A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 487 



fication for turning any of it over to commercial exploitation even 

 for a few decades. Lumber is much cheaper to transport than 

 people, and so it seems that wise land-use planning will favor exclusive 

 recreational use of some at least of the land near areas where the 

 population is particularly dense, leaving the more sparsely settled 

 regions as the principal sources of commodities. 



The total acreage of such outing areas as are needed for exclusive 

 recreational use would only be a small fraction of the acreage of the 

 well-managed forest land which might provide both recreation and 

 commodity production. Nevertheless, it would probably amount to 

 a good many million acres in the entire country. It seems conserva- 

 tive to estimate 10 or 12 million acres as the minimum territory 

 which would meet the requirements for exclusive recreational outing 

 areas. If, however, sustained yield forestry should not be practiced 

 on the commercial forest areas, and recreational values on cut-over 

 lands should be as seriously depleted in the future as they generally 

 have been in the past, the 10 or 12 million acres would only meet an 

 insignificant fraction of the total outing area requirements. 



SUMMARY 



These estimates, though admittedly crude, indicate that approxi- 

 mately 45,000,000 acres will be required primarily for recreational 

 use. These acres will probably be distributed among the different 

 types of recreational land about as follows : 



Millions of 

 acres 



Superlative areas 3 



Primeval areas Q% 



Wilderness areas 10 



Roadside areas 4 



Camp-site areas 1H 



Residence areas 6 



Outing areas 11 



Total 45 



It is well to point out that 45 million acres is only 9 percent of the 

 total of 506 million acres of commercial timberland in the United 

 States. Already 11 million acres have been withdrawn from timber 

 use in national, State, and local parks. Of the remaining 34 million 

 acres, at least 13 million acres are so remote and of such low produc- 

 tivity that it will undoubtedly be many years before they can possibly 

 be considered for commercial exploitation. 



The withdrawal of 45 million acres of land for recreational use would 

 involve a very distinct economic benefit. It would concentrate the 

 growing of timber for commodity use on a smaller acreage than is at 

 present available, would consequently increase the value of commer- 

 cial forest land, and would thus indirectly aid in making the commer- 

 cial operation of timber lands more profitable. 



168342 33 vol. 1 32 



