How Should Alaska's Federal Recreational Lands Be Developed? Views of Alaska Residents and Visitors

In order to sample user opinions of how millions of acres of developed and undeveloped Federal recreation land in Alaska should be used, a poll of 1,081 visitors to Alaska's Federal parks and recreation areas and 279 Alaskan residents responded to a questionnaire on (1) their experiences in nine of Alaska's long-established Federal parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and public lands; (2) the types, location, and amount of recreational development they would like to see on Alaska's Federal lands; and (3) their familiarity with recreational information published by Federal agencies and the usefulness of this information.

The poll showed satisfaction on the part of visitors to established Federal recreational areas. Respondents clearly favored development of new areas to further development of existing facilities, an approach with which agency officials agreed. The majority of respondents favored either a user-charge system or Federal funding to pay for future recreational development. A large percentage of visitors responding to the questionnaire said they were not aware of but would have used numerous recreational information publications offered by Federal agencies. Agency officials generally agreed with the report findings; their comments, where appropriate, are included in a summary of responses arranged by agency and recreation area.