National Park Service A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States

THE PROPER USE OF LEISURE TIME is a fundamental problem of modern society. The industrial age has given the people of the United States more free time and greater opportunities for employing it to good purpose than any previous era, but the very circumstances which shorten working hours also speed up production, intensify the strain of present-day living, and create a need for periodic relief. Outdoor recreation answers this need.

It has become generally recognized in recent years that, while the provision of areas and facilities for public recreation is a proper function of government, separate, unrelated attempts at planning for this purpose cannot adequately provide for the increasing requirements of our people. The ultimate objective of the Park, Parkway, and Recreational-Area Study, now being made by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior under authority of the Act of June 23, 1936 (49 Stat. 1894), is to establish a basis for coordinated, correlated recreation land planning among all agencies—Federal, State, and local having responsibility for park and recreational developments.

As a contribution toward this objective, the National Park Service has prepared this report, A Study of the National Recreation Problem. It reflects to some degree, the preliminary findings of the various States cooperating in the Study, and embodies the recommendations of the Service for coordinated Nation-wide planning.

I believe that this general plan and report will be a useful guide to correlate planning by agencies on all levels of government cooperating in this Nation-wide program.

HAROLD L. ICKES, Secretary of the Interior.