ABSTRACT
Aside from the land in the Pacific Coast forests, in the forests of the panhandle of Idaho and western Montana and in some southern forests, the bulk of the land in the National Forest System is of indifferent quality for growing timber. In the higher elevations in the central Rockies, in much of the intermountain region and in the Southwest, and even in the mountainous areas of the Ozarks and Appalachians, with few exceptions strictly commer cial timber operations are improbable economic undertakings. At the same time, many of these public wildlands are in great demand for forest-related outdoor recreation activities. Indeed, it is becoming obvious that the value of these lands depends more on their recreational potential than it does on the production of natural resource commodities. In spite of this, it may be that artful multiple-use management of these wildlands to meet demands for both timber and recreation, or perhaps other combinations of resource serv ices, would represent the preferred management regime. This is the issue that we intend to explore.
