Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Recreation and nontimber forest products

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Research on forest recreation over the last 60 years has been voluminous. Research on nontimber forest products (NTFP) has been much less voluminous. In this chapter the history of these two tracks of research has been reviewed. Not all studies are mentioned; rather, a representative selection of the subject matter is discussed. Forest recreation research had its beginnings in the late 1950s within a few southern universities and with two Federal Agencies the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the Economic Research Service. In these beginnings the challenge was to shed more light on who recreates, where recreation occurs, what impacts it has on the resource, and whether recreation and tourism is one way to address persistent poverty in some areas of the South. Through the 1960s and 1970s, research expanded tremendously, with greater participation among universities and public agencies. Not only were practical problems being addressed, but also advances in theory and methods were being forged as the science of forest recreation matured. Through the 1980s and 1990s, many topics of management concern and of scientific concern were addressed as outlets for recreation and leisure sciences grew and the needs for scientific information for recreation management expanded. This recreation research is reviewed in brief in the chapter that follows, as is research on NTFPs.

Parent Publication

Citation

Cordell, H. Ken; Chamberlain, James L. 2004. Recreation and nontimber forest products. In: Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–75. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. Chapter 23. p. 253-287.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/9691