Methods for assessing the impact of fire on forest recreation were studied in a literature search and an experiment. Contingent market valuation appeared the most promising. This direct, economic approach uses personal interviews and sets up a hypothetical market transaction in which values are estimated. In an illustrative application of this method, respondents were shown sequences of photographs of recreation sites depicting scenes before and after a fire. They were a asked about their preferences among the scenes depicted and about their willingness-to-pay an entrance fee to the preferred sites. The example results suggest that less intense fires may have beneficial economic impacts on recreation values, whereas intense fires may have adverse effects. The valuation of the impact of fire among recreationists is not always negative or unanimous and preferences may change over time.