numbers of visitors, which leads to congestion, eroded trails, noise that disrupts
wildlife, and pollution from autos and visitors. Other threats include off-road
vehicles, the introduction of nonnative species that impact biodiversity, and
commercial activities such as mining, logging, livestock grazing, and urban
development.
There are several solutions to these problems:
■ Reducing the amount of private land within national parks through
incentives to current owners
■ Providing educational programs to the public
■ Setting quotas on attendance through advanced reservation systems
■ Adopting a fee system that covers external costs
■ Banning off-road vehicles
■ Banning autos and instead providing shuttle buses to control traffic
■ Providing tax incentives for property owners near national parks to use
land grants
■ Conducting periodic and detailed wildlife and plant inventories
National Forests
The National Forest System includes 155 national forests containing 188 million
acres, and 20 national grasslands containing 4 million acres, mainly in the
western United States. Created by acts of Congress, national forests typically
provide a balance of conservation and use activities, including outdoor
recreation, livestock grazing, timber harvesting, watershed protection, and the
preservation of fish and wildlife habitats. A major issue that affects national
forests is the appropriate level of timber harvesting for economic and fire safety
purposes.
Wilderness Areas
Wilderness areas are wild or primitive portions of national forests, parks, and
wildlife refuges where timbering, most commercial activity, motor vehicles, and
human-made structures are prohibited. The Wilderness Act (1964) created the
National Wilderness Preservation System, the system that collectively unites all
individual wilderness areas. This system encompasses a wide variety of
ecosystems throughout the country including swamps in the Southeast, tundra in
Alaska, snowcapped peaks in the Rocky Mountains, hardwood forests in the
Northeast, and deserts in the Southwest.