ABSTRACT
While the production of timber and water are basic objectives stipulated in the Organic Act of 1897, in more recent times, as we have seen, recreation has emerged as a dominant use of the national forests. The public forests may provide some recreational opportunities on every land area within a forest. While typically just a few areas of a forest will be managed predominantly for recreational purposes, a much larger area is likely to provide some recreational and hunting services as a more or less incidental result of the vegetational and other natural characteristics of the land. Management decisions as to the location and intensity of timber treatments on such lands are of primary importance in determining the flow of amenity services over time. With the growing demands for both timber and the other resource services of the forest, there has been an increased need for methods of assessing the impact of timber harvesting and other management actions on the recreational services of the public forestlands.
