466 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



dustries somewhere around 50 to 55 hours, estimates for the not 

 distant future place the average in some cases as low as 24 hours 

 and in the majority of cases at least as low as 30 hours. This change 

 would greatly increase the available leisure, and it seems reasonable 

 to assume that a share of the additional leisure time would be devoted 

 to forest recreation. If shorter working hours mean smaller income, 

 however, the change may actually work against an increase in re- 

 creational use of the forest. 



(3) Probable rising standard of living. Most economists, whether 

 they be capitalists or socialists, predict a great eventual improvement 

 in the standard of living of the majority of American citizens. This 

 means that millions of workers who cannot now afford to go to the 

 forest will find it possible to make regular excursions to the woods. 

 In many cases these excursions will probably be provided for at 

 public expense. Already a number of cities perform such welfare 

 work. It is not unreasonable to believe that sooner or later it may 

 be considered just as much the function of public agencies to provide 

 healthful recreation as to provide schooling. 



(4) Increasing ease of transportation, The advent of the auto- 

 mobile has decimated distances and made it possible for people living 

 500 miles from attractive forest areas to visit them as readily and 

 cheaply as people a few years ago visited tracts but 50 miles away. 

 With airplane and autogiro transportation rapidly being perfected 

 and cheapened, there is every reason to believe that the forests will 

 become still more accessible. 



(5) Increasing psychological necessity for escape to the primitive. 

 As society becomes more and more mechanized it will be increasingly 

 difficult for many people to stand the nervous strain, the high pres- 

 sure, and the drabness of their lives. To escape these abominations, 

 increasing numbers will seek the primitive for the finest features 

 of life. 



THE VALUE 



An evaluation of forest recreation may be attempted upon either a 

 monetary or a social basis. 



In terms of dollars and cents, there are several 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. A second 

 is to estimate the amount of money invested in forest recreation. A 

 third is to figure the taxable wealth resulting from the recreational 

 use of the forest. A fourth is to calculate the amount of money 

 which recreationists spend in visiting the forests. The few figures 

 available for each of these approaches will be presented as suggestive 

 of the tremendous economic importance which forest recreation already 

 assumes. 



(1) It seems distinctly on the side of conservatism to estimate 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. On the basis of 

 the best statistics available we 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 



