of forestry.

There are more than 160 million acres of national forests in the United States. They are located in 33 States, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. While some of these national forests are in Eastern States, by far the largest areas are in Alaska and the public land States of the West, and are composed principally of areas reserved from the public domain.

Many of the national forests are in mountainous areas, many are scenic, and most of them offer a variety of recreational opportunities, such as motoring, camping, hunting, fishing, trail trips on foot and on horse back, mountain climbing, winter sports, and other outdoor activities.

It is necessary that the recreational use of the national forests be supervised in order to reduce the fire hazard created by camping, smoking, and other activities of forest users. Camp grounds must be kept sanitary in order to prevent stream pollution.

In most of the national forests, hunting and fishing are permitted under State laws. Some Federal game refuges have been established and numerous State game refuges have been created. All of the national forest area is available for the propagation of wildlife. Game is protected on about 15 percent of the national forests, and hunting is permitted, under State laws, on about 85 percent of the forest area.

Table IX shows the total area of the national forests, including lands approved for purchase, as 167,000,000 acres, on June 30, 1934; the area of the Federal game refuges as 4,000,000 acres, more than half of which is in Alaska; the total area of State game refuges as 21,000,000 acres, most of which is in the Western States.

The total area of national forests and purchased units in the 48 States is 145,905,773 acres (1934).

---

¹ Figures furnished by the U. S. Forest Service.

² Includes lands approved for purchase under the Weeks and Clarke-McNary laws.

³ Included in the net area national forest and purchase units.

---

About 3,000,000 acres of national forests have been closed to domestic livestock in the interest of wildlife production.

The Senate Committee on Conservation of Wildlife Resources estimated the number of hunters and fishermen in the United States, in 1929, at 13,000,000, and it is estimated that this figure constitutes an increase of approximately 400 percent over the preceding decade.²³

---

²³ Wildlife Conservation, S. Rept. 1329, 71st Cong., 3d sess.

---

The value of forest recreation is not susceptible of exact appraisal, but the following quotation from The People's Forests, by Robert Marshall, is of interest in this connection:

An evaluation of forest recreation may be attempted upon either a monetary or a social basis. In terms of dollars and cents, there are two especially suggestive ways of estimating the recreational worth of the forest. One is to determine the number of people who visit the forest annually, ascribe some average value to the pleasure which each one gets from it, and multiply. The other is to calculate the amount of money which recreationists spend in visiting the forests.

It seems distinctly an understatement to hold that each all-day visitor to the forest derives as much pleasure from it as he would derive from a 2 hour motion picture show. I have estimated that in the United States approximately 250 million man-days a year are devoted to forest recreation. If the admission price to a movie averages 25 cents, this gives the annual American-forest recreation a value of $62,500,000. This is the minimum that people probably would pay for the privilege of using the forest if the price were asked. The incidental fact that people have to pay for admission to the movies and do not usually have to pay for admission to the forests does not mean that the outdoor recreation is any less valuable.²⁴

---

²⁴ Robert Marshall, The People's Forests, Harrison Smith and Robert Ross, New York, 1933, pp. 65—67.

---

The economic value of forest recreation has been treated previously in Economic Aspects of Recreation, section II, chapter 6.

As stated above, the Forest Service has established two classes of special areas within the national forests; these are known as natural areas and primitive areas.

The natural areas are usually small, averaging one or two thousand acres, and are established to protect primitive growth conditions. Twenty-three of these natural areas have been established (as of July 6, 1934), with a total area of 29,058 acres. In the appendix, page 256, will be found a tabular statement prepared by the Forest Service showing the location of these natural areas.

The primitive areas are usually large; they average about 150,000 acres in size; 64 primitive areas have been established by the Forest Service (July 1, 1933), with a total area of nearly 10 million acres. Two of the primitive areas exceed a million acres each in size. Logging and grazing are sometimes permitted, and sometimes prohibited, according to local conditions; in general, transportation in these areas is limited to trails, and such developments as roads, hotels, and summer homes are either prohibited or are kept to a minimum.

The establishment of primitive areas is a matter of administrative procedure, and the degree of protection of the areas may be increased or decreased by the Forest Service if changing conditions indicate that a change is desirable. These classifications, therefore, may not be permanent.

In the appendix, page 254, will be found a tabulation of the primitive areas which have been established, showing their location, area, and the proposed principles of management of each area.

Recreation areas are designated by the regional foresters in localities where the recreation uses pre dominate over other forest uses.

The roads and trails of the national forests are all available for recreational use, and are extensively used. The following tabulation shows the mileage of road and trail systems within national forest boundaries, and indicates the mileage which has been constructed and the mileage of proposed future construction:

The number of visitors to national forests cannot be accurately determined, but may be estimated approximately. This number was estimated at 3 million persons in 1917, at 6 million in 1922, at 18 million in 1927, and at 35 million in 1933.²⁵ In recent years about three-quarters of the national forest visitors have been transients who merely drove through the forest area, but whatever the correct number of visitors, the steadily increasing use of the national forests for recreation is apparent.

---

²⁵ Senate Doc. No. 12, 73d Cong., op. cit., p. 465.

---

The present area of national forests is approximately equal to the area of the unappropriated and unreserved public domain.

The subject of recreation in the national forests is comprehensively dealt with in A National Plan for American Forestry, Senate Document No. 12, Seventy-third Congress. This publication comprises a report of the Forest Service on the forest problem of the United States, and includes sections entitled "The Forest for Recreation" and "A Program for Forest Recreation."

Continued >>>

Last Modified: Fri, Sep. 5, 2003 10:32:22 am PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/recreational_use/chap3-1b.htm