This text focuses on the need for public park and recreation agencies to optimize the beneficial outcomes of recreational opportunities they provide and on how such optimization can be achieved. It isdesigned to be of interest to a very wide audience. Included are people who consider themselves to be leisure professionals as well as interested others such as lay persons, interested individuals in the political arenas or persons in the diverse media.However, the primary hoped for readers fall into three leisure scientists, academics, and students; leisure professionals who work for municipal park and recreation agencies; and their counterparts who work for agencies that manage public wild lands on whichoutdoor recreation opportunities are provided.