The growing demand for recreation at the wildland-urban interface throughout the United States poses new challenges for natural resource managers. To enable resource managers and researchers to exchange information and ideas, the first Symposium on Social Aspects and Recreation Research was held. The format of the symposium offered various opportunities for interactive communication among attendees. The proceedings contain a keynote address, abbreviated versions of 27 oral presentations, and summaries of sessions covering poster presentations, simulated field trips, and round table discussions. Issues addressed include these: access, land stewardship and ethics, cultural diversity of recreationists, service delivery strategies, agency-visitor interaction, conflict, partnerships, and data collection techniques.

Soil and cambium temperatures must be known to ascertain certain effects of prescribed fires on trees. Thermocouple-based systems were devised for measuring soil and cambium temperatures during prescribed fires. The systems, which incorporate both commercially available and custom components, perform three basic functions: data collection, data retrieval, and data translation. Although the systems and procedures for using them were designed for research purposes, they could be adapted for monitoring operational prescribed fires.