Recreation and protected land resources in the United States
Subtitle: a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2010 RPA Assessment
By: H. Ken Cordell, Carter J. Betz and Stanley J. Zarnoch
Contributors: Betz, Carter J. (Carter Joseph); Zarnoch, Stanley J.; United States. Forest Service. Southern Research Station
Series: General technical report -- SRS-169; General technical report SRS -- 169.
Publisher: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Asheville, NC
Language: eng
Number of pages: 198
Subjects: Recreation areas; Management; Natural resources; Multiple use; Protected areas; Multiple use management areas; Conservation of natural resources
Description: This report provides an overview of the public and private land and water resources of the United States. Described is use of natural and developed land as recreation resources with an emphasis on nature-based recreation. Also described is land protection through conservation organizations and public funding programs, with an emphasis on protecting private land through funding for purchase or for conservation easements. Outdoor recreation resources include land, water, snow and ice, scenery, developed sites, facilities, and user services. Protected land resources range from farm lands to remote wilderness, but mostly are the undeveloped lands in the United States with various forms of protection status. The total U.S. land area is 2.43 billion acres, which contains 169 million acres of water, and consists of a diversity of land use and cover types. The United States loses about 2 million acres of forest, farm, and open space each year. In attempting to conserve such lands, land trusts and governments have instituted programs to obtain easements or purchase the land outright. The Federal Government holds in trust about 640 million acres of land (30 percent of the country's total land area). This includes national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and other Federal agency ownerships. These lands, along with State and local government lands are important recreation resources serving the public interest. Private lands and recreation businesses are also important recreation resources. Projections to 2060 of per capita area of public and private land and water show a steady downward trend across all regions of the United States. For all appendix papers referenced in General Technical Report SRS-169 please use the following link: www.srs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs169/gtr_srs169_appendix_papers.pdf. For all appendix tables referenced in General Technical Report SRS-169 please use the following link: www.srs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs169/gtr_srs169_appendix_tables.pdf.
Notes: "January 2013"--P. [2] of cover.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-198).

Also available on the World Wide Web.
Table of contents: title: Private lands in the United States: their ownership and use; title: rangelands; title: Development pressures on the private forests; title: Threatened wilderness areas in the national wilderness preservation system; title: State and local government financing for land conservation; title: The national wilderness preservation system and its stewardship; title: Values of the urban wilderness; title: Private partnerships on federal lands; title: Concession operations on Bureau of Land Management lands; title: Parks for city people: greenspace in the metropolis; title: Geospatial patterns of recreation resources; title: Projections of future recreation resources; title: Summary.