813 JOURNAL OF fore;stry 



with in obtaining such an appropriation. The largest exchange we have 

 on hand is provided for by a special act of Congress confirming an 

 agreement between the Secretary of Agriculture and the Land Board 

 of the State of Washington. This exchange involves something under 

 a half million acres of unsurveyed school lands in the National Forests, 

 which, under decisions of the Federal courts, are in reality in Govern- 

 ment ownership, but are still lands the possession of which the State 

 has been deprived of through creation of the National Forests. As the 

 State's title does not take effect until the lands are surveyed, the inclu- 

 sion of the land in the Forest prior to survey deprived the State of 

 title. It has therefore always been considered equitable that the State 

 should receive value for such lands. A cruise of the base lands of the 

 State of Washington has been completed and as much of the area se- 

 lected by the State and approved by the Service as the General Land 

 Office has been able to survey. This exchange will be effected on the 

 basis of equal area and value. 



Four or five years ago the nation's attention was turned to the won- 

 derful recreational facilities and possibilities for tourist trips to Na- 

 tional Parks and other points in this country, this movement being pro- 

 moted probably by certain railroads and by considerable advertising of 

 National Parks. The Forest Service also publicly invited people into 

 the Forests for recreational purposes, thereby opening up a new and 

 somewhat difficult problem. At the same time, in order to attract and 

 obtain the highest use of certain areas valuable for recreation, a term- 

 lease law was passed by Congress providing for the erection of summer 

 homes, hotels, and other similar public conveniences in the National 

 Forests. Our problem now is to classify and develop all such existing 

 areas. All individual camp sites which demand a considerable amount 

 of improvement and are of paramount importance are handled as Serv- 

 ice projects, approved by the Forester. Two such sites we are now 

 developing in this district — the Eagle Creek Camp Grounds, on the 

 Oregon Forest, on which $6,000 has been spent, and the Denny Creek 

 Camp Grounds, on the Snoqualmie. These grounds will serve for the 

 accommodation of a large number of visitors. During the past season 

 approximately 532,300 recreationists visited the National Forests in 

 this district, approximately 100,000 visiting the Eagle Creek Camp 

 Grounds alone. 



The improvement and consequent use of these camp grounds by the 

 public has been actually demonstrated to result in considerable saving 

 in protection work from campers' fires, which in the past have usually 

 offset the expense of the improvement work performed. 



