THE NATIONAL FORESTS OF CALIFORNIA 



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economic resources but not to permit the attractiveness or value of 

 the areas for recreation to be impaired. 



Until the present century it was the yearly practice of the valley 

 settlers to load their families, cooking utensils, and bedding into the 

 old farm wagons and camp for the summer in the mountains. Sports- 

 men made long and laborious trips with pack animals to favorite fish- 

 ing or hunting grounds. The population of the entire State was then 

 a little over a million, and travelers from the outside, if they went 

 into the mountains at all, visited only a few of the well-known and 

 easily accessible places of interest. But the automobile made as 

 sudden and great a difference in the recreational uses of national for- 

 ests as it has in the economic and social life of the Nation. In the 

 last 10 years national forest travel in California has increased over 



A FOREST CAMP GROUND 



Motorists, campers, sportsmen, and vacationists use the national forests of California as 



summer playgrounds 



800 per cent, and many of the visitors are from other States and 

 from foreign countries. Over 90 per cent of all the travel into the 

 national forests is by automobile. To provide for the comfort and 

 convenience of these visitors and to reduce the man-caused fire hazard. 

 the Forest Service has established in these national forests over 400 

 public camp grounds, many of which have simple camping and sani- 

 tary facilities. Free use of these forest camps is invited. 



Many of those who come to the forests return annually to some 

 permanent camp or summer home built on land leased from the 

 Forest Service. There are now in effect in the national forests 

 5,000 permits for summer cabins, each occupying about a quarter- 

 acre of land. The two favorite summer-home regions are in southern 

 California and along the main roads across the Sierra Nevada. 

 Municipalities of the State have also established in the national 



26099°— 27 3 



