Figure 55—Most of the Federal recreation areas are in the West, but most of the people are in the 
East. 
recreation opportunities, we could 
develop procedures for monitoring to 
determine the types of activities desired 
by the public. In the development of 
this Assessment, we found that 
standards and definitions for 
recreational data are not available. 
Different public agencies have different 
and sometimes conflicting definitions 
for the same measure of recreation 
demand and/or supply. The Department 
of Agriculture could provide the 
leadership in developing the needed 
standards in cooperation with other 
agencies. 
We could also provide more and better 
visitor information services to 
encourage dispersal of recreationists’ 
demands and to increase customer 
satisfaction. This information can 
direct visitors to underutilized areas 
and facilities. Closely related to the 
need for visitor information itself is the 
opportunity for interagency and 
private-sector cooperation in providing 
it. Through cooperative efforts of the 
various public and private providers, 
visitors would be able to find at one 
stop information about all of the 
recreational facilities in a local area. 
The lands near population centers will 
bear a major share of the expected 
increases in demand for recreation. 
Publicly provided facilities and private 
investments to take advantage of 
opportunities will undoubtedly be 
affected by the geographic pattern of 
growth in demand. 
Research designed to develop practical, 
lower cost ways of constructing, 
restoring, and maintaining facilities or 
minimizing the adverse impacts of use 
can further contribute to meeting the 
public’s demands for outdoor 
recreation. 
Private lands can also provide greatly 
increased recreation opportunities to 
the public, especially near population 
centers. Informing private landowners 
about the income potential and related 
social value of their lands for public 
recreation as well as management 
strategies and liability risks could result 
in increased access to private lands for 
recreation. Research could be 
developed to describe for State 
legislatures and other regulatory bodies 
the deleterious effect that existing 
liability law has on the use of private 
lands for recreation. 
Multiple-use guidelines would improve 
coordinated management of both 
recreation and nonrecreation use of 
wilderness areas. Preservation of 
critical wildlife, fish and plant habitats, 
watershed protection, gene pool 
preservation, scientific uses, human 
development and spiritual growth, 
education, and preservation of 
representative ecosystems are all uses 
that would benefit from management 
direction such as that provided for 
recreation on public lands. 
Wildlife and Fish 
Access to private lands will be further 
restricted in the future, either through 
outright prohibition or through user 
fees, thereby shifting demands to 
public lands. The implication is that on 
public lands, it will become 
increasingly important for managers to 
integrate wildlife and fish objectives 
fully into management and protection 
activities for other resources, and 
especially those for timber, forage, and 
minerals. Access to public and private 
lands will also become increasingly 
important, with user fees probably 
becoming much more important in 
determining access. 
As land use intensifies on private lands, 
National Forest System and other 
public lands will become more 
important for their unique wildlife and 
fish habitats. The fact that 
