A CRISIS IN NATIONAL RECREATION 



397 



Iy more difficult to draw. If the idea of utilizing the 

 National Parks for the development of economic re- 

 sources continues and new parks are created with this 

 understanding, they will soon lose their distinction and 

 the basic purpose of the Nation in their establishment 

 will be defeated. 



The consequences of this situation will be serious both 

 to the parks and to the forests. In the first place it 

 would be increasingly difficult to determine what areas 

 should be included in parks. So long as it is the policy 

 to create parks only where there are features so unique 



The effect on the National Forests would be especially 

 serious. These areas have now been under administra- 

 tion for over fifteen years. They are being handled under 

 plans that look forward many years, based upon their 

 yield capacity for timber and forage. Many industries 

 are dependent on these resources and are built up with 

 the knowledge that there will be a permanent supply of 

 raw materials. A public policy that may at any time cut 

 several hundred thousand acres from the heart of a 

 National Forest makes planning impossible, either by the 

 Forest Service or by the communities and industries that 



THE PEOPLES PLAYGROUND 



The public should provide facilities for outdoor recreation to as many, persons as possible. Many public forests are needed, federal,, state 

 and municipal, so that all may be able to enjoy their benefits. This picture shows what Los Angeles is doing for its citizens, by furnishing 

 a municipal camp on the Angeles National Forest, which is within reach of all citizens, including those less well-to-do. 



as to justify their complete withdrawal from economic 

 use, a high standard, may be maintained. Otherwise, 

 pressure for specific parks, in many cases urged for local 

 advertising purposes, will tend to lower the standard and 

 ultimately to cheapen the whole system. Again, the 

 precedent of permitting economic use in specific cases 

 would bring such pressure upon the park administration 

 that the dominance of recreation development would 

 inevitably be constantly lessening as increased develop- 

 ment of other resources takes place and would finally 

 be lost except in name, with the result that the admin- 

 istration would become one of coordinate use. of all 

 resources just as in the National Forests. 



are being built up on the basis of their resources. In 

 short, the fundamental feature of permanence is at 

 once destroyed and supplanted by uncertainty. Plans 

 for a sustained yield under long-term working plans, 

 with all that this means in stable industries and com- 

 munity development, are upset at a single stroke. If 

 the vast plan of partition of the National Forests as 

 advocated by many were carried out, the whole system 

 of national forestry would be placed in serious jeopardy. 

 The people of the West are now accustomed to the 

 clearly defined policies of the National Forests. Segre- 

 gation of large parts of them to be handled by another 

 organization would lead to different policies. The 



