or overnight camping. Since 
presumably forest travelers are 
interested in scenery, particu- 
larly that which can be enjoyed 
from good roads, this form of 
recreation represents extensive 
use of large scenic areas plus in- 
tensive use of campgrounds and 
picnic spots. Along forest high- 
ways in this region are many 
beautiful views, but also many 
miles of unsightly cut-over and 
burned-over lands. 
Old-growth timber occurs 
along 16 percent of the total 
mileage of lands bordering State 
and Federal highways in west- 
ern Washington and along 12 
percent of those in western 
Oregon (table 38). Less than 
one-third of the sawlog-size co- 
nifer timber bordering 460 miles 
of main roads in the region is in public ownership. 
In the last 4 or 5 years the original beauty of three of 
the recently built scenic highways, the Olympic Pen- 
insula Loop Highway, the Oregon Coast Highway, 
and the Salmon River cut-off, has been badly 
marred by roadside logging. The privately owned 
saw timber along highways, amounting to more 
than two-thirds of the total saw-timber mileage, 
is highly accessible, and will probably be logged 
in the near future unless acquired by the public. 
Oregon and Washington have been derelict in 
acquiring adequate strips of virgin timber along 
roadsides when projecting new highways. Some 
31,000 acres would have to be purchased if 400- 
foot strips of the sawlog-size timber now in private 
ownership were to be saved on each side of the 
highways. Owing to its location this timber would 
not be cheap, but its acquisition would probably 
result in more public satisfaction than acquisition 
of any other equal area of forest land. 
According to table 38, of the 220 miles of cut- 
over and burned-over land adjacent to main high- 
ways, 205 miles is privately owned. The public 
interest in such destruction is manifest. The public 
responsibility to safeguard roadside beauty, as 
representing an intensive recreational use of forest 
land, is being recognized more and more widely, 
and if the States do not make more progress in 
ington. 
Figure 37.—A forest campground on the Mount Baker National Forest, Wash. 
more than a million visitors entered the national forests of western Oregon and western Wash- 
Approximately 25 percent of these used the campground facilities provided without 
charge by the Forest Service 
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eee Be 
— 
During 1937 
acquiring such scenic roadside strips reserving them 
so far as possible from all cutting other than salvage 
operations, the Federal Government should step in. 
When forest land along State highways reverts to 
the counties for nonpayment of taxes it should im- 
mediately be deeded to the States for development of 
scenic strips. Areas that are not naturally reseed- 
ing should promptly be planted with forest trees. 
Forest campgrounds have been developed on 
national forests (fig. 37), and also in many locali- 
ties on State lands, but there is still a shortage of 
them close to the larger centers of population. 
Even a greatly expanded program of forest camp 
and picnic grounds would not materially decrease 
the area available for timber production. 
So far the discussion has referred to recreational 
uses that might withdraw from commercial exploi- 
tation accessible, high-quality forest land at low 
altitudes, chiefly in private ownership. Except 
along streams, lakesides (fig. 38), and highways, 
the lower-altitude forests of the Douglas-fir region 
have no great recreational appeal, owing to the 
density of timber and underbrush. Cross-country 
progress through these forests is so difficult that 
recreational use is limited to hiking along trails, 
fishing, and deer hunting for a short period in the 
fall. Moreover, a large percentage of the hunting 
by residents of western Oregon and western Wash- 
