FOREST SEEVICE. 239 



RECREATION AND GAME. 



The use of the Xational Forests for recreation purposes is increas- 

 ing^ rapidly. This use is not contined to a few well-adVertised rej^ions 

 of special attractiveness, but is noticeable in almost all of the 152 

 Forests. It is common to the White ^lountains, the southern Appa- 

 lachians, the forests of Minnesota, the Rocky Mountains, the Cas- 

 cade and Sierras, and the alluring tablelands of Arizona and New 

 Mexico. As an important use it bids fair to rank third among the 

 major services performed by the National Forests, with only timber 

 production and stream-flow regulation taking precedence of it. 



The growth of this form of use shows clearly the inadvisability 

 of legislation at one time contemplated, which by opening the 

 National Forests to " summer homesteads " would have allowed 

 private acquisition of tracts exceedingly valuable for public recrea- 

 tional purposes. Such a system would have blocked general use of 

 these great Forests for public recreation. Instead the act of March 

 4, 1915, gave the Secretary of Agriculture authority to issue term 

 permits for not to exceed 5 acres of National Forest lands for 

 periods not to exceed 30 years. Under this law reasonable tenure 

 can be given where substantial investments are contemplated upon 

 areas not needed in the meantime by the public. In carrying out this 

 act the Forest Service has engaged in a very extensive development. 

 Counsel and advice have been secured from competent landscape 

 engineers, and the guiding policy has been worked out in cooperation 

 with the foremost national authorities on such subjects. Always 

 general use by the public, through the reservation of open camp 

 grounds, has been given first consideration. Special use by indi- 

 viduals who pay rental has been made secondary to the needs of the 

 public. 



Yet such secondary use is now becoming a very material source of 

 revenue. At the close of the fiscal A'ear a total of 1,329 permits for 

 summer residences and commercial resorts were in effect on a single 

 Forest, the Angeles, in southern California. The revenue from this 

 one item on this Forest alone amounted last year to approximately 

 $22,000. The local officers predict that within a few years the reve- 

 nues obtained from the various recreational settlements within that 

 Forest will pay the entire cost of protection and administration. 

 Yet the maximum charge for residence permits within the National 

 Forests has been fixed by regulation at $25 per annum, and the 

 minimum is $5. 



The use of the National Forests for recreation is being recognized 

 by many communities as one of their greatest assets and privileges. 

 This is resulting in the establishment of community camps under 

 more or less formal organization. They take every form from the 

 municipal vacation camps erected on the Angeles National Forest 

 under i)ermit from the Forest Service and maintained and managed 

 by the city of Los Angeles to the improvement of some favorite picnic 

 ground in the National Forest by local citizens in cooperation with 

 the local forest officers. Space is j^rovided for parking automobiles, 

 simple permanent fireplaces are built, wood is made available for 

 camp fires and cooking without endangering the Forest from fires, 

 rustic tables and seats are located conveniently for different parties. 



