A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 345 



eral Lands/' writes Ovid M. Butler in the report of 

 1928, "must project far into the future. Present 

 day problems are insignificant compared with those 

 that must be met forty, fifty, or a hundred years hence 

 when our population will have greatly increased and 

 demand for recreational outlets will have become 

 many times intensified. A policy formulated now to 

 meet these future problems must be based upon a 

 permanent foundation of co-ordinated use. 



"Recreation as a recognized use of Federal 

 lands has grown under conditions of opportunism 

 and departmental individualism. Its dominating 

 growth factor is economic pressure rather than co- 

 ordinated planning and development by the depart- 

 ments of the Government. But it is an inescapable 

 fact that recreation as a public use of Federal lands 

 cannot be turned aside. Almost a quarter of our 

 population is turning to-day to public reservations 

 for outdoor recreation. Federal land is their prop- 

 erty. They demand participation in its use to satisfy 

 their recreational wants, and their demands must be 

 met. Sooner or later the Federal Government, as an 

 obligation of its stewardship, must plan and provide 

 in a forward-looking way for a clearly defined ad- 

 justment of recreation to the other uses of these 

 public reservations. 



"Analysis shows that trie Federal land holdings 

 of to-day embracing recreation resources which 

 Warrant some form of particularized and permanent 

 Federal administration and development for general 



