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Quoted from the appended article which appeared in today's press:
["I do think we have to understand that recreation on a national forest needs to change," (American Recreation Coalition President, Derrick) Crandall said.]
ARC brought us the Recreation Access Tax.
ARC is going to bring us a lot more.
DO YOU WANT WHAT THEY ARE SELLING...
... or do you have another vision for YOUR public lands?
It is unfortunate that this article made no attempt to tell other than one side of this important story or to cut through the spin liberally applied by those pushing a particular agenda.
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
Marketing the outdoors isn't what it used to be
ELLYN FERGUSON - GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Forest Service, a survivor of a century of
juggling sometimes conflicting missions, faces a new challenge as it
starts a second century: demographics.
When Gifford Pinchot became chief of a new federal forest system in
1905, the U.S. population was younger, more rural and less diverse than
it is today.
America of the 21st century is graying as baby boomers age and is
increasingly diverse with demographic experts predicting that by 2050,
nearly half the nation will be members of racial and ethnic minority
groups.
Experts who work on minority and public lands issues say the Forest
Service and other U.S. land management agencies have to reach beyond
their traditional pool of visitors and recreation enthusiasts to stay
financially viable and avoid becoming irrelevant. They also need to
reach out to young people who are more comfortable exploring the Web
than the woods.
"Probably the greatest challenge of the future is to somehow connect
young people to the land," Max Peterson, the top Forest Service
official from 1979 to 1987, told agency officials recently.
Peterson's own grandchildren are city dwellers who "live in the
cyberworld," he said. "They don't relate to the land or where things
come from."
Congress has increased the Forest Service budget for maintaining
recreation facilities and sites from $220 million in 1995 to $256
million in 2004, but that hasn't kept pace with inflation.
The Forest Service is expected to get additional money thanks to
congressional approval of small fees to hike, picnic, camp and launch
boats in national forests and on other public lands. The money is to
help cover maintenance costs for recreation and environmental
restoration.
Dale Bosworth, the current Forest Service chief, acknowledged that the
agency has to find new ways to broaden its base of support.
"We need more nontraditional ways of reaching our kids, like using
video games or other media tied to pop culture. We also need to reach
out to nontraditional constituencies, particularly to urban audiences,
and that means connecting to issues and cultures that we've
traditionally ignored," Bosworth said.
Forest Service officials have taken some steps to reach out to young people and minorities.
But outsiders say the Forest Service could hook more people if it were more aggressive and innovative.
Dorceta Taylor, an environmental sociologist at the University of
Michigan, said the Forest Service can start sending a welcoming message
to minorities by the way it markets itself.
Photos of open vistas with no racial or ethnic minorities send "the
message you're not welcome," said Taylor. "If they continue to market
themselves as places to camp out, they won't get many more (new)
people."
And it's not just minorities who don't see themselves in the marketing the Forest Service does, she said.
For example, Taylor asked, how many Americans who are no longer limber
enough to camp out know that many forests have ski lodges or other
places to sleep?
"They don't do a good job of explaining people's options," she said.
Derrick Crandall, president of the American Recreation Coalition,
envisions using high-tech recreation to draw a new generation to the
national forests.
The Forest Service could open its lands to geocaching -- a sort of
scavenger hunt in which participants follow clues posted on the
Internet and use handheld global positioning systems to locate hiding
places for items.
"I do think we have to understand that recreation on a national forest needs to change," Crandall said.
Crandall doesn't believe that he is proposing to turn forestlands into
amusement parks as some environmental activists fear now that the
federal government is looking to charge more recreation fees.
"I don't see a theme park environment by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
Todd Davidson, executive director of the Oregon Tourism Commission, agreed.
"I'm not seeing a demand for overly developed recreation," Davidson
said. Tourists, he said, "are looking for opportunities to be quiet."
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- Outdoor recreation 
