ABSTRACT
Outdoor recreation is an important use of the nation’s forest and wildlands for millions of Americans. The broad spectrum of recreational experiences available from forest and wildland resources is conducive to provision of a variety of social benefits, including rest from the stresses of daily life, greater family solidarity, increased worker productivity, greater self-confidence, and improved physical fitness. One of the most important and fundamental strategic directions for research are to improve the state of the art of definition and measurement of forest and wildland recreation products. Public agencies produce forest and wildland recreation opportunities in a hierarchical framework of multiple public objectives. The recreational use of forest and wildland resources is an important social and economic activity. The theory and methods of the demand-side of recreation economies are well developed. However, intriguing questions have begun to challenge the theory, and serious problems confront practical application.
