American Hiking Society comments on the Forest Service Recreation Agenda

February 1, 2001
By Mary Margaret Sloan and Celina Montorfano
reprinted with permission from Pathways Across America, a publication of the American Hiking Society, Fall 2000 Issue

The USDA Forest Service officially released its final Recreation Agenda during the National Trails Symposium in September. The Agenda serves primarily as a vision document for recreation in the agency, providing a framework for defining principles, processes, and priorities, and is one of the four components of the agency's broader Natural Resource Agenda. It is the result of two years of planning, six months of meetings around the country, and several revisions of the initial and subsequent drafts.

The Forest Service's commitment to recreation signals a shift toward proactive natural resource management and will help protect the resources under its jurisdiction for future generations of outdoor enthusiasts. FS Chief Mike Dombeck said, "The For- est Service is the number one supplier of outdoor recreation in the world. This plan will help us ensure people continue to enjoy their public lands, and that together we continue to protect the natural beauty and environment that draws them to these natural wonders."

The Agenda is a positive one now, but when it was first released to the public last fall, it fell short of the expectations of many who enjoy National Forests. American Fliking Society and a number of hiking and trail organizations, including the Appalachian Trail Conference, Continental Divide Trail Alliance, Pacific Crest Trail Association, Florida Trail Association, and Partnership for the National Trail System, joined together and urged the Forest Service to improve the Agenda. And it did.

The groups urged the FS to strengthen the Agenda in a manner that emphasized ecosystem protection, maintained the integrity of the hiking experience, acknowledged the contributions of volunteers, and protected national forest lands from damaging activities. Volunteers are a common theme throughout the Recreation Agenda. But initially, in earlier drafts, the theme was a weak one. But after being encouraged by volunteer-based groups, the agency raised the profiles of volunteers in the Agenda. Generally, it is organized trail groups who are providing the volunteers. In fact, in 1999, on the 20 national scenic and national historic trails alone, volunteers documented over 550,000 hours. And throughout the agency last year, over 90,000 volunteers contributed millions of hours in labor to the Forest Service with an appraised value of $35.8 million.

The FS manages 133,087 miles of trails. Yet early versions of the Recreation Agenda read much like a corporate marketing plan. It declared that "the recreation program is founded on quality customer service." Key issues such as natural settings, services, communities and relationships were identified, but the Forest Service's role in balancing recreation and conservation was addressed with such phrases as "provide seamless delivery" and "review professional business practices." The language set an odd commercial tone, as if visitors to national forests are nothing more than consumers and the Forest Service a provider of customer service. But treating national forest visitors as "customers" may not be the best way to manage public lands. In business, after all, the customer is always right. If the new Forest Service were indeed founded on "quality customer service," land managers would be obliged to accommodate the wishes and whims of every visitor, rather than manage the land to protect watersheds or sensitive ecosystems.

In its final Recreation Agenda, the Forest Service emphasized its special management responsibility for National Scenic and Historic Trails, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness Areas and other Congressionally designated areas and incorporated most of the suggested changes submitted by trail organizations, improving the document's references to natural resource protection and volunteer recognition. In particular, it committed to establishing a full-time trails overseer at each National Forest, establishing a volunteer coordinator at each National Forest and Grassland and reducing the backlog of trail construction and maintenance needs. However, the Agenda still places undue emphasis on expanding tourism- despite the severity of the maintenance, resource, and recreation backlogs and increasing visitation to FS lands every year anyway- and encouraging private investment in public lands and facilities. It also hastily endorses a permanent recreational fee program.

In order to really improve recreation opportunities, the Forest Service recognizes it needs to commit to increasing its staff on the ground. Very few National Forests have even one full-time trails staff person. Many have only a half or quarter-time staff. Some have no trails staff at all.

"Inevitable increases in the number of visitors to national forest lands will continue to strain the ability of the land and forest recreation personnel to cope. By calling for close cooperation among all of the various interests, the new agenda will help us meet the growing recreation demand in harmony with the land," said Denny Bschor, director of the Forest Service's Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness programs.

The Forest Service will evaluate how well the Recreation Agenda is working on an ongoing basis. "We will learn more as we go along," said Bschor, "and we will apply what we learn to continuously improve the recreation experience for all of our visitors."

The Recreation Agenda is an important step for the Forest Service. Not only has it raised the credibility and status of recreation within the ranks of the Forest Service, but it also outlines a significant shift away from the agency's past reliance on logging. Changing the culture of the Forest Service will not be easy, but the Recreation Agenda is certainly heading it in the right direction.

Mary Margaret Sloan is President and Celina Montorfano is Alliance Policy Coordinator for the American Hiking Society in Silver Spring, MD.