ABSTRACT
The forest floor provides an important filtering mechanism, and water that travels through it to streams or groundwater reservoirs is thereby purified. The forest also plays an important role in controlling the water regime of any given area: during the summer growing season, forest plants take up large amounts of water, which are transpired and evaporated from the leaves of the plants. The multiplicity of needs and uses has long been recognized and even institutionalized in the United States Forest Service’s multiple-use policy. The increase in roads through the forest has provided access to places hitherto beyond the reach of all but the hardiest visitors; the increased mobility couples with the surge of interest and concern for the environment that we have fostered. A large portion of temperate-forest lands in the United States are controlled by agencies of the federal and state governments.
