The purpose of this study is to ascertain the local residents` attitudes toward adjacent recreation forest development sites. 20 items of residents` attitudes were designed from previous tourism impact studies. For this study, two recreation forest areas were selected. In 1995, a total of two-hundred and four local residents were interviewed in their villages near the two recreation forests. A 5-point Scale was used to record the answers. Most respondents were concerned about two negative impacts of the recreation forests development : small economic gains for the residents and damage to the local environment. There were significant differences in certain socioeconamic characteristics of the respondents. Specially, significant differences were identified between the variables of income or non-income from visitors and residence length. Results indicate that recreation forests development may not be perceived as positive as hoped by the government. Further research needs to be conducted on the impacts of present and projected recreation forest development at the local level.