Introduction

The United States has national and state park systems extending over 85 million acres. The original intention of this form of national land reservation was to prevent large areas from being broken down into piecemeal private estates during the great ‘land grab’ of the nineteenth century. Since preservation, however, the areas have become popular with recreational visitors. By 1970, the National Parks were receiving 172 million visitors each year. During the 1980s visitors increased to between 300 and 350 million annually. The more widely distributed and more readily accessible state parks have recorded as many as 660 million visits annually over their relatively smaller total area of 10 million acres (Paterson, 1989). Whelan (1991) reported that in Minnesota, visits to the state's 64 parks increased from 6 million to 10 million in just three years.

Increases in personal mobility, leisure time and disposable income seem set to increase the popularity of natural areas for recreation and amenity. To many people, one of the most appealing characteristics of outdoor recreation is the feeling of solitude and calm felt in an area of scenic beauty. Ironically, the ‘honeypot’ effect of National Parks often ensures that such solitude is rarely found.