4: Outdoor Recreation
Sustain and Enhance Outdoor Recreation Opportunities Other Information:
Outcome: A variety of high-quality outdoor recreational opportunities on the Nation’s forests and grasslands are available
to the public. Overview: The Forest Service is challenged with sustaining adequate high-quality outdoor recreational experiences
to meet the Nation’s needs while maintaining the ecological integrity of national forests and grasslands. The Nation’s population
is projected to increase by nearly 50 percent by the middle of this century. The combination of increasing populations and
the continued decline of public access to privately owned forest land creates extensive pressure on public lands to provide
more recreational opportunities. If public lands are to provide additional recreational benefits without unacceptable resource
impacts, we must emphasize effective management solutions that have a solid scientific foundation. The condition of the land,
recreation facilities, and transportation infrastructure, including off-highway-vehicle access, must be considered if we expect
to preserve high-quality recreation experiences. We must maintain specially designated protected areas. We must continue to
work with our partner volunteers, nongovernmental organizations, other agencies, and the private sector if we are to achieve
acceptable results. During this strategic planning period, the following objectives will be our major focus for accomplishing
this goal. Means and Strategies for Accomplishing Goal 4: • Provide tools, guidance, and resource management to provide safe
recreation use and to prevent or mitigate the ecological impacts of recreation activities (including off-highway vehicle impacts).•
Improve our understanding of the relationship between the quality of the recreation experience and the quality of the environment
to help managers optimize recreational opportunities and investments.• Develop the tools necessary to protect and sustain
designated wilderness areas and the ecological and social values derived from designated wilderness areas.• Develop information
about visitor trends, behavior, and experiences to help managers and communities provide the recreation services and benefits
that visitors seek.• Provide recreational opportunities consistent with an area’s physical, biological, and social characteristics
and capabilities.• Acquire and provide appropriate access to recreational opportunities.• Efficiently and effectively manage
and maintain recreational opportunity infrastructure while protecting public health and safety (including facility reconstruction
and decommissioning, where appropriate).• Maintain and improve a user-fee program.• Use private, nongovernmental, and interagency
partnerships to accomplish collaborative community recreation/tourism plans.
Objective(s):
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