Figure 10. — By 1968, when this picture was taken, 30 years of recreation use had destroyed 

 virtually all understory vegetation in the Point Campground, Redfish Lake, Sawtooth Na- 

 tional Forest, Idaho. Rehabilitation was necessary to maintain the area's value as a recrea- 

 tion site. 



tices of the agency do not seem to recognize 

 the implications of this strong condition in its 

 legislative mandate. The site productivity con- 

 straint similarly applies to the total produc- 

 tivity of the forest, and not just to the pro- 

 ductivity of a site in relation to timber pro- 

 duction. 



Both constraints can be viewed in yet 

 another light. Economists have for some time 

 struggled with the problem of income distri- 

 bution and time preference. When one genera- 

 tion consumes the natural resources base in 

 the present time period in order to generate 

 economic growth it is performing two sepa- 



rate distribution functions. On the one hand, 

 it is making possible higher levels of consump- 

 tion of the goods that will be produced in the 

 factories established with the use of such re- 

 sources. This may be viewed as a net benefit 

 to the future generations. It is in this light 

 that the national debt (to the extent that it is 

 used to generate economic growth and pre- 

 vent unemployment) far from being a burden 

 on the future is beneficial. On the other hand, 

 when the resources that are being used in the 

 current time period are nonrenewable (such as 

 virgin timber, or minerals) or are renewable 

 only over a long period of time, there is a net 



42 



