Quiet Commotion

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Quiet Commotion

• May 2, 2008
• Boise, ID

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Trends, Aspirations, Expectations, and A Reality
Check

• Valerie Guardia
• Deputy Director for Recreation, Wilderness, and
  Heritage Resources
• USDA Forest Service
• Pacific Southwest Region

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OVERVIEW

• Background on role of recreation on National
  Forest System lands
• The Recreation program current and future
• Factors and issues affecting recreation
• What WE can do

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BACKGROUND

• Recreation IS important!
• Early leaders include Aldo Leopold, Arthur
  Carhart, and Bob Marshall
• Formalized in 1964 with Multiple Use Sustained
  Yield Act
• Chief Bosworths reflection on the next century
• In 2005, over 205 million visits to NFS lands
  contributing 7.5 billion to local communities

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Majority of outdoor recreation is Quiet, based
on NSRE and NVUM

• NSRE rankings
• 1 walk for pleasure
• 20 fishing
• 21 day hiking
• 23 visit a wilderness or primitive area
• 33 mountain biking
• 36 drive off-road
• 39 primitive camping
• 43 hunting
• 44 backpacking

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• NVUM Top 5 activities on NFS lands
• Viewing natural features
• General relaxation
• Hiking
• Viewing wildlife
• Driving for pleasure

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SOME CURRENT PROGRAM EMPHASES

• Travel Management
• Rec Facilities Analysis and Site Improvement
  (niche our money sink)
• Kids!
• Recreation fee program
• Wilderness management
• Trail maintenance (on a shoestring)

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FUTURE TRENDS AND NEEDS?

• Technology and toys
• Demand for better information
• Recreation with a purpose
• Increasing ties with communities tourism
• Extreme factor
• Increased motorized use
• Greater and varied demands on a finite resource
• Must find ways to provide sustainable recreation

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FACTORS AND ISSUES AFFECTING REC MGT
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FISCAL REALITY

• National priorities war on terror war on
  drugs war in Iraq security
• Debt and deficit
• Not on your average Americans radar screen
  just look at the issues in the Presidential
  campaign
• CONCLUSION funding will remain flat or decline
  for recreation on public lands

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FISCAL REALITY

• What can WE do?
• Throw selves off a bridge?....or.
• Continue to leverage funds through
• Partnerships
• Volunteers
• Concessionaire program
• Public-Private partnerships
• Recreation fees
• Other means

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SOCIAL FACTORS

• Fewer people participating in outdoor recreation
• Loss of support loss of future workforce
• Growing population
• Increased recreation demand and pressures on
  public lands
• More people living adjacent to national forests
• Increased energy demands means energy development
  on public lands
• Increasingly diverse population
• Retiring boomers

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NATURAL FACTORS

• FIRE!
• Loss of settings and opportunities up in smoke
• Increasing cost of fighting fires more of the
  pie goes to fire suppression and prevention
• Expanding wildland/urban interface

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Fire -- What can be done

• Open space initiatives to reduce interface issues
• Fuels treatment and restoration
• Defensible space
• FLAME Act

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NATURAL FACTORS

• CLIMATE CHANGE
• Contributing to increase in severity and number
  of wildfires
• Contributing to changes in vegetation and
  forests, which affects habitat, settings, water
  quality and quantity, etc.
• Increase in development of green energy
  windfarms, hydro

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What can be done

• The Forest Service is becoming a key player in
  international climate issues
• Walk the talk sustainable practices at work
• Forest Service research
• Another messenger

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AGENCY FACTORS

• Flat or declining budgets coupled with increasing
  costs means
• Reduced workforce
• Reduced services and program delivery
• Centralized services
• Consolidation of units
• Transformation
• Making the tough decisions

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What can be done

• Forest Service employees becoming facilitators
  rather than the do-ers
• Partners! Partners! Partners! We simply cannot
  manage outdoor recreation alone, the challenge is
  simply too great
• Promote sustainable recreation practices dont
  be the bad apple
• Collaboration, cooperation, and dialog rather
  than litigation

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CONCLUSION

• Recreation has an increasingly important role to
  play social, health, economic benefits
• Traditional means to support the program are no
  longer enough partners are key
• The agency will continue to seek innovative
  solutions