Research

From modest beginnings, recreation on national forest lands has become a major player in today's land management policies. Especially as automobiles grew increasingly affordable and available to Americans following the first World War, motoring tourists poured into the nation's forests by the thousands. Forest Service leaders recognized the surging public interest and made a commitment to recreational planning even before 1920. Four decades later, Congress established the management of outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, and wildlife as the multiple use purposes of the national forests.

In 1996, the national forests received 341 million visitor days of recreational use, including activities such as hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, horsepacking, off-road vehicle use, and driving for pleasure. The recreation pages here highlight some of the features and challenges of managing various recreational activities on the national forests.

Assistant forester E.A. Sherman's views on national forest recreation (1916)

"An Outline Plan for the Recreational Development of the Superior National Forest" by Arthur Carhart (ca. 1921) [pdf]

Herring, Margaret, and Sarah Greene. "Forest of Time: Research at the Wind River Experimental Forest, 1908-1919." (2001) [pdf]

Fleischer, Herbert O. "Forest Products Research." In Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History, Vol. 1 (A-L), Richard C. Davis, editor. New York : Macmillan, 1983. pp. 231-234 [pdf]

West, Terry. "Research in the USDA Forest Service: A Historian's View." Washington: unpublished manuscript [pdf]

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The following links take you to external websites containing historical information about research and the U.S. Forest Service.

• Forest Products Laboratory & the armed forces [pdf]