ROAR: Why Now?

Why Now?

Nature awareness might seem unimportant until you consider the combined effects of millions of outdoor visitors. Recreation lands, including private, local, state and federal holdings, are being used and enjoyed by more and more people. At a time of increasing recreational opportunities and land use restrictions we strive to enhance the public's understanding of their impact on the land.

Trends:
The most dramatic increase in outdoor recreation occurred in the 1960's when hiking, camping, and backpacking first became popular. For example:

Use of National Forest primitive areas and wilderness tripled during the 1960's and public land visitation continues to increase.
Recreation visites to U.S. Forest Service lands jumped from 4.6 million in 1964 to 900 million in 1999.
Recreation visits to National Park Service areas were 33 milllion in 1950, increasing more than five-fold to 172 million in 1970, with more modest increases to 258 million in 1990, and 287 million in 1999.

Growth:
More than at any time in history people are choosing to spend their leisure time involved with outdoor activities and recreation. Examples:

Over 10,000,000 youth camp each year.
Family camps have increased more than 500 percent over the last twelve years.
In 2001 there were 11,629,000 youth age 6 - 15 who participated in fishing.
44,400,000 American's fish.
In 2002 there were 73.300,000 people who went hiking.
In 2003 there were 72,000,000 people who participated in boating activities (44.2% of the population).
In 2004 there were 66,600,000 people who visited Bureau of Land Management recreation sites.
In 2004 there were 279,000,000 people who visited National Park Service recreational sites.
In 2004 there were over 39,000,000 people who visited U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife refuges.
In 2004 there were over 90,000,000 who visited Bureau of Reclamation recreational sites.
57% of American's participate in at lease one outdoor activity. Of this numer 63% participate in multiple activities.
The average age of those participating in outdoor activities is 16 to 25.
There are 827,000,000 visitors to over 5,842 state parks every year.

We can help protect the outdoors by remembering that while we are there we are a visitor. When we visit a friend, we take care to leave our friend's home just as we found it. We would never think of trampling garden flowers, chopping down trees in the yard, putting soap in the drinking water, or marking our name on the living room wall. When we visit the outdoors, the same courtesies apply. We should leave everything just as we found it. Responsible recreation is everyone's responsiblity.