AMERICAN FORESTRY 



VOL. XXIII 



MARCH 1917 



NO. 279 



RECREATIONAL USES OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



BY HENRY S. GRAVES, 

 CHIEF FORESTER, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



ONE of the important public interests in forest regions 

 is their service for recreation and health. There is 

 a rapidly increasing appreciation of the exceptional 

 recreation resoiuTes which we have in this country and 

 which our own -people are just beginning to seek out and 

 enjoy. There is also a growing appreciation that, like for- 

 estry, these resources will not be safeguarded and rightly 

 developed in the jiuljlic interests unless the public itself 

 participates in their handling. In the past the wild lands 

 of our upland and mountain regions have been more or 

 less open for camping and hunting. Vast areas have been 

 cut and burned off and their special attractiveness de- 

 stroyed. As the timber stands become restricted greater 

 care is exercised by the owners in their general use. Many 

 owners fear to have campers on the lands because of the 

 increased danger from fire. Some wish to hold the prop- 

 erty exclusively for their own use. Others lease their 

 lands to hunting and fishing clubs. The closing of private 

 tracts is therefore constantly contracting the areas avail- 

 able for public use. How common it is for parties to 

 find spots, where formerly they stopped to cpam over 

 night, posted with 

 "Private Land — 

 Keep off." More 

 and more large pri- 

 vate preserves are 

 posted with "No 

 Trespass" signs, or 

 the camper is met 

 by a warden who re- 

 quests him to move 

 on. Local resent- 

 ment in mountain 

 countries at the 

 closing of one large 

 tract after another 

 to the camping and 

 hunting by the 

 public is not wholly 

 lawless. It is hard 

 to see a few privi- 

 leged persons con- 

 trol the mountains 

 where formerly free 

 access for recreation 

 was allowed. There 

 is the feeling on the 

 part of the men 



ONE OF MANY WONDERS 



There are hundreds and hundreds of scenic features in the National Forests. This, the Wheeler National 

 Monument in the Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, is one of them. 



who have guided, fished and hunted over these areas that 

 they ought to belong to the whole people in common. And 

 they are right, and if I am not mistaken a large part of 

 these mountain lands will ultimately be publicly owned or 

 controlled. The closing of private lands points to the 

 value of ptiblicly owned forest lands, where people li\-ing 

 in urban communities and hot agricultural regions can 

 find an opportunity for the refreshment and recreation 

 that can be secured by a sojourn in the forest. More and 

 more, therefore, the lands (jwned by the nation, the states, 

 and local communities will have an importance as public 

 playgrounds. 



These facts apply with special significance to the Na- 

 tional Forests. Located as they are chiefly in the mountain 

 regions, the National Forests comprise man}- regions of 

 superb scenery and unexcelled recreation attractions. It 

 is not only to the noted mountain sections that I refer, as 

 in the Olympic Mountains, the Cascades, Sierras, the 

 Rocky Mountains, or here in the east in the White Moun- 

 tains and Southern Appalachians. I ha\'e in mind also the 

 lakes, both the larger ones like Chel anTahoe, Pend Oreille, 



, Coeur d'Alene, and 



the innumerable 

 smaller lakes, the 

 streams abounding 

 in fish, the deep 

 forests, thecanyons, 

 superb mesas, and 

 other features that 

 in infinite variety 

 and interest occur 

 throughout these 

 forest regions. 



The problem of 

 I he recreational use 

 and enjovTnent of 

 the public forests is 

 not as some think 

 one of mere senti- 

 ment. Of course 

 there is sentiment 

 in the enjoyment of 

 fine scenery, in 

 camping, in sport. 

 Indeed, I feel sorry 

 for the man who 

 has no sentiment 

 about the moun- 

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