U.S. Recreation Report Printed Despite Delay of Official Version

A presidential panel’s report on outdoor recreation is out in paperback, although the official version is still under wraps at the Interior Department.

Island Press, a nonprofit publisher, said it decided to print the report of the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors “as a public service and contribution to the ongoing debate about recreation in America.”

The commission, headed by Lamar Alexander, former Republican governor of Tennessee, completed its work early this year, but the Justice Department counseled Interior officials not to publish the 300-page report pending settlement of a lawsuit charging that the panel violated administrative procedures.

Copies Supplied

The embargo has been less than airtight. Several copies were already in circulation before the lawsuit was filed, and Interior is supplying photocopies under the Freedom of Information Act.

The commission’s major recommendations were outlined last January in a lavishly illustrated brochure that called for a national system of scenic byways and “greenways” connecting recreational areas. The panel also recommended a $1-billion federal trust fund for recreational programs and land acquisition.

The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise filed suit in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeking to block distribution of the report on behalf of opponents who contend that the commission violated open-meeting laws and did not adequately solicit their views.

‘Floated In One Day’

Charles C. Savitt, president of Island Press, said his organization already had plans to publish the report and decided not to wait out the lawsuit when a copy of the manuscript “floated in one day.”

Interior spokesman Alan Levitt said the report was “really only held up for two days” by the Justice Department’s action, but a government version of the report is still at least six weeks away.

Levitt said the federal paperback will be about 250 pages long and sell for “around $10.” The Island Press version, with a suggested retail price of $24.95, is 420 pages and includes additional material from commission hearings.