Summary: The public's access to more than 50 million acres, or 14 percent, of the land managed by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considered inadequate by agency managers. Private landowners' unwillingness to grant public access to their land has increased during the past decade as the public's use of public land has increased. Factors contributing to inadequate access are private landowners' concerns about vandalism and potential liability or their desire for privacy and exclusive personal use. To resolve the public access problem, the Forest Service and BLM can acquire either all rights and interests associated with the land (fee simple acquisition) or perpetual easements (limited controls over the land that are binding on succeeding owners). In fiscal years 1989-91, the Forest Service and BLM acquired permanent, legal public access to about 4.5 million acres of federal land. As of October 1991, the two agencies had about 3,300 actions pending to open another 9.3 million acres of federal land to the public.