142 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The available figures for recreational use of public lands during 

 1931 indicate that there were more than 3 million visitors to national 

 parks, about 32 million to national forests, and probably 50 million 

 to State parks and forests. While there is a great deal of duplication 

 among the visitors thus recorded, it is patent that a very material 

 proportion of our population made some use of Federal and State 

 forest lands for recreation. The number who had recourse to munici- 

 pal, county, and private forests can only be conjectured, but it must 

 have been very large. Kecreation, then, is a tremendously important 

 forest-land use today, and every indication points to a great increase 

 in its volume in the future. 



The forms which forest recreation takes are of wide variety. The 

 largest fraction of the recreationists only pass through the forests in 

 their autos. A considerable group, however, establishes residences 

 in the forest for some portion of the year. Hunting and fishing is 

 one of the most popular forms of forest recreation, it being estimated 

 that 13 million people indulged in those sports during 1929. The 

 number of people who go hiking, riding, or canoeing every year runs 

 well into the millions. Most of these merely go on journeys of a 

 single day or less, but there are increasing hundreds of thousands who 

 are going on at least overnight trips into the forest, some of them 

 staying away from civilization for weeks at a time. 



The recreational needs of these vast numbers of people may be 

 satisfied in many cases by lands which are being used for timber pro- 

 duction, especially if methods of cutting and safeguards for restock- 

 ing and protection in keeping with the dictates of good timber use are 

 exercised. Recreational values will usually be temporarily suspended 

 during logging and often during the periods required for forest regen- 

 eration. Otherwise, it may be said that, broadly speaking, all forested 

 land under sustained-yield management is valuable for recreation. 



There will be certain areas, however, which have such exceptional 

 recreational value that they will need to be withdrawn from com- 

 mercial timber use. These will include areas of superlative scenic 

 value, samples of primeval forest conditions, some wilderness areas, 

 wooded strips along the main traveled highways, camp grounds, and 

 hotel and summer-home sites. Included also will be some 6 million 

 acres of forest land required to satisfy the needs of those who wish 

 to purchase forest land solely for home sites or other recreational 

 purposes. 



Further, a certain amount of commercial forest land will need to 

 be reserved in the neighborhood of population centers where the in- 

 tensive recreational use promises so to congest the available woods 

 that almost no timberland can be spared for even the few years re- 

 quired by most forest types to recover a semblance of scenic value 

 under the best silvicultural practice. 



Table 4 indicates very roughly by regions the approximate acreage 

 which it may be desirable to reserve for recreational use. Of this, 

 approximately one tenth will be permanently withdrawn in private 

 ownership. Reservation of the remainder, for the most part in public 

 ownership, does not necessarily mean that no timber will ever be cut 

 on any of this area; but rather that for the present its recreational 

 value seems so high that no commercial logging operations should be 

 planned, even though light selection cuttings may be permitted on 

 special tracts. 



