Parks and Recreation

Resource Limitations Affect Condition of Forest Service Recreation Sites Gao ID: RCED-91-48 January 15, 1991

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the Forest Service's maintenance of developed recreation sites, focusing on the: (1) extent and causes of the maintenance and reconstruction backlogs; (2) Service's site inventory system; and (3) effects of resource limitations on site maintenance.

GAO found that: (1) aging facilities, increased public use, and public demand for new or modernized facilities contributed to the maintenance and reconstruction backlogs at developed recreation sites; (2) funding and staffing levels failed to adequately meet daily operation and maintenance needs; (3) the deferral of needed maintenance resulted in such health and safety hazards as contaminated drinking water, disintegrating boat ramps, and unstable stairs and bridges; (4) without routine maintenance, the environmental damage caused by natural forces and human use and vandalism could accelerate site deterioration; (5) the Forest Service lacked a reliable system to monitor or report site maintenance and reconstruction needs; (6) the extent to which districts documented site conditions and backlog data varied widely, with 12 of the 20 districts unable to provide current and accurate backlog data; (7) the Service planned to implement a new recreation information management system to collect backlog data in 1991, but the new system's usefulness was questionable because of the sources and types of data intended for the system; (8) between 1986 and 1989, the Service closed 4 percent of the 12,915 sites that existed in 1986, but total recreation site capacity increased between 1972 and 1987; (9) resource limitations contributed to reduced or eliminated services and reduced quality of the recreational experience; and (10) to compensate for limited funds and staff, the districts used such other means as volunteer and cost-share programs to help operate and maintain developed recreation sites.

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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