16 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



exterminated. With careful selection of environment and such modi- 

 fications of current land uses as may be necessary and practicable, 

 this is often feasible. Witness, for example, the introduction and 

 successful building up of some 125 new elk herds on certain western 

 national forests. 



There are, as has been said, many areas on which the number and 

 species of wildlife can be increased. But there are also some areas 

 which are already too heavily populated with big game, where the 

 herd has increased far beyond the carrying capacity of the winter 

 range to support it. Damage to forage crops, heavy winter losses 

 through starvation, and accelerated erosion have resulted. On these 

 areas, modern game management calls for such adjustments as will 

 protect both the big game and the forage upon which it lives. 



RECREATION 



Recreation contributes largely to the health, happiness, and welfare 

 of our people. Once considered by some people a luxury, it has now 

 become a necessity in which forests play an important role. They 

 provide rest and relaxation, return rich dividends in physical health 

 and spiritual and mental well-being; so recreate the body and mind 

 that man may tackle with renewed vigor his everyday, bread-and- 

 butter tasks. Through recreation, forests also make an important 

 economic contribution. For, according to the best available figures, 

 expenditures by those enjoying forest recreation in the United States 

 now reach a total of $1,750,000,000 annually. 



The national forests afford an example of the enormous growth 

 forest recreation has made in the last two decades. In 1917 the 

 number of people who visited or passed through them was 3,000,000. 

 This jumped, in 1935, to 58,000,000 (pi. 4). > Many of these 58,000,000 

 were travelers who made little or no stop, it is true. But more than 

 17,000,000 deliberately sought — and found — real recreation, These 

 people occupied summer homes, hotels, dude ranches, or resorts; 

 they stayed at municipally operated camps or those managed by the 

 Boy Scouts or service organizations or clubs; they chose camp spots 

 of their own or stopped at one or more of the 3,000 free camp grounds 

 equipped by the Forest Service with modern conveniences; they lazed 

 around, hunted, fished, studied plants, animals, geological features, 

 or traveled roads and trails over timbered slopes to snow-clad peaks, 

 rushing streams, or placid mountain lakes. 



As a type, national-forest recreation is simple, democratic. Public 

 camp and picnic grounds — and most resorts and other facilities — 

 are on an unostentatious, inexpensive level. Annual rentals for 

 individual summer home sites (for which permits are issued) are low 

 and their number, size, and location are restricted. Happiness for 

 the many takes precedence, always, over consideration for the few. 

 Incidental uses — by people who "drop in" to picnic, camp for a night 

 or two, fish, hike, or hunt with camera or gun — are encouraged. 

 Policing is kept to that minimum necessary to assure safety to public 

 health and public property. 



MULTIPLE-PURPOSE MANAGEMENT 



Planning is necessary if every national-forest resource — recreation 

 as well as wood, water, forage, and wildlife — is to be perpetuated 

 through such use as will assure the greatest good to the greatest 



