National Forests

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Forest Service's management of 20 special recreation areas within the national forest system to determine whether the Service achieved the development, operation, and maintenance levels consistent with their designating legislation.

GAO found that: (1) the Service did not develop, operate, or maintain many of the special recreation areas according to Service policy, designating legislation, or the individual area plans; (2) 8 of the 10 areas that delayed or dropped projects for campgrounds, road improvements, and information stations were designated before 1980, while areas designated after 1980 generally focused on preservation of natural resources and had limited development goals; (3) 15 areas had inadequate visitor information or interpretive services and lowered maintenance levels; (4) Service funding for recreation programs declined about 26 percent between fiscal year 1980 and 1986; (5) the Service's April 1988 National Recreation Strategy emphasized showcasing recreation at special recreation areas and called for stretching available federal funds through greater use of volunteers and through seeking out public and private groups to share development and operations expenses; and (6) the Service did not adequately monitor or report on the status of the areas' development and operations. GAO believes that the limited amount of resources available to the Service would not enable it to achieve its planned levels of facility development and showcase levels of operation.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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