アメリカの国有林におけるレクリエーションの発展

Abstract

今日, アメリカの国有林の主たる活動としてレクリエーションがあげられ, 森林局には200人を越える造園家がレクリエーション計画・設計に従事している。国有林設置以前から地元民は自然発生的にレクリエーション空間として利用してきたが, 森林局によるレクリエーション利用の認識は1900年代に始まり, 本格的に対応し始めたのは第一次大戦後である。木材生産や水源涵養, 放牧などの経済的利用が中心と考えられていた国有林でレクリエーションが認知される過程において, 森林局内部と外部の二重の葛藤を引き起こした。その様子は森林局唯一の造園家であったカーハートの著述からも明白である。とりわけ, 国立公園局との対立は熾烈で, 森林局は公園局との関係でレクリエーション行政を発展させる必要に迫られた。すなわち, 外圧によって対応した割合が高いが, それによって施設中心の国立公園とは異なるレクリエーション形態を生みだす原動力となった点で重要である。

The recreational use is recognized as one of the major uses of the national forests in the United States. More than two hundred landscape architects are engaged in the recreation planning and design process. The recreational use of national forests occurred before their official establishment, but gradually it became recognized by the Forest Service before the First World War. In 1919 the first landscape architect named Arthur H. Carhart was employed as a recreation engineer. He struggled to persuade both the Forest Service and the National Park Service in addition to the general public in order to obtain the support to the recreation in the national forests. He not only made comprehensive recreation plans but published many articles on the recreation. Though he resigned the Forest Service disappointed, his effort beard big fruit later. Magazine articles of that period reveals the situation of the recreation as well as the perception. The forest service officially supported the recreation especially after the establishment of the National Park Service. However, some foresters were negative to the recreation, thinking the priority should be placed under the commodity uses. Thus, Carhart and supporters of recreation had a hard time, but this struggle contributed to the creation of new recreational uses, which are less developed in terms of facilities than those supplied by the National Park Service. Carhart broadened the field of landscape architecture by adding the new concept named wilderness. It can be said that the hard situation both the forest service and Carhart had encountered cultivated the progress of the forest recreation in the national forests.