Hae Os EU OLN Belli ee LW 27 
WHAT KIND OF RECREATION? 
By J. W. Galbreath 
In our attempt to bring the outdoors and people together, we have a 
tendency to build a road to everywhere. Easy access to our scenic wilder- 
ness may lead to its very destruction. The paved highway to nature’s 
scenic wonderland, bringing in careless, thoughtless, and unappreciative 
pleasure-seekers, will erode and wipe out the sanctuaries we hope to pre- 
serve for posterity. Even now high-powered outboard motors pollute our 
inland lakes with their roar, fumes, and oil refuse, desecrate the serenity 
of tree-lined streams, blast away the solitude of wind-swept beaches. 
Some of us find virtue in God’s natural wilderness. Which do you 
choose — naturalness or man-made recreation? Synthetic recreation can 
be had near the big city. Motels, ferris wheels, tennis courts. juke boxes, 
and the din of commercialized conveniences may be all right in their 
place, but in the wilderness these serve only to blight the beauty of nature. 
There are diversified interests among those who would use the out-of- 
doors. We should provide diversified accommodations to suit the needs of 
various groups — including the informed minority interests who want 
unspoiled nature, wilderness areas untouched and unimproved by the 
hand of man, where one can wonder and wander in solitude. Here, seek- 
ing recreation for body and spirit, can come the fed-up, used-up city 
dweller, escaping a complex, mechanized existence. All year he dreams 
of and anticipates that two weeks of close communion with nature in the 
pathless woods, paddling his own canoe, cooking his own food, sleeping 
under the stars in God’s great out-of-doors. 
These minority groups (they are increasing in numbers rapidly) have 
a right to expect unspoiled recreation under primitive conditions. Wilder- 
ness areas must be set aside where the only access is by foothpath, pack 
trail, or canoe. We need to understand that man cannot improve on nature. 
Who can improve the song of the Wood Thrush or the beauty of the wild 
flower? Efforts to “beautify” wild places should be abandoned and devoted 
to the commercialized areas which seem to suit the great majority, who 
want the same glamor, comforts, gadgets, and effortless recreation that 
they find in the big city. Civilizing the wilderness in the name of “Pro- 
gress” by commercial interests destroys naturalness. Synthetic areas 
encourage the type of recreation that uses up and wrecks natural habitat. 
Some Problems in Recreation 
Most problems with the out-of-doors are people problems. Too many 
people seeking the same thing, in the same place, at the same time. Most 
persons who visit our parks, forests. and scenic wonderlands leave their 
cars in asphalt parking lots, pitch their tents, and arrange their tables, 
chairs, radios, television sets, badminton nets, horseshoes, etc., near the 
Margin of the area. All of the things they see and do might just as well 
be in their own back yard. 
There is nothing wrong with recreation being big business, nor is 
there anything wrong with commercialized interests attempting to provide 
the gadgets, the confusion, the din and clutter that these people want in 
outdoor places for their recreation. but let us make exceptions for those 
who shun and despise these distractions and attempt to escape them when 
they take to the open spaces. 
Population pressures, easy-access roads, motels and honky-tonks can 
destroy the outdoors for many people. You can destroy the flora and fauna 
