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73D CONGRESS! CTPAIATT? /DOCUMENT

1st Session f SENATE | No> 12

A NATIONAL PLAN
FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

LETTER

FROM

THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE

TRANSMITTING IN RESPONSE TO

S. Res. 175

(SEVENTY- SECOND CONGRESS)

THE REPORT OF THE FOREST SERVICE OF THE

AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT ON THE

FOREST PROBLEM OF THE

UNITED STATES

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME I

Index in back of Volume II

MARCH 13 (calendar day, MARCH 30), 1933.— Referred to
the Committee on Printing

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
168342 WASHINGTON : 1933

SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 57

Submitted by MR. COPELAND

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

March 13 (calendar day, April 4), 1933.

Resolved, That the report of the Department of Agriculture entitled
"A National Plan for American Forestry," transmitted to the Senate
on March 30, 1933, in response to Senate ^Resolution 175, Seventy-
second Congress, be printed, with illustrations, as a Senate document.
Attest :

EDWIN A. HALSEY,

Secretary.
n

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C.
Price $1.75 per set of 2 volumes.

CONTENTS OF VOLUMES I AND II

Letters of transmittal: Page

From the Secretary of Agriculture v

From the Forester x

Major problems and the next big step in American forestry (a summary of
the report on S.Res. 175)

Introduction 81

Is forestry justified? 85

The forest land resource 119

Forest land the basic resource 121

The agricultural land available for forestry 151

Timber resources and requirements 171

Present and potential timber resources 173

Our national timber requirements 245

Trends in world wood consumption 279

Watershed and other services and products of the forests 298

Watershed and related forest influences 299

The forest for recreation 463

Wild life a forest resource 489

Forest ranges 527

Minor by-products of the forest 555

Progress in forestry and existing plans 563

The national forests 565

The Indian forests 607

The national parks and national monuments 633

Public domain and other Federal forest land 637

Research in the United States Forest Service, a study in objectives. _ 651

The progress of forest pathology 695

The progress in forest entomology 723

State accomplishments and plans 733

Community forests 843

Current forest devastation and deterioration 851

The breakdown of private forest land ownership 869

Status and opportunities of private forestry 891

Privately supported and quasi-public forest research 985

Public regulation of private forests 993

Federal and State aid 1051

Federal financial and other direct aid to the States 1053

The national forests as a form of Federal aid to the States 1095

Federal aid in organizing forest credit facilities 1125

Other Federal forest activities as forms of State aid 11 35

Public acquisition of private lands as an aid to private forestry 1147

State aid to private owners and local political units 11 77

Factors affecting Federal and State aid 1203

National programs required and the responsibility for them 1229

The area which can and should be used for forestry 1231

Future adjustments in land use and ownership

The probable future distribution of forest land ownership

Ownership responsibilities, costs, and returns

A program for direct Federal and State aid

A possible program for public regulation 1343

Enlarging the consumption of forest products

Protection against fire 1395

Protection against forest insects

Protection against forest diseases •

How to stop forest devastation 1429

in

IV CONTENTS

National programs required, etc. — Continued Page

A program for intensive forest management 1455

Reforestation of barren and unproductive land 1485

A watershed protection program 1509

A forest range program 1 537

A program for forest recreation 1543

A forest wild life program 1547

A program for forest research 1555

Forest extension, an appraisal and a program 1575

The programs summarized as to costs, financing, and needed legis-
lation 1587

Appendix 1 639

Alaska 1641

Puerto Rico H 1646

Index.. 1653

LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

Washington, March 27, 1983.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a report on the forest
problem of the United States prepared by the Forest Service of this
Department, pursuant to Senate Resolution 175 (72d Cong., 1st
sess.), introduced by Senator Royal S. Copeland.

The Department construes the central purpose of the resolution
to be a coordinated plan which will insure all of the economic and
social benefits which can and should be derived from productive
forests by fully utilizing the forest land, and by making all of its
timber and other products and its watershed, recreational, and other
services available in quantities adequate to meet national require-
ments.

The main findings of the inquiry made in compliance with the
resolution are:

1. That practically all of the major problems of American for-
estry center in, or have grown out of, private ownership.

2. That one of the major problems of public ownership is that of
unmanaged public lands.

3. That there has been a serious lack of balance in constructive
efforts to solve the forest problem as between private and public
ownership and between the relatively poor and the relatively good
land.

4. That the forest problem ranks as one of our major national
problems.

The main recommendations, as the only assured means of anything
approaching a satisfactory solution of the forest problem, are for:

1. A large extension of public ownership of forest lands, and

2. More intensive management on all publicly owned lands.

The extent to which the major problems of American forestry
center in, or have grown out of, private ownership are indicated by
the following:

Ninety percent of the total area of devastated and poorly stocked
forest land and 95 percent of the current devastation is on privately
owned lands. •

Forest deterioration, which is far more extensive and hence more
serious than devastation, results from cutting without regard for the
future productivity of the forest, or from forest fires, or from the two
combined. More than 99 percent of such cutting and 98 percent of
the area burned annually is on private lands.

The public policy of passing excessive areas of forest land to private
ownership and the private cut-put-and-get-out policy has wrecked
or seriously reduced the productivity of the land, made it difficult or
impossible to pay taxes, and hence has led to tax reversion so large in

VI LETTERS OF TRAKSMITTAL

several forest regions as to constitute virtually a breakdown of
private ownership. Stability of tenure is one of the essentials for
timber growing.

The overload of forest land and timber in private ownership and
the cut-out-and-get-out policy have led to excessively large capital
investments in manufacturing plants, high capital charges, pressure
to liquidate, overproduction, demoralized prices, waste of the raw
product, and large financial losses to the forest industries and chiefly
to the lumber industry.

Transient forest industries resulting from the conditions described
have caused far-reaching and utterly demoralizing economic and
social losses to dependent industries, to local communities, and to
entire forest regions. The full extent and far-reaching character of
such losses has been but little appreciated.

The problem of balancing the national timber budget centers
largely in private ownership because four fifths of the timber-growing
land with 90 percent or more of the possible growing capacity is pri-
vately owned. The practically universal tendency under private
ownership is to reduce the forest capital or growing stock below the
point where satisfactory growth is possible. The forest capital of
the entire East, for example, where 96 percent of the forest land is
still in private ownership, must be increased 2}£ times to permit
growth adequate to meet national requirements, but the current
drain from cutting and losses in the East exceeds growth by nearly
29 billion board feet annually. Furthermore, we must depend upon
eastern forest lands for nearly 85 percent of pur forest growth.

The most critical factor in balancing the timber budget is the large
saw-timber sizes, which take the longest time to grow and which
now constitute 70 percent of the drain on our forests. Drain in these
sizes exceeds growth by five times. This deficit has been concealed
by the remaining supplies of virgin timber. But 80 percent of the
remaining saw timber and 95 percent of the old growth is in the far
West, and probably not much more than half is accessible and avail-
able under present conditions. The privately owned forest capital in
the West is being liquidated as rapidly as possible, and if present
processes continue, the same kind of a deficit will be created as in
the East and the possibilities of full growth will be reduced for many
years.

Private ownership of forest or of agricultural land is responsible
for practically all of the critical watershed problems of the East and
a substantial part of those of the West. The result is unnecessarily
destructive floods, causing damages running into scores of millions of
dollars and the wasting away in a few years of the soil resource which
will require centuries to replace.

The largest and most critical western forest range problem is on
privately owned lands where the forage cover has been reduced by
half or more over large areas. The eastern problem is almost entirely
one of private ownership.

The forest land problem is aggravated by still another growing out
of private ownership. More than 50 million acres of agricultural
land, originally timbered, have been abandoned because they were
never suited for agriculture or because they have reached the sub-
marginal class from erosion or other causes. The land is now idle
and available for forestry. The area may become still larger in the
future.

LETTEKS OF TRANSMITTAL, VH

From these abandoned agricultural lands have arisen many of the
most acute erosion and watershed problems in the East, as well as
economic and social maladjustments of first magnitude and similar in
character to those resulting from forest devastation and transient
forest industries.

The unsolved problem of unmanaged forest lands in public owner-
ship has both Federal and State aspects. The Federal problem lies
in the unreserved, unmanaged, overgrazed, and too largely unpro-
tected remnant of the public domain, about 23 million acres of which
are forested. The State problem includes the forested portion of
Federal grants which have never been given a legal status as State
forests and placed under management and the much larger area in
various stages of reversion to public ownership because of tax de-
linquency. Both classes are in a twilight zone. Tax delinquency is
creating a new public domain not of forested land but largely, instead,
of devastated forest land, and of such size that it promises to be a
heavy burden. Few States have legislation that provides for a solu-
tion, and still fewer take advantage of the legislation they have.

The unbalanced character of the constructive efforts to solve the
forest problem as between private and public ownership and as
between relatively poor and relatively good land for timber growing
is shown by the fact that nearly 90 percent of the constructive effort
as measured by recent expenditures has been made by the Federal
and other public agencies, and two thirds of this effort has been con-
centrated on publicly owned lands.

Private ownership has contributed only about 10 percent, and about
half of this has gone into research, much of which is aimed at uni-
formity of product. Only about 5 percent of the total constructive
effort has therefore been made by the owners on 80 percent of the
forest land available for timber growing, which has 90 percent or
more of the potential growth capacity.

From the timber growing standpoint and disregarding ownership,
the concentration of some 60 percent of current expenditures, which
totaled nearly $43,500,000 in 1932 on 10 percent or even less of the
possible timber production and of around 5 percent of expenditures
on 90 percent or more of the possible timber production, is exceed-
ingly poor national economy, regardless of the fact that the present
effort on public lands should be strengthened.

The relation of constructive effort to other forest products than
timber is similar.

The inquiry makes it more clear than ever before that the solution
of our forest problem is one of our major national problems. This is
indicated in part by the brief references to findings already made.

But, in addition, the solution is the only means for utilizing our
forest and abandoned agricultural land, which constitutes more than
one third of the total land area of the continental United States.
The only other possible use is for agriculture and the area needed for
agriculture has been decreasing.

The solution is the only, or the best, means for supplying wood
and other renewable resources. Wood is one of the natural resources
on which our civilization has been built.

Under many conditions the forest probably offers the best and
cheapest method available for erosion control and stream-flow regu-
lation. One half, or 308 million acres, of the total area of forest is
classified as having a major influence on watershed protection and

VIII LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL

three fourths as having a major or moderate influence. The forest
may also be the cheapest and best and in some instances the onlv
means for rebuilding impoverished soils on millions of acres against
possible future needs for agriculture.

Already one of the great opportunities for recreation, the forest can,
by taking advantage of improving transportation facilities, be made
to aid materially in solving the problem of how to use the increasing
leisure time of all classes of people. Forest land is the natural and
often the only remaining habitat of many forms of wild life, and the
same is true of forest waters for fish. Forest ranges can support
millions of domestic livestock for at least a part of the year.

The solution is the only means to stable permanent forest industries,
with a predepression value including forests of $10,000,000,000 and
gross products prior to 1929 of nearly $2,000,000,000. this is also
true of industries using other forest resources than timber and of a
large group of other industries dependent on both.

The solution will provide an important source of employment for
labor at a time when the development of labor-saving machinery
makes employment a critical national problem. Our forest land in
productive condition and the dependent primary forest industries
alone would furnish employment for 2 million men.

The solution offers an important aid in public finance by increasing
the amount of taxable property. A $100,000,000 investment in pulp
and paper plants in Wisconsin could be permanently supplied by
2 million acres of productive forest.

It offers one important means for maintaining a balanced rural
economic and social structure in the parts of the country which will
grow timber, by utilizing all of the land productively for the purposes
for which it is best suited, maintaining industries in perpetuity, and
holding a reasonable part of the population in the country in a
healthy, diversified rural life.

Such considerations as these make the forest problem one of the
largest which the American people have ever faced, and one of the
most urgent now demanding attention.

A satisfactory solution of the forest problem will require the
nearest possible approach to national planning. The laissez-faire
and avowedly planless policy of private ownership is failing to meet
the sitution. The long-time character of forestry itself, the magni-
tude and cost of the undertaking, and the impossibility of doing
immediately everything which must be done emphasizes the desira-
bility of national planning.

Programs for the various activities which make up forestry, such
as protection against fire, insects, and disease; extensive and intensive
forest practice; provision for watershed protection, recreation, forest
wild life, and for the management and utilization of forest ranges
have been worked out in as much detail as present information permits
and incorporated in the national plan which forms an important part
of the report on the Senate resolution. The Department endorses
the recommendations for these programs.

The most important recommendations growing out of the inquiry,
for a large increase in public ownership and for the intensification of
management of publicly owned lands, are based largely on three
considerations :

1. The extent to which the major problems of today center ^ in
private ownership, and the extent to which private effort on which

LETTEKS OF TRANSMITTAL IX

we have been placing main dependence is failing to meet national
needs, both despite a free hand and substantial if not adequate public
aid. Public aid to private owners has in fact been more than twice
the expenditures of private owners on their own lands.

2. The lack of any reasonable assurance based on experience that
private ownership on the large proportion of the forest lands it now
holds can or will carry through the essential, constructive programs,
many of which must be of great size. These include placing ^an addi-
tional area of 191 million acres under fire protection and raising the
standards on much of the 321 million acres now under protection,
planting at least 25 million acres during the next 20 years, raising
the area under intensive forest management during the next few
decades to at least 70 million and preferably to 100 million acres,
and the area under extensive management to at least 279 million and
preferably to 339 million.

3. The belief that a ^ greatly enlarged public ownership offers the
most effective solution in the public interest and that in the long run
it will be much more than self-liquidating in direct and indirect
returns.

The Department therefore fully endorses the conclusions reached,
that public agencies should acquire 224 million acres of forest land,
including a part of the abandoned agricultural land now available, and
place it under forest management at the earliest possible date follow-
ing acquisition. A considerable part of this land has or will come
into public ownership anyway^ by reason of tax delinquency. The
States and their local subdivisions should take over as much of this
acquisition program as their resources permit. The Federal Govern-
ment should assume only that part which the States cannot carry.
It is believed that the resources of the States will be fully taxed to
acquire and manage 90 million acres, leaving 134 million for the
Federal Government.

Although at first opposed, the national forest enterprise now has prac-
tically universal public approbation. I am convinced that the public
program recommended will command equal approval in the future,
and that the extension of the national and State forests recom-
mended is as important and as necessary as the creation of the
existing national and State forests. The Federal share of the pro-
posed program, including both acquisition and the management of
acquired and existing national forests, has, therefore, the unqualified
endorsement of the Department.

So far as I can see, nothing can be gained and much will be lost
by delay. The contribution to our national land problem will be
very large, and it is a contribution which is more and more urgently
needed. There should be the opportunity for the large employment
of labor in constructive public works. The longer that forest devas-
tation and deterioration continue the higher will be the cost of forest
restoration. A high percentage of the initial costs are in the nature
of capital investments, for which low-interest long-term loans would
be justified. I strongly recommend, therefore, the earliest possible
action on the Federal part of the plan.

The plan recommended goes as far as possible hi coordinating the
effort of all interested agencies. In the acquisition of land it is be-
lieved that the soundest principle will be for each public agency to
finance its own purchases and to acquire only what it can subse-
quently afford to manage. The part of the undertaking left to the

X LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL

private owner is believed to be within practical possibilities. A sub-
stantial increase in public aid is provided, in which the Federal
Government and the States should join forces. Aid to private owners
should not, however, go beyond the public interest. The States and
their local subdivisions are encouraged to take on as much of the
remainder of the undertaking as they can and will. This will leave
for the Federal Government only what neither private owners nor
the States can carry, and beyond that what is clearly within the
national interest. The resolution stresses aid to the States. A
detailed examination of the program proposed will show that the
very liberal Federal contribution to the whole plan in the form of
aid to private owners and otherwise constitutes in the last analysis
aid to the States which would otherwise have to carry the entire
burden.

Respectfully,

H. A. WALLACE,

Secretary.

R. G. TUGWELL,

Assistant Secretary.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

FOREST SERVICE,
Washington, March 24, 1933.
The SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.

DEAR MR. SECRETARY: I am transmitting herewith a report on
Senate Resolution 175. In many respects it represents the most
comprehensive and exhaustive survey yet made of the forestry situ-
ation in the United States. It goes to the full limit of possibility
with the staff at our disposal and the data which could be collected
and utilized in the time available.

I have been in close touch with the work from the preparation of
the initial plans and have personally reviewed the entire discussion
which supports the conclusions reached. In my judgment the time
has come for another great forward step in American forestry, and
a major portion of the step should be the public assumption of a
much larger share of the enterprise. If the recommendations on
this phase of the problem can be carried out and carried out promptly,
it will mean the greatest advance since the creation of the existing
national forests, which has been the largest and most spectacular
development to date. It will be an advance of even greater magni-
tude. The need is also greater. This, however, is only one part of
a coordinated national plan of which I earnestly recommend your
approval for submission to the Senate.

A large number of Forest Service employees have participated in
the preparation of this report. Lasting credit is due to Earle H.
Clapp, Assistant Forester in charge of research, who made the initial
plans, and by personally directing the project throughout has made
possible this outstanding contribution to forestry. We have felt free
to draw upon the services of other bureaus in this and other Depart-
ments where the nature of the subject justified, and I desire to make
full acknowledgement of the help received.
Very sincerely yours,

R. Y. STUART, Forester.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

MAJOR PROBLEMS AND THE NEXT BIG STEP IN
AMERICAN FORESTRY1

A SUMMARY OF THE REPORT ON SENATE RESOLUTION 175

By EARLE H. CLAPP, In Charge Branch of Research

CONTENTS

Page

The progress of forestry in the United States 2

The Federal contribution 2

The State contribution

The private owner's contribution 7

The contributions of other agencies 8

Progress in sum 8

The major forest problems 11

The problem of privately owned forest lands 11

The problem of the agricultural land available for forestry 18

The problem of unmanaged public lands 21

The problem of balancing the national timber budget

The problem of watershed protection

The problem of forest recreation 29

The problem of forest wild life 30

The problem of forest ranges 32

The problem of knowledge 33

Why the solution of the major forest problems constitutes one of our
major national problems

The major objectives 40

To get forest land into productive use 40

To meet national requirements for forest products and services 40

To obtain the full economic and social benefits of the forest 41

To meet these objectives requires national planning 41

The required activity programs in a national plan

Adequate provision for timber production 43

Adequate watershed protection 51

Adequate provision for forest recreation

Adequate provision for forest wild life 54

Adequate provision for forest ranges 55

Adequate provision for forest research 55

The required agency programs in a national plan 57

The alternatives 57

Private ownership

Public aid to private owners 60

Public regulation 64

Public ownership 67

The cost of the national plan and how it could be financed 70

The cost of the public program

The cost of the private program

How the programs could be financed

The most important legislation required 74

By the States 74

By the Federal Government

The essence of the national plan 76

i This statement embodies the findings of all the sections of this report which follow. In a very real
sense it is an expression of the findings and the conclusions reached by a large group of men. Acknowledg-
ment is made to this entire group, which includes the authors of the sections and a much larger number of

Forest Service employees and those of other organizations who aided in the collection of the data and their
compilation and preparation for publication. Because references to sections would have to be exceedingly
numerous, none whatever are made.

1

2 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE PROGRESS OF FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES

The American people have reason to be proud of the progress of
forestry in the United States. In its modern phase this progress has
been made largely since 1900, although it began in 1876 with the
appointment of one man in the Federal Department of Agriculture.

THE FEDERAL CONTRIBUTION

To this progress the Federal Government, the States and their
political subdivisions, various quasi-public agencies, and private
owners, have contributed.

THE NATIONAL FORESTS

The national forest enterprise has been the most conspicuous single
effort in the development of American forestry.

The great significance of the national forest enterprise lies in the
fact that it has been a trial on a grand scale of Federal public adminis-
tration of a great natural resource in the public interest. This has
been a radical departure from the traditional American policy of
private ownership of natural resources and their exploitation for
private profit.

The national forests now exceed 161 million acres. The 140 million
in the continental United States contain nearly one sixth of our com-
mercial forest land or that suitable for timber growing, and 30 percent
of our noncommercial forest land or that chiefly valuable for such
other purposes as watershed protection and grazing. They contain
one third of the remaining saw timber.

Virtually all of the major streams west of the Great Plains head in
them. All of the lands purchased in the East are on the watersheds
of navigable streams.

They contain 83 million acres of range lands in the West, or 12
percent of the total western range area.

Substantial or large parts of practically all the major mountain
ranges in the United States fall within the national forests, which
constitute the great playgrounds and include much of the most beau-
tiful scenery of the country.

They constitute pur great public hunting grounds, 75 percent of
the range of the big game animals of the West, and much of the
western fur-bearing area. They include 60,000 miles of streams and
many thousands of lakes suitable for fish.

For all of these interrelated resources the soil is the basic resource.

Of hardly less significance in the national forest enterprise than the
trial of public administration of a natural resource has been the adop-
tion of far-reaching plans to insure both maximum use and perpetuity
and the use of each forest resource in relation to all.

All of the 74,680,000 acres of commercial forest is under timber
management, 21 million acres have detailed sustained yield manage-
ment plans, and 29 million acres more general plans. All of the 1,250
million board feet cut annually from 125,000 acres is under silvicul-
ture which will perpetuate the forest and maintain the forest capital.
About 25,000 acres are now being planted annually. The sustained
yield capacity of the forest is being steadily increased.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 3

Range management plans have been prepared or are in preparation
for the entire national forest area utilized for grazing ; fairly intensive
plans for 33 million acres. National forest ranges now support 8 mil-
lion head of cattle, horses, sheep, and other domestic livestock.

The full services which the forest and range cover can render in
watershed protection are gradually being assured by the management
of timber and forage and their protection against fire.

The national forests are now visited each year by more than 30
million people seeking recreation. Management plans provide for
the gradual development of camping grounds, for the leasing of sum-
mer home sites, and for other needed facilities. More than 50 areas
containing about 9 million acres have already been set aside to pre-
vent needless impairment of pioneer conditions.

Under protection wild life is being gradually increased, despite the
fact that 100,000 big game animals are being killed annually. As fast
as the possibility of management is reached plans are prepared and
put into effect.

Protection against fire is necessary in the management of all forest
resources. In spite of a rapid increase in human use, the size of the
area burned in the average year has been reduced from about 1,350,000
acres to about 500,000 acres between 1910-15 and 1920-25. The
ratio of actual to allowable burn has been brought to 1.07 to 1. On
all but 30 of the 95 million acres requiring protection a satisfactory
ratio has been reached. An important factor in this improvement has
been the development of detailed plans for fire protection.

In normal years business for the entire national forest area includes,
in part, more than 80,000 individual business transactions, some of
great size; the administration of all use; the control of some 8,100
forest fires; the planting of 25,000 acres; the planning and construc-
tion of nearly 4,000 miles of roads; of more than 8,500 miles of trail;
the purchase of 450,000 acres of forest land. Aggregate expenditures
in 1930 reached more than $11,500,000 for administration and pro-
tection and $6,000,000 for capital investments. Receipts were nearly
$7,000,000.

A competent staff has been developed, the stability of which is
assured by civil-service protection, a stability common to all Federal
agencies engaged in forest activities.

Opposition to such a radical departure as the national-forest enter-
prise was inevitable. Violent to begin with and still sporadically
recurrent, it is gradually decreasing. In general the national forest
concept of Federal administration in the public interest of a great
national resource under a policy of integrated sustained yield man-
agement has become an accepted fact in public opinion. Although
facing many unsolved problems of administration, resource manage-
ment, and protection, the national forests are an outstanding example
of land administration and of public administration of any sort.
Forty years' trial has built up the resource itself, despite continu-
ously enlarging use. The national forests have become a vital part
in the existence of local communities and even of whole States, the
source of being of many industries, and the opportunity for the
employment of labor. They are already showing something of the
magnitude of the economic and social services which the sustained
yield forest can render, but the full possibilities are far in the future.

4 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

NATIONAL PARKS

The Federal contribution to American forest land use has also
included the creation and administration of the national parks.
Their 4% million acres of forest enhance many of the finest and most
unique scenic areas in the United States.

Although their primary service is inspirational and the commercial
utilization of timber and forage is not permitted, much of the national
park forest affords valuable watershed protection.

Within their own specialized field of land use the national parks
have pioneered and have developed highly intensive plans and man-
agement and a personnel for this specialized work. The Yellowstone,
established in 1872, was the earliest venture of this kind.

THE INDIAN FORESTS

Paralleling the national forest concept of public administration of
forest land in the general public interest is the Federal administration
of the Indian forests for the Indian wards of the Government. Indian
reservations include about 1% million acres of commercial forest land.

Detailed sustained-yield-timber-management plans are in effect on
about 5 million acres, and all timber is being cut in compliance with
sound silvicultural principles. General range management plans have
been prepared for 12 and fairly intensive plans for 8)2 million acres,
and the administration of range use is being rapidly perfected. Fire-
protection standards are being raised, and the protection of water-
sheds is gradually improving.

FEDERAL AID

In addition to the administration of nationally owned and Indian
lands the Federal contribution to American forestry takes the form
of financial aid to the States and private owners of forest land.

The national interest in making forest land productive would in
itself justify such aid, but it is also an effort to stimulate both State
and private effort.

An annual contribution of about $1,575,000 for fire protection in
1932 is now helping to make possible the protection of nearly 230
million acres in 40 States and the reduction of the area burned to
less than 2 percent annually, in contrast with nearly 20 percent on
unprotected lands.

About $80,000 aids in the annual distribution of 25 million forest
tree seedlings at low cost in 38 States; about $70,000 in the assistance
of nearly 10,000 farmers in woodland management. Annual appro-
priations and the income from land -grant endowments totaling about
$3,500,000 aid in the support of colleges of agriculture in nearly 40
States, in 16 of which instruction in forestry leading to a degree is
given. Only a small part of an annual contribution of $4,320,000 to
State agricultural experiment stations is used for forest research, but
may help to release a larger sum of State appropriations for this
purpose.

Large Federal land grants to the States, although not so intended,
have been the foundation for Western State forests and in part those
of the Lake States.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 5

Indirectly the annual Federal-aid road contribution, which reached
nearly $135,000,000 in 1931, has had important but not measurable
value in improving transportation facilities for forest products, and
hence in creating more favorable conditions for timber growing.

The main results of Federal financial aid have been —

The stimulation of State effort. It has been an important factor
in the establishment of 12 State forestry departments, the initiation
of fire protection of private land in 17 States, the enlargement of the
protected area of State and private lands by nearly four times, the
initiation of nursery stock distribution in at least 12 States, of farm
wood-lot extension in 33 States and 2 territories. State expenditures
for aid have increased from possibly $500,000 in 1911 to nearly
$5,500,000 in 1932.

The stimulation of private effort. Private expenditures for organ-
ized fire protection have grown from about $55,000 to $1,000,000
between 1911 and 1932. Private owners probably supplement the
organized effort with the expenditure of an additional $300,000.
The expansion in other phases of private effort have probably not
been in the same proportion.

RESEARCH

Forest research in the Department of Agriculture is based upon
the Federal responsibility for work on national, interstate, or regional,
and international problems, and also local problems where the ad-
ministration of Federally owned or managed forests is involved. It
has important aid aspects.

A national plan designed to meet these Federal obligations has
resulted in the establishment and concentration of the work largely
at a series of regional forest experiment stations and a national
forest products laboratory.

Practically the entire field of forestry is being covered, including the
establishment, growing,- and management of forests ; their protection
against fire, insects, and diseases ; the management and utilization of
forest ranges ; erosion control and stream-flow regulation ; the utiliza-
tion of forest products; forest wild life; and forest economics. A
scientific basis for the practice of forestry and the economic basis for
national and regional forest land planning adapted to American
species, conditions, and requirements are gradually being developed.

Expenditures for 1932 total about $3,000,000.

THE STATE CONTRIBUTION
STATE ORGANIZATIONS

Forty-two States now have legal provision for work in forestry and
in all but five an organization has been set up. This marks progress
since the beginning by California, New York, Ohio, and Colorado
in 1885.

Great differences in regional conditions and problems, in the
aggressiveness of leaders and opponents, in public opinion and the
attitude of the press, have caused State activities to vary within wide
limits and except for Federal leadership the variation would have
been much greater.

6 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

STATE AID

All of the States except Arizona, Missouri, and South Dakota now
give some or all of their forest landowners more or less aid. Expendi-
tures for this purpose reached nearly $5,500,000 in 1932.

Aid, and more specifically in fire control, is in fact the chief job of
nearly all the State organizations. Expenditures for fire reach nearly
60 percent of the total for all aid. Those for fire, disease, and insect
control reach nearly 90 percent, but aid is also extended in planting,
research, and advice to forest landowners, mainly farmers.

More than 80 percent of the expenditures for aid are concentrated
in the New England^ Middle Atlantic, and Lake States.

The States maintain all but 3 of the 25 forest schools of collegiate
grade in the country on which they are expending about $925,000
annually. They are training more than 95 percent of the professional
foresters.

STATE FORESTS AND PARKS

The entire area of State forests, now nearly 4% million acres, is
under some degree of administration, mainly fire protection. About
1 million acres are under timber management plans. Nearly 5}£
million, including some State land not having formal legal status as
State forests, are managed with reference to future timber production.
About 75 percent of the total area of State forests is in Pennsylvania,
Minnesota, and Michigan.

State parks total nearly 2,700,000 acres, four fifths in New York
under a high degree of administration for recreational use.

State-owned lands not in either formally designated State forests
or parks aggregate nearly 6,150,000 acres, more than half in Wash-
ington, Minnesota, and Idaho. Most are under protection; in some
the cutting of timber is regulated. Since these lands have no clearly
defined legal status as either forests or parks, the area as a whole is in
a twilight zone.

Nearly 90 percent of the organized and formally designated State
forests and parks are in the Northern, Middle Atlantic, and Lake
States, and more than 85 percent of all State-owned forest land is in
the Atlantic and Lake States and the Pacific Northwest.

The holdings of the wealthy Middle Atlantic and New England
States have been acquired largely by purchase, those of the Lake
States through tax delinquency and Federal grants, and those of the
Northwest from Federal grants, under stimulus of the national forests.
Elsewhere State forests are practically nonexistant.

An additional 2% million acres is definitely in process of acquisition
for State forests, nine tenths in Minnesota and Wisconsin. A very
large but unknown area is reverting to State ownership through tax
delinquency. Michigan, New York within the forest-preserve
counties, Virginia, and South Carolina have made legal provision for
the consolidation of suitable delinquent lands into State forests. The
New York 20-year program for the acquisition of submarginal agri-
cultural lands and their reforestation is unique in its anticipation of
this problem.

In general the creation and administration of State forests and
parks have been given secondary consideration. They are more
difficult to handle than fire control, the principal State activity.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 7

Much greater emphasis and even a realignment of personnel will be
required if they are to occupy the place they can and should. One
State — New York — gives the head of its forestry work the protection
of civil-service standing by law, and six give this protection to officers
in lower positions.

State expenditures for all forest activities totaled about $9,000,000
in 1932.

PUBLIC REGULATION

State effort in public regulation has been mainly in legislation deal-
ing with the use of fire and its enforcement. Nearly all States have
such fire legislation, a few are enforcing it effectively, and many make
some attempt at enforcement.

OTHER PUBLIC FORESTS AND PARKS

Nearly 1,000 county, municipal, and town forests now aggregate
about 1 million acres.

County forests of slightly more than half the total area have sig-
nificance in Wisconsin chiefly, and in New York. Two fifths of the
Wisconsin forests, originating in tax delinquency, are under adminis-
tration.

Probably half the number and four fifths of the area of all municipal
and town forests protect municipal water supplies and are under inten-
sive protection and administration for this purpose. Many have
recreational significance.

In 29 of the 48 States tax-delinquent lands revert to the counties
or towns. The area of forest land already delinquent has reached
many millions of acres. §ome provision for consolidation and ad-
ministration as county forests or for transfer to the State or for admin-
istration by the State has been made by law in Wisconsin, Oregon,
and Minnesota.

Total expenditures by the political subdivisions of States hi the
field of forestry were about $1,650,000 in 1932.

THE PRIVATE OWNER'S CONTRIBUTION

Nearly 400 million acres, or practically 80 percent of the commercial
forest land in the United States, is in private ownership, and 127
million acres of this is in farm woodlands.

By far the largest conscious contribution of the private owner to
American timber production is in fire protection. Toward the cost
of organized protection on about 225 million acres, as already indi-
cated, the owners contributed approximately $1,000,000 in 1932, or
about one sixth of total expenditures. For the 2 preceding years the
contribution was between one fifth and one fourth. Nearly 20 million
acres more are protected by the owners themselves at a cost of about
$300,000.

Organized sustained-yield management for areas exceeding 1,000
acres is believed to be in effect on about 2.3 million acres; and meas-
ures other than fire protection to prolong productivity, on more than
15K million acres. The extension over the entire farm-woodland
area of fragmentary data from New England indicates active efforts
to promote tree growth on about 4 million acres. Private owners

168342°— 33— vol. 1 2

8 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

have planted about 1.2 million acres and are adding to this at the rate
of about 50,000 acres annually.

Great credit is due to the group of private owners who have
pioneered in forest management on their own lands.

Research expenditures by private owners reach about $2,500,000
annually. Pulp and paper manufacturers are responsible for four
fifths of the total and concentrate their efforts largely on manufactur-
ing technique to insure uniformity of product. It may be much more
than a coincidence that the wood products on which most research
is being done are also those on which the use is increasing rapidly.
Practically the entire expenditure for research deals with tne utiliza-
tion of forest products.

Total expenditures by private owners probably therefore total some-
what over $5,000,000, half of which is for research.

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF OTHER AGENCIES

Scientific organizations and forestry and conservation associations
have exerted an important influence as leaders in the development of
public-forest policies and the awakening of public sentiment.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science initiated
the movement which started forestry as an organized and permanent
activity in the United States Department of Agriculture in 1876.
This association was active also in obtaining the passage of the act
of 1891 which authorized the setting aside of the " forest reserves"
from the public domain.

A committee of the National Academy of Sciences formulated the
recommendation which was the basis for the act of 1897 providing
for the administration of the " forest reserves."

The American Forestry Association since its organization in 1875,
and the American Tree Association since 1922, have played a very
large part in arousing and organizing public sentiment in support
of Federal and State legislation. So also have numerous State
forestry associations, among which the Minnesota, Colorado, Penn-
sylvania, and Massachusetts associations and several in southern
California are or have been notable. Among other activities the
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests has for years
aggressively supported Federal acquisition of forest land. Regional
associations, including the Western Forestry and Conservation Asso-
ciation, the Southern, and more recently the Central States Forestry
Congresses have performed similar services.

Several endowed research institutions include forest research of a
fundamental character in their field of work and are now expending
about $230,000 annually.

The endowed forest schools, although limited in number, have
exercised a pronounced leadership in both education and the national
development of forestry.

PROGRESS IN SUM

Progress in American forestry to date has put approximately 110
million acres under conscious effort other than fire protection to pro-
long the productivity of the forest for timber growing. Perhaps 30
million acres of the total is under fairly intensive timber-manage-
ment plans and twice as much more under more general plans, the
outstanding feature of which is sustained yield.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 9

Approximately 10 million acres are cut over annually, and of this
perhaps one twentieth is consciously cut under more or less intensive
silvicultural principles. The total area planted is about 1,900,000
acres and is now being increased by 153,000 acres a year.

Out of a total area of 334 million acres of forest lands grazed some
kind of management plans are in effect or are under preparation for
about 85 million. For perhaps 40 million the plans are intensive.

About 8 million acres are under intensive management for recrea-
tional purposes, not including the areas mthin the national forests.

* Protection of forest wild life on the national forests and parks and
in several of the States, particularly in the Northeast, has permitted
game to increase materially in numbers during the last few years.
Management plans are a development of the last decade. Fish have
been introduced into forest waters in which they did not previously
occur. Material progress has been made in the artificial propagation
of fish and the development of fish-hatchery technique.

More or less intensively organized fire protection, at an annual cost
in 1932 of $14,475,000, has been put into effect on a total of 321
million acres, of which about 290 million is commercial forest land.

Forest insect control has been developed for bark beetles in the
West, and gypsy and brown-tail moths in the East. Annual expendi-
tures for control by all agencies on some 80 million acres is estimated
at $2,100,000.

Organized control of forest tree diseases is largely confined to the
white pine blister rust on an area of some 10 or 12 million acres.
This, with other small eradication jobs, is done at a cost of about
$1,000,000 annually.

Research by all agencies now covers practically the entire field of
forestry and called for an expenditure of about $6,315,000 in 1932.

The first college giving instruction leading to a professional degree
in forestry was established in 1898. There are now 24. The number
of trained professional foresters has reached a total of about 4,500
and is being increased by about 400 annually.

Total expenditures in 1932 by all agencies in the entire field of
forestry were about $43,475,000 (fig. 1). To this the Federal Gov-
ernment contributed about $26,965,000, the States and their subdivi-
sions $10,650,000, private owners $5,060,000, and quasi-public agencies
$800,000. The expenditure of public agencies were, therefore,
nearly 90 percent of the total.

Public regulation of private lands, centering mainly in the use of
fire, has been gradually building up in legislative provisions in many
States. Enforcement varies from States in which it is thoroughly
effective to those in which nothing is attempted. A part of the value
of the fire legislation has been in the reduction of public carelessness
with fire on public forests.

Public aid designed both to meet public obligations and interest
and to stimulate private ownership began as early as 1885 and has
developed much more rapidly under the stimulus of Federal legisla-
tion, particularly that of 1911 and 1924.

The greatest contribution of public aid to private effort has been
in putting under fire protection half of the privately owned forest
land needing it. In various forms it is partly responsible at least for
stimulating other measures to insure productivity on about 25 million
acres of private land, including the planting of 1.2 million acres.

10

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

Federal aid has been a factor of primary importance in initiating
or strengthening forestry organizations in practically all of the 42
States in which one now exists. Aid to private owners is the chief
activity of nearly all State organizations.

The most conspicuous contribution of private owners has been in
fire protection, to which they are devoting more than one fifth of their
current expenditures, approximately $5,050,000 for 1932. Consid-
erably less than half of the $2,500,000 expenditure for research is
designed to add to basic knowledge of forest products.

The most spectacular advance in American forestry has been the
building up of the national forests from the public domain, which
culminated in 1910 with a gross area of nearly 195 million acres.

Since that time the total area of public forests has changed but
little, despite the purchase of 4,727,680 acres and other enlargements

PUBLIC EXPENDITURES

QUASI-PUBLIC EXPENDITURES

PRIVATE EXPENDITURES

10

2O

MILLION DOLLARS

30

40

Federal
Quasi — Public

State and Other Public
Pri vat e

FIGUEE 1.— The most significant features in the American 1932 bill for forestry were its total of nearly
$43,500,000, and the public contribution of well toward 90 percent.

for the national forests and the gradual building up of State forests.
The total net area of all public forests, including interspersed non-
timbered lands, is now about 175 million acres.

The period subsequent to 1910 in public administration has largely
been devoted to a consolidation of gains. Practically the entire area
has been put under more or less intensive sustained-yield management
plans for timber, ranges, watershed protection, recreational and other
use, and protection against fire. Methods of administration have
been developed and perfected. While the need for improvement in
technical management and business administration will continue for
years to come, much of the most difficult pioneering period has been
passed. Public opinion has in general been won over from violent
opposition to aggressive support.

If the public need warrants such action, American forestry is now
ready for another great advance.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE MAJOR FOREST PROBLEMS

11

Despite some reason for gratification in past accomplishments,
the American people have no reason to be proud of what still remains
to be done to put forestry on a satisfactory footing in the United States.

What is still needed falls logically into a group of major forest
problems. Some of these problems have to do with the productive
use of land as influenced by ownership and management. Others
center hi timber, watershed influences, and the other chief products
and services of the land. Another deals with the knowledge which
must be available for the solution of the problems.

NONCOMMERCIAL LAND

COMMERCIAL LAND

100

ZOO 300

MILLION ACRES

400

FIGURE 2. — Ownership of four fifths of the commercial or timber-growing land has given the private owner
the opportunity to dominate American forestry for better or worse, an opportunity made even more
favorable by the quality of the land. "All forest land" includes some reserved areas.

THE PROBLEM OF PRIVATELY OWNED FOREST LANDS

As already indicated, nearly 400 million acres of commercial forest
land is in private ownership, 270 in industrial holdings and 127
millions in farm woodlands.

IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TYPE OP OWNERSHIP

Private ownership is by far the most important class because of its
great area and also because it includes the great bulk (fig. 2) of the
most highly productive, the most accessible, and most easily logged
forest land in the country. Still further, nearly 60 percent of the
most accessible remaining saw timber is on private lands. More than
half of the remaining saw timber is industrially owned.

12

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

IT IS LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR FOREST DEVASTATION AND
DETERIORATION

Of the 83 million acres of devastated or poorly stocked forest land,
74 million, or nine tenths (see fig. 3) is privately owned, and an appre-
ciable part of the remainder reached this condition before coming into
public ownership or as a direct result of private operations and owner-
ship.

PUBLIC LAND

PRIVATE LAND

25 5O

MILLION ACRES

75

FIGURE 3. — The large proportion of the area of devastated or poorly-stocked forest land in the lower bar
does not tell the full tale of responsibility, since private ownership must also answer for a part of the
10 percent now publicly held.

Of the 850,000 acres devastated each year about 95 percent are in
private ownership, as shown in figure 4.

At least 36 million acres of forest are being deteriorated annually,

grimarily as a result of poor silvicultural practice and unsatisfactory
re protection.

PUBLIC LAND

PRIVATE LAND

200

400
THOUSAND ACRES

600

800

FIGURE 4.— The area of forest land devastated annually. While the current annual rate may be offset
in part or altogether by the return of other lands to productivity, the long delay is a heavy drag on
the forestry enterprise for which private ownership is chiefly responsible.

The extent to which private ownership is responsible is shown by
the fact that more than 98 percent of the 10 million acres cut over
each year is privately owned, that fully 95 percent of the private
cutting is probably made without any conscious regard to the future
productivity of the forest, and that nearly all of the cutting on publicly
owned forests is designed to perpetuate the forest. Figure 5 shows
these relationships.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

13

It is shown further by the fact that nearly all of the 191 million acres
of forest land needing but not given protection is in private ownership

LAND CUT OVER ANNUALLY

WITHOUT REGARD FOR FUTURE

,PRIVATE LAND CUT OVER WITH

REGARD FOR FUTURE YIELDS

(365,000 ACRES)

PUBLIC LAND C^JT OVER WITH
CARE FOR FUTURE YIELDS

(135,000 ACRES)

FIGURE 5.— The annual cut, public and private. The large area of private land cut over each year with-
out conscious efiort to promote forest growth accounts in part for the 808,000 acres of priyate land devas-
tated annually and the much larger area deteriorated. Practically all public land is cut with the
perpetuation of the forest in view.

PUBLIC FOREST LAND

PRIVATE FOREST LAND

25

50
PER CENT

75

100

Areas Protected

Areas not Protected

FIGURE 6.— Absence of protection on nearly half of the private lands needing it is one of the main factors
in the excessive contribution of private ownership to forest devastation and deterioration.

(fig. 6) and that at least 41 million acres, or about 98 percent of the
area burned annually during the last few years, is privately owned
(fig. 7).

14

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It is still further shown by the depletion of the forest capital or
growing stock of the forests of the entire East, 96 percent of which
are still in private ownership and practically all of which reached their
present condition in private hands. Forest capital is as necessary to
high production of desirable products in timber growing as financial
capital is to the development of industry. In order to raise growth
to the level of current requirements the growing stock must first be
increased nearly 2^ times.

IT IS THE MOST UNSTABLE FORM OF FOREST-LAND OWNERSHIP

Because of the long time required to grow forest crops and the ne-
cessity for long-time planning and continuity of policy, stable land
ownership is a sine qua non to the practice of forestry.

The instability of private ownership is evidenced by the fact that
about 25 million acres of forest land, largely industrial, is now tax
delinquent in three regions alone, the Lake, Southern, and Pacific

PUBLIC FOREST LAND

PRIVATE FQREST LAND

10

20
MILLION ACRES

30

40

FIGURE 7.— Area of forest land burned annually. Protection of only 64 percent of the area needing it
helps to explain the responsibility of private ownership for 98 percent of the area of forest land burned
over annually in the United States.

Coast States, that the area for the entire country is much larger, and
that the actual total is largely masked by the form of State laws and
the character of their administration.

Delinquency long existant has been greatly accentuated by the
depression and promises to become larger. More than one third of
the forest land in the Lake States is already virtually abandoned, and
half promises to be in involuntary public ownership in 10 years.

The instability of private ownership is also evidenced by donations
of land to public agencies or offers of donations in large blocks and
by offers of exchange and of sale at bargain prices.

A new public domain of great magnitude is being created, before
the problem of the existing public domain has been solved. It is no
exaggeration to say that there is virtually a break-down of private
forest-land ownership.

The cause lies in the public policy of passing excessive areas to
private ownership, in the cut-out-and-get-out policy which has
wrecked the productivity of the land, and in the resulting inability
of owners to pay taxes on nonproductive lands.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 15

IT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SERIOUS ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES IN THE
FOREST INDUSTRIES

The economic difficulties of the forest industries have not been
studied in connection with Senate Resolution 175. The time has not
been available, and the Timber Conservation Board was created
primarily to cover this ground. No survey of the forest situation in
the United States can, however, be complete without reference to
them. The difficulties of the lumber industry, which is by far the
largest of the forest industries, are undoubtedly the most critical.

The following brief and incomplete resume is based in part on state-
ments made by representatives of the industry to the Timber Con-
servation Board and so far made public. All of the statements indicate
that the overload of forest land and timber is the basic cause.

The most critical example is probably in the west coast industry,
where the investment in nearly 350 billion feet of standing timber is
placed at slightly more than $500,000,000. Excessive land and timber
holdings in the west coast industry are in part responsible for excessive
capital in vestments in logging improvements and equipment, manu-
facturing plants, and possibly also working capital, which together
add about $335,000,000 to the investment for land and timber.

The resulting fixed and largely inescapable capital charges on the
largest annual cut of west coast timber so far made, including interest
on indebtedness, taxes, fire protection, and insurance, total $2.983 per
M board feet.

Excess manufacturing capacity is shown by West Coast Lumber
Association surveys. The installed normal operating capacity was
slightly in excess of 14 billion board feet annually. In 1928, 72 percent
of this capacity was utilized; in 1929, 73 percent; and in 1930, 54 per-
cent. Plant capacity for the entire country is undoubtedly far more
in excess of needs than that shown for the west coast industry.

Overproduction, also cited as one of the most serious problems of
the lumber industry, grows in part out of an overload of stumpage
and forest land, the consequent financial pressure to liquidate, the
development of excessive plant capacity, and the burden of high and
largely fixed and inescapable capital costs. Manufacturers have
accordingly believed that they would lose less money by running
than by shutting down. Uneconomic manufacture, overproduction,
and demoralized prices have been the inevitable outcome.

The overload of forest land and timber is also responsible in part
for wasteful utilization. A Forest Service survey in the Douglas fir
region indicates waste of over 6 miUion cords of sound wood resulting
from logging operations annually. It includes 1.7 billion board feet
of material suitable for conversion into lumber, or nearly one sixth
of the 1926 cut.

The cause of such waste is overproduction, which leads to "skim-
ming the cream" of raw material. And overproduction goes back in
large part to an overload of forest land and stumpage. West coast
overproduction and the resulting low lumber prices have, for the tune
being, handicapped the efforts of owners who have desired to grow
timber on their own lands in all of the important forest regions of
the East which can be reached by water shipments of lumber at low
freight rates.

16 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The underlying cause of the difficulties of the forest industries and
particularly the lumber industry, which may be most acute on the
west coast, is only in part the overload of forest land and timber.
The cut-out-and-get-out policy which has been followed almost uni-
versally is also a primary cause.

Sustained yield management would in many cases have required
smaller plant capacity, lower investments, and hence carrying charges
and capital costs. It would have resulted in lower operating costs
from leaving unprofitable timber in the forest to grow, and higher
returns from a larger percentage of high-grade material. It might
also have resulted in curtailed production. The residual value of a
growing forest would have been high as compared with bare land.
In brief, devastation has resulted in losses which might have been
profits under sustained yield management.

The entire difficulty is merely another phase of the larger problem
of private ownership.

IT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SERIOUS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LOSSES TO THE

PUBLIC

The economic and social losses to the public extend far beyond the
forest industries themselves.

Dependent industries soon succumb after the departure of the
forest industries, the tax base is reduced, and local rates must be
higher on the remaining property. Tax receipts of local political
units fall and many become bankrupt. Outside contributions for local
governmental activities become necessary. The standards of com-
munity life in schools, churches, roads, etc., are lowered. The popu-
lation necessarily becomes shifting and labor transient. All possibility
of a balanced economic and social structure to which productive
forest land and permanent forest industries should contribute is lost
for many years.

IT HAS FALLEN FAR BEHIND PUBLIC OWNERSHIP IN MANAGEMENT AND

ADMINISTRATION

Practically the entire cut on publicly owned forest land is now
made with provision for the renewal of the forest (fig. 5), but probably
less than 5 percent of that on privately owned land. The cut on
privately owned land is more than 70 times larger. ^

Although the area of publicly owned commercial forest land is
only one fourth that of private, 10 times as much public land is being
managed under intensive sustained yield timber management plans
and about 4 times as much with conscious effort to prolong produc-
tivity (figs. 8 and 9).

One hundred and two million acres of the western forest ranges are in
public and 42 in private ownership. The area of public ranges under
some kind of management plans is about 16 times, and that under
fairly intensive management plans about 12 times those in private
ownership (fig. 10).

The area of publicly owned land now being planted is about twice
that privately owned.

A little over half of the privately owned land needing protection
against fire is under organized protection, but with a public contri-
bution of five sixths of the cost. Practically all of the publicly owned

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

17

forest needing it receives some protection. The ratio of actual to
allowable burn on private lands is about 11 to 1, that on the largest
area of public lands— the national forests — is about 1.07 to 1.

While about 1.25 billion board feet are being cut from the national
forests, which include 75 percent of the publicly owned commercial
forest land, the possible sustained yield cut has been raised steadily.

PUBLIC FOREST LAND

PRIVATI FOREST LAND

4O 60

MILLION ACRES

Area Under Fairly
Intensive Management

Area Under Less
Intensive Management

FIGURE 8.— The low acreage in private ownership under some form of forest management throws public
accomplishment into high relief. The public total is, however, relatively small in the light of the effort
needed to meet national timber requirements.

For the country as a whole, however, where the condition is dom-
inated by private land, the drain for timber of all sizes now exceeds
growth by nearly 2 to 1, while for saw timber it is 5 to 1. But 70
percent of the dram is still in saw timber sizes.

PUB LI
PRIVA

C LANC
FE LAN

D

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

W^Mfr

•:.' '':-'•/ ' ' !

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
MILLION ACRES

FIGURE 9.— Area with no forest management. While some of the large area in private ownership, which
contains the best timberland, may remain productive, much of it deteriorates, the forest capital is
reduced, and yields are less than management of any sort would produce.

While farm woodlots ordinarily receive far less attention than any
other part of the farm, cutting practices have been much less destruc-
tive than on industrially owned lands. Isolation has been a factor in
much better protection.

The remarkable recuperative power of the forest, rather than any
conscious effort by private owners, has been the main factor in the

18

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

existence of 81 million acres of second-growth saw timber, 105 bearing
young stands of cord wood size, and of 90 with fair to satisfactory
restocking.

The public employs about five times more trained professional
foresters than do private owners.

The relative efforts of public and private agencies are perhaps
roughly expressed in the expenditures for 1932 already stated and
shown graphically in figure 1 .

About two thirds of the public expenditures, which are nearly 90
percent of the total for the year, are devoted to public lands and
mainly to the commercial forests which constitute only one fifth of
the total area of commercial forests.

Less than half of the private expenditures of 10 percent of the
total are used on four fifths of the commercial lands.

PUBLIC FOREST RANGE

PRIVATE FOREST RANGE

50

100 150

MILLION ACRES

200

250

Area on Which Some
Sort of Management
Plans are Applied

Area on Which Fairly
Intensive Management
Plans are in Effect

Area on Which no Range
Management of Any Sort
is Being Practised

FIGURE 10.— Management of forest ranges. About two-thirds of the area is in private ownership, but
public agencies have put a far larger area under management.

The extent to which private has fallen behind public ownership is
summarized graphically on a percentage basis in figure 11. The
distribution of expenditures is further shown in figure 12.

THE PROBLEM OF THE AGRICULTURAL LAND AVAILABLE FOR

FORESTRY

A total of over 50 million acres east of the plains originally forested
but not now included in the forest land classification is estimated by
the Bureau of Agricultural Economics to have already been aban-
doned by agriculture and to be available for forestry.

It is made up of abandoned farms that have gone out of production,
of idle or fallow land in farms still operated and of former pasture
lands.

Abandonment is still in process. The Bureau of Agricultural
Economics estimates that if present trends continue, approximately
15 million acres more may be abandoned by 1940, and from 25 to 30

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN .FORESTRY

19

by 1950. Further abandonment may be offset to a greater or less
extent by increased needs for agriculture.

COMMERCIAL FOREST LAND

NONCOMMERCIAL FOREST LAND

DEVASTATED AND POORLY .STOCKED AREA

TOTAL AREA

AREA CUT OVER. WTIHOUT ^G^$FOR ^£IH^E YIEIrDS
TOTAL AREA NEEDING PROTECTION

FOREST AREA UNDER SOME LESSER FORM OF MANAGEMENT

FOREST AREA UNDER NO MANAGEMENT

TOTAL FO R E ST

RAN GE

FOREST RANGE UNDER INTENSIVE MANAGEMENT PLANS

FOREST RANGE UNDER .SOME LESSER FORM OF MANAGEMENT

100

60 40 ZO

PER CENT

ZO 4-0 60 8O
PER CENT

100

FIGURE 11.— Public and private ownership and forest activities. The public's share predominates in
expenditures, in area under management, area planted, and in the number of trained foresters employed.
The private owner's share stands out in area devastated, amount of the yearly cut without conscious
regard for future stands, need of protection and lack of it, forest area burned, and absence of management
plans on both timber and range lands.

The total area of agricultural land now available for forestry is,
therefore, more than 50 million acres and may reach from 75 to 80
million acres by the middle of the century.

Abandonment seldom results from a single cause.

20

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The physical character of the land, which may be so lacking in
fertility, rough in topography, or stony, that agriculture is unprofit-

NATIONAL FORESTS

T

STATE FORESTS

PRIVATE FOREST LANDS

FIRE PROTECTION

OTHER PROTECTION

IMPROVEMENT

mmrnxm

RESEARCH

ACQUISITION

PLANTING

EDUCATION

EXTENSION

PUBLIC AID

10
MILLION DOLLARS

15

20

FIGURE 12.— Comparison of activity expenditures in forestry for 1932. The diagram throws additional
light on the comparative efforts of different types of forest-land ownership. Even public aid to private
owners is approximately three times the expenditures of private ownership on its own land.

able, is one cause. In many cases the original fertility has been
depleted by erosion or repeated cropping.

Another group of causes are economic. Improved transportation
has opened land west of the Alleghenies, first for cereal crops, cattle,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 21

etc., and then with refrigeration for dairy products, fruit, and truck
crops. Machinery adapted to use on level prairies has been devel-
oped. The opportunities in commerce and manufacture have at-
tracted people to the cities. The loss of industries such as lumbering
has led to loss of markets and to higher taxes.

These complex causes have accentuated each other and tended to
make abandonment cumulative. The extent to which abandonment
will lead to tax delinquency and involuntary public ownership cannot
be forecast with any certainty.

The economic and social results are of the same order as those
described under the private forest land problem and affect the entire
economic and social structure of local communities and even of entire
States. All of the unfortunate results react upon and aggravate each
other, so that the country no less than the town has its slums and
forgotten man.

Some of the most critical erosion and streamflow problems in the
United States, as will be shown elsewhere, have resulted from the
cultivation of land unsuited for agriculture. Such areas probably
constitute a large part of the abandoned agricultural land class.

The abandoned agricultural lands are often of higher potential
timber producing capacity than those now remaining as forest lands,
but even the forest productivity has frequently been seriously reduced
by erosion.

The abandonment of submarginal agricultural lands constitutes
still another problem of private ownership of major importance.

THE PROBLEM OF UNMANAGED PUBLIC LANDS

THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DOMAIN

Not all of the major forest problems are those of private lands.
The Federal Government has an unredeemed responsibility and an
unsolved problem in the forested public domain of the Western States.

Although the public domain still includes nearly 175 million acres,
it is but a remnant, not much more than one tenth of the original
public domain, and naturally the area of lowest value from the private
standpoint. Of this remnant about 23 million acres are forest land,
including somewhat over 4}£ million acres of commercial forest.

It receives at best only inadequate fire protection. It is given no
timber management. Unrestricted private use of the range has
reduced the forage cover over large areas to less than half its original
density and on some areas to practically nothing. The valuable forage
plants have suffered most. Under unrestricted private use it consti-
tutes one of the most critical erosion and flood problems in the West.

No valid reason exists for delay in giving national forest status to
the larger part of these la"nds and thus insuring the necessary manage-
ment. The remainder should be placed under administration with
the public domain.

An additional area of more than 2 million acres of revested Oregon
and California Railroad and Coos Bay wagon-road grants is forest
land. Management goes no farther than fire protection. The
timber may be cut without any provision for restocking. Under
existing law this land, after the timber is removed, is open to agricul-
tural entry for which it is unsuited; if the timber stand is light, it is

22 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

open before cutting. Some form of permanent public administration
is needed.

THE NEW PUBLIC DOMAIN OF THE STATES AND COUNTIES

The new public domain of the States and counties is growing
rapidly from tax reverted forest land while the remaining public
domain of the Federal Government is decreasing. The status of the
new public domain is so uncertain that even its area is highly con-
jectural. Most of it is in a twilight zone between State, county, and
private ownership.

In 29 States the title reverts to the counties pr towns and in 19
to the State. The 25 million acre total for the Lake, Southern, and
Northwestern States already referred to is only a part of what is
already tax delinquent. The possibility that half of the forest land
area in the Lake States will be in public ownership in 10 years is
some indication of what is likely to happen to a greater or less extent
elsewhere. The productivity of much of the tax-delinquent forest
land has been wrecked by forest devastation so that private owners
have no further interest iji it.

In most States no effort Has been made to define the status of this
land by law or to attempt any administration beyond partial and
inadequate fire protection. Only seven States have laws which even
look toward classification and permanent administration. The indi-
cations are that some of these States will be overwhelmed with the
problem. It is merely another instance where the development of
political machinery has lagged seriously behind econonic events.

This public-ownership problem has grown directly out of one phase
of that of private ownership.

Sooner or later more or less of the abandoned submarginal agri-
cultural land already discussed will probably also become tax delin-
quent. When and as it does, still another problem of private-land
ownership will become an even more serious public problem. New
York alone has made definite provision for solving it by setting up a
20-year program of acquisition and reforestation.

An additional area of State forest land of more or less uncertain
status, and only in part under any form of management or protec-
tion, is the remnant of Federal land grants to the States. It totals
several million acres.

Minnesota, Washington, and Montana alone have legally defined
its status and made some provision for blocking it into State forests
and placing it under management. In Idaho, Arizona, and New
Mexico similar policies depend soley upon the decision of the State
public-land administrative agency.

THE PROBLEM OF BALANCING THE NATIONAL TIMBER BUDGET

DRAIN AND REQUIREMENTS

The total drain from the forests of the United States is now about
16K billion cubic feet.

Nearly 90 percent is cut and the remainder is the loss from fire
and other causes. Of great significance is the fact that about 70
percent of the total drain, or the equivalent of about 59 % billion
board feet, is from the large or saw-timber sizes. The largest single

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 23

item in the cut, about one half of the total, is for lumber, while
fuel wood is nearly 30 percent.

The requirements of the future will be influenced by a large number
of factors, the resultant of which cannot be predicted with certainty.
It seems wise, however, to base plans for the future upon the best
judgment that can be formed of probable normal requirements
making reasonable allowance for losses that occurred during the
predepression period and for factors that might affect future rates of
consumption.

On this basis the conclusion has been reached that our forests
should be put in the condition to meet an annual drain of at least 16K
billion cubic feet for all purposes, including unpreven table losses
from fire, insects, and diseases. A conspicuous part of these nor-
mal requirements so determined is 55 billion board feet of saw
timber. This, for lumber, the most important product, would pro-
vide an annual cut of 32 billion board feet.

CURRENT AND NECESSARY GROWTH

Against current drain and probable normal requirements must,
among other things, be balanced present and possible growth.

From the best data now possible to obtain, present growth is esti-
mated to be about 9 billion cubic feet annually in timber of all sizes.
The ratio of normal drain to growth is therefore nearly 2 to 1 .

Growth of the all-important saw timber is somewhat less than 12
billion board feet. The ration of requirements to growth of this
material is therefore about 5 to 1. The ratios for both classes of
timber are shown in figure 13.

Of great importance also is the fact that drain and requirements
for saw timber exceed current growth in varying ratios in every
important forest region of the country, and with possibly one excep-
tion, for timber of all sizes.

The problem of balancing the timber budget is therefore in part,
approximately to double the growth for timber of all sizes for the
country as a whole, and in part also to increase that of saw-timber
size by five times.

That this is within the realm of possibilities is shown by the fact
that present growth averages per acre only 21 cubic feet, whereas
in such a region as the South it ought to be possible to obtain 50 cubic
feet by extensive forest management and 75 cubic feet by intensive
forest management, both over large areas. Similarly in the Pacific
coast region it should be possible to obtain growths of 45 cubic feet
by extensive and 75 cubic feet by intensive forestry.

THE REMAINING TIMBER AND ITS AVAILABILITY

The virgin timber supply, which has always obscured the need for
timber growing, is still a factor to be taken into account in balancing
our national timber budget.

Four fifths of the all-important saw timber, of which we still have
1,668 billion board feet, is old growth. ^ Four fifths of the saw timber
and over nine tenths of the old growth is, however, in the West, while
the large consuming markets are in the East and Middle West.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 3

24

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

But availability is far more important than amount, and almost
half the total is economically unavailable because of inaccessibility
and other factors, on the basis of 1925-29 operating conditions and
lumber prices. What the ultimately available amount will be depends
upon such factors as demand, prices, changes in logging methods, and
the competition of other materials.

Of timber of all sizes we still have left 487 billion cubic feet, 56
percent of which is in the West.

The problem of balancing our timber budget is complicated by the
deficiency of the growing stock in all parts of the East, and par-

ANNUAL SAW-TIMBER DRAIN

ANNUAL SAW-TIMBER GROWTH

10

20 30 40

BILLION BOARD FEET

50

60

ANNUAL DRAIN (ALLTIMBER)

ANNUAL GROWTH (ALLTIMBER)

10
BILLION CUBIC FEET

15

20

FIGURE 13.— The growing of the large saw- timber sizes is the critical factor in balancing the national timber
budget. The saw-timber drain on our forests is 70 percent of the total drain and is about five times
saw-timber growth.

ticularly in the South, which has by far the largest potential growing
capacity of any region of the country.

MAKING UP THE DEFICIENCY IN GROWING STOCK

A regulated growing stock for the country as a whole, with saw
timber equal to present volume, would make possible a sustained
yield cut of only 46 % billion board feet, or with saw- timber volume
equal to that having positive utilization value, only 26 K. These
amounts must be compared with a drain of 59 K, and estimated normal
requirements of 55.

The magnitude of the problem of increasing the forest capital
in the entire East by the necessary two and one half times will be
apparent when it is made clear that this must be done in the face
of a 1925-29 drain which exceeds current growth by nearly 29

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

25

billion board feet for the all-important saw-timber sizes. This is
shown graphically in figure 14.

PRIVATE OWNERSHIP THE LIMITING FACTOR

Private ownership is the limiting factor because it holds four fifths
of the commercial forest land, with at least 90 percent and possibly
more of the potential growing capacity (fig. 15). Under the present
distribution of ownership nearly the entire deficiency of growing
stock must be made up on private land, which it has as yet been the

PRESENT GROWING STOCK

REQUIRED GROWING STOCK

100

200 300

MILLION CUBIC FEET

400

500

CURRENT AC

DITION TO FOF
PLETION OF FO

EST CAPITAL
REST CAPITAL

'WMMMM

CURRENT DE

illllllllilll|l^^

10

20
MILLION BOARD FEET

30

40

FIGURE 14.— Growing stock or forest capital in the East. The increase of the forest capital for the entire
East by two and one half times is a prerequisite in raising growth to the level needed to meet national
requirements. But the saw-timber portion of the growing stock is being reduced by some 29 billion
board feet annually.

practically universal tendency of private practice to reduce rather
than to build up.

THE PROBLEM OF WATERSHED PROTECTION

The service which the forest may render in watershed protection is
probably as great in value as in the production of wood, and may be
greater.

The possibility of protective service ranges from great river systems
like the Mississippi to the "dry " washes of a few acres in the semiarid
West. It is not confined to the headwaters but may be most acute
on the very bluffs of great streams like the Mississippi.

26

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY
THE IMPORTANT PHASES OF THE PROBLEM

The main urban centers of the east coast from Boston to Baltimore
consume more than 2 billion gallons of water daily. Large cities are
bringing their water supplies from distances of 60, 92, 200, 250, 450
miles at costs, actual or proposed, ranging upward to $350,000,000
for a single project.

Extreme droughts such as that of 1930-31 show the acuteness
of the domestic water supply problem even in the humid East. In
southern California if not elsewhere the availability of water definitely

PRIVATE

POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY

PUBLIC

POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY

20

4-0 60

PER CENT

80

100

FIGURE 15.— Private ownership dominates the possibility of timber production in the United States,
with four fifths of the commercial forest land and nine tenths or more of the potential timber growing
capacity.

limits the size of the population. All cities must have abundant,
continuous supplies of good water.

Nineteen Western States now have reservoir and distributing
systems for irrigation, valued at more than $1,000,000,000, to supply
about 19)2 million acres of irrigated land which with its buildings and
machinery is valued at over $4,000,000,000. Far-western agriculture
is largely that of irrigated lands. The amount and the time at which
water is available are limiting factors, since there is much more land
than water.

Water is one of the great sources of power in the United States
and, unlike coal and oil, it is not exhaustible. In 1931, 26 States
had developed more than 100,000 horsepower each from their streams,
ranging downward from 2,321,000 in California to 135,000 in Virginia.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 27

Regular stream flow, freedom from silt that will fill reservoirs are
important factors in all water power development and use.

The importance of watershed protection is indicated by the fact
that the Federal Government has been willing during the past 50
years to expend for the improvement of our rivers and harbors in
excess of $2,000,000,000. Again regularity of flow and freedom from
silt are vital factors in the availability, use, and cost of maintenance.

Floods occur in every part of the United States and damages range
downward from the great Mississippi disaster of 1927, estimated at
246 lives and $300,000,000, to those caused by local floods so small
as to escape notice. Every year has its quota.

Expenditures for major engineering works for flood control have
run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, but the problem is far
from solution. There is ample reason to believe that fully satisfac-
tory control must utilize all means at our disposal, including the forest.

Excessive erosion, either spectacular or so inconspicuous as to go
unnoticed, is common to nearly all parts of the United States. It
occurs on agricultural, range, and forest land. It loads streams with
silt, clogs irrigation works, navigable channels and harbors, fills
reservoirs, increases the height of floods, and adds enormously to
their destructive power.

Because it first removes the fertile top layers of soil it is a primary
cause of land abandonment. It is undoubtedly the most destruc-
tive agency affecting our greatest basic resource, the soil.

THE RELATION OF THE FOREST TO WATERSHED PROTECTION

General observational studies in the United States have substan-
tiated both the popular conception and European experience that the
destruction of the forest cover leads to erosion and that the presence
of such cover is the most effective means for erosion control.

Furthermore, they have shown that the forest will rebuild the soil.

Intensive research makes the relationship between forest cover and
erosion still more conclusive. Results in different parts of the
country on different soils with varying precipitation, etc., show that
the ratio of erosion between barren forest land and that with forest
cover may vary all the way from 15, 1,000, and 3,920 to 1.

It has been estimated that 1,000 years may be necessary to build
up an inch of soil, an amount which often is removed by erosion in
1 year.

Observational studies have shown that destruction or deteriora-
tion of the forests is one of the major contributing causes of exces-
sively rapid run-off and destructive floods, and that the presence of
the forest retards the rate of run-off, puts the water into the soil and
underground channels, reduces the height of floods, increases summer
flow, and delivers water free from sediment.

Intensive research shows that the ratio of run-off between denuded
and forest-covered soils varies from 3, 110, and 187 to 1, with inter-
mediate ratios for partially destroyed forest.

Among the chief causes of forest destruction in relation to water
protection are fire, logging, overgrazing, and smelter fumes. The
most critical watershed conditions in the United States have, how-
ever, resulted from clearing for agriculture.

The best classification possible with the data available indicates
(fig. 16) that 308 million acres or half of the forest area of the United

28

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

States exerts a major influence on watershed protection and that an
additional one fifth exerts a moderate influence.

THE MOST CRITICAL CONDITIONS

The most critical watershed conditions resulting from the clearing
of land for agriculture are the Mississippi bluff and silt-loam uplands,
the piedmont and upper coastal plain in the Atlantic and Gulf
drainages, and the Central State farm lands of the Mississippi Basin.

The bluff and silt-loam upland area, approximating 20 million
acres, extends from New Orleans to St. Paul. Its wind-blown silt-
loam soils contribute more to the Mississippi silt problem than any
other area of equal size. A high percentage of the area, in some
cases 40 percent of entire counties, is being rapidly destroyed for
agriculture by erosion. It is an enormous contributor to the serious
Yazoo flood problem, where experimental tests have shown a run-off
ratio between cultivated fields and forest of 127 to 1.

AREA OF MODERATE INFLUENCE

E

^nmn ;'ni

NFLUENC

AREA O

F SLIGHT

OR NO 1

'Mmmmmmmmmzm

M

50

100 150 200

MILLION ACRES

250

300

FIGUKK 16.— One half of the total area of forest land of 615 million acres is classified as having a major water-
shed influence and nearly three fourths as having a major or moderate influence. This indicates only
in part, however, the value of the forest for watershed protection.

Erosion and floods are hardly less serious on the much larger pied-
mont and upper coastal plain extending from the Potomac into
Mississippi. Largely as a result of erosion, at least 8% million acres
have been abandoned for agriculture in the past 20 years and trends
indicate a total of 12 million by 1950.

The Central States farm land area, including parts of 10 States
from West Virginia and Ohio to eastern Kansas and Nebraska, makes
another large contribution to the Mississippi Kiver flood and silt
problem. The abandonment of 15 million acres of farm lands in the
area of most critical erosion conditions seems to be only the beginning.

The watersheds of the northeastern drainages derive their chief
watershed importance as the source of the municipal supplies of the
great Eastern cities from Boston to Baltimore. The forests most in
need of improvement are in the southern half of the area.

The Appalachian Mountain ranges feed the Mississippi and its
tributaries, and the Atlantic coast and Gulf rivers from the Delaware
to the mouth of the Mississippi. Heavy and frequently torrential

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 29

precipitation, easily eroded soils, the clearing of steep slopes for agri-
culture, and deteriorated forests accentuate the watershed problem.

The Ouachita-Ozark Mountain area of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and
Missouri make up only 5 percent of the Mississippi River drainage,
but have contributed from 25 to 50 percent of the peak flow of the
lower-river floods. No other area of equal size is as great a factor
in flood height. Hillside agriculture, cutting without provision for
the future of the forest, fires that burn one seventh of the area
annually have markedly reduced the possible watershed protection.

The Breaks of the Arkansas and Red Rivers and the Badlands of
the Missouri contribute a volume of sediment to the Mississippi far
in excess of the proper proportion of a total area of only 20 million
acres. The cutting of the sparse tree growth and excessive grazing
are partly responsible.

Only an exceptionally luxuriant vegetative cover saves the Pacific
coast dense forest region with its heavy precipitation from being an
extremely critical watershed problem.

The ponderosa-lodgepole pine belt forests are the source of two
thirds of the irrigation water of the West, of one third of the 14
million installed horsepower capacity of the country, and of muni-
cipal supplies for 6 million people. Destructive cutting, fire, and un-
regulated grazing have reduced the effectiveness of the cover over
large areas.

Eighty million acres of semiarid woodland and brush lands con-
stitute the most critical western erosion and flood problem on forest
lands. Depletion of the normally sparse vegetative coyer chiefly by
destructive grazing and fire have seriously impaired its protective
values.

THE RELATION OF OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT TO CRITICAL

PROBLEMS

Private land ownership is the key to the watershed problem on
eastern agricultural lands, to practically all of the forest-land problem
of the East, and also to the ponderosa-lodgepole pine problem of the
West.

The unmanaged public domain, which includes over 23 percent of
the semiarid woodland and brush lands, constitutes the most critical
erosion and flood problem on western forest lands.

THE PROBLEM OF FOREST RECREATION

Recreation in this report means anything done directly for the
pleasure or enrichment which it brings to life, in contrast to things
done primarily to obtain the necessities.

People who visit the forest for recreation have a great variety of
purposes. It may be the desire for play, the preservation of health,
the pursuit of beauty, communion with nature, favorable environ-
ment for contemplation, scientific knowledge, adventure, or to escape
from civilization. While few go to the forest for all of these pur-
poses, each one influences at the very least tens of thousands of
people.

The best available figures on current annual volume indicate about
250 million man-days spent in recreational use of the forest and an
expenditure by forest recreationalists of not less than $1,750,000,000.

30 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

Recreational use jumped from about 300,000 to 3 million visitors
in national parks and from 3 million to 32 million visitors in national
forests between 1917 and 1931.

There is good reason to anticipate a great increase in the future.
The factors which will cause this growth include an increasing popu-
lation, shorter working hours, a probable rising standard of living,
the increasing ease of transportation, and the increasing necessity, as
society becomes more and more mechanized, for some possibility of
escape to the primitive.

The use of the forest for recreation seems therefore to be in its
infancy. We probably as yet have only a limited conception of the
ultimate possibilities and needs for this social service in a highly
industrialized nation.

Practically all forest land which has not been severely damaged by
fire and logging has some recreational value. Sustained yield timber
growing will preserve much of the attraction for recreationalists.
Since even the best silvicultural practice does not conserve all recrea-
tional values, it is necessary to set aside a limited area exclusively for
recreation.

One phase of the problem is to anticipate the full range and volume
of needs and possibilities.

Another is to decide what kind of forest areas are needed, whether
superlative, primeval, wilderness, roadside, camp site, residence, out-
ing, or others; how many of each there should be, how large, and how
they should be distributed.

Still another phase is that of ownership. Forest devastation or
deterioration for immediate income, which has characterized private
ownership, does not conserve recreational values. A further question
is whether permanent preservation can be insured except in public
ownership. It may be questionable whether lands in private owner-
ship will be open to permanent use by the general public.

THE PROBLEM OF FOREST WILD LIFE
THE DEPENDENCE OF WILD LIFE ON THE FOREST

The forests of the United States provide all or part of the habitat
for a large percentage of our remaining wild life, important for food,
fur, and hunting, or for esthetic purposes.

The streams and lakes dependent upon forest land also constitute
the most favorable habitat of many valuable game fishes and the
temporary habitat during early life of some of the important com-
mercial anadromous fishes such as salmon and shad.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL VALUES

The Senate Committee on Conservation of Wild Life Resources
places the total hunters and fishermen in the United States in 1929 at
13 millions, and estimates that this is a 400 percent increase in a dec-
ade. The number promises to increase along with the increase of put-
door recreation which will come with increased leisure and facilities
for travel.

The direct values of wild life include the sale of hunting licenses,
the value of meat and fur, the sale of hunting and fishing equipment,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 31

expenditures of sportsmen, and the value, chiefly of birds, as destroy-
ers of insects. The Biological Survey estimates the total positive
national value of wild life at over $1,000,000,000 annually.

The commercial fisheries of the Mississippi and its tributaries in
1930 produced values of $4,385,000. For the year ending June 30,
1932, approximately 4,850,000 State licenses carried the angling
privilege. The value of fishing tackle sold annually was estimated in
1929 by a trade association at $25,000,000.

THE DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE

In general wild life has decreased and is still decreasing on much of
the forest land of the country. Some species have been almost exter-
minated. This is also true of fish. Many waters which were well
stocked only a few years ago are now seriously depleted.

The reasons are the far greater number of hunters and fishermen,
the lack of adequate control, disease, and the deterioration or destruc-
tion by fire or otherwise of forest cover and other essential conditions
of habitat. The floods and erosion which commonly follow forest
destruction or deterioration are an important cause of the scarcity of
fish.

THE POTENTIALITIES OF WILD LIFE UNDER MANAGEMENT

The numbers of game animals on the national forests are estimated
to have increased 40 percent between 1926 and 1931 as a result of
management. Certain species, such as deer, are unquestionably in-
creasing appreciably over considerable areas in many parts of the
country and under favorable conditions, including the regulation of
hunting.

In general the wild-life population of the forest is far below what it
might be. One of the important problems is to work out forms of
management on the principle of sustained yield, which involves proper
stocking, the furnishing of food and cover requirements, protection
from natural enemies and other injurious factors, and the removal of
surplus only.

One of the most important aspects of management for land forms of
wild life is that of coordination with timber production and utiliza-
tion, and the grazing of domestic livestock.

Special aspects of the problem of building up numbers of fish include
their introduction into waters in which they are not native, artificial
propagation and stocking, protection from overfishing, and the im-
provement of streams and lakes to provide more favorable conditions.
The beneficial effects of forestation on the latter phase can scarcely
be overestimated.

One of the complications in wild-life management is that of separate
land ownership and wild-life control except where the land is owned
by the States. Land ownership may be either private, State, or
Federal while wild-life control rests in the State. This phase of the
problem involves both wild-life regulation and the possibilities of
returns to the private owner. Similar complications exist in the case
of fish.

32 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE NEED FOR PUBLIC HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS

Nearly 450 million acres of our forest land is in private ownership,
which means that the only assured areas which remain for public
hunting are the publicly owned lands.

Although less emphatic than in the case of game, the present ten-
dency is toward the exclusion of the public from the more desirable
angling waters within private lands. This creates the same need for
public-fishing grounds.

The area of public lands is much the largest in the West because of
the existence of the national forests. In the East, the national
forests make up only 2 percent of the total area of forest lands.
State forests and parks are less than 3 percent.

THE PROBLEM OF FOREST RANGES

Grazing use of 334 million acres, or more than half of the total of
615 million acres of forest land, shows that the forage constitutes one
of the important products of the forest.

The large areas which can be so utilized under proper management
will increase the returns to the owner, contribute to the economic and
social welfare of local communities, and furnish in part the raw re-
source for the livestock industry.

THE WESTERN PROBLEM

The largest and most critical western forest range problem is that
on 42 million acres of privately owned lands.

In an effort to obtain the maximum immediate financial returns,
ring has been so heavy that over large areas the forage resource
been reduced to less than half its original density. This has
reduced watershed protection still more and in some instances pre-
vented full timber reproduction and growth. The effects on the live-
stock industry and economic and social community development and
welfare differ only in degree from those of forest devastation and
deterioration.

The problem of the forest ranges of the unmanaged Federal public
domain is equally critical on a smaller area, approximately 21}2/ mil-
lion acres. Unrestricted private use of this range has resulted in
forage, watershed, forest, economic, and social conditions similar to
those indicated in the preceding paragraph.

On about 4 million acres of State forest ranges grazing privileges
have ordinarily been leased without supervision of use. Results diner
but little from those on privately owned lands and the Federal public
domain.

The problem on the 64 million acres of forest ranges in the national
forests and the 12 million on Indian reservations is a fuller correlation
with timber production and watershed protection and the improve-
ment of the range resource itself now under way but not yet fully
completed.

THE EASTERN PROBLEM

The eastern forest range problem is almost entirely one of private
ownership.

That of the southern ranges is largely unrestricted use, often by
others than the owner of the land, and the uncontrolled use of fire.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 33

That of the farm woodlands, mainly of the Central States, is a
decision between range use, the main benefit of which is the shade
that could be obtained from a much smaller area, and timber growing
which is impossible with heavy range use.

THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE

THE FORESTRY MOVEMENT HANDICAPPED BY LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

Lack of knowledge of the inevitable consequences has been one
among the many factors responsible for the public policy of allowing
excessive areas of forest land to go into private ownership.

It has been partly responsible also for allowing large areas of land
to go into agriculture which were submarginal for that purpose and
which should have been kept in forest.

Still further, it has been partly responsible for the delay in putting
under administration forest land remaining in the Federal public
domain and for the delay by the States in recognizing and providing
for the still larger area which by reversion to public ownership via
the tax delinquency route is becoming a new public domain.

Lack of knowledge has been one of the factors which has led private
owners to adopt the cut-out-and-get-out policy. This in turn led to
oversized plants, far too short depreciation periods, excessive capital
costs, the cutting of unprofitable timber, lack of provision for future
crops, and the devastation or deterioration of a large part of the
privately owned commercial forest land.

The manufacturers of wood and particularly of lumber have rested
content with rule-of- thumb methods based on centuries of use. The
inevitable result has been that new or greatly improved old materials
fighting for markets have, by the adoption of modern competitive
methods such as research, displaced wood and especially lumber in
large volume.

In present-day competition no material, regardless of its intrinsic
merit, can expect to hold its own without scientific knowledge of its
properties and how to modify them to meet increasingly exacting
requirements.

Reliance on rule-of-thumb practice in the utilization of forest
ranges has led to the serious deterioration of practically the en-
tire range area for forage production and of some areas for timber
production.

The combination of forest devastation and deterioration through
unwise cutting and uncontrolled fire, excessive grazing of forest
ranges, and the clearing and use of submarginal lands for agriculture,
singly or in combination, has created critical watershed conditions
in nearly every part of the United States. In all of this the lack of
knowledge of the inevitable outcome has unquestionably been one
factor.

On both public and private lands efforts to grow timber have
started without traditional knowledge such as had been slowly
built up by large-scale trial and error in agriculture. European
forestry was remote and utilized different species under radically
different climatic, economic, and social conditions. Lack of knowl-
edge inevitably led to mistakes, which because of the time required
to grow timber crops have been very costly.

34 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It has been and still is a decided factor in the long, slow, uphill
fight to get on top of our fire problem. It has led to the ineffective
expenditures of large sums of money, great loss in timber and area
burned, and still greater loss in reduced productivity of land.

It has delayed the natural reforestation of cut-over forests. In
planting it has led to costly mistakes and delays.

It has brought to the forest wild-life problem only a belated recog-
nition that protection alone has created serious problems which only
sustained yield management fully correlated with other forms of
forest use can solve.

It still leaves us uncertain regarding the best methods of controlling
our most common forms of insect infestation. It has attempted by
quarantines to close the door to further importations only after the
introduction of such diseases as the chestnut blight, which is prac-
tically wiping out one of our most valuable hardwoods, and such
insects as the gypsy moth, which has already necessitated expenditures
of millions of dollars and is still on our hands.

Lack of even traditional knowledge has almost certainly been a
factor, particularly for the private owner, in discouraging any at-
tempt to practice forestry.

It has slowed down progress, impaired efficiency, and increased
costs. In these ways, and perhaps still more by not anticipating
the great losses caused by erroneous public and private policy and
practices, it has been partly responsible for great public and pri-
vate losses and is still handicapping progress of the entire forestry
movement.

RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT BELATED AND INADEQUATE

In typical American fashion the development of research has
ordinarily lagged far behind executive action.

The aggressive expansion of research was 15 years behind pro-
nounced national-forest development. Large-scale fire protection and
planting long anticipated research to ascertain the best technique.

Repeated attempts to formulate national, regional, State, and
industrial policies preceded efforts to obtain authoritatively the
facts on which they should be based.

The lumber and other forest industries lost large markets to
competitors before beginning efforts to obtain accurate knowledge of
their product. By far the largest investigative effort in the forest
industries stiU concerns itself largely with tests to insure a uniform
product.

Whole forest regions are still without forest experiment stations
worthy of the name. In many important types practically no
research has yet been done. A complete and authoritative survey
of the forest resources of the United States has never been made.
Examples of what we do not know and have not yet attempted to
learn, or attempted only inadequately, could be expanded indefinitely.

The aggressive development of forest research has occurred almost
entirely since the war, and most of it is far too recent to have produced
any but preliminary results. Even the training of men for the work
has been largely a post-war development.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 35

EXTENSION NOT EVEN COMMENSURATE WITH RESEARCH

Advice on the ground to the private owner of forest land on how to
grow timber is the most poorly organized and financed public activity
in American forestry. It is least effective in reaching the industrial
owner, who holds more than half of our commercial forest land. The
failure of public agencies is not being made up by any others.

The best organized and best financed extension effort is that dealing
with farm wood lots. While expenditures reach about $160,000 and
work is under way in 33 States, it reached in 1931, to the point of
effecting some improvement, only about 1 owner in 100.

Federal extension for industrial timberland owners is an incidental
effort by employees whose main responsibility is national-forest
administration or research. That in the better utilization of forest
products is confined largely to the Forest Products Laboratory, a
research institution.

State extension to industrial owners is fairly well organized hi only
a few States, and expenditures are very small.

Other efforts at extension include a number of associations, most
of which work through the press, and a relatively small group of
consulting foresters who are very active and effective in reaching
private forest landowners on the ground.

WHY THE SOLUTION OF THE MAJOR FOREST PROBLEMS CON-
STITUTES ONE OF OUR MAJOR NATIONAL PROBLEMS

The full national significance of the solution of these interrelated
major forest problems can be evaluated only by considering them in
the aggregate.

SOLUTION THE ONLY MEANS FOR UTILIZING FOREST AND ABANDONED

AGRICULTURAL LAND

The only uses in sight for our forest and abandoned agricultural
land are for forestry or for farm crops and pasture.

But the demand of agriculture for land is contracting and not ex-
panding. The abandonment of more than 50 million acres of crop
and pasture land during the last 2 decades, and the possibility of the
abandonment of 25 to 30 million acres more before 1950, is sufficiently
conclusive proof of trends.

Beyond this, repeated attempts made to utilize forest land for
agriculture over millions of acres in the Lake States, South, and West
have ended in failure. Waves of settlers have been put on the lands
by timberland owners and by real-estate promoters. The agricultural
colleges and experiment stations have devoted years of research and
other effort to develop the possibility of agricultural use. All of these
efforts have ended in failure except on the best agricultural land.

SOLUTION THE ONLY OR THE BEST MEANS FOR SUPPLYING WOOD AND
OTHER RENEWABLE RESOURCES

Despite a falling off of per-capita requirements following the pioneer
period, wood promises to keep a permanently important position
among our materials. It has high intrinsic value, is easily worked, is

36 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

relatively cheap, and can in natural and modified forms be used for
innumerable purposes. It has the great advantage of being renewable.

Regardless of other considerations, it is in the public interest that
it be kept in competition with other products.

Even though it were available from other countries, the advantage
of having it at home and near the point of use is very great. But look-
ing to the future and considering conifers for chief use, the hope of
obtaining adequate supplies by imports is small. The world in general,
like the United States, is overcutting its coniferous forests. World
growth, may not be more than two thirds of the drain, and consump-
tion is increasing or at least holding its own.

Under many conditions the forest probably offers the best and
cheapest method available for erosion control and stream-flow regu-
lation. On scores of millions of acres the returns for this purpose alone
would probably justify the expenditures required for keeping a forest.

The restoration of the forest may also be the cheapest and best
means for rebuilding impoverished soils on millions of acres against
possible future need for agriculture.

The forest is already one of the great sources of recreation. By
taking advantage of improving transportation facilities it can be made
to aid materially in solving the problem of how to use the rapidly
increasing leisure of all classes of people.

Forest land is the natural and in many instances the only remaining
habitat of many forms of wild life, and the same is true of forest waters
for fish. Public hunting and fishing grounds are being more and more
closely confined to the public forests. Both economic and social
values are involved.

Forest ranges can be made to support many millions of domestic
livestock for at least a part of the year.

SOLUTION THE ONLY MEANS FOR THE PERPETUATION AND STABILITY
OF FOREST INDUSTRIES AND FOR THE FULL DEVELOPMENT OF RE-
LATED INDUSTRIES

The forest industries depend either on the virgin timber resource
or new crops. Their present place in our industrial structure is in-
dicated by a predepression capital value including forests estimated
at $10,000,000,000 and gross products prior to 1929 averaging close
to $2,000,000,000. Ultimate dependence on new crops has been
masked over 3 centuries by virgin timber supplies, but the end of
these supplies is now definitely in sight. New timber crops will then
become the sole means of support for these industries.

Hardly less dependent for full development are the industries based
on water derived from forest lands, on forest ranges, forest wild life,
and forest recreation.

Many local industries and innumerable small business enterprises
are in turn directly dependent on the forest industries. The forests
and forest industries are important adjuncts to agriculture, which
could hardly exist in many regions without them.

The benefits of stability and permanence in communities, in govern-
ment, and in social institutions are too obvious to require comment.
These can be assured in full measure in forest regions only if the forest
and related industries make their proportional contribution.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 37

SOLUTION AN IMPORTANT SOURCE FOR EMPLOYMENT OF LABOR

The development of labor-saving machinery is making means for
the profitable employment of labor a critical national necessity.

In 1929 forest work, including logging and wood manufacture,
afforded full-time employment or its equivalent to 1,500,000 people.
Fully productive forests, at the rate of 1 employee to 250 acres, a
conservative estimate in the light of both European and American
experience, could employ 2 million people. This does not include
the merchandising of forest products and services to forest-products
industries. Neither does it include industries dependent upon forest
water, forest ranges, forest wild life and recreation, and minor prod-
ucts and services. For all of these a large additional number could
be added.

On the public forests alone there is undoubtedly the opportunity
for the emergency employment of a very large number of men. Pri-
vate forests could probably accommodate several tunes as many.

In fully managed forests, which we cannot have for many years,
the opportunity for depression employment would be lessened. The
manufacturers of forest products suffer during depressions along with
other industries, but the possibility of woods employment might serve
to absorb any surplus and prevent the aggravation of unemployment.

SOLUTION OFFERS ONE IMPORTANT AID IN PUBLIC FINANCE

Productive forests widen the tax base. This includes privately
owned forests, sawmill, pulp and paper, and other manufacturing
plants, the property of industries using other forest products, the
property of service industries, and the homes and other property of
people engaged in all these industries. The pulp and paper plants in
Wisconsin are valued at around $100,000,000 and could be supplied
in perpetuity by 2 million acres of well-managed forests.

An enlarged tax base reduces the per dollar of tax base cost of
public functions such as local governments, schools, highways, etc.
It makes it possible to raise the standards of these functions. It
lessens the need for State aid. Almost every county in the cut-over
region of Michigan now receives, for example, more money than it
pays in taxes.

Even public forests pay a direct financial revenue to local govern-
ment, which supplements a wider tax base for other property. The
national forests return to State and local governments 25 percent of
gross receipts. The States pay varying amounts usually on a per
acre per annum basis.

The Federal Government itself obtains revenue from the forest
and related industries through the income tax.

SOLUTION ONE IMPORTANT MEANS FOR MAINTAINING A BALANCED
RURAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

The solution of the major forest problems offers a means for the
utilization of the land for forests which cannot be used for any other
purpose, including agriculture. Such utilization should therefore
serve as the basis for stable permanent local industries dependent
upon the products of both forest and agricultural land.

38 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It should serve as a sound basis for a balanced economic and social
structure, which would help to retain in the country a reasonable
proportion of the population and help ^ to offset the long-continued
movement from the country to the cities. Such a combined forest
and agricultural economy should be as nearly depression-proof as
any now known.

SOLUTION ONE MEANS TO NATIONAL WELL-BEING AND TO INTER-
NATIONAL COMPETITION

The economic and social development which is most highly ad-
vantageous for many local regions should prove equally so for the
country as a whole.

Abundance of raw resources, including land and timber, has been
one of the chief factors in the phenomenal growth of the United States.
Their continued availability should be of equal or even more value in
the future.

Many tendencies indicate for the future an increasingly severe
competition between nations in manufactured products. A great
advantage should lie with the nations having excess supplies of valua-
ble raw products, like wood which other nations need and cannot
grow. The distinct probability that there will be such a need for
coniferous woods particularly has already been pointed out.

What is true of national needs and of international competition in
peace is much more vitally true in time of war.

SOLUTION NOT ONLY JUSTIFIED BUT IS ONE OF MAJOR NATIONAL

PROBLEMS

The 670 million acres of forest and abandoned agricultural land
now available for forestry is more than one third of the total land
area of the United States. As shown in figure 17, it exceeds by 120
million acres the entire area east of the Mississippi. It is more than
half again as large as the area now devoted to farm crops (fig. 18).
It exceeds the combined areas of France, Germany, Norway, Sweden,
Spain, and Italy^fig. 19).

When to possible benefits of utilizing this vast area of land are
added those of maintaining great forest and other industries in pre-
petuity, of employment for a large number of laborers, of a balanced
rural and social economy, of the advantages of national well-being,
and of a favorable position for^ international competition, the forest
problem justifies a rating well in the forefront of our great national
problems.

The effort which should be made on the forest problem should be
rated along with those past, present, or proposed on the Panama
Canal, which to date has cost more than $500,000,000; the Hoover
Dam, for which $165,000,000 has been authorized; the river and
harbor improvements, for which nearly $2,000,000,000 has been
expended by the Federal Government alone; the proposed St. Law-
rence waterway, the cost of which is estimated at $252,000,000; and
even the public highway system, the annual expenditures for which
rose from $1,000,000,000 iii 1921 to $2,000,000,000 in 1930.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

39

FIGURE 17.— Our forest land area would blanket the whole United States east of the Mississippi, with a
substantial block of 120 million acres left over. This gives an idea of what the use of this area would
mean in our national land economy.

TOTAL FOREST AREA

TOTAL AGRICULTURAL PROP LAND

100 200 300 400 500 600

MILLION ACRES

FIGURE 18.— Area involved in the forestry enterprise— half again as large as that devoted to agricultural

crops.

168342°— 33— vol. 1-

40 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE MAJOR OBJECTIVES
TO GET FOREST LAND INTO PRODUCTIVE USE

From the preceding discussion it is clear that one of the major
objectives in the solution of our major forest problems should be to
bring, if possible, all our forest land into productive use.

FIGURE 19. — The aggregate area of six of the principal nations of western Europe does not quite equal the
total forest-land area of the United States.

If the objective of full forest-land use can be reached, it will be a
major contribution to the entire national land use problem, and the
solution of the latter is growing cause for grave national concern.

TO MEET NATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR FOREST PRODUCTS AND

SERVICES

It is equally clear that the second major objective in the solution
of our major forest problems should be to insure, if possible, supplies

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 41

of timber and other forest products and byproducts and of watershed
protection and other services adequate to meet national requirements.
If this objective can be reached, it will never be necessary to lower our
standards of living or to retard our progress because ample and cheep
supplies of the products and services of the forest are unavailable.

TO OBTAIN THE FULL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS OF THE

FOREST

The ultimate objective is to obtain all the benefits which productive
forest land, the forest itself, and supplies of forest products and serv-
ices adequate for requirements can separately and collectively render
to our entire economic and social structure and to our national life.

TO MEET THESE OBJECTIVES REQUIRES NATIONAL PLANNING
LAISSEZ-FAIRE POLICY OF PRIVATE OWNERSHIP HAS NOT SUCCEEDED

Laissez-faire private effort, upon which the United States has
largely depended up to the present time and which is avowedly plan-
less from the national standpoint, has seriously deteriorated or
destroyed the basic resources of timber, forage, and land almost
universally. It has not concerned itself with the public welfare in
protection of watersheds. It has felt little or no responsibility for
the renewal of the resources on which its own industries must depend
for continued existence and much less for the economic and social
benefits growing out of the perpetuity of resources and industry.
Even in fire protection, its most conspicuous constructive action, the
public has largely carried the financial burden.

The record of the past sharply raises the question of how much
further main dependence can and should be placed upon this policy
to meet the major objectives specified.

The outstanding progress in American forestry to date has been
where the public has taken things into its own hands in the owner-
ship and management of lands, as for example, the national forests,
or in the organization and leadership of such activities as protection
against fire, or against such threats as the gypsy moth or the white
pine blister rust.

These public efforts are, at bottom, first steps toward national
planning. In any case, an expansion of public effort in the direction
of national planning could hardly make a worse showing than has
private ownership in either resource destruction or resource renewal.

THE LONG-TIME CHARACTER OF FORESTRY IN ITSELF REQUIRES
NATIONAL PLANNING

The need for 80 to 150 years to grow high-grade material indicates
the importance of the time element in forestry, but the fact that
growth cannot be increased to current requirements much if any
before the end of the present century is still more significant.

Furthermore, to obtain even these results will necessitate vastly
increased efforts in practically all parts of the country, including such
things as widespread, long-continued restraint in cutting over the
entire East to build up growing stocks.

42 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE MAGNITUDE AND COST OF THE UNDERTAKING NECESSITATE
NATIONAL PLANNING

Despite all efforts to date, total growth in our forests is only half
the total drain, and growth of saw timber only one-fifth the drain.
We still have millions of acres of devastated land and more millions
of deteriorated forest. The processes of devastation and deterioration
are continuing on a large scale.

It is obvious that millions of acres must be put under intensive
forest management, the production of millions more increased by
better methods of cutting and fire protection, millions of acres planted,
the scale of research greatly increased, aid to private owners increased,
and public ownership greatly enlarged.

It follows that both the magnitude and the cost of the programs
required will be so great that they will necessitate the maximum pos-
sible effort of all agencies for years to come. They will also require
the fullest possible coordination of these efforts.

Without national planning the necessary effort would be almost
out of the question, and serious, costly, time-consuming mistakes
would be inevitable.

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF DOING EVERYTHING AT ONCE NECESSITATES

NATIONAL PLANNING

Entirely aside from the inherent time element of growing timber,
or at least that of high quality, all progress so far made in American
forestry has been time consuming.

It has required 42 years from the setting aside of the first national
forest from the public domain to acquire and put under administra-
tion the 157 million acres from this source. It has required 22 years
to purchase 4,727,680 acres of national forests.

New York began in 1883 to build up its present holdings of 2,500,-
000 acres. The protection of private lands against fire has risen to
212 million acres as a result of 45 years of effort. It has required
in the neighborhood of 30 years' effort by industrial owners to put
approximately 2}£ million acres under sustained yield management.
Planting by all agencies has to date covered less than 2 million acres.

It follows that time must be reckoned with seriously; that every-
thing cannot be done overnight ; that progress must be made step by
step; and in short that the time required to get things done empha-
sizes the need for national planning.

It seems conclusive, therefore, that national planning is absolutely
necessary for meeting the three major objectives in the solution of
our major forest problems, which can be summed up in one, to
obtain the full economic and social benefits of the forest. National
planning is so essential that it could itself be classed as a major
objective.

THE REQUIRED ACTIVITY PROGRAMS IN A NATIONAL

PLAN

The national plan recommended falls into two groups of programs,
one of technical activities, which is outlined here, the other in the
following subsection of the most effective agencies and means for
carrying out these activities.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 43

For clarity the areas already shown to be available for forestry in
the United States are summarized in the following tabulation :

Acres

Commercial forest land 494, 900, 000

Reserves, parks, etc 11, 000, 000

Noncommercial forest land 108, 700, 000

Abandoned agricultural land, etc 54, 700, 000

Total 669,300,000

Ordinarily in forest management the same area can be used for
several purposes.

By far the largest areas are needed for timber production and
watershed protection. The management and protection necessary
for timber production will in most cases fully meet watershed and
other requirements, although multiple use of the same area may often
necessitate coordination.

The largest reservations needed for exclusive use are for recreation,
but even here important services in watershed protection may often
be rendered and a home furnished for wild life.

ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR TIMBER PRODUCTION
The area available for timber production is about 509 million acres:

Acres

Total area of forest land 669, 300, 000

Noncommercial forest land 108, 700, 000

Reserved for recreation, etc 52, 000, 000

160, 700, 000

Area available 508, 600, 000

THE AREA NEEDED AND THAT WHICH COULD BE USED FOR TIMBER

PRODUCTION

Because of such factors as fertility, accessibility, and character of
ownership, the management for timber production employed will
probably vary from intensive practice designed to obtain the largest
possible timber crops as a maximum to simple protection against fire
as a minimum.

Full use of the land available for timber production might take
about the following form :

Acres

Intensive timber management 100, 000, 000

Extensive timber management 338, 900, 000'

Simple protection on land relatively unfavorable for timber manage-
ment 69, 700, 000

Total 508, 600, 000

This full land use, when fully effective 60 or 80 years hence, should
be able to produce about 2 1}£ billion cubic feet of timber in contrast
with possible normal requirements of 16K billion. In the large saw-
timber class it would produce about 74 billion board feet as compared
with possible normal requirements of 55 billion.

Unless, therefore, American requirements for timber increase, this
plan would offer a substantial surplus for export. The existing con-
ditions which indicate the probable availability of such a market
have already been described.

44 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

A plan of land use, which with a reasonable margin of safety would
approximately balance the national timber budget, is shown by the
following tabulation:

Acres

ID tensive timber management 70, 000, 000

Extensive timber management 278, 900, 000

Simple protection on land relatively favorable for timber manage-
ment 40, 700,000

Simple protection on land relatively unfavorable for timber manage-
ment 69, 700, 000

Total 459, 300, 000

By approximately the end of the century this adequate timber
supply plan could be expected to produce about 17}'2 billion cubic feet
and balance possible normal requirements with a margin of safety of
1 billion. Saw-timber production would reach about 60 billion board
feet as compared with possible normal requirements of 55 billion.

This plan would leave about 50 million acres available for other
purposes or as idle land :

Acres

Denuded forest land 33, 500, 000

Unused agricultural land 15, 800, 000

Total 49,300,000

The various activities which are essential to both plans are so
important that separate detailed consideration is necessary.

PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE

The following program for the control of forest fires covers all
classes of forests for all forms of use rather than commercial forests
for timber production only. It deals mainly with commercial forest
land, but also with noncommercial forest chiefly valuable for water-
shed protection and grazing and of areas reserved for recreation.

The program is based in part on the certainty of occurrence of
forest fires as a result of human occupancy and use. That fires are
bound to occur is shown by a country-wide average of over 156,000
fires and of nearly 41}£ million acres burned over annually in the 5-year
period between 1926 and 1930.

In addition the program set-up has recognized the area needing but
not now receiving protection, or 191 million acres, the difference
between 512 and 321.

A further basis for the program is a determination of the allowable
bum, or the percentage of the area by types that may burn over
annually without impairing radically the forest values as determined
by the predominant purpose of management.

An examination of how closely this objective has been reached
under current expenditures affords still another criterion for the re-
quired program. Current annual expenditures for 1926 to 1930 of
$5,437,598 on the national forests, including $1,780,840 capital invest-
ment in roads, etc., give a ratio of actual to allowable burn of 1.07
to 1, but an area of approximately 30 million acres on the Pacific
coast and in the northern Rocky Mountains needs much more inten-
sive protection to reduce a ratio of 5 to 1.

A ratio of nearly 11 to 1 on areas outside of the national forests
shows that expenditures of $5,400,000 for 1927 to 1930 must be ma-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

45

terially increased. Wholly unprotected areas, mostly in the South,
are chiefly responsible for this high ratio, since on protected private
and State forests for the entire country the ratio is 1.70 to 1.

Based upon these considerations, it is estimated that the ultimate
cost of adequate fire protection on areas outside of the existing
national forests will be nearly $20,000,000.

On the existing national forests $10,649,000 will be needed, of which
$4,279,000 is current expenditures and the remainder capital invest-
ment.

AREA NOW PROTECTED

AREA NEEDING PROTECTION

JOO

200 300

MILLION ACRES

400

500

I93E PROTECTION COST

COST OF PROPOSED PROTECTION PROGRAM

10

15 20

MILLION DOLLARS

25

30

35

FIGURE 20.— A desirable standard of fire protection will require the enlargement of the area now under
protection by 60 percent and the increase of 1932 expenditures by 120 percent.

An adequate program will also require the following increases :

Frorn—

To—

Indian forests

$94 528 00

$450 000

Public domain _ _

65,333.00

723, 598

National parks.

95 324 85

159 636

The total annual price which the American people will have to pay
to control the scourge of forest fire is therefore about $32,000,000 as
against 1932 expenditures of $14,475,000.

The area and financial aspects of the proposed program are also
shown in figure 20.

46 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST INSECTS

Insects cause losses in forest stands and in forest products estimated
at over $100,000,000 annually. They lower timber yields and retard
the growth of young stands. Frequently they change the composi-
tion of the forest to such an extent as to necessitate complete reshaping
of management plans. They create serious forest-fire hazards. They
damage or destroy finished wood products.

A well-organized detection and control system is essential to detect
outbreaks of native insects in their early stages. The failure of some
control projects has resulted from tardiness in recognizing an active
infestation or from lack of complete information as to its virulence
and extent. Costs in time and money are greatly increased unless
control is begun promptly. Regional forest-insect surveys on a
cooperative basis have been organized to meet needs but these have
not been carried to the point where forests can be zoned according to
susceptibility to insect infestation and the values that would be
endangered by insect attack.

The cost to public agencies of a general detection and control
system and of special control operations is estimated at $2,750,000
annually. This does not include needed private expenditures.
Serious epidemics would require special provisions.

PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST DISEASES

Each of the many valuable tree species of the United States is
subject to attack by one or more species of parasitic plants. Some
of the great number are capable of killing trees, others merely injure
them or destroy the wood they produce, and others retard their
growth. Some attack the germinating seedling, others the mature
tree. To identify the many different diseases that attack trees, to
determine the cause of their spread or the conditions or management
practices that affect it, and to ascertain what strains or varieties are
resistant to them for even the 25 most important timber species, at
the rate possible to the present force of investigators, would require
not less than half a century.

Except for research, the outstanding need of forest pathology is a
control service which will act in both a control and an advisory
capacity.

The control campaigns now under way, particularly on the white
pine blister rust in the East, and on the white and sugar pine forests
of Idaho and California, should be carried to completion.

Measures for the control of forest diseases are mainly but not all
indirect, consisting principally in modification of forest management.
Actual disease-control work on private land can largely be handled
by the owners of the land. Effective methods must, however, be
based on a comprehensive knowledge of the influence of soil, climatic,
and other factors on both the parasite and the host.

The dissemination of the knowledge which is available in several
organizations including the Division of Blister Rust Control of the
Bureau of Plant Industry requires an organization of experts. It
would seem logical to expand the scope of this Division to include
other forest-tree diseases.

Quarantines now established should be strengthened to prevent the
introduction of further diseases, and interstate shipments, particu-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 47

larly between the East and West, should be watched to prevent
native or introduced diseases prevalent in one region from becoming
established in another.

The annual cost to public agencies of the program outlined
is estimated at approximately $3,750,000. The largest item is
$2,000,000 for white pine blister rust on the national forests which
would be reduced to $300,000 after 5 years. As in the case of insects,
special provision would be necessary for serious epidemics.

HOW TO STOP FOREST DEVASTATION

The fact that more than 60 million acres of forest land in the
United States are already devastated fully justifies drastic action to
prevent any increase. Even though the estimated further devasta-
tion of 850,000 acres each year may possibly be fully offset by the
return of an equal area to productivity, the years of delay in the return
and its high cost constitute whatever further justification may be
needed for a program of preventive measures.

The major cause of forest devastation is fire and usually fire follow-
ing cutting. The fire protection program outlined would alone go
far toward stopping further devastation in most forest regions. It
would also permit the gradual reforestation through natural process
of much of the area already devastated.

Other measures needed on the greater part of the 9}£ million acres
now cut over annually without any conscious regard to the future
of the forest are :

1. Preservation of young seedling growth already on the ground
at the time of logging, or of the seed-bearing trees needed to reforest
the land after logging.

2. Slash disposal by some form of controlled burning or other means
on all areas where it constitutes a serious threat of destructive fires.
Partial disposal may be one satisfactory alternative; special protec-
tion of cut-over land until the slash hazard is reduced is another.

3. In a comparatively few forest regions prevention or at least the
careful control of grazing on reproducing areas will be necessary.

Aside from general fire protection, in the cost of which the public
shares, these measures are not expensive.

Frequently the necessary seed trees can be cut only at a loss.
Slash disposal will often more than justify itself from the standpoint
of protecting remaining stands of timber. In many cases measures
going considerably beyond those required to prevent forest devasta-
tion will be found to increase immediate profits rather than to reduce
them. In fact in more cases than are realized forest lands can
probably be devastated only at an immediate financial loss.

The total cost for the entire country, other than general fire protec-
tion, for stopping forest devastation, is estimated at not to exceed
$6,000,000. If the full facts were available, the balance would
probably be found to be on the other side of the ledger and in a much
larger sum.

EXTENSIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT

Extensive forest management lies between the measures necessary
to stop forest devastation and intensive forest management.

The data at hand do not permit an accurate determination of how
much forest land in the United States now qualifies under this classi-

48

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

fication by reason of a growth rate resulting from conscious effort
or otherwise. It may perhaps total 110 million acres.

This area as shown in figure 21 would have to be raised to about
279 million acres by about 2000 A.D. to meet timber requirements
and to 339 million acres to insure full forest land use. The annual
increase in the area brought under extensive management during the
next 70 years would therefore have to be about 2% or 3% million
acres, depending upon the objective set up.

Extensive management would produce an average of about 42
cubic feet per acre annually, or two thirds of the full forest yield to
be expected under intensive management. It represents a marked
advance over the estimated current average growth of 21 cubic feet
annually for the entire area of commercial forest land in the United
States. The growth for individual types and regions would have to
be increased from 50 to 200 percent.

PRESENT AREA

NEEDED TO MEET TIMBER REQUIREMENTS

FOR FULL FOREST LAND USE

60

120 180 240

MILLION ACRES

300

360

FIGURE 21.— To insure timber supplies adequate for national needs an area of 279 million acres should be
placed under extensive management during the next few decades; and to insure full land use an area of
339 million acres.

Extensive management presupposes the levels of protection against
fire, insects, and diseases already outlined. It uses relatively simple
silvicultural methods such as the protection of advance reproduction,
the leaving of at least the trees which cannot be cut with profit,
additional seed trees where necessary, some attention to keeping the
better species in the stand, slash disposal, and the prevention of
injurious grazing. It places more emphasis on quantity than on
quality of production. It attempts at least a rough application of
the sustained yield principle. It would not ordinarily require plant-
ing or cultural measures in growing stands. It is characterized by
a minimum of effort and low costs which may actually in most
cases be found to be savings.

It may in some cases be a necessary first step to intensive forestry.
Over large areas low in productivity or inaccessible to markets, it
may be the most desirable ultimate practice.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 49

INTENSIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT

Intensive forest management on 70 million acres is one of the
measures needed to meet national timber requirements.

To bring the area available for timber growing into full productive
use that under intensive management should be increased to 100
million acres.

To reach these objectives it will be necessary to expand the area
under intensive management at the rate of about 1 or of \% million
acres annually for about 70 years. The magnitude of the program
is indicated graphically in figure 22.

The provision for intensive forest management is based on the
theory that it is better to concentrate a substantial part of the effort
in timber growing on the most favorable areas than to diffuse it over
the entire area available.

PRESENT AREA

NEEDED TO MEET TIMBER REQUIREMENTS

FOR FULL FOREST LAND USE

25

50
MILLION ACRES

75

100

FIGURE 22.— The negligible area now under intensive forest management must be increased to 70 million
acres to meet national timber needs. A program of full land use would place 100 million acres under
intensive management.

Intensive forestry aims to realize through silvicultural treatment
the nearest practical approach to the maximum productivity^ of a
given site, or to grow by particular effort some special quality of
product.

If the areas on which it is to be used are properly selected with
reference to volume and value of production, accessibility to market,
and risk, intensive forestry offers the promise of the highest volume,
quality, and money return per unit of effort and cost. It offers the
best means for producing the large-size, high-quality material and
special products such as clear finish and flooring, which are likely to
be scarce in the future and which are not likely to be produced with-
out special effort.

It presupposes fire, insect, and disease control.

Under different conditions intensive forestry requires a \\ide
variation in methods of cutting to insure natural reforestation of the
best species. It requires cultural measures such as weeding, girdling,
thinning, and pruning to carry young stands to maturity in the
shortest possible time with the highest yields of desirable species and

50

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

qualities. In some cases it is necessary to refrain from cutting in
order to build up the forest capital essential to full growth. Plant-
ing is necessary where natural reforestation fails.

PLANTING

Although logically a part of intensive forestry, the area of barren
land requiring planting is so large that a separate program is justified.

The area which must be considered for planting includes 83 million
acres of nonstocked or poorly stocked forest land. It includes also
55 million acres of abandoned submarginal agricultural land, making
a total of 138 million acres.

It is estimated that 47 million acres of this total will restock
naturally within 20 years and 68 million within 40 years, leaving
unstocked balances of 91 and 70 million acres, respectively.

AREA WHICH MUST BE CONSIDERED FOR PLANTING

DEVASTATED AND POORLY
STOCKED AREA

AREA THAT WILL NOT
RESTOCK IN 40 YEARS

ABANDONED AGRI-
CULTURAL LAND

20-YEAR

PLANTING

PROGRAM

25

50 75 IOO

MILLION ACRES

125

150

FIGURE 23. — Maximum planting possibilities are measured by 138 million acres of devastated and poorly-
stocked forest and abandoned agricultural land. To provide for the planting, within 20 years, of even a
soant fifth of this area represents a great advance in the current rate of planting. This program will,
however, account for a substantial portion of the 70 million acres that would otherwise remain waste
even after four decades.

The justifications for planting are those of forestry itself, timber
production, erosion control and streamflow regulation, and in general
the economic and social benefits of the productive forest.

Planting to date in the United States has covered 1,892,105 acres,
including 153,460 in 1931. Large numbers of private owners, the
Federal Government, States, and other public agencies have partici-
pated. \\hile not uniformly successful, planting technique has
improved steadily.

The 20-year planting program recommended is based on the most
urgent watershed and timber production needs. It provides for
25 million acres, figure 23, nine tenths in the East. It would prob-
ably cost about $172,000,000, or an average of $8,600,000 for 1,276,000
acres annually.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 51

Depending on the rate and extent of public acquisition, the public
share of the total might be about 19.5 million acres, costing about
$151,500,000. The private owners' share would be 5.5 million acres,
costing $20,500,000.

ENLARGING THE CONSUMPTION OF FOREST PRODUCTS

In the United States until recent years wood has been the accepted
material for a great variety of purposes and especially for general
building construction.

Uses long held by wood are, however, being contested by old
materials refined by science and by new materials of scientific origin
promoted aggressively with the aid of intensive technical knowledge
of their properties and the requirements for their use. Since 1907
there has been a declining trend in lumber markets. The use of
wood for fuel has also decreased. The declines have not been offset
by increased use for such purposes as pulp and paper.

The increasing interchangeability of materials may be expected to
bring about the decreasing use of almost any material which attempts
to rest its case solely on past importance.

The productive use of a large part of our forest land for timber
growing is so important to the people of the United States that a
balanced program in forestry must include aggressive and persistent
efforts to retain, recapture, and expand markets for wood. Efforts
of this kind offer in part at least the solution to such problems as the
existing overproduction in the lumber industry.

A much fuller use in the future than in the past of the modern com-
petitive methods followed for other materials is required. Accom-
plishments along four lines are necessary : lower costs to the consumer,
increased satisfaction in use through fuller understanding of or im-
provements in properties, the development of new or modified prod-
ucts, and the promotion of use.

Among other things, greater industrial efficiency in logging, manu-
facture, distribution, and merchandising are involved. So also is the
integration of forest industries.

Research can be made to contribute to most if not all of these ends
through better understanding of the properties of wood and how they
can be modified, and of how best to meet the requirements for ex-
ceedingly varied use. It can also contribute through the develop-
ment of new and valuable products.

The distinct possibility that world markets in the future may be
able to absorb any surplus, particularly of coniferous timber, that may
be grown in the United States does not minimize the desirability or
the necessity from the standpoint of the public interest if from no
other, for keeping wood in effective competition with other materials
in the United States.

ADEQUATE WATERSHED PROTECTION

Adequate watershed protection requires the improvement of various
phases of land management, the details for most of which are outlined
elsewhere. Such protection is particularly important on 308 million
acres of forest estimated to exert a major watershed influence, and on
the 141 million additional estimated to exert a moderate influence.

52

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

LAND MANAGEMENT

Among the most important improvements in management needed
are protection against fire, which should be extended over 191 million
acres additional and raised to the standards already indicated.

Methods of cutting timber must be improved at least to the extent
necessary to prevent forest devastation and preferably to the require-
ments of extensive forestry.

About 11 million acres of devastated forest and abandoned sub-
marginal agricultural land, almost entirely in the East, should be
planted primarily to meet watershed requirements.

Range management must be begun on both privately owned forest
ranges and those remaining on the public domain to build the forage
cover up to normal density. Management must be brought to a
higher degree of perfection on the national forests and Indian reser-
vations. Artificial revegetation of some 900,000 acres at a cost of

AREAS UNDER A PROPOSED PLAN
OF PUBLIC ACQUISITION

50

100

150 200

MILLION ACRES

850

300

350

Public Forest Land

Private Forest Land

FIGURE 24.— Nearly all of the most critical watershed problems center in privately owned forest or aban-
doned agricultural lands of major watershed influence. A much larger public ownership is believed to
be the only satisfactory solution.

$3,000,000 is desirable. The requirements in range management are
largely western.

Special measures, frequently of an engineering character, may be
necessary as a last resort on perhaps 20 million acres mainly on aban-
doned agricultural land in the East, at a possible cost of about
$20,000,000.

PUBLIC ACQUISITION

The watershed protection problem is largely one of privately
owned lands. Since a substantial part of the benefits will accrue to
the public and not to the landowner, necessary action on very large
areas can hardly be obtained except through public ownership.

Public acquisition of 155 million acres of privately owned lands,
three fourths in the East and including 22 million acres of abandoned
agricultural land, is therefore recommended for this purpose alone.
These lands are in forest areas having major or moderate influence on

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 53

watershed protection. The proposed shift in ownership in the area
of major influence is shown in figure 24.

The lands already under Federal, State, or other public ownership
but without administration are a special case. In their present con-
dition they are a public disgrace. Formal reservation as national or
State forests or other units permitting administration is the first
prerequisite to management and administration.

LANDS UNDER PRIVATE OWNERSHIP

The lands that remain in private ownership will be put in a much
more satisfactory condition for watershed protection by the fire pro-
gram recommended and this should be done with public aid. Further
improvement depends largely upon the owner, although here also the
public aid recommended in such ways as planting stock at low cost,
advice, etc., will be helpful.

ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR FOREST RECREATION

The use of the forest for recreation has received so little attention
and the need for it is and should be assuming such proportions that
the first requirement is for a survey to determine what types of forest
recreation are particularly desired and how much land should be set
aside for each.

Although almost any forest may be used for recreation, the follow-
ing types require especial consideration:

Superlative areas. — Those with unique scenic values so surpassing
and stupendous in their beauty as to be of unusual interest and
inspiration.

Primitive areas. — Tracts of old growth timber in which human
activities has never upset the normal processes of nature.

Wilderness areas. — Those without permanent inhabitants or means
of mechanical conveyance, and of sufficient size to permit a week or
two of travel without crossing one's own tracks.

Roadside areas. — Timbered strips adjoining important roads.

Residence areas. — Those set aside for private homes, hotels, etc.

Campsite areas. — Those set aside for campers, etc.

Outing areas. — Those not seriously impaired scenically on which
one can get away from the sounds of the highway.

For most or all of these it will be necessary to consider and provide
in varying degree for such things as :

Finding suitable areas;

Setting them aside under suitable auspices, or for public purchase
or acceptance as gifts;

Making suitable plans for their administration, including the
enforcement of necessary regulations, the construction of needed
roads and trails, or other forms of improvements, or the barring of
roads and trails ; planting ; prohibition or restriction in timber cutting ;

The elimination of billboards, etc., and objectionable private im-
provements such as buildings; and

Provision for protection against fire, insects, and fungi.

Federal, State, and local legislation and appropriations will be
necessary. The most needed legislation may be congressional
authorization to develop and safeguard the recreational, educational,
and inspirational value of the national forests.

54 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

So far as can now be foreseen, the area which will probably be
needed primarily for forest recreation, including 11 million acres
already withdrawn from timber use, is:

Acres

Superlative areas 3, 000, 000

Primeval areas 9, 500, 000

Wilderness areas 10, 000, 000

Roadside areas 4, 000, 000

Acres

Residence areas 6, 000, 000

Outing areas 11, 000, 000

Total _ 45,000,000

Campsite areas 1, 500, 000

ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR FOREST WILD LIFE

An adequate forest wild-life program must, among other things,
obtain the best development and use of forest wild life as a product
of the land in proper coordination with other products and services,
make it possible for wild life to meet aesthetic, scientific, and other
social services, and preserve the American hunting tradition. What
is most needed to obtain these ends is forest wild-life management.

Upon suitable management depends the restoration and main-
tenance of wild life in a normal balance as between species and with
other forest resources, distribution into proper environmental con-
ditions, the preservation of species now threatened with extinction,
and sustained yield of the wild-life crop, particularly of game and fur
bearers.

The unification of wild-life and forest-land management is a second
essential requirement of a program. Unification is made difficult by
the fact that, in general, control of game is in the State while the
ownership and control of the land and other forest resources with
which wild-life management must be coordinated may be private or
Federal as well as State.

Unification can be accomplished on privately owned lands by com-
pensating the owner directly or indirectly for producing game crops.

On national forests and other Federally owned lands the working
out of satisfactory arrangements constitutes an important but still
unsolved problem.

The third requirement in a forest wild-life program is adequate
provision for public hunting grounds. This requirement can be met
by the program of public acquisition of forest lands recommended in
another program.

Still another requirement is the establishment in all States of active
nonpolitical game commissions with full authority to regulate seasons,
bag limits, license fees, closed areas, and other phases of wild-life
management.

The area of forest land in the United States is large enough fully
to meet all wild life requirements.

The provisions needed in an adequate program for fish in forest
waters are in general similar to those for mammals and birds in
management, unification of control, public fishing grounds, and
active nonpolitical game commissions with fuh1 authority.

A proposal of the Bureau of Fisheries for the expansion of a fishery
survey begun in the western national forest regions requires special
mention. One purpose is the development of a national policy for
stocking national forest and other public domain waters.

Another needed measure is the coordination of the activities of the
various agencies of the Federal, State, and local governments dealing
with the fish problem into a general program.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 55

ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR FOREST RANGES

The outstanding need for forest ranges is sustained yield manage-
ment properly coordinated with the management of timber, water-
shed, wild life, and other forest resources.

For the ranges on the 190 million acres of privately owned com-
mercial forest lands, the incentive is a return from grazing which in
many instances can be made a material factor in meeting costs and
increasing profits. Only coordinated sustained yield management,
however, will insure the largest returns without interfering with
timber production.

On noncommercial forest lands in private ownership of 38 million
acres the range use may be dominant. Sustained yield management
offers the only means for obtaining the largest continuous returns.

Watershed requirements will ordinarily but not always be met by
thoroughly effective management for the timber and range resources.
But satisfactory range management purely from the standpoint of
continuous forage production is about as far as the unaided private
owner can be expected to go.

Publicly owned or managed forest lands fall into two classes. One
class includes the National and State forests and the Indian reserva-
tions. The need here is for perfecting management including the
restoration of depleted ranges.

The second class includes the forest lands of the western public
domain, 13 million acres of which, along with 9 million of interspersed
nontimbered lands, should be added to the national forests and placed
under management. The remainder, consisting of small, widely
separated areas, usually parts of larger range areas, should be placed
under a form of public administration which will assure satisfactory
management.

ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR FOREST RESEARCH

Since lack of knowledge has handicapped the whole forestry move-
ment, adequate provision for it is one of the essentials in a compre-
hensive national plan for the future development of forestry.

Such lack is one among the many factors which have led to the
long series of mistakes in public and industrial policies which have
created our most critical forest problems.

Such lack accentuated by the absence of traditional knowledge is
one among the many factors which have delayed constructive remedial
measures in growing and protecting timber, decreased their efficiency
increased their cost, and discouraged efforts to put them into effect.

The building up of research has in practically all cases fallen
seriously behind the creation and management of public forests and
attempts to formulate State and national policies.

The great enlargement and intensification of the program recom-
mended in this report for all phases of forestry in themselves demand
a corresponding development of research by all agencies.

BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Research in the Forest Service covers silviculture, forest manage-
ment, and protection against fire, range management, erosion and
streamflow, forest products, and forest economics including the
Forest Survey.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 5

56 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Five years' development under the McSweeney-McNary Forest
Research Act has shown the need for several modifications.

One of the most important is to double the authorization for annual
expenditures of $250,000 in the Forest Survey in order to expedite its
completion. National plans such as that presented here must of
necessity be modified periodically to meet changing conditions. To
help supply the data needed, provision should also be made for keeping
important factual data current after the completion of the initial
Survey.

The second is to add a section to the act which will place investiga-
tions of the crucial erosion-streamflow problem on the same footing as
other forest research, and authorize annual expenditures of $500,000.

A third, which might if desirable, be incorporated in general
legislation for all land, is to authorize a maximum annual expenditure
of from $250,000 to $400,000 for the forest land part of land classifica-
tion.

Under the research act thus amended the 10-year financial pro-
gram of annual increases for all research in the Forest Service would
start at $565,000 and end at $315,000.

Detailed estimates cannot be made satisfactorily for a longer period,
although it is practically certain that unfilled needs will then neces-
sitate further increases.

The Forest Research Act also provides for investigations in forest
pathology in the Bureau of Plant Industry, in forest entomology in
the Bureau of Entomology, in forest biology in the Biological Survey,
and in forest fire weather research in the Weather Bureau. The
need in all is to increase appropriations to the full amount of the
authorizations by the fiscal year 1938. Increases for all this work
would average about $100,000 annually. The need is also to provide
for whatever emergencies may result from serious epidemics.

For research by the Bureau of Fisheries in connection with fish
cultural operations in forest waters it is estimated that an annual
appropriation of $25,000 will be needed.

The National Arboretum should also have a place in the Federal
program because of the contribution which it can make to various
fundamental problems. It would be of particular value because of
the presence in Washington of so many scientific groups working on
different phases of forest research.

BY THE STATES

Since forest research by the Federal Government must be con-
centrated on national and regional probelms and deal with only local
Eroblems only as they are required for the management of Federal
inds, a large field must be covered by the States.
It is believed that the States would be justified during the next 10
years in building up their research from current annual expenditures
of about $400,000 to $2,500,000.

BY ENDOWED INSTITUTIONS

Completely to meet the need for fundamental forest research and to
round out the efforts of other agencies, the establishment of an institu-
tion devoted solely to forest research is most desirable. It could take
the form of the single, closely-knit organization recommended by the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 57

Society of American Foresters, or of several smaller units at university
centers recommended by a committee of the National Academy of
Sciences, or it could take the form of various combinations of the two
plans. To be thoroughly effective it should command an annual
income of at least $1,000,000.

A similar opportunity exists at endowed educational institutions
and forest schools where annual expenditures of $500,000 will more
nearly represent the potentialities for forest research than current
efforts costing $120,000.

Existing endowed research institutions and arboreta could well
contribute another $500,000.

BY THE FOREST INDUSTRIES

No program of forest research can be complete, however, without
providing for an enlarged contribution from the forest industries.
Research is one of the most effective competitive weapons at the
disposal of the lumber and other forest industries to hold and to
enlarge the consumption of their products. The public cannot and
should not be expected to bear the entire burden. An increase to
$3, 500,000 in current expenditures of $2,500,000 is not unreasonable.

Present expenditures for forest research by all agencies and those
proposed 10 years hence are therefore:

Present

Proposed

Federal

$3, 000, 000

$6,000,000

State -- - --- -- -

400,000

2,500,000

Forest research institution - - - - _

1,000,000

Endowed educational institutions

120,000

500,000

Endowed research institutions - ..

230,000

500,000

The forest industries

2,500,000

3,500,000

THE REQUIRED AGENCY PROGRAMS IN A NATIONAL

PLAN

THE ALTERNATIVES

Both public and private agencies are available for carrying out the
activity programs outlined. The way in which these agencies can
act may take various forms. The coordination of agency participa-
tion and form of action in a national plan leads into a second set of
programs some of which are of great magnitude. The main agency
form of action alternatives are:

1. Continued dependence on private ownership to carry the major
portion of the national burden.

2. Primary dependence on private ownership, but using public aid
to stimulate the necessary effort.

3. Primary dependence on private ownership, but requiring the
necessary effort through public regulation.

4. Public assumption of a major part of the job through the
ownership and management of the land.

Private ownership, private ownership stimulated by public aid,
and/or by public regulation, and public ownership have all been tried
out in the United States and all have made a sufficient contribution
to American forestry and are so well established that they must be

58 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

retained. All in fact center in ownership, so that the main decision
narrows down to a choice between continued chief reliance on private
ownership or a drastic shift to two kinds of public ownership, State
and Federal.

The reasons for recommending a large shift to public ownership
and the efforts which should be made to insure much fuller use in the
future of the lands left in private ownership are treated in the following

pages.

PRIVATE OWNERSHIP

The traditional American policy has been to depend upon private
ownership and initiative. This is largely true in forest-land owner-
ship and management despite the departure represented in the
National, State, and other public forests.

ITS POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

The possibilities and limitations of private effort must be judged
in part from past results. These have already been outlined and
need not be repeated. In general, however, they have been very
seriously detrimental to the owners and the forest industries, to the
productivity of the forest, and to the public interest. Constructive
management is conspicuous largely by its absence, except in fire
protection.

The results indicated are so universal that they raise the question
if they are not almost inevitable in the system of private ownership
particularly under American conditions and expectations for quick
business turnover and large profits. The time element, uncertainties
as to cost and markets, the absence of practical demonstrations, the
lack of traditional knowledge, the general inertia or opposition to
radical change in long-established ways of doing things, all contribute
to the difficulties standing in the way of satisfactory private forestry.

Private forestry has the possibilities common to all forestry in the
United States, the intrinsic value of wood as a raw material and the
fact that it is renewable indefinitely, the exceptional number and value
of American species, exceptionally favorable growth conditions, the
largest domestic market in the world, regional demand larger than
cut in all parts of the United States except the South and the Pacific
Northwest, the same opportunities to fight for future markets as any
raw material, the practical exhaustion of virgin timber supplies except
in the Far West, the drain on our forest five times the growth for saw
timber and twice the growth of timber of all sizes, a world demand at
least holding its own and probably increasing, and, for coniferous
timber most in demand, a world cut in excess of growth.

Finally, there is growing evidence that under many and perhaps
most conditions it is more profitable even in immediate returns to
leave forest land productive than to devastate it.

Private forestry has some distinct advantages over the public
forests so far created. It has the best land and it has the oppor-
tunity to supply needed raw materials to perpetuate such enter-
prises as pulp and paper manufacture, to supply the wood needed
in mining, and to diversify agriculture. In addition, there are what-
ever further advantages may lie in the greater efficiency claimed for
private over publicly managed activities.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 59

One obvious advantage which would accrue from fully adequate
private effort would be the elimination of any necessity for further
extension of public ownership and administration of land. Another
might be the best possible outlet for private initiative; still another
would be the largest possible tax base and hence tax returns to local
governments.

The main public disadvantage is the lack of assurance either that
the land will be utilized, that the needed forest products or necessary
services of the forest will be supplied, or that the combined economic
and social benefits from both will be realized.

Furthermore, the longer present trends continue the larger the area
of devastated land and deteriorated forest will be and the greater
the direct and indirect losses to the public, including the cost of
restoration.

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that there is nothing in past
experience or definitely in sight for the future which gives reason for
hope that private ownership can be depended on for anything ap-
proaching the contribution to American forestry that has been expected
of it during the past 20 years.

WHAT PRIVATE OWNERSHIP SHOULD DO

Under the program of public ownership proposed, 255 million acres
of commercial land, including approximately 20 million acres of
abandoned agricultural land, would remain in private ownership, in
contrast with the 451 million acres of commercial forest land and
abandoned agricultural land now held. About three fifths, or 155
million acres, would be in industrial ownership and 100 million in
farm ownership.

Noncommercial forests in private ownership would be about 16 mil-
lion acres instead of the present 45.

Private ownership would be relieved of much of its most acute
problem such as the part caused by overload of forest land and timber.

The responsibility of private ownership would, however, be in-
creased, not reduced. It would still hold over 46 percent of the com-
mercial forest land, including abandoned agricultural land. This
area must be depended upon for growing one half of the timber
needed to meet national requirements.

It would involve as a minimum intensive management for timber
production on about 40 million acres and extensive management on
150 million — areas far in excess of those now under such manage-
ment— and standards of protection, silviculture, and sustained yield
management much above those now in use. It would involve much
greater and much more effective efforts to maintain and increase
consumption of forest products.

Private ownership would still hold the responsibility for watershed
protection on nearly one fifth of the area of forests of major influence.

To make the opportunities for private owners still more favorable
and the assurance of constructive action more certain, public aid
should be expanded in the ways which promise the largest results.
The question of aid is discussed in detail on the following pages but
must be referred to here to round out the picture. Judiciously used,
public regulation could also be made to contribute to the same end.

Aid in protection against fire, insects, and disease should meet the
public obligation in full. A fair share of the technical knowledge

60 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

needed in the management of the timber and other forest resources
should be obtained through research and made available through
extension.

Financial obstacles, such as inequitable forest taxation, should be
removed. If the necessary protection of the public interest through
regulated and enforceable sustained yield management can be worked
out, it might be possible to provide for loans and to allow mergers
and the curtailment of production. This should strengthen the
financial structure of the forest industries and help to stabilize
ownership.

Increased public aid would in itself however, increase private
responsibility for the productive use of the land held.

All in all, therefore, private ownership would still have ahead of
it an enormous task and one which would require its maximum pos-
sible efforts.

PUBLIC AID TO PRIVATE OWNERS

ITS POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

The granting of public aid to private owners of forest land has
been in part an attempt to perpetuate the traditional American
policy of private ownership by stimulating private initiative.

It is in part also a recognition of the public interest in land use,
the production of timber and other products, and in the resulting
economic and social benefits. This interest has local, State, regional,
and national aspects.

Aid in fire protection recognized also a large public use of privately
owned lands and great public indifference in the use of fire. It
recognized outside risks beyond the control of individual owners.
Finally, it recognized protection against fire as one of the main require-
ments in forestry for timber production or other purposes.

Aid in the control of forest insects and diseases recognized the
highly specialized and variable technical problems involved, the very
irregular occurrence of epidemics, as well as their State, regional,
national, and even international aspects.

Aid in planting recognized the difficulty that small owners with
periodical requirements experience in obtaining seedlings at reason-
able cost. It recognized the widespread psychological appeal of
planting and attempted to remove possible obstacles.

Advice in forest management attempted to offset the absence of
traditional knowledge of methods of timber growing and the lack of
practical demonstrations, and to overcome the inertia which handi-
caps an entirely new kind of enterprise.

Research attempted to recognize the handicaps indicated in the
preceding paragraph, to build up a fund of knowledge and to have
the public do what large numbers of small owners could not possibly
do for themselves individuaUy.

Taxation, either because of the existing form or of future uncer-
tainties, has rightly or wrongly been held by private owners to be a
primary obstacle to the development of forestry. Relief in many
States has gone to the extreme of outright subsidy.

Aid began as early as 1876 in Federal research and in fire protec-
tion in New York in 1885. Marked development began in 1911 with
Federal participation in fire protection, and was still further

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 61

stimulated in 1924 with the passage of the Clarke-McNary Act,
which brought in various other kinds of aid. The latter was in fact
a carefully considered and publicly announced effort to try out on
a large scale the efficiency of aid in stimulating private owners to
shoulder the major part of the job of timber growing in the United
States, before attempting Nation-wide regulation or greatly enlarged
public ownership.

The first decision which must be faced lies, therefore, between
three alternatives. Whether —

1. Because of the success of the trial of the public-aid plan or its
future promise primary dependence for the major part of the forestry
job should continue to be placed on private ownership stimulated by
public aid, which would probably mean a very much larger public
contribution; or

2. Because of the failure of the plan or the demonstrated limitations
as to its future promise, public aid should be utilized only for greater
assurance of the necessary constructive private action on greatly
reduced private holdings. Public aid under this plan would be con-
siderably smaller, even though the time required for public acquisi-
tion is taken fully into account; or

3. A possible third alternative of combining public aid with public
regulation will be considered under the latter heading.

The decision between the first two alternatives has been antici-
pated in the discussion of private ownership.

While the public has obtained fuUy commensurate returns from
the aid so far given, the detailed data already presented show the
trial of the first alternative during the last 20 and particularly the
last 10 years has not been entirely satisfactory.

Private owners accept aid but too rarely carry their own efforts
farther.

The devastation of forest land continues on a large scale. The
deterioration of forests continues on a much larger scale. Growing
stock or forest capital is reduced, when both public and private
interest require that it should be increased. These processes continue
both on the cut-over lands of the East and in the virgin timber stands
of the West. Watershed requirements are met only to the extent
that partial protection against fire can meet them. Constructive
measures of forest management and reforestation by planting lag far
behind the destructive processes. Ownership seems to be tending
toward less rather than greater stability.

Much of the Federal aid designed to reach the private owner is
turned over to the States for administration. It has been a decided
or the controlling factor in the stimulation and development of a
forestry organization in at least half of the States, and of aid to the
private owner in practicaUy all of the 45 States and 2 Territories
where it is now given.

The stimulus to State effort has been offset in part at least by the
inability or unwillingness of the States to match Federal-aid ratios.
This failure is often the most serious where the need is greatest, as
for example, in the South.

In general, therefore, the conclusion is inescapable that with aid in
the forms so far extended, even though guaranteed in much larger
amounts, private ownership will fall far short of meeting national
needs.

62 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Enlargement of existing forms of aid will be worth while. New
forms will be suggested which should be helpful. These are recom-
mended, however, under the second alternative of obtaining better
results on a much smaller area of private lands.

RECOMMENDED PUBLIC AID

Public aid may take the form of Federal and State and other public
aid to private owners, or of aid from one public agency to another.
The former wih1 be given first consideration.

Undoubtedly there are definite limitations beyond which such aid
cannot go without becoming outright subsidy and exceeding the
public obligation and interest. It should not be carried into the pork-
barrel category. The recommendations recognize these limitations
as well as the factors justifying enlargement.

Protection against fire should as rapidly as possible be extended
over forest lands now unprotected, amounting to at least 191 million
acres. Standards should be raised over practically the entire country
but chiefly in the South. To meet both the objectives on private and
State ]ands, expenditures must ultimately be increased to about
$20,000,000, .as contrasted with $7,221,000 in 1931. A large part of
the increase, from $900,000 to $11,000,000, is in the South. Because
of the size of the increase in the South an intermediate southern
objective of $6,000,000 has been recognized.

The ultimate Federal contribution in this program should be about
$5,000,000. The amount of the State contribution will vary between
75 and 35 percent in individual cases, depending upon what is obtained
from private owners.

For a general forest-insect detection and control system and for
special control operations on private lands public expenditures of
approximately $2,450,000 annually will be required, of which the
Federal Government and the States should carry about equal parts.
Private owners must contribute an indeterminate amount for actual
control operations, depending upon such factors as the merchant-
ability of trees cut.

For protection against very serious insect and disease epidemics
no estimates can be made. Because of their infrequent occurrence
and interstate or international character, emergency forces can best
be directed by Federal agencies. The proper contribution of Fed-
eral, State, and private agencies will necessarily have to depend
upon the conditions in each case.

The public contribution needed for a control service for both
advisory and control work on forest diseases on private lands is esti-
mated at about $1,410,000 annually, with the Federal Government
and the States sharing about equally.

Planting stock should be made available at about one-half cost to
all industrial and farm owners. The annual Federal contribution,
now $79,960, need not exceed $350,000 and would be used for assist-
ance in the establishment of new and the expansion of existing
nurseries and the enlargement of technical staffs. The State con-
tribution need not be larger.

In connection with a greatly enlarged planting program, provision
is necessary for the certification of forest tree seed as to source and
for seed testing. It need not cost more than $50,000 and should be
handled by the central government.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 63

While Federal forest research should be enlarged as previously
recommended, it should not be extended beyond the Federal obli-
gations already specified. Despite this limitation, the results will
have important State and private-aid aspects.

Until the Federal Government has met its own obligations for
research it is somewhat difficult to justify financial contributions for
research on State and local problems, and the research required on
local problems for the management of Federal lands can best be done
by the National Government. All Federal and State work is of
great value to private owners as well as in the administration of
public forests. Federal expenditures will need to be increased by
about $3,000,000 and State expenditures by about $2,100,000 during
the next 10 years. The burden on the States will not be heavy,
however, considering the number interested.

Advice in forest management is a form of aid urgently in need of
enlargement and one to which both the Federal Government and the
States should contribute.

Present Federal contributions in advice in farm woodland forestry
of $69,850 should be increased as rapidly as possible to $250,000,
and this should be matched by at least an equal amount by the
States. Current State expenditures are $92,718.

Provision should also be made for similar aid to industrial owners.
The Federal contributions should be $375,000, of which $150,000
would be available to match State contributions on a 50-50 basis
and up to $225,000 for direct expenditure by the Federal Forest
Service.

Forest taxation, a State and local function, should be placed on an
equitable basis. The Federal Government should continue to assist
in working out sound principles.

Other forms of possible public aid to private owners include loans,
authorizations for mergers, and curtailment of output, which if
allowed should be combined with regulatory requirements for sus-
tained yield management which will protect the public interest.
They will therefore be discussed under Public Regulation.

The second class of public aid includes possible aid from the Fed-
eral Government to States and from States to counties and other
political subdivisions. Only the former will be discussed. Senate
Resolution 175 asks particular consideration of the possibilities and
desirability of Federal aid to States and implies use for the purchase
of State forests.

That State action might be stimulated is recognized. But gifts
are not recommended because, under the plan proposed, it is believed
that the Federal Government will have about all the financial load
it can carry, and because it is believed that the soundest principle is
for any public agency 'to undertake only what it can subsequently
finance. Efficiency in expenditures will be greater. Wealthy States
do not need such aid. The poorer States would probably not be
able without further aid to carry the forests thus acquired until self-
sustaining. The wealthy States, which in the last analysis would
provide the funds, might prefer to build up State forests within their
own boundaries and have their contributions to Federal income go
into Federally owned and managed lands, for which they would be
able to watch expenditures and to demand an accounting.

64 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Finally, Federal gifts to States for State forests would probably
sooner or later lead to the political demand, as a flank attack on the
conservation movement, that the existing national forests be turned
over to the States.

Loans to States are subject to much the same objections. The un-
certainty of repayment might well make nominal loans actual gifts.

Federal acquisition and administration of national forests have
important aid aspects to State and local communities and private
owners despite the fact that they were established and are adminis-
tered primarily to meet national problems. It is estimated, for exam-
ple, that the net annual gain to the States and counties between 1923
and 1927 from the national forests was approximately $10,000,000.

PUBLIC REGULATION

Most European and some other countries restrict the handling of
privately owned forests. Nearly all provide at least for the classifi-
cation and preservation of forests necessary for watershed protection,
or for the protection of the public health, or for national defense.
For such purposes the owners are subject to more or less strict control.
Many countries provide that other forests at least be kept in a pro-
ductive condition.

In the United States practically all the States have undertaken in
varying degrees to restrict the use of private forest land, chiefly to
prevent injury to other persons or property. The restrictions are
mainly in the prevention, suppression, and use of fire and in the
elimination of fire hazards. A few States have other restrictions. The
regulation of other activities, both State and Federal, is widespread,
including such things as the use of wild life, water resources, the use
of urban land, methods of business competition, and combinations in
restraint of trade.

The public unquestionably has the right to compel private owners
to desist from practices which will directly injure others or the public
in general or will destroy or impair the efficiency of forests for water-
shed purposes. It also has the right to protect itself against waste
and social loss resulting from forest devastation even where water-
sheds are not involved. The right to compel the maintenance of high
productivity by means of desirable standards of silvicultural practice
is less well established.

The need for higher standards than could probably be compelled
is unquestionable.

But if the private owner is to be regulated, the public should pay
its f air share of the costs of measures intended largely or solely for the
benefit of others than the owners.

ITS POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

Since private ownership has in the past largely failed in meeting
national requirements and offers little more promise for the future,
and since public aid in any form yet proposed apparently has very
definite limitations in its possibilities of accomplishment, something
more is called for. Public regulation is one of the remaining possi-
bilities.

Nation-wide regulation in which the Federal Government and all
the forest-land States join forces for maximum effectiveness could

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 65

certainly be counted on to give larger and more positive results than
the combination of private ownership and public aid.

Theoretically, regulation should be effective in a much shorter
tune than large-scale public acquisition, the other major possibility
remaining at our disposal.

Regulation promises substantial benefits to the owners themselves
as well as to the public.

It should help to perpetuate the American philosophy of private
property notwithstanding some curtailment in the right to utilize
this property.

Of importance when taxation is such a serious burden, regulation,
in at least its initial expenditures and discounting future direct returns,
should cost the public somewhat less than public ownership.

But public regulation has limitations also which should be taken
into account.

Since both Federal legislation and that of a large number of States
would be required and might be strongly opposed, considerable time
would probably be required to obtain the legislation alone. The
additional time necessary to make regulation effective on the ground
might give little or no advantage in time over public ownership.

The twilight zone between Federal and State effort might and
probably would result in complications and weakness.

The opposition and financial weakness of private owners and the
ease of defeating the enforcement of requirements on the ground might
and probably would offer serious difficulties.

It would be impossible to regulate an owner who would not retain
ownership, and this class might include much of the land most needing
betterment.

The danger that the owners might gain control over the regulation
machinery locally and nationally and use it in a way detrimental to
the public interest cannot be entirely overlooked.

The best legal justification for regulation is perhaps for the protec-
tion of watersheds and for the prevention of forest devastation.
Neither alone will build up forest capital or growing stock to keep
forest lands fully productive and therefore fully meet national timber
requirements.

Furthermore, the difficulty of obtaining legislation and of satisfac-
torily enforcing it might make it doubtful whether either watershed
protection or the prevention of forest devastation could be fully
secured for sometime to come.

The fact that regulation has largely failed in many of the States
with even moderate statutory requirements, which are almost uni-
versally accepted as necessary, raises a question as to whether a
Nation-wide extension would succeed.

If the principle of public aid on requirements intended largely or
solely to benefit others is fully met, the cost to the public might fall
so little below that of public acquisition that purchase would be prefer-
able. Except for taxes, however, the public would under regulation
get only the indirect and intangible returns and not the direct receipts
which could be obtained from publicly owned lands.

All things considered, however, public regulation is one of the two
possibilities which offer any real promise of meeting the major ob-
jectives set up.

66 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE PUBLIC REGULATION RECOMMENDED

The recommendation that chief reliance be placed on public owner-
ship as the next major effort in American forestry eliminates Nation-
wide public regulation, at least for the tune being, except as a possible
concurrent effort.

As a minimum, State legislation and enforcement of public regula-
tion is desirable in the fields in which it has been most fully supported
by public opinion, and should, therefore, be most enforceable. The
outstanding example is in the use of fire and the elimination of fire
hazards such as slash.

No discouragement should be offered to any State which desires
to experiment in more comprehensive regulation.

One desirable form of extension which combines aid with regulation
is that of loans. It is desirable that an effort be made in the near
future to work out the possibility of loans under Federal auspices,
with terms and requirements adapted to the needs of forest properties.
To protect the public interest, such loans should in each instance be
coupled with enforceable requirements for sustained yield manage-
ment. Some such machinery as that now set up for farm loans by the
Federal Farm Loan Board might be found feasible.

Still another possible extension might take the form of authoriza-
tion for mergers and/or the curtailment of production, if coupled with
provisions for the protection of the public interest through enforceable
requirements for sustained-yield management. Although plans of this
character might be worked out under State auspices, Federal authori-
zation and control would probably in most instances be preferable.
The most promising possibility may be in the Pacific Northwest, where
such an arrangement, if feasible, might serve to prevent the depletion
of the remaining forest capital and hence a serious future reduction in
forest growth.

Both of these plans deserve serious study, that of loans as a general
proposition, and that of mergers and curtailment with reference to
specific conditions such as that indicated in the Northwest. Either
or both may well be found to be in the interest of private owners as
well as of the public.

While either or both could hardly be depended upon to bring about
the rapid country-wide adoption of forestry by private owners which
is necessary, they might result in stimulating an advance which would
not otherwise take place.

It is possible also that the privilege of enlarged association activi-
ties might be coupled with desirable provisions for better land man-
agement.

The entire question of public regulation needs further study by both
private and public agencies.

American private owners have ordinarily considered it inherently
objectionable. But the preceding discussion of loans and mergers
indicates that many of its aspects would be beneficial to them. Man-
datory public requirements should be accompanied by enlarged public
aid, a combination which would benefit both the private owner and
the public. Beyond this is the probability that sustained yield man-
agement in many, if not most, cases would be far more profitable than
devastation and deterioration.

From the public standpoint, regulation with the exceptions in-
dicated could be held in reserve for possible future use in case public

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 67

acquisition lagged so seriously behind the program recommended as to
jeopardize the public interest, or in case of the continued failure of
private owners to keep or to bring their lands into productivity.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

Public ownership is the only remaining alternative for chief reliance
in meeting national requirements. To be thoroughly effective,
however, public ownership would require a program of such propor-
tions that it would rank among the largest that have ever been
undertaken by the American people. But under normal conditions
the American people have never allowed themselves to be frightened
out of a necessary program by mere size and cost.

ITS POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

Some of the more conspicuous limitations or objections to large-
scale public ownership must in fairness be pointed out in connection
with the recommendation for its adoption.

Both necessary legislation and actual acquisition, even though
carried through at unprecedented rates, would require time, and the
urgency of acquiring large areas to prevent further depletion of
existing growing stocks and further forest devastation as well as to
speed up forest restoration is very great.

Large public holdings would reduce the tax base and hence the
revenue of local governmental units, despite the fact that some of this
reduction would be apparent rather than real, as on lands now or
likely to become delinquent. It would be necessary to replace tax
income in amounts sufficient to maintain local governments in
desirable form by some such device as the return of 25 percent of
gross receipts to national-forest counties.

Where lands which are going out of agricultural use are involved,
acquisition might tend to displace the agricultural population over
considerable areas.

Large scale acquisition, although a continuation of established pol-
icies, would probably encounter opposition because of its magnitude.

The total cost would be high, and unless clearly recognized as a
long-term capital investment and financed accordingly would en-
counter the prevailing opposition to increased current costs of
government.

One of the chief justifications for main reliance on public ownership
in the future rather than private ownership as in the past is the extent
to which the most serious forest problems of today center in or have
grown out of private ownership of forest lands.

That of unstable ownership.

That of forest devastation and deterioration and depreciated forest
capital.

That of excessive investments, overproduction of forest products,
and economic losses to the forest industries.

That of economic and social losses to the public.

That of the lag of constructive measures to keep forest lands
productive.

That of balancing the national timber budget.

That of abandoned agricultural lands suitable only for timber
growing.

68 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

That of the most critical watershed conditions.

And, finally, that of the largest part of the deteriorated western
forest ranges.

All of this makes continued chief reliance on private lands exceed-
ingly precarious, despite their much larger area and better quality.

A large shift from private to public ownership seems to be the only
way to carry out such a program as planting 25 million acres in the
next 20 years.

Or to increase the area under intensive forestry at from 1 to 1%
million acres annually to reach 70 or 100 million acres by the year
2000.

Or to increase the area under extensive forestry by 2^ to 3%
million acres annually to reach 279 or 399 million.

Or to enlarge the area under protection by 191 million acres to a
total of 512, and to raise the ratio of actual to allowable burn to some-
thing approaching 1 to 1.

Or on 308 million acres of major and an additional 141 million of
moderate forest influence to obtain fully satisfactory watershed
protection.

Or to obtain satisfactory conditions on the minimum of 45 million
acres which should be set aside for forest recreation.

Public ownership seems, therefore, to offer the only assured means
of reaching the major forestry objectives of full forest land use, ade-
quate supplies of forest products, and the full economic and social
benefits of both, and also to make it feasible to carry out anything
approaching the national planning necessary.

So, in fact, it offers the only full opportunity for the continuation
of private initiative.

High initial costs should eventually under good management be
offset, and more than offset, by direct financial returns and large
indirect returns. The enterprise should eventually be self -liquidating
from the public standpoint.

The preceding considerations, primarily the lack of assurance of
obtaining under private ownership the full results needed in the
public interest, and the probability of costs under public regulation,
even though successful, which would fall little below public owner-
ship, make it conclusive that a large expansion in public ownership
offers the greatest assurance of meeting the public interest at probably
the lowest ultimate net cost.

THE PUBLIC OWNERSHIP RECOMMENDED

Such considerations seem fully to justify the recommendation
that public ownership be increased by a total area of about 224
million acres.

Public ownership of noncommercial forest lands should be enlarged
by slightly less than 30 million acres to 92, this primarily for water-
shed protection.

That of commercial forest lands should be enlarged to meet com-
bined timber production, watershed protection, recreation, and gen-
eral economic and social needs by about 194 million acres, including
slightly less than 32 minion acres of abandoned farm lands. This
would mean public holdings of 293 million acres, or about three fifths
instead of the present one fifth of the total area of commercial forest.
(Figs. 25 and 26.)

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

69

Of the total area recommended 177 million acres are in the East
and 47 million in the West.

Kapid exploitation of the remaining virgin stands is under way in
the West. To prevent the repetition of the depletion of forest capital,

PRESENT COMMERCIAL OWNERSHIP

PROPOSED OWNERSHIP

PRESENT .NONCOMMERCIAL OWNERSHIP

PROPOSED OWNERSH P

200 300

MILLION ACRES

100
Public Ownership

Private Ownership

FIGURE 25.— Present and proposed ownership of commercial and noncommercial forest land. The in-
crease in public ownership of commercial land from 99 to 293 million acres is to meet combined timber
growing, watershed protection, recreation, and economic and social requirements.

25

50
PER CENT

Public

75

Private

100

FIGURE 26.— The timber-growing job. The best assurance of meeting future timber requirements is for
the public to take over a much larger share of the job than the present 10 percent or less. The area of
commercial land recommended will make possible the half shown in the diagram.

which has been universal throughout the East under private owner-
ship, public acquisition of at least 90 .billion board feet is justified.
Investments should be self -liquidating; wholly disregarding public
losses, the cost of rehabilitation of wrecked forest land would be

70 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

much greater. This part of the task would probably fall primarily
on the Federal Government.

The governing principle for the division of the task between the
States and the Federal Government should be for the latter to take
over only the part that the States and their political subdivisions can-
not or will not carry.

On the assumption that the most wealthy States and their subdi-
visions will on the average be able to carry 80 percent of the full
program and the least wealthy only 20 percent, about 40 percent, or
90 million acres, would be the States' share, and the remainder, or
134 million acres, the Federal share.

The cost of the total acquisition program will be materially influ-
enced by the area acquired by tax reversion, the way in which the
program is handled, and the prices paid for the land purchased. It
may amount to as much as $750,000,000, two thirds of which would
fall upon the Federal Government.

Even under normal conditions an early start and the most rapid
possible consummation of the program would be justified to prevent
further forest devastation and the deterioration and their inevitable
results and to start the process of rehabilitation.

The depression makes such action much more urgent to relieve
serious unemployment. The depression has made the national-land
problem much more acute, and thus emphasized the need for making
forest-land use contribute as fully and as soon as possible to its
solution. Present prices of land and timber would also greatly
reduce the total cost of acquisition.

It is believed both possible and desirable for the Federal Govern-
ment at least to acquire cut-over land at the rate of 5 percent, or about
7 million acres a year, and western stumpage at the rate of about 9
billion board feet over a 10-year period. The yearly cost to the
Federal Government for the first 10-year period would average about
$30,000,000. f

The time is ripe and the entire situation calls for an acquisition
movement equal in aggressiveness but greater in magnitude than that
which characterized the building up of the national forests from the
public domain from 1905 to 1910. The Federal Government and
most of the States must participate to make it a success.

It should be the next great step in American forestry.

With the acquisition of the land public obligations will only begin.
The real task is to make them productive. The intensity of public
effort on both lands now held and those to be acquired must be
greatly increased to offset what has not been done by private effort.

THE COST OF THE NATIONAL PLAN AND HOW IT COULD

BE FINANCED

Expenditures for all forest activities in the United States in 1932
as previously indicated totaled about $43,475,000. Of this amount
about $24,375,000 was expended by the Forest Service, $2,600,000
by other Federal agencies, and $10,650,000 by State and other public
agencies. Quasi public and private agencies spent about $5,860,000.

THE COST OF THE PUBLIC PROGRAM

The most important steps in the public program call for increased
State and Federal effort in (1) enlarging and (2) managing public
forests and (3) strengthening public aid and research.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

71

TOTAL COSTS

The estimated total average annual expenditures required bv State
and local governments, the Federal Government, and by alf public
agencies to carry out the program recommended are given in table
1. Subsequent expenditures in all cases would be maintained at the
rate of the fourth period.

COSTS SUBDIVIDED

Table 2 shows what the State and local money would be used for.

TABLE 1.— Total average annual expenditures by all public agencies to carry out

program recommended

Period

State and
local govern-
ments

Federal

All public

First 5-year period

$32 900 000

$QO QflA (V\A

Second 5-year period...

47 600 000

Third 5-year period _

45 300 000

64 400 000

Fourth 5-year period

38 300 000

cc ynA ruy\

TABLE 2. — Distribution of average annual expenditures for State and local forests

Period

Acquisition and manage-
ment of existing and new
forests i

Other State
activities,
aid, research,
etc.

Total

Capital in-
vestment

First 5-year period

$24, 200, 000
35, 600, 000

$21, 800, 000
31, 200, 000

$8,700,000
12, 000, 000

Second 5-year period...

1 Total area 100 million acres.

Similar estimates in table 3 give the distribution of Federal expendi-
tures on the 317 million acres of present and proposed national
forests and for other Federal activities:

TABLE 3. — Distribution of average annual Federal expenditures on existing and new
national forests and other Federal forest activities

Period

Forest service

All other
Federal
activities J

Existing national
forests I

New national forests »

All other
activities,
aid re-
search, etc.

Total

Capital in-
vestment

Total

Capital in-
vestment

First 5-year period

$25, 500, 000
22, 900, 000
13, 100, 000
13, 100, 000

$17, 200, 000
14, 300, 000
4,500,000
4, 500, 000

$46, 900, 000
60,200,000
44, 800, 000
36,200,000

$42, 900, 000
51, 400, 000
32, 800, 000
22,000,000

$7, 100, 000
9,200,000
* 4, 700, 000
4 4, 700, 000

$4,200,000
• 2, 900, 000
81,700,000
•1,700,000

Second 5-year period. ..

Third 6-year period

Fourth 5-year period

1 Management and protection on 161 million acres.

2 Acquisition of 134 million acres and management on 156 million acres.

3 Protection of parks, Indian lands, etc., aid, and research.

4 Does not include research expenditures which are estimated for the first 10 years only.

8 Does not include Bureau of Plant Industry expenditures which are only estimated for 5 years.

9 Does not include estimates for Indian reservation and national park forests, expenditures for which are
estimated for the first 10 years only, and Bureau of Plant Industry expenditures which are estimated for
5 years.

168342° — 33 — vol. 1 6

72

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

That the proposed expenditures are largely for capital investment
in extending, improving, and making productive publicly owned
municipal, State, and national forests is shown by the following
tabulation of percentages of capital investment of gross charges :

Percent

First 5-year period 71

Second 5-year period 68

Third 5-year period 57

Fourth 5-year period 44

The proposed capital investments may be further segregated into
two categories, (1) land acquisition, (2) improvements such as
physical plant, roads and trails, and cultural operations including
such items as planting, stand betterment, insect and disease control,
etc., as shown in table 4:

TABLE 4. — Distribution of average annual capital investment in Federal, State, and
local forest land by 5-year periods

NATIONAL FORESTS, EXISTING AND ENLARGEp

Categories

First period

Second period

Third period

Fourth period

Purchase of land

$29, 500, 000

$29, 500, 000

$19, 500, 000

$19, 500, 000

Improvements, roads, trails, cultural opera-
tions, planting, stand betterment, etc

30, 700, 000

36, 200, 000

17, 800, 000

6,900,000

Total. .-

60, 200, 000

65, 700, 000

37, 300, 000

26, 400, 000

STATE AND LOCAL FORESTS, EXISTING AND ENLARGED

Purchase of land

$12, 800, 000

$12, 800, 000

$12, 800, 000

$12,800 000

Improvements, roads, trails, cultural opera-
tions, planting, stand betterment, etc

9,000,000

18, 400, 000

12, 300, 000

2, 100, 000

Total ..

21, 800, 000

31, 200, 000

25, 100, 000

14, 900, 000

THE COST OF THE PRIVATE PROGRAM

Because of the large number of private owners of forest land, an
estimate of the total cost of the private program would be meaning-
less. Furthermore, only meager data are available as a basis for such
an estimate.

Costs will vary from the farm wood lot requiring only incidental
time from the owner and no cash outlay, to the areas under intensive
management. The latter may vary in different parts of the country
and under different conditions, from 35 cents- to $1.15 per acre
annually.

In timber management, however, apparent costs may be actual
savings. In most cases satisfactory returns cannot be expected
without corresponding expenditures.

HOW THE PROGRAMS COULD BE FINANCED

An important factor in the consideration of how the program out-
lined could be financed is the possible income from managed forest
lands.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY
THE POSSIBLE INCOME FROM MANAGED FOREST LANDS

73

In forecasting possible income a situation different from that now
existing must be visualized. Over rapid exploitation of virgin timber
rather than continuous production of organized forest properties, has
created a false impression that timber supplies are still abundant.

The reduction of the growing stock for the entire East far below
that necessary for full productivity and a current rate of growth well
below market requirements indicate that whenever most forests are
placed on a sustained yield basis the market condition will be one of
scarcity rather than of surplus. The time when these favorable
market conditions will occur depends in part on the rate of abandon-
ment of the liquidation policy, or if it is not abandoned, when liqui-
dation of the major portion of private holdings is completed.

Owing to uncertain ties -such as this no accurate forecasts can be
made of the time when full financial returns can be obtained from
timber management. In some favorably situated forests these returns
can be realized quickly without waiting for cessation of the liquidation
process. In forests still endowed with growing stock, the returns
might be realized within 20 to 40 years. But areas devoid of growing
stock cannot be brought to full productivity in less than 50 to 80
years.

Estimated returns from timber management are based primarily
on the stumpage values of 1928 to 1930. Regional growth, acreages
of intensive and extensive timber management, the distribution of
production to private, State, and Federal activity are those set up
for the purposes of this report.

The possible gross financial returns from a timber management pro-
gram to produce 17 to 18 billion cubic feet annually, not including
returns from logging, manufacturing, etc., are shown in table 5. Pos-
sible returns for grazing, recreational, and other uses are also shown.
For public forests a conservative estimate is included for recreational
use and watershed management based on the principle that the chief
beneficiaries should bear a commensurate part of the cost.

TABLE 5. — Estimated possible annual returns from Federal, State and local, public
and private timber management and other.forest uses and services

Use of service

From private forest
lands

From State and local
public land

From Federal land

Area

Return

Area

Return

Area

Return

Intensive timber manage-
ment

Acres
40, 000, 000

150, 000, 000

$140,000,000
300,000,000
50,000,000

Acres
10, 000, 000

35, 000, 000

$24, 000, 000
30,000,000
10, 000, 000

Acres
20,000,000

90,000,000

$50,000,000
84, 000, 000
26,000,000

Extensive timber manage-
ment-

Grazing, recreational, and
other uses

Total

490,000,000

64,000,000

160, 000, 000

These possible rates of income from a fully restored and productive
forest resource would permit ample expenditures for forest protec-
tion and other production costs and still leave net returns well in
excess of $400,000,000 to $500,000,000 annually.

Such returns indicate a capital value of $10,000,000,000 or more
for the forests, not including the large manufacturing and other de-

74 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

pendent industrial values, as a permanent part of the Nation's na-
tural resource wealth.

THE FINANCING OF CURRENT AND CAPITAL EXPENSES

The expenditures needed to carry out the program outlined, whether
public or private, fall into two classes which suggest different methods
of financing.

The first is current expenditures for carrying on everyday produc-
tive business such as costs of fire protection and of logging and milling.

The second is capital investments such as the purchase of addi-
tional land, planting, and road construction for increasing the capital
assets.

The logical way for private owners to meet current expenditures is
from current income from surplus, or from working capital borrowed
on short-time loans anticipating current income.

For public agencies the logical way to meet current expenditures is
by appropriations from actual or expected Treasury income or if
necessary short-term borrowing.

For capital investments for Federal and State forests, long-term
loans at a low rate of interest would afford the means for underwrit-
ing desirable projects beyond the immediate capacity of Treasury
income.

Capital investments for private owners might be carried very ad-
vantageously under some such plan as that proposed for the enlarged
field of the Federal Farm Loan Board.

THE MOST IMPORTANT LEGISLATION REQUIRED

BY THE STATES

The most important legislation required by the States to carry out
the national plan and programs recommended will include laws —

Establishing State forest organizations where they do not exist,
and strengthening those which are now handicapped by un-
certainty of civil-service tenure or by political interference.

Establishing programs on a long-time basis both for the acquisi-
tion of lands as State forests and parks, and also wherever
desirable for the management and administration of both
existing and acquired lands.

Clearing up the status of tax-reverted forest lands, or submarginal
agricultural lands suitable only for forests, accepting the in-
evitability of public ownership, providing for blocking into
State or local forests those suitable for public ownership, and
providing for their management and administration.

Similar laws for other State forest lands now in uncertain status.

Authorizing Federal acquisition by purchase or otherwise for
national forests where desirable or necessary and not already
provided.

Providing for State- wide organizations for fire control.

Strengthening existing regulatory forest fire laws by providing
reasonable safeguards for the legitimate use of fire, and with
provision for the punishment of carelessness, neglect, or arson.

Providing for the necessary protection of forests against damage
from insects, diseases, acts of trespass and other injury, or

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 75

where necessary in the public interest for the regulation of
management.
Providing for the equitable taxation of forest land.

BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The most necessary Federal legislation to carry out the programs
recommended in the national plan will include —

An authorization bill to put on a long-time program basis—

1. The acquisition program.

2. The appropriations necessary for the management and

administration, protection, and development of the
existing and proposed national forests, if further con-
sideration shows such an authorization to be desirable.
Authorizing acquisition of private land through exchange within

6 miles of the boundaries of the existing national forests.
Adding about 22 million acres of public domain to the national

forests.

Recognizing recreation as a major national forest use as pro-
vided in H.R. 58, Seventy-third Congress.
Modifying the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act —

1 . Increasing the annual authorization for the Forest Survey

to $500,000, and including a supplemental authorization
of $200,000 for keeping data current after the comple-
tion of the initial survey.

2. By the addition of a section providing for erosion-stream-

flow investigations with an annual authorization of
$500,000.

3. By the addition of a section providing for work on the

forest-land phase of land classification, unless it later
proves more desirable to provide for it in general land
classification legislation; and including an annual au-
thorization of from $250,000 to $400,000.

Modifying the Clarke-McNary Act to authorize Federal ex-
penditures, in cooperation with the States, of—

1. Not to exceed $5,000,000 annually in forest-fire cooper-

ation instead of $2,500,000 as at present.

2. Not to exceed $350,000 annually to furnish forest tree

seedlings to all classes of owners instead of the present
$100,000 to furnish them only to farmers; also $50,000
for a Federal seed testing and certification station.

3. Not to exceed $250,000 annually instead of $100,000 in

farm woodlot extension.

4. Not to exceed $375,000 annually in advice on forest

management to industrial owners, $150,000 of which
would be available for cooperation with the States.

5. Not to exceed $250,000 in the control of insect attacks.
Authorization to the Bureau of Plant Industry, through its

Blister Rust Division, to cooperate in the control of forest
diseases, other than the white pine blister rust.
Authorization to the Secretaries of Agriculture and Commerce to
provide expert assistance, and to cooperate with other agencies
in wild life and fish activities and in developing a Nation-wide
program of game conservation. Such legislation is embodied
in S. 263, Seventy-second Congress.

76 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE ESSENCE OF THE NATIONAL PLAN

One of the most important aspects in the history of American
forestry during the last 20 years has been a trial on a large scale of the
relative effectiveness of private and of public forest-land ownership.

Private ownership has held four fifths of our commercial forest land
with from 90 percent or even more of the total potential timber grow-
ing capacity. It has held the agricultural land which is being aban-
doned. It has also held two fifths of the noncommercial forest land.
Practically all of the major forest problems of today have grown out
of this ownership . As measured by expenditures only about 1 0 percent
of the constructive effort in American forestry is being made by it.
Nearly half of this effort is so remote as to have little or no influence
on the forest itself. Sustained yield management would probably
have yielded higher profits to the owners under many if not most
conditions than forest devastation and deterioration. Private owner-
ship has had the benefit of substantial if not wholly adequate public
aid. It has also had the benefit of regulatory laws, chiefly protection
against fire.

Public ownership, mainly in the national forests and State forests,
has held three fifths of the noncommercial but only one fifth of the
commercial forests. It has been characterized by the administration
of the forest resource in the public interest and by the adoption of the
principle of fully coordinated sustained yield management of the
different elements of the forest resource. It has won its way through
public condemnation to general public recognition and approval.

As measured by expenditures the public contribution represents
nearly 90 percent of the total constructive effort by all agencies to the
solution of the forest problem, and two thirds of this has been concen-
trated on the relatively small part of the land which the public has
owned.

The effort on the public forests still falls short of what is needed.
From the standpoint of national coordination, however, the concen-
tration of the major part of the constructive effort on a relatively
small part of the poorer land in public ownership and the concentra-
tion of a large part of the better land in private holdings which receive
only a relatively small part of the constructive effort, shows a critical
lack of balance. (Fig. 27.)

The plan recommended must go as far as feasible in attempting to
correct this lack of balance. No national plan based on realities can
do otherwise than take the results of the trial of the two forms of
ownership seriously into account. The essence of the plan recom-
mended is, therefore, in part, that the public should in the shortest
possible time take over at least half of the national enterprise in
forestry.

More specifically this would mean-
Slightly more than half of the commercial forest land.
Half of the timber-growing job.
Five sixths of the noncommercial forest land.
Three fifths of the forest ranges.

Four fifths of the area of major influence on watershed protection.
Eight ninths of the areas to be set aside for forest recreation.

These relationships are also expressed graphically in figure 28.

This recommendation would still leave to private ownership much
more of an undertaking than it has yet faced, under conditions even

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

77

more favorable for its success than in the past, with increased public
aid, and hence with far greater responsibility.

The ultimate public holdings of forest land, totaling 393 000 000
acres, would be divided between the Federal Government and 'the
States in about a 3 to 1 ratio.

On this modified distribution of ownership as a foundation falls
the task and the responsibility of building a superstructure of the

PRIVATE FOREST LAND

PUBLIC FOREST LAND

Commercial Forest Land Y-'//\ Noncommercial Forest Land

PUBLIC EXPENDITURES
ON PUBLIC FORESTS

PUBLIC <
AIDTO <

PRIVATES;

OWNERS • :

FIGURE 27.— The critical lack of balance in ownership and effort on public and private forest land.

activity programs which constitute an essential part of the national
plan. These programs cover the entire range of the management,
protection, and administration of the timber, watershed, recreational,
wild life, forage, and other resources which make up the forest, and
are designed to make the forest meet the objective set up of full
economic and social service.

Resolution 175 lays particular stress on a coordinated plan for
meeting the entire forestry problem. That recommended is the

78

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

best that can now be formulated dealing with the following major
considerations :

1. The distribution of forest land between private and public
ownership, and in the latter class between State and Federal owner-
ship. The plan proposed is in broad terms and affords the opportunity
to work out the detailed adjustments between private and public
ownership and between the different classes of public ownership
which are best adapted to local conditions and requirements.

2. Public aid that stays within the public interest, that is equitable
between the Federal and State Governments, and yet offers the

COMMERCE

L FOREST LX

\ND

TIMBER PRC

)DUCT!ON

j^m^M^lmS^^^MM

NONCOMME

^CIAL FORES'

F LAND

^^^^K^mmi^^^^^^^XiimmiM

FOREST RA

NGE LAND

CE

^MmSJMMMi^miiimim

AREA OF M/

JOR WATERS

HED INFLUEN

^^^^^^^^^m^^^^^^^^^^^M,

FOREST RE

CREATION AF

?EA

^^^^Mm^^Mmmi^^^M^^M^^^^^M

0 20 40 60 80 100
PER CENT

FIGURE 28.— The proportional public share in different phases of the forestry enterprise under a coordinated
national plan — growing out of direct ownership of forest land.

greatest feasible assistance to private owners. Here also great
opportunity is left for flexibility in application to meet local needs.

3. Public regulation that would cover generally accepted require-
ments, attempt nothing impossible, be available as a quid pro quo in
the public interest for concessions to private owners, and finally, be
available as a reserve measure in case of future public necessity.

4. Federal assumption of only that part of the undertaking which
other agencies cannot or will not carry, but where necessary assump-
tion to the full extent of the national interest.

The main obstacle to immediate action toward the consummation
of this plan is the financial stringency of governments resulting from
the depression. Undoubtedly the long-continued series of mistakes
in forest-land policies and management has been one of a large group

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 79

of economic and social maladjustments which have been at least a
contributing cause of the depression.

Relief must be provided anyway. It will be far better if the relief
can strike at fundamental causes and attempt the solution of national
problems than if it is confined to purely transient measures. Since
idle men can hardly be left to starve, it will be far better to put them
to work on constructive public works. Should it prove desirable
from the standpoint of relief the program can be carried out more
rapidly than indicated.

Any attempt at national planning must provide for the recognition
of changing conditions. One of the essentials in forest land use is,
therefore, periodic revision of national plans such as here recom-
mended, perhaps as often as every decade. This will afford the
opportunity to consider not only the then existing conditions, but
also to take fully into account the more and more authoritative factual
data which it has been possible to accumulate, and the more and more
conclusive results shown by practical trials on a large scale of different
systems for meeting national objectives.

INTRODUCTION

This report is submitted in pursuance of Senate Resolution 175,
Seventy-second Congress, first session, introduced by Senator Royal
S. Copeland and agreed to by the Senate March 10, 1932. This
resolution is as follows :

Whereas the consumption of the forests of the United States has progressed to
a point at which their early exhaustion is threatened; it being estimated (1) that
over 50 per centum of all the softwood lumber cut in the United States has been
cut during the last thirty years; (2) that, with a population almost 60 per centum
greater today than at the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States
has been using nearly three hundred billion feet of softwood lumber alone during
each decade since 1900; (3) that in 1928, with a population of more than one
hundred and twenty million, the annual cut of softwood lumber alone was
twenty-eight billion feet; and (4) that there now remain in the territory east of
the prairies, only about twenty-five billion feet of original timber; and

Whereas there are great areas in the United States, which, aside from their
underlying minerals, are suitable for forestation only; it being estimated that of
the great land area constituting the thirteen Northeastern States, from Maine to
and including the two Virginias, about one half, or seventy-five million acres,
are suitable for forestation only; and

Whereas proper utilization of such lands as a public domain under proper
control, would to some extent effect a modification of the climate, substantially
effect or control the run-off of water, supply a cheap and dependable supply of
lumber, and, through development, with roads, camping places, leased hunting
and fishing rights, and other opportunities for social activities, would afford valu-
able resources for entertainment and improvement- in national health, besides
giving wealth-producing and steady employment to a large number of persons; and

Whereas it is desirable (1) that a coordinated plan be immediately developed
for the cooperation of the Federal and State Governments in the utilization of
such lands suitable for forestation only; (2) that information necessary as a basis
of legislation be compiled; and' (3) that recommendations for legislation be made:
Therefore be it

Resolved, That the Secretary of Agriculture is requested (1) to advise the
Senate as soon as practicable whether, in his opinion, the Government should
undertake to aid the States in the utilization for forestation purposes of those
areas of land in the United States suitable for forestation only, and (2) to state
fully his reasons for any opinion which he may submit, together with the facts
upon which such opinion is based.

The resolution stresses —

1. The threat of early exhaustion of our timber supplies, par-
ticularly of softwoods in the East.

2. The existence of large areas of land suitable only for the growing
of timber.

3. The fundamental and far-reaching benefits, economic and social,
which would be afforded by the wise utilization of such lands under
public control.

4. The desirability of developing immediately a coordinated Fed-
eral and State program for the utilization of these lands, and asks

5. That the Secretary of Agriculture advise the Senate whether the
Federal Government should aid the States in such a program, and as
to the facts and reasons upon which the conclusion is based.

This report, dealing as it does with one of the most important and
far-reaching forms of land use, comes at a peculiarly opportune time.

81

82 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The economic upheaval of the past three years has focused attention
upon critical and perplexing problems of a social-economic nature
that have arisen, or have come to a head during the postwar
period. Eublic opinion is more receptive than ever before to the
inauguration of carefully planned land utilization, both nationally
and regionally.

Many of our most pressing problems are not of recent origin, but
rather are the result of long-continued maladjustments of a funda-
mental nature. The Nation has grown, and grown rapidly. Prac-
tically unhampered private initiative has characterized all fields of
endeavor. The genius of our people in developing and exploiting
our unparalleled natural resources has made us the wealthiest of
nations. But the very nature of this energetic application of effort,
and its cumulative wastage of resources, has led inevitably to a current
situation in which the serious lack of proper coordination between
important economic and social factors seriously threatens our future
prosperity.

All major plans and efforts for restoring and maintaining a state of
prosperity free from periodic disruption should recognize the neces-
sity for an adjustment of industrial practices to the requirements of
social welfare and the correlation of both with the basic sources of the
Nation's wealth. Agriculture, lumbering, and mining have been the
primary industries based directly upon the products of the land, and
have furnished the Nation's main sources of wealth and opportunity.
Generally speaking, the Nation has, however, pursued a policy of
unlimited, undirected, and often wasteful land use. It is evident that
this time-honored policy has been too long continued, and that a
definite policy involving carefully planned land utilization is necessary.

This report, while cotifined to the field of land use for forest pur-
poses, has been prepared with the conviction that full and wise use
of our land resource as a whole is essential to the Nation's future
welfare, and with the recognition that forest use affects and must
ultimately be harmonized with, the plans for agricultural and other
major uses of land.

An ample and economically available supply of timber products
for the needs of our people has always been, and should remain, a
major purpose of forest-land use. But the problem reaches much
further than that. Forest use evidently offers the only practical
means of utilizing vast areas which by and large are adapted to no
other major economic use. Forestry as a means of economic land
use has been emphasized during the last decade by such develop-
ments as:

1. The growing accumulation of cut-over forest land stripped of
its immediate timber value, evidently not needed for agriculture, but
left to a precarious future with small hope of making its due con-
tribution to the Nation's income.

2. The breakdown of private ownership of both agricultural and
forest land. The fact that much land once cultivated is proving to
be submarginal for agriculture promises to make available for forestry
a much larger area than has previously been seriously considered or

Elanned for. The withdrawal of private ownership is creating prob-
jms of involuntary public ownership and management of forest lands.

3. The growing appreciation of the far-reaching importance of
forests for watershed protection, recreation, wild life, and forage; and

A NATIONAL PLAN .FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 83

of the important part that the growing and harvesting of forests and
the distributing and marketing of forest products plays in the economy
of many communities and regions.

To carry out the mandate of the resolution it is necessary to outline
a program coordinating the efforts of Federal, State, and private
agencies in attacking the problems of forest-land use. Such a union
of strength, while not a new departure in American affairs, has not as
yet been satisfactorily accomplished in this field, but is none the less
necessary.

The formulation of a national policy and program involves many
complications. It is possible to formulate the policy and program
and to present the facts upon which they are based, only by means of
a careful review of various controlling aspects of the forest situation.
This report, therefore, analyzes the situation as to forest land and
timber supplies with respect to such things as character, ownership,
availability, and present and potential timber-producing capacity;
and it associates these aspects with the drain that is taking place on
our forests, and with present and potential needs for timber products.
It appraises the use of forest land not only for growing timber, but
also with respect to the importance and the requirements of watershed
protection control, recreation, wild-life production, and forage.
These are treated as multiple uses, several or all of which usually
apply in varying degree to the same tract. The status and progress
of forestry under private and under various forms of public ownership
are reviewed, the status and results of Federal and State aid are con-
sidered, and existing programs and policies are weighed. The already
extensive experience of the Federal and some State Governments in
managing forest lands is highly significant in pointing a way to work
out the problem.

Upon this essential factual foundation the report sets up a group of
coordinated national programs, each designed to accomplish the
needed results in the particular field dealt with. The recommended
division of responsibility by agencies, public and private, is set forth.
The report proposes an immediate program for Federal and State
legislation, appropriations, and other action. In this coordinated
program public acquisition and management occupy a central posi-
tion interrelated with all other phases.

In brief, the report is a searching reexamination and restatement of
our Nation's forest problem; an analysis of the actual and potential
values of forest land and its uses in relation to our national, social,
and economic structure; and a constructive program for necessary
action featuring Federal and State cooperation and forest land
acquisition and administration.

The report has given less detailed consideration to the more imme-
diate, and in some respects transitory, problems of the lumber and
other forest products industries, which have to do with excess indus-
trial capacity, heavy carrying charges, the merger of private owner-
ships, interstate compacts, etc. Not only has tune not been available
for thorough study and matured conclusions on such essentially
industrial problems, but important though these are, their treat-
ment is not vital to the purposes of the resolution, and of this report.
These subjects, moreover, were included in the program of President
Hoover's Timber Conservation Board. Nor has time permitted
study of the important and involved relations of transportation and

84 • A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

distribution costs and methods to the question immediately con-
cerned, nor of tariffs and international economic relations in general.

Improved forest taxation has generally been recognized as an
essential feature of any comprehensive forestry program, and it
bears directly upon the feasibility of private forestry and upon the
coordination of public and private forest land ownership. This
problem, which in turn is intimately associated with the whole problem
of local taxation and governmental organization and administration,
is the subject of a thorough investigation by a special staff, known as
the " Forest taxation inquiry of the Forest Service." A comprehen-
sive report by that staff is practically completed and will shortly be
available. This obviates the necessity for dealing with the matter
in the present report.

The problem of adequate professional forestry training to supply
men competent to work out the solution of the forest problems, and
to practice forestry under American conditions has for some years
been recognized as meriting special consideration. It has not been
so much a question of quantity of professional training, as of focusing
such training upon, and coordinating it with, the needs peculiar to
this country. A recent publication entitled " Forest Education" by
Henry S. Graves and Cedric H. Guise, made possible by a grant from
the Carnegie Corporation, and conducted under the auspices of the
Society of American Foresters, covers this subject, which, therefore,
is not dealt with further in this report.

The data incorporated in the factual sections of this report and
which underlie the recommendations herein set forth, are based, to
the extent they are available, upon the findings of scientific studies
and investigations. Other data, and this applies particularly to
those dealing with forest land, forest volumes, growth, requirements,
etc., represent the best information available from whatever source,
checked by the judgment of well-informed men in the various regions.
They do not, in most instances, involve detailed accuracy. The fact
is that in the matter of data on these specific aspects of present and
potential forest supplies and requirements, there is the greatest need
for a thorough-going inventory and analysis as a basis for the develop-
ment of plans by private owners, and of policies and programs by
public owners regionally and nationally.

In supplying and presenting factual information, and in formulat-
ing programs and recommendations, many agencies and individuals
have participated. These include, beside the Forest Service, such
bureaus in the Department of Agriculture and in other Departments
as the Bureaus of Agricultural Economics, Entomology, Plant
Industry, the Biological Survey, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Office
of Indian Affairs, and the National Park Service ; also State foresters,
and other State officials, as well as private individuals and agencies.

'This report deals with conditions that are changing, with trends
that have altered and are still changing. By the nature of its con-
tents the detailed facts are, in many respects, transitory. Even
though many of the data are approximations, they have been used
carefully, and with a liberal margin of conservatism in the conclusions.
The broad outlines of the picture of the forest situation are too clear
to be obscured by inaccuracies in the data. The programs recom-
mended are presented with confidence that they are justified, and in
fact vital, from the standpoint of public welfare.

IS FORESTRY JUSTIFIED?

By W. N. SPARHAWK, Senior Forest Economist, and
S. B. SHOW, Regional Forester

CONTENTS

Page

Current doubts exist 85

What is forestry? '_ 88

The direct values of forests 91

Forests and forest industries are important elements in our economic

structure 96

Forestry and agriculture 97

Forestry and employment 102

Forests and community development 106

Forestry and public finance 111

Great expansion of forestry is justified 114

CURRENT DOUBTS EXIST

Many persons are viewing the forest situation in the United States
with varying degrees of doubt and questioning. The total of the
very considerable effort in forestry has nowhere fully solved the forest
problem. Previously developed means of action and the operation
of natural economic forces have not had the full beneficial effect that
was anticipated. Disappointment because no ready panacea has yet
been discovered, and a realization of the difficulties of the forestry
job, naturally lead to questioning as to whether the job can be done,
or is worth doing.

Whether wood will continue to be a basic material need; whether
there is danger of producing too much of it ; whether it is worth while
to keep any part or all of the Nation's forest land productive; whether

Erivate owners generally can afford to retain and manage their forest
inds; whether the public should help them to do this, or should rely
mainly on public forestry; whether the public treasuries can find the
money needed to help private owners and expand public forestry;
these and many other questions are acutely in the public mind. These
doubts and questionings are facts in the situation, and must be
faced.

PROBLEMS OF PRIVATE FORESTRY

Private owners of forest land have been and still are faced with
mounting costs of land ownership brought about by increasing local
taxation. Fire, insects, and disease continue to take or threaten to
take a heavy toll of timber values. The per capita consumption of
wood, and particularly of lumber, has declined and other products
have cut greatly into former demands for wood. Under the existing
system of unrestrained, competitive liquidation of forest values, the
returns in many instances are less than the amount that was invested.
It is perhaps natural, therefore, that the forest owner should view the
future with grave doubts, and question whether forestry is for him.

85

86 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

These and other problems of private forestry and private forest lands
existed before the beginning of the current depression. The depres-
sion has intensified them and forced them into the picture more
prominently than ever before.

PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC FORESTRY

Public forestry also has its discouraging problems. The need for
greatly enlarged public forests, in order to protect public values and
to care for lands from which private ownership is withdrawing, has
in but a few places been recognized and provided for as a systemati-
cally financed public enterprise. The costs of protecting the existing
public forests against fire and other damaging agents, of developing
these properties with roads and trails, and of improving the forest
stands by planting and cultural work, are higher than was at first
estimated. Many public appropriating bodies have been unwilling
or unable to finance the job. At a time when all forms of public
expenditures are subjected to critical reexamination and scrutiny, the
forestry task of the Nation, requiring not less but much greater expend-
iture of public money, may well appall by its sheer magnitude. A
natural defense against the number, size, and cost of the currently
suggested solutions is to question whether it is worth while to
rehabilitate and manage the forests of the United States.

There are several schools of thought as to what should be done.
The very diversity of the proposed public measures is in itself a source
of confusion. The demand for a great increase in public forests is
apparently in conflict with the theory that forest lands should remain
in private ownership so that they may be taxed. In some States,
insistence that public ownership of forest lands must lie in the State
prevents Federal ownership and management, regardless of the need
and regardless of the progress the State is able to make.

The need for either State or Federal ownership is questioned by
those who believe that the problem can be solved through appropriate
public assistance to private owners, or, on the other hand, through
public regulation of private owners. Quite readily, diversity of pro-
posed solutions means no actual solution. Yet it is safe to assert
that if one simple formula would solve the multitude of forest problems
they would already have been solved.

CURRENT DIFFICULTIES ARE RESULT OF OUR FOREST HISTORY

The difficulties of today are in part the result of the entire history
of public land laws and their administration, and of careless and
unplanned practices of forest-land use. All the growing momentum
of a long-continued and unplanned distribution and liquidation of
American forest lands has culminated under the sudden pressure of
economic distress, to produce the discouraging situation which the
forest landowner and the public are now facing.

To attempt solution of the very real and pressing forest problems by
assessing an exact measure of blame on some particular agency or
group, or by arguing moral responsibility for improvement of the
situation, seems futile. It is well to recognize clearly the steps which
have led up to the problem that exists, so that past errors, now
recognized, may not be perpetuated.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 87

It is important to recognize, too, that a situation resulting from a
long and complex history, and one affecting adversely local com-
munities, local business, regions, State governments, and the Nation
as a whole, besides the landowner himself, is not likely to be readily
cured by a mere alleviation of the landowners' difficulties. It is not
so easy as that.

REEXAMINATION OF NEED FOR FORESTRY IS ESSENTIAL

In pointing out the difficult and discouraging features of the current
situation, there is no intent to belittle the real progress that has been
made in private, State, and national forestry. A great deal has been
accomplished. But that the solution has not kept up with the growth
of the forest problem is evident from the very fact that so many
agencies and individuals, public and private, are discussing the need
for additional action. If American forest affairs were generally in
healthy and satisfactory shape, there would be little discussion of
them.

The difficulties and complexities of the task, and the conflicts
between the evident needs of the situation and the present financial
ability of the several agencies concerned, are not mentioned for the
purpose of adding to the discouragement and pessimism with which
various phases of the problem are viewed by different groups. These
things are simply a real part of the situation. Still less is there
ground for a facile optimism, which would dispose of the difficulties
and needs by ignoring them.

Nothing less than a realistic recognition and reexamination of all
the facts can serve a useful purpose. In the reexamination, neither
pessimism nor optimism has a place. It may be found that not all
the forest land is needed, and that forestry is not justified everywhere.
But it does not follow from this that the area now handled under
forestry practices is all that is required, or all on which the expendi-
tures for forestry will be justified in the long run.

Were it not for the questions regarding the worthwhileness of the
whole forest-conservation movement, then it would be appropriate
to examine at once the present status of forestry, and to consider
what additional programs may be needed. But the questions and
the problems do exist. Clearly they require public understanding
and public action for their solution. Whether the action takes the
form of public assistance to private owners, public regulation of private
owners, or public ownership in lieu of private owners, or all of these
steps, is not the first question. It is rather, Is forestry justified?
or, alternately, Does the Nation need forestry on the bulk or all of
the forest lands? or Can the Nation afford not to have forestry
generally applied?

These are not abstract questions to be debated on theoretical
grounds. They are simply another way of asking, What is to be done
with the 600 million or more acres of forest land of the Nation (one
third of its total area) unless it is used for forestry? Has it any other
profitable use? Can the Nation tolerate idleness of any considerable
portion of this huge area? Which is better, productive land or idle
land?

The Forest Service has no wish to base its recommendations
regarding future action on beliefs that are of questionable validity.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 7

88 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Unless these beliefs are founded on facts, then additional programs
and expenditures can hardly be justified.

WHAT IS FORESTRY?

Popular discussion of the forest situation and related matters has
revealed a great deal of confusion as to just what the term " forestry"
means. It is, therefore, necessary here to explain what forestry has
come to be in the United States.

PREVENTION OF DEVASTATION IS PART OF FORESTRY

Popularly it has been assumed that protection of forests against
fire and other destructive agencies is forestry. It always will be
essential to prevent deterioration and devastation of forests, if forests
are to be grown. Neither forest land nor a factory can function with-
out effective protection, but in both instances the protection merely
makes it possible to produce useful goods. Prevention of devasta-
tion is merely an essential step to leave the way open for forestry;
it is not in itself forestry.

REFORESTATION IS PART OF FORESTRY

Tree planting is often thought of as forestry. On many millions of
idle acres it is, to be sure, the immediate need if the land is to be used.
In improving badly deteriorated forest, planting also has a place.
The factory must be built or repaired before it can produce goods.
But planting is not the whole of forestry, any more than fire
control is. On the major portion of our forest area it will not be
necessary because the land is already covered with trees which with
proper treatment will reproduce themselves.

SELECTIVE LOGGING IS PART OF FORESTRY

Similarly, selective logging has sometimes been held as synonymous
with forestry. More specifically, it has been asserted that the cut-
ting of only those trees which will yield the largest immediate profit
is the best forestry. Forestry frequently uses selective logging as an
essential tool. In many instances that form of selective logging
which is best for the forest will also be most profitable for the operator.
However, the production of timber is only one of the objectives of
forestry. Even for timber production, the most profitable outcome
in the long run may require some sacrifice of immediate profits.

MANAGEMENT FOR WOOD PRODUCTION IS PART OF FORESTRY

The volume and value of the wood crop depend on whether there
is a full or partial stand, whether more or less valuable species are
grown, and how carefully the stand is protected and tended. It has
sometimes been supposed that nothing less than intensive care of
growing forests should be called forestry. This is an extreme view.
Within the limits imposed by economic consideration in the broadest
sense, intensive management is an important part of forestry and is
characteristic of the best forestry. On much forest land, however,
production of wood crops is a relatively minor objective. On some
land the necessity of safeguarding other values may even make it
contrary to the public interest to utilize the timber crop.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 89

MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINED YIELD IS PART OF FORESTRY

" Keeping the forest green" will not keep alive the communities
that are dependent on forest exploitation unless the timber is cut on
a sustained yield basis. The process of logging more rapidly than
the forest can be regrown inevitably results in a period of waiting
until a second crop is ready for cutting. If the lands are promptly
restocked with young trees this period will be shorter than if they
are not, but in either case industry will stop too long for the inter-
locked and interdependent businesses and social institutions, which
were built on the basis of a boom in forest exploitation, to continue.
The orderly utilization of forests, in accordance with the principle of
sustained yield, is one of the major purposes of American forestry.

MAINTENANCE OF MARKETS IS ESSENTIAL FOR FORESTRY

Stability of forest land use and of forest industries and communities
requires that there be markets for forest products. From the stand-
point of the private owner, forestry will be impossible unless the
products can be sold at a profit. From the standpoint of the public
as a forest owner, it is also desirable that forestry be self-supporting
so far as may be practicable and consistent with the other objectives
of management. From the standpoint of society, regardless of who
owns the forests, the existence of permanent industries using timber
and other products of forests, giving employment to large numbers of
individuals, and contributing toward the support of Government and
of local institutions, is greatly to be desired. Development through
research of ways to use forest products so that they will satisfy the
largest possible number of wants and the promotion of their wide-
spread use, must occupy an important place in a program of American
forestry.

FORESTRY INVOLVES MULTIPLE-PURPOSE MANAGEMENT
THE MULTIPLE VALUES OF FORESTS

Most forest lands possess inherently more than a single value.
They produce wood and numerous byproducts (resin, tanbark,
mast) for domestic and industrial use. In many instances, they also
produce forage for domestic livestock. They furnish food and shelter
for game animals, fur bearers, and other wild life. They protect the
soil against erosion. They moderate extremes of run-off and afford
protection against drying or otherwise harmful winds. They beautify
the landscape and offer opportunities for healthful and inexpensive
recreation to millions of our people. The best forestry takes account
of all these values.

MULTIPLE-PURPOSE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FORESTS

Multiple-purpose management for the production, conservation,
and utilization of timber, forage, water, wild life, and recreational
values was first developed and is now found generally on the national
forests.

Its object is the greatest total output of products, uses, and services.
The multiple-purpose formula is exceedingly flexible, permitting
changes in emphasis and type of use as conditions change and as

90 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Eublic necessity requires. It regards all products and services of wild
inds as having a potential place in the management picture. Its
basis is that the soil productiveness is to be maintained, that the
dominant and subordinate uses are dictated by the character of the
land, the demands for different products and the needs of dependent
communities, and that the condition of land is not static but con-
stantly changing.

SINGLE-PURPOSE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FORESTS

Another formula for the administration of public forest lands
demands exclusive attention to a single objective. This concept is
exemplified by the national parks, power withdrawals, and municipal
watersheds. Reservations of public lands under the single-purpose
formula are generally so rigid as to prevent periodic adaptation in
management as public needs develop. If the public purpose in
reserving and managing wild lands is to preserve, protect, and utilize
all of the natural resources that go with the land, then clearly the
multiple-purpose formula is best adapted to the vast majority of wild
lands. The exclusive-reservation formula has a definite place in
public-land management but applies only to areas of outstanding
importance or quality where one use has overwhelming dominance.
The multiple-purpose formula leaves room for exclusive reservation
on limited areas where actually needed.

MULTIPLE-PURPOSE MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATE FORESTS

The individual owning wild land usually has only one or, at the
most, a few objectives. If he is a lumberman he seeks to obtain a
profit in the harvesting of timber and manufacture of lumber. Other
values, such as watershed protection, game management, and scenic
attractiveness have little or no realizable cash value to him and
attention to them may require costly alterations in his logging
practices. If conflicts exist, the secondary values must be sacrificed.
If no conflict exists, private management may by chance preserve all
public values.

A major aim of public policy is to bring about multiple-purpose
management of the private forest lands on which several values exist.
The difficulties confronting the individual owner of such forest land,
where he cannot reimburse himself for attention to the public values,
but where the^ public is insistent that they be conserved, require
definite recognition and attention.

FORESTRY IS A COMPREHENSIVE AND COORDINATED TECH-
NIQUE OF LAND MANAGEMENT

In summary, then, American forestry involves protection of existing
forests, restoration of denuded lands by planting, perpetuation of
forests by appropriate logging methods, and use of the sustained yield
principle. It involves whatever efforts may be required to sustain
markets for forest products. A definite aim is also to manage forest
lands for values other than timber. Forestry is a coordinated
technique, with many purposes and methods. These purposes
cannot be attained through accident or through unplanned action.
Only conscious, deliberate, and planned forestry can get the highest

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 91

values from forest lands. Forestry is land and resource management
in the widest sense.

THE DIRECT VALUES OF FORESTS

FORESTS AS A SOURCE OF WOOD
WOOD FOR HOME CONSUMPTION

As a source of essential raw materials forests have played a vital
part in our national history. An abundant and cheap supply of forest
products was available in the initial settlement of the country, and
American civilization early became characterized by a very high rate
of wood consumption. The per capita use of wood and the total
volume used annually have declined in the past 25 years, but the
United States still uses more wood per capita than many other
nations.

A decline in per capita consumption was to be expected, once the
rapid expansion of the pioneer period was past. That this expecta-
tion has been realized does not mean that an abundant supply of forest
products is no longer necessary. In spite of all the substitution of
other materials for wood, it remains an important construction
material, dominates the box and container market, and is irreplaceable
in meeting the increasing use of newsprint and heavy wrapping paper.
No satisfactory substitute has been found for many other uses of wood.
The forms in which wood is used have changed rapidly, and they are
still changing. But careful studies of the future requirements for
wood, as discussed elsewhere in this report, indicate its permanently
important position among our physical needs.

The decline in consumption of wood has been due in part to the
comparative inertia of the producers and manufacturers of wood
products. Unlike producers of many other materials, including some
which are used extensively in place of wood, they have failed to
compete aggressively in adapting wood to consumers' needs and
preferences, in developing new uses, and in popularizing wood as a
raw material. While producers of competing materials have been
spending millions in scientific and technical research for the purpose
of improving their products and finding new ways to use them, wood
producers, with the exception of pulp and paper manufacturers, have
spent relatively little.

Nevertheless, even though other materials might conceivably be
substituted for wood in virtually all of its important uses, it would
be contrary to the public interest for this to happen. From the
public standpoint there are many advantages in having a variety
of materials capable of meeting our needs. It is particularly desir-
able that wood be available in abundance and be employed liberally,
not only because of its great intrinsic merits, but also because of its
relative cheapness. Unlike most of the competing materials, it is
renewable, and it can be grown in most parts of the country fairly
near the consumers. It is, consequently, less susceptible of monopol-
istic or quasi-monopolistic control. The continued utilization of
wood on a large scale is in the public interest because it makes possible
the productive use of land which otherwise would produce little or
nothing, and thus contributes to the economic welfare of large num-
bers of people, of many communities, and of the country as a whole.

92 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

Provided efforts comparable to those in behalf of many other mate-
rials are exerted to make wood serviceable and to educate consumers
in its use, the demand for wood may even increase. Such efforts
will be futile, however, unless provision is also made for meeting the
demand with continuous dependable supplies at reasonable cost.
We have sufficient forest land to meet an increased demand, providing
it were all well stocked with growing timber and carefully managed.
The stock of growing timber, however, is already so depleted that no
amount of careful management within the next 60 or 80 years will
enable even the present output to be maintained, let alone increased.
Moreover, the process of depletion is still going on.

It is clearly the soundest public policy to fill the manifold needs
for wood, as far as possible, with our own native products. Economic
self-sufficiency, in this sense, has characterized the Nation's history.
Except for relatively small quantities of special tropical woods and
forest products, we have been able to supply our own requirements in
peace and war. Wood is employed for thousands of specific uses,
for many of which particular kinds or grades are essential, and for
many more of which substitution of other materials is impracticable.
Particularly in time of war an undue dependence on other nations for
wood products would place us at a serious disadvantage.

Heretofore the great variety of our native woods, and their tech-
nical adaptability to most of our wood needs, have not only been a
great economic asset, but have accustomed us to assuming a continu-
ation of supplies. Already, however, many special kinds and grades
are becoming scarce and costly. Requirements for many of these
can be met by importation, but at added cost, and by losing the
advantages of manufacture within our own borders.

WOOD FOR EXPORT

Many of our native woods possess technical qualities and uses
which fit them for export to other countries. One of the principal
reasons why this country has enjoyed a favorable position in inter-
national trade has been the wide variety of its products. The greater
the number of different products, the more numerous are the oppor-
tunities for profitable trade, and the smaller is the dependence on a
single article. In agriculture, manufacturing, or commerce, the single
product farmer, factory, or nation is quickly and often adversely
affected by fluctuations hi demand for the single product.

With diversified products, there is less likelihood that all will be
out of demand at a given moment. The manifold kinds of wood and
wooden articles that are suitable for export are thus an important
balancing factor in helping to maintain the foreign business of the
Nation. It is, therefore, worth while to maintain and perpetuate
the native woods, wholly aside from the desirability of economic
self-sufficiency.

FORESTS AND CONSERVATION OF WATER AND SOIL

During the pioneer period forests were valued mainly as a source of
wood. As long as the mountain sides and the river bluffs and the
headwaters of the rivers were clothed with dense forests, the bene-
ficial effects of forest cover in regulating stream flow and preventing
soil erosion did not become strikingly evident.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 93

But toward the end of the last century, as wholesale and heedless
deforestation spread over more and more of the headwaters of streams
used for navigation and for irrigation and domestic water, the accumu-
lating evidence of direct observation forced recognition of the impor-
tance of forests in protecting many watersheds. The act of Congress
of 1897 which made " maintaining favorable conditions of water
flow" one of the two purposes of the administration of national forests
did not, of course, undertake to establish by legislative enactment a
scientific law of universal applicability. It did take into cognizance
a relationship between forest cover, erosion and run-off, proven in
numerous instances both at home and abroad. It recognized that
America is not immune to the disasters which have followed defores-
tation of watersheds in other countries. The act of 1911 which made
protection of headwaters of navigable streams the basis for purchase
of national forest areas in the eastern United States, gave further
formal recognition of the watershed protection value of forests.

Specific data bearing on this function of forest cover are given
elsewhere in this report. Research and observation by trained men
show that in many of the forest regions deforestation starts processes
of flashy run-off and erosion which affect adversely water supplies
and navigation. In late years impressive evidence has accumulated
showing the prevalence of erosion on once forested hill and bluff lands
which have been heavily grazed or used for agriculture. Destruc-
tion of the fertility and usability of the lands through sheet and gully
erosion has already removed many millions of acres from agricul-
tural use, and is in fact one of the chief reasons for the widespread
abandonment of this class of land. Dumping of sand and silt into
the streams has created problems of diking, overflow, and destruction
of navigability far from the source of the eroded material.

Maintenance of forest cover to protect watersheds is not necessary
on every part of every watershed. But estimates given elsewhere in
this report show that there is a very large area of land which must
be kept under forest or restored to forests if the watersheds of the
country are to be kept in good condition. Lands producing commer-
cial timber are not the only source of concern. In the West, particu-
larly, large areas covered with inferior tree growth or brush have high
value for protection of water and soil. Like the commercial forest
lands, their protective value is quickly impaired by fire and over-
grazing.

FORESTS AS A SOURCE OF RECREATION

The pioneer had little interest in the forest as an environment for
recreation. Variously he hunted in it, used it as a source of wood,
or struggled to annihilate it. As part of his normal environment,
he necessarily accepted it. And his opportunities for recreation were
few.

Later, as urbanization proceeded and wealth and leisure increased,
more and more people acquired the means and the desire to leave
their normal environment of the city, for at least part of each year.
Along with journeys to foreign lands and to the seashore, the forests
in many parts of the country acquired a recognized value for outdoor
recreation of a primitive and simple sort. The Maine woods, the
White Mountains, the Adirondacks, the Colorado Rockies, and the
Sierra Nevadas became noted for their recreational values and
attractiveness.

94 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

Until the large-scale production of low-priced automobiles and the
accompanying increase in good roads reached full swing during the
past 15 to 20 years, recreation in forest areas was beyond the attain-
ment of millions of people. But this situation has now changed
radically. Even the less spectacular and beautiful forest areas are
heavily used by the rising tide of recreationists. Outdoor recreation
in the forests has become an established part of the American standard
of living. It is highly desirable as an aid to social, economic, and
individual health, and fullness of life. It will certainly continue on at
least the present scale.

Many of the most spectacular and heavily used forest recreation
areas have been set aside under public ownership for the exclusive
purpose of recreation. The national parks, State parks, and county
and municipal parks in many States, have sought to furnish the
answer to the mounting demand. But in terms of actual present
day use, it is doubtful if these special recreational reservations take
care of as many people as do the vast areas outside of parks— ^ordi-
nary forest country, which possesses no outstanding scenic or
inspirational features.

This phenomenon of widespread use of the ordinary run of forested
country arises from several basic facts. One of the most important
of these is that for the vast majority of people the enjoyment of forest
recreation depends on availability within a relatively short distance,
and on cheapness. The individual with ample means and leisure
may, depending on his taste, climb in the High Sierra or the Canadian
Rockies, hunt the moose in Maine or the bighorn in Idaho, fish for
salmon in Alaska or the steelhead in the Klamath, or enjoy the scenic
and inspirational values of the national parks. He is able to pick
and choose and to enjoy the highest quality of the outdoor sport of
his preference.

Most people, on the contrary, having both limited time and money,
must take what is close or nothing. If forest country is within 100
miles of home, it will be used, even though the highest mountain is
only a low hill, the largest game a rabbit or a squirrel, the biggest fish
a fingerling trout, and the finest view one that could be duplicated
in any wooded region. The most heavily used recreation areas are
those closest and most readily accessible to the largest number of
people.

Another reason for the heavy use of nonpark areas is the variety
of outdoor recreation which they offer in contrast to park areas,
which are limited by their very nature and purpose to a few forms.
It is a cardinal principle of park management that all forms of hunt-
ing are prohibited. This is necessarily so because the purpose of
parks is to preserve and protect. But many people pick hunting as
the highest form of personal enjoyment in outdoor recreation. The
outstanding features of parks tend to be concentrated, and the people
visiting them are necessarily concentrated also. Crowding is inevi-
table, camping loses the quality of freedom and isolation, policing
of the crowds cannot be avoided, and restrictions are numerous.
The greater freedom and lack of supervision which are possible when
crowds can spread out in the large areas of ordinary forest country
appeal to many people in a very fundamental way.

Thus very large areas of American forest lands have acquired a
high recreational use and value, simply because they are readily

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 95

accessible and are forest lands. It has become increasingly evident
that recreational uses of many kinds can go on alongside of other uses
of forest lands, such as conservative lumbering and grazing. Re-
creational uses such as hunting, fishing, camping, and climbing do not
require the exclusive devotion of the land to a single purpose. As
on the national forests, recreation on most lands can be simply one of
the products of multiple-purpose management.

The use of forests as recreation grounds seems certain to be greatly
stimulated by the increasing leisure which will result from the general
trend toward a shorter working week. Because nearness and ready
availability to centers of population are essential if the socially
desirable outdoor recreation habit is to continue, the widest possible
distribution of forest areas is clearly in the national interest. The
trend of recreational development is strongly in the direction of
providing the simpler and less expensive forms of recreation, such as
picnicking, camping, fishing, and hunting. When recreation is
handled as a byproduct of forest production or watershed protection,
the cost to the public is naturally less than if furnished in a public
park. Later sections of this report will discuss in detail the forest
areas needed for recreation.

FORESTS AND WILD LIFE

The forest is the natural habitat of many species of fur bearers
and upland game, including game birds and many of the finest big-
game animals. An overwhelming majority of the hunting for big-
game animals and upland birds is in the forest areas. The deer is by
all odds the most important big-game animal, if for no other reason
than its relative abundance and wide distribution. It is typically
a forest species. Even where heavily hunted, it maintains itself or
increases, provided it receives any sort of reasonable protection under
the game laws, and provided that its forest habitat is not destroyed.
Other game species and fur bearers as well can maintain themselves
only if their natural habitat of woodland is maintained.

A very large proportion of the inland fishing waters are affected
by the treatment of the forest land. Erosion, following deforestation,
generally results in muddy streams which afford an unfavorable
habitat for most game fish. Denuded watersheds commonly give
rise to intermittent flow of streams, with a tendency to reach such low
levels of flow that only a portion of the normal fish population can be
supported. Removal of the forest shade results in a rise in water
temperature which is deleterious to trout and other important species
of game fish.

Hunting and fishing, like other forms of outdoor recreation, are
available to the great majority of people only if the hunting and
fishing grounds are accessible within a short distance and at low cost.
To serve this public end is a major function of forests.

FORESTS AS LIVESTOCK RANGES

In many parts of the West, with relatively small areas of crop
land, the mainstay of agriculture is the production of meat, hides,
and wool. The forest ranges carry the flocks and herds for part or
most of the year, and the crop land produces hay and grain to carry
them during the winter. The 83 million acres of national-forest-

96 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

range land are essential in the agriculture of many western areas.
The forest range is notably important also in large areas of the southern
pine region, where the characteristically open growth of timber
allows an undergrowth of nutritious grasses. In these and other
regions the forage from forest ranges is a vital part of the agricultural
economy. Without it, the opportunity for successful farming would
be materially reduced.

The forage crop on many forest ranges has been depleted in quan-
tity and deteriorated in quality through persistent overgrazing.
Unrestricted and excessive grazing in many places has damaged or
destroyed the small trees and seedlings and thus prevented repro-
duction of the forest. By destroying the protective ground cover
and trampling the soil it has led to serious erosion and gullying.
Under a properly regulated system of grazing these things would
not have happened, for it is entirely possible with careful manage-
ment to utilize the forage crop without harm to the forest values.
On millions of acres of western ranges, the carrying capacity had been
reduced greatly before the national forests were established and a
system of range control inaugurated. Since then these ranges have
been greatly improved as a result of systematic management.

If properly handled, the forests of the West and other regions can
continue to furnish range for large numbers of domestic livestock,
while at the same time they are producing timber, protecting water-
sheds, and furnishing opportunities for recreation.

FORESTS AND FOREST INDUSTRIES ARE IMPORTANT
ELEMENTS IN OUR ECONOMIC STRUCTURE

Nearly one third of the country's land area, or approixmately 600
million acres, is forest land of one sort or another. This is a greater
area than all of the United States east of the Mississippi River.
It is half again as large as all of our crop land. In 32 States the area
of forest land exceeds the combined areas of crop land and plowable
pasture, and in 23 of these it is from twice to more than twenty
times as great.

The value of our forests and primary forest industries has been
estimated at something over 10 billion dollars. The gross value of

Sx>ducts averaged close to 2 billion dollars a year just prior to 1929.
uring the last 100 years the value at the mill of sawed lumber alone
has aggregated between 30 and 35 billion dollars, and the value of
all products was certainly not less than 50 billions.

In 1929 the forest and woodworking industries employed directly
1,300,000 workers, or about 2l/2 percent of the gainfully employed
persons in the United States. The building industries, which to a
considerable extent depend upon forest products in one form or
another, gave employment to more than 2,500,000 persons. In each
of 20 States more than 30,000 workers were employed directly by
the forest and woodworking industries (including pulp and paper
manufacture). The number employed exceeded 50,000 in 10 of
these, including such widely separated States as New York, Wash-
ington, Michigan, Illinois, and North Carolina. In Washington
and Oregon 135,000 persons, or one eighth of all those gainfully
employed, were engaged in this group of industries.

Imports of forest products, including paper, amounted to more
than $400,000,000 in 1929, or nearly one tenth of all our imports.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 97

This was only partially balanced by exports, valued at approximately
$250,000,000.

Forest products make up about 8 percent of all the revenue f reigh t
carried by our railroads, and the supplies, equipment and other
materials used by the forest industries account for a large additional
tonnage. In recent years the railroads have required 80 to 90 million
ties a year to keep up their tracks, and have paid around $120,000,000
a year for these and other timber.

Some $45,000,000 a year is paid for the timber used to mine our
coal and other minerals, not including the large quantities used in
the oil fields. It would be superfluous here to dwell at any length
upon the importance of the role that wood and wooden products
play in the construction and furnishing of our homes and farm build-
ings, as raw material for our newspapers, books and magazines, and
in countless other articles used in our daily living-.

Practically all of the streams used for municipal water supply,
power or irrigation have their sources and considerable portions of
their catchment basins in forest lands. Millions of our people look
to the forests, or to forests and the associated rivers and lakes, for the
health and enjoyment obtained from outdoor recreation. If it were
not for their forest cover, many of our hills and mountain sides
would become barren, rocky wastes and their soil covering would
bury the farm lands in the valleys or would fill the reservoirs and
irrigation ditches or clog the navigable channels below.

FORESTKY AND AGRICULTUKE

The perpetuation of forests is of particularly vital concern to the
agricultural industry. These two major forms of land use, once
regarded as competitive, are no longer so. Instead, with the advance
of forest depletion and the gradual retreat of agriculture from the
poorer lands it is coming to be realized that the two uses are comple-
mentary and to a considerable degree interdependent.

AGRICULTURE IS A HEAVY CONSUMER OF FOREST PRODUCTS

Directly or indirectly, the rural population has always used the
lion's share of our forest products. In the settlement of the forested
regions, the timber furnished a ready-to-hand material for building
and fencing and fuel which required little or no cash outlay. The
phenomenally rapid settlement of our great treeless central region
would have been much slower had there not been a readily available
and reasonably cheap timber supply in the Lake States. In most
parts of the country, farm dwellings and barns and other buildings
are still built largely of wood and their continued use requires wood
for repairs and upkeep. In spite of the growing use of steel and
cement, the bulk of fencing still requires wooden posts. Wooden
boxes, barrels and crates are used in enormous quantities for the
shipment of farm products. Tool handles, farm wagons, and many
sorts of farm equipment are made of wood. In common with other
citizens, farmers consume wood in the form of paper, furniture and
a multitude of wooden products. Millions of farmers still depend
chiefly or wholly upon wood for fuel.

In 1924, not only did several million farms produce timber and
fuelwood for their own use, but more than 1,200,000 farmers pur-

98 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

chased lumber, posts, firewood, etc., at an aggregate cost of $167,-
000,000. The actual cash outlay for these materials was more than
three fourths of the expenditure for fertilizers reported by 2,200,000
farmers. An adequate supply of a variety of forest products at low
cost is vitally essential for the agricultural prosperity of most parts
of the country.

AGRICULTURE IN MANY REGIONS DEPENDS ON ADEQUATE

SUPPLY OF WATER

Besides their function as suppliers of raw materials, forests in
many regions, particularly in the West, serve agriculture through
their influence on water supplies. Without dependable supplies of
water it would be impossible successfully to cultivate the 19 million
acres of irrigated land. In the 11 Western States more than 240,000
farms, or almost half of the total number, depend on irrigation water.
Approximately 17,500,000 acres are irrigated in these States. The
total value of these irrigated farms in 1930 was $4,500,000,000 and
more than $900,000,000 has been invested in the irrigation works. A
large proportion of the water used in irrigation originates on forest
land. Without the forest cover, the flow of water would become less
regular, larger and more costly storage reservoirs would be necessary,
and great expense would be entailed in removing silt from the reser-
voirs and ditches and, in many instances, in rebuilding dams.

FORESTS PROTECT FARMS AGAINST DAMAGE FROM EROSION

Another way in which forests serve agriculture is by holding in
place the soil on slopes and along the banks of streams. Many
thousands of acres of rich agricultural bottom-land, in the East as
well as in the West, have been ruined by the deposition of silt, sand,
gravel and boulders which were washed down from the hillsides after
the forests were destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of acres have
been cut to pieces by deep gullies which could have been prevented
by preserving the forest cover at the critical points. The influence
of forests in relation to water supplies and erosion is discussed in
detail elsewhere in this report.

FORESTS FURNISH SUPPLEMENTARY INCOME TO FARMERS

Combined agriculture and forest work afford a livelihood to hun-
dreds of thousands of farmers who would find it difficult to make a
living from farming alone. This is particularly true in localities
where the land suitable for cultivation constitutes a relatively small
proportion of the total area or is of low productivity. These condi-
tions are common throughout the inhabited hill and mountain regions,
and also in the more level, sandy portions of the Lake States and the
Southeast. The forests enable the farmers to employ themselves and
their teams and other equipment profitably during the winter or
other seasons when farm work is slack. They may either work in
their own woods, getting out timber for home use or for sale, or they
may work for wages in logging camps or mills. In 1929, forest
products to the value of $240,000,000 were cut from 2,500,000 farms.
From one third to one half of this sum represents cash income for
materials sold. In 1919, forest products worth $394,000,000, of which
$217,000,000 worth were sold, were cut from 1,800,000 farms.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 99

In many instances forest work or the sale of forest products pro-
vides a major portion of the farm income. This has been particu-
larly true during the early stages of settlement, while the farms were
being cleared. In the northern portion of the Lake States, for
example, more than 50 percent of the settlers' income during the first
four years has come from sale of timber products and work off the
farm; even after 20 years, more than one fourth of the total income
was derived from these sources.1 Dependence upon income from the
forest or other sources than the farm itself is not confined to newly
settled regions, however. It is found also in long-settled portions of
the Appalachian Mountains, the Ozarks, and the Northeast. Out
of 2,222 operated farms in two counties of central West Virginia in
1928, only 768 gave exclusive employment to the operators. The
operators of the remaining 1,454 farms engaged in other work, much
of it in the woods or forest industries, for a considerable portion of
the year.2 In the Kentucky mountains, as in similar regions where
the population is relatively dense and all of the land suitable for the
purpose has long been utilized for crops and pasture, the mainte-
nance of satisfactory living standards requires a larger income than
can be obtained from farming alone. The large area of forest land,
if properly utilized and supplemented by local manufacture of the
forest products, offers the best prospect of furnishing supplementary
employment.3

In many European countries the forests play an exceedingly im-
portant role in the farm economy. Not only do millions of farmers
own little tracts of woodland, as in France, Germany, Austria,
Finland, and the Scandinavian countries, but large numbers of them
find part-time employment in the public forests or those belonging
to other large owners.

An excellent example of the way in which forestry and farming can
be coordinated is the small holdings project that is being developed
by the Forestry Commission of Great Britain. Under this scheme,
the better quality land on the tracts acquired for State forests is
reserved for agricultural use. This land is then divided into small
holdings, averaging about 10 acres, which are equipped with buildings
and leased to settlers. Each of these small holders is guaranteed 150
days of forest work a year ; the rest of the time he works on his holding,
raising food for his own use and for sale. In this way the Forestry
Commission obtains a dependable supply of resident workers for
reforestation, development and eventual utilization of the State
forests. At the same time hundreds of workers and their families are
settling on farms and thus gradually repopulating the countryside in
the neighborhood of the forests.

FOREST INDUSTRIES AFFORD LOCAL MARKETS FOR FARM CROPS

Permanent forests also help agriculture through the markets for
farm products which are afforded by the nonfarm population that is
dependent upon forest work or work in wood-using industries. The
logging camps and the industrial villages require large quantities of
vegetables, fruits, meats, and dairy and poultry products, as well as

1 Hartman, William A., and John D. Black. Economic Aspects of Land Settlement in the Cut-Over
Region of the Great Lakes States. U.S. Dept. Agric. Circular 160. 86 p., illus. 1931.

2 Peck, Millard, Bernard Frank, and Paul A. Eke. Economic Utilization of Marginal Lands in
Nicholas and Webster Counties, W.Va. U.S. Dept. Agric.Tech. Bull. 303. 64 p., illus. 1932.

3 Clayton, C. F., and W. D. Nicholls. Land Utilization in Laurel County, Ky. U.S.Dept.Agric.
Tech. Bull. 289. 100 p., illus. 1932.

100 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

hay and grain where horses or mules are used in logging. Local
farmers can frequently sell directly to the consumers, thus avoiding
most of the costs of transportation and marketing, and can thereby
receive much better prices than if they had to ship their produce out
to more distant markets.

Forest industries create a market for more than the food products
of the farms. They also enable the farmers to dispose of their wood-
land products much more readily and at better prices than would be
possible if there were no wood-using industries in the vicinity. For
instance, farmers within trucking distance of a pulp mill or a wooden-
ware factory can usually sell timber to much better advantage than
those farmers whose only nearby market is for firewood.

FORESTS HELP TO LIGHTEN THE FARM TAX BURDEN

Under the prevailing system of financing local government chiefly
by the taxation of property, it is obvious that productive forests and
wood-using industries help to support roads, schools and other govern-
mental functions. It is equally obvious that when the forests are
destroyed and the dependent industries close down or move away
they no longer pay taxes. Unless costs can be correspondingly cur-
tailed, which is seldom the case, their share of the public revenues
must then be paid by the remaining property, or must be met by
contributions from taxpayers in other parts of the State. Unless
the land formerly occupied by forest can be promptly converted into
farms — and this can no longer be done in any forest region of the
United States — the burden on existing farm and village property is
bound to increase. This has been the unpleasant experience of
farmers in many cut-over land regions.

FARM ABANDONMENT FOLLOWS FOREST DESTRUCTION

In many regions where agricultural settlement was directly asso-
ciated with the utilization of the forests, the exhaustion of the timber
and withdrawal of the industries has worked great hardship. The
lack of opportunities for supplementary work, the loss of local markets
for farm produce, the dismantling of railroads following cessation of
the timber traffic, and the increased burden of taxation with a narrow-
ing of the tax base, have made it impossible for many settlers to con-
tinue. Widespread abandonment of farms and virtual depopulation
have followed, even in localities where permanent agricultural utiliza-
tion of part of the land would be economically justified.

FORESTRY ON SUBMARGINAL LANDS PREVENTS UNECONOMIC
USE FOR AGRICULTURE

There are, of course, many millions of acres which it is possible to
cultivate, but which should never be farmed. Yet, as long as cut-
over land remains in private ownership, whether in farms or outside
of farms, there will be an urge to use it for crops or pasture. These
are the only forms of use which most landowners are able to envision.
Much inferior land (from the agricultural standpoint) has been more
or less temporarily added to the agricultural area for this reason.
Its continued operation can only result in disappointment and even-
tual failure of the settlers. It also means a loss to the community at

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 101

large, because of the expense of providing the necessary schools,
roads, and other services.

Steps should be taken to prevent further expansion of farming on
such land. Definite assignment of the land to forest growing, either
through its acquisition by the public, or by private owners with the
cooperation of the public, will tend to remove the incentive to put it
to uneconomic agricultural use. This is a very important reason,
which is generally overlooked, for the development of productive
forests on the large areas of land which is submarginal for agriculture
but physically capable of cultivation.

FORESTRY HELPS TO MAINTAIN POPULATION IN SUBMARGINAL

REGIONS

We hear much, nowadays, about agricultural overproduction and
the need for getting submarginal land out of agricultural use. It is
sometimes suggested that the rural inhabitants of the more or less
marginal regions should migrate to better agricultural land elsewhere
or to industrial centers where they can engage in other kinds of work.
This would not materially affect agricultural overproduction—
probably not at all, so far as the general market is concerned. A few
of the persons thus migrating might better their condition, but many
of them would be even worse off than before. Whether migration
were allowed to take its natural course or were stimulated, it would
seldom result in complete depopulation. The process would probably
be selective, leaving behind those individuals with the least initiative
or economically the weakest, and thus would give rise to rural slums
which might be even more difficult to deal with than those in the
cities.

Instead of getting the people of such regions to seek employment
elsewhere, it would be far better to bring employment to them. By
establishing industries which will supplement agriculture, an even
larger population than exists now can be supported on a much higher
level than at present. Agriculture may be submarginal so far as the
general market is concerned, but may still be supermarginal if its
products can be utilized in the same locality where grown. This is
particularly true in localities where farming can be conducted on a
part-time basis, and where a portion of the farmers' income can be
derived from other industries.

Just as in the case of nations, the people of a given region can
purchase the products of other regions only if they produce com-
modities or services which can be sold in outside markets. As a
general rule, submarginal agricultural regions cannot economically,
nor should they attempt to raise farm products for the general
market. The forest products of such regions, however, in many
instances are eminently suitable for trade with the outside. The
cost of living will generally be lower in decentralized, forest-farm
communities than in the larger industrial centers, and long hauls and
various intermediate costs between the forest and the factory can be
eliminated. For these reasons, wood products industries in such
communities can compete on a favorable footing with similar in-
dustries in the larger centers. The more completely the timber can
be manufactured into finished commodities within the region of
origin, so much the better will the forest resource serve to support

102 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the local population and increase its ability to buy the products of
other regions.

FORESTRY AND EMPLOYMENT
EMPLOYMENT IN FOREST INDUSTRIES IS DECREASING

Forestry and the lumber industry directly employed an average of
650,000 workers in the United States in 1929. This did not include
the large amount of part-time work by 2,500,000 farmers who got
out wood and timber from their own land and worked it up for their
own use or hauled it to market. Another 650,000 were employed in
wood-working plants of various sorts and in the pulp and paper in-
dustry. The persons employed in the transportation and merchan-
dising of lumber and other forest products are not included in the
above figures.

Employment in the forest and related industries has been decreas-
ing for more than 20 years. So far, this has been due only in small
part to increased output per man. The principal reason is the
decrease in total output. For instance, the number of wage earners
employed in what the Bureau of Census classifies as "the principal
lumber industries" decreased 23 percent between 1909 and 1929,
while the output of sawed lumber decreased 17 percent. In 1899
the ratio of total lumber cut to number of wage earners in logging-
camps and sawmills was 85,000 board feet per man. In 1909 the
ratio fell to 81,000 feet, and in 1919 to 72,000. In 1929 it rose to
88,000 feet. It is quite possible that the future will see considerable
technological advance in the processes of harvesting and fabricating
wood products, and that this will tend to reduce the quantity of labor
per unit of output.

FORESTRY WILL HELP TO STABILIZE EMPLOYMENT

To the extent that this takes place, and to the extent that a de-
creased output represents a reduction in our capacity to consume
timber products or to sell them abroad, a corresponding reduction in
employment must be expected. However, if we can eliminate the
wastes involved in the present system of forest exploitation and
migratory industries, there is reason to believe that it will be possible
to reduce costs and in the long run materially to increase the con-
sumption and export of timber products. If this should come about,
the forest industries might require an even larger number of workers
than are employed now.

Whether or not total employment should increase, there are mani-
fest advantages in stability of employment in the various timber
regions. Permanently productive forests will not only give fairly
steady work in protecting and caring for the forest and harvesting
the crop, ^but they will also lead to the establishment in the
same vicinity of wood-using industries which will also employ many
workers. Although they may not contribute greatly toward reliev-
ing permanent technological unemployment in the urbanized indus-
trial regions, they will be very helpful in taking up the slack in the
immediate regions where they are located.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 103

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES UNDER SUSTAINED YIELD

FORESTRY

IN EUROPE

For European countries, where many forests have been under sus-
tained yield management for a long time, there is considerable infor-
mation on employment in forestry and forest industries.

In Denmark, 750,000 acres of forest furnished employment in 1912
equivalent to full-time work for about 6,000 persons, or one worker
to 125 acres. The actual number employed was considerably greater,
because much of the work was seasonal, part-time work. Few, even
of the regular forest workers, are employed in forest work for more than
200 days a year. During the remaining time most of them work on
farms.

In Sweden, employment averages about 1 man to 400 acres in the
south and 1 man to 1,400 acres in the less productive forests of the
north.

In 1927 the State forests of Prussia gave work to 143,600 men and
women. For the majority of these the forest work was supplementary
to agricultural or other employment, for the men worked an average
of only 98 days and the women .29 days. The total was equivalent
to about 33,000 year-long employees for the 5,500,000 acres of forest,
or 1 to 167 acres. By 1930 the ratio of employment was reduced to
194 acres per person. This includes logging, but not work in saw-
mills or other manufacturing industries. For all of Germany, with
31,000,000 acres of forest, from 1,500,000 to more than 2,000,000
persons are employed part or full time in forestry, logging and wood-
using industries.

In Austria about 1 person for every 100 acres of forest is engaged
in forest work and if transportation, manufacture and wood-working
industries are included, 1 for every 30 acres.

For Czechoslovakia, including the industries, there is 1 worker
for every 35 to 50 acres.

In Alsace-Lorraine, not including transportation and mill workers,
about 25,000 persons, mostly farmers, find part-time employment in
forestry and logging. This is equivalent to 1 full-time worker for
225 acres of forest.

In Switzerland, the 1,700,000 acres of public forests give work to
nearly 10,000 full-time and about 30,000 part-time employees, equiva-
lent to perhaps 1 full-time worker for 100 acres.

The figures for England are interesting because they show the
increase in amount of employment as forests develop from the plant-
ing stage to full production. The Thetford Forest is almost entirely
a planting project so far. When the area was taken over, about 6
gamekeepers were employed on the entire 26,500 acres. Since plant-
ing began the number of employees has averaged between 200 and 300,
including both full-time and part-time workers. The Forest of Dean,
which contains some mature timber but is not yet fully stocked, gives
work to 381 men in forest and sawmill on less than 20,000 acres.
When the forest is fully productive it is estimated that there will be
work for about 700. The Tin tern Forest, which has been under man-
agement for 30 years and is well stocked, gives work at the rate of
1 full-time employee to 35 acres. This includes silvicultural work,

168342°— 33— vol.

104 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

felling and extraction, and a certain amount of rough manufacture.
The British Forestry Commission estimates that on the average,
forests in the planting stage require 1 full- tune worker for 100 acres
and forests in the productive stage, 1 worker to 50 acres. Including
hauling and woodworking, fully productive forests give work to 1
person for every 25 acres.4

The wide variation in the above figures is not surprising. Not only
is there great variation in the productiveness of the forests of different
regions, but the amount of work involved in timber growing'and utili-
zation also varies widely with the kind of timber that is grown, and
with the kinds of products that are made from it.

IN THE UNITED STATES

There is little information in this country to indicate how many
persons might be employed in developing and managing sustained
yield forests and utilizing their products. The Harvard Forest of
2,100 acres in Massachusetts, which has been under management for
25 years, employs 5 men all of the time and about 10 others for sea-
sonal work, or roughly one full-time employee for 250 acres. This
includes work in the woods and sawmill. In Maine, the Bates College
Forest of 1 1,300 acres employs 5 year-long men and about 35 others for

Eeriods of 2 to 6 months in forestry and logging, or at the rate of one
ill-time man to 600 acres. This figure does not include sawing or
further manufacture of the lumber. The number of employees will
probably increase as the output of timber increases. A wood-working
industry wliich has been operating in the same locality in northern
Vermont for more than 80 years employs about 200 persons in har-
vesting and manufacturing the timber from about 8,000 acres, or at
the rate of one worker to 40 acres. A southern company which is
practically on a sustained yield basis cuts about 12,000 board feet a
day of second-growth timber. About 100 persons are employed dur-
ing most of the year. This is roughly at the rate of one worker to 120
acres. The State Forester of Connecticut has estimated that 500
men could be profitably employed for 6 months every year on the
63,000 acres of State forest. This is equivalent to one year-long man
for every 250 acres.

A very rough estimate of the aggregate possibilities for employment
in American forests may be derived as follows: In 1929 there were
employed in forestry, logging, and wood manufacture an average of
1,300,000 persons. Including the part-time work of farmers, the total
was equivalent to possibly 1,500,000 full-time workers. The total cut
of timber (not including small trees cut for firewood, etc.) was approxi-
mately 54 billion board feet, or 36,000 board feet for each person en-
gaged in the industries. Our forest land, averaging poor and good
sites together, can probably grow timber at the rate of 100 to 150
board feet or more per acre per annum. At the present rate of em-
ployment this would give full-time work to one man for every 240 to
360 acres. Inasmuch as the present employment includes very little
silvicultural work, and since a considerable amount of work in con-
nection with the utilization of range and recreational resources is not
included in the above figure, it is possible that our forests when fully

* H. A. Pritchard. Labour in Relation to Forestry in Great Britain. Papers presented at Third British
Empire Forestry Conference, Australia and New Zealand, 1928. pp. 689-600. 1928.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 105

productive may give direct employment to at least one person for
every 250 acres, or the equivalent of full-time work for some 2,000,000
persons in all.

FORESTS AS A SOURCE OF EMERGENCY EMPLOYMENT

Much has been said regarding the possibilities of forest work as a
means of relieving unemployment during periods of economic depres-
sion. Such work has been used to good advantage in several States,
notably California, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Wisconsin, and New York during the last year or two. It has
possibilities of great expansion.

It also has its limitations, particularly after forests are on a sus-
tained yield basis. Most of the work incidental to protection,
management, and exploitation must then be done currently and in
fairly even volume. Planting cannot be expanded quickly to meet
emergencies, because the planting stock has to be grown in nurseries
for 1, 2, or 3 years or even longer before it is ready to set out. It is
impossible to raise surplus planting stock in advance and hold it in
reserve until needed, because it is impractical to use trees more than
3 or 4 years old. Fire protection work depends largely upon seasonal
conditions. Slash disposal, where necessary, must be done soon after
the timber is cut, hence is governed largely by the rate of cutting.
Thinnings and improvement cuttings in properly regulated forests
cannot be postponed indefinitely until a depression happens along,
but must follow a fairly regular schedule. The rate of timber cutting
in general is bound to be curtailed, not expanded, during depression
periods, thus releasing large numbers of woods and mill workers.
In Germany, unemployment in the forest and woodworking industries
at the present time is worse than in most of the other industries.5
As for the technical foresters, not only has the state forest personnel
been reduced, but it is reported that more than 2,000 foresters in
private employment have lost their jobs.

However, our forests in their present unregulated and undeveloped
condition do offer opportunities for a large amount of emergency em-
ployment. There is great need for permanent improvements such as
roads, trails, telephone lines, firebreaks, recreation facilities, lookout
towers, and the elimination of fire hazards, such as standing* dead
snags and accumulated slash. In many localities there is urgent need
for check dams, terracing, and forest planting to check erosion.
Most of our forests are in need of improvement cuttings to remove
defective, diseased, or otherwise undesirable trees and thus increase
the yields of better quality timber. Much can be done to clear up
breeding places for insect pests and tree diseases. Forest planting on
a much larger scale than hitherto will be needed, even after the de-
pression is over, hence it would be possible now to employ many men
in establishing nurseries and preparing planting sites.

According to a recent survey by the American Tree Association,
the National and State forests could, if funds were made available,
give work to at least 70,000 men for a year, or to a much larger num-
ber for shorter periods. This estimate is believed to be extremely
conservative. According to later estimates, a much greater number

8 Lemmel. Die Wirtschaftsergebnisse des Preussischen Staatsforstverwaltung im Jahre 1930. Mit-
teilungen aus Forstwirtschaft und Forstwissenschaft 3:15-95. 1932.

106 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

could be employed. It is also estimated that about three times as
much work could advantageously be done in privately owned forests.

Work of the character outlined is peculiarly suitable for times of
depression when consumers' buying power is insufficient to absorb
the products of industiy. The increase in buying power resulting
from such employment will not be immediately offset by the produc-
tion of other goods which must be sold, as would be the case with
artificially stimulated factory employment. Instead, the money
spent in forest development work will go largely for wages and con-
sumers' goods, and consumption of farm and factory products will be
stimulated.

As noted above, a depression is apt to hit the forest industries as
hard as any group of industries, even when forestry is on a permanent
basis. Emergency employment in forest development is especially
well adapted to give work to persons who have temporarily lost their
jobs in the lumber and allied industries in the same locality. It will
help workers to maintain their homes and to have reasonably steady
occupation, and will prevent their drifting awray and aggravating
unemployment elsewhere. This is particularly desirable in regions
where forestry and agriculture are closely interdependent. A com-
bined forest and farm economy is more nearly depression-proof than
an urban factory-mercantile economy, because the rural workers can
to a considerable extent subsist by consuming their own and each
other's products, even if there is no outside market for them. Unless
the workers in the cities can sell their products or their services, they
will have to be fed by the community or they will quickly starve.

FORESTS AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
BOOMS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES

The "boom" phenomenon which follows too rapid exploitation and
liquidation of natural resources foUows a more or less generalized
pattern. A boom centering around lumbering begins with the first
logging operation in a virgin- timber area. Plant and equipment are
quickly installed far beyond the sustained yield capacity of the tribu-
tary forests. Other logging operations and sawmills follow the first,
and production gathers momentum as it goes. At the start, the new
demand for goods and services commonly exceeds the supply. Local
business which is in on the ground floor prospers and expands. The
vacuum is rapidly filled by influx of new enterprises. Established
agricultural and business enterprises adjusted to the demands prevail-
ing before the boom reinvest their earnings in expansion of plant
capacity. For a time all goes well, but sooner or later the boom
collapses and these fundamentally sound enterprises necessarily face
serious loss of capital.

In the history of booms — whether in mining, stock raising, lumber-
ing, or recreation— few local governmental agencies have had the
wisdom or the restraint to hold public expenditures in check. As the
boom gets under way and as local agriculture and business prosper
and expand, increases in taxes are accepted complacently by the tax-
payers. Every community desires intensely to outdo some neighbor-
ing community in the excellence of its public buildings and its roads.
As the income from taxes mounts, and without calculating the cost
to complete, a program of public improvements is launched. Almost

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 107

without exception, the original estimates of costs are far below the
actual, and the final outcome is that bonds have to be issued to com-
plete public projects that have been undertaken. Communities
under the spell of optimism and local pride cheerfully vote bonds that
their governing bodies say are needed. When the peak of the boom
is passed, property values decline, and the burden of local taxation
begins to bear heavily on the primary raw material industry and local
citizens alike.

At this time taxpayer's leagues begin to form and endeavors are
made to reduce public expenditures. Usually this is difficult, because
of the unyielding nature of the fixed charges for maintenance of
buildings and roads and for interest and amortization of bonds.
Failing in this, county authorities plead for National and State sub-
sidies. Ordinarily these are obtained, on the plea that collapse of
local government's credit and default on bonds must be prevented.

This boom process of too rapid exploitation reacts in a broadly
similar way on the individual lumber business. Each new operation
that starts contributes toward overproduction. Usually two processes
then come into operation. First, the major producers in the region
attempt to work out some plan of price stabilization or production
control. These attempts have invariably failed. Then the indi-
vidual concern must begin to analyze production costs and attempt
economies which will reduce the unit cost of lumber. These econo-
mies can be effected principally through increasing production so as
to spread the fixed costs over a larger output. Increase in production
frequently means increases in plant and equipment. Thus earnings
are reinvested and become frozen assets. As operation after opera-
tion follows this formula, overproduction becomes progressively more
serious, prices are further depressed, and net return is reduced.
Savings in production costs are more than wiped out by decreases in
selling price.

Somewhere in this phase of the cycle the local government begins
the practice of assessing a fixed amount of taxes against an annually
decreasing volume of stumpage. This still further accentuates the
urge for quick liquidation and reduces the chance for the individual
operator to come out even. More commonly than not, the latter
phases of the cycle are a scramble to cut as rapidly as possible and to
sell at any price. In the wake of depressed markets, credit becomes
restricted and the need for cash forces still further lowering of prices.
With the end of an operation it is often found that earnings have been
largely reinvested and that the total capital investment has not been
retired.

COMMUNITY DECADENCE FOLLOWS FOREST DESTRUCTION

Decline of lumbering is soon followed by decadence of agriculture
in the region, and this in turn increases the difficulties for those who
endeavor to hang on. The ultimate result is tax delinquency, land
abandonment, or finally virtual depopulation of the region, with its
train of economic and social wastage. The northern portion of the
lower peninsula of Michigan may be taken as an illustration. For
many years, while lumbering was flourishing, population steadily
increased, homes were built, villages and cities grew up, a network of
railroads spread over the region, and thousands of settlers established
themselves on farms. Little thought was given to perpetuation of

108 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the forests, for it was believed that the region would develop as had
the country farther south and that forests and forest industries would
no longer be needed.

After a few decades logging and subsequent fires had wiped out all
but a few remnants of the forests. The sawmills and logging camps
which employed many thousands of men in 1889, employed only a
few hundred in 1929. The railroads, no longer having timber to
haul or anything to take its place, pulled out many of the branch
lines and left the settlers without adequate transportation facilities.
Costs of building and maintaining roads mounted, as did costs of
schools and other public services. Real-estate values declined.
Taxes were increased. The more prosperous portions of the State
were called upon more and more to help support schools and highways.
Farmers, no longer able to earn wages in winter work in woods or
mills, with no local market for their produce, and burdened with
rising taxes, found that they could no longer make a living and grad-
ually drifted away. Between 1910 and 1930 the number of farms in
the cut-over northern counties of lower Michigan decreased by more
than 12,000, or 27 percent.

When the camps and mills ceased to operate, many villages and
towns lost their principal or only industries and no longer had any
reason for existence. Population fell off rapidly. Many mill villages
that had had a population of several hundreds or even thousands joined
the swelling list of " ghost " towns. One of the most striking instances
is the twin towns of Au Sable-Oscoda, on the shore of Lake Huron.
In 1890 these towns had a combined population of 8,346, with fine
buildings, paved sidewalks, and all the conveniences of an enterpris-
ing small city. During the sawing season the population was much
larger. In 1930 the combined population was only 903, of whom
61 lived in Au Sable city, which had 4,328 inhabitants 40 years before.

Of 31 counties in this region, 29 had fewer inhabitants in 1930 than
in 1910 and 24 had fewer than in 1900. The region as a whole lost
83,000 people between 1910 and 1930, or 21 percent. During the
same period the southern agricultural and industrial counties (not
including Wayne) gained 765,000 inhabitants, or 50 percent, and
Wayne County alone (Detroit and vicinity) gained 1,357,000, or
256 percent.

This state of affairs is not peculiar to Michigan. The same thing
has happened in the other Lake States, in the Appalachian region,
in the South, and already in some localities in the far West.

This entire boom cycle, starting with untouched virgin-timber
areas and ending with local impoverishment and parasitism, has
varied in length in different regions. But in the main the life of the
cycle seldom lasts more than 25 to 40 years. It is disastrous alike
to the lumbering business and to local communities, local govern-
ment, and local business. To prevent booms, with their inevitable
consequences of local impoverishment, overproduction, and migratory
lumbering is one of the obligations of American forestry.

PERMANENT FORESTS SUPPORT PERMANENT COMMUNITIES

One of the most important contributions that continuously pro-
ductive forests can make toward the general welfare is through the
stabilization of centers or nuclei around which various economic and
social institutions can group themselves. In these centers the workers

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 109

in the forest industries can live with their families in their own homes
instead of living in camps. They can be responsible citizens instead
of the homeless, voteless men with little sense of civic responsibility
who so often make up our transitory, "boom" logging camps and
sawmill towns. Under these conditions villages or small cities can
grow up, their size depending on the magnitude and variety of forest
industries.

Such communities will furnish markets for nearby farmers and
social and economic opportunities for them and their children and
will tend to halt emigration to distant cities. The churches, schools,
hospitals, public libraries, stores, places of entertainment, and other
institutions which are provided in these centers and the contacts
with persons of various occupations and points of view serve to widen
the mental horizons and social opportunities not only of the villagers
but also of the more scattered population in surrounding territory.

Without the industry centers, such institutions and services could
not exist, or only on an exceedingly inadequate scale. Where the
sawmills and industries are transient in character, as has so generally
been the case in this country, the community nuclei are little better
than camps, and the community services are not provided or they
pass away with the cutting out of the tributary forests. Under such
circumstances the social ill effects are greater than if the communi-
ties had never existed, because settlers are left stranded who would
never have come into the region if they had not expected that per-
manent social institutions would be provided.

EXAMPLES OF PERMANENT FOREST-INDUSTRY COMMUNITIES

An excellent example of a community, or rather a group of com-
munities dependent upon forest industry, is Grays Harbor County,
in western Washington.6 This county, with a population of 60,000,
including several modern cities, is almost entirely dependent on the
forest resources. In 1928 it had 52 lumber and shingle mills and
19 other enterprises manufacturing wood products. These, together
with logging camps, employed over 10,000 persons. Millions of dol-
lars have been spent by local interests and by the Federal Govern-
ment in developing the harbor and port facilities for the shipment
of lumber. There were 1,892 business firms in the county engaged
in all sorts of enterprises. There were only 22,000 acres of crop and
pasture land in 1928 out of a total area of 1,196,000 acres, but there
were 956,000 acres of logged-off land. The total assessed valuation
of the county in 1928 was close to $38,000,000, of which more than
one half represented forest land, timber, and woodworking plants.
Probably 90 percent or more of the other values would be wiped out
if the lumber industry should cease. Obviously, the disintegration
of such a group of communities or of others like these elsewhere
would entail great economic loss, not only to those directly involved,
but to the State and Nation as well. Fortunately, in this instance
this has been realized before the forest was entirely exhausted, and
plans for insuring a perpetual timber supply are being discussed.

Another example, in another part of the country, is the city of
Bogalusa, in Louisiana, which has a population of more than 14,000

6 Cooperative forest study of the Grays Harbor area (Washington). By various authors. 79 p. Pub-
lished by Western Forestry and Conservation Association and Charles Lathrop Pack. (Portland, Oreg.)

HO A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

and is entirely dependent on forest-products industries. The 28 fac-
tories employ 4,400 men and ship close to 16,000 carloads of products
a year. This is a city of fine homes, churches, schools, parks, play-
grounds, and up-to-date business establishments. Starting as a lum-
ber town, industries have gradually become diversified, and they now
include pulp and paper, naval stores, woodenware, and furniture,
but all of them are still based on the forest. The company control-
ling the principal industries has definitely embarked on a policy of
growing timber sufficient to keep the mills supplied, so that this
town, unlike so many other lumber industry towns, bids fair to be
permanent.

A third example is the city of Cloquet, in Minnesota. Predomi-
nantly a sawmill town for almost a half century, its end appeared to
be approaching, owing to depletion of the tributary saw timber, when
it was practically annihilated by a conflagration in 1918. However,
unlike the cities of Au Sable and Oscoda referred to above, which were
similarly destroyed in 1911, Cloquet was rebuilt. Diversified wood-
using industries were established to utilize material that the sawmills
could not use, and efforts were made to perpetuate the timber sup-
ply. As a result, the city now has a population of approximately
7,000, or almost the same as before the fire. Besides sawmills, it
has industries which make paper, balsam wool, boxes, toothpicks,
refrigerators, clothespins, and various wood specialties. It has prac-
tically no industries except those based on the forest, and as only
about 20 percent of the county's area is cultivated or improved
pasture, Cloquet's future is inseparably linked with the future of
the northern Minnesota forests.

LOCAL SUSTAINED YIELD IS ESSENTIAL FOR PERMANENT

COMMUNITIES

These communities, though larger than many, are typical of the
sort of communities that can be supported by permanently productive
forests. No one will question the desirability, from every point of
view, of a permanent existence for communities such as these. It is
upon the thousands of comparatively small communities scattered
throughout the country that the political and economic stability and
social well-being of America depend. Neither these communities nor
the larger metropolitan centers whose manufactures and commerce are
based upon the products and resources of a prosperous, productive
hinterland can continue to exist unless there is a continuous output of
products from the land.

For one fourth of our land area this means a continuous output of
forest products. It means more than merely maintaining a forest
cover and insuring a crop of timber at some indefinite future date.
As has been well said: "From the standpoint of timber supply alone
it may be of little or no importance whether a continuous yield is
maintained within the radius of a township, a county, a State, or
even a major region of the whole country. With the consumer it
makes no difference about the radius within which the annual cut is
maintained. With the forest worker, however, it makes all the
difference in the world." 7 If our forests are to do their part in main-
taining permanent, prosperous communities, they must be handled in

f Benton McKaye. Employment and natural resources. 144 p. U.S. Dept. of Labor. 1919.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 111

such a way that a continuous supply of timber is assured for each
dependent community; that is, under the principle of sustained yield
by comparatively small economic ^ units. In ^this way unhealthy
"boom" development can be avoided, periodic overproduction of
lumber and other forest products can be prevented, all of the indirect
benefits from the forests can be retained and increased, and our forests
can take their place permanently as one of the basic natural resources
upon which regional and national prosperity is founded.

FORESTRY AND PUBLIC FINANCE

The preceding discussion has shown that forestry serves the public
interest in many ways, There would be little question as to the
desirability of maintaining productive forests if they did not cost
anything. But it is obvious that large expenditures will be required if
pur forests are to be protected and made fully productive. Hence it
is natural that the questions arise : Will forestry pay? Can individual
forest owners or the public afford forestry? Will not the cost, a large
portion of which must be borne by the public, involve too heavy a
strain on public treasuries and on individual taxpayers?

It can be admitted at the outset that forestry will not always,
under all circumstances, show a cash profit to the owner, whether he
be an individual or the public. There are large areas of forest land
upon which forestry will not be profitable, unless in the remote
future, particularly from the standpoint of the individual owner.
This will be true of much of the less accessible land and land of rela-
tively low productive capacity. It may also be true of the better
land where the forest is so badly wrecked that a costly process of
rehabilitation and a long period of waiting will be necessary before
appreciable returns can be realized. Even for private owners, how-
ever, the opportunities for profitable forestry are much better than is
commonly supposed. This is discussed in the section of this report
entitled " Status and Opportunities of Private Forestry."

PUBLIC GETS RETURNS NOT AVAILABLE TO INDIVIDUALS

From the public standpoint, the prospect of direct financial profit
from forestry does not have the same importance as with private
owners.

Owners of forest land can obtain income from sale of wood and other
tree products, grazing privileges, and recreational and occupancy
privileges. Usually these are the only salable products as far as the
private owner is concerned. If the landowner is also an operating
lumberman, the profit he may make in the manufacture and sale of
lumber is an operating profit, not a land-owning profit. He could
make the same profit if he bought stumpage from another rather than
from himself. Operating profit should not be confused with profits
from landownership, though the two are commonly combined in one
individual or corporation.

No matter whether land is in public or private ownership, the public
receives indirect financial returns and other benefits that are not avail-
able to individual owners. Within suitable limits, therefore, the
public is justified in spending money, both on public forests and to
promote forestry on private lands, even where no direct return can be
foreseen.

112 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PRODUCTIVE FORESTS WIDEN THE TAX BASE

It is obvious that under the general property tax system there will
be more property to tax with productive forests than with idle land,
and that this will tend to result in lower tax burdens on all property
within the same taxing unit. This additional property will include not
merely the forests themselves, if they are privately owned, but also the
sawmills, pulp and paper mills, and other plants dependent on the
forest for raw material. It will include the homes and other property
of persons employed in the forest-products industries, and the homes
and businesses of persons who serve the forest-industry population.
It will include the summer homes, resorts, and other recreation facili-
ties that exist because of the forest. It will include the farms and
villages whose existence depends on the forest. In the West it may
include immense agricultural values that depend on the water from
forest lands. These dependent values may, and often do, considera-
bly exceed the values of the forests themselves.

In Wisconsin, for instance, the value of the pulp and paper plants
is around $100,000,000. The wood for these plants could be supplied
by about 2 million acres of managed forest which at present valuations
would probably be worth not more than $50,000,000. In Grays
Harbor County, Wash., forests and cut-over land are assessed at
around $12,000,000 and lumber and woodworking plants at nearly
$8,000,000. Of the remaining property, assessed at $18,000,000, at
least 90 percent owes its value to the existence of the forest industries.
Even the farms, now worth $1,000,000, would lose much of their value
if the forest industries should close down permanently.

In cases like these, even if the forests themselves were entirely
exempt from taxation they would indirectly return much greater
revenues to the public treasury than would the same area of idle land.
The same thing would be true if taxes were based partly or wholly
upon incomes, instead of property. All of the varied industries and
businesses sustained by productive forests are capable of yielding
incomes, but idle land produces none.

Public acquisition of privately owned forest land is sometimes
objected to on the ground that its removal from the tax rolls will
reduce the public revenues. This might be a valid argument against
public ownership if private owners could and would use the land in
such a productive manner as to derive an income much larger than
public agencies might derive from managing the same land. This
will seldom be the case. In the long run, the tax collected by the
public must be somewhat less than the net income from the land, or
else private owners will not continue to hold it. With public owner-
ship the public gets the entire net income.

Even where there is no direct income from a forest, the public may
still derive a large indirect income. An extreme example is the
Angeles National Forest in southern California. This forest is main-
tained primarily for watershed protection and not for timber produc-
tion. It returns very little direct income, hence impairment of its
protective value would not directly affect the income to the public
treasury. However, the possibility of agricultural use of some
200,000 acres of exceedingly valuable land depends on the water from
the Angeles Forest. It has been estimated that the Federal Govern-
ment alone derives approximately $200,000 a year from taxes on in-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 113

comes produced by these lands. The incomes from property taxes
received by local governments are many times this figure.

This is an excellent example of a case where private forestry
would not pay, but where public forestry produces indirect returns
many times as large as the costs to the public.

PRODUCTIVE FORESTS REDUCE PER CAPITA COSTS OF PUBLIC

FUNCTIONS

Another way in which productive forests benefit the public as a
whole and large numbers of individuals, but only in a small degree
the owners of the land itself, is a corollary of the preceding.

The per capita cost of various local public functions, such as
schools, local government, and highway maintenance will to a certain
extent vary inversely with the population served. For instance, the
cost of maintaining a school for 20 pupils is not appreciably greater
than for 3. It has been found in Wisconsin that rural schools
with 5 pupils or less cost twice as much per pupil as schools with 10
pupils, and six times as much as schools with 25 pupils. A mile of
road serving many settlers costs no more to construct and maintain
than a mile serving a single isolated farmer. Costs of town and
county officers, maintenance of a courthouse, jail, and public records,
etc., are about the same whether the population is sparsely scattered
or dense. Where, as in many instances, permanent forest industries
can result in a settled population 2 to 3 times as great as would be
supported by agriculture alone, each individual's or family's share
in government costs is correspondingly reduced, or better service is
rendered, or both.

WITH PRODUCTIVE FORESTS, LOCAL UNITS NEED LESS STATE

AID

Conversely, the cost of supporting schools and other public services
which have been established during a boom period of forest exploita-
tion becomes exceedingly burdensome to the remaining taxpayers
after the tax base has been narrowed by depletion of the forests and
passing of the forest industries. This has happened in hundreds, if
not thousands, of communities in every forest region of the United
States. In many instances this situation has necessitated an exten-
sion of State aid to the financially weak communities, and has thus
increased the tax burdens of other communities than those directly
concerned.

One example is the State of Michigan, where almost every county
in the cut-over region receives more money from the State school
fund alone than it pays in State taxes. Besides this, the State con-
tributes large sums for the construction and maintenance of roads.
Similar conditions occur in numerous other States. The only way in
which such financially dependent counties can become self-support-
ing— short of complete depopulation or breakdown of essential gov-
ernmental responsibilities — is by eliminating uneconomic expenditures
through more systematic land use and distribution of population so
as to avoid unnecessary expenditures for schools and roads, and by
increasing taxable wealth or sources of revenue through productive
utilization of natural resources, particularly forest land. Unless
these things are done, the States can look forward to a steady increase
in contributions toward the costs of local government.

114 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE, AMERICAN FORESTRY

GREAT EXPANSION OF FORESTRY IS JUSTIFIED

To the question "Is forestry justified?" a general answer "yes" is
indicated. This answer necessarily anticipates conclusions, based on
detailed factual material which is contained in other sections of this
report.

FORESTS A NATURAL RESOURCE OF MANIFOLD VALUES AND

SERVICES

It has been shown that forests furnish a variety of useful raw ma-
terials which serve as the basis for important industries as well as for
export and which can be reproduced indefinitely. They furnish useful
employment and a means of subsistence to millions of our citizens.
They protect the soil on river banks, hillsides, and mountain slopes.
They retard or prevent the silting up of navigable channels, harbors,
and reservoirs. They help to maintain the purity of domestic water
supplies. They furnish forage for domestic livestock, and food and
refuge for many forms of wild life that are useful to man or that afford
him enjoyment. They beautify the landscape, and afford opportuni-
ties for inexpensive and wholesome recreation to many millions of
people. Tnev are an important adjunct of agriculture, which could
hardly exist in many regions wrere it not for the forests. Under per-
manent management, they serve to prevent unhealthy booms, stabil-
ize industry and social institutions, and sustain permanent com-
munities.

NATIONAL WELFARE DEMANDS BEST USE OF OUR LAND

RESOURCES

Forest land is almost one third of the land area of the entire coun-
try, or some 600 million acres. Failure to develop and utilize this
land productively means inevitable reduction in the aggregate of
goods and services available to satisfy the wants of our people. The
only valid excuse for not so utilizing it would be that there are other,
more useful or more productive outlets for all of our available efforts
and energies. This patently is not true, in view of the already large
and constantly growing chronic unemployment of our workmen and
our industrial plants.

States and Nation are necessarily concerned with maintaining
abundance of natural resources, as a source of basic national wealth
and as a means of giving opportunities for employment to their
citizens. Assurance of continuous supply of the raw materials pro-
duced by our own forest lands is in itself a national necessity. Un-
due dependence on foreign imports for materials that we can produce
at home is not good national economy. Forest products are an
important item in our international trade. Even the most localized
areas of idle or partially idle forest land are of national concern,
because thereby the sum total of national wealth is reduced, and the
opportunities for employment are diminished. National economic
well-being and security cannot be assured so long as local impover-
ishment and decadence are common.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 115

FORESTRY THE BEST USE FOR LARGE AREAS OF LAND

During the pioneer period many scores of millions of acres of pro-
ductive farms were carved out of forests. Originally, nearly all of
the land east of the Great Plains was forested, and the pioneer farmer
necessarily acquired a farm by destroying the forest. Thus the idea
became firmly intrenched that all, or nearly all, forest land was suit-
able for agriculture after the forest was removed. As extensive
lumbering operations spread in the Lake States and the South it
was generally believed that agriculture would permanently utilize
the cut-over lands. Land colonization became an accepted sequel
to logging.

Experience rapidly demonstrated, however, that on millions of
acres of forest land agriculture could not succeed. On large areas
in the Lake States, in the South, and in the West, the idea that any
kind of agriculture was feasible had to be given up.

Meanwhile, there has been widespread abandonment of agricultural
lands which had been farmed for generations. The Northeast, the
Piedmont Plateau, the southern Appalachians, and the Ohio Valley
in particular have been the scene of widespread farm abandonment.
Reduced fertility or usability caused by erosion has -been a prime
factor in removing millions of acres of hill farms from cropping. In
those regions most of the cropped land was originally forested; much
of it is likely to revert to forest.

The Bureau of Agricultural Economics (see section "Agricultural
land available for forestry") estimates that the following areas have
passed out of agricultural use since 1910, within those portions of the
eastern United States that were once forested and are available for
reforestation.

Acres

Cleared land on abandoned farms 25, 000, 000

Idle crop land on farms -not yet abandoned 10, 000, 000

Unused, nonwooded pasture land 15, 000, 000

Total 50,000,000

This does not include land which has come up to young timber and
is now classified as forest. Furthermore, the bureau estimates that
30 million acres additional will cease to be used for crops or pasture
between now and 1 950. PartiaUy offsetting this will bo land that may
be cleared for agricultural use. This is not likely to be a very large
area. Agricultural economists state that —

If these economic and technical forces continue to act as they did during the
decade 1920-30, it will not be necessary to increase appreciably the total area of
agricultural land or of crop land to provide the increased agricultural products
required by the expected increase in population.

Agriculture evidently cannot be expected to utilize, either for crops
or for pasture, any large area of lands now in forest, so that in the
future it must be a case of forests or nothing. Constructive treat-
ment of the agricultural lands being abandoned and the lands now
forested will have to be under the practices of forestry, whether the
purpose is timber production, watershed protection, recreational
use, wild-life production, or some combination of these.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PUBLIC INTERESTS SHOULD DETERMINE EXTENT OF FORESTRY

EFFORT

The justification for forestry does not depend finally on a meticulous
calculation of the exact percentage at compound interest which each
minor area of forest land can produce. Calculations of direct finan-
cial return may be acceptable in showing whether a private owner can
retain his forest property. But the mere fact that a forest may offer
little or no prospect of profit to the private owner should not be the
deciding factor in planning its future use. The final determination,
based upon a careful weighing of all the factors, including the public
values involved, should rest with public, not private, agencies. The
National Government, the State governments, and communities must
consider as well the increased public income, the opportunities for
self-supporting employment, the financial and social values of settled
and permanent communities, the national advantages of home-grown
forest products for domestic and export use, and the uncalculated but
real values of forests in watershed protection, for recreational use, and
in game production. The mere fact that forestry may not be justified
for many private owners or the fact that they may think it is not,
is not a point of much evidential value to the public agencies.

This statement, like any generalization on an economic question,
cannot be taken to mean that the evidence shows or the Forest Service
asserts the necessity for forestry on every acre of forest land, regard-
less of financial considerations. Such an assertion or reading of the
evidence would be a manifest absurdity. But there is definite need
for a very great and prompt increase in the acreage of forest land
handled under the principles and practice of forestry.

PUBLIC CAN AFFORD AN ADEQUATE FORESTRY PROGRAM

Public interest in forest problems has been increasing steadily
during the past 40 or 50 years, and much progress has been made.
The concrete and solid steps in forestry include the establishment of
the original national forest system in the West through reservation
of public lands; its extension to the East through purchase; establish-
ment and expansion of State forests in many States; development of
State^ Federal, and private owners' cooperation in fire control effort ;
adoption of laws making a start toward regulation of private land
treatment in many States; forestry practice on some private land;
establishment of schools for training of foresters; and a great increase
in research and other activities, which are building up a factual foun-
dation for forestry practice.

All of these are good, but they are not enough. The tempo of
forestry effort needs to be speeded up before it is too late. The 50
million acres which agriculture has already given up after trying to
use it profitably; the 60 million acres of devastated forest land;°the
nearly 250 million acres of cordwood and ragged but partially stocked
cut-over forest lands; the whole regions from which too rapid exploi-
tation of the basic resource of timber has driven self-sustaining agri-
culture and community life; the generally unsatisfactory level of the
essential activity of fire control; the wide-spread depreciation of
watershed and recreational values of forest land; the continuing re-
duction in yield capacity of our forests; the unstable position of
important forest industries; all of these call for a comprehensive

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 117

forestry program on a far greater scale than has been attempted
hitherto.

Private owners generally will not, nor should ^ they be expected to
expend their money and efforts for purposes which will benefit them
very little. It is logical and reasonable that the costs of such activi-
ties should be borne by the public which derives the benefit. These
public benefits from forestry will be very large and widely ramified.
The immediate costs to the public will also be large, but in the long
run the direct and indirect returns to the public will be far greater.

PUBLIC CANNOT AFFORD TO DELAY ACTION

The Nation cannot afford to wait longer for existing efforts and the
fortuitous play of economic forces to solve the problem. Only con-
scious, deliberate, and planned forestry on a large scale can measurably
meet the known needs. Accidental or unconscious or unplanned
action may, as in the past, leave some forest values on large areas.
This something is better than nothing, but is doing only one fourth
to one third of the job.

The total effort to date has not solved the problem, and the de-
pression clearly has already had the effect of slowing down the existing
rate of both private and public efforts.

Usable forests simply cannot be produced in a short time. Many
decades are required even on the most productive areas, and with the
most intensive forestry. The forest resources of the year 1980 depend
on what is done now.

The numerous questions of how much forestry is now being prac-
ticed and by whom, the place and value of different means to forestry,
the abilities and responsibilities of the different agencies, the costs
and returns from forestry, the areas that will and may not be needed,
and the program required in a full-scale attack on the problem are
all discussed in later sections of this report.

THE FOREST-LAND RESOURCE

Forest land constitutes the basic and most fundamental element
in the Nation's present and potential forest resources. In the first
section of this part of the report the extent and character of our forest
land are outlined by major forest regions and as to broad classes of
ownership. Here is emphasized the peculiar and highly important
multiple-use characteristic of forest land and the five major uses in-
volved— timber production, watershed protection, recreation, pro-
duction of forage, and conservation of wild life.

The second section considers the trends of agricultural land use
and the factors which affect them, and estimates the areas of aban-
doned and other agricultural land available for forest use both now
and as of 1950. It also sketches some of the social and economic
losses involved in agricultural abandonment.

119

168342°— 33 — vol.

FOREST LAND THE BASIC RESOURCE

By R. E. MARSH, in charge Division of Forest Economics, and W. H. GIBBONS,

Senior Forester

CONTENTS

Page

Extent and general character 121

Forest land for timber use 124

Acreage, description, and distribution 124

Ownership of commercial forest land 129

The protective function of forest land 139

The use of forest land for recreation 141

Use of forest land for game 143

The range resource of forest lands 144

Summary of forest land situation 146

Present areas 146

Agricultural-land abandonment 148

Prospective area available for timber production 149

EXTENT AND GENERAL CHARACTER

What is the forest-land resource of the United States? It consists
mainly of about 495 million acres,1 or one fourth of the land area of

CLASSES OF LAND

MILLION
FOREST LAND: ACRES

COMMERCIAI 4-95

NON-COMMERCIAI \2O

615

CROP LAND IN FARMS.

4-13

PASTURE AND RANGE:

IN FARMS 379

NOT IN FARMS 317

696

FARMSTEADS. ROADS,
URBAN, WASTE, ETC..-.. 179

TOTAL LAND AREA..J9O3

FIGURE 1. — Land area of continental United States (excluding Alaska) by major economic uses ,1929.

the continental United States (exclusive of Alaska), which may be
capable of producing timber of commercial quantity and quality
under present or reasonably conceivable future conditions (fig. 1).

1 The data presented in this section and in the section, " Present and Potential Timber Resources",
are based on a rapid extensive survey by the Forest Service in 1931, in which were tabulated forest areas,
volume of standing timber, the rate at which the timber is growing, the annual rate of its use and destruc-
tion, and our actual requirements for forest products. In this compilation, the aid was employed of many
cooperating agencies and individuals, the best available data were gathered and assembled, and the result
checked with the judgment of well-informed men in the different forest regions. Although accuracy and
consistency in detail are impossible in such an extensive survey, the broad general view of the forest situa-
tion thus made available will be valuable in the interim before the results of the more comprehensive and
intensive Nation-wide forest survey now in progress by the Forest Service shall be available.

121

122

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It includes also some 1 1 million acres of commercially valuable lands
in the form of parks, preserves, etc., withdrawn from timber use;
and 109 million acres of open-grown pinon-juniper lands in the West,
chaparral in southern California, remote and inaccessible alpine
ranges, and other areas which because of low productivity or extreme
inaccessibility appear to be permanently out of the commercial
timber-producing class (table 1). Much of this latter noncommercial
land, which is inferior for timber production, has, however, a high
value in terms of stream-flow control and prevention of erosion.
The chaparral lands, for example, are extremely important in con-
serving the water supply for highly intensive agricultural projects.
Figure 2 shows diagrammatically the arbitrary State groups which
are used for statistical purposes. It shows also the principal types
of forest.

TABLE 1. — Forest areas of the United States, by broad classes and regions

Region

Total

Commercial !

Noncommercial

Total

Withdrawn
from
timber
use2

Chiefly val-
uable for
purposes
other than
timber J

New England

Acres
27, 434, 000
29, 770, 000
60, 345, 000
66, 059, 000
216, 868, 000
81, 295, 000
43, 187, 000
89,600,000

Acres
27, 273, 000
27, 139, 000
55, 895, 000
64, 249, 000
190, 758, 000
66, 685, 000
32, 329, 000
30, 570, 000

Acres
161,000
2, 631, 000
4, 450, 000
1,810,000
26,110,000
14, 610, 000
10, 858, 000
59,030,000

Acres
79,000
2, 467, 000
2, 578, 000
544,000
589,000
1, 753, 000
441,000
2, 510, 000

Acres
82,000
164,000
1, 872, 000
1, 266, 000
25, 521, 000
12, 857, 000
10, 417, 000
56, 520, 000

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain .

Total

614, 558, 000

494, 898, 000

119,660,000

10, 961, 000

108, 699, 000

1 Land capable of producing timber of commercial quantity and quality, and available for commercial
use.

2 Fair to good timber-producing land withdrawn from timber use, as in parks.

8 Land characterized by scrubby or very inaccessible forest, such as pinon-juniper stands of the South-
west, scrubby mountain or alpine stands, and chaparral. Over 60 percent is publicly owned, some of
which is withdrawn from timber use. Much of the area has an important value in protecting the water-
sheds of navigable streams, preventing or reducing soil erosion, protecting wild life, providing game
cover, etc.

Forest land constitutes a basic and indispensable national resource.
Upon its continued productivity depend a permanent and economi-
cally available supply of timber products, the maintenance of forest
industries, and in turn the local prosperity based largely upon these
industries. To grow the timber for lumber, pulp wood, fuel wood,
fence posts, and the many other timber products demanded by modern
civilization constitutes what we may term the timber use or timber
supply function of forest lands. It represents their more tangible
economic value or use.

Forested land affords benefits of far-reaching importance through
its favorable influence in regulating stream flow, in preventing exces-
sive erosion, and in providing shelter against wind and drought for
homes, crops, and livestock. The sum of these protective influences
constitutes one of the major uses of forested land.
^ Recreation, using the term broadly to include the entire range from
simple picnicking and sight-seeing to prolonged wilderness camping,
and the spiritual and inspirational stimuli afforded by nature's

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

123

124 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

forested wonders, is now a major forest-land resource or function.
Its importance is rapidly growing with the remarkable progress in
transportation and communication, the reduced hours of labor, and
the consequent increase in time available for recreation.

Forest lands furnish the environmental conditions in whole or in
part upon which a large percentage of the game, fur bearers, and other
wild life of the country depend. Affording as it does the basis for a
large part of the commercial returns incident to game production,
as well as for recreational hunting and fishing, wild life constitutes one
of the basic forest-land resources.

Upon more than half of the forest lands of the country the forage
produced by herbaceous and shrubby plants is grazed by domestic
livestock. This range is an essential factor in the economy of count-
less livestock ranches, farms, and communities as now constituted.
Forest range is then another major resource or use afforded by forest
land.

The benefits afforded by the protection, recreation, game, and range
uses of forest lands, though not so readily appraised, may well repre-
sent values to the public far greater in the aggregate than those to be
realized from commercial timber. On specific tracts the values
inherent in any one use may transcend those of all the other uses.

A notable and highly advantageous characteristic of forest land is
that these major uses are not mutually exclusive. Forest land may
at one time serve efficiently all of these uses. Exceptions, of course,
occur where one or more should be excluded because of the highly
specialized or intensive needs of others. For example, timber use is
excluded from the national parks. But even there the forest land
does not serve its recreation function alone, for it also affords protec-
tion benefits. Timber use is often excluded from municipal water-
sheds in the interest of full protection of city water supplies. Charac-
teristically, then, forest land is a multiple-use resource par excellence,
a fact which greatly enhances its economic value and all-round
usability as a basic national resource.

Forest land will be considered in further detail with reference to
these major uses. The greater length at which the timber phase of
forest-land use is treated throughout this report is reflected in this
section in the discussion of the timber use of forest land. The presen-
tation under timber use is closely associated with other sections, and
should be read in connection with some of the closely related phases,
such as Present Timber Supplies and Timber Growth presented in the
section " Present and Potential Timber Resources." The protection,
recreation, game, and range uses dealt with briefly, following the dis-
cussion under timber use, are treated in full in the sections on those
subjects.

FOREST LAND FOR TIMBER USE

ACREAGE, DESCRIPTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

Clearing land for agriculture was the largest single factor in reduc-
ing the original 820 million acres of comparable forest land in this
country to the 495 million acres now available, theoretically at least,
for commercial timber growing. In large part this conversion to a
more intensive use constituted a natural and desirable economic
trend, but it by no means indicated an indefinitely continuing process
of converting timberlands to farms. A considerable area of converted

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 125

land has already proved submarginal for agriculture. Furthermore,
even during that early period when there existed the greatest popular
demand for farm land in our history, scores of millions of acres of
forest land were cut over or burned over and not brought into
farms.

During the last decade or more an important and striking reversion
has occurred in this trend nationally. The abandonment of agricul-
tural lands has been the largest factor in a gradual but evident increase
in forest areas. In certain regions, notably New England and the
Middle Atlantic, this reversion commenced many years earlier. How
extensive this change is, cannot be accurately estimated. The fact
that the Forest Service in 1922, in a report Timber: Mine or Crop?
(in United States Department of Agricultural Yearbook for 1922),
estimated but 470 million acres of forest land — in contrast with the
present estimate of 495 million acres — is not conclusive evidence on
this point owing to the manner in which that earlier report was
compiled; but there is reason to believe that the reversion of once
cultivated land accounts for a considerable part of the difference
between that estimate and the present one. This most recent in-
crease in forest acreage is continuing. The reversion of other mil-
Lions of acres of low-grade farm land is in progress or evidently pending.
In all this process many perplexing questions of economics and of
social standards or customs are involved.

Even allowing for some back-to-the-land movement as the result
of the present economic depression, it is difficult to foresee any keen
competition on the part of agriculture for large areas of forest land.
On the contrary, it seems certain that our forest land, at least the
area available for forest purposes, will materially increase. The
section " The Agricultural Land Available for Forestry " estimates that
52 million acres are now available for forest use through agricultural
abandonment or for other reasons and that this may be augmented
by 25 to 30 million acres by 1950. Some of this land will in time
become forested through natural processes. Some may be planted
to forests. Most of it would faU within the commercial forest-land
zone.

As will be evident in the later discussion, the term " commercial
forest land" is used in a broad sense to mean not only land bearing
present timber stands that could be economically utilized — for ex-
ample, under the 1929 market and operating conditions — but also
other forest land on which present or future timber stands can be
economically utilized under reasonably conceivable future conditions.
It will be shown in other sections of this report that appreciable
areas of this commercial forest land will need to be withdrawn from
timber use for recreational or other nontimber uses. In short, be-
cause of the prospective withdrawals for other major forest uses and
because of the actual economic unavailabili ty of the timber on much
of the so-called "commercial forest land" under present and recent
conditions, our effective forest-land capital for supplying our timber
needs is now and may always continue to be considerably less than
a half billion acres.

Neither our commercial forest-land acreage in the broad sense
used in this report, nor in the narrower sense of land from which
timber stands could now be economically utilized, can be considered
stable. It will vary with the play of economic forces and changing

126

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

social customs and usages. The effects of these changing conditions
cannot be precisely foretold in terms of forest-land acreage. Of
primary importance, however, are such questions as the quality and
quantity of timber the forest lands will produce, whether these lands
will be more or less than adequate for the best interests of our people,
whether a national sufficiency will actually provide a regional suffici-
ency measured in terms of the forest products most needed, and to
what degree public or private ownership of timber-use lands is to
our best advantage. These and similar questions suggest the neces-
sity for careful consideration of our commercial forest-land areas in
the solution of many of the nation's major economic problems and in
the planning of programs of forest-land use.

Table 2 and figure 3 show the distribution regionally of commercial
land bearing timber of different conditions of growth — that of saw-
timber size, that of cordwood size, of smaller growth on fair to satis-
factory restocking areas, and, finally, the relatively unproductive
areas termed poor to nonrestocking.2

TABLE 2. — Commercial forest area of the United States, by character of growth and

region

Region

Total

Saw-timber areas

Cord-
wood
areas

Fair to
satisfac-
tory re-
stocking
areas

Poor to
nonre-
stocking
areas

Total

Old
growth

Second
growth

New England .

Thousand
acres
27-, 273
27, 139
55, 895
64,249
190,758
66, 685
32,329
30, 570

Per-
cent
6
5
11
13
39
13
7
6

Thousand
acres
13,860
7,294
5,095
21,224
57, 265
44, 140
17, 026
22, 741

Thousand
acres
7,976
26
2,664
1,664
14, 338
38, 892
15, 172
18,123

Thousand
acres
5,884
7,268
2,431
19,560
42, 927
5,248
1,854
4,618

Thousand
acres
4,843
10, 518
8,880
25,592
52, 702
6,683
5,704
5,959

Thousand
acres
6,145
5,998
28,165
12,245
37,236
6,190
5,933
161

Thousand
acres
2,425
3,329
13, 755
5,188
43, 555
9,672
3,666
1,709

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central . .

South

Pacific Coast .

North Rocky Mountain. .
South Rocky Mountain. .

Total

494, 898

100

188,645

98, 855

89,790

120,881

102, 073

83,299

Commercial forest land is present in every major region of the
United States in such quantity as to be an important basic resource.
It will be shown in the section Present and Potential Timber Ke-
sources, however, that the populous and important wood-consuming
New England and Middle Atlantic regions apparently cannot be
wholly and permanently self-supporting as to timber supplies.
They are now and probably will continue to be partially dependent,
therefore, upon the South and West, a very favorable relationship
insofar as the encouragement of forestry in the latter two regions is
concerned. However, these interregional relationships account for
numerous complexities hi the formulation of regional and national
forest-land policies.

Of outstanding significance, regionally and nationally, are the
forest-land resources of the Pacific Coast, because of their potentially
large timber-producing capacity and their enormous stands of virgin
timber; and those of the South because of the great area (39 percent

2 Saw timber denotes areas characterized by trees large enough for sawlog production regardless of their
actual use. In recent years over 30 percent of the saw-timber cut has been used for other than lumber
manufacture. Cordwood denotes areas characterized by trees too small for saw logs but large enough for
cordwood use, regardless of whether the stand is cut for cordwood or held for saw timber. Good, fair, poor,
and nonrestocking refer to areas characterized by 70 percent or more, 40 to 69 percent, 10 to 39 percent, and
less than 10 percent, respectively, of normal stocking with trees for the most part below cordwood size.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

127

of the commercial forest land of the United States), the ease with
which forests are renewed, their rapid growth, and the relative
proximity to important consuming centers. The ultimate theoretical
timber-producing possibilities of all the forest lands in these two
regions, carefully managed, appear to be in excess of the consumptive
capacity of these same regions as measured by current standards.

Although the permanently productive iise of forest land for timber
purposes is in itself highly desirable, this is economically feasible,
insofar as timber supplies are the primary purpose, only if the timber
can be marketed profitably. This points to the fundamental ques-
tion, rendered temporarily more acute in the Pacific Coast region by
the presence of large volumes of virgin timber, whether or not other

New England

Middle Atlantic-
Lake

Central

South..

Pacific Coast.,...

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt._._

All Regions— j

I Saw-timber
1 Areas

40

I Cordwood
Areas

80 120

Million Acres

Fair to
Satisfactory
Restocking Areas

160

200

Non-restock-
ing Areas

FIGURE 3.— Forest area (commercial) of the United States by region and character of growth.

regions of the United States and, for that matter, foreign countries
can most advantageously and economically fill some of their own needs
for timber products from the surpluses that can be grown and probably
will not be needed in the South and West. Upon the answer to this
question must partly hinge the justification for expenditures to keep
all of the forest lands in these two regions permanently productive.
Parenthetically, the authors hazard the opinion that with such
interregional dependence for timber supplies, the United States as a
whole is not likely to use as much timber as would be used if all
regions had ample supplies at home. It is believed that proximity to
abundant forest supplies and to wood-using and other forest indus-
tries tends to make people forest conscious and apt to consume more
timber and timber products than they would if these must be
brought from distant points even though at reasonable cost.

128

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The 189 million acres of land bearing saw timber is divided about
equally between old growth and second growth. The old growth is,
of course, located mostly (see table 2 and fig. 4) in the three western
regions with the Pacific Coast predominating, while the second growth
is mainly in the eastern half of the country with the South far in the
lead. The presence of these large areas of old-growth saw timber in
the Pacific Coast region and of second-growth saw timber in the South
does not, however, indicate correspondingly large volumes of timber
available for cutting at present within these two great forest regions.
The extensive second-growth lands in the South represent immature
actively growing timber which is now being cut extensively, but which
far more desirably should be retained as growing stock. On the other
hand, western old-growth areas support heavy stands of mature,

New England

Middle Atlantic-
Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

5. Rocky Mt

All Regions \

20

40 60

Million Acres

I Old growth

' Saw -timber Area

I Second grow+h
I Saw -timber Area

FIGURE 4.— Old-growth and second-growth (commercial) saw-timber areas by regions.

high-quality timber suitable for cutting. The desirable interregional
coordination thus implied is discussed further iri the section, "Present
and Potential Timber Resources".

The great bulk — 85 percent — of the 185 million acres of restocking
and nonrestocking lands are, as would be supposed, to be found in the
East. In fact they constitute 43 percent of all the eastern forest land.
This is the type of forest land upon which fires have caused or may
cause much serious though often unspectacular damage. From the
standpoint of areas involved, the problem of protecting restocking
land looms large in the eastern forest regions and more especially in
the South. Similarly, the problem of artificial reforestation of
already denuded lands is mainly an eastern one, possibly most serious
in the Lake region. Figure 3 and table 2 indicate, however, that
except for the southern Rocky Mountain region with its insignificant
areas of restocking and nonrestocking, the poor to nonrestocking

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 129

exceeds the fair to satisfactory restocking by a larger percentage in the
Pacific Coast region than anywhere else. It is common knowledge
that adequate protection against fire on cut-over areas is, in every
region, one of the most vexatious problems. Its solution, of course,
is the sine qua non to keeping the forest lands in the Douglas fir type
permanently productive.

Eighty-three million acres are classed as either poor or nonrestock-
ing, of which the latter makes up 34 million. Although it is possible
that as much as a fourth of the area of 83 million acres will produce
some commercially valuable saw timber within the next saw-timber
generation, no such hope is believed tenable in the absence of plant-
ing for the remaining 60 million acres and more. This great area,
idle largely because of fires and improvident logging methods, con-
stitutes a most serious feature of the forest situation. Except as it
may be restocked by artificial means and at large expense, it seems
likely to have little timber-producing significance for many years.
In other words, as a practical proposition, this area will, unless arti-
ficially restocked, reduce for many years to come and to a very con-
siderable extent the commercially effective forest land capital.

The wide differences in proportionate distribution of forest land
in the different regions according to conditions of growth or broad age
classes is illustrated by figure 3. The Lake region is characterized
by a strikingly large proportion — 42 million acres of a total of 56
million, classed as restocking or nonrestocking in comparison with
only 5 million of saw timber and 9 million of cordwood . The generally
recognized fact is here clearly shown that the eastern regions are nearly
always characterized by a much lower proportion of saw- timber land
than are the western regions.

OWNERSHIP OF COMMERCIAL FOREST LAND

The character of forest land ownership is especially important
from several standpoints. It affects the owner's interest in the land
as distinct from the merchantable timber; his willingness to handle
his property so as to keep it continuously productive; and his
ability to bear the long-time financial burden required to produce
commercial crops on land from which the growing stock has been
removed or severely depleted.

Where the timber of a whole region is cut off in a short period of
time, even though all the forest land is restocked promptly with com-
mercial species, the industries and the people depending on them
must move to other localities. After a new crop of timber matures
new industries may be established and the process repeated. Such
intermittent industry entails great waste of raw material, high depre-
ciation charges for plant and operating facilities, and disastrous and
far-reaching disruption of the economic and social structure. If, so
far as timber products are concerned, forest lands are to be most
effectively used, if forest regions are to be permanently productive
and the homes of stable prosperous populations, their wood-using
industries and towns must be established on a permanent basis. And
so it is that a system of management of forest lands that will result in
a region as a whole, a locality, or even a single ownership supplying
merchantable material continuously— in other words, a system of
sustained yield management — is highly desirable. One important
gauge of land ownership is, therefore, how well it adapts itself to
sustained yield management.

130

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

INDUSTRIAL OWNERSHIP

Industrial ownership is the most important type of forest land
ownership in the United States, not only because it includes over half
of the commercial acreage, but because it is here that the Nation's
forest problems especially reside. Two hundred and seventy million
acres (see table 3 and fig. 5), or well over half of the commercial forest
land — by and large including the best — is owned by land, lumber,
pulp and paper, and mining companies, naval stores operators, rail-
roads, and miscellaneous individuals or agencies. With some notable
exceptions these owners have not been convinced of the financial
justification for the measures that would insure keeping this land
continuously and permanently producing timber.

Industrial

Farm Woodland-
Public

All Areas--

50

IOO ISO 2OO

MILLION ACRES

E50 300

Industrial

Farm Woodland .
Public

All Areas._

|Saw-timber
' Areas

ao

40 6O

PER CENT

ratrto Satisfactory t
Restocking Areas '

80

IOO

i Poor to Non -

' restocking Areas

FIGUBE 5.— Character of growth in each ownership class on commercial forest areas.

It is undoubtedly true that private forestry practice would have
been and is now economically advantageous on a much broader scale
than has been in effect. Nevertheless private owners face some very
disconcerting problems and uncertainties in embarking upon forestry
programs. The following might be listed as examples : Existing meth-
ods of forest taxation — especially the uncertainty as to the amounts
that must be paid in the future before revenues begin to come in
from those properties that are not now on a sustained or continuous yield
basis; the danger of losses by fire and other destructive agencies
against which existing protection is far from uniformly adequate, and
for which commercial insurance is not commonly available at attrac-
tive rates; the unavailability of favorable long-time credits on a basis
comparable, for instance, to that on which farm loans can be obtained ;
the uncertainty as to what changes a few decades may bring in the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

131

amount of timber products consumed or as to value in relation to
costs of production— in short, the uncertainty of future returns; and
beyond this the aversion of the average American to embarking'on a
long-time enterprise as against one which promises quick returns
even if the former appears thoroughly sound on its own merits.

TABLE 3.— Ownership of commercial forest areas of the United States, by regions

ALL AREAS

Region

All areas

Federally owned or managed

State,
county,
and
munic-
ipal

Private

Total

Na-
tional
forest

Indian
reser-
vation

Other

Total

Indus-
trial

Farm
wood-
land

New England...

Thou-
sand
acres
27, 273
27,139
55, 895
64,249
190, 758
66,685

32,329
30, 570

Thou-
sand
acres
471
347
2,955
581
3,213
31,811

23,725
24,924

Thou-
sand
acres
471
317
1,800
579
3,137
26,046

22,036
20,293

Thou-
sand
acres

Thou-
sand
acres

Thou-
sand
acres
824
1,861
3,867
191
281
1,837

1,266
505

Thou-
sand
acres
25,978
24,931
49,073
63,477
187,264
33,037

7,338
5,141

Thou-
sand
acres
19, 576
15, 470
34,792
31, 319
129, 398
27,938

5,925

5,098

Thou-
sand
acres
6,402
9,461
14,281
32, 1.58
57,866
5,099

1,413
43
126,723

Middle Atlantic. ._

30
15
2
20
2,352

856
2,645

Lake

1,140

Central

South

56
3,413

833
1,986

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Moun-
tain

South Rocky Moun-
tain

Total

494, 898

88,027

74, 679

7,428

5,920

10,632

396,239

269, 516

SAW-TIMBER AREAS

New England. ..

13,860

248

248

351

13 261

10 834

2 427

Middle Atlantic .

7,294

30

29

1

64

7 200

3 732

o 4fiS

Lake

5,095

474

353

121

197

4 424

2, 631

I 7QO

Central .'

21,224

220

218

2

83

20 921

8 763

12 158

South .

57,265

1,941

1 884

49

g

104

55 220

41 491

13 729

Pacific Coast

44,140

24,129

19,852

2,815

1,462

1,104

18 907

17 167

1 740

North Rocky Moun-
tain

17,026

12,623

11,605

573

445

849

3 554

3 190

364

South Rocky Moun-
tain

22 741

19 612

15 606

1 746

2 260

351

2,778

2 744

34

Total

188,645

59, 277

49 795

5 304

4 178

3 103

126 265

90 552

35 713

CORDWOOD AREAS

New England. ..

4,843

112

112

190

4,541

2,841

1,700

Middle Atlantic

10, 518

48

40

g

772

9,698

6,085

3 613

Lake

8 880

578

510

68

469

7 833

3 226

4 607

Central

25, 592

158

158

66

25,368

12, 936

12, 432

South

52, 702

638

631

3

4

51

52, 013

32,224

19 789

Pacific Coast

6 683

3 476

2 755

441

280

109

3 098

2 170

928

North Rocky Moun-
tain

5 704

4 550

4,296

112

142

129

1,025

716

309

South Rocky Moun-
tain

5,959

4,146

3,567

222

357

127

1,686

1,683

3

Total

120,881

13,706

12,069

846

791

1,913

105, 262

61,881

43,381

FAIR TO SATISFACTORY RESTOCKING AREAS

New England

6, 145

86

86

208

5,851

4,279

1,572

Middle Atlantic.. .
Lake

5,998
28,165

140
1,206

131
543

'"esT

9
12

786
2,276

5,072
24,683

3,348
19,284

1,724
6,399

Central

12, 245

133

133

34

12, 078

6,885

5,193

South

37 236

373

366

3

4

61

36,802

24,718

12,084

Pacific Coast..

6,190

1,610

1,166

104

340

256

4,324

3,205

1,119

North Rocky Moun-
tain .-...

5,933

4,226

3,935

96

195

167

1,540

1,133

407

South Rocky Moun-
tain

161

143

135

8

2

16

11

5

Total

102,073

7,917

6,495

854

568

3,790

90,366

62,863

27,503

132

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 3. — Ownership of commercial forest areas of the United States, by regions

Continued

POOR TO NONRESTOCKINQ AREAS

Region

All areas

Federally owned or managed

State,
county,
and
munic-
ipal

Private

Total

Na-
tional
forest

Indian
reser-
vation

Other

Total

Indus-
trial

Farm
wood-
land

New England

Thou-
sand
acres
2,425
3,329
13,755
5,188
43, 555
9,672

3,666
1,709

Thou-
sand
acres
25
129
697
70
261
2,596

2,326
1,023

Thou-
sand
acres
25
117
394
70
256
2, 273

2,200
985

Thou-
sand
acres

Thou-
sand
acres

Thou-
sand
acres
75
239
925
8
65
368

121

25

Thou-
sand
acres
2, 325
2,961
12, 133
5,110
43,229
6,708

1,219
661

Thou-
sand
acres
1,622
2, 305
9,651
2,735
30,965
5,396

886
660

Thou-
sand
acres
703
656
2,482
2, 375
12,264
1,312

333

1

Middle Atlantic

12
3

Lake

300

Central -

South

1
53

52

IS

4
270

74
20

Pacific Coast ,.

North Rocky Moun-
tain._

South Rocky Moun-
tain

Total

83,299

7,127

6,320

424

383

1,826

74, 346

54,220

20,126

There is one important feature of private forest land ownership in
the United States, not usually emphasized, which undoubtedly has

New England

Middle Atlantic-
Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt

All Regions.

30 60

90 120 150 180 210 240 270
Million Acres

Industrial

Farm
Woodland

National
Forest

Other
Public

FIGURE 6.— Ownership of forest area (commercial) by regions.

an important bearing upon the management of forest properties.
Data are not available for authentic estimates, but it is common
knowledge that very large portions, particularly of the larger tracts

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 133

of forest land, are owned by lumber manufacturers. The special
problems of the forest property thus become involved with those of
the manufacturing plant. This has both its advantages and dis-
advantages, but there is reason to think that in many instances
forestry would be facilitated by complete separation of the forest-
growing enterprise from the problems peculiar to manufacturing and
marketing.

The generally known fact that industrial forest land ownership is
the predominating type of ownership in the eastern regions, whereas
public ownership predominates in the three western regions, is shown
graphically in figure 6. Of the industrial acreage, 86 percent is in
the East as against 14 percent in the West. Even so, the industrial
ownership in the Pacific Coast region is very important both because
it includes land that potentially is highly productive and also because
considerable areas bear virgin stands, which are pressing for liquida-
tion. The South includes nearly one half of the industrial lands for
the entire country. In the Central region industrial ownership about
equals that for farm woodlands, but elsewhere it is much in excess.

Figure 5 visualizes the distribution of age classes for industrial,
farm woodland, and public ownerships, respectively, both on an
acreage and on a percentage basis. It is apparent that the propor-
tion of saw-timber area for industrial, though slightly more than for
farm woodland, is much less than for public ownership. The contrast
for industrial and public ownership would be greater if limited to old
growth. On the other hand, the proportion of restocking and non-
restocking areas is notably larger for industrial, and somewhat larger
for farm woodland than for public ownership. Such broad general-
izations in themselves, however, may be misleading. The situation
must be considered in the light of various influencing circumstances.
For example, public ownership, including the extensive western
national forests, still holds large areas of virgin timber cut over only
in small part because of their inaccessibility and because of conserva-
tive selling policies. A more detailed view by regions is afforded
by figures 7, 8, and 9.

The situation in New England in respect to age class areas needs
some explanation. Over 50 percent of the area is classed as saw
timber. This is because of the large areas of mixed spruce and hard-
wood forest in northern New England which have been culled for
softwoods alone and now remain as an essentially unbroken old-
growth hardwood saw- timber forest. Much of the old-growth
hardwood thus classed as saw timber is of poor quality and largely
inaccessible because of lack of transportation facilities other than the
streams. The situation is in reality therefore not as favorable as
appears from the figures; aside from this large area of almost inaccessi-
ble hardwood of doubtful quality the area of usable saw timber is
relatively small. In the Lake region the situation is extremely acute.
Less than 10 percent is saw timber, over 50 percent is fair to sa-tis-
factory restocking, and 25 percent is poor to nonrestocking. The
significance of this is that forest depletion has gone so far in the Lake
region that many years will be required to rehabilitate the growing
stock to the point that a sustained yield in keeping with the produc-
tive capacity of the land can be attained. Other regions are inter-
mediate. Industrial ownership in the South, for example, is charac-
terized by a relatively large area in the restocking and nonrestocking
classes.

134

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It is noteworthy that 31 million acres, or more than half of the
industrially owned area of poor and nonrestocking land in the entire
country, is located in the South where also occur (see section, "Present
and Potential Timber Resources " ) by all odds the largest proportionate
acreage annually burned over and the greatest lack of organized fire
protection. One of the most serious though less spectacular phases
of forest-fire damage lies in the destruction of the small trees on re-

New England

Middle Atlantic

Lake_ __.,„

CentraL

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt

Al I Regions—

50 75 100

MILLION ACRES

IE5

New England
Middle Atlan

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coas
N. Rocky Mt
S. Rocky Mt

1

,+;•

40 60

PER CENT

Fai r to Satisfactory
Restocking Areas

80

100

Poor to Non-
restocking Areas

FIGURE 7.— Industrial forest area, by region and character of growth.

stocking areas which, if burning be continued, soon relegates these
areas to the nonrestocking or denuded classification.

At the same time, it is significant that 63 million acres of indus-
trially owned cut-over land is classed as satisfactorily or fairly restock-
ing. This is indicative of the ability of most forest lands to restock
naturally if given a fair chance, and it is undoubtedly in considerable
part at least the fruit of organized fire protection and of the interest
and efforts of individual owners in fire protection. With adequate

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

135

care during and following cutting it would seem that future forest
denudation could be held to very small proportions.

The large areas of cut-over land that are burned also reflect in
part the usiiaUack of concern of private owners as to what happens
to the future timber crop on land from which they have removed the
present crop. ^ This lack of interest is also illustrated by the fact
that included in industrial land is the bulk of the 20 to 30 million

All Regions-.

10

2O 30 40

MILLION ACRES

50

60

New England

Middle Atlantic- .

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

5. Rocky Mt.._

Saw-timber
Areas

40 60

PER CENT

Fa i r to Satisfactory t
Restocking Areas I

100

Poor to Non-
restocking Areas

FIGURE 8.— Farm woodland (commercial) area by character of growth.

acres of^ cut-over forest land which is already reverting to public
ownership (much more is in prospect), usually through tax delin-
quency and which, supplemented by abandoned farm land, largely
makes up the so-called "new public domain", which is treated at
length in the section, "Breakdown of Private Forest Land Ownership."
This, in several regions, is causing severe economic and social disturb-
ances. It constitutes a rapidly expanding and difficult problem in
land utilization and planning.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 10

136

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

FARM WOODLANDS

Farm woodlands constitute a very important and distinctive type
of forest-land ownership and one well adapted, generally speaking,
to keeping forest land permanently productive.

More than one fourth of the country's commercial forest land, or
127 million acres, is in farm woodland and of this, 95 percent is in

New England

Middle Atlantic.
Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt.__.
S. Rocky Mt

All Regions...

10

2O 3O 4O

MILLION ACRES

50

60

New England

Middle Atlantic__

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

5. Rocky Mt

Saw-timber
Areas

20

40

PER

60
CENT

80

100

Cord wood
Areas

Fairto Satisfactory
Restocking Areas

Poor to Non-
restockingAreas

FIGURE 9.— Public (commercial) forest area by character of growth.

the eastern United States where it constitutes somewhat less than
one third of the eastern commercial area. In the Central region it
includes about one half and in the South and Middle Atlantic about
one third of the commercial acreage. It is therefore in relative prox-
imity, broadly speaking, to the great wood-consuming, wood-importing
regions — a favorable factor, in that the most productive and profit-
able use of these lands depends upon markets to absorb the surplus
timber products not needed for direct consumption on the farm.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 137

The fact that a large proportion of the farm woodlands occur as
relatively small separate tracts tends to facilitate fire protection and
to render them less exposed to epidemic insect and disease attacks.

Farm forest-land owners characteristically do not own or operate
the sawmill or other manufacturing plants using their raw forest
material. They are thus relieved of the additional worries and prob-
lems which go with such enterprises and they are relatively free to
handle their forest lands with primary reference to the welfare of these
lands or that of the farm enterprise.

In a general way, farm woodlands constitute an important factor
in the economy of many farms. They are an integral part of the
farm with no special overhead costs. Not only do they furnish fuel,
fence posts, and other domestic products but they provide employ-
ment during off periods, and produce a cash crop which in many
instances has proven a lifesaver. Within the naval-stores belt, farm
woodlands no less than other forest lands with stands suitable for
turpentine cupping have the added advantage of a revenue from the
lease of timber for turpentining or from the sale of resin.

In the nature of the case a partial or selective method of cutting is
adapted to farm woodland conditions. Probably without much
conscious effort on the part of the owners, partly because of rough
selection methods of cutting, and with less fire loss, farm wood-
lands— except where they are heavily grazed — are believed to be on
the average in better growing condition than other privately owned
lands. This class of land is capable of further development in syste-
matic timber cropping through measures that are both simple and
practicable.

Figure 8 reveals that the situation as to relative areas of age
classes for farm woodlands also varies markedly by regions. In
the South, the most important region of all, farm woodlands appear
to have a higher proportion of poor to nonrestocking land than
in any other important farm-woodland region. The Lake region,
as under other ownership, has a rather high proportion of this land
and a very high proportion of restocking area. The farm-woodland
situation appears relatively favorable in the New England, Middle
Atlantic, and Central regions.

Notwithstanding that there is much room for improvement in
the condition of farm woodlands, particularly in some regions, it is
believed that farm woodlands in general lend themselves readily to
good forestry practice as an integral revenue-producing feature of
the farm economy. Consequently, except as farms fall in the sub-
marginal category, and are abandoned or revert to public owner-
ship, the farm-woodland aspect of the Nation's forest situation does
not constitute a particularly critical problem.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

Of the 99 million acres in public ownership, or about one fifth of
our total commercial forest land, the bulk— 88 million acres— is
owned or managed by the Federal Government, 9K million by the
States, and more than a million by counties and municipalities.
(Table 3 and fig. 10).

The West and East afford a pronounced contrast in the proportion
of commercial forest land in public ownership, as shown in figure 9.

138 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

This, of course, is largely because the national forests, which con-
tain 75 million acres of commercial forest land, were established in
the West mainly by Presidential decrees applied to large areas of
public domain, much of which contained virgin forests. The rela-
tively small acreage of national forests in the East is the result of
a movement originating in 1899. As the acreage in Federal owner-
ship was negligible, the movement depended almost entirely upon
purchase of land. About 4% million acres, largely cut-over lands,
have been purchased to date, which combined with about 2}£ million
acres reserved from the public domain or acquired by exchange
brings the total to over 7 million acres. The fact that the national
forests in the East were developed in this way is one of the main
reasons for the relatively high proportion of restocking and non-
restocking and the low proportion of saw- timber lands in public
ownership in these regions. Effective consolidation of the existing
units will require the further purchase of approximately 7% million

Federally Owned
or Managed "'

State.

County and
Municipal

15 3O 45 6O 75 9O

Million Acres

FIGURE 10.— Distribution of public ownership of commercial forest area of the United States.

acres, but the situation requires many new units' and a much greater
area under public control.

Indian reservations include some 7 million acres of federally
managed commercial forest land, and the public domain still contains
most of the remaining 6 million acres federally owned. These, like
the national forests, are mostly in the West.

Each forest region contains some State, county, or municipally
owned forest land. It will be noted that of the 11 million acres of
this land, more or less, nearly 4 million are in the Lake region.

Public ownership, broadly speaking, is the most stable type of
forest-land ownership and in this respect, therefore, the most favor-
able for the continuous production of forest crops, or in other words
for sustained yield. There is not the same incentive as in the case
of the private owner for immediate as opposed to deferred returns.
Long-time policies of management once adopted are not likely to be
upset at the instance of a single individual. The indirect and col-
lective forest benefits to the public at large may be more logically and
effectively provided for in the management. Though by no means
all of it, the bulk of the publicly owned forest lands are either now

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 139

subject to conservative forestry practice, or are assured of such treat-
ment when cutting shall take place. The main exception to this, of
course, is the forest land which still remains in the public domain.
Another important exception is the Oregon and California land grants
upon which the timber under existing laws is being cut with little or
no regard to maintaining the forest productivity of the land. (See
section " Public Domain and Other Federal Forest Land.")

Public ownership, often accompanied by restrictions in private
forest-land management, has long been accepted in many countries
as the chief safeguard against the impairment of the sustained produc-
tivity and economic values of the forest resources of those countries.
For the United States as a whole, the 20 percent publicly owned
forest land is decidedly less than the proportion in the most of the
older European countries. For example, in Germany 52 percent, in
France 35 percent, in Sweden 24 percent, in Austria 28 percent, in
Italy 35 percent, and in Switzerland 72 percent are publicly owned.
The contrast, of course, is much greater for the eastern United States,
where public forests include only 4 percent of the total commercial
forest land.

Public forests are, generally speaking, a recognition of the difficulties
experienced by private ownership in coping with the many perplexing
problems involved in the practice of forestry. Obviously, unless
greatly expanded, public ownership can not replace but rather can
serve only to supplement timber production on privately owned forest
lands. Publicly owned forest lands, in addition to their part in cur-
rent and sustained yield production of timber products, serve as an
assurance of timber supplies available in quantity to meet possible
future emergencies.

It is not within the province of this section to outline a policy or
program for the expansion of public forest lands from the standpoint
of timber use but rather to present some of the outstanding aspects
of the forest-land and land-ownership situation as it exists. It may
be appropriate to say in passing, however, that the preparation of a
public-ownership program will necessarily give consideration to the
evident opportunity for large extension of public ownership in the
eastern United States especially. However logical it might appear to
rely upon public ownership as the main solution of our timber supply
and other forest-land problems, it will be necessary to consider the
practical difficulties, financial and otherwise, that would be faced in
taking the bulk of the Nation's forest lands into public ownership.
As a practical proposition, therefore, it^would appear that a national
forestry program should involve material extension of public owner-
ship, by States, counties, and municipalities as well as by the Federal
Government, but that it must also rely in important part upon the
wise and conservative management of a large area in private owner-
ship, both industrial and farm woodland.

THE PROTECTIVE FUNCTION OF FOREST LAND

Water is a basic resource of such widely varied necessity and use-
fulness in our individual and national life that its value can hardly be
measured. Water for domestic and municipal use, navigation on our
rivers and lakes, the operation of hydroelectric plants, and^irrigatipn
are outstanding examples. For these and many other purposes easily

140 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

available water supplies in satisfactory amount and condition are
limited, and our needs have been met thus far only with enormous
effort and cost. Forested lands favorably influence the " water crop "
in so many ways and to such an extent that the protective values
inherent in these forest influences rival those of any other use of
forest land.

Floods ordinarily cost us something like 40 million dollars annually,
to say nothing of the expenditures for engineering-control works.
Single floods sometimes amount to calamities. The Mississippi flood
in 1927 is estimated to have cost some 300 million dollars. Forests
will not prevent floods but adequate areas of forested land strategi-
cally located exercise such a favorable influence that no effective plan
for flood control can fail to include forest lands as one essential
element.

Forest cover delays the melting of the snows, the litter retards
run-off, and the soil is very porous; these together induce soil absorp-
tion of water in the forest at a rate many times greater than for field or
cultivated lands. The effect is measurably to retard and reduce flood
peaks and, therefore, the destructiveness of floods.

The reduced and retarded run-off on forested land, the absorption
of water by the soil, and the soil-holding effect of the tree roots com-
bine to prevent the washing away or erosion of forest soils. Investiga-
tions have revealed that but a fraction of 1 percent as much soil per
unit of area is eroded from forest land as from open-crop land.
Surface erosion depletes the fertility of the land. In the aggregate,
soil and fertility losses by erosion on cultivated and open land are
tremendous. It has been estimated that 7 inches of the top soil of
such lands in Illinois has been lost through erosion. The erosive
effect of silt-laden streams is much greater than where the water is
clear; the silt is deposited in reservoirs, clogs up hydroelectric plants
and engineering works, forms sand bars and otherwise interferes with
navigation, and prevents the use of the water for domestic and certain
industrial purposes. The beneficial effects of forested lands strategi-
cally located on river watersheds in reducing erosion and its resultant
ills are therefore diverse and highly important.

The benefits of forest cover in keeping water in springs, streams,
and reservoirs clear and pure for domestic use are universally recog-
nized. An adequate supply of domestic water for our urban centers
has become a vast and expensive problem. San Francisco is securing
water from the Sierras 200 miles away; Los Angeles across 200 miles
of desert and mountain from Owens River; New York City is drawing
its supply from the Catskills by costly conduit and is reported to be
looking for additional sources at much greater distance. The im-
portance to navigation of clear water and stabilized flow and to the
enormous hydroelectric plants, are too obvious to require description.
The importance of clear and permanent streams to fish life and to
recreation generally are perhaps not so widely appreciated but are
none the less important.

The shelter against strong drying winds afforded by forests to
homes, crops, and livestock is very important in some localities and
constitutes a definite protective function of forest land. This
function also includes protection against shifting sands and the
formation and movement of sand dunes.

The protective value of forested lands is largely independent of the
exact type of cover though not of its condition. The dense spruce

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 141

forests of high altitudes and northerly latitudes, the hardwood forests
of the Appalachians, the mixed forests of the Piedmont region, the
open scrubby pinon of the West, the chaparral of the Southwest, and
the brushy windbreak stands all possess high protective values.
Therefore, the protection value of forest lands is somewhat independ-
ent of their value for timber production. Some of the forest lands
most valuable for protection are not classed as commercial.

In the neighborhood of four-fifths of the total 615 million acres of
forest land may be classed as valuable for protection. The exceptions
are swamp lands and bottom lands at the mouths of rivers, and lands
having such sandy or gravelly soil that the presence or absence of
forests would have practically no effect on the behavior of streams
or the process of erosion.

The protection-forest lands controlling run-off and erosion are on
the whole well located on the headwaters of important streams.
From the point of view of protection, however, there is considerable
need for additional areas of forested land on many relatively small
streams, as well as in strategic locations on the watersheds of several
important streams of which the Ohio, Missouri, Hudson, Delaware,
and Sacramento are examples.

With some exceptions, such as municipal watersheds, other forest
uses need not be excluded for the sake of the protective function.
Timber growing and utilization under systems of practices which will
provide for maintenance and protection of a forest cover in conformity
with the dictates of good timber management would, generally
speaking, prevent serious impairment of forest influences. Under
existing practices, however, especially on large areas of both public
and private land, the situation is far from satisfactory. From the
standpoint of protection, the forest should not be cut so severely that
the ground is unnecessarily exposed. Continued absence of coyer
will hasten run-off and induce erosion. In many cases partial cutting
that would fully maintain the forest influences would be financially
advantageous from the standpoint of timber use.

, The forest should be amply protected against fire, especially
following cutting. By destruction of the litter, and in other ways,
fire greatly aggravates deterioration in forest influences. The forest
land should not be grazed so heavily as to prevent restocking, or to
destroy ground cover and leaf litter. Such grazing leads to increased
erosion and floods.

The unsatisfactory protection condition on many private tracts of
forest land, the need for additional strategically located areas of public
forest, and the present very low percentage, 4 percent, of commercial
forest land in public ownership in the East — all indicate the advisability
of giving consideration to the protective function of forest land, as
well as to timber use and other needs, in formulating a program of
public acquisition in the East.

THE USE OF FOREST LAND FOR RECREATION

Recreation is by far the most direct contact which most Americans
have with the forest. The growing and utilization of timber and the
protection of watersheds are at best theoretical considerations with
the majority of people who have directly experienced the forests'
value for relaxation, for play, and for aesthetic enjoyment.

142 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

The available figures for recreational use of public lands during
1931 indicate that there were more than 3 million visitors to national
parks, about 32 million to national forests, and probably 50 million
to State parks and forests. While there is a great deal of duplication
among the visitors thus recorded, it is patent that a very material
proportion of our population made some use of Federal and State
forest lands for recreation. The number who had recourse to munici-
pal, county, and private forests can only be conjectured, but it must
have been very large. Kecreation, then, is a tremendously important
forest-land use today, and every indication points to a great increase
in its volume in the future.

The forms which forest recreation takes are of wide variety. The
largest fraction of the recreationists only pass through the forests in
their autos. A considerable group, however, establishes residences
in the forest for some portion of the year. Hunting and fishing is
one of the most popular forms of forest recreation, it being estimated
that 13 million people indulged in those sports during 1929. The
number of people who go hiking, riding, or canoeing every year runs
well into the millions. Most of these merely go on journeys of a
single day or less, but there are increasing hundreds of thousands who
are going on at least overnight trips into the forest, some of them
staying away from civilization for weeks at a time.

The recreational needs of these vast numbers of people may be
satisfied in many cases by lands which are being used for timber pro-
duction, especially if methods of cutting and safeguards for restock-
ing and protection in keeping with the dictates of good timber use are
exercised. Recreational values will usually be temporarily suspended
during logging and often during the periods required for forest regen-
eration. Otherwise, it may be said that, broadly speaking, all forested
land under sustained-yield management is valuable for recreation.

There will be certain areas, however, which have such exceptional
recreational value that they will need to be withdrawn from com-
mercial timber use. These will include areas of superlative scenic
value, samples of primeval forest conditions, some wilderness areas,
wooded strips along the main traveled highways, camp grounds, and
hotel and summer-home sites. Included also will be some 6 million
acres of forest land required to satisfy the needs of those who wish
to purchase forest land solely for home sites or other recreational
purposes.

Further, a certain amount of commercial forest land will need to
be reserved in the neighborhood of population centers where the in-
tensive recreational use promises so to congest the available woods
that almost no timberland can be spared for even the few years re-
quired by most forest types to recover a semblance of scenic value
under the best silvicultural practice.

Table 4 indicates very roughly by regions the approximate acreage
which it may be desirable to reserve for recreational use. Of this,
approximately one tenth will be permanently withdrawn in private
ownership. Reservation of the remainder, for the most part in public
ownership, does not necessarily mean that no timber will ever be cut
on any of this area; but rather that for the present its recreational
value seems so high that no commercial logging operations should be
planned, even though light selection cuttings may be permitted on
special tracts.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

143

In the West, it will be observed, a large share of the additional
recreational withdrawals may be confined to lands where timber pro-
duction probably would have no practical significance for many years.
In the East, where there is relatively little inaccessible land, the rec-
reational withdrawals will have to come from lands which would
otherwise play a part in timber use. Recreational needs should,
therefore, be an important consideration in formulating a program for
public acquisition of forest land in the East.

TABLE 4. — Estimated area of present commercial forest land that may well be

reserved for recreation

Region

Total area

Already
withdrawn

Additional
withdrawal

With-
drawals of
low pro-
duction
value

New England

Acres
6 000 000

Acres
100 000

Acres
5 900 000

Acres

Middle Atlantic. _.

8, 400, 000

2, 500, 000

5 900 000

Lake

4,000,000

2 600 000

1 400 000

Central

2,900,000

500,000

2,400,000

South

3, 500, 000

600,000

2,900,000

400 000

Pacific Coast

9,500,000

1 800 000

7 700 000

5 900 000

North Rocky Mountain

6 200 000

400 000

5 800 000

5 100 000

South Rocky Mountain

4, 500, 000

2, 500, 000

2 000 000

1 600 000

Total

45 000 000

11 000 000

34 000 000

13 000 000

USE OF FOREST LAND FOR GAME

The social and economic values contained in wild life are of far
reaching importance iii the multiple-use management of forested
areas. Forest lands in one form or another furnish the environmental
conditions in whole or in part for all classes of game, fur bearers, and
other wild life except that which prefers open country and unwooded
marshland. Direct economic values attributable to game include
those of food and fur, and income from sale of hunting and fishing
licenses. Indirect values include the market afforded by hunting and
fishing to manufacturers of arms, ammunition, fishing tackle, clothing
and other outdoor equipment; expenditures of sportsmen for board,
transportation, guide service, and sundry supplies; annual expendi-
tures of sportsmen and clubs for hunting and fishing privileges in pri-
vate lands; and benefit of wild life, chiefly birds, as destroyers of in-
sects preying on agricultural crops. These various values total well
over 1 billion dollars per annum according to W. L. McAtee, of
the United States Biological Survey, who has made an intensive
study of the subject. For the State of New York, for example, esti-
mated expenditures of hunters and fishermen were more than 14
million dollars in 1931.

Revenues from a game crop can be secured by proper management
measures. Present-day problems of land management and awaken-
ing recognition of wild-life values, are turning the attention of land
managers and economists to the potentialities of game as a forest land
resource. Experience tends to demonstrate that game values are an
important source of income, particularly during long periods needed
for rehabilitation of depleted forest areas.

Social values of forest game life are far-reaching. Game and fish
are closely associated with recreation. Additional leisure for the

144 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

average man through shorter hours and less days of work will add
tremendously to those who seek the " out-of-doors'7 form of recrea-
tion. Hunting and fishing will attract large numbers of these folk.
Wild life in general affords enjoyment, the opportunity for building
health and character, and for increasing scientific knowledge. In the
report of the Special Committee of the United States Senate on Con-
servation of Wild Life Resources, it is conservatively estimated that
there is a 400 percent increase during the decade ending with 1930
in the number of people who enjoyed the pastimes of hunting and
fishing.

Most, if not all, of the forest land of the United States is susceptible
to the production of one or more species of wild life having social or
economic values.

THE KANGE RESOURCE OF FOREST LANDS

The forage produced by herbaceous and shrubby plants under the
trees and in openings in the forest is one of the major resources of
forest lands. More than half the forest land of the country is grazed
by domestic livestock. Feed furnished, for periods of 3 months in the
higher mountains or the full year on some low elevation forest ranges,
amounts to about 12 percent of all pasturage of the United States.
Grazing furnishes a current return to many timberland owners, it
aids in fire protection, and helps to make forests accessible with roads
and trails. This forest land use is of two general types: The range
type, which predominates in the West and South and to some extent
in the Appalachians, and the woodland pasture type typical of the
central farm belt.

The extensive forest lands of the West, largely occupying the
mountain areas, furnish a considerable percentage of the summer
feed for the beef cattle and sheep of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific
Coast States. The nutritious forage, cool climate, and shade of
forest lands all combine to facilitate growth of calves, lambs, and wool.

Within or near almost every western forest-range area there are
agricultural communities whose prosperity is mainly dependent upon
the production of livestock. Many of the farms within these com-
munities are small and far from markets. Without the aid of com-
plementary forest land range, however, most of such farms could not
long exist. These forest ranges, with their ability to produce high
quality beef and mutton at a nominal cost for forage, are indispen-
sable in offsetting the more expensive production and feeding of
cultivated crops. More than 4K million acres of improved farm land
and 22 million acres of private or leased grazing land, for example,
are used in connection with the 83 million acres of national-forest
land now grazed. Without forest ranges a large proportion of asso-
ciated farm lands and the community life dependent upon them
would never have been developed so satisfactorily.

In the South there are already over 100 million acres of cut-over
pine lands alone. After logging operations, grass and other herbs
and shrubs become abundant and often form a nearly complete cover.
These native ranges, ordinarily unfenced, furnish good grazing from
early spring until July or August, and for that period grazing capacity
is relatively high. After October, the native grasses are coarse and
wiry and the forage for grazing inferior.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 145

Although forest lands are usually grazed by the livestock of local
residents, these residents seldom own them or lease the land from the
large timberland owners. Characteristically, the land has been
burned annually, especially since turpentine operations began. The
turpentine operator has burned in winter to safeguard the trees he is
operating against accidental summer fires which cause great damage.
The native cattle owner burns in the belief that he will improve the
forage. Such burning on cut-over lands may damage timber repro-
duction or even kill it, as in the case of slash pine. It is also apt to
slow down the growth of the larger trees.

In the Central States region, characteristic of the woodland pasture
type of range, about a half of the commercial forest land is farm wood-
land, of which over a half is grazed. Outside of the "blue grass"
regions of Kentucky and Tennessee where the forest has been inten-
tionally opened up to provide better pasture, farm woodlands are
grazed with a view to producing such supplemental revenue as can
be obtained. In the four Corn Belt States — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
and Iowa — over three fourths of the timbered area is in farm wood-
lands, and nearly three fourths of this area is grazed. In this region
the forested lands are used more for shade, shelter, and incidental
roughage than for the primary purpose of forage production.

Under sound forestry practice grazing may, generally speaking, be
exercised in coordination and harmony with the other major forest-
land uses; in some types, however, grazing may have to be tem-
porarily suspended during forest regeneration. At all times it should
be practiced conservatively, not only to avoid impairing forest-pro-
tection values, but also to avoid the depletion of the forage resource
itself.

On certain municipal or other intensive domestic water-supply
areas grazing has been excluded altogether. Where certain types of
wild life are the object of management — as, for example, deer — it
may be desirable to restrict or eliminate grazing. On certain areas
heavily used by recreationists all the forage may be required for the
grazing of pack stock.

Probably the most extensive and noteworthy example in the world
of regulated grazing use coordinated with the other forest-land uses
is to be found on the national forests. Efforts, effective on the whole,
have been made to obtain efficient use of the forage, to prevent deple-
tion, and to rehabilitate ranges previously depleted. Forage use is
adjusted to meet the requirements for timber use, protection, recrea-
tion, and game. In varying degree similar coordination of grazing
with other uses is secured on other publicly owned or managed lands.

Such control and coordination are not secured on the public
domain forest lands nor as a rule upon privately owned forest range
in the West. Consequently the forage resources of these lands are
usually depleted and at least the protective functions rendered less
effective. In much of the East the forage resource is less susceptible
to overgrazing, but in many woodland pastures within the hardwood
types constant grazing has been responsible for the nonestablishment
of young forest growth, and the progressive deterioration of the forest
stand.

146 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

SUMMARY OF FOREST LAND SITUATION

PRESENT AREAS

In all, 615 million acres, or one third of the continental United
States, is forest land. This forest land is a basic resource, adapted
to five major uses, each of which constitutes a large and essential
phase of our economic and social life. With some important excep-
tions, as in cases where tracts of forest land are designed to serve a
highly specialized purpose, these uses need not be mutually exclusive.
On the contrary, forest land characteristically, insofar as economic
circumstances make it feasible, may efficiently serve several or all
uses at one time, and constitutes a multiple-use resource of vast pro-
portions and importance.

These five major uses or functions of forest land may be summarized
as follows :

TIMBER USE

Wood in various physical and chemical forms has long been an
essential commodity to mankind. When this country was settled by
the white man it was providentially endowed with a vast store of
virgin timber — a natural supply which has furnished us the greater
portion of the wood for commercial use. These virgin supplies are
substantially cut out in the eastern United States. The remaining
reservoir of virgin timber is in the West. It is not unlimited. To
continue to supply the needs of the country for timber and wood
products, forest land must be used to grow successive crops of timber
in somewhat the same manner that agricultural lands are used to
grow agricultural crops.

Of the total of 615 million acres of forest land, about 495 million
acres of what in this report is called commercial forest land is con-
sidered to be capable of growing a volume and quality of timber that
under recent or reasonably conceivable future conditions may be
economically available for consumption. This commercial forest
land, which does not include productive areas withdrawn for one
reason or another from commercial exploitation, occupies about one
fourth of the area of the United States. It exceeds by a wide margin
the area of land actually in agricultural crops.

The following tabulation shows nationally a broad classification of
this commercial forest area by present condition of forest cover :

Acres

Old growth (mature) saw timber 99, 000, 000

Second growth (immature) saw timber 90, 000, 000

Cordwood areas (characterized by trees of cordwood size) 121, 000, 000

Logged or burned:

Fair to satisfactory restocking 102, 000, 000

Poor to nonrestocking 83, 000, 000

Total for the continental United States (exclusive of Alaska) _ 495, 000, 000

The whole of this gross area is not now nor will it be likely to be
effective producing forest-land capital for a great many years. Con-
siderable areas are economically inaccessible under present conditions.
Much of the 83 million acres described as poor to nonrestocking will
have to be planted before it can produce a merchantable timber crop.

Some future withdrawals from timber use will be desirable for
special purposes. It is roughly estimated that 34 million acres addi-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 147

tional should be thus withdrawn from the commercial category for
recreational purposes. On the other hand, the area of commercial
forest land available for timber use may be increased by reforesting
areas of abandoned or other agricultural lands which are deemed no
longer essential for agriculture. This aspect of the land situation is
referred to later in this summary, and in more detail in the section,
"Agricultural Land Available for Forestry."

From the standpoint of timber use, the character of ownership of
forest land is important. The following tabulation summarizes the
distribution of the present acreage of commercial forest land for the
three broad classes of ownership :

Acres

Publicly owned or managed forest land 99, 000, 000

Industrial forest land 269, 000, 000

Farm woodlands 127, 000, 000

Total 495, 000, 000

The previous discussion emphasizes the fact that the publicly owned
land is nearly all located in the West while the farm woodlands are
mostly in the East.

PROTECTIVE FUNCTION

It is estimated that on approximately four fifths of the forest land of
the country forest influences have a definite protective effect expressed
in the regulation of stream flow, the maintenance of water supply, the
prevention of erosion, and the amelioration of destructive winds and
other severe climatic conditions.

However, relatively little of this area should be withheld from timber
or other use for the sake of protection. Among the few exceptional
tracts are some protecting municipal watersheds. In general, when
managed under practices which are satisfactory from the timber use
standpoint, forest land will sufficiently fulfill its protective and other
functions simultaneously. The fact is brought out in this report,
however, that under present conditions large areas of forest land exist
which, because of present forest cover, are not satisfactory protection
forests.

RECREATIONAL USE

Recreation, broadly defined as the use of the forest for play, relaxa-
tion, aesthetic enjoyment, and inspiration, is a tremendously import-
ant and rapidly growing forest-land use. In general all forest land, if
it has not been severely damaged by fire and logging, is potentially
adapted to some form of recreational use. Some forest land has sucn
high recreational value, however, that it should be set aside entirely
from commercial development. Already 11 million acres of forest
land, of which the national parks are the outstanding example, are
withdrawn from commercial timber use on account of recreational
values. It is estimated in this report that eventually an additional
34 million acres should be withdrawn from the commercial forest land
category for recreational purposes. A considerable portion of this
will fall in the least accessible zones of commercial forest land and
therefore the conflict with timber use needs will not be so great as
might be implied by the figures alone.

148 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

GAME AND WILD LIFE

The great bulk of forest land is capable of producing game and wild
life. However, the condition of the forest cover is an important
factor in the extent and character of the food supply. Cutting opera-
tions usually lead to increased growth of shrubs and herbage, thus
providing a greater abundance and variety of food than is to be found
in dense forests. In general, the protection of forest land from fire,
and the application of desirable silvicultural measures in the develop-
ment and use of the timber resource, contribute to the welfare of wild
life. The character of the ownership of the land is also an important
factor as it affects access to the land by the public, and the possibilities
for effective correlation of wild life and land management.

RANGE USE

This use is exercised over more than half the forest land in the
United States. As a rule, grazing may be harmonized satisfactorily
with other major forest-land uses. In some instances it should be
temporarily suspended during forest regeneration. At all times it
should be exercised conservatively to guard against damage to the
forest-protection values and against depletion of the forage resource
itself. On certain intensive protection areas it should probably be
excluded altogether.

Forest-range conditions are far from uniformly satisfactory. On
the unregulated public as well as much of the privately owned forest
land of the West, and on much of the forested pasture land of the East,
grazing has been exercised with little regard for the forage resource
itself or for the values of the forest land for other purposes.

Any one of these major uses is essential to national welfare. In the
aggregate they give some conception of the great importance of forest
land. It is of the utmost importance that forest land should serve
these uses effectively and also that these uses be maintained, devel-
oped, and harmonized in order that no considerable part of so fruitful
a resource need lie idle and unproductive.

The practice of forestry in the broad sense then means much more
than the mere production of timber. It includes the management of
forest lands, usually with timber production as one of the major uses,
but not an exclusive one. It means the management of forest lands
to secure a maximum of coordination and combined effectiveness in all
these uses.

AGRICULTURAL-LAND ABANDONMENT

The forest-land situation is by no means static. The process of
converting forest land to farm land is still going on, particularly in the
western regions where the removal of virgin timber from a land of
favorable soil and climate invites settlement. It is roughly estimated
that some 2 million acres should be deducted from the commercial
forest-land acreage to account for such present and prospective
conversion.

While this process is continuing on a small scale in the West the
opposite process — agricultural-land abandonment — is taking place on
a major scale in the regions of the Eastern United States. The future
progress and the net effects of these transitions are not susceptible of
refined determination. They are the result of complex and changing

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMKKICAN FORESTRY 149

economic and social conditions. The best information now available
appears to indicate that so far as the relation between forest and
agricultural use is concerned, the national trend is likely to continue
from agricultural to forest use for a good many years.

The section, "Agricultural Land Available for Forestry," discusses
the relation between agriculture and forest use and the resulting
trends in considerable detail. It is sufficient here to note that about
52 million acres of land once or still considered as agricultural, and
not included in the present forest-land acreages previously presented
in this report, is no longer needed for agriculture and may be con-
sidered as available for forest use. This acreage is made up as follows :

Acres

Abandoned agricultural land 26, 000, 000

One half of the 1930 Bureau of the Census estimate of the idle and

fallow agriculture land 11, 000, 000

One half of the unforested and unplowable pasture land 15, 000, 000

Total 52, 000, 000

This 52 million acres, occurring as it does in the East and within the
territories once cleared for agriculture, may, for practical purposes,
be considered as commercial forest land, if and when forested. Be-
cause of its location, it would be very valuable for protection, for
which use some minor areas might need to be set aside exclusively.
Generally speaking, its site quality would make it very desirable for
timber production, probably somewhat more so than the average cut-
over and nonrestocking land now included in the commercial forest-
land category.

A further possible adolition to forest-land acreage is found in cer-
tain areas of treeless prairies in the Central States which never have
been forested but which are considered to be physically suited to
afforestation. A figure of 3 million acres will be ample to provide for
this. •

PROSPECTIVE AREA AVAILABLE FOR TIMBER PRODUCTION

The net effects of such estimated amounts upon present or potential
commercial forest-land acreage may be summarized as follows :

Acres

Present acreage of commercial forest land - - 495, 000, 000

Present acreage of agricultural land abandoned or otherwise avail-
able for forestation - 52, 000, 0(

Acreage of treeless prairies available for afforestation 3, 000, 000

Gross acreage of potential commercial forest land 550, 000, 000

Area of present commercial forest land to be withdrawn for recrea-
tion. __ 34,000,000

Deduction for conversion from forest to agriculture in the West- _
Miscellaneous deductions for protection, etc 5, 000, 0(

Gross acreage of prospective withdrawals 41, 000, 000

Net acreage of potential commercial forest land 509, 000, 000

An additional 25 to 30 million acres of agricultural land in the
eastern United States may become available for afforestation by 1950
according to an estimate contained in the section, Agricultural Land
Available for Forestry. Because of its location and character this

150 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

area, like the 52 million acres just considered, may be considered as
suitable for commercial timber production and for protection purposes.
Thus, of gross forest-land acreage there appears to be ample,
according to the discussion headed Present and Potential Timber
Resources, if it is wisely managed, to meet the ultimate timber-
supply needs of the country and at the same time to serve adequately
the other major uses. To make these potentialities realities will
require constructive programs which will provide for improvement in
many phases of forest-land use.

THE AGRICULTURAL LAND AVAILABLE FOR FORESTRY

By C. I. HENDRICKSON, Senior Agricultural Economist, Bureau of Agricultural

Economics

CONTENTS

Agricultural land abandonment in the originally forested regions east of

the Great Plains 151

Future requirements for agricultural land 162

Future abandonment in originally forested regions east of the Great

Plains 164

Agricultural land available and to be available for reforestation in the

originally forested regions east of the Great Plains 166

Some social and economic problems of farm abandonment 167

AGRICULTURAL LAND ABANDONMENT IN THE ORIGI-
NALLY FORESTED REGIONS EAST OF THE GREAT
PLAINS l

The term " agricultural land" will be used here to refer to the land
used for the production of crops and livestock, including the necessary
farmsteads, lanes, and farm roads, but excluding the woodland or
forested area devoted to timber production. "Abandoned agricul-
tural land " refers to land which has definitely gone out of the produc-
tion of crops or livestock and has reverted to some less intensive use
or is being allowed to lie idle. Land which has gone out of agriculture
and into some more intensive use, such as residential or other urban
use, is not considered as abandoned agricultural land.

These terms are used instead of the terms "farm land", "abandoned
farms", or "farm abandonment" which are often used without any
strict definition of their meaning. "Farm land " usually includes the
woodland within the boundaries of farms. The abandonment of a
farm effects no change in the major use of the woodland and to include
the woodland, as is done when the total farm land is used, exaggerates
the amount of agricultural abandonment.

The term "abandoned farms" is most frequently used to refer to
farms on which agricultural operations are no longer being conducted.
In some instances it is used to refer to farms which have reverted to
the State or other political unit for the nonpayment of taxes; such
farms may or may not be operated farms. The extent of agricultural
abandonment would be underestimated if only abandoned farms, i. e.,
those on which agricultural operations are no longer being conducted,
were considered. There is, in addition to wholly abandoned farms,
land in operated farms which has been abandoned for agricultural use.

The abandonment of the agricultural land in specific farm units is
usually a gradual process. The stages vary from tract to tract.
Frequently, especially in the Northeastern and North Central States,

i This discussion of agricultural abandonment is limited to the originally forested regions of the United
States east of the Great Plains. The prairie counties of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas,
Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas are not included. Most of the abandonment of agricultural land has
occurred in the originally forested regions east of the Mississippi River, and here abandonment is most
significant with reference to reforestation.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 11 151

152 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the successive stages are as follows: (1) Abandoned for cultivated crops
and used as a permanent hay meadow; (2) abandoned for hay and used
as permanent pasture; (3) gradual encroachment of brush on the per-
manent past are; (4) the gradual seeding and growth of trees and
return to forest. In the South livestock is relatively less important
and the use of the land for hay and pasture is more frequently omitted.
There are instances of the omission of the brush stage where the trees
develop with very little growth of herbaceous plants and shrubs.
Changing economic conditions may cause land in some stage of
abandonment to be placed again in cultivation. Land which has been
exhausted by cropping may be abandoned and allowed to complete
the process and grow into forest, then be cleared, and again put into
cultivation. In such cases there is developed a cycle of land use.
Prior to the introduction of fertilizers this cycle of land use was more
common in the South. There are areas where this cycle of land use
is still going on.

Farm abandonment is the result of a complex of forces. Certain
of these forces are more important in some areas than in others. Sel-
dom, if ever, do these forces operate singly. - In one area one force
may appear to be, on superficial examination, the sole cause of
abandonment, when in reality other causes have cooperated to pro-
duce the result. Land has been operated so lacking in fertility, so
rough in topography, or so stony, that it has not been profitable
except under especially favorable conditions. After more or less
effort has been expended the land has been abandoned. Other land
may have been profitable or reasonably profitable when first culti-
vated but its fertility may have been depleted through continued
cropping without restoring the fertility removed or — a much more
important factor — through erosion. Erosion has been particularly
important in certain areas in bringing about abandonment of land
for agricultural production.

In addition to these physical factors economic factors have been
important. Improvements in transportation made possible the
opening up of the land west of the Alleghenies and the settlers there
were able to ship their products and sell them at prices below what
the eastern farmer could afford to take. At first it was the less perish-
able cereals, wool, live cattle and hogs; then with the development of
refrigeration, fresh meat and dairy products, fruit and truck crops
came from areas where climate, soil, and other natural conditions
favored their production. The development of machinery has also
been a most important factor in effecting the abandonment of rough
stony land in particular. While machinery was adapted to the more
level land such as the prairies of the Corn Belt and the Great Plains
region and enabled the farmers there to produce at a lower cost, many
areas of rough topography were not adapted to these labor saving
methods and hence could not compete with the farmer on the more
level land. These improvements in transportation and machinery
have led to the abandonment of much land which lacked natural
advantages but which had been put into cultivation prior to these
developments.

At the same time that this competition from the more fertile, level
land was lowering the income of the farmers in the less fertile, rougher
land the development of commerce and manufactures offered oppor-
tunities which attracted people from the farms to the cities. Where

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 153

these opportunities have been lacking, as in the southern Appala-
chians, much land is in cultivation which is rougher and less fertile
than land in other ^areas which has been abandoned. Not large in
the aggregate, but important in some areas as a cause for abandon-
ment has been the loss of an industry which afforded a market for the
agriculture of a particular area. A corollary factor has been the in-
creased taxes made necessary by the lessened tax base resulting from
the loss of the industry. The cutting of timber and the removal of
the timber industry in certain areas have resulted in loss of local
markets for farm products and increased taxes on the farms which
became a contributing cause to agricultural abandonment. Aban-
donment, in turn, may lead to further abandonment by reason of the
higher taxes on the remaining farms or lessened government revenue
and deterioration in community life. On the other hand, the leader-
ship of energetic and resourceful individuals in a community may
sometimes retard or even prevent abandonment.

No survey of farm or agricultural land abandonment has been made
covering any large area of the United States. There have been a
number of limited surveys of small areas in connection with land use
studies, but they have not been extensive enough to provide a satis-
factory base for general estimates. They have been conducted at
different times and by different agencies, and therefore the results
are not directly comparable. It is necessary to judge the extent of
agricultural abandonment from the decrease in land nsed for agricul-
tural purposes as calculated from the Federal censuses.

The total area of land used for agricultural purposes continued to
increase in the originally forested regions east of the Great Plains
until 1920. The Federal census of 1920 reported 279,000,000 acres
of agricultural land in these regions.2 Approximately 60 percent of
this was crop land, about 25 percent was other improved land, and
1 5 percent was what is designated as unimproved land. The improved
land not in crops was largely plowable pasture and the unimproved
land was mostly pasture which could not be plowed because it is too
hilly or too wet, or because of brush, stumps, or rocks. Considering
these forest regions as a whole, the first decline in the total area of
land used for agriculture occurred during the decade 1920 to 1930.
The area of agricultural land declined by 14,000,000 acres, or 5 percent
(see table 2), and the land in harvested crops by about 15,000,000
acres, or 9 per cent (see table 3). There was less agricultural land
in these eastern forest regions in 1930 than in 1910, and about the
same area of crop land as in 1900. The decrease in crops from 1920
was relatively greater than the decrease in agricultural land because
some of the crop land went into pasture.

2 Agricultural land as used in this report is the total area in farms less the area in woodland, as reported
by the Bureau of the Census. This item contains a small amount of waste or idle land not in woods which
cannot be separated from the land used for crop and livestock production. The extent of this item is not
sufficient to affect the conclusions derived from the data.

154

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 1. — All land in farms, by regions, originally forested counties { east of Great

Plains, 1880-1930

Ye?

ir

1880

1890

1900

1910

1920

1930

New England

Thousand
acres

21, 484

Thousand
acres
19, 756

Thousand
acres
20 549

Thousand
acres
19 715

Thousand
acres
16 991

Thousand
acres
14 283

Middle Atlantic

52, 712

48,996

51, 096

49,287

46, 275

40, 322

Lake

32, 381

35, 678

43, 688

47, 508

50 165

48 182

Central

119, 680

119,823

126, 276

125, 641

123, 482

114 878

South

153, 346

157, 889

170, 208

178 576

174 107

158 509

Total

379, 603

382, 142

411,817

420, 727

411 020

376 174

1 Prairie counties in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana. Oklahoma, and Texas not
included.

TABLE 2. — Agricultural land,1 by regions, originally forested counties east of Great

Plains, 1880, 1910-30

Year

negion

1880

1890

1900

1910

1920

1930

New England

Thousand
acres
14, 168

Thousand
acres

Thousand
acres

Thousand
acres
11,862

Thousand
acres
9,970

Thousand
acres

7 883

Middle Atlantic

39, 085

38 311

36 066

31 629

Lake

22, 084

36, 670

38,639

36 074

Central

70, 865

91 556

92 486

88 937

South

65, 635

96, 448

102, 256

101 164

Total

211, 837

274 847

279 417

265 687

i All land in farms less woodland in farms,
woodland in farms.

The census of 1890 and 1900 collected no information on the

TABLE 3. — Approximate acreage of crops harvested by regions, originally forested
counties east of Great Plains, 1879-1929 1

Region

Year

1879

1889

1899

1909

1919

1929

New England. ..

Thousand
acres
5,929
21, 829
12, 556
40, 334
39, 177

Thousand
acres
5,604
22, 274
15, 463
45, 370
45,031

Thousand
acres
5,194
22, 142
18, 789
50,467
53,040

Thousand
acres
4,967
20,845
19, 965
49,902
58,380

Thousand
acres
4,561
20,718
22, 893
52, 943
66, 039

Thou-
sand
acres
3,677
17, 198
21, 877
45, 258
63,956

Middle Atlantic .

Lake

Central. ..

South

Total _ .

119,825

133, 742

149, 632

154, 059

167, 154

151, 966

1 The schedules used and the crops included were not the same for each census, thus data given are not
always strictly comparable. The last census, 1930, was somewhat more inclusive than the earlier ones.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 155

TABLE 4. — Changes in agricultural land, by regions, originally forested counties
east of Great Plains, 1910-30

Region

Changes in agricultural land »

1910-20

1920-30

Gross in-
crease

Gross de-
crease

Gross in-
crease

Gross de-
crease

New England

Thousand
acres
56
61
2,644
2,685
9,673

Thousand
acres
1,948
2,306
675
1,755
3,865

Thousand
acres
5

Thousand
acres
2,092
4,437
3,013
4,931
6,459

Middle Atlantic

Lake.

448
1,382
5,367

Central . . ...

South •

Total

15. 119

10,549

7,202

20,932

1 Gross increase is total of increases in counties having increases and gross decrease is total of decreases in
counties having decreases during the decade.

Although the decade 1920-30 was the first to show a widespread
decline in the total agricultural land or in total crop land, land
abandonment has been going on for many years. In some counties
in the northeast, considerable land was abandoned 50 years ago, but
these decreases were more than counterbalanced by increases in
counties elsewhere in this region. Even during the decade 1910-1920,
when there was a large increase stimulated by war prices, land was
abandoned in many counties. The counter-movement persisted
locally even during the last decade, 1920-30, many counties showing
an increase in agricultural land while the total for these forest regions
as a whole declined.

The net increase in agricultural land from 1910 to 1920 was
4,500,000 acres. There was a decline of 10,500,000 acres in certain
counties, which was more than offset by an increase of 15,000,000
acres in other counties of the region. The net decline in agricultural
land between 1920 and 1930 was 14,000,000 acres, the net resultant
of a decrease of 21,000,000 acres in a majority of the counties, offset
in part by an increase of 7,000,000 acres in other counties. (See table
4.) The increases occurred mostly in the western part of this origi-
nally forested region, while the counties reporting a decline were
scattered in all States of the region. In the eastern States the decline
was almost universal. Agricultural abandonment, like agricultural
development, has proceeded from east to west. The earliest and the
greatest amount of abandonment has taken place in New England
and New York. Relatively less abandonment has taken place in the
States to the west and south, and it has occurred at a later date.
(See fig. 1.)

Not all of the land which has gone out of agricultural use is available
for reforestation. Some of it has already grown up to trees and is
included in the forest area, another portion has gone into residential,3
recreational, and other uses. Probably most of the land abandoned

3 Not all of the land which has gone out of agricultural use as calculated from the Census reports has
actually gone out of agricultural production, since some of that used for residential purposes has attached
to it land used for gardens, etc. Figures showing the actual amount of land used for agricultural production-
in units smaller than those considered as farms by the Census are not available, but the amount probably
is comparatively small in the aggregate.

156

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

prior to 1900 has become forest. Relatively less of the land aban-
doned in each succeeding decade since 1900 is now in forest. Not
even all of the 31,000,000 acres (see table 4) which has gone put of
use for crop and livestock production in the past two decades is still
available for reforestation. It is probable that a substantial part of
the 21,000,000 acres which has gone out of agricultural use since 1920

FIGUEE 1.— The percentage decrease in agricultural land from the peak to 1930.

is available for reforestation and a portion of the 10,500,000 acres
which went out of use for crop and pasture in the decade 1910 to 1920
is available. The rate at which these acreages will grow up naturally
to trees will depend upon a number of factors, including the quality
of the land, the number and species of seed trees, and protection from
fire and other injury.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

157

ABANDONMENT IN THE DIFFERENT REGIONS
NEW ENGLAND STATES

The abandonment of agricultural land has been greatest, relatively,
in New England. This fact has been noted and commented on for
more than 50 years. These States were the first to feel the effects on
the use of land of the development of manufacturing and the opening
up of the lands west of the Alleghenies. The opportunities offered
by these developments drew large numbers of people from the
rougher and less fertile sections of these States. With the develop-
ment of this more productive western land, these poorer lands were
no longer needed for agricultural production. The area of land used
for agricultural production was at its highest in this region in 1880,

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FIGURE 2.— All lands in farms, agricultural lands, and crops harvested, by regions, 1880-1930.

and has decreased during each decade since that date. (See table 2
and fig. 2.) The amount of land going out of agricultural use in
the past two decades has averaged approximately 200,000 acres
annually since 1910. (See table 4.) The decline in the use of land
for crops has been neither as great nor as uniform as in the case of all
agricultural land. The acres of harvested crops declined from 1909
to 1919, an average of 40,000 acres annually, but there was a slight
increase for the region as a whole from 1919 to 1924, followed by a
decline from 1924 to 1929, averaging 160,000 acres annually. (See
table 5.) Allowing for the increase in the first part of the decade
(which may be owing in part to the inclusion of many suburban places
and other "part-time" farms), the average decline for the decade
1919 to 1929 was 74,000 acres annually.

158

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 5. — Changes in acres of crops harvested, 1909—24 and in crop land harvested,
1924-29, originally forested counties east of Great Plains

Region

Changes in acreage of crops harvested '

Changes in crop land
harvested

1909-19

1919-24

1924-29

Gross in-
crease

Gross de-
crease

Gross in-
crease

Gross de-
crease

Gross in-
crease

Gross de-
crease

New England - -

Thousand
acres
58
484
3,006
3,516
9,303

Thousand
acres
464
611
78
475
1,644

Thousand
acres
198
104
519
210
1,381

Thousand
acres
130
1,841
1,502
7,614
8,258

Thousand
acres
30
52
407
813
4,594

Thousand
acres
818
2,242
929
2,629
2,394

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South -

Total.

16, 367

3,272

2,412

19, 345

5,896

9,012

i Gross increase is total of increases in counties having increases, and gross-decrease is total of decreases
in counties having decrease during the period.

TABLE 6. — Idle or fallow crop land, and pasture other than plowable pasture or
woods pasture, originally forested counties east of the Great Plains, 1929

Region

Idle

Other
pasture

New England

Thousand
acres
315

Thousand
acres
2 155

Middle Atlantic

2,754

4 767

Lake -

1 795

4 627

Central

6 986

9 205

South j

9 695

8 723

Total

21, 545

29 477

Aroostook County in Maine and the northern counties of Vermont
are the only ones which did not show the downward trend. (See
fig. 1.) Aroostook County has had a considerable increase both in
agricultural land and in crop land since 1900, and the northern
Vermont counties show little change.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES

In the Middle Atlantic States also the opportunities outside of
agriculture and the competition from the newer agricultural lands
were the important factors in briging about abandonment. Prior to
the development of industry and railway transportation, pressure of
population had forced people to settle on much poor land in these
States. Although such lands may have yielded fair returns when
first put into cultivation, they soon deteriorated, and the process of
abandonment soon began. For this region as a whole abandonment
was exceeded by new land being opened up and the total area of
agricultural land increased until after 1880. The total area of
agricultural land was very nearly the same in 1910 as in 1880.
(See table 2 and fig. 2.) The area used for agricultural production
probably increased slightly from 1880 to 1890 or 1900, since the total
area in farms was greater in 1900 than in 1910. (See table 1.)
Data on the area in woodland in farms are not available for 1890

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 159

and 1900, consequently the amount of agricultural land being used
in those years can not be ascertained. Many of the counties in this
region reached the maximum acreage of agricultural land after 1880,
most in 1890, 1900, and 1910. There were only seven counties
which reached a peak in 1920 and none in 1930. The net decline in
agricultural land from 1910 to 1920 for the counties of the region
showing a net decrease was at an average of 230,000 acres annually
and from 1920 to 1930 the decline averaged 440,000 acres annually.
(See table 4.)

The total acreage of crops harvested also varied but little from
1879 to 1909. (See table 3.) There was a slight increase the first
decade, a very slight decline during the second decade, and in the
third decade, from 1899 to 1909, the decline was somewhat greater,
bringing the acreage in harvested crops somewhat below that of
1879. Owing to increased prices during the World War, the acreage
in harvested crops in 1919 was only slightly less than in 1909. A
decline was reported in a number of counties, but these losses were
nearly offset by increases in other counties. Whatever crop land
was included in the area of agricultural land that went out of use was
almost counterbalanced by the plowing up of pasture for crop produc-
tion. During the past decade, 1919-29, the decline in crop acreage
was almost universal in this region, and totaled over 3,000,000 acres.

LAKE STATES

Agricultural development is more recent in much of the Lake
States. For the region as a whole the extent of land used for crop
and livestock production reached a peak in 1920. The movement in
the three States is following the trend of the development of agricul-
ture from east to west. The peak in the extent of agricultural land
was reached in Michigan in 1910, but the decline in that State between
1910 and 1920 was offset by the increase in the other two. (See
table 2 and fig. 2.) Although more land was used for agricultural
production in Wisconsin and in the originally forested section of
Minnesota in 1920 than in 1930, the decline was relatively greater
in Wisconsin. The cut-over area of these States is especially signifi-
cant from a forestry standpoint. The counties comprising this area
are less developed agriculturally than are those in the southern part
of these States. In a majority of these counties less than half of
the area is in farms and a much smaller proportion is actually used
for farming, as indicated by the area of agricultural land.

In this cut-over area the individual, and the resources he has or can
secure, especially the capital he has or can borrow during the period
of development, count for much in the success or failure of the agri-
cultural enterprise. There is certain to be a number who would fail
even under favorable conditions, but only a small amount of land
would be permanently abandoned unless other conditions made the
utilization of the land unprofitable.

Much of the abandoned land in this region was inferior for agricul-
ture when it was cleared ; in other cases economic conditions have ren-
dered the land unprofitable. The loss of local markets through the
disappearance of the lumber industry and the increased burden of
taxes on farms as a result of the loss of local revenue resulting from
depletion of the timber supply are important factors in cut-over
areas.

160 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In this cut-over region the Michigan section shows the most general
and the greatest declines in agricultural land. Many of the cut-over
counties of Michigan had more agricultural land in 1910 than in 1920
or 1930. In Wisconsin or Minnesota none of the cut-over counties
reached a peak in agricultural area until 1920. In Wisconsin the
declines have been more general than hi Minnesota. There were
decreases aggregating 675,000 acres in counties showing decreases in
the three States during the decade 1910 to 1920, while the increases
totaled 2,675,000 acres in the other counties. The net increase there-
fore was 2,000,000 acres. (See table 4.) During the decade 1920 to
1930, the situation was reversed. There was a decline of 3,000,000
acres in counties showing decreases and an increase of less than half a
million acres in the other counties, giving a net decline of 2,600,000
acres. The greatest relative decline in agricultural land has occurred
in counties in the less developed cut-over region, except where counties
have been affected by urban development. (See fig. 1.)

CENTRAL STATES

The peak in agricultural land in the Central States was reached in
1920. (See table 2 and fig. 2.) The increase above the acreage in
1900 and 1910 was not large. In general, most of the land suitable
for agriculture had been put to that use by 1900. The variation in
development is greater than in the two northeastern regions. A
number of the Ohio counties reached their peak in 1880, and some
counties, especially in Missouri and Tennessee, had a greater acreage
in 1930 than in any previous year, but in most counties the acreage
of agricultural land increased up to 1910 or 1920 and then declined
before 1930. The decline in most counties has been relatively small,
and for the region as a whole, although large in the aggregate, is rela-
tively much less than for New England or the Middle Atlantic States.
The counties showing important declines are scattered. (See fig. 1.)

The decrease in agricultural land in a number of counties has been
due to urban or mining development. Outside of these counties the
greatest falling off in land used for agricultural production has been
in southeastern Ohio and the adjacent portion of West Virginia.
Scattered counties in other parts of the region also show considerable
declines, particularly in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, some of
the counties in the Kentucky coal area, and in the Cumberland
Plateau of Tennessee. Erosion has been an important factor in
rendering much of this land unprofitable. In many areas it has been
by far the major factor.

Between 1910 and 1920, the decrease in the agricultural area in the
counties of the Central States reporting a decrease was 1,800,000
acres, while in the counties reporting increases the gain was 2,700,000
acres. The net increase, therefore, was almost 1 ,000,000 acres. Since
1920 the decrease has been substantial. The gross decline was 4,900, -
000 acres and the net decline was 3,500,000 acres, there being an
increase aggregating 1,400,000 acres in a number of counties.

The peak in crop acres in the region as a whole was in 1919. (See
table 3.) As with agricultural land, the total was not much greater
than 20 years earlier. The crop area increased somewhat at the
expense of the pasture acreage from 1909 to 1919, and the decline
in crop acreage has been relatively greater, indicating that some of
the crop area has gone back to pasture. This is particularly true of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 161

much of Ohio, Indiana, southern Illinois, and northwestern Missouri.
For some of these counties it may indicate the beginning of the
process of abandonment, if the land cannot compete with other
areas as pasture land. The acreage of all land in farms has declined
relatively more rapidly than the acreage of agricultural land. (See
tables 1 and 2.)

SOUTHERN STATES4

The extent of agricultural land was at its height for the Southern
States in 1920. (See table 2 and fig. 2.) There was only a small
decline for the region as a whole to 1930. The variation in the region
is so great that the totals do not give a true picture. The peak in
the amount of agricultural land for Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Alabama was reached in 1910; in Georgia, Florida, and
Mississippi, in 1920, while for the States in this region west of the
Mississippi there was more agricultural land in 1930 than at any
previous census date. The counties of the coastal plain of Virginia
had more agricultural land in 1880 than they have had at any time
since that date. The amount of abandonment has been greatest
there, and has been heavy in many of the counties on the coast in
the States to the South, and in the sandhill region from North Caro-
lina through Georgia, in central Alabama, in the sugar-bowl parishes
of Louisiana, and in the loessial hill section of Mississippi, beginning
in the southwest corner of the State and running northeast almost
across the State. (See fig. 1.)

In the past two decades there have been heavy declines in some of
the Piedmont counties and in some of the counties in northern and
in southern Florida. The counties in central Florida have shown
little change. Much of this region is subject to very heavy erosion,
which in many counties is the major factor in bringing about aban-
donment. The boll weevil has been an important cause of abandon-
ment in areas of heavy soil. In other areas the competition of more
productive land to the west has led to abandonment and to the
migration of farmers and farm laborers to areas where the opportu-
nities appeared more favorable.

From 1910 to 1920 there was a total decline in agricultural land of
nearly 4,000,000 acres in counties reporting a decline in this forest
region, but the increase in other counties was nearly 10,000,000 acres,
resulting in a net increase of nearly 6,000,000 acres. (See table 4.)
Some counties in every State showed a decrease, but the greatest
declines occurred in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, and Alabama. Each State had a gross decline totaling over
500,000 acres. In Georgia the increases (in counties having
increases, totaled over 1 ,500,000 acres. In this decade the increases
in counties in Florida, Arkansas, and the originally forested portions
of Oklahoma and Texas also exceeded 1,000,000 acres in each State.

From 1920 to 1930 the net decline in the originally forested counties
in this region was only 1,000,000 acres, but the total decrease in
counties showing declines was almost 6,500,000 and the total increases
in the other counties nearly 5,500,000 acres. In each of the States
east of the Mississippi, except North Carolina, the total decline in
counties in which decreases occurred exceeded 500,000 acres. In
North Carolina there was a slight net increase between 1920 and

* For Oklahoma and Texas only the eastern counties are included.

162 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

1930. The increases in agricultural land in this decade occurred
mainly in the Mississippi delta and in the originally forested counties
of Texas. In the other States the increases in counties showing
increases totaled less than 500,000 acres per State. The decreases
were especially great in Georgia where over 1,500,000 acres went out
of agricultural production, a net decrease of over 1,000,000 acres.
More than 500,000 acres went out of agricultural production in each
of the States of Virginia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi during
this decade.

The crop acreage in this region increased steadily until 1920; since
then there has been a slight decrease. The decline has been greatest
in Georgia where the acres of crops harvested were 1 ,500,000 less in
1929 than in 1919.

FUTURE REQUIREMENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL LAND

The area of land needed for agricultural production in the future
will depend in large part upon the demand for agricultural products.
The factors that will effect alterations in demand are : Changes in the
population, changes in per capita consumption in the United States,
and changes in exports to foreign countries. The aggregate per capita
consumption of food products has not changed much in this country
during the past 25 years. There have been shifts in consumption
from one food to another, but the aggregate has not varied more than
7 percent from the average and usually the annual variation has been
within 4 percent. The same has been true of cotton except that in
recent years there has been some reduction as a result of the competi-
tion of rayon.

, The most important factor effecting changes in the amount of
agricultural production required has been the increase in our popula-
tion. Therefore, the probable increase in our future population will
be very significant in determining the probable future demand for
agricultural products. The number of births has been declining in
the United States, and students of population believe it unlikely that
the birth rate will rise. They expect that unless immigration restric-
tions are removed the population of the United States will be slightly
over 130,000,000 by 1940 and about 140,000,000 by 1950.

The outlook for the export demand is much more uncertain. Agri-
cultural exports have gone largely to northwestern Europe. There,
too, the birth rate is declining and a stationary population is expected
in 20 to 40 years, occurring earliest in Sweden, Germany, and England.
In France the population has been about stationary for 70 years. In
these countries, as in the United States, the rural birth rate is greater
than the urban. The realization of this fact, taken in connection with
the nationalistic spirit, may cause these countries to give considera-
tion to the means of maintaining as large an agricultural population
as possible. They may seek to accomplish this by becoming more
self-supporting with respect to foodstuffs. Since the beginning of the
century there has been increasing competition for the markets of
northwestern Europe. Take England, the leading market for our
agricultural products, for example. Thirty years ago 29 percent of
its imports came from the United States and 24 per cent from the
British possessions, whereas today 15 percent of the imports come from
the United States and 40 percent come from the British possessions.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 163

The situation with respect to exports to other parts of the world,
such as the Orient, is even more difficult to appraise.

Considering these factors, it appears reasonable to assume that
there will be no significant change in aggregate per capita consumption
of agricultural products, and as a result our domestic consumption
will increase in proportion to the population; and that agricultural
exports will remain equivalent to 5-15 percent of the Nation's pro-
duction. This has been the situation for the past 25 years, except
that exports exceeded 15 percent of production during the few years
of, and immediately following, the World War.

Total agricultural production, although fluctuating, has increased
at very nearly the same rate as population during the period since 1908.
If total agricultural production should continue to keep pace with
population it will probably not, however, increase in this and the next
decade at the rate it has in the past two decades. As has been stated,
students of population expect that, unless immigration restrictions
are removed, the population will be only about 8 percent greater in
1940 and possibly 14 percent greater in 1950 than, in 1930. This
increase compares with an increase of 16 percent between 1920 and
1930 and an increase of 33 percent between 1910 and 1930.

The increase in agricultural land required to provide this additional
production will depend upon several factors which will be discussed
later. It seems very probable that it will not be necessary to increase
the total area of agricultural land even 8 percent between 1930 and
1940, nor 14 percent by 1950, to provide for this additional supply.
In the decade, 1920 to 1930, agricultural production 6 increased 20 per-
cent and for the two decades, 1910 to 1930, approximately 35 percent.

This increase in agricultural production in the United States was
secured with a net increase in agricultural land in farms in the coun-
try as a whole of only 6 percent during the last decade and of only
18 percent during the two decades.6 The area of crop land increased
less rapidly. In the decade, 1920 to 1930, the area in crops har-
vested increased very little, if at all,7 and in the 2 decades since
1910, it increased approximately 13 percent. It is well within the
realm of possibility, if not probability, to increase agricultural produc-
tion 8 percent without any addition to the area of agricultural land.

Technical changes affecting agriculture have made it possible to
increase agricultural production without increasing the agricultural
area to the same extent. This increase in production is not due in
any appreciable extent to increased crop yields per acre. For the
Nation as a whole the composite acre yields of the leading crops has
not increased since the period 1905-9. Four other factors have been
largely responsible for agricultural production expanding more rap-
idly than the agricultural area. These are (1) the great decline in
horses and mules, which has released for the production of human
food large areas formerly required to produce feed for the work stock ;
(2) the increased efficiency in the production of meat and milk, much
less feed being used now per pound of product, thus requiring less

8 By agricultural production is meant the not production available for human consumption and for
export. The production of feed crops consumed by domestic livestock is deducted from total crop
production.

6 This increase in agricultural land was n9minal rather than real, for nearly all the increase has occurred
in the Great Plains region by the inclusion in farms of former range land.

7 The total area in harvested crops as reported by the census is not directly comparable one census year
with another. The acreage of comparable crops for 1929 shows a slight decline from 1919 as reported by
the census. The estimates of the Department of Agriculture for the same years show a slight increase.
The change according to either estimate is less than 1 percent.

164 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

land; (3) a shift from less productive crops per acre to the more
productive; and (4) a shift from less productive to more productive
livestock per unit of feed consumed.

The changes that will occur in agricultural technique will depend
upon economic conditions and the introduction of new methods and
the discoveries of science. It may be expected that development of
new methods and new discoveries of science will continue. The
extent to which such developments will affect agriculture will depend
in an important degree upon economic conditions. The relation of
the prices of agricultural products to the prices of the items that
enter into their production and the relation of the prices of the various
cost items to one another will largely determine the changes in
technique actually adopted. The changes that may occur in this
complex of economic conditions and technical developments and the
effect of these on land requirements are very uncertain. If, for
example, horses should become a more economic source of power
than tractors, land now used for the production of human food or
for export products would be required to feed the extra horses. A
much larger agricultural area, therefore, would be required.

Of all the factors affecting the future land requirements for agri-
culture, perhaps the most difficult to appraise are the future changes
in economic conditions and in technology. If these economic and
technical forces continue to act as they did during the decade 1920
to 1930, it will not be necessary to increase appreciably the total area
of agricultural land or of crop land to provide the increased agricul-
tural products required by the expected increase in population. If
these economic and technical changes do not act as forcefully as
during the last decade, but are comparable to the average for the two
decades 1910 to 1930, it would be necessary by 1940 to increase the
total agricultural area by possibly 20,000,000 acres and the crop area
by 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 acres and by 1950 to increase the agricul-
tural area by about 35,000,000 acres and the crop area by 14,000,000
to 18,000,000 acres.

It is probably better to plan for much less than the maximum in-
crease, as shown above, in both agricultural land and crop land.
Expansion can be brought about rather quickly if conditions point
to the need for more agricultural land, and the social costs of an
error of underestimation are not likely to be so great as from an
overestimate. It is more difficult to grow trees than to remove them,
and it is easier to secure new settlers than to absorb the losses from
labor and capital directed in a mistaken enterprise. There is a con-
siderable loss in reclaiming and improving land if that land is not
needed, and there is loss in maintaining schools and roads for 1 or 2
settlers where a dozen or more farms had been expected,

FUTURE ABANDONMENT IN ORIGINALLY FORESTED
REGIONS EAST OF THE GREAT PLAINS

It appears reasonable to expect that in the future as in the past
some agricultural land will be abandoned while other land is being
brought into use. This will occur regardless of whether the total
area of agricultural land increases, remains stationary, or declines.
New land will be brought into use through clearing, through promo-
tion of settlement by land-selling agencies, through mechanization

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 165

and other changes in technique. Some of the land now operated will
be abandoned because of the effect of changes in physical condition,
such as erosion, and because of economic changes that will make the
land no longer profitable; that is, the same factors which were spoken
of as having brought about abandonment, and perhaps other factors,
are likely to be manifested in particular regions in the future as in
the past.

Even during the decade 1920 to 1930 some new land was brought
into use in these originally forested regions east of the Great Plains.
In the counties that showed increases over 1920 there were 7,000,000
acres more of agricultural land. In those counties in which the agri-
cultural land was less in 1930 than in 1920 some new land was brought
into cultivation, but the amount was relatively insignificant.

The only data that give any indication of the new land brought
into use in those counties are the data on land cleared and made
suitable for crops between 1920 and 1925, as reported by the Census
of Agriculture for 1925. The total cleared in the 5-year period in
the eastern forest regions was 3,500,000 acres. Little of this acreage
was in the New England or Middle Atlantic States. The larger part
was in the South, where many counties showed more agricultural land
in 1930 than in 1920. The important expansion in the agricultural
area during this period did not occur in the originally forested regions
east of the Great Plains but in the Great Plains. This expansion was
due in large part to the advances in .mechanization of agriculture
which made possible the production of wheat and cotton at a lower
cost than in the older production areas and helped to bring about
abandonment in these older areas.

In addition to this expansion in the West the large exodus of persons
from farms to cities up to 1929, because of the relatively more pros-
perous condition of urban pursuits as compared with agricultural, was
important in bringing about abandonment in the originally forested
regions. The mechanization of agriculture is not now proceeding as
rapidly, at least during this depression, and the counter movement
of population from cities to the farms has exceeded the movement
from farms to cities in 1930, 1931, and 1932.

Whether the present movements are only temporary is, of course,
difficult to foretell, since the outcome depends largely on the extent to
which industrial unemployment is eliminated in the processes of econo-
mic recovery. If this exodus from the city lowers labor costs in relation
to machinery costs to the point at which it is more profitable to pro-
duce a large quantity of agricultural products with more labor and
less machinery, then the expansion in the Great Plains and other
areas where agriculture is profitable under high mechanization will
not take place so rapidly as was true in the years just preceding 1929.
It is probable that there will be some increase in part-time and sub-
sistence farming by the movement of urban workers back to the land.
This movement will not appreciably affect the total land requirements
for agriculture since the amount of land used for agriculture per family
for part-time and subsistence farming is comparatively small. It will
tend to put some land in cultivation or prevent some land from being
abandoned near urban centers. The shifts that will occur in land
utilization will depend upon the changes that occur not only in agri-
culture but in industry, in transportation, and in all lines of economic
activity.

166 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Agricultural shifts have constituted the most influential factor in
effecting the abandonment of land for agriculture. It is possible that
during the coming decade mechanization of agriculture and exodus
of farm population to cities may not operate to bring about farm
abandonment to the extent that they did from 1920 to 1930. The
facts that population probably will not increase so rapidly as in the
past decade and that exports do not promise to expand rapidly may
make the pressure of competition of lower-cost areas on higher-cost
areas more severe. Increased efficiency in production through better
livestock, better crops, greater use of fertilizer, etc., may also intensify
interregional competition. Erosion, unless checked, will probably
also bring about more and more abandonment.

AGRICULTURAL LAND AVAILABLE AND TO BE AVAIL-
ABLE FOR REFORESTATION IN THE ORIGINALLY
FORESTED REGIONS EAST OF THE GREAT PLAINS

Any estimate of the amount of agricultural land available for re-
forestation can be only a very rough approximation. The previous
discussion has shown that many factors have and will influence the
amount of agricultural land available for reforestation. Data are
not available to show how much agricultural land was abandoned
prior to 1910, but in the discussion of land abandonment it was
estimated that over 30,000,000 acres of land have gone out of agri-
cultural production since 1910 in the originally forested regions east
of the Great Plains. Some of this land has been put to residential
or other intensive use, some has already grown up to forest; the
remainder is largely idle and available for reforestation. There is
considerable variation in the quality of this land for forestry pro-
duction, and this variation would be considered in determining a
forestry program for such land.

In addition to this abandoned agricultural land, 21,500,000 acres
of land were designated as idle or fallow crop land still in operated
farms, in 1930, in these regions. (See table 6.) Much of this land
is in the first stage of abandonment and is largely available for con-
sideration in the development of a forestry program.

A third class of land which contains a considerable area that might
be available for reforestation is that reported by the census as "pas-
ture other than plowable or woodland pasture". In 1929 there were
29,500,000 acres of such land in farms in the forest regions. (See
table 6.) Much of this is in an advanced stage of abandonment,
although still being utilized to some extent in agricultural production.

Natural reforestation of land comes about rather slowly. It is
probable that little of the land abandoned since 1920 has been re-
forested and that much of the land abandoned between 1910 to 1920
is available for reforestation as well as some of the land abandoned
prior to 1910. Although it is impossible, in the absence of actual
surveys, to determine the extent of agricultural land available for
reforestation, it seems reasonable to assume that most of the land
abandoned since 1920 and perhaps half of that abandoned between
1910 and 1920 might be considered available for this purpose. If,
in addition, half the idle crop land is added and half the pasture not
already in woods or not plowable, there is a total of over 50,000,000
acres of agricultural land that might be available for some type of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 167

reforestation. As this includes no estimate for land abandoned prior
to 1910, it would seem to be a conservative figure.

This area available for reforestation will be increased by the land
that will be abandoned during the next two decades. It has been
stated previously that abandonment is not likely to be so great as
during the decade 1920 to 1930, but is likely to be greater than during
the decade 1910 to 1920. If land should be abandoned at the average
rate of the two decades there would be approximately 15,000,000
acres more by 1940 and nearly 30,000,000 acres by 1950. Some of
this abandonment will come from the idle crop land and the pasture
land listed above. However, some of the land now being utilized
intensively may be in one of the two stages of abandonment. It
seems reasonable then to expect approximately 75,000,000 or 80,-
000,000 acres of agricultural land to be available or likely to be
available by 1950 for some degree of reforestation.

It should be noted that this is probably a maximum estimate.
Improvements in the economic position of agriculture may reduce
the total. Moreover, much of the area statistically available might
prove to be not economically available. Inertia of farm owners may
retard the reforestation of some of the idle land in farms in cases in
which the entire farm is not abandoned. In some areas the aban-
doned farms may be too widely scattered to permit the consolidation
of workable forest units, while in still other areas the idle farm land
may not prove well adapted to reforestation at reasonable costs
either to private or to public agencies.

SOME SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF FARM
ABANDONMENT

A number of important and rather distinctive social and economic
problems are encountered in areas of extensive abandonment and in
areas containing substantial amounts of land unsuited to farm use.
Some of the more important social ills of these areas are: (1) Low
incomes and consequent low plane of living, (2) fiscal difficulties of
local government units, (3) low plane of community life, and (4)
waste of individual and social effort and exploitation of those ignorant
of the lack of opportunity existing in such areas. These difficulties
are all interrelated and each in turn has an effect upon the others.

The living generally possible in such areas is usually on a lower
plane than in better areas. It is the hope of securing a better living
elsewhere that has led to much abandonment. A number of studies
in such areas have shown that the incomes of the farm families are
notably less than the incomes of farm families in better agricultural
areas. In one study, the goods purchased for consumption averaged
$324 per family compared with an average of $914 in more favorable
areas.8

Another study of several areas of extensive abandonment showed
an average income of only $339 for the labor of the farmer after allow-
ing for farm expenses and only $98 after deducting 5 percent for
interest on investment.9 The gross income per farm of a county in

s Oyler, M.-Cost of Living and Population Trends in Laurel County, Ky., 1930. Ky. Agr. Expt. Sta.
Bui. 301, p. 73.

Kirkpatrick, E. L. and Hawthorne, H. W.— Sources and Uses of Income Among 300 Farm Families of
Vinton, Jackson, and Meigs Counties, Ohio, 1926. U.S.D.A. Bur. Agr. Econ. Min. Kept., p. 9.

• Vaughn, L. M.— Abandoned Farm Areas in New York, 1928. Cornell Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 490, p. 255.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 12

168 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMEKICAN FORESTRY

still another State, in which there was much poor agricultural land,
was only slightly more than 50 percent of the average for the State.10
In areas of eventual abandonment people hold on for some time after
conditions have become relatively unsatisfactory in the hope that these
conditions are only temporary. This results in still further lowering
the plane of living.

With low incomes it is difficult to finance local governmental
services like schools and roads. In addition, the costs per farm for
roads, and per pupil for schools, are much higher in areas of aban-
donment than in areas of better agriculture because of the sparse
population served. If the costs are kept down it is only by sac-
rificing quality through shorter school terms, poorly trained teachers,
etc. The policy of granting State aid has been adopted to insure at
least a minimum of such services. Consequently the conditions
necessitating aid are of more than local interest, especially in view of
tjie fact that such aid serves to encourage the continued occupancy of
or stimulates new settlement hi areas incapable of supporting a reason-
able standard of living.

A study in one State showed that in a number of school districts
the tax receipts for school purposes from sources other than the local
farms were sufficient, if capitalized, to purchase all the farms in the
districts and in some districts they would leave a balance of $2,000
per farm.11 Another State is paying to some of its townships out of
the State treasury annually, sums for schools alone equal to 20 percent
of the assessed value of the townships. This constitutes the net pay-
ments above the total of the towns' share of State taxes.12 Of the
school cost of nearly $3,000 in one year, in a town of still another
State, the local residents paid only $236. 13

It is believed that economies can be effected in many instances in
the costs of schools and roads if the State aid for these purposes is
coordinated with a rational plan of land utilization. The policies
should be coordinated to encourage the use of the poorer and more
isolated areas for forests and for recreation, by discouraging settlement
for agriculture, and by making it easier for those already in such
areas to go where opportunities are more favorable.

Another fiscal problem in many areas is tax delinquency.14 It is
more important in the cut-over timber areas than in most of the areas
of extensive abandonment, for here timberland owners are allowing
their cut-over lands to go tax-delinquent by the thousands of acres.
It affects agriculture even where the area of agricultural land that is
tax-delinquent may be relatively small. The burden of taxation on
agriculture is increased because of the lessened tax base and the shift-
ing of the tax burden to the lands on which the taxes are paid. The
tax delinquency becomes a factor in bringing about further tax
delinquency and is a contributing cause of agricultural abandonment.

Not only is it difficult to maintain schools and roads in areas having
large amount of submarginal agricultural land, but the same factors
make it difficult to maintain churches and other social and economic

10 Wisconsin Agricultural Extension Service. Making the Most of Washburn County Land. 1932.
Wis. Agr. Ext. Service Special Cir., p. 10.

11 Peck, M., Frank, B., and Eke, P. A.— Economic Utilization of Marginal Lands in Nicholas and Web-
ster Counties, W.Va. 1932. U.S.D.A. Tech. Bui. 303, p. 24.

" Indiana, State of; Yearbook of Indiana. 1930. p. 505.

« Hibbard, B. H., Hartman, W. A., and Sparhawk, W. N— Use and Taxation of Land in Lincoln
County, Wis. 1929. Wis. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 406, p. 19.

14 The tax delinquency referred to here is not the temporary tax delinquency which is rather wide-spread
but that stage where the land reverts to the State or county.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 169

organizations. The lack of services, or the poor quality of services,
rendered by these social and economic agencies result in a low plane
of community life. In a locality in which there has been abandon-
ment of 25 to 50 percent or more of the agricultural land, with a
resulting decrease in the farm population, it is evident that although
it may have been possible to support adequate social services prior to
the beginning of abandonment it is no longer possible to do so. Many
churches and other organizations have disappeared or gone out of use
with a resulting loss to the community.

It is the younger people who most readily leave such areas. The
older people find it more difficult to break their ties with the com-
munity. All their capital is invested there, their friendships are there,
and often they are unaware of opportunities elsewhere; or they feel
that considering the difficulties of moving and starting over, they
would be no better off after making the change. These same con-
siderations tend to hold the young people in the area but to a much
less extent. A study of abandoned farm areas,16 referred to previously,
states that on 47 percent of the farms there were no children and there
were only 49 boys and young men over 20 years of age on the 510
farms in the areas. The community loses the stimulus and enthusi-
asm of the young people and in some instances all the potential
leaders leave the community.

The only apparent reason why some communities with no more
favorable natural conditions than others have not been abandoned is
that the quality and leadership of the population has been main-
tained. The process of decay in social life may go to the point where
a virtual rural slum exists, with all the associated evils.

The loss to the individual and to society through attempting to
utilize submarginal land like that in areas of extensive abandonment,
although not large in comparison with the total resources of the coun-
try, is nevertheless important to the individual involved and to the
county and to the State in which these areas are found. Often the
same effort applied by the individual in other areas or in other occu-
pations would result in a larger return to himself and to society.
Similarly, investing the same amount in roads and schools in other
areas would secure a greater return to society for the money expended.
The areas of abandonment and other areas containing submarginal
land are particularly fruitful fields for unscrupulous real-estate opera-
tors and land companies. Abandoned agricultural land, or land which
should be abandoned, is sold to persons unacquanited with local con-
ditions. These persons attempt to eke out a living for a time; then
abandon the land or sell to some one equally ignorant of the possi-
bilities; then the process is repeated. The turnover in ownership in
such areas is very high. In each transfer there is a loss of the accumu-
lated savings which are invested, and a lowering of the standard of
living, resulting in disappointed and discouraged families and dis-
satisfaction with existing social conditions. This shifting of the
population adds to the difficulty of maintaining a vigorous com-
munity life in areas which had already found it difficult to maintain
themselves.

is Vaughn, L. M.— Abandoned Farm Areas in New York. 1928. Cornell Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 490, p.
250.

TIMBER RESOURCES AND REQUIREMENTS

The purpose of the three following sections, on present and poten-
tial timber resources, our national timber requirements, and trends
in world wood consumption, in conjunction with the preceding sec-
tions dealing with the forest-land resource, is to present the basic
facts of the present and potential timber-supply phase of the forest
situation of the United States. Here is laid the essential foundation
for the formulation of a national-forest policy and programs of action
for coordinating the economic use of the Nation's forest land with
future normal requirements for timber.

The first section deals with the volume and availability of existing
stands; the rate at which these are being used up either through cut-
ting or through losses from fire, disease, or insects; the extent to which
this combined " drain" on the forest is being offset by growth; the
potentialities of sustained yield under different intensities of forest
management; and the comparison of these potential yields and poten-
tial normal timber requirements.

The second section, using past consumption as a guide but not as
an absolute measure, treats of normal requirements for lumber,
pulp wood, and other major timber products, and the trends in wood
use and the factors which affect these trends. The discussion of
trends in world consumption of wood products treats of the tendency
of certain trends to offset others, the long-time upward trend of aggre-
gate consumption, and the future potentialities that appear to exist
for the United States to enter foreign softwood markets on a larger
scale.

171

PRESENT AND POTENTIAL TIMBER RESOURCES

By R. E. Marsh, In Charge, Division of Forest Economics, and
W. H. GIBBONS, Senior Forester *

CONTENTS

Page

Present timber supplies 174

Volume and distribution 174

Ownership of timber supplies 184

Availability of timber stands 189

Forest drain 205

Timber cut 210

Timber losses 218

Timber growth 220

Current annual growth 220

The relation of current growth to drain 221

The significance of recent trends to future growth 223

Sustained yield possibilities 228

Summary 234

The balance between timber supplies and requirements 235

Should saw timber be the major object of a national program of

forestry? 235

Present and prospective normal timber requirements 236

Regional interdependence for timber supplies 237

Relation of foreign supplies and markets 240

A plan of forest-land management consistent with normal require-
ments for timber 241

The country's forest resource consists of two fundamental elements,
namely, the forest land as such, which is treated in the section on
" Forest Land the Basic Resource," and the forest growth which that
land bears. The amount, character, geographic distribution, owner-
ship, economic availability, rate of cut or destruction, and rate of
growth, of this stand of timber are of the utmost importance, because
upon them largely depend the assurance of meeting economically,
amply, and permanently our needs for timber and timber products
and for other forest benefits. They determine the degree to which
the forest resource, land and timber, is approaching its potential
contribution to the Nation's economic welfare. They influence the
determination of whether and what positive measures are needed,
nationally and regionally, both by the private owner and the public,
to put the forests on a satisfactory basis. It is the purpose of this
discussion to present the best information available as to the timber
stands on the 495 million acres classed as commercial forest land.

i Valuable contributions in analysis and interpretation of the growth data presented in this section were
made by E. N. Munns. C. E. Behre, and W. N. Sparhawk. Acknowledgment is also due to R. V. Reynolds
for assistance in the development of the data on forest drain, and to W. D. Brush for cooperation in the
compilation of the data throughout this section.

173

174

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PKESENT TIMBER SUPPLIES
VOLUME AND DISTRIBUTION

SAW TIMBER

Saw timber deserves first attention. Of the broad classes of forest
growth, saw timber is in greatest demand, being required for lumber,
crossties, veneer, and similar sawed or sliced products. The long
periods required in its production, moreover, aggravate the problems
of those attempting to apply systematic forest land management,
particularly in the case of private owners.

The present estimate of saw timber on commercial forest land in
the United States is 1,668 billion board feet (board foot estimates

New England

Middle Atlantic..

Lake..,

Central

South

Pacific Coast.

N. Rocky M+

S. Rocky Mt

200 400 600 800 1000

Billion Feet Board Measure

Softwoods

Hardwoods

FIGURE 1.— Softwood and hardwood saw-timber stands of the United States by regions.

based on lumber tally). (Table 1 and figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4.) Of this,
1,346 billion board feet, or 80 percent, is old growth and represents the
remainder of the original stands that have been crudely estimated as
at least 5,200 billion board feet. The original forest growth on pos-
sibly 150 million acres was destroyed in clearing the land for agricul-
ture in the early days. The volume of old growth cut for lumber
since those early days has been estimated at 1,650 billion board feet.
Cuttings for other purposes and continuous losses through fire, disease,
and insects have taken the rest. Old growth — characteristically two
or three hundred, often several hundred years old — still dominates
the lumber market, but its days are numbered. It is doubtful that
man will ever grow, as Nature has grown, extensive crops of fully
mature trees, such as will furnish the strong and durable timbers of
large dimensions and the high proportion of clear products that have
commanded the best markets in the past and given lumber its high
rank as a valuable construction material.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

175

New England |

Middle Atlantic..

Lake

Central.. _H

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt

ALL REGIONS

O 500 1000 1500

BILLION rEElT BOARD MEASURE.

Old -growth
Saw Timber

Second-growth
Saw Timber

200 400 600 800 1000

Billion Feet Board Measure

FIGURE 2.— Old-growth and second-growth saw-timbers tands of the United States by regions.

New England

Middle Atl antic.. |

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast. ___!

N. Rocky Mt |

S. Rocky Mt_.

ALL REGIONS

500 1000 1500

BILLION FEET BOARD MEASURE

200 400 600 flOO

Billion Feet Board Measure

1000

Softwoods

Hardwoods

FIGURE 3.— Old-growth saw-timber stand of the United States by regions.

176

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

New England

Middle Atl a nil c_.
Lake

Central

South _.

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt_.

ALL REGIONS

,

1 ,

0 5O IOO ISO ZOO

BILLION FEET BOARD MEASURE

25 50 75 100

Billion Feet Board Measure

150

Softwoods

Hardwoods

FIGURE 4.— Second-growth saw-timber stand of the United States by regions.

TABLE 1. — Stand of saw-timber in the United States, by character of growth and

region

[In million feet board measure]

Region

Total

Softwoods

Hardwoods

Total

Old
growth

Second
growth

Total

Old
growth

Second
growth

New England

57, 875
26, 150
35,887
34, 622
199, 297
1,041,628
146, 388
125. 956

Per-
cent
3
2
2
2
12
62
9
8

32,811
8,245
9,193
2,900
121, 449
1,038,909
146, 388
125, 955

18,977
144
7,656
1,146
37, 312
957, 208
142. 680
116,215

13,834
8,101
1,537
1,754
84, 137
81, 701
3,708
9,740

25,064
17,905
26, 694
31, 722

77, 848
2,719

10,295
195
13,327
6,332
32, 866
1,421

14, 769
17, 710
13, 367
25, 390
44, 982
1,298

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

1

1

Total

1, 667, 803

100

1, 485, 850

1, 281, 338

204,512

181, 953

64, 437

117, 516

The volume of second-growth saw timber is far too small for a
desirable balance with old growth, cord wood, and smaller growth,
considering the large proportion of the total forest area that has been
cut over. This is in part because of the practice in important regions
like the South, of cutting the second-growth trees as soon as they reach
merchantable size, but before they have reached physical or economic
maturity. It is also due to the all too prevalent lack of interest in
maintaining the continued productivity of the land following cutting,
whether of old growth or second growth. A third cause is fire, which
prevents or delays restocking on millions of acres of cut-over lands
and retards growth even after a new stand is established.

The steady progress of the lumber industry from the Northeast and
Lake States to the South and in turn to the West is reflected in the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

177

heavy depletion of the eastern saw-timber stands and the location of
the bulk of the remaining saw timber in the West. Thus, the New
England, Middle Atlantic, Central, and Lake regions with 35 percent
of the commercial forest land contain only 9 percent of the saw timber,

Douglas Fir--

Ponderosa
Pine

True Firs ---

Western
Hemlock

Spruce

Redwood

200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Billion feet, board measure

Tupelo

Yellow
Poplar" "

Cotton wood -
Aspen

All Other

100

200 300 400

Billion feet, board measure

500

Western
Softwoods

Eastern
Softwoods

Eastern
Hardwoods

FIGURE 5.— Saw-timber stand of the United States by important woods.

the South with 39 percent of the area contains but 12 percent, while
the West with 26 percent of the area contains 79 percent of the saw
timber, and nine tenths of the old growth. The Pacific Coast region
alone has 13 percent of the area and 62 percent of the saw timber.

178

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In other words, the one great remaining reservoir of saw timber,
and that softwood, is the Pacific Coast region. ^ For years the New
England, Middle Atlantic, Central, and Lake regions have contributed
relatively little to the softwood-lumber production of the country;
and the South, because of waning supplies, is losing the commanding
position which it has held for 20 or 30 years. This large Pacific Coast
supply of saw timber seems capable of being an important asset in
helping to tide over the interval which apparently must elapse before
the East can be organized on a more satisfactory forest-producing
basis. Highly developed mass production methods of lumber manu-
facture and low-cost water transportation render much of this timber
economically available to eastern consuming centers, and apparently

New England

Middle Atlantic.

Lake

Central _.

South __

Pacific Coast.

N. Rocky Mt.

S. Rocky Mt.

Saw-log
Material

40

Remainder of
Stand on Saw-
timber Areas

80 120

Billion Cubic Feet

Stand on
]| Cordwood
Areas

160

200

Stand on
HH Restocking
Areas

FIGURE 6.— Total stand (cubic feet) in the United States including saw-timber areas, cordwood areas,

and restocking areas, by regions.

should facilitate a period of reduced cutting and of rehabilitation of
the depleted eastern softwood forests. On the other hand, owing
to circumstances which need not be discussed here, the pressure to
liquidate is so great upon private owners in the Pacific Coast region
that stumpage is being thrown on the market with little regard to
sustained yield requirements, and with the effect of further depressing
market conditions, and for the time being, rendering forestry measures
less attractive for the private forest-land owners in other regions.

Table 2 and figure 5 illustrate the distribution of the saw timber by
hardwoods and softwoods, and by important species, for eastern and
western United States. Douglas, fir, with 530 billion board feet, 80
percent of which is in Washington and Oregon, is far in the lead.
Ponderosa pine, widely distributed through the West, is second with
252 billion. These two species comprise half the softwood saw
timber of the entire country.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

179

TABLE 2. — Stand of saw timber in the United States, by region and species
[In million feet board measure]

Kind of wood

Total

New
Eng-
land

Middle
Atlan-
tic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific
Coast

North
Rocky
Moun-
tain

South
Rocky
Moun-
tain

Eastern hardwoods:
Oak

60,753

1,048

4,783

6,017

16, 315

32,590

Birch, beech, and
maple

49, 943

20,973

8,555

13, 459

4,401

2,555

Red gum

15, 488

71

874

14, 543

Tupelo

6,342

116

6 226

Yellow poplar

5,172

18

203

1,635

3,316

Cottonwood and
aspen

4,437

2,022

20

887

222

1 286

Others

37, 098

1,003

4,273

6,331

8, 159

17, 332

Total

179, 233

25, 064

17,905

26, 694

31, 722

77, 848

Eastern softwoods:
Southern yellow pine

118, 132

597

1,433

116, 102

Spruce and fir

21, 533

18,720

1,564

843

175

231

White and Norway
pine .---.-

14, 672

8,390

3,530

2,392

159

201

Hemlock

12, 198

3,675

2,462

4,612

765

684

Cypress

4,140

263

3,877

Others

3,923

2,026

92

1, 346

105

354

Total

174, 598

32, 811

8,245

9,193

2,900

121, 449

Western hardwoods

2 720

2 719

1

Western softwoods:
Douglas fir

530, 197

484, 138

33, 933

12, 126

^onderosa pine

251, 560

178, 051

31, 938

41, 571

True fir

131, 933

109 196

14,594

8 143

Western hemlock .

86, 464

86,464

Spruce

61, 582

12, 782

12, 513

36,287

Redwood

57, 233

57,233

Lodgepole pine

43, 276

2,143

14, 556

26,577

Sugar pine

35, 516

35, 516

Western larch

26, 118

8,043

18, 075

Western white pine

19, 508

3,944

15,564

Others

67, 865

61,399

5,215

1,251

Total

1, 311, 252

1,038,909

146,388

125, 955

All species

1, 667, 803

57, 875

26, 150

35,887

34, 622

199, 297

1, 041, 628

146,388

125, 956

The true firs of the West comprise 132 billion, and then come the
southern yellow pines, including principally longleaf, loblolly, short-
leaf, and slash pine, with 118 billion. The once large supply of
northern white pine in the Lake States, highly prized as a standard
wood for millwork, boxes and crates, novelties, and patterns, has been
so depleted that it now comprises less than 1 percent of the country's
softwood. Western white pine and sugar pine, however, are substan-
tially similar to the white pine of the East in technical and mechanical
characteristics, but the supply of these is also small.

The hardwoods are practically confined to the East. They con-
stitute but one tenth of the country's saw-timber stand, and yet
contribute annually a quarter of the saw-timber cut. Unlike the
softwood stands, in which second growth makes up but one seventh
of the total, hardwood stands comprise nearly twice as much second
growth as old growth. The South is the most important hardwood
region with 43 percent of the total hardwood stand for the country.

We are approaching measurably near the end of our ready-grown
mature hardwoods. Depletion of the hardwood supply has not only
progressed further than that of softwoods, but this progress is par-

180

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

ticularly marked among the more valuable woods (table 2 and
fig. 5). Three of the most valuable hardwoods — hickory, ash, and
yellow poplar — together have an estimated stand of less than 15
billion.

CORDWOOD

The total volume of all classes of cordwood is estimated to be 2,382
million cords. This total includes trees too small for saw logs but large
enough for cordwood use, regardless of whether it is cut for cordwood
or held for saw timber. It is made up of (1) the material on the cord-
wood areas, estimated at 1,102 million cords, and (2) the material
below saw-timber size on saw-timber areas, estimated at 1,280 million
cords. The latter, in turn, is made up of 794 million cords of small
trees and 486 miUion cords of tops and limbs (tops only in softwoods)
of saw-timber trees.

TABLE 3. — Stand of cordwood on cordwood and saw-timber areas of the United

States, by regions

[In thousands of cords]

Region

Total

Cordwood areas

Saw-timber areas

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

New England

149, 913
179, 002
170, 690
252, 273
792, 339
429,863
263, 212
144, 805

Per
cent
6
8
7
11
33
18
11
6

56,801
125, 641
123, 398
156, 338
429,900
75,906
104,604
29,555

14, 555
15, 873
37,207
10,720
262, 959
75, 386
104,604
29,282

42,246
109,768
86, 191
145, 618
166, 941
520

93, 112
53,361
47,292
95, 935
362, 439
353, 957
158, 608
115, 250

20,238
11,154
10,400
5,455
181, 797
353, 131
158,608
115,250

72, 874
42, 207
36, 892
90,480
180, 642
826

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast ...

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

273

Total

2, 382, 097

100

1, 102, 143

550,586

551, 557

1, 279, 954

856, 033

423, 921

Table 3 gives the regional estimates for softwoods and hardwoods
on cordwood and saw-timber areas. The volume on cordwood areas
is almost exactly divided between hardwoods and softwoods. Two
thirds of the total volume, including practicaUy all of the hard-
woods, is in the East, where are the vastly greater cordwood areas.

In many instances cordwood stands may properly be handled on
short rotation, for such products as pulp wood, fence posts, fuel
wood, etc., or where some necessity enters in to make the cutting of
the young stand both desirable and profitable. On the whole, how-
ever, the primary function of the stands on cordwood areas should
be to serve as essential forest capital or growing stock, to be de-
veloped into saw timber rather than to be cut as cordwood. This
statement is predicated on the belief that, broadly speaking, and in
the light of present knowledge, the bulk of our forests should be
managed primarily to produce saw timber, both to obtain the greatest
return on the investment and at the same time to meet most ade-
quately future timber requirements. To accomplish this, however,
something better than the present average of nine cords per acre
should be present. The indication is that the majority of cordwood
areas are subnormally stocked and that they need building up if
the future forest is to be adequately productive.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

181

The trees below saw-log size, on a large proportion of the saw-
timber area (table 4) should be considered as growing stock rather
than as timber available for harvesting. Over a third of the total
possible cordwood supply on saw-timber areas is estimated to be in
the form of tops and limbs of saw-timber trees. As a means of
preserving growing stock and conserving waste, it is highly desirable
that this material should be utilized up to the measure of present
feasible and economical woods practice. Leaving this material in
the woods to burn or rot, according to present general practice,
represents far more than the mere loss of so much raw material.
Progress in utilizing such material will not only have the practical
effect of increasing the country's wood supply; it will facilitate fire
prevention and control, curb somewhat the tendency toward the
too-early cutting of promising saw timber, and leave the land in
better condition for restocking.

TABLE 4. — Stand of cordwood on saw-timber areas in the United States, by type of

material and region

Region

Total

Small trees »

Tops and limbs 2

Total

Softwood

Hard-
wood

Total

Softwood

Hard-
wood

New England

Thousand
cords
93, 112
53, 361
47,292
95, 935
362, 439
353, 957
158, 608
115,250

Per-
cent
7
4
4
8
28
28
12
9

Thousand
cords
69, 872
40,556
28,855
75, 114
280, 104
103, 179
120, 264
76,243

Thousand
cords
12, 036
9,095
8,103
4,730
151, 436
102, 897
120,264
76,243

Thousand
cords
57, 836
31,461
20,752
70,384
128, 668
282

Thousand
cords
23,240
12, 805
18, 437
20,821
82, 335
250, 778
38, 344
39,007

Thousand
cords
8,202
2,059
2,297
725
30, 361
250,234
38,344
39,007

Thousand
cords
15, 038
10, 746
16, 140
20,096
51, 974
544

Middle Atlantic

Lake - -

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain..
South Rocky Mountain. .

Total

1, 279, 954

100

794, 187

484, 804

309, 383

485, 767

371, 229

114, 538

1 Less than saw-timber size but large enough for cordwood.
3 Of saw-timber trees; only the tops in the case of softwoods.

One effective way for reducing and utilizing not only logging waste
but also wood waste in general is to be found in the integration of a
variety of wood-using industries, either under one ownership or around
an industrial wood-using center. Such a set-up results in the utiliza-
tion of large volumes of the different forms of wood waste, and in turn
permits of the specialization required in the manufacture of diverse
mechanical and chemical products. Also, improved logging, manufac-
turing, and marketing methods doubtless can be developed. Research
can aid in all these things, especially in improving the usefulness of
wood as wood, and in creating new chemical and other products
derived from wood.

In brief, requirements for cordwood material ordinarily should not
be allowed to impair the growing stock on either saw-timber or cord-
wood areas, but should be satisfied, first, with as complete utilization
as is practicable of tops and limbs on saw-timber areas; and, second,
by improvement cuttings on areas where growth of the remaining
stand can thereby be increased. Beyond this, and certain obviously
exceptional instances where the only economical and reasonable course
is a cordwood rotation, the emphasis should consistently be placed on
the development of cordwood into saw-timber stands.

182

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

PULPWOOD

Pulpwood supplies present a highly ^specialized problem involving
many economic and technical complexities, some of them matters of
world supply and demand. Although a satisfactory estimate of
economically usable present pulp wood supplies can hardly be attempt-
ed, it may be appropriate to present some quantitative estimates of the
supplies of species either now cut in quantity for pulpwood or which
seem to be technically capable of use by the pulp and paper industry.

The relation of pulpwood requirements and supplies is not static.
The tendency in^pulp and paper manufacture as in other fields of
wood utilization is toward an increasing number of species regarded
as suitable, with a consequent enlargement of the volume of potential
pulpwood supplies. There has been a drift toward lower requirements
as to size, form, and quality of material. In some regions, notably
the Pacific Coast, a large part of the pulpwood is cut from saw-timber
trees, with the tops and limbs left unutilized in the woods. In other
regions, such as the Lake and South, much of the pulpwood comes
from cordwood stands.

Table 5 shows the gross estimate of the species more commonly used
for paper pulp by regions, and for softwoods and hardwoods separately.
This is presented without any implication that these supplies are any-
thing like completely available in an economic sense either nationally
or for any single region. Nor is any prediction here attempted as to
what proportion may ultimately be cut for pulpwood and what for
other purposes.

The 1,830 million cords thus indicated constitutes about one third
of the gross volume of all commercial forest material in the United
States — saw timber 860 million cords, or 47 percent; small trees on
saw-timber areas 420 million cords, or 23 percent; and cordwood on
cordwood areas 550 million cords, or 30 percent. Largely because of
the inclusion of southern yellow pines (now used mainly for sulphate
pulp) the South is shown to have two fifths of the total supply. The
Pacific Coast region with only spruce, hemlock, and true fir included
has one fifth. If the saw-timber stands of Douglas fir, ponderosa
pine, western white pine, sugar pine, and larch — all western species
potentially important for pulpwood — were included another 1,800
million cords would be added.

TABLE 5. — Stand of principal kinds of wood now used in pulp and paper manu-
facture, by regions

Kind of wood

Total i

New Eng-
land

Middle
Atlantic

Lake

Softwoods:
Spruce and fir

Thousand
cords
431, 242

Thousand
cords
45,030

Thousand
cords
5,931

Thousand
cords
17, 526

Hemlock

206,825

10, 467

9,100

12, 619

Southern yellow pine _ .

623, 525

8,751

White, Norway, and jack pine

66, 404

24,190

14, 575

25,242

Tamarack

1,986

14

1,972

Total

1, 329, 982

79, 701

38, 357

57, 359

Hardwoods:
Cottonwood and aspen

30,463

10, 590

1,752

10,662

Yellow poplar

38 702

152

3,338

Birch, beech, and maple

305, 404

115, 235

68,581

74, 610

Gum

124, 694

2,601

Total

499, 263

125, 977

76, 272

85, 272

All species

1, 829, 245

205, 678

114, 629

142, 631

1 Includes material suitable for saw logs, small trees on saw-timber areas, and cordwood on cordwood areas.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

183

TABLE 5. — Stand of principal kinds of wood now used in pulp and paper manu-
facture, by regions — Continued

Kind of wood

Central

South

Pacific
Coast

North
Rocky
Moun-
tain

South
Rocky
Moun-
tain

Softwoods:
Spruce and fir

Thousand
cords
610

Thousand
cords
781

Thousand
cords
205 861

Thousand
cords
2 48 174

Thousand
cords
107 329

Hemlock

3,962

3,883

166, 794

Southern yellow pine

10, 453

604,321

White, Norway, and jack pine

848

1,549

Total

15, 873

610 534

372 655

48 174

107 329

Hardwoods:
Cottonwood and aspen

1,651

5,535

273

Yellow poplar

12,090

23,122

Birch, beech, and maple .

31, 430

15, 548

Gum

9,070

113, 023

Total

54,241

157, 228

273

All species ..

70, 114

767, 762

372, 655

48, 174

107, 602

2 Includes western hemlock.

Over a third of the estimated pulpwood stands, or 638 million
cords, consists of spruce, fir, and hemlock — species suited for all four
types of pulp, but especially desired for mechanical and sulphite
pulps which make up about two thirds of our total pulp requirements.
The Pacific Coast region has about 60 percent of this spruce-fir-hem-
lock supply. Less than a third, or 500 million cords, consists of
yellow poplar, birch, beech, maple, gum, cottonwood, and aspen —
eastern species used mostly for soda pulp. The remaining 692 million
cords consist mostly of southern yellow, white, Norway, and jack
pines — species used largely for sulphate pulp.

TOTAL VOLUME OF TIMBER

Volumes in terms of cubic feet afford the only practical basis for
measuring the total volume of timber and for comparing directly
the total volume of timber with the total volume of timber growth
or the total volume of timber depletion.1 Table 6 and figure 6 fur-
nish detailed information on the total cubic foot volumes for the
several regions. Of the total volume of 487 billion cubic feet, nearly
half or 229 billion cubic feet is saw-log material. The volume in
small trees on saw-log areas aggregates 70 billion cubic feet, cordwpod
areas 100 billion, and scattered trees on restocking areas 18 billion.
The volume of wood in the tops, limbs, stumps, long butts, etc., of
saw-timber trees makes up the remaining 70 billion cubic feet, of which
the bulk falls in the category of so-called woods waste.

1 It may prove misleading to compare different estimates in cubic feet of the same stand of timber, unless
it is known that the same conversion factors, similarly applied, were used in each case. The present esti-
mate in cubic feet of the total volume of timber in the United States, for example, is lower than that of the
Forest Service in 1920 in the report on S.Res. 311, the difference being due in part to the use of different
conversion factors but mostly to timber depletion.

168342°— 33— vol. 1-

-13

184

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 6. — Total stand (cubic feet} of softwoods and hardwoods in the United
States, including saw-timber, cordwood, and restocking areas, by type of material
and region

Region

Saw timber l

Small trees 2

Tops and limbs 3

Softwood

Hard-
wood

Softwood

Hard-
wood

Softwood

Hard-
wood

New England..

Million
cubic feet
5,183
1, 302
1,453
458
19, 190
132, 917
19, 269

Million
cubic feet
4,086
2,918
4,359
5,235
13, 523
351

Million
cubic feet
1,082
819
729
425
13,629
9,243
10, 824
6,860

Million
cubic feet
5,205
2,831
1,867
6,334
11, 578
25

Million
cubic feet
738
185
206
65
2,733
22,520
3,451
3,509

Million
cubic feet
1,353
968
1,452
1,809
4,678
49

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

18, 815

Total

198, 587

30, 472

43,611

27, 840

33, 407

10, 309

Region

Other «

Cordwood and re-
stocking areas

Total area

Softwood

Hard-
wood

Softwood

Hard-
wood

Total
stand

Softwood

Hard-
wood

New England

Million
cubic feet
260'
64
73
22
960
17,640
2,076
1,465

Million
cubic feet
286
204
305
366
947
56

Million
cubic feet

l|661
3,349
1,110
28,451
8,956
12, 148
2,650

Million
cubic feet
5,202
11,697
7,757
14, 832
18, 122
75

Million
cubic feet
25, 230
22,649
21,550
30, 656
113,811
191, 732
47,768
33, 323

Million
cubic feet
9,098
4,031
5,810
2,080
64,963
191, 176
47, 768
33,299

Million
cubic feet
16, 132
18, 618
16, 740
28,576
48, 848
556

Middle Atlantic. ..

Lake .

Central ._

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain .

South Rocky Mountain

24

24

Total

22,460

2,164

60, 160

57, 709

486, 719

358, 225

128, 494

1 Only the portion of tree suitable for saw logs, saw-timber area.

2 Less than saw-timber size but large enough for cordwood, saw-timber area.

3 Of saw-timber trees; only the tops in the case of softwoods.

4 Stumps, long butts, and breakage, saw-timber area.

The preponderant position of the Pacific Coast region stands out
with respect to total volume in much the same manner, although
not so strikingly as in connection with saw-log volume. A main
reason, of course, is the great amount of virgin saw timber in the
Pacific Coast, but another reason is the extremely depleted growing
stock or forest capital in the East, generally speaking. The Pacific
Coast region with 13 percent of the total forest area contains 40
percent of the total timber volume and nearly 60 percent of the
saw timber. At the other extreme, the Lake region with nearly
as much land contains less than 5 percent of the total timber volume
and only about 2 percent of the saw timber. The South, in an inter-
mediate position, with 40 percent of the forest area contains only
25 percent of the total volume and 14 percent of the saw timber.

OWNERSHIP OF TIMBER SUPPLIES

Forest-land ownership has been discussed and the importance
of its character has been emphasized in the section, "Forest Land
the Basic Resource." Of corresponding importance is the nature
of the ownership of the standing timber. It bears upon the time

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

185

and rapidity of cutting in respect both to market conditions and
to organization for sustained yield regionally and nationally. It
influences ^ the care with which the timber is utilized. And finally,
and very importantly, it influences the character of the cutting, the
care that is exercised and the measures taken before, during, and
after cutting to insure the establishment and protection of restock-
ing— the sine qua non to keeping forest lands continuously pro-
ductive. These matters are so closely related to the ownership
of the forest land that reference to the discussion of that subject
should be made. The brief discussion of timber stand ownership
at this point should be regarded as supplemental to that of lands.

TABLE 7. — Ownership of stands of saw timber in the United States, by regions

Region

All stands

Federally owned or managed

Total

National
forest

Indian
reserva-
tion

Other

New England

Middle Atlantic

Lake-

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain
South Rocky Mountain,

Total...

Million
ft. b. m.
57, 875
26,150
35, 887
34, 622

199, 297
1, 041, 628

146,388

125, 956

1, 667, 803

Per

cent

Million

ft. b. m.

1,119

98

2,284
449

421, 571
93, 130
114,983

Million

ft. b. m.

1,119

94

1,200

444

3,653

357, 198

88,840

99,917

Million
ft. b. m.

Million
ft. b. m.

1,084

195

21, 342
2,290
6,995

5
20

43, 031
2,000
8,071

100

637, 502

552, 465

31,906

53, 131

Region

State,
county,

and
municipal

Private

Total

Industrial

Farm
woodland

New England

Middle Atlantic—.

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain,
South Rocky Mountain.

Total.

Million

't. b. m.

1,363

221

870

107

312

26, 155

11, 527

1,457

Million

ft. b. m.

55, 393

25,831

32, 733

34,066

195, 117

593, 902

41, 731

9,516

Million

ft. b. m.

47, 421

13, 831

21, 771

16, 613

146, 850

568, 696

40,223

9,452

Million

ft. b. m.

7,972

12,000

10, 962

17,453

48,267

25,206

1,508

64

42, 012

988, 289

864, 857

123, 432

SAW TIMBER

Ownership of saw timber is of special importance, because premature
or untimely liquidation of saw timber especially, upsets market
conditions for forest products, with results that lead the industrial
forest owner to seriously doubt the wisdom or the economic soundness
of forestry for him. The comparatively long rotations incident to saw
timber production add to the complexities of management. It is in
connection with saw timber also that the problems of wise allocation
of cut for sustained yield organization of forest lands, regionally and
nationally, chiefly reside.

Table 7 and figure 7 present the United States regional and total
distribution of saw timber for industrial, farm woodland, and public

186

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

ownership. Industrial ownership includes ownership by land,
lumber, pulp and paper, and mining companies, naval stores oper-
ators, railroads, and miscellaneous individuals or agencies. Accord-
ing to these estimates, 865 billion board feet, or 52 percent of the saw
timber stand, is industrially owned. This corresponds fairly closely
with the 48 percent of the saw-timber area thus owned. By and
large it includes the best and most accessible saw timber. Sixty-six
percent of all this industrial saw timber is in the Pacific Coast region.
Chiefly in this timber are the problems which involve precipitate
liquidation, with all its demoralizing influence not only upon the
market but for the time being upon private forestry practice in the
eastern United States. This ownership class contains a notably
larger proportion of saw-timber volume than of area in the Pacific

New England

Middle Atlantic__
Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast___
N. Rocky Mt._
S. Rocky Mt.

Industrial

0 200 400 600 800 1000

BILLION FEET BOARD MEASURE

200 400 600 800

Billion Feet Board Measure

1000

Farm
Woodland

[National
'Forest

^i Other
•^ Public

FIGURE 7. — Ownership of saw-timber stand of the United States by regions.

Coast region, as would naturally follow from the fact that in that region
the better stands are industrially owned. The percentages are 55
and 39 respectively.

Farm woodlands include 123 billion board feet or 7 percent of the
total saw-timber stand. With a relatively stable ownership, except
on submarginal farms, and more subject to something like a rough
selection system of cutting, they present less critical problems than do
the industrial saw- timber stands, generally.

Public ownership includes the remaining 680 billion board feet, or
41 percent of the saw- timber stands. It includes a larger proportion
of relatively inaccessible timber in the West. Although the stand per
acre is less than for industrial ownership in the West, the proportion of
saw-timber stands in public ownership in all regions is somewhat in
excess of the corresponding 33 percent of the area of the country as a
whole. By the nature of the case, public ownership of saw timber for
the most part is committed to a conservative policy of cutting designed
to place stumpage on the market only when consistent with economic
conditions and the dictates of sound forestry.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

187

Of the publicly owned or managed saw timber 552 billion board
feet or 81 percent is included in the national forests, 41 billion is
involved in the Oregon and California land grants, and about 32
billion board feet is administered by the Indian Service. States,
counties, and municipalities together hold 42 billion board feet, of
which the portion held by counties and municipalities is less than half a
billion board feet.

There is a dearth of publicly owned or managed saw timber in the
East, where it amounts to only 11 out of 680 billion board feet. This
in itself emphasizes the desirability of considering an expanded pro-
gram of public forest and forest land ownership in the East.

An examination of the details as to relative saw-timber stand condi-
tions for the different ownerships emphasizes again that the national
situation is a complex of widely varying regional conditions, each so
much affected by peculiar local factors that it is unsafe to go very far
in drawing general conclusions. Table 8 shows the stand per acre on
an ownership basis for groups of regions within which conditions are
roughly comparable. Not only are the stands for the Pacific Coast
much heavier in general than the average for the rest of the country
but they are much heavier than those of any other single region.
Within the Pacific Coast region the industrially owned old-growth is
more than twice as heavy per acre as that on farm woodlands and
publicly owned. This emphasizes again the fact that industrial
ownership, by and large, includes the best of the saw timber.

TABLE 8. — Average stand of saw timber per acre, by class of ownership, region,

and character of growth

Region

Industrial

Farm woodland

Public

Area

Total
stand

Stand
per acre

Area

Total
stand

Stand
per acre

Area

Total
stand

Stand
per acre

Pacific Coast region:
Old growth

Thou-
sand
acres
14,804
2,363

Million
ft.b.m.
532, 991
35, 705

Feet
b.m.
36,003
15, 110

Thou-
sand
acres
1,032
708

Million
ft.b.m.
16, 229

8,977

Feet
b.m.
15,726
12, 679

Thou-
sand
acres
23,056
2,177

Million
ft.b.m.
409,409
38,317

Feet
b.m.
17, 757
17,601

Second growth

Total

17, 167

4,601
1,333

568, 696

33,127

1,740

25,206

14,486

25,233

28,483
4,952

447,726

17,744

Rocky Mountain regions:1
Old growth

47, 316
2,359

10,284
1,770

211
187

943

629

4,469
3,364

210, 637
10,460

7,395
2,112

Second growth

Total

5,934

49, 675

107, 394
139, 092

8,371

398

1,572

3,950

6,091
2,654

33,435

2,235
1,477

221,097

7,505
3,186

6,613

3,358
2,157

Eastern regions:3
Old growth

22, 241
45, 210

4,829
3,077

2,192
31,383

13, 351
83, 303

Second growth

Total

67, 451

246, 486

3,654

33, 575

96,654

2,879

3,712

10, 691

2,880

All regions:
Old growth

41, 646
48,906

90,552

687, 701
177, 156

16, 513
3,622

3,435
32, 278

30,523
92,909

8,886
2,878

53, 774
8,606

627, 551
51,963

11, 670
6,038

Second growth

Aggregate - . -.

864, 857

9,551

35, 713

123, 432

3,456

62,380

679, 514

10, 893

1 North and South Rocky Mountains.

2 New England, Middle Atlantic, Lake, Central, and South.

The relatively low averages for farm woodland are doubtless in
part due to the very small proportion of old growth as well as to the
typically more selective character of the farm woodland saw timber
resulting from partial cutting at shorter intervals.

188

A NATIONAL PLAK FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

CORDWOOD

Table 9 and figure 8 supply information as to the regional and
United States distribution by ownership of cprdwood on cordwood
areas. Fifty-two percent of this cordwood is industrially owned,
32 percent is in farm woodland, and but 16 percent is publicly owned.
As would be expected, the percentage in farm woodland is much
larger, and that in public much smaller, than the corresponding
percentages for saw timber. And, of course, owing to the vastly
greater areas of this type of stand in the East, the proportions of it
in all ownerships are very much greater than for saw timber. The

New England

Middle Atlantic.

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast. __

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt

Industrial

100 2OO 300

Million Cords

400

500

Farm
Woodland

Forest t^l^l public

FIGURE 8. — Ownership of stand of cordwood on cordwood areas by regions.

industrial and farm woodland cordwood volumes of the South are
far in excess of those of any other region.

TABLE 9. — Ownership of stands of cordwood on cordwood areas in the United States,

by regions

Region

All stands

Federally owned or managed

Total

National
forest

Indian
reserva-
tion

Other

New England

Thousand
cords
56, 801
125, 641
123, 398
156, 338
429,900
75,906
104,604
29,555

Percent
5
11
11
14
39
7
10
3

Thousand
cords
1,253
718
5,197
743
6,018
37, 155
83,402
22, 324

Thousand
cords
1,253
608
4,633
743
5, 963
28,700
78, 871
20,755

Thousand
cords

Thousand
cords

Middle Atlantic

110

Lake

564

Central

South

30

2,869
2,240
799

25

5,586
2,291
770

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

Total

1, 102, 143

100

156, 810

141,526

6,502

8,782

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

189

TABLE 9. — Ownership of stands of cordwood on cordwood areas in the United States,

by regions — Continued

State,

Private

Region

and munic-
ipal

Total

Industrial

Farm wood-
land

New England

Thousand
cords
2 098

Thousand
cords
53 450

Thousand
cords
33 845

Thousand
cords
19 605

Middle Atlantic

8,794

116, 129

73 225

42 904

Lake

2,726

115 475

69 970

45 505

Central -

353

155, 242

93, 932

61 310

South -

269

423, 613

251 666

171 947

Pacific Coast

1,740

37 Oil

27 582

'9 429

North Rocky Mountain

2,152

19,050

13, 025

6 025

South Rocky Mountain

482

6,749

6 732

17

Total

18, 614

926, 719

569, 977

356 742

AVAILABILITY OF TIMBER STANDS

The statistics for timber stands given in the preceding discussion
are by no means to be interpreted as measuring the quantity of
timber supplies available for cutting. Two major considerations
materially reduce these stand figures when they are expressed in
terms of available supply. One consideration is the necessity for
maintaining a growing stock or forest capital consistent with the
sustained yield of forest products to be obtained. The higher the
rotation age the larger the volume of this growing stock must be. If,
for example, saw timber is the object of management the growing
stock must be greater than it would be if pulpwood and other small
material only are to be grown. If, as is the case with most of the
eastern regions, the growing stock is already too small it should be
built up. Cutting, then, should be restricted to improvement opera-
tions, except as the presence of mature stands may require a more
extensive cut, or pressing social or economic conditions of the locality
concerned may justify the sacrifice of future yields. This growing
stock relationship to available supplies will be further discussed in the
subsection on Timber Growth.

The second major consideration is that of economic availability.
After the requirements of adequate growing stock have been satisfied,
or even where they are not, there is still the question whether a par-
ticular stand can be cut now or prospectively with a profit or at least
without financial loss. Economic availability depends upon such
things as volume of timber per acre, its size and quality, the pro-
portion of inferior species, logging difficulties, length of haul to mill,
the cost of milling and of getting the manufactured product to market,
and the price that can be obtained for the product.

There is but little thoroughly reliable information on present
economic availability. Such information as there is, however, war-
rants the broad judgment that but little more than half of the esti-
mated 1,668 billion board feet of saw timber in the United States can
be cut profitably on the basis of the operating costs and mill lumber
prices of recent years (fig. 9), or would on this basis have a positive
conversion value.

The limits of economic availability are ever changing. As the
more accessible and desirable stands have been cut out, logging and

190 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

milling practices have, from the standpoint of engineering and me-
chanics, become much more efficient. It has become, therefore, in-
creasingly feasible to log more remote areas. At the same time,
knowledge of the adaptability of the less desirable species for special
purposes has grown and the trend has been toward the utilization of
the less desirable species. In view of such developments, it would
be unsafe to prophesy as to the proportion of existing timber stands
that may ultimately prove to be economically available. It seems
reasonable to believe, however, that competing or substitute materials
for wood, which already have become a powerful factor, will prevent
the indefinite pushing back of the limits of availability.

REGIONAL AVAILABILITY OF SAW TIMBER

The economic availability of saw timber, as estimated very roughly
by regions, will give concrete evidence of the wide divergence that

Approximate Stand

Having Positive
Conversion Value

Estimated Total
Stand

500 1000 1500 2000

Billion Board Feet

FIGURE 9. — Approximate stand of saw timber in the United States having a positive conversion value on
the basis of 1925-29 lumber prices (mill) and operating conditions, in comparison with total saw-timber
stand.

may exist between stand and availability in any estimate of national
timber supply.

NEW ENGLAND, MIDDLE ATLANTIC, LAKE, AND CENTRAL REGIONS

The combined saw-timber stand of these four regions amounts to
about 155 billion board feet or less than one tenth of the national
supply. Hardwoods make up two thirds of the total. Old-growth
saw timber comprises less than 60 billion board feet. The bulk of it
is confined to the more remote and sparsely settled sections with poor
transportation facilities. Many of these old-growth stands have been
so heavily culled that the remaining overmature and defective timber
cannot be marketed profitably. The fact that there are any old-
growth stands left in these four regions, which contain 67 percent of
the population of the United States, but furnish only 15 percent of
the total lumber cut, indicates that the bulk are relatively inaccessible,
scattered, or of poor quality.

Much of the second-growth saw timber, largely as the result of
fires and of cullings for the more desirable timber, consists of little
more than scattered trees that barely meet the minimum requirements

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 191

for saw logs, in mixture with badly defective trees or those of less
desirable species. In short, these stands have progressively deteri-
orated. In the main, they can supply little but common lumber,
and a considerable proportion cannot be cut at a profit.

SOUTH REGION

The saw-timber stands of the South, which aggregate some 200
billion board feet, are in general more accessible and of better quality
than those of the other four eastern forest regions. The large lumber
cut of the region alone would indicate this. The South until recently
has produced from 15 to 17 billion board feet of lumber annually, or
not far from half of the softwood and of the hardwood lumber pro-
duction of the entire country.

Much of the 121 billion board feet of softwood in the South is
found in the coastal plain from Virginia to Texas, with the bulk of
the remainder either on the bluffs and uplands east of the Mississippi
River or on the rocky hills of central Alabama, west central Arkansas,
and southeastern Oklahoma. The flat coastal plain is uniformly one
of the cheapest in the United States for logging operations. Except
for limited areas in the mountains and swamps the entire South
presents few difficulties in logging.

Less than one third of the softwood saw timber, however, is old
growth. The bulk of the original forests has been cut since 1890.
Largely because of uncontrolled fires and the absence of seed trees,
large areas were slow to restock. Cutting and destructive turpen-
tining have further tended to limit the size and quality of the second-
growth saw timber. Not only is much of the second growth compara-
tively young and therefore barely of saw-log proportions, but it is
frequently found on small, scattered areas. Young second growth,
of course, will not, as a rule, yield the strong and durable structural
timber, fine-grained and wide finish, or the other better grades of
lumber that are now cut from large, mature trees. Nevertheless, a
large lumber cut is now coming from small, low-grade second growth.
Although cutting of this small second growth for lumber is thought
to be unwise, because the trees are not financially mature, it may be
said, from the standpoint of accessibility only, that substantially all
of the second-growth softwood saw timber of the South can be classed
as available supplies.

The hardwoods in the South aggregate nearly 80 billion board feet,
as compared with the annual cut in that region of 1% billion. Old-
growth accounts for only 33 billion feet. A substantial proportion
of the hardwood stands cannot at present be utilized profitably for
lumber, veneer, and similar products. Some of the stands, for ex-
ample, are far distant from transportation facilities or considerably
isolated by cut-over areas. Others contain large numbers of small,
inferior, or defective trees.

Some 35 billion feet of hardwoods is located in that portion of the
southern Appalachians within the region, the piedmont plateau, and
the uplands of Arkansas, Mississippi, eastern Texas, and Oklahoma.
The situation in the southern Appalachians and piedmont plateau is
fairly typical of the upland forests. After many years of cutting, the
once heavy original forests are nearing the end. Declining supplies,
together with changing market conditions, have brought about
repeated and progressively heavier cullings of the remaining stands.

192 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Forest fires, insects, and chestnut blight have also taken their toll.
Until recent years, however, enough was left to make possible the
relogging of areas already cut over, especially as the market for pulp-
wood and tanning-extract wood enabled the utilization of small tim-
ber and previously worthless species. Of late, large numbers of port-
able mills, as in the softwood forests, have operated on cut-over or
culled lands, cleaning up the remaining saw-log and tie timber. While
there still remain in the mountains a number of large old-growth
tracts, as well as many promising second-growth stands, much of the
hardwood timber supply is either relatively inaccessible or of poor
quality. The farm woodlands which dot the valleys and plateau con-
sist for the most part of small tracts which have been cut over several
times. They, however, are more accessible than the mountain timber.

About 45 billion board feet, including the better and more accessi-
ble hardwood stands, occurs in the bottomlands and swamps of the
coastal plain and lower Mississippi Valley. Approximately 30 billion
of this, of which more than one third is old growth, is in the wide
river bottoms of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Exploitation
in the lower Mississippi Valley has progressed steadily since 1900; the
factories of the Carolinas, the Ohio Valley, and the Lake States, once
regionally independent, have been drawing on the lower Mississippi
Valley hardwoods. In 1929, about one fourth of the total hardwood
lumber cut of the United States came from Arkansas, Louisiana, and
Mississippi. At the present rate of cutting the virgin stands of the
lower Mississippi Valley will be cut out in a few years. However,
second-growth and old-field stands are supplying an increasingly large
percentage of the hardwood cut.

Conditions in Louisiana, the leading hardwood lumber producer,
are in many respects typical of the lower Mississippi Valley. That
State in 1928 had about 80 hardwood mills each with a daily output
of 30,000 board feet or more. A survey of 60 mills (made coopera-
tively by the State of Louisiana and the Forest Service) revealed 5
mills with 10 to 15 years' supply of timber, 6 with 5 to 10 years' supply,
32 with 1 to 5 years' supply, and 17 with no timber but operating on
logs bought in the vicinity of the mills. Although the available sup-
plies may have been underestimated, indications point to a marked
downward trend in merchantable hardwood timber supplies in the
State.

WESTERN REGIONS

It has already been shown that 1,314 billion of the country's total
saw-timber stand of 1,688 billion board feet is in the West. Much of
it is high up in the mountains where logging is very costly. On the
other hand, highly developed mass production methods in woods and
mill, combined with rail and water transportation, have rendered the
better and more accessible of these stands readily available to the
far distant central and eastern markets. Just what proportion of
the western timber should be considered available to the country gen-
erally is problematical. It depends to a large extent, of course, upon
how much the large and distant markets will pay.

It is estimated that about 600 billion board feet, or somewhat less
than half of the western supply, would have a positive realization value
on the basis of the logging and milling methods and costs and of lum-
ber prices that obtained during the 1925-29 period; or in other words,
would be classed as economically available on that basis. Further

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 193

improvements in logging and milling practices resulting in lower costs,
or enhancement in lumber prices would automatically make more of
the western timber available. Undoubtedly there will continue to be
changes of this character. Howver, some forest engineers believe that
large volumes can never be economically utilized.

THE MIGRATION OF FOREST INDUSTRIES

While the migratory habits of our forest industries can be explained
partly by expanding markets, they are largely the result of the exhaus-
tion of local timber supplies — a situation which sustained yield man-
agement of the regional forest resources would have largely obviated.
The various migrations of the forest industries throw considerable
light on present available forest supplies. The following salient facts
are given for a few representative industries.

LUMBER INDUSTRY

In softwood lumber manufacture, the depletion of available virgin
timber supplies has marked an industrial cycle in each forest region.
Local industries developed, dominated the consuming markets of the
country, and declined at last so far as to be unable to meet even the
regional requirements. This cycle has been characterized by a tran-
sition from light culling to clean cutting of good timber and poor
alike, and by a shift from the more to the less desirable species. The
peak of softwood lumber production moved successively from New
England to New York, to Pennsylvania, and thence to the Lake
States. It culminated in the Lake region in the early nineties with
a lumber cut of about 9 billion board feet, or about one half of the
softwood cut of the entire country.

In their turn, the South and the Pacific coast regions have held the
commanding position. Southern softwood lumber passed a peak of
16 billion board feet in 1909. For over a decade Pacific coast lumber
has dominated Lake States markets and has now entered in appre-
ciable quantities the markets of the South. In 1929, Washington,
Oregon, California, and Idaho together produced over 15 billion feet
of lumber, or about half of the total softwood lumber cut of the
country in that year.

Hardwood lumber production centers have shifted in much the
same way. The industry began early in New England and along
the Atlantic coast, spread slowly westward through New York and
Pennsylvania as the better and more accessible local supplies were
cut out, and became important in Ohio and the other Central States
after water and rail transportation was developed. From there it
spread north into the Lake States and south into Kentucky and
Tennessee and the southern Appalachian Mountains. After succes-
sively depleting the available virgin stands of these various regions,
the industry moved to the lower Mississippi Valley which embraced
the largest remaining stand. Now the end of abundant virgin sup-
plies in the lower Mississippi Valley is pretty definitely in sight.
Hardwoods occur in the West only to a negligible extent.

FURNITURE INDUSTRY

The furniture industry is one of a group of highly specialized
industries that are confronted by a growing scarcity of suitable raw

194 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

material. These industries also began in the Northeast, where local
supplies of black walnut, cherry, white oak, birch, and maple were
at first ample for their exacting requirements. The approaching
exhaustion of these supplies, together with widening markets, forced
the industries westward. They expanded rapidly in the last quarter
of the nineteenth century, drawing heavily on the magnificent virgin
hardwood forests of the Lake and Central States. Massachusetts,
New York, and Pennsylvania, and later southern Michigan and the
lower Ohio River region, became successively important in furniture
manufacture. The establishment of furniture factories in North
Carolina signalized a shift from northern hardwoods to the large
supply of southern hardwoods, including southern oak and red gum.
Now these factories, as well as those of the North, obtain much of
their raw material from the lower Mississippi Valley. With the
cutting out of the virgin hardwoods in these forests, which are now
comparatively remote and inaccessible, the industry will have
exhausted practically its last reserve of old-growth hardwoods.

VENEER INDUSTRY

The veneer industry faces much the same situation in the produc-
tion of high-grade veneers from eastern hardw^oods. In the North,
raw material must now be obtained from second-growth stands, at
high cost and often very wastefully. The large hardwood logs prac-
tically clear of defects, from which high-grade veneers are customarily
produced, can be obtained only from old-growth stands. Inevitably,
therefore, the industry has turned to the South for much of its raw
material. Red gum is now used in larger quantities for veneer than
any other wood, imposing a heavy drain on the best-quality timber
of this species. Tupelo, also a southern species, stands second in
quantity used for hardwood veneers.

The last decade has been marked by a striking increase in the manu-
facture of softwood veneers, particularly from Douglas fir, southern
yellow pine, and ponderosa pine. Such veneers are used largely for
shipping containers, and for built-up stock for doors, trunks, and
parts of furniture and automobiles. The large, old-growth timber
of the^Vest is especially well adapted to conversion into veneers.
Douglas fir leads all other softwoods in this use, being second only
to red gum in total quantity consumed. Further large expansion of
the use of western softwoods for veneer may confidently be expected.

Southern yellow pine is third in the quantity of wood consumed
in veneer manufacture. Southern pine veneers supply the heavy
demand in the South for fruit and vegetable crates. Although the
southern pines are by no means as plentiful nor as favorable for
veneer production as the western softwoods, a further increase of the
softwood veneer industry in the South may be expected.

The total quantity of wood used in this country for veneers has
doubled in the past decade. Among native species the use of ash,
birch, and oak has decreased. All others have increased.

HANDLE INDUSTRY

Handles embrace a wide range of products — from the small cheap
handles made of almost any wood, to axe or rake handles which are
very exacting in their requirements. High-grade ash and hickory,
used for the better-class products, make up three fourths of the raw

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 195

material used by the industry; no satisfactory substitute has been
found for these woods. The good-quality, dense, tough ash, much
preferred for handles, was formerly supplied from excellent stands in
the States north of the Ohio River, but these are now largely cut out
and most of the present supply must be obtained from the lower
Mississippi Valley. Present supplies of hickory come mainly from the
South where the greater part of the better and more accessible timber
has been taken. Not only must larger areas be covered to obtain
suitable material, but more and more it is becoming necessary to
work into the districts remote from transportation facilities.

VEHICLES AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS

The vehicle and agricultural implements industries, located mainly
in the Middle West, compete with the handle industry for southern
hickory and ash. They also compete with other wood-using indus-
tries, including furniture and veneer manufacturers, for other hard-
woods. Notwithstanding the extensive substitution of metal for
wood in vehicles and agricultural implements, these industries are
greatly handicapped by a scarcity of suitable timber for their products.

AVAILABILITY OF PULPWOOD SUPPLIES

The statistics of total timber stand of paper pulpwood species,
given in table 5, require interpretation in the light of present avail-
ability even more than the statistics on saw-timber stands. Thus
it appears that for the United States as a whole the present stand
of softwoods suitable for pulp is 280 times the normal annual pulp-
wood cut, and of hardwoods over 800 times the cut. In spite of this,
we import more pulpwood, or its equivalent in wood pulp and paper,
than we cut in our own forests. Obviously, only a small part of our
1,830 million cords of standing timber of the species now used in
ulp and paper manufacture is available to the Nation's mills, or at
?ast as available as some of the foreign supplies.

Sixty years ago the quantity of wood used as a raw material for
paper in the United States was insignificant. Today about 85 per-
cent of our paper has its origin in the forest. Wood, in short, is the
basic raw material for paper pulp. Although pulp can be produced
from any fibrous material, no source of cellulose has yet been dis-
covered which, either in suitability for most types of paper pulp or
in cost per unit weight, challenges the supremacy of wood.

Not all kinds of wood, however, are at present available for use
in the manufacture of pulp. The spruces, firs, hemlocks, and pines,
among softwoods; and cotton woods and aspens, yellow poplar, birches,
beech, maples, and gums, among hardwoods, are now used in sufficient
quantities to warrant separate mention. The fact that different
species require different processes for reduction to pulp tends to
restrict their availability, particularly with respect to established
mills.

STANDARD PULPWOODS AND PULPING PROCESSES

There are four standard processes of making paper pulp from
wood — the mechanical, the sulphite, the sulphate, and the soda.
Each is especially adapted to the manufacture of certain grades of
paper or to the pulping of certain woods. The various grades of
papers, in fact, usually contain varying proportions of two or more

E

196 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

types of wood pulp. Considerable old paper also mingles with new
pulp in various papers, and pulp derived from nonwoody plants
mingles with wood pulp in fine papers.

Newsprint, cheap magazine, cheap catalog, and similar papers, are
made mostly of mechanical pulp, that is of uncooked wood mechan-
ically ground into a pulp. Only the relatively soft, light colored,
nonresinous spruces, firs, and hemlocks are suitable for the manu-
facture of mechanical pulp or are used enough to be considered com-
mercial sources for this process. The mechanical process is the
cheapest of all, and the pulp yield is by far the greatest. The quality
of the pulp, however, is so low that in the manufacture of even cheap
papers considerable quantities of longer and stronger-fibered pulp
are added. Of our total wood-pulp production, mechanical pulp
comprises about a third.

The stronger and better-grade papers are made of pulps manu-
factured by one of the three standard chemical processes — sulphite,
sulphate, or soda. In each of these processes a large portion of the
wood is removed, leaving fibers consisting of almost pure cellulose.
This is accomplished by cooking chips of the wood with a chemical
under steam pressure.

Some classes of book, wrapping, bond, and tissue papers are made
largely from sulphite pulp, and considerable sulphite is used in
mechanical papers. The sulphite process is a little more expensive
than the other chemical processes, and the pulp yield is only about
half as large as in the mechanical process ; but the pulp is very strong
and can be readily bleached to a high degree of whiteness. The woods
used in the sulphite process are the same as in the mechanical process ;
the light colored, nonresinous softwoods, such as spruce, fir, and
hemlock. Sulphite pulp accounts for about a third of the wood pulp
produced in this country.

Kraft or wrapping paper and high-test fiber board are made from
sulphate pulp. The standard sulphate process is a little less expensive
than the sulphite process; the yield of pulp is about the same. Any
long-fibered wood can be used for sulphate pulp, even one which
contain resins and other alkaline-soluble materials. Sulphate pulp
constitutes about a fifth of our total wood-pulp production.

Book, lithograph, and envelope papers are very often made from
a mixture of sulphite pulp and pulp made by the soda process. This
mixture gives a sheet of paper which is highly esteemed by printers.
The soda process can be applied to softwoods without difficulty, but
it is used almost entirely for the reduction of such hardwoods as
aspen, cottonwood, beech, birch, and gum. Soda pulp is sometimes
used alone in the manufacture of some of the cheaper, bulkier book
papers which have very low strength requirements. Of our total
wood-pulp production, soda pulp constitutes only about a tenth.

With the above facts as to pulping processes and to woods suited to
them as a background, the availability of present pulpwood supplies
may be discussed region by region.

REGIONAL SUPPLIES

New England, Middle Atlantic, and Lake regions. — The spruce
forests in New England and New York met the combined require-
ments for both mechanical and sulphite pulps better than those of
any other section of the country, so that it has been here, and later in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 197

smaller degree under similar conditions in the spruce and hemlock
forests of the Lake region, that the American industry has largely
centered. This development also carried with it a considerable part
of the sulphate-pulp industry, which could have located elsewhere
and made use of other species. Even the soda-pulp industry, which
began and is now well developed in Pennsylvania, manufactures a
large part of its product from the aspen in the northern spruce forests.

The overcentralization of the industry intensifies the problem
created by imports from other countries of pulpwood, pulp, and paper,
and it is the chief factor in the situation which necessitates pulpwood
imports. Fundamentally, we have imported pulpwood because the
supplies of raw material tributary to the pulp mills of the New Eng-
land, Middle Atlantic, and Lake regions have become increasingly
scarce.

Pulp manufacture entered these restricted regions later than
lumbering, and has reduced their diminished supplies of timber still
further. Many pulp and paper mills have either no timber of their
own or only very limited amounts, and few have permanent supplies.
In the meanwhile, our paper requirements have gro\yn faster than,
under existing conditions, pulpwood could be obtained from our
forests or wood pulp and paper could be produced in our mills. To
keep up even in part with increasing demands, the industry was forced
either to import both pulpwood and wood pulp, or to move to other
regions of the United States.

Of late, a paper industry has sprung up in the lower Mississippi
Valley, and the industry in the Pacific Coast region has expanded. In
the main, however, the industry as a whole has chosen rather to import
first pulpwood and then wood pulp and paper, on an ever-increasing
scale (described in the later section headed "Timber Requirements")
than to move. The principal factors influencing the choice were as
follows :

Relatively large plant investments make it more difficult for pulp
and paper mills to follow the retreating timber stands than is the case
in lumber manufacture. Comparatively few woods, as previously
indicated, have been used in paper making. Then, nearness to paper
markets has been necessary to keep down transportation costs.
These factors and the requirement, in the case of mechanical-pulp
manufacture, of abundant and cheap power have tended to confine
the production of paper to but few regions. Inertia alone has doubt-
less been a contributing factor in slowing up seemingly logical develop-
ment. Perhaps one of the chief factors in the situation has been a
lack of the technical knowledge needed to make the best use of the
pulping resources of the countrv as a whole.

The great bulk of pulpwood imports into the New England, Middle
Atlantic, and Lake regions consists of spruce and aspen. Fir pulp-
wood imports are comparatively small, and hemlock even smaller.

About 70 percent of the New England supply of spruce and fir is in
Maine. (Table 5.) Perhaps as much as a sixth of the Maine timber
is too scattered for profitable cutting, although in reasonably acces-
sible territory. About a quarter is in a region now relatively inacces-
sible. Although some pulp manufacturers of New England are
importing pulpwood from Canada in order to allow their American
stumpage to build up by growth the majority are seemingly import-
ing because the regional supply of pulpwood is not as available as

198 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

foreign pulpwood, Even less of the New England wood is available
if a long-term view is taken of the situation and if the present stands
are regarded as absolutely essential forest capital on which interest
must be earned in terms of growth. Competition with other uses,
particularly lumber, must also be taken into account.

In the Lake States and in the Middle Atlantic region similar condi-
tions of sparseness and inaccessibility of stand, and in the Lake States
defectiveness of the fir, combine to make about the same proportion
of the stand unavailable to the pulp and paper industry as in New
England. Stands are being logged today for spruce pulpwood in
New York which contain as little as two cords per acre.

In spite of having a domestic stand over 50 times as great as the
annual consumption of domestic and imported wood combined, the
Northeastern United States now imports nearly a third of its aspen
pulpwood. This is due to poor distribution of present stands with
respect to the soda-pulp industry. Pennsylvania produces almost no
aspen of satisfactory pulpwood size, yet consumed 81,000 cords in
1929. Maine, although importing nearly a fifth of its aspen pulp-
wood, finds its own stands in remote locations unmarketable. Up to
1922, the quantity of aspen used for pulp in the Lake States was
trifling, in spite of the known presence of enough standing timber to
support a permanent industry using probably 200 thousand cords a
year; by 1929 the use had jumped to nearly 60 thousand cords, under
the stimulus of availability. The lumber industry offers little, if any,
competition to the pulp and paper industry in the use of aspen.

In contrast to the scarcity of spruce and fir — a scarcity which is
now being met by huge imports of pulpwood, wood pulp, and paper
from foreign countries — is the abundance within the New England,
Middle Atlantic, and Lake States of species such as beech, birch,
maple, and various pines, which are already classed as pulp species,
but which are relatively little used in these regions. Full use of these
species now available seems the most promising solution of the
immediate problem of availability in the older pulp- and paper-pro-
ducing regions. Research, both at the Forest Products Laboratory
of the United States Forest Service and in commercial plants, has
amply demonstrated the possibility of adapting pulping processes to
their extensive use. Some of these possibilties have been discussed
in Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 1241, "How the United
States Can Meet Its Present and Future Pulpwood Requirements."

Pacific Coast region. — The opportunity in the Pacific Coast region
for still larger sulphite- and mechanical-pulp industries is based on
supplies of virgin spruce, fir, and hemlock many times larger than
those in any other forest region of the United States (table 5).
Even larger stands of pine afford a similar opportunity to increase the
production of sulphate pulp and the grades of paper, such as wrapping
and boards, manufactured therefrom. This region also contains an
abundance of available water power. Of the total potential horse-
power estimated for the United States, about two fifths is in this
region.

The fact that the pulp and paper industry in the Pacific Coast
region must, to some extent at least, compete for raw material with
a very large and well-developed lumber industry is not necessarily a
disadvantage. There is no reason other than a lack of pulpwood
markets why there should not be operations designed primarily to

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 199

secure pulpwood, or why operations in stands containing a large
percentage of pulp species should not be designed to secure lumber
from the material most suitable for that purpose and pulpwood from
the remainder of the stands.

There are great possibilities in this region for the integration of
the lumber and pulp and paper industries; in fact, in Washington,
which ranks first in lumber production and fourth in pulp production,
an approach to integration has already been made. Such integration
would make feasible not only a more profitable utilization of saw-log
material but also a large use of both logging and sawmill waste. Of
the 956 thousand cords of pulpwood consumed in Washington in 1929,
387 thousand cords consisted of slabs or other sawmill waste. Log-
ging operations in western Washington alone annually produce
500,000 cords of small and low-grade Douglas fir, western hemlock,
Sitka spruce, and "true" fir logs which are difficult to dispose of
profitably and which could doubtless be used more advantageously
for pulp than lumber. It would be possible to draw from the areas
logged over annually in western Washington an additional 500,000
cords, by taking out material but little smaller or but little more
defective than that which is logged primarily for lumber. It is there-
fore possible to obtain 1 million cords of pulpwood annuaUy in western
Washington from operations designed primarily for lumber, without
taking into account the possibility of utilizing the 3 million cords of
material of cordwood size or larger left annually in the woods after
logging in the form of small or broken timber.

South region. — The spruce-fir-hemlock timber of the South has less
significance than similar amounts of the same species in either the
New England, Middle Atlantic, or Lake regions (table 5). These
stands, which occupy 'a relatively limited area on the higher slopes of
the southern Appalachian Mountains, are estimated at less than 5
million cords, and the prospect that they will reproduce after com-
mercial logging as now conducted is far less certain than in the more
northerly regions.

As earlier described, the various stands of soda-pulp species — cot-
tonwood, yellow poplar, birch, beech, maple, and gum — have for the
most part been more or less heavily and repeatedly cut over in the
past. Although cutting exceeds growth, there are undoubtedly
many areas from which a large volume of pulpwood could be taken as
thinnings and improvement cuttings; in fact, its removal might be
made to constitute one step toward better forest management. With
proper methods of forest management in the cutting, and thereafter,
it should easily be possible for the South to take care of our present
national requirement for soda-pulp timber and to enlarge production
to absorb our increasing needs for years to come. Relatively small
areas could, if worked for pulpwood alone, be made to produce the
entire volume required.

For sulphate pulp, as shown by table 5, the Southern States from
Virginia to Texas have a large supply of suitable timber and the
additional advantage of easy access to the principal markets of the
country. The South, moreover, is capable of reproducing stands of
southern yellow pines suitable for pulping purposes in approximately
25 years, a rate impossible elsewhere in the country except in the
Pacific Coast region.

168342° — 33 — vol. 1 14

200 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The rapid growth of a pulp and paper industry in the South during
the past decade has undoubtedly been due in a large measure to an
abundant supply of southern yellow pines. (Table 5.) The principal
product at present is sulphate or kraft pulp. It has been found that
a kraft pulp can be made from southern yellow pine that is quite as
strong and as satisfactory iu texture as is obtained from other species
and other localities. With the exception of a mill or two producing
bleached book papers from the pines, the insulation and pressed-wood-
board developments utilizing bagasse and pine sawmill waste, respec-
tively, and several recently built " semichemical " pulping plants, all
of the establishments in the South make this brown kraft pulp. The
utilization of kraft for cement bags and similar containers has given
this industry considerable impetus. The South now can be said to
dominate the kraft pulp field.

The trend in the South at the beginning of the depression was toward
a considerable enlargement of the kraft pulping industry. The cheap
pulpwood, together with proper attention to the technical improve-
ments necessary to produce pulps equal or superior to imported
products, may well win the kraft market for southern producers.
When it is considered that the United States imported 450 thousand
tons of sulphate pulp in 1929, the possibilities for great development
in the South without cutting in on present domestic production else-
where can be realized.

The raw material for an indefinite expansion of the kraft industry
in the South is even more readily available than that for expansion of
the soda-pulp industry. There are over 100 million acres of southern
pine lands, and even a tithe of their possible annual production of
wood can supply not only the present American but the world demand
for kraft papers. Moreover, should recent technical developments
by the Forest Products Laboratory of the Forest Service be taken
advantage of commercially, permitting the branching out of the
industry or the development of lines other than brown pulps, the
necessary timber is still abundantly available in this region.

It has been more than 10 years since the Forest Products Laboratory
announced a method for the production of bleached book and maga-
zine papers from southern yellow pines and gums. Ordinary kraft
pulp is very difficult to bleach and the usual bleached product is of
low strength. The new method involves the use of the sulphate or
kraft process with certain modifications, but the chief point of differ-
ence is the use of a two-stage system of bleaching. The findings of
this research are practiced by not more than one or two southern
mills, and consequently only a small amount of book paper is at
present made in the South. Elsewhere, however, progress in the
two-stage bleaching practice has gone on apace. Savings made
possible by this practice have resulted in the installation of two-
stage systems in many pulp mills operating on spruce and hemlock.
Thus, the practicability of the idea is established. Its intensive
application to southern woods should make them available to the
book-paper industry.

Another investigation had the objective of combining strength,
heretofore lacking in bleached southern yellow pine papers, with
lightness of color. Such a pulp is especially desirable since to a cer-
tain extent it would be a substitute for the sulphite pulp used in news-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 201

print, wrapping papers, and bond. It was found that by modifying
the sulphate process a better yield of southern yellow pine pulp could
be obtained, also a pulp that could be bleached without serious loss of
strength. The method has thus far been used only with loblolly
and longleaf pine, but appears to be generally applicable to the other
pines.

Concurrently with the study of the pines, the Forest Service has
conducted experiments with the gums and other southern hardwoods.
They have revealed that the sulphite process works satisfactorily
with the gums, particularly black and tupelo gums, yielding a fairly
strong pulp that bleaches easily to a blue-white color. It appears
that a book paper can be made by a combination of bleached pine
sulphate pulp and of bleached gurn sulphite pulp. Most book papers
contain bleached spruce sulphite along with soda pulp, which is usually
made from aspen. The long-fibered pine sulphate would take the
place of the spruce sulphite; and the gum sulphite, which would re-
place the soda pulp, would impart the blue- white color so greatly
desired.

Another new development particular!/ suited to the reduction of
the southern hardwoods, which was also worked out at the Forest
Products Laboratory, is the so-called "semichemical process." It
is employed by at least five plants in pulping extracted chestnut chips,
a byproduct of tanning extract plants. Prior to 1925, these chips
were used only as fuel, but with the advent of the new process they
were successfully converted into corrugated paper stock. At another
mill semichemical gum pulp is converted into machine-glazed wrapping
papers of a light color. By a little more careful selection of the wood
this mill could undoubtedly produce from gum a semichemical paper
suitable for cheap print or tablet use. The semichemical process not
only gives high yields of pulp, but also a pulp capable of considerable
development as to strength. There is a possibility that semichemical
pulp can to an extent take the place of the more expensive kraft paper,
now used in the manufacture of pulpboard. It appears particularly
promising for use in a mixture with kraft for container lining. In
view of the already extensive development of the semichemical process
in the South and its unquestioned possibilities, the very large quan-
tity of gums and other hardwoods in the South should be considered
available to the pulp and paper industry there.

North and south Rocky Mountain regions. — These two western
regions afford an opportunity for enlarged sulphite and mechanical
pulp operations, but to a much smaller degree than the Pacific Coast
region or Alaska. They afford a similar opportunity for sulphate
pulp, but here also in much smaller degree than in the Pacific Coast
region or the South. The opportunity in both cases is based, as in
Alaska and the Pacific Coast region, on remaining supplies of virgin
timber. (Table 5.) At present, the industry is less developed in the
Rocky Mountain States than in any other forested region of the
United States.

Alaska. — Our pulpwpod resources are not confined to the 48 States.
Southeastern Alaska, in fact, is one of the two outstanding regions
with large virgin stands of softwoods adapted for sulphite and me-
chanical pulps. As compared with western Oregon and Washington,
southeastern Alaska has the advantage of practically pure stands of
spruce and hemlock, lower stumpage prices, and cheaper power.

202 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

It has the disadvantage of being considerably farther from the large
paper markets, and of pioneer conditions which would tend to hamper
the development of an industry. In southeastern Alaska, cutting
operations for lumber and other purposes are very small, so that in
this respect there would be a greater opportunity for the development
of a dominant pulp and paper industry than in any of the Western
States.

Southeastern Alaska is within the range of the extensive Pacific
Coast forest, which occurs in western Oregon, Washington, and
British Columbia and along the southern coast of Alaska as far north
and west as the Aleutian Peninsula and Afognak Island. It is
essentially a timber-producing region. Aided by mild temperature
and abundant rainfall, the region supports extensive stands of rapidly
growing trees; because of rough topography and thin soil, perhaps
less than 1 percent of the area is suitable for farming. In view of the
high latitude, an outstanding climatic feature is the mild winter
temperatures. There are no climatic factors which prevent or seri-
ously hinder the operation of wood-working establishments through-
out the year.

Nearly all the land in southeastern Alaska is owned by the Federal
Government, and nearly 17 million acres, or 73 percent, has been
included in the national forest system to be administered primarily
for continuous production of timber crops and a sustained yearly
output of raw material for local wood-using industries. Of the 17
million acres only 3 million acres bears commercial timber.

There is little timber in private ownership in southeastern Alaska.
All but about 1 % billion board feet is in the Tongass National Forest.
The volume of commercial timber in the Tongass National Forest
is estimated as follows :

Board feet
Western hemlock, __ _ 58, 000, 000, 000

Sitka spruce 15, 800, 000, 000

Western red cedar 2, 350, 000, 000

Alaska cedar 2, 350, 000, 000

Total 78, 500, 000, 000

The western hemlock and Sitka spruce stands are characteristi-
cally even aged. Many age classes are represented in the forest as a
whole, but the older classes are greatly in the majority, with perhaps
three fourths of the commercial timber of the region mature or
overmature.

Although this 78.5 billion board feet of commercial timber averages
about 26 thousand board feet per acre, individual logging units vary
widely from this average. A volume of 30 to 40 thousand board feet
per acre is common on many extensive areas, and 50 thousand feet
or more per acre is not unusual on small units. The majority of the
merchantable trees are from 24 to 48 inches in diameter and from 90
to 140 feet high.

The commercial forests extend from tidewater to an elevation of
about 1,500 feet. Because of prevailing steep slopes, they form
relatively narrow bands along the shore lines of the mainland and
islands, rarely extending inland more than 5 miles, except along the
valleys of the few large streams. A large percentage of the timber
can be logged directly to tidewater by the use of 2 or 3 logging engines
working tandem. Floating logging camps, easily towed from one

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 203

cutting area to another, are in general use. Similarly, donkey engines
and all logging equipment are moved on scows and floats.

The extensive forest resources of southeastern Alaska are likely to
be exploited chiefly for the manufacture of newsprint paper, because
of the favorable conditions there for large-scale operations that now
characterize that industry. Conditions are not so good, however,
for other branches of the paper industry, or for the extensive manu-
facture of lumber.

It is estimated that the forests of southeastern Alaska, under a
proper system of management, can produce in the neighborhood of
1 % million cords of pulpwood annually in perpetuity. Converted into
newsprint this represents a production of 1 million tons, or more than
one fourth of the present yearly consumption of newsprint in the
United States.

NAVAL-STORES TIMBER •

Under the general term " Naval Stores" are included turpentine
and rosin. In the United States these two commodities are all
derived from longleaf and slash pine timber in the group of States
from North Carolina to Texas. About 87 percent of the product is
manufactured from the gum gathered from the living pine tree and is
known as gum turpentine and rosin. The remaining 13 percent is
distilled from the pitchy stumps and down wood left after logging,
and is known as wood turpentine and rosin. In considering the
availability of naval-stores resources these two sources of naval stores
must be kept in mind.

The longleaf -slash pine forests of the South are now almost entirely
second growth; of the total area of this type of forest only about 5
percent is old-growth timber. The naval-stores belt embraces the
entire type, which extends in a broad band from central North Carolina
southwestward, parallel to the coast, through North and South Caro-
lina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern
Texas. (Fig. 2 of section, "Forest Land the Basic Resource.") Of
the total area of nearly 52 million acres, it is estimated that 27 per-
cent is either denuded or unsatisfactorily restocked; 5.6 percent is
old-growth saw timber; and the remainder, or 67.4 percent, is in
second-growth longleaf and slash pine stands of varying ages, sizes,
and degrees of stocking. The 35 million acres or so which the exist-
ing young stands cover is mainly in Georgia and Florida.

The area of greatest production is even smaller. Over 80 percent
of American gum naval stores is now produced from a forest area of
approximately 13 million acres in southeast Georgia and north Florida,
where the timber is almost entirely second growth. The chief reason
for this concentration of the industry on only about a quarter of the
total area in the naval-stores belt is that in this region the young
growth has more uniformly restocked the cut-over land and has had
more time to grow to workable size than elsewhere. The devastated
areas and the areas that are not restocking satisfactorily are found
to a greater extent in the more recently cut-over lands in Mississippi,
Louisiana, and Texas.

Almost no naval-stores timber is inaccessible to operation.
Although there is, of course, a lower limit to the number of trees per
acre which it is profitable to turpentine, yet, if site quality and other
conditions are such that any second growth at all comes up, the result

204 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

is generally the establishment of a stand dense enough to work at a
profit. A far more important limiting factor is the average size of
the timber.

The available old-growth stands and the larger trees in the oldest
second-growth stands have been or are now being worked for turpen-
tine. As to future crops of naval-stores timber, almost all that is
known of the approximately 35 million acres of second growth is that
it includes stands generally varying in age from 1 to 30 years, and in
degree of stocking from 1/10 up. Little data are available, as to the
exact proportion of the various size classes of young growth, upon
which to base any reliable prediction of the supply of timber for
future operations. In many sections of the naval-stores belt there
seems to be a shortage in the 4-inch to 6-inch diameter classes, upon
which the gum industry must depend largely for its new cupping
material in the near future. It is generally believed that there may
be a lack of timber of turpentine size for a short while ahead, probably
the next decade. However, there is now growing in the naval-stores
belt a sufficiently large number of young trees in the 2-inch to 4-inch
diameter classes to maintain, when it has grown to workable size, an
industry of the present size.

Thus, so far as permanence of timber supply is concerned, the
future of the gum naval stores industry seems assured, provided
that a sane policy of forest protection and management is followed.
There is sufficient land and there will be ample regrowth of the tim-
ber if nature is not handicapped by wholesale uncontrolled burning
in regeneration areas. Moreover, under improved methods of opera-
tion and timber management already known to the industry, the
timber when grown to workable size can be made to produce more
gum at smaller cost and with less loss of the residual lumber value
than under current methods.

The possible shortage of timber suitable for cupping in the near
future is not a serious check to the industry as a whole, nor is it likely
to result in any material shortage of naval Stores products, even
temporarily. In the first place, a large surplus or accumulation of
stocks is already on hand and must be absorbed during the next few
years; in the second, the wood naval-stores industry may be capable
of increasing its output sufficiently to bridge whatever shortage may
develop in gum naval-stores production. The amount of pine stumps
and retort wood from which wood naval stores are derived appears to
be ample to meet the demands of this branch of the industry for years
to come.

Character of ownership has had a very profound effect upon the
conduct of the industry. One of the great difficulties under which
the industry labors, in common with other natural-resource industries,
has been overproduction. The capital required to establish a tur-
pentine still is relatively small, and even a slight rise in the price of
naval stores has encouraged new stills to start operation. Studies by
the Southern Forest Experiment Station and other branches of the
Forest Service have thoroughly established the fact that the smaller
trees in a stand are turpentined at a loss. But it is almost impossible
to persuade a large number of small landowners that they will profit
by leaving their small timber un turpentined. If the timber were more
strongly held, the small trees would be kept off the market, and the
entire industry would profit in the long run. The factors who finance

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 205

most of the naval-stores operations have the best opportunity to
encourage good practice and put the industry on a better basis.
They are usually to be found on the side of progressive ideas in tur-
pentine practice and in favor of timber conservation.

The American production of naval stores is about twice the domes-
tic consumption. Moreover, 80 percent of it is being obtained from
only about one quarter of the total forest area adapted to naval-
stores production. It seems therefore that, so far as the American
consumer of turpentine and rosin and other derived products of the
naval-stores industry is concerned, the prospective timber supplies
are more than adequate to meet our requirements. It would be a
great mistake, however, to view the naval-stores situation purely
from the point of view of our national requirements and to ignore the
consequences of a possible shrinkage of the industry to a point where
it would be capable of satisfying only American needs. A permanent
naval-stores industry of present or greater size would give steady em-
ployment to a very large local population in the pine woods of the
South. It would be the means of keeping in highly productive use
great areas of land not adapted to agriculture, and would therefore
contribute materially to a well-rounded program of land use. From
every point of view the naval-stores industry, as an industry, inde-
pendent of this country's direct need of the product obtained, is a dis-
tinct asset to the United States.

The present magnitude of our naval-stores industries and the pos-
sibilities of an even larger industry in the future make wise manage-
ment of this resource a matter of public welfare. To plan for such
management, however, adequate information must be available.
At present, comprehensive data on the extent, character, and avail-
ability of naval-stores timber in the South are quite lacking. In fact,
the outstanding need in the naval stores belt for both the gum and
the wood naval-stores industries, as well as timberland owners gen-
erally, financiers, lawmakers, and State and county administrators,
is an immediate inventory of forest resources and a survey of the
industrial situation from all angles.

The permanence and future welfare of the naval-stores industries
themselves depend in no small measure on an accurate knowledge of
fundamental conditions. The industry has benefited enormously by
the campaign against uncontrolled forest fires which was begun com-
paratively recently in the Southern States. But it must have far
better information than it has now on a number of other vitally
important matters before it can put its house fairly in order.

As a producer of wealth and as a field for labor, the naval-stores
industry is an important factor in the economic life of the South.
Many economists consider it the economic key to the successful
reforestation of much of the forest land in the South. That it must
be given great weight in any balanced land-use program in the States
embraced in the naval-stores belt is not questioned.

FOREST DRAIN

In any analysis of our forest resources, a fundamental consideration
is that of current forest drain, or the volume of material removed from
the forests annually by cutting and by fire, insects, disease, and other
destructive agencies. Of equal importance are estimates of annual
growth, and of the relation between drain and growth, treatment of

206

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

which will follow. The present discussion will be confined to the
important aspects of the situation as to forest drain.

Saw-timber
Trees

Cordwood
Trees

Combined
Drain

4 6 8 10

Billion Cubic Feet

14

16

Softwood

Hardwood

FIGURE 10.— Drain (cut and losses) on the commercial forests of the United States by character of growth

and class of wood.

The estimate of present annual drain on the commercial standing
timber in the United States is more than 16 billion cubic feet (table 10

Total
Drain--

FIGUBE 11.— Drain on the commercial forests of the United States through use or loss from destructive
agencies, shown by character of growth and class of wood.

and figs. 1 0 and 11). In this total, the figures for timber cut are based
upon the average quantity of commodities produced from domestic

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

207

timber during the years 1925 to 1929, inclusive. This period was
chosen as covering the years for which more and better statistics were
available than for any other recent period. It avoids not only the
subnormal swing of the economic depression, but also the earlier
trends that are out of line with present-day production. The drain
averages thus obtained represent merely the conditions for these years
and are not necessarily to be considered as an index of future wood
requirements.

Timber destroyed includes only large-scale timber losses, not sal-
vaged, over and above the normal losses through the death and decay
of individual trees, for which allowance is made in estimating growth.
Losses other than those from fire and naval-stores operations are
averaged for the period 1920 to 1929, instead of 1925-29, the longer
period permitting the inclusion of a greater number of less frequent,
cataclysmic disturbances and thus insuring a better average figure.

TABLE 10. — Total timber cut or destroyed each year in the commercial forests of the
United States, by agencies l

Agency

All timber

Saw-timber trees

Total

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Softwood

Hardwood

Timber cut2

Mcu.ft.

14, 495, 308
870, 690
985,209

Mcu.ft.
8, 683, --86
601, 490
697, 111

Mcu.ft.
5,811,422
269,200
288,098

Mft.b.m.
54,641,444
1, 390, 233
3, 402, 162

Mft. b.m.
40, 228, 682
1, 250, 948
3, 075, 284

M ft. b.m.
14, 412, 762
139,285
326, 878

Fire losses 3 . . . .

Other losses 4

All agencies

16, 351, 207

9, 982, 487

6, 368, 720

59, 433, 839

44, 554, 914

14, 878, 925

Agency

Cordwood trees

Total

Softwood

Hardwood

Timber cut 2 - . _

Cords
35, 486, 179
6, 903, 718
4, 081, 362

Cords
11, 141, 362
4, 231, 994
1, 742, 426

Cords
24, 344, 817
2, 671, 724
2, 338, 936

Fire losses 3

Other losses 4 . _ ...

All agencies

46, 471, 259

17, 115, 782

29, 355, 477

1 For definiation, explanations, and general make-up of this table see footnotes in subsequent timber-loss
tables and also refer to text.

2 Timber cut annually, 1925 to 1929, inclusive.

3 Timber killed annually by fire and not utilized, 1925 to 1929, inclusive.

4 Timber killed annually by insects, disease, drought, wind, naval-stores operations, etc., and not utilized,
1920 to 1929, inclusive.

The total drain figure of 16 billion cubic feet (table 10) is in contrast
with that of 26 billion cubic feet estimated by the Forest Service in
1920 in the report on Senate Resolution 311, on the basis of the
1910-19 period. The differences between the two estimates are due
in part to the decrease in the use of wood for fuel from 110 million
cords in the 1920 estimate to 61 million in the present estimate.
Elimination of bark (as in the case of the timber stand and growth
estimates) and the use of improved conversion factors also had the
effect of reducing the present estimate. The present figure for saw-
timber drain (59 billion board feet) is actually larger than the 1920
estimate (56 billion feet), because of the different and improved
methods employed in making the estimate.

208

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

As indicated in table 10 and figure 12, cutting accounts for 89
percent of the total, fire for 5 percent, and disease, insects, etc., for
6 percent. Seventy percent of the total drain is represented by the
59 billion board feet (11 K billion cubic feet) that comes out of saw-
timber trees (table 11 and figure 11), of which 55 billion board feet
is taken by the annual timber cut.

The total drain on saw timber is about five times, and on total
timber volume nearly twice, the estimated current annual growth.
It may be correctly inferred from this that the forest resources of
this country are being seriously depleted. The national situation,
however, is a complex of regional situations which vary widely as
to the relation between drain and growth. An adequate understand-

New England--.
Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast. _.
N. Rocky Mt. -__
S. Rocky Mt

ALL REGIONS

%%%A

O

5 10
BILLION CUBIC FEET

15

2345
Billion Cubic Feet

Timber Cut

Timber Losses from
Destructive Agencies

FIGURE 12.— Total drain on the commercial forests of the United States by regions.

ing of the matter can be had only by a more detailed consideration
of this complex, such as is given in other pages of this section.

TABLE 11. — Total timber cut or destroyed each year in the commercial forests of the

United States, by regions 1

Region

All timber

Saw-timber trees

Total

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Eastern regions:
New England

Mcu.ft.
706, 010
835, 077
1, 343, 360
2, 263, 087
7, Oil, 589

Percent
4
5
8
14
43

Mcu.ft.
362, 657
145, 081
492, 780
250, 310
4, 557, 136

Mcu.ft.
343, 353
689,996
850,580
2, 012, 777
2, 454, 453

Mft.b.m.
1, 904, 797
1, 082, 885
2, 747, 810
5, 525, 089
26, 339, 261

Percent
3
2
5
9
44

Middle Atlantic...

Lake-

Central

South

Total

12, 159, 123

74

5, 807, 964

6,351,159

37, 599, 842

63

Western regions:
Pacific Coast

3,444,011
566, 328
181, 745

21
4
1

3,427,113
566, 247
181, 163

16, 898
81

582

18,799,052
2, 377, 634
657,311

32
4

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

Total

4, 192, 084

26

4, 174, 523

17, 561

21, 833, 997

37

All regions

16, 351, 207

100

9, 982, 48T

6, 368, 720

59, 433, 839

100

1 Combined average annual drain; cutting, 1925 to 1929, inclusive; fire losses, 1925 to 1929, inclusive: insects,
disease, drought, wind, naval stores operations, etc., 1920 to 1929, inclusive. For definitions, explanations,
and general make-up of this table see footnotes in subsequent timber-loss tables and also refer to text.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

209

TABLE 11. — Total timber cut or distroyed each year in the commercial forests of the
United States, by regions — Continued

Region

Saw-timber trees

Cordwood trees

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Softwood

Hardwood

Eastern regions:
New England. .

Mft. b.m.
1, 514, 441
350,620
1, 328, 977
982, 937
18, 595, 540

M ft. b.m.
390, 356
732, 265
1, 418, 833
4, 542, 152
7, 743, 721

Cords
3, 120, 456
6, 089, 097
7, 110, 679
10, 638, 875
16, 100, 004

Percent
7
13
15
23
35

Cords
455, 587
720,661
1, 909, 843
579, 691
10, 106, 455

Cords
2, 664, 869
5, 368, 436
5, 200, 836
10, 059, 184
5, 993, 549

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Total

22, 772, 515

14, 827, 327

43,059,111

93

13, 772, 237

29, 286, 874

Western regions:
Pacific Coast

18, 749, 881
2, 377, 264
655, 254

49, 171
370
2,057

1, 581, 705
1, 406, 136
424, 307

3
3

1

1, 514, 339
1, 406, 136
423,070

67,366

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

1,237

Total

21, 782, 399

51, 598

3, 412, 148

7

3, 343, 545

68,603

All regions

44, 554, 914

14, 878, 925

46, 471, 259

100

17, 115, 782

29, 355, 477

The ratio of drain to stand in hardwood saw timber is nearly
three times that for softwood saw timber. Similarly, in total volumes,

New England

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt.__.
S. Rocky Mt.__.

ALL REGIONS

pHi

O 15 3O 45 60

BILLION FEET BOARD MEASURE

1

•

10 15 20

Feet Board Measure

25

Sawrtimber Cut

Saw-timber Losses from
Destructive Agencies

FIGURE 13.— Total saw-timber drain on the forests of the United States by regions.

the hardwood ratio is about two times. This is consistent with the
generally known fact that depletion is proceeding more rapidly in the
hardwoods than in the softwoods, and that the problem of adequate
hardwood supplies is more acute.

In annual drain (in cubic feet) for all classes of timber (table 11 and
fig. 12) the forests of the East account for three times as much as
those of the West; more than half of the volume of the eastern cut is
from hardwoods, while that from western hardwoods is insignificant.
The large excess of the South over the Pacific coast consists principally
of hardwood saw timber and cordwood trees. Total southern dram is

210

A NATIONAL PLAN FOJf AMKKK'AN FORKSTHV

about three times that of the Central States but here the excess is very
largely in the softwood saw- timber trees. The saw- timber drain in the
South (in board feet) is also much higher than that in the Pacific-coast
region (fig. 13), but the difference is not so great as in the comparison
of drain for all classes of timber, because of the fact that saw timber
comprises a larger proportion of the total drain in the Pacific-coast
region. These facts further emphasize the important place which the
South holds in the forest affairs of the country, but they also show
that, in the relation of forest depletion to softwood timber stands, the
Pacific Coast is in a far more favorable position.

TIMBER CUT

The United States is by far the largest consumer of wood in the
world. Although imports of forest products into the United States

New England

Middle Atlantic.]

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast I

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt

ALL REGIONS

1

0 3 6 9 13

BILLION CUBIC FEIET

2345
Billion Cubic Feet

Saw -timber Trees

Cordwood Trees

FIGURE 14.— Total timber cut on the forests of the United States by tree size and region.

are larger, as a whole, than exports, both are comparatively small, so
that United States consumption (with the rather notable exception of
pulpwood) is closely reflected by the timber cut of the United States.

The annual cut from saw-timber trees and from smaller trees in the
United States amounts to about one half and one sixth, respectively,
of the world's consumption. The combined United States cut of
14 % billion cubic feet (table 12) is about one third of the world con-
sumption. Three fourths of the world's saw- timber consumption and
half of the total wood consumption is softwood. In the United States
74 percent of the saw timber and 60 percent of the combined timber
cut is softwood. The per capita cut of the United States is estimated
to be 118 cubic feet, of which 89 cubic feet (445 board feet), or 75
percent, is from trees of saw- timber size.

Table 13 shows the proportion of timber drain represented by the
most important commodities produced from saw timber and cordwood
trees separately and combined (figs. 14 and 15).

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMEBICAN FORESTRY

211

TABLE 12. — Timber cut each year in the commercial forests of the United States, by

regions 1

Region

All timber

Saw-timber trees

Total

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Eastern regions:
New England--.

Mcu.ft.
619, 147
771, 592
1, 266, 825
2, 066, 846
6,417,934

Percent
4
6
9
14
44

M cu. ft.
293,503
131,618
469,049
239, 387
4, 214, 926

Mcu.ft.
325,644
639, 974
797, 776
1, 827, 459
2,203,008

Mft. b.m.
1, 647, 827
1, 061, 559
2, 708, 807
5, 453, 791
25, 232, 821

Percent
3
2
5
10
46

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Total

11,142,344

77

5, 348, 483

5, 793, 861

36, 104, 805

66

Western regions:
Pacific Coast

2, 937, 390
287, 190
128, 384

20
2
1

2, 920, 492
287,109
127, 802

16, 898
81

582

16, 486, 839
1, 510, 140
539, 660

30
3
1

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

Total

3, 352, 964

23

3, 335, 403

17, 561

18, 536, 639

34

All regions . _

14, 495, 308

100

8, 683, 886

5, 811, 422

54, 641, 444

100

Region

Saw-timber trees

Cord wood trees

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Softwood

Hardwood

Eastern regions:
New England

Mft. b.m.
1, 284, 467
348, 798
1, 321, 233
980, 500
17, 808, 643

Mft. b.m.
363,360
712, 761
1, 387, 574
4, 473, 291
7, 424, 178

Cords
2, 722, 673
5, 436, 526
6,273,311
8, 628, 934
11, 827, 417

Percent
8
15
18
24
33

Cords
191, 934
576, 039
1, 676, 205
465, 105
7, 703, 364

Cords
2, 530, 739
4, 860, 487
4, 597, 106
8, 163, 829
4, 124, 053

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Total

21, 743, 641

14, 361, 164

34, 888, 861

98

10, 612, 647

24, 276, 214

Western regions:
Pacific Coast

16, 437, 668
1, 509, 770
537, 603

49, 171
370
2,057

307, 172
133, 983
156, 163

1
(2)
1

239, 806
133, 983
154, 926

67,366

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

1,237

Total

18, 485, 041

51, 598

597, 318

2

528, 715

68,603

All regions

40,228,682

14, 412, 762

35, 486, 179

100

11,141,362

24, 344, 817

1 Average for years 1925 to 1929, inclusive. Basic data from reports of the Census of Manufactures, the
Forest Service, and information supplied by State and commercial organizations. For definitions, explana-
tions and general make-up of this table, see footnotes in subsequent timber-loss tables and also refer to text.

2 Less than one half of 1 per cent.

New England...
Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

N. Rocky Mt

S. Rocky Mt. _.

Lumber

5 10 15 20

Billion Feet Board Measure

Other Products

FIGURE 15.— Total saw-timber cut on the forests of the United States by use and region.

212

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

LUMBER

Lumber stands out as by far the most important single commodity
into which the timber cut of this country enters. It accounts annually
for 70 percent (38 billion board feet) of the saw- timber cut, and for

^ l-_ •^'^•-r \N EW ENGLAND

1869 '79

'99 '09

'19

1929

FIGURE 16.— Lumber production in the United States by regions 1869-1929.

about 50 percent (7 billion cubic feet) of the total cut. About four
fifths of this huge lumber production is softwood (table 13).

The fact that lumber has long been our most important timber
product is significant. It points to production of saw-timber as
the major object of forest management. This, in turn, means
long-rotation ages with all that that implies in complexities of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 213

management, particularly in private ownership where in many cases
the forest capital is so depleted or so inaccessible as to render long
periods of waiting and large expenditures necessary before revenues
can commence to come in on a sustained basis and at a rate in keeping
with the potential producing capacity of the land.

The present relative distribution of our lumber cut, as well as the
historical trend of the cut regionally, is shown by table 14 and figures
15 and 16. The Lake, Central, and Middle Atlantic regions were the
most important lumber-producing regions in 1869, and at that time
each was cutting 2}£ billion board feet or more. The Lake continued
prominent, reaching its peak in the early nineties, although surpassed
shortly thereafter by the rapidly expanding cut in the South.

214

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

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A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

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216

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 14. — Lumber production in the United States by regions, 1869-1929
[Million feet board measure]

Year

All re-
gions

New
Eng-
land

Mid-
dle At-
lantic

Lake

Cen-
tral

South

Pacific
Coast

North
Rocky
Moun-
tain

South
Rocky
Moun-
tain

1869

12, 756

1,401

3,156

3,592

2,698

1,288

558

14

49

1879

18,091

1,460

3,187

6,278

3,821

2,498

664

39

144

1889 - -

23,842

1,527

3,198

8,251

3,714

4,847

2,028

117

160

1899

35, 078

2,204

3,506

8,750

6,011

11,116

2,901

321

269

1909

44, 510

2,668

2,529

5, 476

5,625

19,973

6,916

954

369

1910

40, 018

1,969

1,985

5,030

4,752

17, 432

7,448

1,065

337

1911

37,003

1,863

1,772

4,714

4,298

15,965

7,087

994

310

1912

39, 158

1,981

1,732

4,424

4,387

18, 118

7,239

986

291

1913

38, 387

1,672

1,425

3,866

3, 953

18, 312

7,893

1,011

255

19U

37, 346

1,966

1, 587

3,918

3,634

17,801

7,082

1,081

277

1915

37, 012

2,115

1,660

3,410

3,705

17,980

6,770

1,105

267

1916

39, 807

1,823

1,292

4,050

3,336

19, 617

8,136

,233

320

1917

35, 831

1,462

1,026

3,525

2,683

17,165

8,570

,110

290

1918

31,890

1,412

961

3,220

2,513

13, 775

8,590

,143

276

1919

34, 552

1,418

1,166

2,692

3,038

16, 078

8,818

,053

289

1920

33, 799

1,138

1,060

2,386

2, 754

14, 362

10, 355

,380

364

1921 _ .

26, 961

1,029

768

1,647

1,793

13, 530

7,215

757

222

1922

31, 569

790

634

1,944

1,772

14,383

10, 581

,161

304

1923 _

37, 166

941

690

2,392

2,059

16, 462

12, 762

,500

360

1924

35, 931

944

675

2,338

2,054

16, 239

11,930

,368

383

1925

38, 339

872

635

2,445

1,985

17, 148

13,287

,529

438

1926

36, 936

834

575

2,047

2,001

15, 571

14, 189

,326

393

1927

34, 332

722

509

1,795

1,846

14, 476

13,389

,320

475

1928 .

34, 142

766

445

1,803

1,677

13, 978

13,630

,365

478

1929

36, 886

678

554

1,771

2,368

15, 462

14, 149

,418

486

i Statistics reported by the Bureau of the Census and the Forest Service.

On the whole, the Lake, Middle Atlantic, and Central regions, with
lesser contributions from New England which did not reach its peak
in lumber cut until 10 years later, continued to supply the major part
of the Nation's lumber cut until about 1899, at which time their com-
bined cut not only commenced to fall off in itself but even more
rapidly in relation to the rapidly expanding cut in the South. By
1929 all three were below the 2% billion mark. The South reached
its peak of 20 billion board feet about 1909 at which time it was sup-
plying nearly half the cut for the entire country. Since that time
it has rather slowly fallen off but in 1929 it was still slightly in excess
of the Pacific Coast cut, which assumed significant proportions soon
after 1909 and has mounted rapidly since then. Considering the
relatively large supply of virgin timber in the Pacific Coast as com-
pared with that of the South and the depleted condition of the grow-
ing stock as a whole in the South, it seems not only very probable,
but also desirable, viewed from the aspect of rehabilitating and organ-
izing on a sustained yield basis the latter's forest capital, that the cut
of lumber in the Pacific Coast region should assume and hold the
regionally predominant position for a limited period of time. Our
domestic supply of hardwoods, however, must continue to come from
the forests of the East and South, for western forests are practically
all softwoods.

FUEL WOOD

The average yearly production of forest fuel wood in the period
1925-29 is shown to be 61 million cords (table 13), of which about
42 million cords are charged as drain on the commercial forests. The
drain on cordwood stands is estimated to be 28 million cords, and
that on saw-timber stands the equivalent of 14 million cords.

A NATIONAL PLAN* FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 217

Quantitatively, fuel wood, comprising 13 percent of the saw timber
cut and 28 percent of the total cut, is second in importance among
forest commodities. However, since it is the least exacting so far as
technical specifications or qualities are concerned, it is, of all the major
commodities, the one that can best be furnished by improvement
cuttings in both cordwood and saw-timber stands, or by the salvaging
of waste in logging. In most European countries fuel wood is supplied
in these ways and so made a means of improving the forest. In the
United States the bulk of the fuel wood drain is still either from saw-
timber trees or smaller trees which theoretically should be left to
produce saw timber.

Fuel wood is a relatively bulky, low-value commodity, and therefore
not adapted to bear the cost of long transportation. Thus it is at a
disadvantage in competition with other fuels, especially in the urban
communities. Quantitatively, the regional fuel wood cut corresponds
more closely with regional population than that of any other major
timber commodity.

On the whole, statistics on fuel wood cut (and consumption) are
hardly^ satisfactory, and there may be a considerable percentage of
error in those presented. Those available, together with common
knowledge of the increasing use of other fuels, particularly in the urban
centers, indicate a sizable falling off in the fuel wood cut in recent
years.

HEWED TIES

In amount of timber drain, hewed ties rank third, although falling
far short of either lumber or fuel. This cut, amounting to over 2
billion board feet annually, is considered as coming entirely from
saw timber. Both hardwoods and softwoods are used. The great
bulk of the hewed-tie cut comes from the South; more, in fact, than
from all the rest of the country.

FENCE POSTS

The amount of timber cut annually for round and split fence posts
approximates that for hewed ties, but unlike that for ties, the drain
falls only in part on saw timber. The South furnishes the great bulk
of the fence-post cut.

PULPWOOD

The pulpwood cut approximates quantitatively that for hewed
ties and for fence posts. It comes both from saw timber and cord-
wood — the greater bulk from the former. Regionally the Lake States
and New England each supply 28 percent, the South 17 percent, the
Pacific Coast 12, the Middle Atlantic 11, and the Central 4 percent.
The pulping properties required in pulpwood are such that a limited
number of species, such as spruce, fir, hemlock, aspen, etc., have
come to be known as standard pulpwood species. The particular
properties of such species are further associated with individual
processes of pulp manufacture. Pulpwood supplies must be in geo-
graphic or economic proximity to pulp and paper plants that involve
large investments and are not easily moved, or else the domestic
supplies lose out in competition with foreign (especially Canadian)
supplies.

218

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Theoretically there are vast quantities of pulpwood available in
this country. Actually drain has proceeded so nearly to the point of
exhaustion of the economically accessible and suitable local supplies,
when compared with the cost of foreign supplies, that more than half
of the pulpwood, wood pulp, and paper supplies of the country are at
present obtained from other countries. The pulpwood drain and its
relation to the forest supplies of the United States, in short, consti-
tutes a highly complicated and important subject, aspects of which
are treated elsewhere in this section and in the section on Our National
Timber Requirements.

TIMBER LOSSES

Forest losses resulting from forest fires, insects, disease, naval-
stores operations, drought, and wind amount to about 1,800 million
cubic feet per year, or about 4% billion board feet in saw- timber trees
and about 11 million cords in cordwood trees. (Table 10.) Much of
this loss is caused by fires that might have been prevented or checked,
and by epidemics of insects and disease, the ravages of which in many
instances could have been greatly modified under a more effective
system of forest management.

FIRE LOSSES

Timber killed annually by fire and not utilized during the years
1925 to 1929, inclusive, is estimated at over 870 million cubic feet,
about a third of which is in saw-timber trees. (Table 15.) Fire
losses in trees of saw-timber size amount to nearly 1,400 million board
feet, and in trees of cordwood size to nearly 7 million cords.

TABLE 15. — Timber killed each year by fire and not utilized (fire loss) in the com-
mercial forests of the United States, by character of growth and region 1

Region

All timber

Saw-timber trees

Cordwood trees

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

New England

Mcu

ft.
14, 515
52, 111
63, Oil
87, 153
294,756
182, 022
172, 829
4,293

Mcu.

4,041
13, 463
20,201
8,007
196, 634
182, 022
172, 829
4,293

Mcu.

10, 474
38,648
42, 810
79, 146
98, 122

Mft.
b.m.
2,370
7,171
3,740
12, 050
395, 314
563, 549
392, 944
13,095

Mft.
b.m.
834
1,822
895
985
276, 824
563, 549
392, 944
13,095

Mft.
b.m.
1,536
5,349
2,845
11,065
118,490

Cords
149, 963
561, 327
782, 734
937, 777
2, 373, 504
902, 822
1, 177, 243
18, 348

Cords
40,621
144, 622
221, 224
85, 873
1,641,241
902, 822
1, 177, 243
18, 348

Cords
109, 342
416, 705
561,510
851, 904
732, 263

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain
South Rocky Mountain

Total

870, 690

601,490

269,200

1, 390, 233

1, 250, 948

139, 285

6, 903, 718

4,231,994

2, 671, 724

1 Based upon the quantity of timber killed and not utilized, 1925 to 1929, inclusive.

These losses do not include the damage done to the trees that sur-
vive. Nor do they include the destruction of young growing stock
below cordwood size, which is a far more formidable loss and one which
is largely responsible for the very unsatisfactory regrowth conditions,
especially in the poor and nonrestpcking areas. Fire, which accom-
panies destructive methods of logging, has, through repeated burning
of young trees and complete destruction of saplings and seedlings, been
responsible primarily for the deterioration or devastation of immense

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

219

areas of forest laud, and has been an outstanding factor in keeping the
forest growth of the United States below the current drain upon our
timber.

Fire and timber cutting, of course, not infrequently work together
with their separate effect difficult to determine. Either one can cause
forest deterioration or devastation. The difference between the two
conditions is one of degree rather than kind . The bulk of the damage,
however, is the result of fire after cutting. Only rarely does logging,
no matter how carried on, alone result in devastation, but the re-
sulting accumulation of highly inflammable slash invites fires. A
single fire in such debris may and frequently does destroy all
young growth and trees of seed-bearing size, leaving the area incapable
of restocking by natural means. This phase of the forest problem is
discussed under Progress in Forestry and Existing Plans in the sec-
tion "Current Forest Devastation and Deterioration."

It is noteworthy that of the more than 40 million acres burned
annually (1926-30 period) 90 percent was in the South, and that half of
this was in two States. Although the area of unprotected land in-
cluded in these figures represents an exceedingly rough estimate, it is
certain that the great bulk of fire damage in terms of area burned over
occurred on lands which had not been placed under organized fire
protection. According to data available for 1930, 90 percent of the
total area burned in that year was land not so protected. In the
entire protected area the acreage burned was 1.4 percent of the total
whereas the corresponding figure for the unprotected area was about
20 percent. These figures alone show that forest fire can be controlled,
and they indicate the importance of extending organized fire protection
to the still unprotected land.

INSECTS, DISEASE, WIND, AND DROUGHT

Timber killed annually by disease, insects, wind, naval-stores
operations, and drought, and not utilized, during the years 1920 to
1929, inclusive, amounted to over 985 million cubic feet, including
592 million in saw-timber trees and 393 million in cordwood trees.
(Table 16.) Losses in trees of saw- timber size amounted to nearly
3% billion board feet, and in smaller trees to over 4 million cords.

TABLE 16. — Timber killed each year by disease, insects, drought, wind, etc., and
not utilized in the commercial forests of the United States, by character of growth
and region *

Region

All timber

Saw timber trees

Cordwood trees

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

Total

Soft-
wood

Hard-
wood

New England

M cu

M cu

M cu

M.ft.

6.771.

254,600
14, 155
35,263
59, 248
711,126
1, 748, 664
474, 550
104,556

M.ft.
b.m.
229, 140

M.ft.
b.m.
25,460
14, 155
28,414
57,7%
201, 053

Cords
247,820
91,244
54,634
1, 072, 164
1,899,083
371,711
94,910
249, 796

Cords
223,032

Cord*
24,788
91, 244
42,220
1, 043, 451
1, 137, 233

ft.
72, 348
11, 374

ft.
65, 113

ft.
7,235
11,374
9,994
106, 172
153, 323

Middle Atlantic

Lake

13, 524
109,088
298, 899
324,599

3,530
2,916
145, 576
324, 599

6,849
1,452
510, 073
1,748,664
474, 550
104,556

12,414
28,713
761, 850
371,711
94,910
249, 796

Central

South

Pacific Coast . .

North Rocky Mountain
South Rocky Mountain

106,309
49,t)68

106,309
49,068

Total

985,209

697, 111

288,098

3, 402, 162

3, 075, 284

326, 878

4, 081, 362

1, 742, 426

2, 338, 936

Based upon the volume of timber killed and not utilized, 1920 to 1929, inclusive. This estimate does not

include normal losses that are constantl
tion. Data compiled in cooperation wit
Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

y occurring in the forest but only large-scale or cataclysmic destruc-
;h the Bureau of Entomology, and the Division of Forest Pathology,

220 A NATIONAL PLAN FOK AMERICAN FORESTRY

Against the various causes of these losses science is waging relent-
less warfare. Forest entomologists have made notable progress in
devising methods for checking forest insect depredations, and in
working out control measures. Similarly, forest pathologists have
made notable progres,s against the inroads of disease. These two
phases of the forest problem, as well as that of forest-fire prevention
and control, are discussed in sections, "Progress in Forest Pathology "
and " Progress in Forest Entomology", under " Progress in Forestry
and Existing Plans"; also in sections, " Protection Against Fire",
"Protection Against Forest Insects", and "How to Stop Forest
Devastation", under "National Programs Required and the Respon-
sibility for Them."

TIMBER GROWTH

Growth is the characteristic which renders a forest, unlike a mine,
susceptible to use and replacement on a permanently productive basis.
Continued removal of timber without regard to or in excess of re-
placement by growth must sooner or later bring about the deteriora-
tion of the forest far below its producing capacity, if not its complete
destruction. Such treatment of forests has been aptly described as
timber mining. In an analysis of forest resources, therefore, a funda-
mental consideration is that of present and potential growth and of
the relation between growth, drain through cutting and through
losses by fire and other causes, and timber requirements. (See pre-
ceding subsection, "Forest Drain", and following section, "Our
National Timber Requirements").

CURRENT ANNUAL GROWTH

The best available data on growth — though employed, as in the
present discussion, with due consideration of age classes, density of
stocking, mixture of species, site differences, and other factors that
affect the rate of growth — afford a basis only for rough estimates of
growth rates for the various forest types. Nevertheless, it is be-
lieved that the estimates and relationships presented and the infer-
ences drawn therefrom are in the main dependable.

Table 17 gives the estimated present current annual growth in the
United States as a whole of material large enough for saw timber, as
well as that of all timber of usable size including both saw timber and
cordwood. The estimates are for net growth, after allowing for so-
called "normal " losses from decay, insects, etc. Abnormal or unusual
losses from disease or insect epidemics, fires, hurricanes, etc., are taken
care of in the estimates of drain. The growth in board feet consists
of the growth on the present saw-timber stands, after deducting the
growth on the saw-timber cut during the year and adding the total
saw-timber volume on that portion of the cordwood area which passes
into the saw-timber class each year. In the same way, the total
growth on cordwood and saw-timber areas combined, expressed in
cubic feet, consists of the net growth on stands remaining after the
year's cut, plus the total volume on the restocking areas which pass
into the cordwood class annually.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

221

TABLE 17. — Present current annual growth of usable material on commercial forest
areas of the United States, by regions l

Region

Combined saw-timber and
cordwood growth

Saw-timber growth

Total

Softwood

Hard-
wood

Total

Softwood

Hard-
wood

New England

Million
cubic feet
427
634
644
1,128
4,784
680
416
199

Million
cubic feet
162
114
167
83
2,994
675
416
199

Million
cubic feet
265
520
477
1,045
1,790
5

Million
feet board
measure
764
575
116
727
6,799
1,785
576
389

Million
feet board
measure
410
172
12
41
4,946
1,765
576
389

Million
feet board
measure
354
403
104
686
1,853
20

Middle Atlantic

Lake -.. .-- .-

Central

South -.

Pacific Coast . .

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

Total

8,912

4,810

4,102

11, 731

8,311

3,420

i Exclusive of Alaska. Growth figures represent volume of wood without bark, as in estimates of timber
stand and drain. Board-foot volumes are on the basis of estimated lumber tally, assuming utilization con-
sistent with good practice in each region. The growth in cubic feet is for stem wood, including all trees 4
inches or more in diameter breast height; it includes the limbs in the hardwoods.

Of nearly 12 billion board feet of saw- timber growth, over 70 per-
cent is softwood. Of the total growth of almost 9 billion cubic feet,
softwood comprises over 50 percent. More than one half of the saw-
timber growth and also of the total growth is in the South, which has
more than half of its forest area, or about 100 million acres, in growing
saw timber and cordwood. The growth in the Lake region, especially
for softwood, is strikingly low, owing primarily to the depletion of the
stock of saw timber and cordwood; only one fifth of the 56 million
acres of forest land bears growing saw timber or cordwood, and the
remainder is classed either as restocking with trees below cordwood
size, or as nonrestocking.

The comparatively low figures for growth in the West — about one
seventh of the country's total for all growth, and less than one fourth
for saw timber — are explained by the fact that much of the forest land
in the West is covered with overmature timber which is making little
or no net growth, and a large portion of the remainder is either
deforested or covered with small reproduction. Moreover, the growth
rates are generally low in -the Rocky Mountain regions.

THE RELATION OF CURRENT GROWTH TO DRAIN

A simple comparison of current growth and drain means very little
except as the quantity of surplus old growth, the extent, location, and
condition of growing stock, and other pertinent factors are taken into
consideration. The national ratios of 5 to 1 for drain and growth of
material of saw-timber size, and of nearly 2 to 1 for material of saw-
timber and cordwood size combined, are the net results of widely
differing ^ conditions which operate broadly to divide the whole
country into three major growth sections. Table 18 shows regional
growth and drain estimates combined by the regional groups within
each of which the conditions in general are fairly similar. (See also
figures 20 and 21.) It also shows, for comparison with drain, as a
matter of importance, the saw-timber cut for lumber.

222 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 18. — Current annual growth and drain (1925-29 basis)

Region

Combined saw timber
and cordwood

Saw timber

Growth

Drain

Ratio,
drain to
growth

Growth

Drain

Ratio,
dram to
growth

Saw tim-
ber cut
for lum-
ber

New England

Million
cubicfeet
427
634

Million
cubicfeet
706
835

1.7
1.3

Million
feet board
measure
764
575

Million
feet board
measure
1,905
1,083

2.5
1.9

Million
feet board
measure
783
537

Middle Atlantic

Total

1,061

1,541

1.5

1,339

2,988

2.2

1,320

Lake

644
1,128

4,784

1,343
2,263
7,012

2.1
2.0
1.5

116
727
6,799

2,748
5,525
26,339

23.7
7.6
3.9

1,997
2,452
16, 672

Central

South

Total

6,556

10, 618

1.6

7,642

34, 612

4.5

21, 121

Pacific Coast

680
416
199

3,444
566

182

5.1
1.4
0.9

1,785
576
389

18, 799
2,378
657

10.5
4.1
1.7

13, 693
1,405
461

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

Total

1,295

4,192

3.2

2,750

21, 834

7.9

15, 559

All regions

8,912

16, 351

1.8

11,731

59, 434

5.1

38,000

At one extreme are the western regions, particularly the Pacific
Coast. In the West the drain is shown to be about eight times the
growth for saw timber and more than three times the saw-timber
and cordwood growth combined. This situation is largely explained,
and also justified, by the existence of large quantities of overmature
timber in the West which are making no net growth, but which may
logically be drawn upon for some time to supply a considerable share
of the Nation's needs for lumber. To just what extent and for what
period this is true will depend in part upon the proportion of the old
growth which may prove economically available. It will also be
influenced by the extent to which cut-over areas are promptly and
adequately restocked and protected. Lumber is the chief saw-timber
product of the West which in large quantity can stand the cost of
transportation to distant regions. It is natural, therefore, that lum-
ber should account for a larger proportion of saw-timber drain in the
West — over 70 percent — than in either of the other regional sections.
B In the New England and Middle Atlantic regions is a very^ different
situation. Here the old-growth stands with which excessive drain
might, be offset are New England hardwoods of poor quality and
doubtful accessibility. Consequently, a saw-timber growth less than
half the current saw-timber drain — even if it is slightly larger than the
current cut for lumber — and an all-timber growth that is only two
thirds of the total drain, represent a condition^ far less favorable
locally than that indicated by the greater ratios in the West. Pro-
gressive depletion is still under way in both the New England and
Middle Atlantic regions.

Most dangerous of all is the situation in the Lake-Central-South
section, which comprises 310 million acres or 63 percent of our com-
mercial forest land and a similarly large proportion of the country's
timber producing^ potentialities. Here, it is true, high growth
capacity per acre in most of this territory and relative proximity to
large consuming centers, broadly speaking, constitute especially

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

223

favorable factors for the practice of forestry. But, on the other hand,
because of the practical exhaustion of old-growth supplies and the
large proportion of the area with growth below cordwood size or with
none at all, the high ratios of drain to growth — 4.5 to 1 for saw
timber and 1.6 to 1 for all timber — signify a progressive impoverish-
ment of a forest capital or growing stock already seriously depleted.
Consequently, it would appear that the welfare of the forest
resources — with saw timber the main object of management — can
only be safeguarded by a drastic reduction in saw-timber drain in
the Lake-Central-South section. Indeed, as will be shown later, a
substantial reduction in the lumber cut below that for the 1925-29
period appears to be inevitable.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RECENT TRENDS TO FUTURE GROWTH

It is, of course, impossible to forecast all the factors that will
influence future growth totals, even by 1950, and no attempt will be
made to do so. The growth figures in table 19 are in no way intended
as a forecast. The effect of certain assumptions as to fire protection
and drain can, however, be roughly estimated. Better fire protection,
and insect and disease control, would tend to hasten the restocking of
cut-over areas, and to increase growth in all classes of stands. Twenty
years, however, is too short a period for such improvements to have
much effect upon annual growth of saw timber and cordwood. More-
over, it is wholly unlikely that abnormal losses from fire or other
causes will be wholly eliminated.

TABLE 19. — Estimated possible current annual growth and average annual drain as
of 1950 compared to those on present commercial forest areas l

Region

1925-29 rate of
drain

Assumed aver-
age annual
drain 1930-50

Growth on com-
bined saw tim-
ber and cord-
wood

Growth on saw
timber

Total

Saw
timber

Total

Saw
timber

1930

1950

1930

1950

New England

Million
cu.ft.
706
835

Million
ft.b.m.
1,905
1,083

Million
cu.ft.
350
420

Million

ft. 6. TO.

950
540

Million
cu.ft.
427
634

Million
cu.ft.
470
760

Million

ft. 6.771.

764
575

Million
ft. b.m.
890
1,050

Middle Atlantic

Total..

1,541

2,988

770

1,490

1,061

1,230

1,339

1,940

Lake-

1,343
2,263
7,012

2,748
5,525
26,339

670
1,120
3,500

1,400
2,800
13, 170

644
1,128
4,784

740
1,170
6,460

116

727
6,799

270
410
7,430

Central

South

Total

10, 618

34, 612

5,290

17, 370

6,556

8,370

7,642

8,110

Pacific Coast

3,444
566
183

18,799
2,378
657

3,440
570
180

18,800
2,400
700

680
416
199

530
420
200

1,785
576
389

1,850
480
440

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

Total

4,192
16, 351

21,834
59, 434

4,190
10,250

21,900

1,295

1,150
10,750

2,750

2,770

All regions

40,760

8,912

11, 731

12.820

1 Based on arbitrary assumptions as to drain.

Cutting in the East at whatever rate in excess of annual growth
would tend to restrict future growth by depleting the growing stock
capable of producing merchantable material. Severe dram upon the
cordwood stands would limit the acreage advancing from cordwood

224 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

to saw timber and therefore reduce the saw-timber growth. The
degree to which cutting is made in accordance with good silvicultural
practices also has a distinct bearing upon growth. Such practices
would tend to increase total yields and at the same time build up the
growing stock in the cordwood and younger age classes.

The factor of greatest weight and uncertainty is that of drain — its
value, character, location, etc. Although the estimated current an-
nual growth for 1950 given in table 19 is in no sense a prediction of
what will actually transpire, an effort has been made to select as-
sumptions as to drain which might conceivably be realized, taking into
account the effect of the present depression, the bearing of limited
usable supplies in the eastern forest regions, and the possibilities for
constructive forestry measures. For all the eastern regions the drain
for the period from 1930 to 1950 was assumed at an average rate
equal to one half the 1925-29 drain. Because of the severe depletion
of growing stock which has already taken place in these regions a
continuation of the 1925-29 drain seems impossible. The current
low ebb of lumber production, which is probably less than half the
1925-29 rate, probably will be followed by a period of increased
production before the exhaustion of suitable saw-timber supplies
forces a protracted restriction in the cut, especially in the Lake-
Central-South section. Some students of the situation believe that
by 1950 the saw-timber drain in the East is likely to be less than
half the 1925-29 rate, but an average of one half for the two decades
appears to be a reasonable assumption as a basis for this calculation.
On the other hand, because of the large reservoir of old-growth
stumpage, there seems to be no reason, with favorable economic con-
ditions, why the 1925-29 rate of drain in the West as a whole may
not be continued until 1950.

With these assumptions as to drain, forest conditions which might
obtain in 1950 were projected. The stands in each region, as of 1930,
were reduced at the assumed average rates of drain for the 20-year
period. Growth was allowed on all stands until the theoretical time
of cutting. An estimate based on the growth rate and age classes
was then made of the area and volume of cordwood stands which
would reach saw-timber size by 1950, the theoretical amount which
might so mature being reduced by the area which would be cut over
as cordwood. In a similar manner, the amount of restocking land
which would advance to cordwood size was estimated. With the
distribution of growth classes and the corresponding volumes of
standing timber in 1950 set up in this way, the theoretical current
annual growth at that time was calculated by the same method used
for present current growth.

Of special importance is the comparison, shown in table 19, of
current growth as of 1950 with current 1930 growth both for saw
timber, and for saw timber and cordwood combined, and also with
the assumed reduced drains. For the New England and Middle
Atlantic regions together the 1950 growth rates of both saw timber,
and saw timber and cordwood combined, would increase, and would
exceed the assumed average drains. In the Lake-Central-South sec-
tion, ^on the other hand, the growth of saw timber alone would
remain about as at present and also at less than one half of the
assumed average drain. The combined saw timber and cordwood
growth, however, would exceed the present growth and also the as-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

225

sumed average drain. The disparity between growth and drain for
saw timber in the Lake and Central regions is particularly striking.
These estimates indicate that, from the standpoint of saw-timber
production, even an average drain of only 50 percent of the 1925-29
rate would still further reduce an already severely depleted growing
stock in the Lake, Central, and South regions. In the western group
the rates of growth in comparison with drain would remain much
the same as for 1925-29.

Of equal importance from the standpoint of the forest situation
in 1950 is a consideration of the areas of age classes and of the stands

NEW JI930
ENGLAND [i960

MIDDLE |1930
ATLANTIC [1950

LAKE

CENTRAL

SOUTH

JI930
[1950

fl930
[i960

("1930
[1950

PACIFIC f"930
COAST JJ950

N. ROCKY f1930
MOUNTAIN [1950

S. ROCKY f1930
MOUNTAIN |I950

0 100 200 300 400 500

MILLION ACRES

50

Saw Timber

100
MILLION ACRES

Cordwood

150

£00

Restocking

FIGURE 17.— Present distribution of forest areas and their estimated distribution in 1950, by regions. The
1950 estimate is based on the 1925-29 average drain in the West, and in the East on half the 1925-29
drain. Present devastated areas, estimated at 63 million acres, not included.

of timber, in comparison with the present. The possible distribution
of age-class areas in 1950 in comparison with 1930 is shown in figure 17,
excluding 63 million acres that probably will not produce com-
mercially valuable saw-timber stands within the period required for
existing growth, if any, to mature. Assuming reasonably efficient
fire protection, the areas of restocking land might increase nationally
from the present 123 million to perhaps 160 million acres. In
arriving at this figure prompt restocking of lands cut over was
assumed. The cordwood area might increase from 121 to something
like 135 million acres, with a more or less proportionate increase in
volume. Of greater interest and concern, however, are the estimated

226

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

trends as to areas and volumes of saw timber. Table 20 shows in a
summarized way these two features. Figure 18 compares possible
1950 volumes with the present. Under the assumptions made,
reductions both in saw- timber areas and in saw- timber volume would
probably be marked. These apparent reductions in saw- timber

(1930
ENGLAND \\950

MIDDLE /I930J
ATLANTIC

LAKE

CENTRAL

Jl93O
11930

UNITED STATES

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
BILLION BOARD FEET

fl930
SOUTH (,960

PACIFIC /I930
COAST

N.ROCKY /I930
MOUNTAIN, 950

S. ROCKY (1930
MOUNTAINJJ95Q

I Softwood

FIGURE 18.— Present volume of hardwood and softwood saw timber and the estimated volume in 1950, by
regions. The 1950 estimate is based on the 1925-29 average drain in the West, and in the East on half
the 1925-29 drain.

area could be minimized by a general adoption of silviculturally
desirable selective cutting.

The reduction in saw-timber areas would be most noticeable in the
Lake, Central, and Pacific Coast regions. The reduction in saw-
timber volume would be very largely in the Pacific Coast region.
Actual depletion, however, would be most severe in the Lake and
Central regions where the supplies of softwood saw timber would
be practically exhausted. This means that in these two regions
paucity of supply would force a still greater reduction in saw-timber
drain than that assumed in this calculation.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

227

TABLE 20. — Estimated possible areas and volumes of saw timber in 1950 on basis of
1925-29 drain continuing in the West and one half 1925-29 drain in the East

Region

Annual saw-timber
drain

Saw-timber area

Saw-timber volume

1925-29
rate

Assumed
rate 1930-
50

1930

1950

1930

1950

New England . .

Billion ft.
b.m.
1.90
1.08
2.75
5.52
26.34
18.80
2.38
.66

Billion ft.
b.m.
0.95
0.54
1.40
2.80
13.17
18.80
2.40
.70

Thou-
sand acres
13, 860
7,294
5,095
21, 224
57, 265
44,140
17, 026
22,741

Thou-
sand acres
10,990
7,921
3, 669
2,996
44, 065
30, 954
13,808
21, 463

Billion ft.
b.m.
57.87
26.15
35.88
34.62
199.30
1,041.63
146. 39
125. 96

Billion ft.
b.m.
57.37
34.81
18.59
5.72
150.19
710. 78
10G. 12
120.66

Middle Atlantic

Lake

Central - . - - .-

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain _ _ . _ _

South Rocky Mountain

Total

59.43

40.76

188, 645

135, 866

1, 667. 80

1, 207. 24

What the effect would be of continuing the 1925-29 rate of saw-
timber drain in the West depends upon a number of factors. Chief
among these is the extent to which the remaining stands of old growth
will prove to be economically available. It also depends upon the
extent to which cutting is made in accordance with the dictates of
good silvicultural and forest regulation principles. For example,
greater recourse to partial or selective cutting would be advantageous.
Although something far short of the ideal will be obtained in alloca-
tion and method of cutting, it seems reasonable, in the light of in-
creasing economic availability, that the 1925-29 drain should continue
until at least 1950. The indications are, however, that a marked
increase in this rate of drain or even indefinite prolongation of it
would reduce the growing stock below the amount required for
permanent continuation of such production.

In brief, it appears that a continuation of the 1925-29 drain is
feasible in the West but that it would be disastrous to the welfare of
the forests and the forest industries in the East, unless the best data
now available prove later to have been greatly in error. A 50 percent
reduction in the average drain to 1950 theoretically might stabilize
the situation on that level in the New England and Middle Atlantic
regions. In the other eastern regions a greater proportionate reduc-
tion may be necessary to prevent further impoverishment of the
already depleted growing stocks. Additional measures will probably
be needed to rehabilitate these growing stocks.

To look beyond 1950 in the matter of areas of age classes and vol-
umes of standing timber amounts to little more than a guess. How-
ever, the effort to do so may help to correct some misunderstandings.
It is sometimes stated that the increasing shortage of saw-timber
stands in the East will be offset in a few decades without any particular
human effort by a huge wave of second growth reaching saw-timber
size. Such a wave appears to be in prospect in the Lake States after
1950, but it is doubtful if the saw-timber growth will rise much above
1 billion board feet per year. A similar increase in available saw
timber may come to pass in the Central region at a still later date
but in the meantime saw-timber production in this region may drop
to a very low ebb.

228 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Without drastic reduction of drain and the most careful husbanding
of sapling, cordwood, and young saw-timber stands, there does not
seem to be any prospect of an enlarged volume of available saw timber
in the New England and Middle Atlantic regions. At present rapid
depletion of cordwood stands is preventing the building up of growing
stock of saw- timber size in these two regions. Even with drain at
only half the 1925-29 rate the area in the restocking and deforested
classes seems likely to increase to nearly half the total forest area of
these regions by 1950.

Finally, these calculations afford no evidence that the volume of
young growth annually approaching maturity in the South after 1950
will be any greater than the amount maturing annually prior to that
time. The figures indicate that the forest situation in this great
region may remain without material change for some decades unless
forestry measures are aggressively adopted throughout the region.

SUSTAINED YIELD POSSIBILITIES

An underlying purpose in the management of forests is to provide
a stable and ample supply of usable timber of the character and
quality needed to meet the requirements of the users of wood and
wood products. This may apply to a single forest property, to the
forests of a region as a whole, or to an entire country. Forests so
organized and managed are referred to as being on a sustained-yield
basis, and the volume of material present, as the basis for manage-
ment is known as the growing stock. Under such management the
age classes will be more or less evenly distributed.

Where there is a large surplus of mature and overmature timber,
as in the Pacific Coast region, the rate of cutting can exceed the growth
until the surplus is used up without violating the principle of sustained
yield. The cutting of this surplus should, of course, be extended over
a sufficient number of years to permit the existing young stands to
mature and the cut-over land to restock in a sequence which will
permit cutting to continue without interruption. Where there is a
serious deficiency in mature timber and timber approaching maturity,
as in the East, continued cutting of saw timber in excess of the annual
growth must sooner or later exhaust the supply of saw timber that is
large enough for economic utilization.

Except for special situations like that on the Pacific coast, a fairly-
even distribution of age classes is necessary before a volume approxi-
mately equal to the annual growth can be permanently cut each year.
It is evident, therefore, that there is a close relationship between the
volume of growing stock and the volume of usable material that can
be cut annually. If we may assume that a forest should be handled
on an 80-year rotation for the production of saw timber we may think
of such a forest under sustained-yield management as being' in the
form of eight 10-year groups or age classes, the oldest group affording
the usable material for the first 10 years. The next group would reach
the age for cutting during the second 10-year period and so on, until
at the end of the 80-year rotation the area first cut over would again
be ready for cutting. Such a forest contains the minimum growing
stock that can supply a continuous cut equivalent to the annual
growth on the whole area without, as a rule, necessitating the cutting
of timber below the rotation age.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR. AMERICAN FORESTRY

229

It will be instructive to consider some of the growing-stock aspects
of the forests in the several regions in relation to sustained saw-timber
yield. The results of theoretical calculations of the yields which
might be maintained on three assumptions of regulated growing stock
are presented in table 21. The first column is based on a growing
stock in which the saw-timber volume equals the volume of present
saw- timber stands ; the second column upon a growing stock in which
the saw- timber volume equals that portion of present saw- timber
stands estimated to have a positive utilization value under 1925-29
conditions (see preceding subsection, " Availability of Timber
Stands"); the third upon a growing stock in which the saw- timber
volume equals the estimated saw- timber volumes in 1950 on the
basis set up in table 20.

TABLE 21. — Estimated saw-timber yields theoretically possible on forests with regular
distribution of age classes based on assumed saw-timber volumes

Basis

Region

Yield
based on
total 1930
saw-timber
volume

Yield
based on
1930 saw-
timber
volumes
having
positive
utilization
value

Yield
based on
estimated
1950 saw-
timber
volume

Average
annual
saw-timber
dram
1925-29

New England .

Million
feet b.m.
2,094

Million
feet b.m.
1,696

Million
feet b. m.
2,121

Million
feet b.m.
1,905

Middle Atlantic ; _

991

702

1,333

1,083

Total

3,085

2,398

3,454

2,988

Lake

1,374

1,123

744

2,748

Central

1,366

1,133

229

5,525

South.

9,186

7,535

6,901

26, 339

Total

11,926

9,791

7,874

34,612

Pacific Coast

26,041

12, 674

17, 770

18,799

North Rocky Mountain

2,928

867

2,182

2,378

South Rocky Mountain

2,519

829

2,413

657

Total

31,488

14, 370

22, 365

21,834

All regions

46, 499

26, 559

33, 693

59,434

These calculations are premised on an even distribution of age
classes, no cutting except for salvage, thinnings and other improve-
ment cuttings, until the saw timber reaches rotation age; and meas-
ures adequate to restock cut-over lands and to protect the growing
stock. Rotations also are necessarily assumed — 60 years for soft-
woods in the South, 80 years for hardwoods in the South and for all
other species in the other eastern regions, 100 years in the Pacific
Coast region, and 120 years in the Rocky Mountain regions. For
convenient reference table 21 also gives the 1925-29 average saw-
timber drain.

These calculations indicate (column 1, table 21) in New England
and the Middle Atlantic regions that regulated growing stock with
saw-timber volumes equal to present volumes would just about sup-
port through sustained yield, a drain of saw timber equal to the
1925-29 rate. This indicated sustained yield exceeds the present
annual growth because it assumes no cutting of stands below rotation
age other than in cultural operations, whereas under current prac-
tices there is a heavy drain in both cordwood and small saw-timber

230 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

stands, which keeps actual growth of saw timber at a low figure.
Even on the basis of the smaller regulated growing stock assumed in
the second column a sustained yield of more than two thirds of the
1925-29 saw-timber drain could be maintained.

Regulated growing stock with saw-timber volumes equal to the
present volumes (column 1) in that great Lake-Central-South belt
would be adequate to maintain about one third of the 1925-29 saw-
timber drain. This disparity would be further increased with the
smaller growing stocks under the other two assumptions.

The sustained-yield possibilities indicated for the western regions have
little significance because of the abnormally large volumes of over-
mature timber now present. It is obvious that the true sustained-yield
possibility of the western regions is less than that indicated in the first
column and perhaps even less than that indicated by the calculated
1950 growing stocks (column 3). Although it is believed that a great
many years will elapse before all of the more remote and otherwise less
desirable stands become economically available, it is probable that
as time passes, the margin of accessibility will be extended.

These calculations, as previously implied, are useful in giving a
proper perspective to the existing growing stock situation from the
standpoint of sustained yield. As a matter of fact, the situation is
somewhat less favorable than might be implied from the figures alone.
Individual properties or localities within regions are, as a rule, not
characterized by the regular distribution of age classes needed for
sustained yield in keeping with actual stand volumes. Such distribu-
tion of age classes may not exist even for the region as a whole.
Moreover, heavy depletion is actually taking place quite generally
in the cordwood and second-growth saw-timber stands below
rotation age.

It remains to consider sustained yields which might be obtained
under some combination of intensive forestry, extensive forestry, and
simple protection against fire. It is believed that the play of economic
forces will lead to the practice of intensive forestry on the most
favorable situations before anything more than fire protection will
be economically justifiable upon the poorer and more remote lands.
At the same time, because of ownership or other factors, certain lands
will be given little, if any, forestry treatment even though physically
and economically suited to it. Some combination of extensive and
intensive forestry, however, appears to be closer to the probable
realities than would a premise which involved only extensive forestry
or only intensive forestry. The relative acreages assumed for each
type are in no sense forecasts of what will happen.

For this discussion simple protection means a degree of protection
which will prevent fires from causing a serious drain at any time.

Extensive forestry embraces fire protection as just defined, and
such cutting practices or simple silvicultural measures as are necessary
to maintain production in sufficient quantity for commercial utiliza-
tion. It would include, as occasion requires, such measures as defer-
ring cutting until reproduction has become established, slash disposal
as an aid in fire protection, the preservation of advance reproduction,
the leaving of seed trees, prevention of overgrazing, and girdling cull
hardwoods to permit valuable young growth to develop. It will not
ordinarily include planting.

Intensive forestry is used to include a very high degree of protection
against fire, insects, and disease. In addition, it will require cutting

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

231

practices and various cultural measures, including planting, to increase
both the quantity and quality of the yield to a point consistent with
the productive capacity of the land. All of the areas under intensive
forestry, therefore, would be in a good growing condition and well
stocked with desirable species.

An allocation of forest areas according to the intensity of manage-
ment which might theoretically be attained at some time in the distant
future is illustrated by table 22. The application of intensive and
extensive forestry on anything like the scale indicated in this table
can, of course, be brought about only after a long period, perhaps a
tree generation, and then only as a result of the most aggressive and
sustained efforts of all agencies concerned. This table takes cogni-
zance not only of the present commercial forest areas, but also of the
54.7 million acres of farm land which are estimated to be available
for forest use because not needed for agriculture. (See section,
" Forest Land the Basic Resource.") The table classes as productive
forest land not only the open or denuded areas which may be expected
to restock naturally during a long period of years, but also the area
which is set up for planting under the section "Reforestation of
Barren and Unproductive Land." It excludes as not available for
timber use those areas which other sections of this report estimate will
need to be reserved for recreation or other purposes. Under the general
application of forestry practices assumed in this calculation denudation
would be largely eliminated. Whatever error may be involved because
of denudation before this theoretical plan of land use could be attained
is on the optimistic side. Therefore, recommendations for action
based on the resulting growth calculation will be conservative.

The theoretical yield which might be obtained under the conditions
set up in table 22 is shown in table 23. The calculations are shown
only on a cubic-foot basis, but the bulk of the cut would, of course, be
in trees of saw-timber size.

TABLE 22. — Hypothetical allocation by types of management of areas prospectively

available for timber use

Region

Total»

Area for
intensive
forestry

Area for
extensive
forestry

Area for simple protection

Forested land

Not likely
tore-
stock2

Rilative-
ly favor-
able

Relative-
ly unfav-
orable

New England

Million
acres
23.1
30.1

Million
acres
5.0
6.0

Million
acres
12.0
14.0

Million
acres
1.8
2.1

Million
acres
0.7

Million
acres
3.6
8.0

Middle Atlantic

Total

53.2

11.0

26.0

3.9

.7

11.6

Lake States

~ 607T
75.6
205.9

11.0
10.0
30.0

30.2
41.8
131.5

5.0
5.9

,14.8

5.0
8.6

17.8

9.5
9.3
11.8

Central . .

South

Total

342.2

51.0

203.5

25.7

31.4

30.6

Pacific Coast

26.' 8
29.0

7.0
.5
.5

33.0
10.0
6.4

4.8
4.1
2.2

8.8
10.4
18.4

3.8
1.8
1.5

North Rocky Mountain . . ..

South Rocky Mountain..

Total

113.2

8.0

49.4

11.1

37.6

7.1

All regions

508.6

70.0

278.9

40.7

69.7

49.3

1 Includes the 494.9 million acres of present commercial forest area and the 54.7 million acres of farm land
now available for forestry, with reductions of 2 million acres of forest land to be cleared for agriculture in the
West and of 39 million acres for recreation and other purposes.

2 Residual area of denuded commercial forest land and agricultural land available for timber use, after
allowing natural restocking of 42.8 million acres and planting of 25.5 million acres.

168342°— 33— vol. 1-

-ir,

232

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 23. — Theoretical future growth under the hypothetical allocation of areas
to types of management given in table 22

Region

Total
theoretical
growth

Intensive
forestry
area

Extensive
forestry
area

On simple-protection
areas

Relatively
favorable
for forestry

Relatively
unfavorable
for forestry

Million
cubic feet
747.9
1, 001. 8

Million
cubic feet
307.0
366.6

Million
cubic feet
398.4
575.4

Million
cubic feet
35.5
59.8

Million
cubic feet
7.0

Middle Atlantic

Total -

1, 749. 7

673.6

973.8

95.3

7.0

Lake

1, 773. 4
1, 959. 1
9,500.0

590.7
483.0
2, 193. 0

1,081.2
1, 295. 8
6, 759. 1

76.5
111.5
423.3

25.0
68.8
124.6

Central ---

South

Total

13, 232. 5

3, 266. 7

9, 136. 1

611.3

218.4

Pacific Coast

2, 059. 2
499.1
214.5

686.1
30.5
11.9

1, 230. 9
308.0
95.4

54.2
56.6
15.2

88.0
104.0
92.0

North Rocky Mountain .

South Rocky Mountain

Total

2, 772. 8

728.5

1, 634. 3

126.0

284.0
509.4

All regions

17, 755. 0

4, 668. 8

11,744.2

832.6

The growth rates used in this calculation were derived from detailed
consideration of present growth and future yield capacities for the
principal timber types in each region. The areas relatively unfavor-
able for forestry as a rule are characterized by poor growing condi-
tions. Nevertheless, in recognition of the fact that some may become
a factor in timber supply, a nominal growth rate was applied. The
present average growth of 21 cubic feet per acre for the 432 million
acres of present commercial forest land now in productive condition
was applied to those relatively favorable areas allocated to simple
protection. In the areas allocated to extensive forestry the growth
rate averages about 42 cubic feet per^acre, while on the intensive
forestry area the average rate for all regions is about 67 cubic feet.

The estimated future annual growth for the entire 508.6 million
acres, on the basis of the assumed allocations to the several types of
management is 17,755 million cubic feet. The distribution of this
growth, in comparison to present growth, is shown in figure 19. The
saw timber equivalent of this total growth is estimated to be about
60 billion board feet.

Among the requisites for attaining and maintaining such a yield
is the establishment of forest growing stock adequate in character
and amount. The minimum growing stocks which would be required
to sustain a yield equal to the growth shown in table 23 on a saw-
timber basis, with uniform rotations as assumed in table 21, is
presented in table 24. As a matter of interest there is also included
in table 24 the total volume of the existing stands.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

233

NEW /Present

ENGLAND \ Future

MIDDLE /Present

ATLANTIC \Future

LAKE

CEJMTRAL

SOUTH

/Present
[ Future

J Present
\ Future

Present
ure

1 Fut

PACIFIC /Present
COAST \ Future

N. ROCKY /Present
MOUNTAIN \Future

S ROCKY /Present
MOUNTAIN | Future

On intensive
forestry area

BILLION CUBIC FEET

On extensive
forestry area

10

On simple
protection area

FIGURE 19.— Theoretical future annual growth compared to present growth. (Total growth of saw-timber

and cordwood in cubic feet.)

TABLE 24. — Minimum growing stocks required to maintain theoretical growth shown

table 23

n

Region

Total the-
oretical
growth

Growing
stocks
required

Present
growing
stocks

Ratio of
present to
required
growing
stocks

New England

Million

cubic feet
747 9

Billion
cubic feet
28 0

Billion
cubic feet
25 2

0 9

Middle Atlantic

1, 001. 8

37.6

22.7

.6

Total

1, 749 7

65 6

47 9

7

Lake. ...

1, 773. 4

66 6

21 6

3

Central

1 959 1

73 5

30 7

4

South

9,500.0

288.0

113.8

.4

Total

13 232 5

428 1

166 1

4

Pacific Coast

2 059 2

98 8

191 7

1 9

North Rocky Mountain

499 1

29 1

47 8

1 6

South Rocky Mountain..

214.5

12.5

33.3

2.7

Total

2 772 8

140 4

272 8

1 9

All regions

17, 755. 0

634. 1

486.8

.8

234 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It would appear that the present volume of timber in New England,
if it should all prove to be economically available and were properly
distributed as to age classes, would almost sustain the growth indi-
cated in both tables 23 and 24. In the Middle Atlantic region, under
the same assumptions, the present stands would have to be increased
about 65 percent. In the combined Lake, Central, and Southern
regions more than 2.5 times the present growing stock would be
needed to achieve the indicated sustained production.

In reality the stands in the East, generally speaking, are not
regularly distributed as to age classes. Few of them are in a satis-
factory silvicultural condition, and it is doubtful whether all of them
will ever become economically available. For these reasons the defi-
ciencies in the growing stocks indicated for the eastern regions prob-
ably understate the seriousness of the situation. In short, after
allowing for sizable inaccuracies in stand and growth estimates it
seems conclusive that the existing growing stocks in the East are much
less than adequate to maintain, on a saw-timber rotation, anything
approaching the sustained yields set up in table 23. This would be
true even if the growing stocks were properly regulated.

In the West, on the other hand, the present stands appear to exceed
by more than 90 percent the volume of regulated growing stock
necessary to maintain the sustained yield indicated in table 23.
However, the factor of inaccessibility, even though it may prove of
diminishing importance, will tend to reduce the apparent surplus.
Nevertheless, regulated growing stocks in those regions equal to or
somewhat less than the present stands would probably be adequate.

SUMMARY

The preceding pages have presented the outstanding aspects of the
forest situation in the several regions, both from the standpoint of
current growth, and from that of the theoretical sustained-yield pos-
sibilities in relation to the existing growing stocks. Without assuming
that the calculations involved represent precise accuracy, or that they
approximate the rates of drain and growth which will actually take
place and which will be governed by circumstances which cannot
accurately be foretold, it may yet be concluded that, irrespective of
the existing economic depression, a considerable decline in the national
cut is inevitable. This decline will be largely, if not entirely, in the
eastern regions. The situation in the East is so serious that the
severe reduction in the drain on the forest resulting from the economic
depression during the past three years may be providential from the
standpoint of the welfare of the forest resources.

The severity and duration of this decline in cut, and its ill effects
nationally, regionally, and locally may be minimized in a number of
ways. Further restricting abnormal losses by fire and other causes
will serve to reduce the rate of depletion of the growing stock and
facilitate the restocking of cut-over areas. The area of producing
forest land can be increased by an aggressive program for planting the
large area of open and nonproductive land now available for forestry.

Better utilization methods, more efficient marketing, and the
accompanying reductions in waste would make it possible to cut a

e'.ven quantity of usable products from a smaller volume of timber,
btaining products other than lumber just as far as practical from
improvement or salvage cuttings, using defective trees or portions of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 235

the stand which now go to waste incident to saw-timber production
would help build up the growing stock. The yield of usable growth
could also be increased by careful selection of the stands to be cut
and of the trees to be cut within those stands where partial cutting
methods can be applied. Those stands and trees should be cut which
offer no prospect of making a good rate of growth in volume or value,
and those should be left which promise to increase rapidly in volume
or value in the comparatively near future. Wherever silvicultural
and economic conditions permit, a good stand of thrifty young and
middle-aged trees should be left on cut-over lands. Through various
silvicultural operations it would be possible to increase the proportion
of fast growing or otherwise desirable species and more nearly to
maintain that density of stand which is most favorable to rapid
growth of usable timber.

While the application of these measures involves many silvicultural
and economic factors concerning which much remains to be known,
present knowledge is adequate for progressive improvements.
Further knowledge can be gained only through a long-time program
of research in silviculture, forest products utilization, forest economics,
and related fields such as entomology, pathology, and plant and
animal ecology.

THE BALANCE BETWEEN TIMBER SUPPLIES AND
REQUIREMENTS

Several important factors, some of which are discussed in detail
elsewhere in this report, should be briefly reviewed as a basis for an
understanding of the relation of our timber supplies to our require-
ments, and for considering the need or justification for a program of
forestry measures to increase supplies.

SHOULD SAW TIMBER BE THE MAJOR OBJECT OF A NATIONAL
PROGRAM OF FORESTRY?

Lumber has always been, by all odds, our most important timber
product. It accounts for more than half of the total cut. Most
other important products may be obtained advantageously, wholly
or partly, from trees of saw-timber size. Altogether more than three
fourths of the products taken from the forest are obtained from
saw timber.

Important though the growing number of chemical and synthetic
wood products have been and will continue to be, it is not believed
that the prospects for the development of new uses of wood justify
the assumption that lumber and other mechanical products of saw
timber will cease to constitute the major normal requirement.

Stumpage values for timber to be converted into lumber have in
general been higher than for timber to be converted into other prod-
ucts. Furthermore, such other products as veneers and piling which
return higher values to stumpage have, for the most part, been cut
from trees of saw- timber size.

There are, of course, exceptions as in the case of pulpwood, but in
most localities the management of forests for saw timber as the major
object offers greater financial advantage than for smaller trees. More-
over, studies made in a number of widely different forest types sum-
marized in table 4 of the section " Status and Opportunities of Private

236 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

Forestry" show conclusively that the financial return from the cutting
of large saw-timber trees is greater than that from small saw-timber
trees, because the products of the former are of higher value, and be-
cause the larger trees can be logged and milled much more cheaply
than the smaller ones.

In the management of forests for saw timber there will always be
a large volume of by-product material which may be converted into
pulpwood, fuel wood, posts, or other so-called minor products. This
material is available alike from cultural operations, from salvage of
trees which may die or be killed by destructive agencies, or from waste
incident to removal of saw logs. " Not only, in most instances and in
most localities, can minor products be thus obtained to the best finan-
cial advantage but such use facilitates these cultural and salvage
operations which in themselves are a highly desirable feature of inten-
sive and profitable forestry. These points also are further elaborated
in the section on " Status and Opportunities of Private Forestry."

In short, it seems altogether probable that the best results in
management, all things considered, will be achieved and that the
normal requirements of the country for forest products best be met
if regional and national programs of forestry are based upon saw
timber as the major object of management and if sufficiently long
rotations are used to produce saw timber of considerable size and
relatively high quality.

PRESENT AND, PROSPECTIVE NORMAL TIMBER REQUIREMENTS

The term "timber requirements" is used to denote the measure of
use by consumers who are afforded a reasonable latitude in choice of
readily available materials including timber and timber products.
4 'Normal" requirements refers to the volume of such use that might
logically be expected when general economic conditions are such that
the Nation is conscious neither of depression nor of unusual prosperity.

The most tangible available criterion of requirements is consump-
tion. However, since consumption of timber is likely to vary with
the abundance, suitabilitj^, and cheapness of the supply, it affords
only an approximate measure of requirements; it is likely to be less
than requirements when ample suitable supplies are not readily
available.

The impossibility of measuring accurately the net future effect of
a complex of many influencing factors renders it impractical to make
a precise forecast of future requirements. However, the section "Our
National Timber Requirements", which follows, discusses in some
detail the influence of various factors upon recent and prospective
trends for the more important classes of timber commodities. That
discussion indicates that 31 to 34 billion board feet is a fair measure
of present normal requirements for lumber. It is not unlikely that
research and improved manufacturing and marketing practices may,
in the future, expand this normal requirement. On the other hand,
in some regions and with respect to special commodities there is, for
many years at least, the prospect of limited supplies. All things con-
sidered it appears reasonable to include a figure of 32 billion board
feet of lumber in our estimate of normal timber requirements. This
is appreciably below the consumption prior to the current economic
depression.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

237

The consumption of fuel wood, quantitatively the most important
commodity next to lumber, has undoubtedly declined considerably
during the past 20 years. However, it seems likely to continue as
the chief fuel in rural sections. Present consumption may now
approximate a minimum. It is estimated in the discussion of produc-
tion (see table 13) that, of the total production of 61 million cords, 42
million cords, or over 4 billion cubic feet, should be considered as
representing the actual drain for fuel wood. There is no clear justifica-
tion for changing that figure for purposes of the present consideration.

Paper and other wood-pulp products appear to offer the prospect of
a greater proportionate increase in timber requirements than does any
other important class of timber products. At present our own forests
supply only 44 percent of the pulpwood represented in our manufac-
ture and consumption of paper and other wood-pulp products. The
remainder is imported in the form of pulpwood, pulp, or paper. It is
variously estimated that, translated into terms of pulpwood, the
total requirements for wood-pulp products may by 1950 reach a figure
between 22 and 30 million cords. For present purposes we may use a
figure of 25 million cords. ^ There is strong justification for becoming
nationally self-sufficient in pulpwood supplies. The reasons are
elaborated in the discussion on pulpwood, pulp, and paper in the
section "Our National Timber Requirements' '. We may estimate
that 25 million cords of pulpwood would mean about 2,758 million
cubic feet, of which about 135 million cubic feet can possibly be con-
sidered as coming from Alaska. This would leave some 2,623 million
cubic feet to be supplied by the forests of the United States proper.

Trends in minor and miscellaneous timber products tend to offset
each other to such an extent that no other changes in the timber-use
portion of the drain table for the period 1925-29 appear justifiable for
purposes of the present discussion.

Although it is not considered likely that abnormal losses through
fire and other causes will ever be eliminated, it seems logical to assume
that a national program of forestry would justify reducing the loss
from fire to one half and from other causes to three fourths of the 1925-
29 estimates.

This basis of possible requirements and losses translated into terms
of forest drain for use in considering the future situation as to normal
timber requirements is briefly summarized as follows :

Type of drain

Saw timber
(million
board feet)

All timber
(million
cubic feet)

Lumber

32,000

6,207

Fuel wood

7,047

4,003

Pulpwood _ . . .

4,363

2,623

Miscellaneous products

8,121

2,533

Fire losses. ._

695

435

Other losses ...

2,552

739

54,778

16,540

REGIONAL INTERDEPENDENCE FOR TIMBER SUPPLIES

The extent to which some important consuming regions depend for
their timber supplies upon other regions is not always fully appre-
ciated. Figure 20 illustrates this relationship between production

238

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

and consumption for lumber and other products of saw timber. It
will be observed that the South and the Pacific Northwest are the two
outstanding producing regions. Both produce far more than they
consume. On the other hand, consumption in the other eastern
regions exceeds production by a very wide margin. This is most
notably so in the Middle Atlantic region.

In the earlier discussion on growth, it was pointed out that it does
not appear feasible to sustain permanently the 1925-29 rate of drain,

5 10 15 ZQ

BILLION FEET BOARD MEASURE

^5

Cut

B222 use

Current
Growth

FIGURE 20.— Annual saw-timber cut, use, and current growth contrasted, by regions.

and even less to increase it in the four importing regions of the East.
It is also shown that in the South, a considerable curtailment in the
1925-29 rate of drain appears to be inevitable in the not far distant
future even in the absence of an economic depression. The North
and South Kocky Mountain regions, though important locally, do not
cut any great figure in the national situation as to timber supplies.
If requirements are to continue on the basis outlined, the assurance of
ample supplies for all regions during the next few decades appears to
hinge largely upon the question of how far the Pacific Coast region

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

239

can go in making up the deficits in production in the four eastern
regions as the exports to other regions from the South fall off. To say
the least, it appears to present a very serious problem. It strongly
suggests, from the long-range standpoint, the wisdom of far-reaching
constructive measures for expanding supplies.

The corresponding relationships for all timber consumption and
production, as measured in cubic feet, are shown in figure 21. The

5- ROCKY I
MOUNTAIN 1

234
BILLION CUBIC FEET

Cut

Current
Growth

FIGURE 21. — Total annual timber cut, use, and current growth contrasted, by regions.

contrasts, though not so striking, because of the larger degree of
regional independence so far as fuel wood and other minor products
are concerned, is still just as significant in principle.

It is worth mention that the existing degree of interregional depend-
ence is the reason for a volume of commerce which is of considerable
importance to the railroads and other transportation agencies.
Figures 20 and 21 also show the growth for the several regions in
relation to production and consumption. The significance of these
growth relationships is brought out in the preceding discussion under
growth.

240 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

RELATION OF FOREIGN SUPPLIES AND MARKETS

Up to 1914 the trend of timber consumption was gradually upward
in most of the important timber-consuming countries outside of the
United States. (See following section, " Trends in World Wood Con-
sumption ".) Requirements for fuel wood tended to decrease, require-
ments for saw timber, and especially for pulpwood, to increase. When
normal activities were resumed after the World War, the same
tendencies continued until the beginning of the general economic
depression in 1929. Russia, the largest consuming country except
the United States and at the same time the possessor of the greatest
forest resource, had not yet reached the pre-war consumption level,
but her output of timber has been increasing rapidly and her plans
call for a large increase in consumption during the next few years, as
industrialization proceeds. Outside of Europe and North America,
very few countries are yet industralized, but the trend is in that
direction in many of them. Industrialization has always been accom-
panied by an increase in timber consumption — particularly of timber
for construction, secondary manufacture, and pulp. Softwoods are
preferred to hardwoods for a majority of uses. This preference seems
likely to continue if softwoods are available.

The world's softwood supplies are being depleted. The importing
countries and most of the exporting countries of Europe can increase
their production very little or not at all, because they are now cutting
up to the growth capacity of their forests. The only possible im-
portant sources of export supply are Russia, Canada, and the United
States. The depletion of Canadian forests has already gone so far
that no great increase in exports can be looked for. Russian forests
have also been seriously depleted during recent years, and the quantity
of timber economically available is believed to be insufficient to meet-
Russia's own requirements if the country develops according to plan.

It is doubtful whether Russian timber exports will maintain perma-
nently a level as high as her pre-war exports. If supplies from Russia
are cut off or reduced, as seems likely to happen within a few years,
importing countries will have to turn to other sources. The southern
pine and Douglas fir regions of the United States are the logical places
to obtain these supplies. They are strategically located with respect
to water transportation, and they can grow softwood timber faster
than almost any other large region in the world.

About one fourth of our timber consumption is hardwood. Tropical
hardwoods, particularly for special purposes, are now contributing to
a degree to this requirement, and they may be more of a factor in the
future. To place great reliance upon this source of supply would,
however, be to overlook certain definite obstacles. The tropical forests
in many regions have been depleted by centuries of misuse, burning,
and cutting, so that present stands are composed mostly of com-
paratively worthless trees. The extensive areas of relatively good
stands are characteristically composed of many species, only a few
of which have as yet become merchantable. Much study will be
required to determine the properties and uses, as well as suitable
methods of manufacture, for many of the most plentiful species.

In brief, the indications are strongly that the United States can
rely permanently upon foreign sources in no important degree for
timber supplies. Beyond this there exists a situation of world con-
sumption of softwood in excess of growth. This cannot continue

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 241

indefinitely and still permit the world's increasing softwood require-
ments to be met. Some students of the situation believe that world
markets for softwoods will be such that they could consume several
billion cubic feet of United States softwood supplies annually if
cheaply and abundantly available. The significance of this is that
our requirements for domestic consumption should not be the sole
measure of the markets for United States forest products. The possi-
bility of greatly increased exports should enter into the considera-
tion of a program of constructive use of the Nation's forest lands.

A PLAN OF FOREST LAND MANAGEMENT CONSISTENT WITH
NORMAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TIMBER

It has been estimated (see section " Forest Land the Basic Kesource ")
that after allowing for withdrawals of forest land mainly for recrea-
tion, there is available for permanent timber use some 508.6 million
acres of land. This includes commercial forest land and open land
not needed for agriculture but which, so far as soil and other natural
conditions are concerned, would be suited to timber growing.

How much of this available land, if it were under management for
timber production, would afford a sustained yield on saw-timber
rotations consistent with normal requirements? This will depend, of
course, upon the type, or rather, types of management imposed. It
does not seem economically practical to assume that a unified, blanket
intensity of management could be spread over all of the land available
for timber use. A combination of intensive forestry, extensive
forestry, and simple protection, as defined in the preceding discussion
of Timber Growth, is believed to be more logical. Such a combination
affords a wide range in estimated sustained yield through the
possibility of varying the acreages allotted to the several types of
management.

Three examples of theoretical combinations of management will
illustrate the wide range of results that may be obtained. (Table 25.)
The first is referred to for convenience as plan I. This, although
believed to represent a situation somewhat more favorable than that
which now exists, may be thought of as involving the minimum in the
way of a national program of forestry. It is what might possibly
result from putting forest fire protection on a satisfactory basis, mak-
ing a large curtailment in the overcutting in the eastern regions,
and expanding somewhat the areas now under intensive and extensive
forestry. It appears that this plan would develop a sustained yield
of between 10.5 and 11 billion cubic feet. This is 20 to 25 percent
more than the estimated present current growth, but far less than
either the 1925-29 drain rate or our estimate of normal reqirements.

242 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 25. — Comparative plans for intensity of management of available forest land

Management unit

Area

Growth
rate

Total annual
yield

PLAN I

Intensive forestry -

Acres
10, 000. 000

Cubic feet
per acre
66.7

Cubic feet
670, 000, 000

100, 000, 000

42. 1

4, 210, 000, 000

Protected relatively favorable for forestry

254, 100, 000

20.6

5, 230 000 000

Protected relatively unfavorable for forestry -_

69, 700, 000

7.3

510, 000, 000

74, 800, 000

Total..-

508, 600, 000

10, 620, 000, 000

PLAN II

Intensive forestry

100,000,000

66.7

6, 670, 000, 000

Extensive forestry

338, 900, 000

42. 1

14, 270, 000 000

Protected relatively unfavorable for forestry

69, 700, 000

7.3

510, 000, 000

Total

508, 600, 000

21 450 000 000

PLAN III

Intensive forestry

70, 000, 000

66 7

4 670 000 000

Extensive forestry — -

278, 900, 000

42.1

11,740,000,000

Protected relatively favorable for forestry

40, 700, 000

20 6

840 000 000

Protected relatively unfavorable for forestry -

69, 700, 000

7.3

510, 000, 000

Open

49, 300, 000

Total ---

508, 600, 000

17, 760, 000 000

Plan II envisions an extremely far-reaching application of intensive
and extensive forestry. It may be considered as an ideal which would
use for forestry all of the land estimated to be now available for that
use, and would also leave a comfortable margin for a large ultimate
increase in export trade or for other reasons above our estimate of
normal timber requirements. It would also afford the maximum in
the way of protection benefits and other non timber uses.

Plans I and II, at opposite extremes, will serve in some measure
to give a perspective to the timber-producing potentialities of our
available forest lands. Any student of the forest situation may
interpolate within this broad range such combination of areas allotted
to different types of management as he may deem consistent with
timber requirements, with the advantages of using for forestry all of
the land now available for it, and with other factors.

Plan III, which is the combination presented in detail in tables 22
and 23, is offered as a working basis for the formulation of a Nation-
wide program of forest-land use and forestry action consistent with
our estimate of normal timber requirements. Timber requirements,
rather than the use for forestry of all land available for it, is made
the controlling consideration. It does, however, visualize a very
great advance over the present situation, not only as to the amount of
sustained timber yield assured, but also in the acreage of land devoted
to forestry. It would mean, for example, the planting of some 25
million acres of land, or 13 times the amount estimated to have been
planted by all agencies up to this time. If fully effected, say, by the
close of the century, it would involve an annual increase of about a
million acres in area under intensive forestry. It would mean a very
great expansion of the area under extensive forestry. It would include
what might be termed satisfactory fire protection on the total area in
table 25, and a reduction in losses from disease, insects, etc.

It is believed that, from the standpoint of timber requirements, a
sustained annual yield of 17% billion cubic feet, such as this plan for

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 243

forest land use contemplates, is a sound, conservative objective for
the following reasons:

(1) Our estimate of normal requirements is 16.5 billion cubic feet.
A national program of forestry should be based upon a sustained yield
of at least a billion cubic feet more than this as a margin for safety.

(2) Beyond the estimated normal requirement of 16.5 billion cubic
feet is the ultimate probability that the United States may supply
the world softwood markets on a much larger scale than hitherto.

(3) Such a far-reaching and drastic program as that embodied in
this tentative set-up can hardly be expected to be brought to the
point of complete accomplishment. For example, short of sweeping
public regulation of privately owned forest lands and a large program
of further public acquisition, there is no means of insuring the practice
of forestry on anything like the acreage of forest lands involved in this
plan.

A very long time will be required, probably 60 to 80 years at least,
before anything approaching full accomplishment under plan II or
plan III can be realized. Moreover, the realization of such a plan
involves several major features, probably not all of which can be
carried forward at once with full speed. It is, therefore, fitting to
inquire what single feature deserves first consideration as measured
by its effect upon bringing sustained timber yield into balance with
requirements as promptly as possible.

The most unsatisfactory aspect of our present forest situation,
from the standpoint of timber use, is believed to be the tremendous
impoverishment of the growing stocks in the eastern regions. It is
one that has in the past had relatively little general recognition. By
and large, cutting has been at the expense of capital account. A
situation has been reached in these eastern regions where, according
to the estimates presented under the heading Sustained Yield Possi-
bilities in the preceding discussion of Timber Growth, regulated
growing stocks equivalent to the volume of present stands would
support, under saw timber rotations, a sustained yield equal only to
about two fifths of that which is caUed for by plan III.

Generally speaking, a forest property upon which stands are already
established, even though inadequately, can be developed into a
regulated sustained yield enterprise at less expense and more quickly
than one upon which established stands are largely lacking. The
relative importance of taking every advantage of the existing stands
in the East as the main basis for attaining a satisfactory growing
stock situation is, therefore, obvious.

In the opinion of the authors the safeguarding of existing stands
in the East and their development into adequate growing stock is the
most urgently needed constructive measure. This fact does not,
however, minimize the necessity of providing for an adequate planting
program for areas not likely to restock naturally, for the development
of adequate protection against fire, insects and disease, and for the
control of cutting in the western regions, to facilitate the conversion
of those forests to an adequate sustained yield basis. All of these
features are essential elements in the realization of either plan II or
plan III.

Recent trends in growth and drain on our forest resources, if con-
tinued, will further aggravate an already very unsatisfactory condi-
tion. Although we appear to have a potential forest land resource,

244 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

extensive enough to meet the nation's forest requirements, it will be
necessary, in order to meet such requirements, to effect a very great
extension in the practice of forestry and in measures to build up the
forest growing stock, and to protect and maintain this growing stock
on a sustained yield basis. In addition to the desirability of assuring
adequately that the requirements of the United States for timber
products and other forest uses and services will be met, wre have the
economic incentive for making constructive use of a huge area of
forest land which by and large is not susceptible of any other major
commercial use.

OUR NATIONAL TIMBER REQUIREMENTS

By FRANK J. HALLAUER, Principal Engineer

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 245

Lumber consumption trends 246

Pulpwood requirements 258

Railroad crossties 270

Fuel wood . 272

Naval stores 272

Minor products . 274

Summary 275

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this analysis is to review past experience and to
evaluate current trends in the consumption of wood and other im-
portant forest products in the United States, in order to throw as
much light as possible on what the Nation's normal needs for such
products, translated into terms of timber, may be in the future.
The study therefore has to do only with effective demand for forest
products as commodities of consumption, leaving to other discussions
the needs of the Nation for forests for such purposes as regulation of
stream flow, control of erosion, recreation, and fostering of wild life.

" Requirements" is not a wholly satisfactory term to define the
extent of past, present, or future use of wood. Where timber is
abundant and easily accessible, " requirements" inevitably absorb a
far greater quantity of this cheap and adaptable raw material than
would come into demand under other circumstances; competition
from other materials is reduced; substitution moves rather in the
opposite direction, and wood replaces other more costly and less
readily accessible materials. On the other hand, where wood is scarce
and hard to get, actual use is not a measure of what requirements
might be under more favorable conditions. The community or
region may not consciously demand more wood and may yet be at a
disadvantage in a number of ways through lack of an abundant
supply of wood at hand.

For want of a better term, however, "requirements" is used, not
to denote irreducible needs, but as a measure of use by consumers
afforded a reasonable latitude in choice of materials.

Consumption, while deficient in certain respects as a gage, is the
only practical measure of past and current commodity requirements
and is therefore accepted in this analysis with such allowances as
judgment dictates. An absolute measure of requirements would
necessarily be quite theoretical, and unreliable at best.

Since no one can say precisely what our timber requirements will
be at any future time, this report does not attempt to do so. Sound
policy making, however, must aim to anticipate requirements with
some degree of probability, and this report is an attempt to supply

245

246 A- NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

part of the needed data. Unfortunately the record of past experience
is none too good, and the present investigation emphasizes the
importance of better statistics of requirements and more systematic
study of the factors affecting them.

COMMODITIES CLASSIFIED

The report is confined to the more important industrial products
and to the use of wood for domestic fuel, omitting products which
have only minor influence on the volume of demand. Lumber, which
includes material for construction and for boxes, furniture, vehicles,
railroad cars, woodenware, toys, and other factory products, repre-
sents by far the largest industrial consumption of timber, and is of
the greatest present concern. Pulp wood comes next. While far
below lumber in importance if gaged by quantity of timber con-
sumed, it is of vast importance when measured by value of products
and the part that pulp products play in our civilization. Railroad
ties are important both as to quantity of timber consumed and
service rendered. In naval stores (turpentine and rosin), the United
States is the principal world producer, exporting almost twice as
much as all other countries combined. These five classes of forest
products — lumber, pulpwood, railroad ties, fuel wood, and naval
stores — will be the principal subject of discussion.

The study is carried only through 1929 for most items, partly
because data for later years are not complete, but more particularly
because the present depression overshadows completely all other fac-
tors in commodity consumption since that year. The present low
consumption, as a phase of the depression, is a general condition that
does not in itself indicate a permanent change for one commodity any
more than for another. For instance, the decline of 50 percent in
lumber consumption from 1929 to 1931 should not be confused with
the normal declining trend which will be shown to have prevailed
since 1906. Other manufacturers have experienced abnormal declines
since 1929, and there seems no reason for assuming that lumber prod-
ucts will not recover from the effects of the depression in proportion
to the recovery of all other commodities.

LUMBER CONSUMPTION TRENDS
STATISTICAL

From 1809 to 1906 the trend of lumber consumption in the United
States was constantly upward; since 1906 it has been downward, both
per capita and in the aggregate. Consumption for the years 1809 to
1931 is shown in table 1 by balancing production, imports, exports,
and changes in stocks. In figure 1 the total and per capita lumber
consumption trends since 1899 are shown in relation to the trend for
all manufactures and the population curve. Total lumber consump-
tion declined from a maximum of approximately 45 billion board feet
in 1906 to 34 billion in 1929. While there may be some question as
to whether 1929 was a "normal " year in view of a generally recognized
depression in agriculture, the collapse of the stock market, and other
adverse factors, yet there is reason to believe, as explained later, that
lumber consumption in that year was approximately of the expected
normal proportions. The more precipitous drop since 1929 registers

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

247

the abnormal effect of the current general depression and cannot be
interpreted as a change in the long-time trend. Per capita consump-
tion climbed from 460 board feet in 1899 to a maximum of 525 board

INDEX
NUMBERS

ALL MANUFACTURES ^-N, S

V

/\

'03 '07 Ml M5 '19 '23 '27 1931

1.— Lumber consumption trends, compared with trends of all manufactures and population.

FIGURE

feet in 1906, and then declined to 275 feet in 1929. The figure re-
ported for 1931 is only 130 board feet.

TABLE 1. — Lumber production, exports and imports, and consumption, specified

years, 1809-1931

VAAF

Production

Changes in

Visible con-

Per capi-
ta con-

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

mill stocks

sumption

sumption
(rounded)

1809

Mft. b.m.

Mft. b.m.

Mft. b.m.
400 000

Mft. b.m.

Mft. b.m.

Mft. b.m.

Mft. b.m.
400 000

Ft. b.m.
55

1819.---

550,000

550 000

55

1829---.

850, 000

850,000

65

1839...

1, 604, 000

1,604,000

95

1849

5,392 000

5 392 000

235

1859..-

8, 029, 000

8, 029, 000

260

1869.

12, 755, 543

134, 370

332 692

12 953 865

340

1879

18 091 356

275 102

355 304

18 171 558

365

1889-...

27, 038, 757

571,075

648, 174

27* 115*856

435

1899- ...

26,371,336

8, 706, 259

35, 077, 595

1, 004, 464

423,928

34, 497, 059

460

1904..-.-

32, 538, 000

10, 462, 000

43, 000, 000

2, 156, 581

746, 556

41, 589, 975

505

1905-.-

32, 960, 000

10, 540, 000

43, 500, 000

2, 012, 049

938,001

42, 425, 952

505

1906-- ..

34, 900, 000

11,100,000

46, 000, 000

2, 317, 477

1, 178, 701

44, 861, 224

525

1907---

34, 946, 000

11, 054, 000

46, 000, 000

2, 501, 486

1, 056, 965

44, 555, 479

510

1908--..

31,945,000

10, 055, 000

42, 000, 000

2, 064, 748

894, 877

40, 830, 129

460

1909--.

33, 896, 959

10, 612, 802

44. 509, 761

2. 293, 242

1. 083. 018

43. 299. 537

475

168342°— 33— vol. 1-

-17

248

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 1. — Lumber production, exports and imports, and consumption, specified
years, 1809-1931 — Continued

Production

Changes in

Visible con-

Per capi-
ta con-

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

mill stocks

sumption

sumption
(rounded)

1910

Mft. b.m.
34 029 000

Mft. b.m.
10 471 000

Mft. b.m.
44, 500, 000

Mft. b.m.
2, 652, 197

Mft. b.m.
1, 117, 504

Mft. b.m.

Mft. b.m.
42, 965, 307

Ft. b.m.
465

1911

33 020 000

9 980 000

43 000 000

3 009 434

925, 488

40,916 054

435

1912

34 695 000

10, 305, 000

45, 000, 000

3, 038, 173

, 084, 720

43, 046, 547

455

1913

34 065 000

9 935 000

44, 000, 000

3, 293, U37

,031,016

41, 719, 979

430

1914

31 481 000

9 019 000

40 500 000

2 294 475

949, 136

39 154 661

400

1915

29 655 000

8, 345, 000

38, 000, 000

, 526, 618

, 096, 287

37, 569, 669

380

1916

31 344 000

8 656 000

40,000 000

, 571, 545

, 265, 561

39,094 016

395

1917

28, 325, 000

7, 675, 000

36, 000, 000

, 346, 519

, 234, 447

35, 887, 928

350

1918

25 277 000

6, 723, 000

32, 000, 000

, 233, 706

, 246, 712

32, 013, 006

310

1919

27 407 130

7 144 946

34 552 076

, 677, 843

, 190, 845

34 065 078

325

1920

27, 610, 000

7, 390, 000

35, 000, 000

, 916, 166

, 416, 175

34, 500, 009

325

1921

23 444 000

5, 556, 000

29,000,000

1, 511, 396

902, 216

28, 390 820

260

1922

28, 922, 000

6, 328, 000

35, 250. 000

1, 960, 639

, 563, 211

34, 852, 572

315

1923---
1924..-
1925— -
1926—
1927
1928. ..
1929---.
1930---
1931--.-

33, 220, 000
31, 549, 000
33, 284, 000
32, 078, 000
29, 975, 000
29, 852, 000
29, 813, 345
21, 363, 000
13, 875, 000

7, 780, 000
7, 951, 000
7, 716, 000
7, 672, 000
7, 275, 000
6, 898, 000
7, 072, 687
4, 737, 000
2, 675, 000

41, 000, 000
39, 500, 000
41, 000, 000
39, 750, 000
37, 250, 000
36, 750, 000
36,886,032
26, 100, 000
16, 550, 000

2, 472, 352
2, 712, 501
2, 648, 023
2, 870, 145
3, 181, 590
3, 382, 281
3, 364, 470
2, 410, 210
1, 770, 058

, 993, 327
,766,068
, 875, 101
, 932, 862
,781,116
, 493, 448
, 570, 082
, 240, 120
758, 454

-798, 000
+247,000
-774,000
+391, 000
-425, 000
+1,718,000
-1,411,000
+757, 058
+658, 692

39, 722, 975
38, 800, 562
39, 453, 078
39, 203, 717
35, 424, 526
36, 579, 167
33, 680, 644
25, 686, 968
16, 197, 088

355
345
345
335
300
305
275
210
130

Forest Service compilation.

In view of the minor fluctuations evident in figure 1, which fail to
represent for any one or two- years what may be termed the normal
trend, per capita consumption can be expressed perhaps more soundly
on the basis of 10-year averages, as follows :

Feet board measure

1900 to 1909____ 495

1910 to 1919 395

1920 to 1929 315

Statistics do not show specifically the decline in lumber consump-
tion in each field of use, but some break-down is necessary in an effort
to find the reasons for the changes that have occurred. The best
figures available for the purpose are given in table 2. The period
1912 to 1928 was chosen because statistical studies had been made of
consumption in factory products and in sash, doors, and millwork for
those years; the balance of total lumber consumed was assumed to
have been used in construction. The years 1912 to 1928 cover in the
main the period of declining consumption in which we are interested.

Factory products held practically the same relative position in the
1928 distribution as in that of 1912, and fell off only 8 percent in
lumber consumed. The percentage of lumber estimated as going to
construction in 1928 (72 percent) was only slightly less than that in
1912, but the actual difference of 5.6 billion feet is striking. When
this total is analyzed, it is found that the direct-to-construction item
accounts for all but 100 million feet of the loss in all lumber between
the two years. The decline in direct-to-construction products might
suggest a falling off in building were it not for the gain of 32 percent
in sash, doors, and millwork, which can only be explained by an
increase in building.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 249

TABLE 2. — Tentative distribution of national lumber consumption for 1912 and 1928

Class of use

1912 consump-
tion

Per-
cent

1928 consump-
tion

Per-
cent

Gain (+) or
loss (-)

Per-
cent

Factory

Ft.b.m.
11,200,000,000

26

Ft.b.m.
10 300 000 000

28

Ft.b.m.
—900 000 000

_g

Construction:
Sash, door, and millwork. .
Direct to construction

2, 500, 000, 000
29, 300, 000, 000

6
68

3, 300, 000, 000
22, 900, 000, 000

9
63

+800, 000, 000
-6, 400, 000, 000

+32
-22

All lumber „ .

43, 000, 000, 000

100

36, 500, 000, 000

100

-6, 500, 000, 000

— 15

As a matter of fact, the period from 1919 to 1929 witnessed a boom
in construction. Not only did the building industry reach a peak,
but both general industrial output and consumption of general goods
were at a maximum. This would suggest that a lumber consumption
for 1928, even larger than that of 1912, might have been expected.
And if lumber use had merely followed general trends, the year 1928
would have seen a per capita consumption at least equal to that of
1912, and on that basis alone the total consumption would have been
54 billion board feet. But the fact of a 5.6 billion feet decline remains.

FACTORS AFFECTING TRENDS OF LUMBER USE IN CONSTRUCTION

Construction, particularly as regards the use of lumber, can be
separated into rural and urban classes. Urban construction can be
further divided into two distinct types — residential and nonresiden-
tial. Table 3 presents a tentative distribution of lumber consumption
in these major fields of construction, as explained in the course of the
discussion.

THE PASSING OF AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION

The farm is one of our greatest markets for lumber. The total
number of farms in the United States has remained almost stationary
in the neighborhood of 6}£ million for the past two decades, whereas
during the previous two decades the number increased at an average
rate of 90 thousand annually.

TABLE 3. — Tentative distribution of direct-to-construction lumber, 1912 and 1928

Class of use

1912 consump-
tion

1928 consump-
tion

Gain (+) or
loss (-)

M.ft.b.m.
15,000
9,000
5,300

Per-
cent
51
31

18

M.ft.b.m.
5,500
12,000
5,400

Per-
cent
24
52
24

M.ft.b.m.
-9,500
+3,000
+100

Per-
cent
63

Urban residential

+33

+2

Urban nonresidential

Total

29,300

100

22,900

100

-6,400

-22

In other words, by 1910 agriculture had passed the period of expan-
sion so typical of our earlier history. Prior to 1910, if we assume
50,000 board feet as a reasonable estimate of the lumber required for
the average farm fully equipped, there was a prospective market for
4K billion feet of lumber annually for 90,000 new farms. Inasmuch
as the process of equipping a farm usually extends over a number of
years, the full loss of this market would not be felt immediately, but
should show itself definitely within a decade or two after expansion
had ceased.

250 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It is true that since 1910 there has been a pronounced shifting of
farm location, as illustrated for an intermediate 5-year period by
figure 2. Abandonment in the eastern "general-farm" region has
been concomitant with acquisition in the western " grain-farm"
region. But although farm expansion from 1910 to 1930 may have
offset farm abandonment as to the number of farms, a corresponding
offset does not apply when the value of buildings is considered. In
the regions of abandonment farm buildings averaged $2,700 to $3,100
in value, but in the regions of expansion they averaged only $700 to
$2,200. This difference in value of improvements involves a corre-
sponding difference in building-material requirements, which would
make itself felt most acutely in the item of lumber.

AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION

In addition to the halt in agricultural expansion, and of greater
significance in the 1928 rural lumber consumption as estimated in
table 3, was the enforced curtailment in normal repairs and replace-
ments on account of the agricultural depression that set in imme-
diately after the World War. Such records as are available indicate
that expenditures for building repair and replacement on the farms
in 1928 were about half those for 1912, after correcting for price
index.

On the pre-war estimate of 2,000 feet per farm as the normal annual
lumber requirements for repairs, and new construction, a total of
12% billion board feet may be figured as required for the Nation's
6,400,000 farms in 1912. Another 2% billion feet annually may be
added for rural other than farm construction, making the total rural
lumber consumption for 1912 about 15K billion board feet.1 If, as ex-
plained later, the drop in agricultural expansion reduced this by 4}£ bil-
lion board feet a year, there would remain a requirement of 1 1 billion
board feet for normal repair and replacement. When again approxi-
mately half of this amount is deducted for the loss due to post-war
agricultural depression, an estimated rural consumption of only some
5K billion board feet remains for 1928.

This, it is believed, is a fairly dependable check on the figure of
5% billion board feet assumed in table 3, and its significance does not
rest on the accuracy of the division as between agricultural expansion
and depression. Decline in lumber consumption due to slowing up
of agricultural expansion may have been less than 4}£ billion board
feet and the decline due to post-war depression more than 5% billion
board feet, but the conclusion is inescapable that these two conditions
are the major factors in declining rural lumber consumption trends
since 1912.

COMPETITION OF MATERIALS IN URBAN CONSTRUCTION
RESIDENTIAL

Urban and rural-urban 2 population, increasing at the rate of
2 million inhabitants annually from 1920 to 1928, set up a requirement
for some 480,000 new family-dwelling accommodations annually.
There was also an accumulated shortage up to 1921 estimated at

1 This is the estimate generally used for rural lumber consumption as of that period, and is the one used
in table 3.

2 Rural-urban is that part of the population, adjacent to urban centers, which is urban in character but
outside the city limits.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

251

from 1 million to 1% million family accommodations. These require-
ments, along with the effects of a building boom, resulted in a volume
of urban residential construction of some 700,000 family units in

Each dot represents
5000 acres

B

Each dot represents
5000 acres

FIGURE 2.— Maps showing for period of 1919-24 decreases and increases in acreage of all harvested crops:
A, decreases; B, increases (based on Census data).

1928. The abnormal volume of such construction from 1922 to
1928 is illustrated in figure 3.

The effect of this expansion on the use of wood is an interesting
study. The small all-wood house apparently uses as much lumber as
ever. But the all-wood house is not as common as it once was. There
are more materials to choose from. In a six-room house that would
require 20,000 feet of lumber, brick veneer may displace 2,800 feet of
10-inch siding, or fiber board may displace 3,000 feet of lumber for

252

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

sheathing; nor does this take any account of the materials that may
displace wood lath and shingles, which are not measured as lumber.

In multifamily housing the displacement of lumber by other
materials to date has been even more pronounced than in the single-
family dwelling. This type, which has developed almost entirely
since 1912, made up some 50 percent of new housing by 1928. New
multifamily housing is quite generally either of masonry-wall or all-

320

(Basis: Values for 1915= 100 Per Cent)

1915

27

1931

RESIDENTIAL

(CONSTRUCTION
BASED ON SQ.FT.
OF FLOOR AREA)

ACTUAL CONSTRUCTION, ALL CLASSES

Simple average of structural steel bookings,
common brick bookings, Portland cement
Shipments, loadings of sand, gravel and stone,
shipments of face brick and enamel ware

FIGURE 3.— Construction trends: Residential and all classes as related to urban and total population.

fireproof construction, and involves a reduction in floor area per
person. It is estimated that use of other materials and reduction of
floor area in multifamily housing reduced lumber requirements for
total new housing in 1928 by 20 or 25 percent per family as compared
with 1912. If multifamily housing alone can account for such a
decline, 25 percent would be a conservative estimate for the relative
displacement of lumber in single- and multiple-unit urban residential
construction during the period considered.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

253

On the basis of 20,000 board feet of lumber for the average single-
family dwelling of 1,500 square feet floor area, the lumber require-
ments for 700,000 such units would be 14 billion board feet, and about
15 percent for repairs would make an estimated total annual require-
ment of 16 billion board feet. But reduction by a factor of 25 per-
cent, as explained above, leaves an actual lumber requirement of
12 billion board feet for urban residential construction in 1928, as set
up in table 3. The 1912 estimate of 9 billion board feet is based on
residential construction of some 400,000 family units, considering
only a small percentage as represented by multifamily housing of
fireproof construction.

URBAN NONRESIDENTIAL

The above assumptions as to 1928 lumber consumption in rural
construction and urban residentail construction leave a balance of
5.4 billion board feet in 1928 and 5.3 billion board feet in 1912 to be
accounted for in urban construction other than residential. In 1928
construction for railroad companies (excluding car construction, which
comes under factory consumption, and ties, which are reported
separately) accounted for a billion board feet. Commercial, educa-
tional, and public buildings accounted for another billion board feet.
There is left 3.4 billion board feet for wharves, highways, engineering
works, and all miscellaneous construction. While the estimated
lumber consumption in all nonresidential construction was about the
same in 1928 as in 1912, records show that the 1928 volume of con-
struction was twice that of 1912, That is, relative lumber con-
sumption in this field was reduced one half by the use of other
materials.

LUMBER CONSUMPTION IN FACTORY PRODUCTS

Lumber consumed in fabricated products or by wood-using indus-
tries ranges from one fourth to one third of our total lumber con-
sumption. Requirements in this field for 1928 were only a billion
feet below the 1912 figure, a decrease of less than 8 percent. The
statistics for comparison, principally from Forest Service studies in
the wood-using industries, are given in table 4.

TABLE 4. — Lumber consumed

fabricated products and by wood-using industries
1912 and 1928

Products

1912

1928

Boxes and crates

Mft. 6.771.

4 550 016

M ft. b.m.
4 981 230

Car construction .

1,262,090

1,009,408

Furniture -

944, 678

1 198,612

Vehicles and vehicle parts:
Nonmotor - ..

569, 144

80,841

Motor

170,000

867,875

Total of 4 principal industries

7 495 928

8 137 966

Woodenware, novelties, and dairymen's, poulterers', and apiarists' supplies

405, 286

183, 336

Agricultural implements

321, 239

142 943

Chairs and chair stock ._

289, 791

165, 392

Handles

280, 235

124,654

Musical instruments

260, 195

107,502

Tanks and silos

225, 620

66,328

Ship and boat building ..

199, 598

128,342

Fixtures

187, 133

130,030

Caskets and coffins

153, 395

156,108

Refrigerators and kitchen cabinets . ..

137, 616

145, 745

Matches and toothpicks...,

85,442

123,426

254

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 4. — Lumber consumed in fabricated products and by wood-using industries,
1912 and 1928 — Continued

Products

1912

1928

M ft. b.m.
79,502
79, 292
76,067
74,668
69, 459
66,240
65, 478
65, 148
64,127
59, 947
55, 827
35, 863
28, 927
27,451
25, 192
24,299
21,112
20, 313
20, 041
18, 189
16, 988
15,030
12, 879
11,981
10, 019
9,218
9,065
8,197
7,894
6,888
5,325
5,022
4,947
2,277
2,094
687
490
74

Mft. b.m.
38, 674
24,236
3,350
21, 346
39, 627
48, 742
20, 947
44, 022
38,429
12,760
10, 831
900
39, 410
1,572
29,973
29,996
2,980
16, 273
39, 982
66, 750
22
15, 510
17, 033
15, 087
46
751
4,672
4,888
3,511
48, 597
5,984
19
1,250
28, 452
1,741
698
1,411
9,044
16, 223

Shade and map rollers

Machine construction - -

Boot and shoe findings - - -

Picture frames and moldings

Shutters spools, and bobbins- _ ._

Pumps and wood pipe - --

Pulleys and conveyors

Toys

Gates and fencing - - -

Sporting and athletic goods

Patterns and flasks . ...

Bungs and faucets -------- .. -..-

Plumbers' woodwork

Pencils and pen holders _ - . -

Electrical machinery and apparatus

Professional and scientific instruments .- ------

Brushes

Dowels --- - - - - - - --. -

Elevators - -- - - - ------

Saddles and harness

Playground equipment -. -.- -

Butchers' blocks and skewers

Clocks

Signs and supplies. .. .. -_ - -- .--.-

Printing material

Weighing apparatus. . -.. - ... .. .

Whips, canes, and umbrella sticks - .

"Rfnnms a,nrj carpet, swp.ppp.rs

Firearms

Artificial limbs

Tobacco pipes .-. .. .-

Airplanes . .. „ _ .. .

Motion pictures and theatrical scenery

Total of 50 minor industries . __

3, 651, 767

2, 179, 545

Total, all uses..

11,147,695

10,317,511

The first four items — boxes and crates, car construction, furniture,
and vehicles — represent roughly 80 percent of the total factory con-
sumption for 1928. Requirements for these 4 increased 9 percent
from 1912 to 1928, whereas requirements for the other 50 items,
which account for only 20 percent of total consumption, decreased
about 1.5 billion feet, or, roughly, 40 percent.

BOXES AND CRATES

Consumption of lumber for boxes and crates is by far the largest
item in factory consumption of lumber, and in 1928 it amounted to
nearly half the total. The 1928 consumption, while 10 percent
greater than that in 1912, represents a decline of 18 percent from a
peak of 6 billion board feet in 1914, and this despite a 25 percent
increase since 1918 in tonnage of package freight. The competition
of fiber boxes accounts for the difference.

Competition between lumber and fiber board for boxes rests
chiefly on costs to the user. The average wooden box weighs about
three times as much as a fiber box of the same size. Freight and
handling charges on the wooden box, however, may be somewhat
less than three times what they are on the fiber box, because the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 255

former averages larger and distributes the charges over larger con-
tents. Improvements in design and -construction have reduced
the weight of wooden boxes about 25 percent in the last 10 years.

Further reduction could be made by more general application of
information now available, but this would not materially broaden
the field of wooden containers, as the main reduction in weight
would come in the large sizes where there is as yet little competition
from fiber. Changes that are taking place in transportation and
handling methods favor the fiber box. From present indications it
does not seem likely that lumber requirements for boxes and crates
will go above the 1928 figure, and a decline is not improbable.

CAR CONSTRUCTION

The use of lumber in railroad car construction in 1928 showed a
decline of 252,682,000 board feet, or 20 percent, as compared with
1912. This was most likely due to a lesser volume of construction
rather than to disuse of wood as such. That freight-car construction
fluctuates violently is shown by such figures as 335,000 cars built in
1905 and 65,000 in 1908; 190,000 in 1909 and 98,000 in 1910; 180,000
in 1912 and 80,000 in 1914; 98,000 in 1925 and 72,400 in 1927. There
has been a great change in type of freight-car construction as affecting
consumption of lumber, but most of this change developed prior to
1912. The 275,000 all-wood freight cars built in 1905 constituted 82
percent of all cars; in 1910 the 38,000 all-wood cars were only 39
percent; in 1912, 8,500 such cars were 4.7 percent; in 1925, 7,700
amounted to 7.9 percent; and in 1927, the 350 all-wood cars made up
less than 0.5 percent of the total.3 But in the part-wood freight car
the changes in design that are being made constantly are not greatly
changing the average wood consumption per car, which in 1912 was
about 2,000 feet. Passenger cars, which are few in number as
compared with freight cars, show a similar trend away from wood
construction

FURNITURE

Consumption of lumber for furniture increased by more than a
quarter of a billion board feet from 1912 to 1928, or 25 per cent.
This is not so far out of line with the increase ir population as to
indicate increasing displacement of lumber by other materials.

More recent statistics from the Census Bureau throw valuable
light on the trend as between wood and metal furniture. From
1925 to 1929 metal furniture increased 17% percent in factory value,
while wood furniture (including fiber, rattan, reed, and willow)
made a 10 percent gain. The entire gain for metal was in furniture
and fixtures for offices, stores, and public buildings, and for labora-
tories, hospitals, barber shops, and the like. The use of metal
actually fell off 31 percent in factory value in household furniture,
while use of wood increased 7 percent.

Metal furniture made up only 5 percent of the value of household
furniture in 1929. On the other hand, it contributed one third of
the value of furniture and fixtures not for household use, and here
it had held its own for several years.

3 From Report No. 117, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

256

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

MINOR FACTORY ITEMS

The more conspicuous changes in minor factory items have occurred
as the result of social and economic changes and in many instances
are largely compensatory. For example, the development of the
automobile and motor truck vastly curtailed buggy and wagon
requirements, but in so doing it actually increased the use of wood.
In fact, most of these developments indicate, not the direct competi-
tion of other materials with wood, but rather a change in services
which producers of lumber and wood products may or may not have
been prepared to meet.

In some of the most modern and popular items, an upward trend
of wood consumption as between 1912 and 1928 may be confusing.
Thus, the annual production of motor vehicles increased 21 percent
from 1924 to 1928, but lumber consumption in motor vehicles dropped
4 percent, indicating a decline in amount of lumber per vehicle.
Similarly, while consumption of lumber for airplanes has increased
since 1912, the amount of wood per plane has decreased in favor of
other materials.

The amount of plumbing has increased from 1912 to 1928, but the
use of lumber for plumber's work has decreased, as table 4 shows.
Manufacture of laundry appliances has more than doubled during
the period, but the amount of lumber used in such appliances shrunk
one half. The same tendencies may be even more pronounced in
other products.

TENTATIVE NORMAL LUMBER REQUIREMENTS

Table 5 presents an estimate of normal annual lumber requirements
for the country in its present stage of general development. The
total arrived at is 31 to 34 billion feet. By normal requirements are
to be understood the volume of consumption that may logically be
expected when general economic conditions are such that the country
is conscious neither of depression nor of unusual prosperity. It thus
needs no proof that normal consumption will not be attained under the
stress of the existing general depression, or the agricultural depression
of earlier origin, which held rural construction below normal while
industrial expansion was pushing urban construction far above normal.

TABLE 5. — Estimated normal lumber consumption as of 1930 in comparison with

totals for 1912 and 1928

Class of use

1912

1928

Estimat-
ed normal
1930

Rural construction

Billion
ft.b.m.
15 0

Billion
ft.b.m.
5 5

Billion
ft.b.m.
10 0

Urban residential ..

9.0

12.0

6-8.0

Urban nonresidential _.

5.3

5.4

3-3.5

Sash, doors, and millwork

2 5

3 3

2-2 5

Factory products

11 2

10 3

10 0

Total

43 0

36 5

31-34 0

For the sake of the argument, however, let the normal present
lumber requirements estimated in the table be assumed as a base line.
The translation of these figures into normal long-time trends will

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 257

depend very much on such influences as population, national wealth,
and economic organization. Stabilization of population, changes in
design and construction practices, the use of new materials, multi-
family housing, and changes to extensive farming in some regions and
to intensive in others will have a direct effect on normal lumber
consumption for residential and farm building construction. Devia-
tions from normal in one line of consumption may have much or
little effect in another. Separate consideration of each major line of
consumption is necessary, both as to direction of trend and percentage
of total volume.

With a return of normal agricultural conditions there is a prospec-
tive increase of some 5 billion board feet over the 1928 rural lumber
consumption. Is the currently reported city-to-farm movement
likely to add appreciably to this potential market recovery? If recov-
ery of urban residential construction involves a return to a lower
price class, where the all-wood house has predominated, how will
that be reflected in lumber consumption? The answer to such ques-
tions would shed much-needed light on future lumber requirements.
Indications point to a steadily declining birth rate and a national
population figure approaching stability between 1950 and 1970. A
prospective increase in population of only 10 million persons from
1930 to 1940 would require proportionately less living accommoda-
tions than the 16-million increase from 1920 to 1930. Against this
trend the increasing age of existing construction is to be considered.
The number of dwellings has doubled in the 40 years since 1890, so
that in the greater proportion of dwellings, the replacement factor
has not had time to develop. A 60-year replacement factor, for
example, applied to present dwelling accommodations would even-
tually set up a requirement, even with a stable population, for some
450,000 new family units annually, which was approximately the pre-
war rate.

HARDWOODS VERSUS SOFTWOODS

The declining consumption of lumber is reflected about equally by
hardwoods and softwoods since 1906, as shown in table 1. From 1919
to 1928 hardwoods represented some 19 percent of total lumber con-
sumed, as against perhaps 23 percent in the period 1909 to 1918.
Much the same factors are at work in both hardwood and softwood
consumption, although perhaps not to the same degree in specific
cases. Changing rural demand would no doubt affect softwoods
more than hardwoods, as would also the use of brick veneer, stucco,
or other exteriors in place of wood in urban residential construction.
On the other hand, the sustained use of wood in furniture manu-
facture means more in terms of hardwood than of softwood require-
ments.

There is also a factor of competition between hardwoods and soft-
woods. It is known that in the motor vehicle industry softwoods
have displaced hardwoods for some purposes. The trend to up-
holstered furniture has meant some use of softwoods in place of
hardwoods. Competition in wood flooring exists not only between
different hardwoods, such as maple and oak, but also between hard-
woods and softwoods.

The foregoing are only a few of the factors which must be seriously
studied before future lumber requirements can be predicted with a
satisfactory degree of assurance.

258 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PULPWOOD REQUIREMENTS
STATISTICAL

Wood is today the preeminent raw material for the manufacture
of paper, boards, and other fiber products, a fact that is clearly
shown by table 6.

Attempts have been made from time to time, and are still being
made, to pulp other fibrous plants, both cultivated and wild. Esparto,
straws, bagasse, and cornstalks are being used with varying degrees
of success. But wood is the most compact form of cellulose fiber

1810 1830 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930

FIGURE 4.— Per capita consumption of paper and boards, as related to use of wood and rags

that exists in nature and is hence the cheapest and easiest raw material
to handle. Wood pulp was first used as a substitute for rags in
making paper only 70 years ago and today about 85 per cent of
our paper has its origin in the forests.

Figure 4, plotted on logarithmic ordinates, shows that the trend of
per capita consumption of paper has maintained a uniform rate of
increase over a 120-year period, during which time wood pulp has
displaced rags as the chief raw material, and domestic woods have
failed to supply all our pulp wood requirements. Such a record of
increasing use cannot be set aside, even though current consumption
may indicate a change in trend. Increasing per capita consumption,
together with increasing population, has brought our total paper
consumption to 12# million tons in 1930 as shown in table 7.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 259

TABLE 6. — Raw materials consumed in United States papev manufacture

Calendar year

Wood pulp'

Rags

Paper stock

Manila
stock

1879

Short tons
22 570

Short tons
200 005

Short tons

Short tons

1889

349 917

246 892

139 061

1899

1 172 880

234 514

•JCC 1QO

1904

2 018* 764

294 552

588 543

107 02Q

1909

2 826 591

357 470

983 882

1914.._

3, 490 123

361 667

1 509 981

121 170

1919

4 019 6Q6

277 849

1 854 386

1929

6, 289, 318

739 422

3 841 942

128 800

Calendar year

Straw

All other

Total raw
materials

Total paper
produced

1879

Short tons
245 838

Short tons
1 218

Short tons
642 257

Short tons
452 107

1889

355 131

1 615 863

1899

367, 305

2, 230, 193

2 167 593

1904

304, 585

3 313 473

3 106 696

1909

303, 137

29 422

4 617 582

4, 216 708

1914

307 839

97 276

5 888 056

5 270 047

1919

353, 399

106 850

6 729 174

6 190 361

1929

575 263

i 626 812

12 201 557

11 140 235

1 Production: exports and imports, not reported, are assumed to be equal.

2 Reported as clay, rosin sizing, rosin, and casein.

Source: Bureau of the Census.

TABLE 7. — Paper: Consumption by kinds and per capita, specified years beginning

1810 i

Year

Newsprint

Book

Boards

Wrapping

Quantity

Percent

Quantity

Percent

Quantity

Percent

Quantity

Percent

1899

Tons
569,000
^883,000
1, 159, 000
1, 576, 000
1, 824, 000
1, 760, 000
1, 892, 000
2, 196, 000
2, 002, 000
2, 451, 000
2, 814, 000
3, 073, 000
3, 517, 000
3, 492, 000
3, 561, 000
3, 813, 000
3, 496, 000

26
29
27
29
29
28
29
28
33
31
30
29
30
29
29
29
28

Tons
314,000
495,000
689,000
926,000
846,000
800,000
838,000
1, 060, 000
707,000
968,000
1, 235, 000
1,365,000
1, 408, 000
1, 265, 000
1, 321, 000
1,471,000
1, 370, 000

15
16
16
17
14
13
13
13
11
12
13
13
12
11
11
11
11

Tons
394,000
521,000
883,000
1,292,000
1,805,000
1, 927, 000
1,940,000
2,301,000
1,641,000
2, 154, 000
2, 802, 000
3,290,000
3, 637, 000
3, 737, 000
4, 009, 000
4, 398, 000
4,014,000

18
17
21
24
29
30
30
29
27
27
30
31
31
31
32
33
33

Tons
535,000
644,000
763,000
892,000
814,000
859,000
825,000
1,003,000
770,000
, 059, 000
, 177, 000
,287,000
,435,000
, 515, 000
, 457, 000
,586,000
,556,000

25
21
18
16
13
13
13
13
13
13
13
12
12
13
12
12
13

1904...

1909

1914...

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921...

1922

1923

1925

1926

1927

1928. ..

1929

1930

Imports added to United States production and domestic exports deducted.

260

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 7 — Paper: Consumption by kinds and per capita, specified years beginning

1810— Continued

Year

Fine

All other

All kinds,
quantity

Per

capita,
pounds

Quantity

Percent

Quantity

Percent

1810

Tons

Tons

Tom
23,000
212,000
238,000
278,000
2 127, 000
391,000
457,000
1,121,000
2, 158, 000
3, 050, 000
4, 224, 000
5, 496, 000
6, 256, 000
6, 387, 000
6, 493, 000
7, 861, 000
6, 054, 000
8, 003, 000
9, 340, 000
10, 590, 000
11,807,000
11,915,000
12,448,000
13, 351, 000
12, 251, 000

1
2
4
7
8
20
18
36
57
74
93
112
122
123
124
148
112
146
167
184
203
202
208
220
199

1819

1839 - -

1849

1859

1869

1879

1889

1899

113,000
142,000
193,000
244,000
276,000
348,000
306,000
371,000
230,000
356,000
374,000
472,000
495,000
502,000
538,000
593,000
564,000

5
5
5
4
4
5
5
5
4
4
4
5
4
4
4
4
5

233,000
365,000
537,000
566,000
691,000
693, 000
692,000
930,000
704,000
1, 015, 000
938,000
, 103, 000
, 315, 000
,404,000
,562,000
,490,000
, 251, 000

11
12
13
10
11
11
10
12
12
13
10
10
11
12
12
11
10

1904

1909

1914

1917

1918

1919 -

1920

1921

1922

1923

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

2 Domestic production only, value of exports and imports being approximately equal. No data for 1829.

A computed table based on data credited in the tables of compiled record. Printed as table 3, U.S.D.A.
Bulletin 1241, 1810-1922. Tons of 2,000 pounds.

ANALYSIS OF TRENDS IN PAPER CONSUMPTION

The products designated as paper fall into six general classes —
fine, book, newsprint, wrapping, boards, and all other. Table 7 and
figure 5 afford a comparison of these classes in relation to total use.

NEWSPRINT

Of all papers newsprint is the most important, being exceeded in
volume only by boards. Demand for newsprint for newspaper publi-
cation is concentrated in the large cities, nearly 90 percent of the
total production being consumed by 15 percent of our dailies.4
Total consumption of newsprint increased 60 percent from 1920 to
1930, and since newspaper circulation increased only 37 percent in
that period, 6 it is evident that size of issue is also a large factor in
consumption. This is borne out by figure 6 which shows increasing
bulk of newspapers and increasing pounds per capita following same
general trend. Numbers of pages are based on 1 week's figures per
year for 10 papers taken at random from different sections of the
country. They are not necessarily the average for the country, but
are considered as indicative.

Back of the growth in newspaper circulation are, of course, the
factors of literacy and population increase, more particularly in urban
centers. Urban population increase in the United States during the
last decade was the largest it has ever been. As the increase becomes
less that factor will diminish.

4 From a report by H. A. Laird, manager, traffic department, Chicago Tribune, 1930.
s From a report by R. S. Kellogg of the Newsprint Service Bureau, Oct. 27, 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

261

What the future size of our newspapers will be is more difficult to
estimate than is the probable circulation trend. Advertising largely
controls the number of pages, and reports indicate that a decline in
advertising since 1926 has reduced the size of newspapers from a
maximum presumably occurring in that year. Advertising will in all
probability recover from the depression along with other commercial
activities, but there is now the question of competition between forms
of advertising. H. A. Laird has estimated that the newspapers'

1904

1909

1914.

1919

1924

1929

FIGURE 5.— Paper consumption by kinds.

share of the total spent for advertising in 1922 was 62 }£ percent, but
only 46 percent in 1929.

BOARDS

On a gross tonnage basis boards have taken first place from news-
print. (See fig. 5.) They fall far below newsprint, however, in pulp
requirements. Only some 20 percent of boards, by weight, is new
pulp, the remainder being supplied chiefly by reuse of waste paper.

Container board is the largest item, and there is reason to believe
that the saturation point for such boards has not yet been reached.
The increasing demand for fiber containers is clearly due to the far-
reaching change from bulk to package handling of commodities.
Package freight originating on class 1 railroads, for example, increased
more than 25 per cent from 1920 to 1928, a time when there was no

262

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

increase in total freight originating on these roads. Further increase in
the use of fiber containers is favored by changes in transportation and
handling methods which reduce shipping hazards, by the economies
possible with prepacking of merchandise, and by the probability that
research will further improve and strengthen the fiber box.

Fiber boards as construction material are a comparatively late
development, but their use for insulation against heat, cold, and sound,
for concrete forms, and for various temporary purposes has grown
rapidly. Boards of this character, aggregating more than 120,000
tons in 1927, are not included in the statistics for paper consumption.
Some of them are made of straw, some of cornstalks, some of cane,

NUMBER Or PAGES PER COPY
— ro ro ro oi

-0 -NO>NO>0^0t^

ro

70

60

50 J5
$

-s

kl
Q.

30 g

^
20 ^

10

0
30

/

/

/ /

APPROXIMATE
AVERAGE

.//

RATE OF ^
INCREASE
IN PAGES

X,

/
/
/
/

/

/

/
/

y

22

s''^

ts

\

PERCAPI
CONSUMP'
OF NEWSf

1

S
•'

s

s

TA

riON

3RIMT

80 '90 1900 '10 'ZO 19

FIGURE 6.— Increase in number of pages per copy of daily papers since 1880.

and some of wood. A demand for them has been established, and
the prospects are that their use will increase.

OTHER PAPERS

Fine papers constitute only about 5 percent of all pulp products and
have held closely to this proportion for 30 years. Consumption of
both book and wrapping papers has doubled in the last 20 years, but
the percentage fell from 16 or 18 percent of total paper consumption
in 1909 to about 12 percent in 1929. All other paper consumption
has held to about 12 percent of the total for the past 30 years.

FUTURE PAPER REQUIREMENTS

The forecasting of paper requirements presents in some respects an
even more difficult problem than that of lumber requirements. In

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 263

the attempt to anticipate lumber requirements the factors dealt with
have more or less stability, once they are definitely set up. That
there should be a dwelling for every family, for example, would prob-
ably be generally accepted, and there is little point in considering a
prospect of two dwellings per family. Size of family and size of
dwelling are changing, but reasons for the changes are evident and the
trends can be set up as normal.

On the other hand, there is as yet no accepted standard for the
number and quantity of newspapers per family. In Washington,
D.C., the average for the city is 2}£ daily papers per family, whereas
rural sections can no doubt be found where there are no daily papers.
Will the saturation point be 1, 2, or more daily papers per family?
Further, how large is the daily paper to be? Similar questions may
be raised as to books and magazines. There is still a large undevel-
oped field for all cultural paper products. Will it remain undeveloped?

Kequirements for boards and probable new paper products are
equally uncertain. There is no allotment per capita or per family
that can be recognized as marking the saturation point, nor can
anyone say when such a point will be reached.

Referring again to figure 5, it is seen that consumption of all papers
increased at a greater rate after 1920 than before. If the trend after
1920 represents a new "normal," its continuation would suggest a
total paper consumption of 28 million tons by 1950. On the other
hand, the post-war increases may have been abnormal. Decline in
consumption since 1929 is looked upon by some as marking a return
to a lower basis. What that means is not at all definite, since paper
consumption has certainly not suffered as severely in the present de-

Eression as have manufactures generally. A return to pre-war trends,
owever, would indicate a total paper consumption in the United
States considerably below 28 million tons by 1950. Bernard Navarre,
president of the Association of Paper Manufacturers of France,
in a paper presented at the International Forestry Congress in Paris,
in 1931, predicted that in 30 years world paper consumption will
increase from 20 million tons to 60 million tons. If the United States
retains its relative position, this is a forecast of over 30 million tons
annual consumption here by 1960. A report by Charles W. Boyce,
of the American Paper and Pulp Association, in October 1931, sug-
gests a 1950 paper consumption of 24 million tons and equivalent
pulpwood requirements of 22 million cords.

For conversion of total paper consumption to the equivalent of
pulpwood, the rough relation of 1 cord of wood to a ton of pulp
may be assumed. This ratio is subject to some variation depending,
for example, upon the proportion of waste paper reused and the pro-
portion of such reuse to total consumption. With boards holding
closely to the general trend since 1 9 1 8, no great change in the conversion
factor is in sight. Timber requirements for pulpwood must also take
into account the use of waste wood, which is small thus far, represent-
ing only some 1% percent of wood converted into pulp in the United
States and some 3^ percent of our total pulpwood requirements.

RAYON AND CELLOPHANE

Besides pulp requirements for paper manufacture, there is a rela-
tively small but rapidly growing pulp requirement for other cellulose

168342°— 33— vol. 1 18

264 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

products, of which the chief at present is rayon. Rayon is yet too
new a product to permit its future pulp requirements to be estimated
with any defmiteness. Its status in only a few years has changed
from that of ''artificial silk" to a new textile in its own right, com-
peting no longer with silk alone but also with cotton and even with
wool.

The growth of the industry is outlined in the following paragraphs
from Commerce Reports (of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce) for March 21, 1932 :

In 1911 American rayon yarn output was calculated at 320,000 pounds. Ten
years later, in 1921, production had expanded to 15,000,000 pounds. Even more
impressive than the 144,350,000 pound output of 1931 is the fact that within the
trade it is stated that actual production capacity as of July 1931 was nearly
195,000,000 pounds.

Latest official records for the rayon industry of this country are those obtained
in the 1929 census of manufacturers, revealing 28 producing plants as compared
with only 19 in 1927, the date of the preceding census — practically a 50 percent
expansion in 2 years. In the latter year there were 38,938 wage earners, with
annual compensation totaling $44,704,000. The aggregate value of products
was $149,276,000.

As to the amount of wood pulp used in the production of rayon in
1931, the following is quoted from the bulletin of the News Print
Service Bureau for March 15, 1932 :

The best estimates available are to the effect that approximately 52,000 tons
of wood pulp were used for rayon in the United States last year. This is 5 percent
of the consumption of bleached sulphite pulp and 2.4 percent of the total con-
sumption of sulphite pulp, bleached and unbleached combined.

Estimates in the trade are to the effect that there were also made in the United
States last year something like 80 million pounds of cellophane in which there
was used perhaps 50,000 tons of bleached sulphite pulp.

Assuming that a like amount of sulphite pulp was used in our 1931
production of cellophane, the total pulp requirement for rayon and
cellophane together may be estimated at 100,000 tons, which would
represent about 5 percent of our sulphite pulp consumption and some-
thing like 10 percent of our domestic production of such pulp. How
soon or how largely this estimate will be superseded remains to be
seen.

IMPORTS IN RELATION TO PULPWOOD REQUIREMENTS

Imports are the largest single factor to be weighted in the conver-
sion of pulp and paper consumption to domestic wood requirements.
Table 8 shows what part of the imports have come to the United
States as paper, what part as pulp, and what part as wood. Total
requirements are here made to include our exports of paper in addition
to home consumption. In 1899, 22 percent of the total requirements
was supplied by foreign wood. The percentage increased steadily to
56 percent in 1925, and was 54 percent in 1930.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

265

TABLE 8. — Foreign contributions to United States paper requirements, specified

years, beginning 1899

Year

United States paper require-
ments in pulp wood equivalent

Domestic
consump-
tion

Paper
exports

Total

Imports from Canada

Pulp-
wood 2

Wood pulp and its
pulpwood equiv-
alent

Paper and its pulp-
wood equivalent

1899.
1904-
1909-
1914.
1917.
1918.
1919.
1920.
1921.
1922-
1923-
1925.
1926.
1927.
1928.
1929.
1930.

Cords
1, 950, 000

3, 259, 000

4, 420, 000

5, 886, 000

6, 783, 000
6, 366, 000
6, 806, 000
8, 300, 000
6, 649, 000
9, 148, 000
9, 924, 000

10, 733, 000
12, 129, 000
12,197,000

12, 939, 000

13, 780, 000
13, 034, 000

Cords

125,000

138,000

152, 000

185,000

478,000

500,000

620,000

433,000

239,000

235,000

189,000

232,000

212,000

239,000

273,000

417,000

370,000

Cords
2, 075, 000

3, 397, 000

4, 572, 000
6, 071, 000

7, 261, 000
6, 866, 000
7, 426, 000

8, 733, 000
6,888,000
9, 383, 000

10,113,000
10, 965, 000
12, 341, 000

12, 436, 000

13, 212, 000
14, 197, 000
13, 404, 000

Cords

369,000

574,000

794, 000

830,000

774,000

745,000

1, 032, 000

1, 099, 000

817,000

,050,000

, 236, 000

, 088, 000

, 277, 000

, 224, 000

, 409, 000

, 242, 000

858,000

Tons
31,511
113,585
164, 404
316, 735
438, 986
571, 675
519,212
655, 144
402, 846
645, 416
720, 726
880, 453
864, 876
776, 999
784, 981
802, 665
735, 864

Cords

51,000

183,000

204,000

422,000

629,000

973,000

853,000

1, 129, 000

681,000

1, 120, 000

1, 178, 000

1, 438, 000

1, 416, 000

1, 288, 000

1, 304, 000

1,313,000

1, 179, 000

Tons

88

11, 879

16,941

282,279

497, 276

606,132

674, 963

720, 439

675, 136

926, 977

1, 151, 489

1, 354, 913

1, 788, 099

1, 897, 307

2, 069, 833

2,359,117

2, 170, 185

Cords

6,000

27,000

378,000

660,000

805,000

856,000

921,000

880,000

1,204,000

1, 445, 000
1,709,000

2, 270, 000
2, 414, 000
2, 639, 000
2, 957, 000
2, 721, 000

Year

Imports from Norway, Sweden, Finland,
and Germany

Wood pulp and its
pulpwood equivalent

Paper and its pulp-
wood equivalent

Imports from all other countries

Pulp-
wood

Wood pulp and

its pulpwood

equivalent

Paper and its
pulpwood
equivalent

1904.
1909.
1914.
1917.
1918.
1919.
1920.
1921.
1922.
1923.
1925.
1926-
1927.
1928.
1929-

Tons

5,494
43, 398
129, 365
348, 940
237, 390

6,534
113,414
242, 253
284, 980
601, 765
639, 120
745, 747
829, 132
855, 404

1,050,824
1, 065, 778

Cords

11,000

70,000

258,000

705,000

461,000

13,000

230,000

462,000

527,000

1, 202, 000

1, 195, 000

1, 417, 000

1, 593, 000

1, 648, 000

1, 770, 000
1, 998, 000

2, 005, 000

Tons

8,564

929

25,411

31, 189

3,698

396

922

57, 671

148, 482

169, 358

260, 212

164, 285
142, 280
171, 658

165, 046
153, 250
179, 207

Cords

15,000

1,000

36,000

54,000

6,000

1,000

1,000

72,000

200,000

247,000

341,000

209,000

181,000

212,000

203,000

177,000

211,000

Cords

Tons

312

5,189

13,354

1,465

6,000
238,000

3,390
8,900
9,274
11,054
23,310
37, 414
41,725
41, 365
46, 314
34,016
28,575

Cords

1,000

8,000

27,000

20,000

1,000

6,000
15,000
18,000
21,000
40,000
70,000
81,000
80,000
90,000
66,000
56,000

Tons
6,919
59, 021
12,054
12, 741
16,184
12, 449
7,800
15,580
18,420
28,800
32, 846
24, 124
32, 079

41, 782
44,990

42, 342
42, 577

Cords
11,000
79,000
16,000
20,000
22,000
18,000
2,000
20,000
25,000
41,000
41,000
28,000
34,000
43,000
46,000
40,000
37,000

PULPWOOD EQUIVALENT OF TOTAL IMPORTS

Year

From Canada

From Norway, Swe-
den, Finland and
Germany

From all other coun-
tries

Total for-
eign con-
tributions

Percent-
age of
United
States
require-
ments

1899 .-

Cords
420,000
763,000
1, 025, 000
1, 630, 000
2, 063, 000
2, 523, 000
2, 741, 000
3, 149, 000
2, 378, 000
3, 374, 000
3, 859, 000
4, 235, 000
4,963,000
4, 926, 000
5, 352, 000
5, 5-12, 000
4, 759, 000

Percent
92
83
75
67
81
98
92
85
76
69
70
71
72
71
72
71
65

Cords
26,000
71,000
294,000
759,000
467,000
14,000
231,000
534,000
727,000
1, 449, 000
1, 536, 000
1, 626, 000
1, 774, 000
1,860,000
1, 973, 000
2, 175, 000
2, 215, 000

Percent
6
8
22
31
18
1
8
14
23
30
28
27
26
27
26
28
30

Cords
12,000
87,000
43,000
40,000
23,000
18,000
8,000
35,000
43,000
62,000
81,000
98,000
115,000
123,000
136,000
113,000
331,000

Percent
2
9
3
2

Cords
458,000
921,000
1,362,000
2, 429, 000
2,553,000
2,555,000
2, 980, 000
3, 718, 000
3, 148, 000
4, 885, 000
5, 476, 000
5, 959, 000
6, 852, 000
6,909,000
7, 461, 000
7,800,000
7, 305, 000

Percent
22
27
30
40
35
37
40
43
46
52
54
54
56
56
56
55
54

1904

1909

1914

1917

1918

1919

1920

2
2
2
2
2
1
5

1921

1922

1923

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930--

1 Includes Newfoundland and Labrador.

2 Imported as such for consumption by mills in the United States.

A computed table based on data credited in the tables of compiled record. Combines table 27 and table
28, U.S.D.A. Bulletin 1241, 1899-1922. Tons of 2,000 pounds. Cords of 128 cubic feet.

266 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

If, according to Boyce's estimate, American paper consumption
in 1950 is to be the equivalent of 22 million cords of wood, and if
domestic wood hereafter supplies 45 percent of the total requirement,
the consumption of domestic pulpwood in 1950 will be only 9.9
million cords. If domestic wood continues to lose ground in competi-
tion with foreign resources, the figure will be even less. However,
with adequate timberlands of our own there is no justification for any
plan that does not look to providing for total pulpwood requirements
independent of imports.

The primary cause for rapid increase in our relative dependence
upon foreign resources has been the insufficiency of pulpwood in our
older spruce-pulp producing regions, that is, New England, New
York, Pennsylvania, and the Lake States, to meet increased require-
ments. The industry has had to go to more distant sources, either at
home or abroad. Figure 7 shows graphically how our newer regions
have been developed from a comparatively small place in 1904 to
supply half the domestic wood used in 1929. Consumption from this
source increased nearly fourfold in the 10 years beginning in 1919.
Even so, domestic wood was unable to hold its relative position in
competition with imports, dropping from 60 percent of total require-
ments in 1919 to 45 percent in 1929.

Newer woods as well as newer regions occupy an increasing place
in the domestic pulping industry, but without any great decrease in
the relative amount of spruce in our total paper consumption. It is
true that spruce wood, both domestic and imported, pulped in our
own mills increased but little from 1904 to 1929, and furnished only
22 percent of our total wood requirements in 1929 as compared with
67 percent in 1904. (See fig. 8.) But assuming imports of pulp and
paper to represent also requirements for spruce, which is more or less
the case, then spruce supplied approximately 80 percent of our wood
requirements in 1904, dropped to 70 percent in 1919, and has practi-
cally held that position since. The extent to which spruce continues to
dominate the industry is sometimes lost sight of by considering only
domestic pulp production.

In 1929 spruce represented some 46 percent of all wood consumed
in domestic pulp production, hemlock 16 percent, pines 16 percent,
and all other woods 22 percent. The use of hemlock may be taken to
represent substittuion for spruce in the production of mechanical and
sulphite pulps, and the use of pine to represent a shifting of pulp
production to sulphate.

The relative shift to broader bases of supply is further illustrated by
figure 9. There has been little change in the quantity of mechanical
pulp made from domestic wood since 1904, but whereas this wood
constituted 32 percent of total wood requirements in 1904, it was only
9 percent in 1929; in the same period dependence on foreign timber
resources for mechanical pulp increased from 10 percent to 18 percent
of the total requirement. Domestic wood for sulphite pulp made up
36 percent of our requirements in 1904 and only 19 percent in 1930,
while dependence on foreign resources increased from 15 percent to 28
percent of the total. The situation is almost reversed in the sulphate
field. Sulphate pulp represented only 2 percent of total pulpwood
requirements in 1909, practically all imported. By 1923, imports of
sulphate pulp represented 6 percent of total wood requirements, but
domestic production had grown up to the same proportions. By 1930

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

267

TOTAL WOOD
REQUIREMENTS
(INCLUDING OUR
PAPER EXPORTS)

IMPORTS (WOOD,
^X^S PULP, AN DRAPER)*^

s.^ \\"\\ \x\\\>k\\\\>v\^ ^ •>• \\ >> >SX\\\\X\NV\\S^:

DOMESTIC PULPWOOD
FROM OLDER REGIONS

1904

1909

1914

1919

1924

19Z9

FIGURE 7 —Dependence on imports for our pulpwood requirements has increased despite development

of new domestic sources.

268

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

domestic production had increased to 13 percent and imports were
still only 6 percent of total requirements.

The significant fact illustrated by figure 9 is the importance of
timber resources to our pulp and paper industry. Growth of domestic
sulphate production in competition with imports is accounted for by
the extension and adaptation of a pulping process to abundant wood
resources of the South, and it goes far toward demonstrating that with
an equally favorable raw-material situation domestic industry could

-rr-1- TOTAL

PULPWOOD
PULP AND
PAPER

SPRUCE

IMPORTED

DOMESTIC

1904

1909

SPRUCE PULPWOOD
(DOMESTIC)

1914

I SPRUCE PULPWOOD,
PULP AND PAPER
| (IMPORTED)

1919 1923 '25 '27'28'29

HEMLOCK PINES

OTHER PULP
AND PAPER

(I NCL. EXPORTS)

FIGURE 8. — Imports in relation to trends in pulpwood requirements — spruce versus other species. Spruce
has dropped from 67 percent in 1904 to only 22 percent in 1929 of wood used in domestic production of
pulp, but still made up 70 percent of total requirements in 1929 compared with 80 percent in 1904.

compete successfully in the mechanical and sulphite fields also. That
should be a sound objective, whether it means growing of the pulp-
wood species now preferred by industry or adapting the pulping
process to utilize other domestic woods, or both.

Development of the domestic industry provides a market for timber
crops and employment for labor. Our present importation of the
equivalent of 7 million cords of wood annually is equal to a timber
crop from perhaps 7 million to 15 million acres, depending on growing
conditions, and these figures may be doubled by 1950.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

269

THOUSAND
CORDS

1200

800

400

1904- 1909 1914- 1919 1923 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 I93O

SODA PROCESS

6

II I I I I I I I I
L v* m m m m m m'm m

4-400
4000
3600
3200
2800
24-00
2000
1600
1ZOO
800
400

0
2800

24-00
2000
1600
1200
800
4-00

LEGEND

•H Domestic
Pulpwood

| Imports
(Wood, Pulp
and Paper)

''22"= Percentage
of Total
for Year

SULPHITE PROCESS

23

30

31

18/2

m

MECHANICAL PROCESS

17

16

19

19

29

18

28 -

19

1904- 1909 19K 1919 1923 1925 1926 1927 192Q 1929 1930

FIGURE 9.— The effect of ample supply of suitable wood is shown by the successful competition of domestic
pulpwood with imports of wood, pulp, and paper in the sulphate field, contrasted with increasing
dependence on imports for sulphite and mechanical pulps.

270

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Pulp wood, pulp, and paper imports are shown in terms of wage
earners employed in figure 10. The conversion is based on output
per man in the production of both pulp and paper in the United
States, as reported by the Bureau of the Census for 1929. Output
per man has increased since then, but not enough to affect measurably
the converting factor. Woods labor, which the census reports do not
include, has also been taken into account on a basis of 300 cords of
wood per man per year. This is all utilization labor, leaving the
additional factor of labor in growing the timber crop.

On the above basis, our imports of foreign pulps, pulp woods, and
paper as of 1929 were equivalent to full-time employment for more
than 70,000 wage earners, which is nearly half as many as were actu-

1909 1914 1919 1924

FIGURE 10. — Imports of wood, pulp, and paper converted to wage earners.

1929

ally employed in the entire domestic industry. This import business
has developed almost wholly since 1904, and most of it since 1919.
The figure will increase as our paper requirements increase, unless
with our domestic pulpwood resources better means are found to
meet the competition of imports.

RAILROAD CROSSTIES

The number of crossties purchased during 1929 (including bridge
and switch ties reduced to crosstie equivalents) amounted to
95,521,200 ties. This is the lowest for any year for which records are
available from 1906 to 1929. (See table 9.)

There is considerable irregularity in the number purchased from
year to year, so that it is difficult to show from the record just what
the trend is, although it appears to be downward. The high figure
of 1907 has not been reached since, nor does the average for the years
1923 to 1929 reach the average for the years prior to 1923. A down-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

271

ward trend can be explained by preservative treatments and mechani-
cal protection of ties, and by decline in railroad construction.

According to the records of the American Railway Engineering
Association, the average figure for renewals on the principal railroads
was 261 ties per mile for the 5-year period ending with 1915. In 1929
the 5-year average was 180 ties per mile, marking a steady decline of
31 percent. It is not improbable that this trend may continue until,
possibly by 1945 or 1950, the average annual requirement for replace-
ments is less than 125 ties per mile. Requirements for several
railroads are already below that figure.

The railroad mileage in the United States has decreased since 1916,
as shown in table 10, but the total track mileage, including supple-
mentary trackage, sidings, and yards, has increased about 3,000 miles
per year since 1924.

TABLE 9. — Recorded purchase of crossties, 1906—29

Year

Ties purchased

Year

Ties purchased

1906

Number
102, 834, 042

1915

Number
321 400 000

1907

153 703 000

1923

1908

112,466,000

1925

111 341 759

1909

123 751 000

1927

113 708 292

1910

148, 231, 000

1929

95 521 201

1911

135 053 000

TABLE 10. — Steam railway mileage in the United States, by 2-year periods, 1900-28 1

Year

Total
miles
of
road

Total
track
mileage

2-year in-
creases
in total
track
mileage

1900

193, 346

1902 .

202, 472

1904

213 904

1906

224, 363

1908

223 468

1910

240, 293

351 767

1912

246 777

371 238

19 471

1914.

252, 101

387,208

15 970

1916

254 037

397 014

9 gQ6

1918

253 529

402 343

5 329

1920

252 845

406 579

4 236

1922

250, 413

409, 359

2 780

1924

250 156

415 028

5 669

1926

249 138

421 341

6 313

1928 .

249, 309

427, 750

6 409

1 From Interstate Commerce Commission reports.

It is impossible to say how long this rate of increase will continue,
but the encroachments of automobiles, busses, and trucks upon
rail business and the increasing use of trucks and busses by the
railroads themselves make it very probable that new construction,
together with the annual number of ties required for it, is due for
an eventual or early decline.

Should tie renewals drop to 120 per mile annually by 1950, then
51 million ties will be required in that year to maintain the 1928
trackage of 427,750 miles. If the present increase of 3,000 miles

272 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

per annum should be maintained, the 66,000 additional miles by
1950 would require replacement of 8 million ties annually, and the
new construction that year at 3,000 ties per mile would itself require
9 million ties, making the total requirement for the year 1950 more
than 68 million ties.

FUEL WOOD

Fuel wood is next to lumber in quantity and represents some 28
percent of the total timber consumption of the United States. Fuel
wood cut is estimated at over 61 million cords as of 1929. Although
this is a large figure, it is considerably less than earlier estimates,
as might be expected in a mechanical age.

The decline in fuel wood consumption is largely a matter of changes
in requirements and competition of other materials, paralleling
somewhat the changes in lumber requirements. Perhaps the first

treat change in domestic fuel requirements came with the intro-
uction of the base-burner and coal. Without attempting to list
all changes chronologically, there may be mentioned gasoline and
gas stoves for cooking, the furnace or central heating plant using
coal, oil, and gas, and electricity with electric appliances. That
these changes are still under way is shown in the recent advances
in distribution of gas made possible by welded pipe. There were
over 40 thousand miles of natural-gas trunk lines in 1929.

Considering wood as chiefly a domestic fuel, the extent of competi-
tion of other fuels is illustrated by an increase in domestic con-
sumers of natural gas from roughly a million in 1909 to 5 million in
1929. Domestic consumption of bituminous coal increased from 46
million tons in 1909 to 82 million tons in 1927, the latest year for
which this figure is available. The domestic consumption of anthra-
cite coal was approximately 48 million tons in 1927.

It is impossible to arrive at actual displacement of wood by other
fuels from information available, but the above figures are at least
suggestive. At 7K tons per dwelling, the domestic coal consumption
of 130 million tons in 1927 would supply fuel for over 17 million
dwellings, or roughly the equivalent of all urban dwellings. This coal
consumption was supplemented by artificial and natural gas, fuel
oil, and other minor fuels. The typical domestic consumer consumes
more than one fuel; that is, there is an overlapping in number of
consumers of coal, oil, gas, electricity, and wood. Furthermore, coal,
oil, and gas compete with one another just as they compete with wood.

The decline in fuel wood requirements has been very largely in the
urban field. And since consumption of wood for fuel is now largely
confined to rural sections where its use will most likely be maintained,
requirements may be approaching a minimum at current figures. The
general opinion is that consumption of fuel wood has actually increased
since 1929, due to present economic conditions. This may be only
temporary, but it is unmistakable evidence of advantages in having a
supply of fuel wood available.

NAVAL STORES

The term "Naval Stores" applies to rosin and spirits of turpentine
obtained from either living trees or the resin-impregnated stumpwood
and heartwood of dead trees of longleaf and slash pine of the south-
eastern and Gulf States. They are used in many industries for many

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

273

purposes, the distribution among uses in the United States being
shown in table 11.

The naval stores produced in the United States constitute about
68 percent of the world's supply. Industries of the United States
consume 55 percent of the turpentine and about 48 percent of the
rosin leaving a large balance of both for export.

Table 12 shows the production of naval stores from gum (from the
living tree) and from wood (stumps and heartwood) for the period
1910 to 1929, inclusive^

The requirements of industry and commerce have, until the years
1930 to 1932, when the depression has upset markets the world over,
taken the total annual production without more than temporary
accumulation of stocks in the primary concentration ports. While
the carry-over at primary ports for the past three seasons has been
and still is a serious burden on the producers of naval stores, there is
small reason to doubt the orderly absorption of these surpluses when
general economic conditions improve.

The relative proportion of gum naval stores and wood naval stores
depends very much upon available timber for gum production.

TABLE 11. — Percentage distribution of total turpentine and rosin consumption in
various manufactures in the United States as of 1928 1

Industry

Tur-
pen-
tine

Rosin

Industry

Tur-
pen-
tine

Rosin

Paper and paper size

Percent
0.1

Percent
36.0

Matches and woodenware.. _. ...

Percent

Percent
0.2

Paiiit and varnish

80.4

29.3

Oils and greases

0.9

(3)

Soap

(2)

16.9

Shipyard supplies

1 3

.2

Rosin oil, greases, and printing ink-

.1

5.9

Vehicles _ ..

2.9

.1

Linoleum, oilcloth, and roofing
Sealing wax and insulation

(2)
1.2

5.2
3.2

Shoe polish and leather dressing. ..
M iscellaneous

10.9

8

.2

4

3

1 7

Pharmaceuticals and chemicals

1.0

.7

Total

100.0

100.0

1 From Gamble's International Naval Stores Year Book, 1930-31.

2 Less than Ho of 1 percent.

3 Included with rosin oil.

TABLE 12. — Naval stores production in the United States, 1910-29

Turpentine

Rosin 3

Gum

Wood

Total

Gum

Wood

Total

1910

Thousand
gallons
29,750

Thousand
gallons
750

Thousand
gallons
30,500

Thousand
barrels
1,970

Thousand
barrels
14

Thousand
barrels
1,984

1911

31,900

1,000

32,900

2,125

23

2,148

1912

34,000

1,200

35,200

2,267

98

2,365

1913

32,000

1,250

33, 250

2,132

130

2,262

1914 - - -

27,000

576

27, 576

1,706

34

,740

1915

23,500

700

24,200

1,565

40

,605

1916

26,750

1,000

27,750

1,782

89

,871

1917

23,700

1,800

25,500

1,531

160

,691

1918

17, 050

1,300

18,350

1,115

123

,238

1919

18,300

1,535

19,835

1,237

158

,395

1920 --. -.

24,450

1,750

26,200

1,577

180

,757

1921

24, 378

442

24,820

1,662

53

,715

1922

22, 395

1,859

24,254

1,500

152

,652

1923

27, 175

2,607

29,782

1,790

201

,991

1924 - -

26, 072

3,261

29,333

1,721

258

,979

1925

23,922

4 3, 123

27,045

1,579

289

,868

1926 . -.

25,500

3,983

29,483

1,700

365

2,065

1927

31,549

4,333

35,882

2,072

409

2,481

1928

28,000

4,323

32, 323

1,865

432

2,297

1929

31, 321

4,802

36, 123

1,976

447

2,423

1 Compiled by Bureau of Chemistry. Includes trade and association estimates.
! Crop year beginning Apr. 1.

3 Quantities given in barrels of 500 pounds.

4 Incomplete; does not include destructively distilled wood turpentine.

274 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

A shortage of timber for production of gum would be offset by
increased production of wood naval stores, but a return to gum naval
stores could be expected with recovery of timber resources.

Gallons of turpentine and barrels of rosin do not express so directly
the equivalent timber requirement as do feet of lumber or cords of
pulpwood. Timber requirements for naval stores can be expressed
in acres better than in board feet or cords. The acreage would depend
upon factors of size or trees and number of trees per acre, which
vary from time to time and one locality to another. Based on typical
stands at the present time, it would require more than 18 million
acres of turpentine orchards to produce annually the 1929 volume of
naval stores. This estimate is based upon an average production
of 30 units of naval stores to the crop 1 and an average of 10 active
cups per acre. Improved turpentining practice and forest manage-
ment would reduce this figure by increasing the yield per crop and
increasing the trees per acre.

Gum naval stores production cannot be maintained without the
timber, but timber required does not constitute the forest drain in
this case. A tree after being turpentined is available for lumber or
other wood products. The loss in volume of wood usable as lumber
is represented by the butt of the turpentined tree and is estimated
at a half billion board feet measure for naval-stores production as
of 1929.

MINOR WOOD PRODUCTS

Variations in the minor wood products shown in table 13, with
the exception of shingles and veneer logs, have held within a rather
narrow range over the past 30 years. These products not only
occupy a relatively small place in total requirements, but with the
exceptions noted, give no evidence of consumption trends of special
significance.

Shingle production, which dropped 50 percent from 1910 to 1920,
showed resistance to further loss thereafter. It is possible that the
large volume of residential construction from 1923 to 1928 had some-
thing to do with this stability and that for a normal volume of con-
struction a further decline in shingle production might be expected.

Consumption of veneer logs increased rapidly prior to 1910. There
was no great change from 1910 to 1920, but consumption practically
doubled from 1919 to 1929. This is due undoubtedly to a growing
appreciation of the advantages of plywood and the extension of its
use into new fields of construction. The prospects are for further
increase in the consumption of veneer material, and because this
represents an increasing demand for high-grade logs, it has consider-
able significance in relation to future timber requirements. The ratio
of veneer logs to saw timber was roughly 1 to 100 in 1910 and 1 to
30 in 1929.

Table 13 shows little change in quantity of distillation wood
consumed. There has been, however, a decline in hardwood con-
sumption balanced by an increase in softwood. The latter is account-
ed for by increased production of wood turpentine and rosin, which
is discussed under naval-stores requirements. Decline in consump-
tion of hardwoods for distillation has been due to the manufacture

1 A crop is 10,000 cups. A unit consists of 1 cask (50 gallons) of spirits turpentine and 3H barrels of rosin.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

275

of the same products by other processes and from other raw materials
at costs that could not be met by the average wood-distillation plant.

TABLE 13. — Consumption of wood in minor products, specified years, 1900-29
[Forest Service in cooperation with the Bureau of the Census]

Year

Poles pur-
chased

Shingles
produced

Veneer logs
(domestic)

Distillation
wood

1900

Pieces

Thousands
12, 102, 017
14, 546, 551
15,340,909
11,858,260
11,824,475
12, 106, 483
14, 907, 371
12, 976, 362
12,113,867
12, 037, 685

Thousand
board feet 1

Cords

1904

1, 049, 503
676, 739
1, 195, 130
1, 282, 120
977,844
1, 265, 157
1, 450, 439
1, 221, 359

1905

181, 146
329, 186
348, 523
382, 542
435, 981
477, 479
444, 886

1906

3, 574, 666
3, 283, 268
3, 249, 154
3, 738, 740
3, 870, 694
3, 418, 020

1907 . .

1908

1909 .

1910

1911

1912

1914

1, 042, 517

1915

4, 077, 964

8, 459, 378
9, 371, 333

1916

1917

8, 696, 513
5, 690, 182
9, 192, 704
6, 938, 854
6, 843, 187
8, 131, 242

1918

1919

576, 581

1, 442, 675

1920

1921

400, 388

482,503

1922

1923

3, 060, 794

7, 506, 869
6, 862, 385
7, 324, 027
6, 008, 346
6, 443, 868
5, 603, 690
6, 110, 672

6-15, 793

1, 370, 120

1924

1925 . - --

3, 281, 514

720, 865

1, 276, 245

1926

1927

3, 624, 833

943, 993

1. 264, 721

1928

1929

4, 556, 895

1, 095, 244

1, 308, 323

Year

Cooperage stock

Chestnut
tanning
extract
wood

Excelsior
wood

Tight
staves

Tight
heads

Slack
staves

Slack
heads

Hoops

1905

Thousand
pieces
241, 193
267, 827
385, 232
345, 280
379, 231
355, 660
357, 198
286, 401
353, 825
255, 047
222, 507
240, 023
324, 127
357, 293

Thousand
sets
12, 959
17, 774
27, 693
20, 515
20, 691
26, 074
30, 310
20,711
24,274
20, 505
19, 342
23, 052
26, 445
30, 329

Thousand
pieces

Thousand
sets

Thousand
pieces

Tons

Cords

1906

1, 097, 063
1, 175, 977
1, 557, 644
2, 029, 548
1, 460, 878
1, 328, 968
1,099,971
1, 121, 324
893, 621
893, 682
937, 597
961, 782
1,039,450

129, 555
106, 074
123, 849
140, 234
97, 037
106, 407
60,751
87, 381
66, 747
80, 477
71, 371
59, 337
72, 591

330, 892
490, 570
336, 484
375, 793
295, 712
353, 215
332, 684
140, 772
137, 380
153, 954
149, 167
134, 596
133, 054

1907

1908

1909

18,527

1910

1911

142,944

1918

1919

32, 526

1921

1923

139, 107
104,268

171,077
187, 554
178,860
170,604

1925

1927

1929

79,531

Log scale.

SUMMARY

As used herein, the term "timber requirements" denotes a measure
of use by consumers afforded a reasonable latitude in choice of ma-
terials, including wood. Its only tangible measure is volume of past
and current consumption.

Future timber requirements cannot be definitely forecast. Sound
policy-making, however, demands that they be anticipated as closely
as possible. The data for basing such a program must be supplied
by past experience, and the factors which have controlled or influenced
trends in consumption. It is the long-time trend, rather than con-

276 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

sumption under the conditions existing since 1929, which must be the
basis on which requirements are set up. This study is intended to
furnish needed data rather than to give exact forecasts for the future.

LUMBER

Total lumber consumption declined from a maximum of approxi-
mately 45 billion board feet in 1906 to about 34 billion in 1929. The
virtual halt in agricultural expansion since 1910 has practically elim-
inated a market for 4>2 billion board feet of lumber annually for con-
struction on new farms. Agricultural depression since 1921 has cur-
tailed farm repairs and replacements to the extent of approximately
5K billion board feet annually. This latter item of consumption may
be restored when the agricultural depression lifts, giving a normal rural
lumber consumption of from 10 billion to 1 1 billion board feet annually.

A large-scale change from single-family dwellings to multifamily
housing and the intrusion of other materials in urban residential
construction have caused lumber consumption in that category to lag
far behind the great increase in urban building, but kept it well ahead
of rural consumption. Between 1912 and 1928 there was a relative
drop of 25 percent in lumber used in urban residential construction.
Urban construction other than residential doubled between 1912 and
1928, but lumber consumption for this purpose remained stationary.
Thus 50 percent of a former lumber use has been replaced by other
materials.

There is nothing to indicate measurable expansion in the consump-
tion of lumber for factory use or for railroad car construction. On
the whole, a decline seems more likely. Lumber used in furniture
increased 25 percent between 1912 and 1928 and appears to be holding
its own.

After considering all factors, an estimated figure of normal lumber
requirements for the Nation as at present lies between 31 and 34
billion board feet. "Normal" requirements are taken to be the
volume of consumption that might logically be expected when general
economic conditions are such that the Nation is conscious neither of
depression nor of unusual prosperity.

Future lumber requirements depend on such factors as the restora-
tion of agricultural prosperity, the effect of the current urban-to-farm
movement on rural construction, success in meeting competition of
other materials, the extent to which the all-wood house holds its place
in urban construction, the rate of population increase (now estimated
to cease between 1950 and 1970), and the effect of obsolescence on
replacement.

PULPWOOD, PULP, AND PAPER

Paper requirements increased steadily for more than 100 years,
until 1929. Whether the decline since then marks a change in the
general trend cannot be determined as yet. It is reasonable to expect
a saturation point in newsprint, especially in view of a declining rate
of population increase, but the consumption of wood for other pulp
products appears to have plenty of room to expand, particularly in the
fields of fiber-board boxes and insulating materials, and for rayon and
other cellulose products. Wood is the favored material for pulp and
paper and should be able to hold its place against other raw materials.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 277

The largest field for expansion of our native timber requirements
lies in the possibility of substituting domestic production for the half
of our consumption which is imported. The possibilities in this
direction are greatly enhanced by the prospect of a continued rise in
paper requirements. Total pulpwood requirements for the country
amounted to nearly 13^ million cords in 1930. Estimates of probable
requirements by 1950 vary from 22 million cords to 30 million cords.

FUEL WOOD

Our annual consumption of wood as fuel has shown a considerable
decline from earlier estimates of more than 100,000,000 cords to a

E resent estimate of about 61,000,000 cords. The decline has occurred
irgely in cities and towns. Wood has remained and is likely to
remain the chief fuel in rural sections, and requirements may now be
approaching a minimum for that purpose.

OTHER TIMBER PRODUCTS

Trends in minor and miscellaneous timber products do not definitely
indicate any great change in total requirements from those of 1929.
The most important recent increase has occurred in consumption of
logs for veneer and plywood.

THE GENERAL OUTLOOK

Obviously there have been and still are so many factors at work
influencing trends in the consumption of forest products that no
generalization as to the future can be validated. It is impossible to
reduce the net effect of opposing factors of declining and increasing
use to exact estimates. However, for the consideration of both the
consumer who would like to use wood and the owner of forest land
who seeks a profitable outlet for his timber crop, it is well to revert to
the introductory statement wherein it is pointed out that the con-
sumption of wood is, in general, likely to vary with the abundance,
suitability, and cheapness of its supply.

Mention must also be made of the fact that manufacturing and
merchandising of lumber and other forest products, with the exception
of paper, have changed little during the past 30 years during which
time science and invention have wrought momentous changes in
nearly every other field of industry. Hence, it is reasonable to feel
that modern scientific methods applied to promoting the use of forest
products, whether in present forms or something entirely different,
would increase consumption much as in the case of other materials.
Measures by which this can and may be accomplished are discussed
in the section, " Enlarging the Consumption of Forest Products."

And, finally the timber requirements of a nation are measured as
well by the need for industry as by the need for the products of
industry. The conversion of timber into tables and chairs, let us
say, is the basis for a large industry, employing thousands of wage
earners to satisfy the market for tables and chairs. But it is not
only our need for tables and chairs, but the employment of labor to
manufacture them, that measures the importance of the industry and
therefore of the raw materials necessary to maintain the industry.

278 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

If we did not need tables and chairs, we should need to find other uses
for the timber in order to support an equivalent industry. That
should be our objective in any case, since timberlands constitute
one of our major resources, and national welfare depends upon the
use we make of our resources. It would be unfortunate if require-
ments were to be accepted as the minimum amount of timber necessary
to maintain a present limited concept of industry, neglecting require-
ments for expansion of forest industry as a prime factor in land use
and employment of labor.

TRENDS IN WORLD WOOD CONSUMPTION

By RAPHAEL ZON, Director Lake States Forest Experiment Station, and
W. N. SPARHAWK, Senior Forest Economist

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 279

Use of wood prior to industrial era 279

Use of wood in modern times 281

Is world consumption decreasing? 283

Uses of wood are constantly changing 292

World timber supply is decreasing 295

World will continue to need wood 296

INTRODUCTION

A study of the prospective timber requirements of the United
States would be incomplete without consideration of the trends in
world consumption. The international trade in wood is large. Coun-
tries which have inadequate supplies of the wanted kinds of wood
supplement domestic production with imports from countries with a
surplus. Countries with more timber than they need at home look
to foreign markets to dispose of it. The trends in wood requirements
of both exporting and importing countries, therefore, have an impor-
tant bearing on the future ability of the United States to meet its
timber needs through importation, or to dispose of a possible surplus
through sale to foreign consumers.

USE OF WOOD PRIOR TO INDUSTRIAL ERA

Wood is a perishable material. Therefore, few wooden remnants
have reached us from prehistoric peoples. An indication of the part
that wood played in the life of prehistoric man may be learned, how-
ever, through the study of the present day primitive races of Africa,
South America, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific. From the
study of these races, particularly those which inhabit forested regions,
we find that wood provides an almost indispensable source of fuel,
weapons, implements, utensils, and other objects of everyday life.

We are in a better position to learn the extent to which wood was
used by the ancient historic peoples of the Mediterranean region and
in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Except for the
mountains, these regions were poorly forested. Yet wood was exten-
sively used, both in architecture and in naval construction, as well as in
everyday life. The Iliad and the Odyssey reflect the manner of living
of the ancient Greeks in the early periods of their culture. In these
poems we find descriptions of how and for what purpose^ and what
kinds of woods were used. Similarly, the classical writers describe
the use of wood in ancient Rome. There, as in Greece, wood was
particularly essential for naval construction.

In the Middle Ages, European culture developed under entirely
different geographic conditions than in antiquity. The centers of

168342°— 33— vol. 1 19 279

280 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

culture shifted from the Mediterranean region to central and western
Europe. The Mediterranean lands were poorly forested, but central
and western Europe during that period was typically a forested region.
The forests played an important part in the economic life of the
people of the Middle Ages, not only as a source of fuel and raw ma-
terials, but also as an inimical environment which they had to over-
come in their struggle to make room for cultivation and pasturage.
By the end of the fourteenth century, man had conquered the
forests. By the fifteenth century, the conquest had gone so far that
in some parts of Germany, and elsewhere, there began to be com-
plaints of the exhaustion of forests and demands that excessive clear-
ing be stopped.

Between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries wood ceased to
be purely a local commodity in Europe, and timber began to be an
article of international trade, transported in rafts along the rivers.
Along with the development of the timber trade, there grew up the
sawmill industry. The first sawmills operated by water power
appeared in France in the thirteenth century, although whipsawing
by hand remained the prevailing method of sawing lumber for several
centuries. W°°cl was the dominant material for ordinary house con-
struction during the period between the thirteenth and the seven-
teenth centuries.

As the cities increased in number and grew in size, the consumption
of wood, the only source of fuel of that time, became very great.
Supplying such cities as Paris, Vienna, and London with firewood
became a vast enterprise. The Thames, even as late as the eighteenth
century, served as a main channel for supplying London with firewood.
Beginning as early as the fourteenth century, first in Germany and
later in Sweden and England, there was a notable growth of the
metallurgical industry, which required great quantities of charcoal
and firewood. The glass and pottery industries also came to the
front. The growth of these industries, located largely in the forests,
together with the growing consumption by the cities, brought on a
shortage of fuel wood. In the eighteenth century there arose through-
out western Europe an acute fuel crisis. The shortage of wood led
even to the curtailment of the metallurgical industry. Laws were
passed, for instance, prohibiting construction of metallurgical plants
nearer than 22 miles from London. In cities where there was a
shortage of fuel wood for bakeries there arose a demand in the name
of humanity to close the metallurgical plants, because it was reasoned
that it was better to leave people without iron than without bread.
The shortage of firewood was occasioned by the exhaustion of the
nearby forests or those within hauling distance of the rivers-. Large
supplies of timber remained, but owing to the difficulty of transporta-
tion these were as good as nonexistent.

Meanwhile, the demand for timber for many other purposes had
been growing by leaps and bounds. A very important use was for
ship construction. Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth cen-
turies was a period of rapid growth of the navies and merchant
marine of Spain, France, Holland, England, and other countries. In
1577 England had only 135 merchant vessels above 100 tons capacity.
In 1701 her merchant marine comprised 3,281 vessels, with a total
capacity of 261,222 tons, and in 1788 she had 9,360 vessels, with a
capacity of more than a million tons.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 281

The French Navy grew from 30 vessels in 1661 to 244 at the death
of Colbert in 1683. The cost of building one large naval vessel in
the eighteenth century was around $18,500, of which more than $5,800
was for timber. According to French records of the eighteenth cen-
tury, the construction of one vessel armed with 100 to 200 cannon
required about 4,000 logs of best quality. According to other records,
1,000 cubic feet of wood was required for every cannon installed on
the ship, and 35 cubic feet for every ton of carrying capacity of the
merchant marine. Until the second half of the nineteenth century,
the navy and the merchant marine were built entirely of wood.

In time of war many vessels were sunk or damaged and the demand
for wood for naval construction greatly increased. During the
Napoleonic wars the needs of the French navy amounted to more
than 9 million cubic feet a year. As late as 1846 the total volume of
timber used by the French fleet amounted to 23 million cubic feet.
Naval construction usually demanded timber of large size. Not
every country possessed a sufficient supply of such timber. Naval
timber became, therefore, an important item of international trade
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Baltic coun-
tries furnished large quantities, as did also the virgin forests of the
American Colonies. As early as 1754 South and North Carolina
exported 1,876,330 boards, 210,000 ship timbers, and 3,042,000 feet
of other wood for naval construction.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century many parts of Europe
still had large forests and preserved to a considerable extent the
stamp of wooden culture. Sombart thus describes the condition
which existed in Germany a hundred years ago. "A traveler of that
time entered into the shade of a forest more often than now. Century-
old giants were still standing. The forest played an entirely different
role in the life of the people of that period than today. The material
culture of the northern countries was rooted in the forest. The
traveler encountered everywhere in the forest poor poeple who
collected branchwood, berries, leaf litter for bedding their stables,
and other forest by-products. The swine of the poor searched for
acorns in the forest for food. The cows and goats browsed on the
grass in the openings and on the edge of the forest. From the forest
man obtained raw material for the manufacture of all kinds of articles
which he sold at fairs and market places. The very culture of our
ancestors was Wooden. Fire was obtained from wood, from wood
were built houses and bridges; from wood were made innumerable
articles of everyday life, articles which we know only by name."1
Such were the conditions in Germany a hundred years ago.

USE OF WOOD IN MODERN TIMES

The industrial revolution, beginning toward the end of the eight-
eenth century, brought mankind to the age of coal and iron, steam
and electricity. Coal gradually took the place of wood fuel, charcoal,
and peat. Iron and steel crowded out wood to a large extent from
the construction of ships and bridges, and in the manufacture of
implements of every kind. It would seem that the replacement of
wood with coal and iron would have ended or greatly reduced the
demand for wood. It would seem that the consumption of wood and

1 Sombart, V. Der moderne Kapitalismus. I. 1922.

282 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the destruction of forests in the age of coal and iron should have
become much less than in the eighteenth century.

It is true that this replacement of wood with coal at times led to a
restricted use of wood and caused difficulties in finding a market for
it. Paris may serve as an illustration of the changes that took place
in the use of fuel, since in France even today firewood is extensively
used in heating residences. In 1815 the 670,000 inhabitants of
Paris consumed almost 42.5 million cubic feet of firewood, or around
63 cubic feet per inhabitant. By 1865 the population had increased
to 1,668,000 but the consumption of firewood was only 26.7 million
cubic feet, or 16 cubic feet per inhabitant. In 1900 the consumption
of firewood amounted to 19.5 million cubic feet, or a little over 7 cubic
feet per inhabitant. The per capita consumption of charcoal
decreased from 7.8 bushels in 1856 to 3.6 bushels in 1896 and 2.8 bush-
els in 1900. The consumption of coal, on the other hand, was many
times larger at the end of the century than at the beginning.

The loss to forest owners resulting from this drop in the use of wood
was further aggravated by the reduction in the consumption of fuel
wood by metallurgical plants. A similar situation developed in
many other centers of wood consumption in Europe. Wood prices
fell so low and the maintenance of forests became so unprofitable
that in many instances attempts were made to clear the forests and
turn them into pastures.

All signs apparently pointed to a permanent decrease in the use of
wood. But this was not to be. The new era of capitalism was
characterized by a period of industrial expansion which gradually
extended to a large part of the world, continued throughout the
nineteenth century, and reached its fullest development in the period
just before the World War. Agriculture, freed from the bonds of the
feudal system and stimulated by the industrial expansion, also entered
upon a new phase of development in western Europe. The industrial
expansion was accompanied by building of railroads and other means
of transportation, development of mines, construction of new factories
and houses, and a general rise in the standard of living of the masses.
Chemistry opened new fields of use for cellulose, for which wood was
the best source. Wider education of the masses brought greater use
of paper for books and newspapers. Increased trade required boxes
and containers of various sorts. With the improvement of the lot of
the industrial worker and the peasant, there came a demand for better
houses, more furniture, and wooden articles for household use.

As a result of this wave of industrial expansion, wood regained its
prominent place in the economic life of the people, although it
was used in different forms than before. The industrial revolu-
tion of the nineteenth century, which at first threatened to
destroy the markets for wood, in the end stimulated the use of wood
in the most unexpected industrial enterprises and thus widened its
markets. This demand was so great that some of the industrial
countries were unable to meet it from their own timber supplies.
They were forced to tap the resources of other countries which pos-
sessed a surplus of forest wealth. This brought about a world trade
in timber of a magnitude not dreamed of in the period before the
industrial revolution.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 283

IS WORLD CONSUMPTION DECREASING?

The United States was an especially lavish consumer of wood during
the nineteenth century. The population was doubling every 30 years.
Farms, towns, and cities were multiplying at a phenomenal rate.
A network of railroads was being extended from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Pacific, and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Industries
of all kinds were growing at a rate which has probably never been
equaled anywhere else in the world. A wealth of virgin timber,
excellently adapted to a great variety of uses, was ready at hand or
easily reached by railroads and waterways, and was practically free
for the taking. No wonder, then, that the per capita consumption
of wood in America surpassed that of most of the other industrial
nations, which no longer had extensive virgin forests.

The consumption of sawed lumber and probably the aggregate con-
sumption of wood in all forms reached a peak about 1906 or 1907.
About that time the rate of population growth began to slow up, and
within a few years the number of farms and the mileage of railroads
reached their peaks, while at the same time the tendency to concen-
trate people and industries in multistoried buildings in the cities
called for the use of more steel and concrete and less wood in con-
struction. Both the per capita and the total wood consumption
began to fall off, and the decline has continued, with some interrup-
tions, ever since. The consumption of lumber has declined almost
precipitously since 1929.

Phis decreasing rate of consumption in the United States during the
last 25 years, coupled with the decreasing consumption in practically
all countries since 1929, has given rise to the widespread belief that the
trend of world timber consumption is inevitably downward. Not
only the forest owners, but also those responsible for formulating
public forest policies are questioning whether there will be any de-
mand for timber in the future. As a result of present conditions,
there has been generated in this country a pessimistic psychology not
unlike that which prevailed in Europe toward the end of the eight-
eenth century as regards the future possibilities of the use of wood.
There is a feeling that wood use is at the end of an economic epoch,
and that from now on wood is to play a progressively smaller part in
human civilization.

CONSUMPTION TRENDS

Examination of the facts regarding world timber consumption is
therefore of interest. Statistics are not available for every country,
but a study of the trends in some of the representative consuming
countries will give sufficient indication of what may be expected.

GREAT BRITAIN

In Great Britain,2 approximately 95 percent of all the wood con-
sumed is imported. For many years domestic production has fur-
nished only an insignificant portion of the total quantity consumed.
The growth or decline of imports, therefore, reflects closely the trend
in consumption.

a Information supplied by Arthur C. Ringland, principal forestry specialist, based upon records of the
British Forestry Commission and data supplied by Mr. Fraser Story, of the commission.

284

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 1. — Average annual imports of unmanufactured timber, other than pulpwood,

into Great Britain

Period

Hewn and sawn
softwoods

Hewn and sawn
hardwoods

Pit props

All classes

Total

Per

capita

Total

Per

capita

Total

Per
capita

Total

Per

capita

1843-52

Million
cubic feet

Cubicfeet

Million
cubic feet

Cubicfeet

Million
cubic feet

Cubicfeet

Million
cubic feet
93.4
136.0
207.8
294.0
331.2
439.8
479.8
510.2
277.7
364.6
502.2
409.7
508.5
406.6

Cubicfeet
3.4
4.8
6.8
8.8
9.0
11.1
11.0
11.2
6.0
7.8
11.5
9.4
11.5
9.1

1853-32

1863-72

1873-82

1883-92

1893-1902

1903-08

1909-13

329.5
175.6
228.7
324.2
294.8
328.9
279.4

7.3
3.8
4.9
7.4
6.7
7.4
6.2

33.5
18.4
23.5
40.3
35.8
42.9
32.3

0.7
.4
.5
.9
.8
1.0
.8

147.2
83.7
112.4
137.7
79.1
136.7
94.9

3.2
1.8
2.4
3.2
1.9
3.1
2.1

1914-18

1919-23

1924-25

1926

1927-30

1931

NOTE. — Volumes are not converted into equivalents of standing timber. Ireland not included after 1923.

Statistics of timber imports are available for the period 1843 to 1909
as to total volume and from 1909 to the present by classes of material.
During the 50 years from 1843 to 1893 Great Britain's import of tim-
ber (including all classes except pulpwood) increased fivefold, and the
per capita imports increased three times from 3.4 cubic feet to 11.1
cubic feet. (See table 1.) The last three decades of this period were
characterized by a rapid increase in population growth. From 1893
to 1914 imports continued at an average level of about 11 cubic feet
per capita. They decreased almost one half during the war decade
from 1914 to 1923. The year 1924 marks the resumption of normal
conditions. From that year to 1930, excepting 1926, the year of the
general strike, imports regained their pre-war level, and averaged
11.5 cubic feet per capita, although during the period there was a
sharp decline in the rate of population increase. In 1931 there was
a sharp drop to 9.1 cubic feet, a direct reflection of the generally
prevailing depression.

For almost 40 years, then, except for the decade including and
immediately following the World War, imports of unmanufactured
timber other than pulpwood have maintained a level of slightly more
than 11 cubic feet per capita.

The consumption of pit props shows a tendency to decline slightly,
but not enough to affect the general average. The import of mining
timbers for the period 1901-5 averaged more than 106 million cubic
feet; during the period 1909-13 it was more than 147 million cubic
feet; and during the period 1924-30, not including 1926, the average
dropped to 137 million cubic feet. In 1931 there was a sharp drop, as
with all other classes of timber.

The consumption of pulpwood has increased greatly since the war.
Imports during 1909-13 averaged 59.3 million cubic feet. In 1924
the import was 84.7 million and in 1930 it was 105.7 million cubic
feet.

A census of home production has been taken only twice, in 1924
and in 1930. In 1924 the home production of aU classes of wood was

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

285

56 million cubic feet (in terms of standing timber); in 1930 it was
48.1 million cubic feet.

In terms of the equivalent in standing timber the total consumption
of all kinds of wood was 1,032 million cubic feet, or 23.8 cubic feet per
capita in 1924, and 1,035 million cubic feet, or 23.2 cubic feet per
capita in 1930. Average consumption for the period 1909-13 is esti-
mated at 992 million cubic feet, or 21.9 cubic feet per capita. (See
table 2.) The per capita increase in 1924 and 1930 is explained by the
increase in pulpwood. According to another estimate, the per capita
consumption in 1928-29 was the same as in 1913, or 20.8 cubic feet.

TABLE 2. — Consumption of timber in Great Britain (equivalent in standing timber)

Year

Imported

Home
produc-
tion

Total

Per

capita

Hewn and sawn

Pulp-
wood

Soft-
woods

Hard-
woods

1909-13 (average)

Million
cubic feet
810.4
806.8
789.9

Million
cubic feet
72.4
84.1
91.5

Million
cubic feet
59.3
84.7
105.7

Million
cubic feet
50.0
56.0
48.1

Million
cubic feet
992.1
1,031.6
1, 035. 2

Cubicfeet
21.9
23.8
23.2

1924

1930 - -

The rate of population increase is now only one third of the rate
between 1882 and 1908. The population is leveling out and the
industrial expansion of the past may not be continued in the immedi-
ate future. The resumption of normal purchasing power is sure to
create a demand for repairs and new buildings now deferred. An
increased use of wood pulp may be expected. British forestry officials
state that, considering the needs of the country as a whole, they
look for no decrease insofar as future wants can now be foreseen.
Home production is expected to remain relatively unimportant, and
imports will probably continue at about the same level as in recent
normal years.

GERMANY

In Germany the per capita consumption of timber doubled between
1870 and 1913, and the per capita consumption of paper during the
same period increased three and one half times. The peak of per
capita consumption of all timber, including firewood, was reached
between 1907 and 1913, when it amounted to 37.8 cubic feet in terms
of round timber. For the period 1925-28 the average consumption
was about 10 percent less, or 34.2 cubic feet. This decrease was
due mostly to reduced use of firewood, which decreased from 16.1
cubic feet. per capita in 1907-13 to 13.8 cubic feet in 1925-28. The
total consumption, in terms of round timber, rose from 2,021 million
cubic feet in 1900 to 2,503 million cubic feet in 1913. In 1925-28
the average consumption was only 2,180 million cubic feet, but the
population was approximately 3 million less than in 1913.

The net imports of timber in 1913 were almost five times larger
than in 1870, and in 1927 they were larger than in 1913. Germany
imports chiefly round timber. With the present reduced consump-
tion and low prices, the large imports of round timber, which include
pulpwood, from Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia are now

286

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

threatening the profitableness of German forests. The forest owners
are demanding that the government curtail importation by increasing
the tariff and requiring the use of domestic wood. Since, however,
the normal needs of Germany are greater than can be covered by
the domestic supplies, imports will undoubtedly continue.

ITALY

In Italy the per capita consumption of wood was practically the
same (21.6 cubic feet) in 1924-25 as it was in 1909-13 (21.8 cubic
feet). Although both imports and domestic production increased
after the war, this was accounted for by the addition of new territory
and increased population.

BELGIUM AND NETHERLANDS

Imports of timber into Belgium after the war were considerably
larger than before. The total consumption of fuel wood, which is
normally very small, remained at a fairly constant level, but per
capita consumption of other timber decreased by about 8 percent
between 1913 and 1929. The consumption of wood in all forms,
expressed in terms of standing timber, was 32.5 cubic feet per capita
in 1913 and 30.0 cubic feet in 1928-29.

In the Netherlands the trend has been about the same, although
the rate of consumption is slightly lower. In 1913 it amounted to
23.3 cubic feet per capita, and in 1928-29 to 21.5 cubic feet.

SWITZERLAND

In Switzerland, on the other hand, there has been a considerable
increase in consumption of both timber and fuel wood since the war.
Almost half of the wood consumed in Switzerland is for fuel. Per
capita consumption of all classes, in terms of standing timber, was
31.1 cubic feet in 1913 and 36.4 cubic feet in 1928-29.

DENMARK

In Denmark, both total and per capita consumption of wood
increased between 1900 and 1913. After a small decrease during
the World War, consumption again rose to almost the level of 1913.
Although the rate of use per capita was slightly lower, the increase
in population resulted in a greater total consumption. The figure
for 1930 is larger than it would have been but for an abnormal amount
of building in that year. Table 3 shows the consumption, in terms
of standing timber, in different years between 1900 and 1930.

TABLE 3. — Timber consumption in Denmark, 1900-1930 l

Year

Total con-
sumption

Per capita
consump-
tion

1900 -.

Million
cubic feet
79 0

Cubic feet
32 5

1905

86 9

33 9

1910

96 8

35 3

1913

118 2

41 7

1920. ..

99 3

32 1

1925. ._

119 7

35 0

1930

151 7

42 7

Based on data obtained by Arthur C. Ringland from Prof. A. Howard Gr0n, Copenhagen.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

287

FRANCE

Although timber consumption in France is low in comparison with
some other countries, it has been increasing gradually. French forests
supply chiefly fuel wood, mine timbers, and other low-grade material,
and large quantities of construction timber are imported. During
the war and subsequently there has been considerable overcutting
in French forests. The normal annual consumption of timber, not
including firewood, is estimated to have been 353 million cubic feet
in 1912, 424 million in 1919, and 565 million in 1930.3

RUSSIA

Russia, because of her vast forest resources, is of particular interest
in tracing the changes in the use of wood.

Pre-war estimates of wood consumption in Russia, including Finland
and the Baltic Provinces, placed it at about 353 cubic feet per capita
for the northern part of the country and about 17.5 cubic feet for the
south. The average for European and Asiatic Russia together was
probably about 60 or 65 cubic feet.

Immediately after the close of the war and during the Revolution,
Russian economic life came practically to a standstill. Timber export
completely stopped, sawmills remained idle, and timber cutting as an
organized enterprise practically ceased. Very little timber was cut
except for firewood to heat the houses and maintain the feeble railroad
transportation. Cutting was concentrated in the forests near the
villages and for distances of 20 to 30 miles back from the railroads and
the rivers. Statistics of wood consumption during this period are not
available, but it must have been greatly reduced. According to some
estimates, it averaged only one fourth of the pre-war consumption, or
about 15 cubic feet per capita.

Beginning with 1922, there was a gradual revival of forest industries
and an increase in wood consumption. Since the Five-year Plan went
into effect the needs of the country for wood have had to be more
definitely determined and plans developed for meeting these needs.
According to the official statistics,4 the actual cut from Russian forests
during the period 1924-30 was as follows:

Year

Total cut

Per cap-
ita

Year

Total cut

Per cap-
ita

1924-25

Cubic feet
3, 800, 000, 000

Cubic feet
24.0

1927 28

Cubic feet
5, 300, 000, 000

Cubicfeet
34.0

1925-26

5, 300, 000, 000

33.7

1928-29

6, 400, 000, 000

41 0

1926-27

4, 900, 000, 000

31.4

1929-30

8, 500, 000, 000

54.4

Until recently, firewood constituted about half of the total cut in
Russia. Although the plans call for an increasing cut of saw timber,
the proportion of firewood is to be gradually reduced. The total cut
of all classes of wood increased from 24 cubic feet per capita in 1925
to 54 cubic feet in 1930, or 125 percent. As only about 5 percent of
the cut is exported, the consumption and cut of wood may be con-
sidered as practically identical. The 1930 consumption was still
slightly below the pre-war average.

3 Hervet, Gilbert. La question forestiere depuis la guerre. Dijon, 1931.

4 Buchholz, E. Zustand und Entwicklungstendenzen der russischen Wald- und Holzwirtschaft.
erswalde, 1932.

Eb-

288

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The estimated requirements provided for in the plan, beginning
with 1930-31, are as follows:

Year

Saw timber

Firewood

Total

1930-31

Cubic feet
6, 000, 000, 000

Cubic feet
3, 000, 000, 000

Cubic feet
9, 000, 000, 000

1931-32

7, 400, 000, 000

3, 200, 000, 000

10. 600 000 000

1932-33

8, 800, 000, 000

3. 600, 000 000

12 400 000 000

1933-34 ..

10,200,000,000

4. 000, 000, 000

14. 200, 000 000

1934-35

11,500,000,000

4. 400, 000, 000

15 900 000 000

1935-36

12, 900, 000 000

4. 800 000 000

17 700 000 000

1936-37

14 300 000 000

5 100 000 000

19 400 000 000

1937-38

15, 600, 000, 000

5. 600, 000, 000

21. 200 000 000

Revised estimates provide for an even larger cut. There may be
some question as to whether timber production can be expanded
exactly according to schedule, but there can be little doubt that
Russia will consume larger and larger quantities of wood during the
next few decades, if industrialization proceeds along the lines that
are contemplated. This will parallel the history of timber con-
sumption during the industrial development of other countries.

If the estimates for the next 5 years should be realized, the con-
sumption of wood in Russia by 1938 would be more than five times
that in 1924. The total cut planned for 1933-34 is close to the pre-
depression total cut in the United States, and considerably larger
than the aggregate consumption of all European countries outside
of Russia. Even with this increase in output, Russia, according to
some economists, would still fall short of meeting her domestic needs
for saw timber in 1935 by 500 million cubic feet, and in 1940 by nearly
a billion cubic feet.

CENTRAL, NORTHERN, AND WESTERN EUROPE AS A WHOLE

A recent study of wood consumption in Europe,5 excepting the
Mediterranean and Danubian States, gives the following comparative
figures for 1913 and 1928-29 (table 4).

TABLE 4. — Per capita annual timber consumption in European countries, 1913 and
1928—29 (in equivalents of standing timber)

Country

Saw timber !

All timber

1913

1928-29

1913

1928-29

Finland 2

Cubic feet
48.0
35.3
35.3
16.2
14.1
10.6
10.2
20.1
72.4
55.1
16.6
30.0
21.9
17.7
25.8
20.8

Cubic feet
102.4
51.2
38.1
19.4
18.4
11.3
10.2
20.5
64.6
37.4
18.0
24.7
20.8
8.5
23.7
19.4

Cubic feet
227.4
70.6
70.6
31.1
26.5
26.1
20.8
20.8
185.0
116.5
40.6
38.8
37.4
35.3
82.5
23.3

Cubic feet
245.8
99.6
98.2
36.4
28.6
26.8
21.9
20.8
162.8
71.3
37.1
32.5
34.6
10.6
30.0
21.5

Latvia 2. .

Estonia

Switzerland

Czechoslovakia-

France .

Poland .-

Great Britain

Sweden.

Norway

Austria

Denmark ..

Germany

Lithuania »

Belgium

Netherlands

1 Saw timber includes all classes of wood except firewood.

2 Large apparent increase in saw-timber consumption in Finland explained by better statistics in 1928-29.
Part of increase in Latvia also results from better statistics.

3 Abnormally low consumption in 1928-29, due to disturbed conditions.

* Information supplied by Arthur C. Ringland, based on studies by Dr. Egon Glesinger.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 289

The total timber consumption (not including firewood) of the seven
importing countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium,
Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland) increased by 1.7 percent
between 1913 and 1928-29, or somewhat more slowly than the pop-
ulation. Consumption of firewood in these countries decreased by
5.7 percent in the same interval. For the three Scandinavian coun-
tries (Norway, Sweden, and Finland) timber consumption apparently
increased 20.8 percent and that of firewood decreased 13.8 percent.
Part of the change may have been due to the better statistics for
Finland in 1928-29. For the three central countries (Poland, Czecho-
slovakia, and Austria) timber consumption also increased by 20.4
percent, and firewood consumption increased by 0.7 percent. Al-
though the consumption was perhaps a little above what has been
considered normal for these countries, it is expected to increase still
more during the next few years. In the Baltic countries (Latvia,
Estonia, and Li'thuania) timber consumption decreased by 15.1 per-
cent and firewood by 4.7 percent. ^ The population also decreased hi
these countries, and consumption in Lithuania, at least, was abnor-
mally low in 1928-29 because of upset economic conditions.

The 16 countries consumed practically the same total quantity of
timber and firewood in the 2 years, or approximately 8,640 million
cubic feet. The per capita consumption decreased from 36.4 to 35.3
cubic feet. This decrease was due to a lower consumption of firewood.
Total firewood used decreased from 3,970 million to 3,670 million cubic
feet, and the per capita consumption from 16.6 to 14.8 cubic feet.
Per capita consumption of timber other than firewood increased from
19.8 to 20.5 cubic feet.

TRENDS IN WORLD TRADE

Statistics of world trade afford another measure of the demand for
wood. In attempting to determine the trend in world trade, it is
necessary to distinguish four periods: (1) The pre-war period; (2)
the war period; (3) the postwar period between 1919 and 1929; and
(4) the period of economic depression since 1929. It is evident that
the war period and the period of depression, being abnormal, do not
lend themselves to a determination of trends. To a considerable
extent this is also true of the reconstruction period from 1919 to 1929.

PRE-WAR PERIOD

Reliable statistics of world trade in wood are available only since
about 1880. Even the figures for the period from 1880 to 1913 show
very convincingly the growing importance of wood in world trade
prior to the World War.

The aggregate export of wood, excluding pulpwood and cellulose,
from the seven most important timber-producing countries more than
doubled during the period between 1880 and 1913, showing by 5-year
periods an uninterrupted growth (table 5). Only one of these coun-
tries (Norway) exported less timber at the end of the period than at
the beginning. The exports of pulpwood and cellulose increased even
more rapidly.

290

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 5. — Average annual timber exports from principal exporting countries,
1881-1913, not including pulpwood and wood pulp

[In million cubic feet]

Period

Russia

Austria-
Hungary

United
States

Finland

Sweden

Norway

Canada

Total

1881-85 - -

118.6

127.0

58.0

91.8

161.7

76.9

86.8

720.8

1886-90

137.2

131.9

72.2

74.2

183.5

65.6

62.3

726.9

1891-95

164.8

135.9

83.9

102.4

210.0

63.0

70.3

830.3

1896-1900

182.5

194.5

129.0

144.7

240.9

69.8

74.8

1, 036. 2

1901-05

242.4

225.0

175.7

201.2

238.3

68.0

90.0

1,240.6

1906-10

379.3

212.5

203.2

204.9

213.8

56.6

104.6

1, 374. 9

1911-13

428.0

206.0

253.9

247.1

226.0

40.6

110.3

1,511.9

WAR PERIOD

The war period disrupted the old channels of world timber trade.
The total annual exports from the seven principal exporting countries
during the 5-year war period, 1914-18, dropped to about 40 percent
of the pre-war exports and the participation of the different countries
materially changed, as shown in table 6.

TABLE 6. — Timber exports from principal exporting countries before and during the
World War, not including pulpwood and cellulose

[In million cubic feet]

. Period

Russia

Austria-
Hungary

United
States

Finland

Sweden

Norway

Canada

Total

1911-13, average

428.0

206.0

253.9

247. 1

226.0

40.6

110.3

1,511 9

1914

273.0

(i)

256 0

173 0

115 1

32 5

113 3

962 9

1915

48.2

0)

114.6

76.5

172.7

47.7

126.6

586.3

1916

55.3

(i)

120. 1

133 3

186 6

48 3

142 8

686 4

1917

30 9

(i)

108 5

64 8

124 0

34 2

144 4

506 8

1918

0)

102. 1

16.5

116.8

25 8

67.4

328 6

1914-18, average

81.5

(')

140.3

92.8

143.0

37.7

118.9

614.2

1 Exports from Austria-Hungary were practically negligible during the war.
POST-WAR PERIOD TO 1929

After the war, with the revival of normal economic activity, world
trade in timber rapidly expanded. Building construction in most
European countries was naturally at a standstill during the war. The
wood which was cut went chiefly into temporary buildings, temporary
railroads, military equipment, and other transitory uses. At the time
of the armistice there was a great stored-up demand, not only for
actual reconstruction in the war-torn countries, but for normal con-
struction which had been held up by the war. Furthermore, some
of the European countries, cut off during the war from the outside
sources of supplies, had made heavy inroads into their own limited
forests and many forests in the war zones had been destroyed by shell
fire. There was, therefore, every reason to expect at the end of the
war a rapid expansion in timber trade. As a matter of fact, such an
expansion materialized. The new countries which came into existence
through the peace treaties began feverishly to convert their forests
into cash. The Scandinavian countries, which had accumulated a
surplus of lumber during the war, began to ship large quantities and
both Canada and the United States increased their exports. With

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

291

the exception of the depression year 1921, there was a rapid increase
in wood exports from the close of the war until the end of 1929. By
1924 the exports had exceeded pre-war volume, and during the next
few years, particularly 1927, 1928, and 1929, they attained new high
levels.

It is difficult to compare the wood exports of the pre-war period
with those from the same countries in the post-war period because
some of the largest exporting nations were split up into smaller politi-
cal units. Czechoslovakia, Hungary, part of Rumania, part of Poland,
part of Italy, and part of Yugoslavia were split off from Austria-
Hungary; the Baltic provinces, part of Rumania, and part of Poland
from Russia; and part of Poland from Germany. As a result of the
establishment of new frontiers, some timber shipments that would
have constituted internal trade before the war now appear as exports.
The exports of sawn softwood lumber from the principal exporting
countries before and after the war are shown in table 7.6

TABLE 7. — Exports of sawn softwood lumber from principal exporting countries

[In million board feet]

Year

Country

1880

1900

1913

Average
1925-29

Average
1930-31

Norway

528

465

303

231

166

Sweden _ . ...

1,255

1,994

2,071

1 937

1 624

Finland

608

925

1 546

2 108

1 542

Russia

396

1 267

2 881

1 020

1 881

Latvia

308

318

Lithuania

28

29

Estonia

130

80

Poland

902

558

Rumania

63

42

129

843

586

Austria

380

881

1,075

777

563

Czechoslovakia

361

168

Yugoslavia

476

418

Canada _. _ . .

1,529

1,689

1 428

2 094

1 126

United States

295

1 594

2 691

2 557

1 632

TotaL

5 054

8 857

12 124

13 772

10 691

NOTE.— Before 1918, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia were included in Russia; Poland was included in
Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary; parts of present Rumania were in Russia and Austria-Hungary;
Czechoslovakia and most of Yugoslavia were in Austria-Hungary. From 400 to 600 million board feet of
the post-war totals represent a statistical rather than an actual increase in exports, resulting from the estab-
lishment of new frontiers.

PERIOD OF ECONOMIC DEPRESSION

Since 1930 the world timber trade has become utterly disorganized.
Consumption of timber, both in exporting and in importing countries,
has declined greatly. For instance, the imports of sawn timber into
England fell from 322 million cubic feet in 1929 to 269 million cubic
feet in 1931. In Germany import of coniferous timber dropped from
560 million cubic feet in 1928 to 201 million cubic feet in 1931. In
Italy imports of sawn, round, and square timber, which amounted to
119 million cubic feet in 1927, shrank to 81 million cubic feet in 1931.

This, of course, meant a contraction in exports. Finland, for
instance, which in 1927 exported 210 million cubic feet of lumber,
exported only 129 million cubic feet in 1931, an amount less than

6 Based on T. Streyffert, Sawn woodgoods. Index 7:62-85 (published by Svenska Handelsbanken,
Stockholm, March 1932).

292 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

before the war. Swedish lumber exports, which in 1929 reached a
high level of 195 million cubic feet, shrank to 120 million in 1931, also
below the 1913 figure. Polish exports fell from 140 million cubic feet
in 1927 to 70 million in 1931. With the exception of Kussia, the prin-
cipal other exporting countries show a similar downward tendency.

The power of consumption decreased more rapidly than the supplies
available. This led to a collapse of prices, which in many instances
are now below the pre-war level. This can hardly be more than a
temporary condition. The normal world consumption of timber still
exceeds the possibilities of natural growth of forests which are eco-
nomically capable of exploitation at predepression price levels. Tim-
ber prices will have to go much higher than they have been, if the
forests of central Asia or the Amazon or Congo basins are ever to con-
tribute an important share of the world's timber trade. Altogether, a
survey of world consumption and world trade in wood shows no
evidence of permanent diminution, except in the United States, where
consumption for a century was abnormally high because abundant
supplies were available to meet the needs of the rapidly growing popu-
lation, transportation systems, and industries.

USES OF WOOD ARE CONSTANTLY CHANGING

Wood is one of the most flexible of organic products. This accounts
for its adaptability to the many uses for which it has been employed
by mankind at different stages of his economic and social development.

The form in which wood is used has undergone many changes in
historic times — from the crudest of wooden implements to the most
complex of chemical compounds. Even in the comparatively short
lapse of time since the settlement of this country, it has evolved
through many different shapes. The Indian used the bark of trees
to make his tepee; the settler used logs to build his cabin. Later,
logs were sawed into lumber, which was used in the construction of
houses, furniture, and in other commodities of everyday life. A
comparatively recent development is the use of wood for making
paper. Recently more and more wood has been converted into veneer
and into pulp, out of which are fabricated boards, insulating materials,
artificial silk and leather, and many other commodities. The changes
in the use of wood reflect not only the state of technical development
of a country but also its economic structure and mode of life. A
decline in the consumption of wood in any particular form, or for any
particular use, therefore, will not be conclusive evidence that need for
wood is decreasing.

As a country ascends from a primitive pastoral culture to a highly
industrialized state, the demand for wood, particularly structural
timber, tends to increase. This tendency is checked as supplies
become more limited and prices increase. Competing materials then
take the place of wood to a greater or less extent in many of its uses.
On the other hand, they may cause increased demand for wood in
other forms. As wood has lost ground in some fields of use, new uses
have arisen in which it continued to be an indispensable material.

RAILROADS

The railroads which carried coal to replace wood as fuel made
greater and greater demands upon wood for ties, as well as for cars
and construction of buildings and platforms.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

293

MINING

Mining of coal demanded increasingly larger quantities of mine
timbers. The use of wooden props in mines began to develop toward
the end of the eighteenth century. As the coal industry grew, the
import of mine timbers into such countries as England and Germany
also increased. The importation of mine timber into England during
the period 1901-05 averaged more than 106 million cubic feet a year.
During the period 1909-13 it rose to more than 147 million cubic feet.

PULP AND PAPER

The use of wood for paper dates from about 1850. The paper
industry, based on wood, made a phenomenal growth, particularly
in the last 20 years. In 1911 the world production of wood pulp was
7,679,000 tons. In 1929 it has increased to 18,478,000 tons, or over
140 percent. (See table 8.)

TABLE 8. — World production of wood pulp in 1911 and 1929 l

Country

Production

Country

Production

1911

1929

1911

1929

United States

1,000 short
tons
2,643
489
1,056
1,345
249
538

1,000 short
tons
4,519
3,859
2,800
2,258
1,183
1,045

Japan

1,000 short
tons
77
165
1,117

1,000 short
tons
661
293
1,860

Canada— .

Russia

Sweden

Other countries

Germany

Total

Finland

7,679

18,478

Norway

i Streyffert, Th. Varldens Barrskogstillgangar. Stockholm, 1931.

The average world per capita consumption of paper in 1925-27 was
in the neighborhood of 23 pounds, ranging all the way from 192 pounds
in the United States to less than 1 pound in China. Should the teem-
ing masses of Asia alone reach the world average of 23 pounds, the
paper production of the world would have to be increased by 10
million tons to meet Asia's needs alone. Japan has already increased
its pulp production from 77 thousand tons in 1911 to 661 thousand
tons in 1929, or more than 750 percent. The fact that the per capita
consumption of pulp was increasing, up to 1929, in such countries as
the United States, Great Britain, and Germany also is an indication
that even in the industrial countries the possibilities of growth have
not yet reached a limit. (See table 9.)

TABLE 9. — Annual consumption of paper in various countries, 1925-27
[Based on Streyffert, VSrldens Barrskogstillgangar. Stockholm, 1931]

Country

Consump-
tion per
capita

Country

Consump-
tion per
capita

United States

Pounds
192

Austria

Pounds
39

Canada

92

Italy. --.

22

England- -

92

Japan

17

Sweden

68

Estonia

12

Germany..

59

Poland

9

Denmark

58

Greece

8

Belgium __

51

Yugoslavia...

8

Norway-

42

Russia

6

Netherlands

42

Rumania

5

Finland

41

294 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

CONTAINERS

Another use for which wood came into demand was in the manu-
facture of containers for shipment of foodstuffs, such as eggs, butter,
fruit, vegetables, and canned goods, and of various other commodities,
in both foreign and domestic commerce. The growing dependence
of industrialized countries upon foodstuffs and raw materials of other
countries, and their exportation of manufactured products to other
countries, created a large international demand for wood for packing
purposes. In the United States, wooden boxes and crates in 1928
absorbed about one seventh of the entire lumber cut. In some years
they have absorbed as much as one fifth of the lumber cut. Although
there has been a decline in the consumption of boxes and crates since
1918, it was still 10 percent higher in 1928 than in 1912.

VENEER AND PLYWOOD

Great advances have been made in the manufacture of veneer and
plywood products. Gluing processes have been invented which
greatly facilitated the production of plywood, panels, and all sorts
of laminated sheet material. The development of the veneer industry
came first in Europe and has shown a rapid growth. Plywood has
become a forest product of considerable importance in world trade.
The veneer industry in the United States has increased greatly in
output since 1905. Over 181 million board feet of logs were used
for veneers in 1905; by 1929 the consumption increased to 1,112 mil-
lion board feet, or by more than 500 percent.

RAYON

Artificial silk or rayon, much of which is made from wood, came into
use only since 1900. In 1911 only about 2 million pounds was con-
sumed in the United States. In 1929, the United States consumed
more than 60 times as much as in 1911.

WALL BOARD

New uses of wood in the form of wall board and insulating mate-
rials are appearing constantly. No one can forecast at present what
their future development may be. These new products, like fiber
containers, veneer, and wall board, often take the place of wood in its
original form for similar uses. Often, however, the new products,
like rayon, cellophane, and other viscose products, create new fields
in which wood was not originally employed.

CONSTRUCTION

Even in the old fields in which wood has been used for a long time,
it has not given way to other materials to the extent that has some-
times been supposed. Wooden dwellings still predominate in many
parts of the United States and also in parts of many other countries.
Even in the construction of brick or concrete houses large quantities
of lumber are ordinarily used. Wood still plays an important part
in the construction of dwellings in European countries as well as in
this country. Within recent years there has been a revival in the
use of wood for construction in Europe. Types of wooden con-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 295

struction have been developed in which, instead of large timbers,
small wooden pieces connected in a lattice-like or truss-like manner,
or built up into laminated beams by the use of glue or bolts, are used.
By means of such combination of small wooden pieces, it is possible
to span considerable distances. One great advantage of the use of
wood in such construction lies in its relative cheapness. The small
size of the pieces makes it possible to saw them out of small logs and,
consequently, to utilize small timber where before only large logs
could be used. Similar types of construction are being developed in
this country. New ideas of engineering have also penetrated the
technique of building small wooden dwellings. These new architec-
tural ideas are opening up new and more economical uses of wood in
the fields where iron and concrete have been considered the only
suitable materials.

THE WORLD TIMBER SUPPLY IS DECREASING

Contrasted with the tendency of world wood consumption to rise
or at least to maintain itself is the rapid shrinkage in the world supply
of timber, particularly coniferous timber. The coniferous softwood
forests of the northern temperate zone are drawn upon by nearly all
countries of the world to meet the greater part of their needs for con-
struction timber and pulpwood. These forests have been progres-
sively decreasing in extent from the Middle Ages up to the present
time. Even within the last 40 years before the World War, the
destruction of the forests of the temperate zone continued at a rapid
rate. The forest area of Norway, for instance, decreased 1 1 percent
between 1875 and 1907. In European Russia 20 million acres of
forest were destroyed in the 33-year period from 1880 to 1913, and the
same process went on in Finland. During and after the war this
destruction was greatly accelerated in Russia.

Even more serious than the reduction in forest area is the reduction
in timber supply and in growth capacity of the area that remains in
forests. At least one third of the timber consumed by the world in a
normal year is supplied by diminishing the forest resource, only two
thirds being replaced by growth. As a result of the continued deple-
tion of the original forests, only a few countries still have supplies of
coniferous timber in excess of their own needs.

The three countries with the largest softwood timber resources are
Russia, Canada, and the United States. Together they embrace
some 80 percent of the coniferous forest area of the world. Before
the war these three countries furnished more than one half of the
entire world export of softwood lumber. Both in the United States
and in Canada, the annual cutting, combined with fires and losses
from insects and disease, greatly exceeds the annual growth. Sweden,
Finland, Poland, and the countries of central and southeastern Europe
cannot materially increase their exports of wood. In fact, most of
them cannot long keep up the present rate of exportation if they are
to satisfy their own requirements.

The wood-importing countries of western Europe rely on Russia to
a considerable extent for their present and future supplies of coniferous
timber. It is most alarming, therefore, to learn from recent studies
that Russia, with an estimated two fifths of the world's coniferous
forest area, and whose timber resources were supposed to be virtually

168342°— 33— vol. 1 20

296 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

inexhaustible, faces the end of her readily accessible timber supply in
Europe within 10 to 20 years and in western Siberia within the next
35 years. Yet Russia herself is just on the threshold of a vast indus-
trial expansion.7

Under the pressure of meeting present-day needs, the Russian
forests are being cut recklessly, with little or no provision for future
regrowth. Fires sweep over the land that has been logged, and also
destroy many thousands of acres of uncut timber. The acreage of
cut-over land that has not come up to second growth, together with
the windfalls and the burns, according to Russian foresters, amounts
in the Soviet Union to some 125 million acres. If this is the picture
of Russia, the most heavily forested Temperate Zone country in the
world, upon which most of the poorly forested countries have to
depend for their imports, then the prospects for the future supply of
coniferous timber are dark indeed.

WORLD WILL CONTINUE TO NEED WOOD

The present relatively low level of wood consumption in many of
the industrial countries of Europe does not signify that their wants
are completely satisfied, but rather that existing economic conditions
are such that they cannot be satisfied. There is a wide field for im-
provement in living conditions of the great masses of European
people. There is need for better rural and urban housing in nearly
all of these countries. As their standards of living improve — and it
would be unduly pessimistic to assume that living standards will not
rise in the long run — there will be an increased demand for wood.

Moreover, the fact should not be overlooked that industrial develop-
ment still lies ahead for most of the world excepting Europe and North
America. Russia is now in the process of industrialization, and expects
to double or treble her wood consumption in the next few years. The
continent of Asia is still on the threshold of industrial expansion. A
very small increase in the per capita rate of wood consumption in
these populous countries will mean a large demand in the aggregate.
Industrialization has always been accompanied by increased use of
timber.

For building construction, for pulp, and for many other industrial
uses, softwoods are preferred. This preference seems likely to con-
tinue if softwood timber is available. The hardwoods of the Tropics
can supply many needs and they might even conceivably be utilized
for most of the purposes for which softwoods are now employed.
Nevertheless, it is not likely that they can ever be supplied cheaply
enough to bring about their use, in the countries of the North Tem-
perate Zone, on a scale comparable to the present consumption of
softwoods.

Indications are that the accessible softwood forests of the world
cannot continue indefinitely to supply the world's present normal
demands, to say nothing of an increasing demand. They can do this
only if a much larger area than at present is managed definitely for
timber production and especially for the production of high-grade
material. Such material is likely always to command a premium in
world markets. Of all the coniferous forest regions in the world, the

i Buchholz, E. Die Wald und Holzwirtschaft Sowjet-Russlands. Berlin, 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 297

yellow pine region of southeastern United States and the Pacific
coast forest of western United States and Canada are probably the
most favorably situated to compete for world markets. They are
second to none in rate of timber growth, in possible yields, and in
quality of timber, and they are strategically located with reference to
ocean transportation that is possible throughout the year.

It is for these reasons that the decline in rate of timber consumption
in the United States, even if it continues, should cause no great anxiety
as to the future markets for wood. Nor, on the other hand, should
the temporary economic situation in the world timber trade cause one
to fear that our domestic market will be threatened indefinitely with
a flood of cheap foreign wood. With world needs for wood and
especially for softwoods, outside of the United States, tending to
increase, and with the world's softwood resource steadily diminish-
ing, there is no reason to believe that the United States can obtain
its future supplies from any other country more cheaply than it can
grow its own timber. There is every reason to believe that there wih1
be a ready demand, at home or abroad, for all of the wood that will
be grown in American forests.

WATERSHED AND OTHER SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
OF THE FORESTS

The discussion of our forest land resource brought out the concept
of the forest as a complex biological unit serving a wide range of highly
important economic and social functions. Wood production has,
until recently at least, usually been considered the primary forest use.
In many cases, however, other functions actually take precedence,
and in the aggregate, for the entire country, may outweigh in im-
portance timber production. With some exceptions these uses are
not conflicting and several or all may, with proper correlation, be
served at the same time. It is the purpose of the following sections to
appraise the various uses and to correlate them with each other.

The discussion of watershed and the clearly related forest influences
analyzes the manner in which these influences are exerted and their
extent, and presents a survey of the 17 principal watersheds into
which, for this purpose, the United States is divided. Succeeding
sections evaluate the recreational services of forests and the area that
may need eventually to be reserved with this as the primary use;
outline the scope, importance, and outstanding problems pertaining
to the forage and wild-life resources of the forest; and describe a num-
ber of the secondary by-products.

The discussions in this third main part of the report complete the
presentation of our forest resources.
298

WATERSHED AND RELATED FOREST INFLUENCES

By E. N. MUNNS, in charge, Division of Silvics; W. R. CHAPLINE, in charge,
Division of Range Research; R. D. FORBES, Director, Allegheny Forest Experi-
ment Station; L. F. KELLOGG, Associate Silviculturist, Central States Forest
Experiment Station; and H. G. MEGINNIS, Junior Forester, Southern Forest
Experiment Station

CONTENTS

Tago

Stream flow and erosion problems of national importance 300

Domestic and industrial water supplies 300

Irrigation 301

Water power 302

Navigation 303

Floods 303

Erosion 304

Does forest cover aid in solving the problems of stream flow and erosion?_ 304

Definition1 of forest cover 305

How forest cover influences run-off 306

How forest cover influences erosion 314

Consequences of disturbing the forest cover 316

Watershed protection forests in other countries 328

Classification of watershed protection influence of forests of the United

States 329

Drainage basins of the United States 330

Northeastern drainages 330

South Atlantic drainages 340

East Gulf drainages 350

West Gulf drainages 358

St. Lawrence River Basin 365

Hudson Bay drainages 368

Upper Mississippi River Basin 369

Ohio River Basin 378

Missouri River Basin 395

Arkansas and Red River drainages 404

Lower Mississippi River Basin 412

California drainages 418

Colorado River Basin • 430

Upper Rio Grande Basin 438

Great Basin 444

Columbia River Basin 450

Pacific Cascade drainages 458

Summary and conclusions 461

The forests of the United States, invaluable as a source of wood
and other tangible products, have so-called "intangible" values perhaps
equally great. The present section will describe the value of the for-
ests as regulators of stream flow and preventives of erosion.

299

300 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

STREAM FLOW AND EROSION PROBLEMS OF NATIONAL

IMPORTANCE

Practically every section of the country is confronted by one or
more serious problems of stream flow or erosion. The densely popu-
lated areas share with the areas of low rainfall the immediately vital
problem of obtaining adequate and constant quantities of water for
human consumption and other domestic uses. The latter areas are
confronted with the additional problem of supplying water for
irrigation of agricultural land. Populous industrial communities
require water, often in huge quantities, for various manufacturing
processes. Large sections of the country that receive light in their
homes and energy in their factories from water power are concerned
over low water in the streams. The threat of low water and clogged
channels must also be considered by those portions of the United
States where stream-borne commerce is important and navigable
harbors give access to the markets of the world. Floods are often an
appalling problem not only to the great fertile lowlands but also to
highland valleys. And erosion — the washing of precious surface soil
from land exposed to rain and melting snows — is a problem common
to nearly all parts of the United States and acute in many. The mag-
nitude of the problems of stream flow and erosion, considered in
detail and region by region later in this discussion, may be judged
for the Nation as a whole from the paragraphs immediately following.

DOMESTIC AND INDUSTRIAL WATER SUPPLIES

Very heavy concentration of population and industry in certain
areas, such as the North Atlantic seaboard, the Ohio River Valley,
and parts of California, has created a demand for huge public water
supplies. The main urban centers from Boston to Baltimore con-
sume 2,000,000,000 gallons of water daily; in the Philadelphia district
more than half of the consumption is by industrial plants. Boston
plans to tap a stream 60 miles away; New York now goes 92 miles
for part of its supply. The investment of New York in dams and
reservoirs is $66,000,000; the adjacent communities in New Jersey
plan a development to cost about $45,000,000; Baltimore is at work
on a $30,000,000 project.

The great drought of 1930-31 in the northeastern United States
revealed the acuteness of the domestic water-supply problem, bringing
not only great actual inconvenience to rural and urban populations
alike, but in the cities raising the specter of epidemics and uncontrol-
lable fires. For example, while some farmers in western Kentucky
were hauling water for livestock 20 miles, the public water supplies of
several towns and cities in the Ohio Valley had to be supplemented by
shipments in tank cars. Among them was Lexington, Ky., which,
after drawing water by trainloads from pools in the Kentucky River
for several weeks, constructed a 25-mile pipe line to the same source.
The United States Weather Bureau at Cincinnati in its report on the
Ohio Valley situation in October 1930, stated:

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 301

Fortunately the Federal Government had completed the dams in the Ohio
River before the great drought of 1930. These dams have maintained full pools
from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Cairo, 111., during the entire summer and fall. * * *
Many of the larger tributaries * * * have been improved by dams. The
water from the pools in these rivers has made it possible for life to exist and
business to progress in the Ohio Valley during the driest season of record.

San Francisco and the immediate vicinity will shortly obtain part of
their public water supplies from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, 200
miles away, built at a cost of $126,500,000. In southern California
half the population of the State, concentrated in an area where less
than 1 percent of the water of the State is found, now obtains part
of its domestic water from the Owens River, 250 miles away, and
is preparing to go 200 miles to the Colorado River. Some of the
deep wells from which part of the water supply for this area is obtained
are being depleted or threatened with invasion by the salt waters of
the Pacific Ocean, just as the deep wells of the New Jersey coast
resorts are threatened by those of the Atlantic Ocean. The water
system by which southern California plans to solve its water problems,
primarily of domestic supplies, will cost $350,000,000.

IRRIGATION

Irrigating water is the lifeblood of certain communities, such as
southern California and the Salt River Valley in which is concen-
trated one fifth of the population of Arizona. It is a commodity of
enormous importance to 19 States west of the Mississippi River, as is
indicated in table 1. Irrigation has been the purpose for which the
Federal Government has constructed a number of large reservoirs,
such as Elephant Butte in New Mexico and the Arrowrock in Idaho.

302

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 1. — Acreage of irrigated land, together with value of lands, buildings, and
machinery, and value of irrigation enterprises for irrigated farms, by States. 1930
Census

State

Irrigated area

Value of lands,
buildings, and
machinery

Value of reser-
voirs and dis-
tributing sys-
tems

Acres
575, 590

Dollars
157, 290, 710

Dollars
73, 328, 197

151, 787

18, 417, 482

6, 836, 648

California

4, 746, 632

2, 535, 075, 016

450, 967, 979

3, 393, 619

414, 180, 910

87, 603, 240

Idaho

2, 181, 250

316, 649, 034

84, 500, 354

Kansas . _. .

71, 290

13, 095, 069

1, 685, 652

Louisiana -- -

450, 901

50, 676, 224

15, 744, 743

1, 594, 912

205, 027, 415

50, 319, 204

Nebraska - - - - -- - -

532, 617

91, 773, 733

21, 386, 319

Nevada -

486, 648

63, 998, 051

15, 457, 931

527, 033

93, 160, 485

19, 834, 380

North Dakota _____

9,392

1, 452, 335

1, 267, 314

Oklahoma - -

1,573

1, 771, 383

160,099

898, 713

171, 919, 001

38, 754, 548

South Dakota . . _ .

67, 107

11, 576, 300

4,502, 117

Texas

798, 917

190, 141, 304

49, 022, 164

Utah

1, 324, 125

212, 258, 249

35, 669, 819

Washington --

499,283

208, 738, 027

40, 561, 895

Wyoming

1, 236, 155

129, 692, 056

35, 153, 187

United States

19, 547, 544

4, 886, 892, 784

1, 032, 755, 790

WATER POWER

Power developed from streams has long been the backbone of the
great manufacturing industries of New England and New York and of
late years has made possible the industrial rise of the Carolinas. As a
source of electric current for countless homes, rural and urban, and for
city lighting, it is important in all but a few sections of the United
States. Dams built to store water for power production rank among
the Nation's great engineering feats. That at Dreher Shoals, S.C.,
created a reservoir with a capacity of 524 billion gallons of water.
The Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals, Ala., cost the United States
$51,000,000 to build; the recently completed Conowingo Dam in
Maryland cost $52,000,000 and has an installed capacity of 378,000
horsepower. Practically every State in the Union utilizes power from
its streams, and the 26 States fisted in table 2, scattered from Maine to
California, have each developed over 100,000 horsepower.

TABLE 2. — States developing more than 100,000 horsepower from stream flow

State

Installed
capacity,
1931

State

Installed
capacity,
1931

Calif ornia..

Thousand
horse-
power
2,321

Massachusetts

Thousand
horse-
power
362

New York

1,904

Idaho

357

North Carolina ..

954

Oregon

354

Alabama.

931

Pennsylvania

291

Washington-

892

Tennessee

288

South Carolina

816

Minnesota

286

Maine..

579

Vermont

202

New Hampshire

553

Iowa

182

Wisconsin.— . .

519

Connecticut

171

Georgia

482

Utah

157

Montana

429

Kentucky

145

Maryland—

416

Arizona

137

Michigan <. .

399

Virginia

135

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

303

NAVIGATION

Water transport plays an important role in the distribution of
goods in some parts of the United States. The inland waterways of
the country, exclusive of the Great Lakes and interior and intra-
coastal canals, carried 130 million short tons of freight in 1929. From
the founding of the Republic the improvement and maintenance of
navigable channels and harbors has been a Federal responsibility.
Immense sums have been spent by the War Department in the deep-
ening and widening of natural channels, and in engineering works to
make navigation possible during periods of low water. On a single
stream — the Ohio River — the Army engineers built 49 locks and dams,
at a total cost of some $1 18,000,000. The sums spent by the Federal
Government on existing river and harbor projects, nearly all begun
during the last 50 years, are shown in table 3 for each of the drainage
regions later described in detail.

TABLE 3. — Expenditures by the Federal Government on existing river and harbor
projects directly connected with stream flow to June 80, 1932 l

Drainage region

New work

Mainte-
nance

Total

Northeastern. . . .__ .L

$110,565,800

$41, 549, 614

$152, 115, 414

South Atlantic _

21, 925, 180

10, 664, 800

32 589 980

East Gulf

42 431 263

24 890 899

67 322 162

West Gulf

7, 840, 354

6, 842, 644

14,682 998

St. Lawrence

23, 536, 783

7, 831, 504

31 368 287

Upper Mississippi

46 453 997

17 964 551

64 418 548

Hudson Bay _ .

Ohio

273, 377, 283

8,005 056

281 382 339

Missouri - - _ _

55, 694, 195

11, 443, 112

67,137 307

Arkansas-Red

9, 530, 642

5, 371, 173

14 901 815

Lower Mississippi

24 698 131

14 933 296

39 631 427

California _______

19, 694, 023

8, 980, 092

28,674 115

Columbia

20, 008, 737

8, 997, 023

29 005 760

Colorado - -- - - - - -

Great Basin

Rio Grande

Cascade . - -

12, 876, 149

8, 345, 876

21, 222 025

Total

668, 632, 537

175, 819, 640

844, 452, 177

1 Obtained from the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, pt. I, 1932. Sums spent on
harbor breakwaters, canals, and other similar improvements not connected with natural streams and
hence not influenced by cover conditions have been omitted from the compilation.

FLOODS

Floods on the lower Mississippi River of the magnitude of that of
1927, which inundated 18,000 square miles, drove 750,000 people from
their homes, did some $300,000,000 worth of damage, and took 246
lives, so far overshadow disasters on lesser streams as to obscure the
almost Nation-wide importance of local floods. Flood damage in
South Carolina has averaged nearly $1,000,000 a year for the last 20
years, and in Tennessee has been about the same. In table 4 are
given some of the major floods occurring in the present century on
streams other than the Mississippi River, but the record is far from
complete.

304

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 4. — Partial summary of disastrous local floods since 1900 and reported

damage

Stream or locality

Date

Lives
lost

Reported
damage

Passaic River, N.J.

1903

Number

$4,000 000

North Canadian River, Okla .

1932

1 050 000

New England -

1927

84

35 000 000

Paint and Armstrong Creeks, W.Va

1932

2 500 000

Choctawhatchee River, Fla

1929

5 000 000

Delaware River

1925

1 800 000

Brazos River Tex

1921

164

12 000 000

Kentucky River, Ky - - - - - -

1927

67

7 000 000

Ohio River Valley

1913

400

180 000 000

Upper Mississippi River

1916

2 500 000

Wabash River, Ind., and White River, 111 -

1930

7 000 000

Western North Carolina

1916

22 000 000

Pueblo, Colo

1921

120

25, 000, 000

Spartanburg, S.C _ -

1903

50

3 500 000

Rio Grande, Tex

1932

12

2 500 000

Yazoo, Miss

1932

1 450 000

EROSION

A process common to nearly all parts of the United States is the
washing by rains from unwisely cleared and unskillfully cultivated
lands, from overgrazed pastures and ranges, and occasionally from
devastated and badly burned forest lands of the fertile topsoil that
has required centuries and sometimes vastly longer periods to accumu-
late. In some places the effects of this washing have reached tragic
proportions. Erosion not only robs the uplands of fertility but loads
the streams which drain them with silt and heavier material that clogs
irrigating ditches, navigable channels, and harbors; fills reservoirs;
increases the height of floods ; and permanently ruins much overflowed
land. Erosion is unquestionably most serious from land cleared for
agriculture. So much of this land as fully justifies the careful manage-
ment necessary to prevent erosion will remain in agriculture and is
beyond the scope of this report. But on the piedmont plateau of the
Southern States, on the rich bluff lands of the Mississippi as far north
as Wisconsin, in the high valleys of the Appalachian Mountains, in
the States bordering the Ohio Kiver, in Missouri, Oklahoma, and
eastern Texas, and in other agricultural sections of the United States
erosion has been the chief cause for abandoning millions of acres of
cleared land. All of this will continue to erode unless reclothed in
permanent vegetation, such as forest or brush. Over the wide expanse
of the public domain unregulated grazing has started erosion that has
already seriously reduced the value of the forage and shortened the
life of irrigating reservoirs.

DOES FOREST COVER AID IN SOLVING THE PROBLEMS
OF STREAM FLOW AND EROSION?

No one can question the seriousness of the stream flow and erosion
problems that confront practically every section of the United
States. Does the condition of the forest cover on the watersheds of
streams appreciably influence stream flow and erosion, and how far
may forest management be expected to aid in solving these problems?

A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 305

DEFINITION OF FOREST COVER

Forest, as the term is used here and elsewhere in this report, includes
both trees proper and tall brush. In the West this embraces com-
mercial timber, woodland (pinon and juniper, for example), and
chaparral — all areas except sagebrush, grassland, and other com-
parable prairie or desert types of vegetation. In the East it covers
such degenerate forest types as scrub oak. In calculating the per-
centage of a drainage region which is forested, small openings within
the forest have been included with the forest, but large meadows,
grassland, or other non-tree-producing openings within the forest have
been excluded. Windbreaks, shelter-belts, and other tree plantings
carried in the census records of the Plains region as woodlots are
admitted to the forest area. Cleared lands within the forest belt
which have been permanently abandoned or are in process of abandon-
ment by agriculture have been classed only as potential forest land.

Forest cover in its relation to watershed protection is considered to
include: (1) The trees and tall brush; (2) the herbs and shrubs growing
thereunder or in openings in the forest or brush fields; (3) the litter,
or fallen leaves, branches, down trees, and other vegetative material
on the forest floor; and (4) the rich humus of partly decayed vegetable
matter at the surface and in the top layer of the soil. Thus in this
section it is the influence of the ^ en tire forest cover upon run-off,
erosion, or other watershed-protection values which is given consider-
ation, rather than the influence of the trees alone.

There is a rather widespread popular acceptance in this country of
the idea that forests and associated or related vegetation exert a
favorable influence not only on streams but on climate. This prob-
ably had its origin in European experience, and has been fortified by
general observation, such as the muddiness of streams flowing from
cleared land compared with the clarity of those flowing from woodland,
and extreme fluctuations in the rate of streamflow from deforested or
denuded land. Only of late has a body of information based on careful
observation and experimentation begun to accumulate behind the
popular concept of the forest as a regulator of stream flow and preven-
tive of erosion.

This concept of the beneficial influence of forests has been em-
bodied from the first in the administration of the national forests
created from the public domain, and was long the sole basis for pur-
chase of national forests in the East. The act of 1897, which first
provided for administration of the original ''forest reserves", named
as a major purpose " securing favorable conditions of water flows".
Certain of the national forests of the West — among them the Tonto in
Arizona and the Angeles in California — have been created in whole
or in large part principally for the protection of irrigation projects
or municipal water supplies. The Weeks Law of 1911 provided for
Federal cooperation with the States "for the protection of the water-
sheds of navigable streams", and for Federal "acquisition of lands
for the purpose of conserving the navigability of navigable rivers."
The Clarke-McNary Law of 1924 continued the cooperation "with
a view to the protection of forest and water resources", and directed
that in further purchases "due consideration" be given both to water-
sheds of navigable streams and those ' ' from which water is secured for
domestic use or irrigation." Nearly 60 percent of the Federal pur-

306 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

chases of forest land made since 1924 have been made primarily for
watershed protection.

In direct opposition to the popular idea regarding beneficial forest
influences have been the doubts from time to time implied or expressed
by various small groups of engineers, geologists, and meteorologists.
The Mississippi River Commission, for example in its 1927 plans for
controlling floods in that stream, set up grounds "to justify rejection
of reforesting as an element of flood control in the lower Mississippi
River", and has ignored the possibility that proper management of
the 20 percent of the watershed still in forest may reduce flood crests
by the critical feet or inches that often spell the difference between
mere high water and disaster. Other men of scientific standing from
time to time attempt to prove that because forests and similar vege-
tation are well known to appropriate to their use considerable quan-
tities of ground water, particularly at seasons when streams are low,
their influence is detrimental rather than beneficial. In the face of
criticism of this character it is desirable to summarize here the more
important available experimental evidence on the relation of forests to
stream flow under American conditions of climate, soil, and vege-
tation.

HOW FOREST COVER INFLUENCES RUN-OFF

The average yearly rainfall (including snow) in the United States
varies from less than 10 inches in the more arid portions of the South-
west to more than 100 inches in the Pacific northwest and in portions
of the southern Appalachian Mountains. In some parts of the country
the rainfall is concentrated within a few months, or in a few heavy
storms, while in others it is so well distributed that the precipitation
for the wettest month is rarely more than twice that for the driest
month. These figures are averages for a period of years; irregular-
ities— both excesses and deficiencies in rainfall, often of extraordinary
magnitude — are common to practically all sections of the country,
although particularly marked in a few.

Whether the rain and snow falling on any watershed is as fully
useful to mankind as it might be depends almost wholly on the
character of its run-off. Of that which sinks into the ground — that is,
is absorbed by the surface soil or percolates through it to greater
depths — the greater part becomes available for the growth of plants
useful to man or his domestic animals, or in time appears in streams
capable of furnishing fairly constant supplies of water for domestic,
industrial, and irrigating use, of generating water power, and of
transporting freight. Or it may be stored in natural underground
reservoirs available to human use. The precipitation which quickly
reaches the streams by flowing over the surface of the ground, on the
other hand, causes much erosion and many floods. This general
classification of subsurface run-off as useful, and flashy surface run-off
as detrimental, is of course subject to many exceptions. Not all vege-
tation using rain that has penetrated the ground is directly useful to
us, and some of this water is lost through chemical combination in the
soil and through seepage to great depths. Even subsurface waters
when they reach the streams may contribute to floods, and the flashy
run-off under some conditions may be stored above or below ground,
and thus be prevented from causing destructive floods or being lost
to human use during dry seasons. These instances are, however, so

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 307

exceptional and the beneficial effects for which they are responsible
are so slight in comparison with the damage ordinarily wrought by
run-off that they may be dismissed here as entirely negligible.

Studies of surface run-off from forested areas, and from areas in
other types of natural or planted vegetation have been made in Wis-
consin and in Mississippi. On silt loam uplands in Wisconsin l with
slopes averaging 36 percent, the proportion of total summer precipi-
tation which ran off over the surface of the ground beneath hardwood
forests of varying density averaged 2.8 percent. Wild pastures of
native grasses, in which the soil had never been cultivated, showed
a surface run-off about 2% times as great. Cultivation greatly in-
creased the percentage of surface run-off; from cultivated hay fields
it averaged 17.7 percent, and from small grain fields, cornfields,
seeded pastures, and fallow land it averaged over 25 percent.

H. G. Meginnis of the Southern Forest Experiment Station made a
study of run-off and erosion from the upland loess soil of northern
Mississippi by means of a number of sample plots. At the time of the
disastrous flood in the Yazoo River in 1931-32 when 27 inches of rain
fell, 62 percent of the rain ran off immediately from the plots located
in cultivated fields, and 54 percent from those located in abandoned
fields. The run-off during the same period from the plots in an undis-
turbed oak forest was only 0.5 percent and but 2 percent in a scrub
oak forest.

Total run-off can of course be measured only at the foot of
slopes, or wherever the precipitation which has percolated into the
ground is again brought to the surface by the outcropping of bed-
rock or impervious soil layers, and joins that which has run off over
the surface. The volume of streams, compared with the precipitation
received by the watershed above the point where stream volume is
measured, indicates total run-off only so far as there is no deeper
movement of moisture in the soil beneath the stream channel. In
the drier portions of the United States stream flow for an entire year
may be as little as 6 percent of the total precipitation on a watershed,2
although averaging more, but in the more humid portions is almost
always higher. In the Middle West — Missouri and Illinois, for
example — the total run-off as measured by surface flow averages 20
to 30 percent 3 with minima of probably 15 percent. In the East the
average total run-off in streams is more nearly 50 per cent of the pre-
cipitation and rarely drops below 25 percent. King 4 gives the average
percentage run-off for Tennessee rivers as 45 percent with extremes
of 12 and 66 percent.

The principal factors which influence the normal division of run-off
into useful subsurface waters and less useful or destructive surface
waters are the character of the precipitation, the geology and topog-
raphy of the surface on which it falls, and the vegetative cover on
that surface. The vegetative cover is the only one of these factors
which it is within human power to control. Hence the necessity for
understanding how it operates. Forest is the cover on by far the
greater part of the United States which is still in natural vegetation,
and on which important quantities of rain or snow fall. The more

1 Bates, C. G., and Zeasman, O. R. "Soil erosion." Wise. Agr. Exp. Sta. Research Bui. No. 99, 1930.

2 Blaney, H. F. "Discussion of 'forests and streamflow'." Proc. Amer. Soc. Civil Eng., Dec. 1932.

3 Duley, F. F., and Miller, M. F. "Erosion and surface run-off under different soil conditions." Mo.
Agr. Exp. Sta. Research Bui. No. 63, 1923.

* King, W. R. "Surface waters of Tennessee." Div. of Geol. Dept. of Educ. Bui. 40, 1931.

308 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

important ways in which they bring about their total effect on run-off
are explained in the following paragraphs.

INTERCEPTION OF PRECIPITATION

Anyone who has taken refuge under a tree during a summer shower
knows that the crown of both evergreen and broadleaf trees intercepts
and holds a certain amount of the rain, which is later evaporated, but
that if the rain is prolonged until the leaves and branches are thor-
oughly wet, the remainder of the fall reaching the tree drips and is not
caught but only delayed in reaching the ground.

The Forest Service has recorded rainfall at paired stations inside
and outside of timber stands in several forest types. Records of 3 to 5
summers show that a good pulpwood stand of spruce, fir, and some
paper birch in Maine intercepted 26 percent of the rainfall; another
Maine stand of pure spruce-fir, 37 percent; a dense saw-timber stand
of white pine and helmock in Massachusetts, 24 percent; and a heavy
virgin white pine and hemlock stand in Idaho, 21 percent. Briefer
studies record that open second-growth forests of oak and hard pine
in southern New Jersey intercepted 13 percent of the summer's
rainfall; and jack pine and hardwood-hemlock stands in Wisconsin,
22 and 19 percent, respectively, of the spring and fall precipitation.
The Wisconsin hardwoods when in leaf intercepted 25 percent, as
against 16 percent after the leaves fell.

Interception of snow by the crowns of ponderosa pines at about
4,500 feet elevation, in Idaho, was studied by the Forest Service
during 1931-32. In a good stand of virgin timber with an under-
story of young trees, C. A. Connaughton found that up to the time
of maximum storage 27 percent of the winter 's snow had been inter-
cepted; in similar mature timber without an understory it was 22 per-
cent; and in a somewhat open stand of ponderosa and Ipdgepole pine,
20 to 30 feet tall, 8 percent. Studies by Church,^ Jaenicke and Foer-
ster,6 and Griffin,7 however, indicate that snow interception is con-
siderably less in evergreen forest types elsewhere in the West.

RETARDATION OF SNOW MELT

Although MacKinney 8 found that light snows melted more rapidly
on litter than on mineral soil under a pine plantation in Connecticut,
in regions of heavy snow a forest cover retards melt in the spring,
thereby materially lessening destructive surface run-off and promoting
percolation of the melted snow into the ground. This is due in part
to shading of the ground, but mostly to reduction in wind movement;
Connaughton found the wind movement during the period of rapid
snow melt in Idaho to be more than nine times as great in the open as
in the heavy stand of mature ponderosa pine with an almost contin-
uous understory of advance reproduction. Even in the open ponder-
osa pine forest in which Jaenicke and Foerster worked the wind
movement was less than half that in the open.

4 Church, J. E. Jr. "The conservation of snow. Its dependence on forests and mountains." Scientific
American Supplement, Sept. 7, 1912.

6 Jaenicke, A. J., and Foerster, M. H. " The influence of western yellow pine forest on the accumulation
and melting of snow." Mo. Weather Rev., Mar., 1915.

7 Griffin, A. A. "Influence of forests upon the melting of snow in the Cascade Range." Mo. Weather
Rev., July, 1918.

8 MacKinney, A. L. "Effects of forest litter on soil temperature and soil freezing in autumn and
winter." Ecology, July, 1929.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 309

The following information on retardation of snow melt was ob-
tained in the snow studies just cited. In Idaho the snow cover
disappeared in the forest from 3 to 10 days later than in the open; at
least 10 days later in Nevada; " several weeks" later in Arizona, the
snow occurring, however, merely as drifts in the timber ; and from 1 to
5 weeks later in Washington. Ashe 9 reported that 20 inches of snow
falling at an elevation of^GOO feet in Maryland during March 1906
was 9 days longer in melting beneath a cover of Virginia pine than in
the open, and also longer though by a smaller interval beneath an oak
forest than in the open.

REDUCTION OF EVAPORATION FROM THE SOIL

In addition to intercepting precipitation and retarding snow melt,
the crowns and trunks of trees greatly reduce the rate of evaporation
from the soil, just as they have been seen to lessen evaporation or
sublimation of snow. In regions of low rainfall, where the forest is
open and litter is not continuous or deep on the forest floor, reduction
in evaporation from the soil is very much to be desired. W. C.
Lowdermilk found, in an analysis of factors affecting the yield of
water from watersheds in southern California, in 1930, that if all rain
in southern California were to occur as 0.5 inch storms one week apart
evaporation would account for practically the total supply of meteoric
waters. Although half an inch of rain may penetrate the soils of this
region to a depth of about 8 inches, when the surface is dried by sun-
light and wind, the moisture is drawn up by capillary action and is
evaporated. Burr 10 also found on cultivated ground in Nebraska
that a half-inch rain was of no storage value unless it fell on a surface
still moist.

Fortunately, all the rain does not occur in California, Nebraska, or
anywhere else in the United States in small storms at weekly intervals,
and evaporation from the soil is universally influenced by a forest
cover which not only shades the ground but greatly reduces wind
movement. In Arizona, according to Pearson,11 summer evaporation
a few feet above the ground within a forest of ponderosa pine may be
only 70 percent of the evaporation in the open. G. M. Jamison found
that during July and August 1931, evaporation beneath a dense virgin
forest of western white pine and hemlock in Idaho was only 22 percent
of that in an area clear-cut and burned, and in a similar stand from
which about 65 percent of the cover had been removed it was only 47
percent. Bode 12 states that in a heavy oak stand in Iowa summer
evaporation was 47 percent, and in a reproducing cut-over area 74
percent of that in the open. O. M. Wood found that evaporation
during one spring in a rather open, short-bodied stand of mature pine
and oak in southern New Jersey was only 65 percent of that in the
open.

It is impossible to state what effect these very substantial reductions
in evaporation rate within the forest have upon soil moisture. There
are almost no American data on seasonal evaporation from a bare soil,

9 Ashe, W. W. " Relation of soils and forest cover to quality and quantity of surface water in the Potomac
basin." U. S. Geol. Sur. Water Supply Paper No. 192. 1907.

10 Burr, W. W. " The storage and use of soil moisture." Nebraska Agri. Exp. Sta. Research Bui. no. 5.
1914.

" Pearson, Q. A. " Forest types in the Southwest as determined by climate and soil." U.S.D.A.Tech.
Bui. no. 247. 1931.

13 Bode, 1. T. " Relation of the smaller forests area in nonforested regions to evaporation and movement
of soil water." Proc. Iowa Acad. Sciences. 1920.

310 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

and they would not apply to the normally litter-covered soil of a forest.
European evidence, as quoted by Zon,13 shows wide variations, but
indicate that evaporation from bare soil in the open, under average
conditions, amounts to about 50 percent of precipitation; and that a
forest, even without leaf litter, may reduce this to 15 to 25 percent.

CONSUMPTION OF WATER BY FOREST VEGETATION

The water which all plants rooted in the soil withdraw from it in
maintaining growth and life is transpired, or given out into the air,
chiefly from the leaves. It is very difficult to measure accurately the
transpiration from a single tree beyond the seedling stage, and in-
finitely more so to measure the transpiration from a forest. Blaney
et al.14: employed observations of stream flow to determine the water
evaporated from the soil or consumed by canyon-bottom vegetation—
" willows, tules, and kindred moist land growths" — in southern
California.

The evapo-transpiration losses from Temescal Canyon during only
30 spring days they found to equal 12.9 inches of rainfall. The same
author15 estimated from stream-flow measurements in Coldwater
Canyon that the transpiration losses from " alders, sycamores, bay,
oak, and herbaceous growth" during the 6-month summer season
of 1931 was 45 inches per acre. Evaporation was judged to be small
as the water in the canyon bed is constantly cooler than the air.
Inasmuch as the precipitation for the entire year is normally only
about 30 inches, it is fortunate that the area of canyon-bottom vege-
tation is very small, and that the loss per acre of entire watershed
is only 0.10 inch per mile of canyon. The transpiration losses just
described are probably at or near the maximum for any forest type
in the United States, and fully warrant the expedient, already adopted
by such cities as San Bernardino, of piping water out of the stream
channel before it can be consumed by the canyon-bottom forest.
That the forest cover of the slopes and ridges in this region does not
begin to make the same demands on soil moisture is very clear from
its dwarfed development.

Data on transpiration rates for other American forest types are
entirely lacking and these rates may only be inferred from general
knowledge. Interception of precipitation, evaporation from the soil,
and transpiration account for a very large part of the difference be-
tween the total precipitation over a watershed and the flow of the
stream draining it. These differences have been earlier described
for various parts of the country. Transpiration probably fully equals
the other two factors combined in the hardw^ood forests of the humid
eastern United States, but in the evergreen and chaparral forests
East or West, may be subordinate to either.

INFLUENCE OF FOREST LITTER

Probably more important than any of the previously listed influ-
ences of the forest on run-off and stream flow is that exerted by litter.

13 Zon, R. " Forests and water in the light of scientific investigation." Final report, Nat. Waterways
Com., Sen. Doc. no. 469, 62d Cong., 2d sess., 1912.

14 Blaney, H. F., Taylor, C. A., and Young, A. A. " Rainfall penetration and consumptive use of water
in the Santa Ana River valley and coastal plain." Calif. State Bui. no. 33. (Calif. Dept. Public Works,
Div. Water Resources, in coop. U.S. Dept. Agr., Bu. Agri. Engineering) 1930.

« Blaney, H. F., Discussion of " Forests and Stream Flow. " Proc. American Soc. of Civil Eng.,
December 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 311

Forest litter is the layer of fallen leaves or needles, of dead branches,
down trunks, and other vegetable remains, which in varying depth is
found under the crowns of trees and brush species in every temperate-
zone forest. Through the gradual processes of decay and chemical
change, and through the agency of animals which trample or other-
wise disturb the surface of the ground, this litter is disintegrated into
humus. Percolating water then carries the fine particles of humus,
into the soil, where they are further broken down into nitrogenous
products by bacteria and other organisms.

Forest litter exerts its influence in several ways. First and most
important, it contributes to the humus content of the soil. It is an
axiom in agriculture that humus, or organic matter, makes a heavy
soil lighter, and a light soil heavier, by causing the soil particles to
form crumbs. A crumb structure gives the maximum room for air
and water, both vital to plant growth. How powerful an effect
organic matter, although an unimportant fraction by weight in most
soils, has on the water-holding capacity of the soil is illustrated by
analysis in table 5, made by George Stewart of a granitic sand sup-
porting ponderosa pine in Idaho. About 200 samples of the soil were
taken to a depth of 4 inches, from openings, some large and some
small, in a virgin stand. The condition of the vegetation refers to
its value primarily as forage, and the deterioration is the result of
grazing.

TABLE 5. — Analysis of granitic sand soil under a ponderosa pine stand in Idaho

Condition of vegetation

Organic
matter 1

Water-
holding
capacity l

Good (nearly original condition) .

Percent
10.5

Percent
81

Intermediate (considerable deterioration)

4.8

55

Poor (bad deterioration, soil usually gullied)

2 4

44

1 In percentage of dry weight of soil.

The ability of this soil to absorb water was nearly halved by its
loss of a very small quantity of organic matter. Inasmuch as the
soil of any watershed is the great underground reservoir replenished
from time to time by precipitation, but at all times draining into the
streams, its absorptive capacity is the great factor in sustained stream-
flow. Humus and the decaying roots of plants enormously increase
this capacity.

A second major influence of forest litter is its promotion of water
percolation. If a soil is extremely shallow, or if precipitation is
unable to percolate into it rapidly, run-off must take place over the
surface from any but the lightest storms. If rain falls upon bare
soil it becomes muddied and carries fine material in suspension
downward into the minute interstices between the soil particles.
How promptly and completely muddy water will plug these pores
and slow the rate of percolation has been demonstrated by Lowder-
milk.16 After establishing, over a period consisting of parts of 7

16 Lowdermilk, W. C., "Influence of forest litter on run-off, percolation, and erosion." Jour. Forestry,
April 1930.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 21

312 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

days, the rate at which clear water percolated through columns of
soil, he introduced sediment of less than 2 percent by weight into the
water; within 6 hours the rate of percolation fell to 10 percent of
what it had been. Moreover, the effect was permanent, as a return
to the use of clear water did not restore the original rate. A good
forest litter keeps the rain from becoming muddied when it hits the
earth and so decreases run-off ; in the absence of litter, surface run-off
is enormously increased. When Lowdermilk applied artificial rain,
at an average rate of 1 inch an hour, for several periods of % to 8
hours, to sloping tanks filled with typical California soils, he found
that the surface run-off was from 3 to 16 times as great from bare
soils from which the litter was burned as from those on which a litter
cover was present.

An effect similar to that of litter cover in aiding percolation and
in lessening the proportion of surface run-off is produced by low,
permanent vegetation. Duley and Miller (op. cit.) state that
whereas only 11.5 percent of 6 years' rainfall ran off over a sloping
surface protected by a permanent grass sod, kept clipped, 49 percent
ran off bare soil. Even where tilth of the bare soil was maintained
by annual cultivation nearly 30 percent of the precipitation was
carried off over the surface.

The superior physical condition and consequent permeability of
forest soils has been demonstrated for Ohio Valley conditions by
Auten.17 Samples of the upper 9 inches of soil under several old-
growth stands in oak-hickory and other hardwood types were found
to be 13 percent lighter at oven dryness than equal volumes of soil
from adjacent cultivated fields and a few pastures — indicating more

Eore space and better tilth. Although this difference in weight was
iter found to be confined to the upper 6 inches, the forest soil was
still distinctly the more pervious to moisture at a depth of 8 inches.
At a 3-inch depth 14 times as much water was absorbed per minute
by the forest as the field soil, and at a 1-inch depth, over 50 times as
much.

Auten points out that the favorable effect of the forest on the soils
he studied is not entirely due to the litter, but is increased by the
roots, which upon their death decay and leave the soil interpenetrated
with tube-like cavities; also by the activities of burrowing worms,
insects, and animals, which make the soil porous. A litter cover
promotes these activities. Lowdermilk reported that earthworms
appeared under the litter during the second year of his comparison
of run-off from bare and litter-covered plots.

Secondary but sometimes important effects of litter upon run-off
are produced by its absorption of moisture, its retardation of evapo-
ration from the soil beneath, and its prevention of deep freezing.
Investigations by the Forest Service and other agencies 18 have
shown that litter from both the conifer and oak-chaparral types of
California absorb about 1.8 times their own dry weight of moisture;
freshly fallen pine litter in both the Lake States and the South, 1.5
times; conifer litter in the southern Appalachian Mountains, 3.4
times and hardwood litter, 4.6 times; and spruce-northern hardwood
litter in New England up to 9 times its dry weight. The rainfall

i? Auten, John T., "Porosity and water absorption of forest soils." Accepted for publication by Jour.
Agr. Res., 1933.

is "Relation of forestry to the control of floods in the Mississippi Valley." House of Rep. Doc. No. 573,
70tb Cong., 2d sess., 1929,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 313

equivalent of moisture absorbed by the litter normally accumulating
in this wide assortment of types ranges from a negligible quantity to
nearly an inch, and within a single region, according to Alway and
Harmer,19 may be 9 times as much in a dense stand as in one opened
by cutting. The Red Plains Experiment Station near Guthrie,
Okla., found the litter on a post-oak area to have a water-absorption
capacity of 16.7 tons per acre.

American data on the effect of a litter cover on evaporation from
forest soils are singularly lacking, but European comparisons, quoted
by Zon (op. cit.) of forests with and without litter, indicates that this
natural forest mulch may reduce evaporation by 40 to 60 percent.

A litter cover materially retards both the rate and depth of freezing
of the soil beneath. MacKinney (op. cit.) found that under a 2-inch
litter in a Connecticut plantation of Norway and white pines, frost
in 1926-27 was a month later in penetrating the soil at all, and final
penetration only 60 percent as deep, as where the litter had been
removed.

The character of the frozen soil was influenced markedly by the litter. The
soil on the bare plot froze solidly, and the air spaces were practically filled with ice.
On the other hand the frozen soil beneath the litter cover was porous and loose,
at no time being frozen too hard to allow the insertion of a shovel * * *.
During winter rains and thaws, the water soaked into the soil of the litter-covered
plot and percolated to lower depths. On the bare plot the water ran off at such
times due to the nonporous character of the frozen soil.

SUMMARY OF INFLUENCES

Because forest that conserves snow and reduces evaporation of soil
moisture must at the same time interrupt precipitation and transpire
water drawn from the soil, its final effect on run-off can only be deter-
mined by the balance between these opposing influences. Whether
this net effect is beneficial or harmful in any particular region is
probably determined in part by the total amount of precipitation, but
chiefly by the occurrence of precipitation as snow or rain, its distribu-
tion throughout the year or during only a part of it, and its arrival in
light or heavy storms. American research to date, backed by a large
body of observational evidence from all parts of the United States,
justifies a strong belief that the forests of the country practically
always benefit stream flow. A possible exception is the canyon-
bottom vegetation of the drier regions, earlier described; even this
may prove to have a net favorable effect in the checking of erosion.
There can be no doubt at all that the net effect of forest litter, al-
though it intercepts some precipitation and returns it into the air by
evaporation, is extremely beneficial, since it reduces surface run-off
and increases the water-storage capacity of the soil by increasing
percolation at the same time that it shelters the soil moisture from
evaporation.

From a careful consideration of each main region, it appears fairly
evident that the climax forest — that type of forest which is best adapt-
ed to the climate and soil, and which nature, in the absence of fires,
human interference, or epidemic of tree-killing insects and diseases,
always tends to produce — was admirably adapted to promoting
stream-flow conditions favorable to mankind. For example, the dense
hardwood and hemlock forests of the southern Appalachian Moun-

19 Alway, F. J., and Harmer, P. M., "Minnesota glacial soil studies: II. The forest floor on the Late
Wisconsin Drift." Soil Science, 1927.

314 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

tains, where annual rainfall is heavy and floods result from a succes-
sion of storms rather than from a single very heavy storm, appear to
constitute just the forest type to intercept the maximum of precipita-
tion in the tree crowns and litter, and to reduce the flood crests by
keeping part of the rain or melted snow from ever reaching the soil.
Were such a forest capable of developing in southern California, where
the comparatively light precipitation supplies a vital human need in
the rich valleys, its draft on available moisture would be extremely
serious. But the forest actually present on the hillsides is a dwarfed
one, not transpiring appreciably at the season of heaviest rainfall, but
producing a leaf litter having a profoundly favorable effect on percola-
tion and water storage.

The natural climax forest of a region, although a valuable guide to
what constitutes the best form and composition for a forest managed
chiefly for its influence on run-off and stream flow, is probably not
beyond improvement. When vastly greater research than has yet
been attempted yields a knowledge of how much a given change in the
character of a forest will improve the flow of streams, it is entirely
possible that appropriate management will produce a forest with an
even greater beneficial influence than the original. At the very least
man has it somewhat in his power to control many of the natural
catastrophes — fire and killing insects, for example — that ravaged some
of the American forests long before Columbus' arrival, and which, as
will be seen under a later heading, today have disastrous effects on
stream flow.

HOW FOREST COVER INFLUENCES EROSION

Erosion, the removal of soil by water and wind, is taking place on
all land areas. Where this occurs on land that has not been dis-
turbed by man and is subject to no extraordinary climatic conditions
the process may be termed "normal erosion." The intensity of
normal erosion is determined chiefly by topography, geology, soils,
climate (especially precipitation), and vegetative cover. Only rarely
does it assume an intensity that involves serious damage to soil or to
water flow or storage. In humid regions completely clothed with
vegetation, as in a dense forest, natural processes are forming soil as
rapidly as it is eroded and actual net loss, if any, is imperceptible.
Surface run-off is ordinarily negligible, and consequently what erosion
there may be is limited to light or dissolved particles of organic matter
and practically no mineral soil is removed. Where the forest and
other vegetative cover is definitely scant, as under semiarid conditions,
there is still enough vegetation or debris to catch eroding soil and
litter on slopes, retard run-off, and cause deposition of much of the
eroded material already in motion. Even a light vegetative covering,
if undisturbed, is sufficient to hold normal erosion to a negligible
quantity. Only where the soil is unstable and easily erosible, as in
the Badlands of the Dakotas, or on the outcrop of the Mancos and
other similar shales, is normal erosion sufficiently rapid as to be
perceptible.

On the other hand, when natural conditions are disturbed and
nature's balance is upset by a reduction in the forest cover as a result
of fire, logging, or overgrazing, or by marked changes in climatic con-
ditions or other major causes, erosion in excess of normal is liable to
occur. Furthermore, abnormal erosion, where it does occur, is an

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

315

accelerating process. Its least conspicuous form is as sheet erosion,
recognizable in the exposure of root crowns and roots of plants, in the
lowered productivity of the site, in the accumulation of soil on slopes
immediately above obstructions, and in the final disappearance of the
mellow black surface soil. As the mellow surface soil is washed away,
a more compact subsurface soil is generally exposed, less capable of
absorbing rainfall and less resistant to erosion. Furthermore, de-
creased productivity may render it incapable of supporting as dense
a stand of vegetation as formerly. There is thus less obstruction to
run-off, less binding power in the soil, and less possibility of rebuilding
the organic content. As sheet erosion becomes advanced the more
rapid surface run-off concentrates and tends to cut small gullies.
After hard rains on soils inadequately protected by vegetation the
entire area may be cut by lines from the size of a pencil to gullies
several inches deep. The smaller lines may be readily obliterated by
creep of soil as it dries, but their original presence indicates a rapid
soil wastage.

Finally, abnormal erosion assumes its most spectacular form as
deep gullies on slopes and large straight-sided channels cut through
flood plains. Its final effects are heavily soil-laden streams, especially
when in flood; silted channels and reservoirs; mud rock flows from
mountain stream courses ; and deposits of inert sands and gravels on
fertile bottom lands.

The control of erosion through retarding run-off is largely a function
of the forest cover. This cover is responsible for improvement of
soil structure, protection of the surface soil from beating rains, and,
by intercepting run-off, reduction of the velocity and carrying power
of the surface water. Lowdermilk has pointed out in his studies
under controlled conditions that the run-off from soil surfaces pro-
tected by a litter cover alone was nearly clear. A summary of
Lowdermilk's findings in table 6 shows strikingly the value of forest
litter in reducing erosion on three important soil types. The weights
of soil eroded from these plots, all of which had been litter covered for
a year before half of them were burned bare, indicate that, on the
average, removing the litter caused, respectively, 73, 160, and 1,196
times as much sediment to be eroded as was carried off from the pro-
tected soils. Studies in Arizona by C. K. Cooperrider, of the South-
western Forest and Range Experiment Station, show that a vigorous
herbaceous and shrub understory in the woodland type exerts a some-
what similar influence.

TABLE 6. — Weights of soil eroded from plots protected by litter cover and plots burned
bare on slopes of equal gradient and soils of three important types, under equal
quantity and duration of artificial rainfall 1

Time of run (hours)

Average
total
rainfall

Sandy clay loam

Fine sandy loam

Clay loam

Litter
covered

Bare

Litter
covered

Bare

Litter
covered

Bare

/2

Inches
7.86
15.44
21.45
20.17
43. 19
77.31

Grams
0.05
.40
2.00
.35
.45
.50

Grams
18.6
40.6
38.2
89.6
35.4
48.6

Grams
2.00
1.70
.95
.59
2.48
1.07

Grams
234.0
646.8
28.1
235.6
19.0
235.6

Grams
0.51
.60
.44
2.02
.75
.62

Grams
285.4
593. 7
1, 279. 4
1,238.2
404.1
2. 082. 2

1^

2

4

8

Average. - _..

.62

45.2

1.46

233.2

.82

980.5

1 10 runs made for each combination of time and condition.

316 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Water erosion, however, is not the only form of erosion. Wind
erosion, resulting in the formation of sand dunes, occurs in areas
where trees or other vegetation are not able to hold light soils from
transportation by high winds. Destructive dunes exist west of the
Adirondack Mountains in New York, along the eastern shore of
Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes, and in places along the Pacific,
Atlantic, and Gulf coasts. Forests offer a possibility for the control
of sand dunes in localities where climatic conditions are sufficiently
humid to permit the establishment of a forest cover. In Europe
many dune areas have been transformed by planting to good timber-
producing forests, some of which served admirably for wood products
in the World War. The establishment of trees or similar vegetation
on dune areas breaks the force of the wind, and the litter cover, once
complete, protects the soil from wind transportation.

CONSEQUENCES OF DISTURBING THE FOREST COVER

FIRE

Fire is the most wide-spread and one of the most destructive
disturbances of the forest cover. Even the lightest fire consumes
some of the inflammable materials on the ground — the litter in all
its forms. The extent of destruction of these materials depends in
the main upon their moisture content, and the humidity and other
climatic factors at the time of the fire. In many forest types it is a
common occurrence for the litter to be entirely consumed by a fire
which does not do any spectacular damage to the standing trees.
Thus is destroyed the enormously important protective soil covering,
a chief factor in the forest's favorable influence on run-off and erosion.
A fire which is hot enough to consume most of the litter ordinarily
also destroys part of the humus in the top soil, thus damaging its
loose, porous, granular structure, and making it less receptive to
penetration of rain.

Bennett 20 in reporting on an unpublished finding of S. W. Phillips
and I. T. Goddard at the Red Plains Erosion Experiment Station
near Guthrie, Okla., in the spring of 1930, states that on two plots
in post-oak timber — one on which the forest litter was burned, and
the other, immediately alongside, on which the natural ground cover
of leaves and twigs was left undisturbed — the run-off was measured
during a period of almost continuous rainfall in May. Run-off from
the unburned plot was clear and amounted to 250 gallons per acre,
but that from the burned plot, having the same soil and slope, was
muddy and attained a volume of 27,600 gallons per acre. The
excess of run-off from the burned area over that from the unburned
area plus the 16.7 tons per acre absorbed by the leaf -litter itself was
approximately 90 tons per acre. The absorbed wrater wrent to replen-
ish the underground soil water supply while that held by the litter
was largely evaporated. From the burned plot an average of 0.15
ton of soil per acre per year was eroded, and from the unburned plot
0.01 ton.

In spruce forests of the East, particularly at high altitudes, fires
have been very destructive. Here the mineral soil is shallow, and in

20 Bennett, H. H., Relation of Erosion to Vegetative Changes, pp. 385-415. Scientific Monthly, No-
vember 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 317

Cces almost lacking, under a deep duff. Where this covering has
n burned, the soil itself is practically destroyed. Studies by the
Appalachian Forest Experiment Station on a 1924 burn in West
Virginia indicated that spruce and hardwood litter from 12 to 18
inches deep was destroyed. In his report on the southern Appa-
lachian region, which had a large influence in bringing about the
purchase of national forests in the eastern United States region,
Glenn 21 said of the Blackwater Basin in Virginia :

All of the Blackwater Basin except its lower part has been thoroughly lum-
bered and then burned over, so that in many places the bare rocks are exposed
and scarcely anything but briers and fire-scald cherries have since been able to
take hold. It will be years before a commercial forest can be started and cen-
turies before the magnificent hemlock, spruce, and pine that once covered it can
grow again.

In the 20 years since this prediction was written, conditions have
not materially changed on large areas, and the Forest Service has
been obliged to plant part of the present Federal holdings.

In the chaparral type of California, a type characteristic of water-
sheds of critical importance to a large population, hot summer fires
destroy the entire cover on thousands of acres every year, often
leaving several inches of ash on steep slopes completely exposed to
erosion. If the fall and winter precipitation comes as mild, well-
sustained rains, studies of the California Forest Experiment Station
have shown that a good cover of annuals will come in, and that these,
together with sprouts from such crowns of shrubs as remain alive,
may be sufficient to hold much of the soil in place. However, these
rains are more apt to come as semitorrential downpours before an
adequate vegetative cover has become reestablished and then great
quantities of soil are washed from the slopes in the rapid unobstructed
run-off.

Hoyt and Troxell 22 have compared the run-off of Fish Creek with
that of Santa Anita Creek, neighboring watersheds, for the 7-year
period from October 1917 to September 1924 when both were covered
with forest and chaparral, and then for the 6-year period following a
fire in the fall of 1924 which denuded the Fish Creek watershed.
In the first year following the fire they found a 23 1 percent increase in
run-off over their estimated normal of 1.07 inches and an increase of
1,700 percent in the maximum daily discharge resulting from the first
four storms occurring after the fire. The peak discharge, which was
ordinarily 2.5 times the maximum daily discharge prior to the fire,
increased to 16.2 times on April 4, 1925.

Figure 1 indicates very clearly the enormously increased flood
flows from Fish Creek and an adjoining burned watershed following
heavy rains. In this graph the average daily rainfall at Mount Wilson
and Santa Anita Ranger Station, in or near these watersheds, are
contrasted with the combined daily run-off records of the United
States Geological Survey for Fish and Sawpit Creeks (together with
the flow in the Monrovia pipe line which comes from Sawpit Creek)
for the spring of 1924, before the fire, and of 1925, after the fire.

During the second year after the fire Hoyt and Troxell found an
increase of 26 percent above the estimated normal in the run-off from

21 Glenn, L. C., "Denudation and erosion in the southern Appalachian region and the Monongahela
Basin." U.S. Qeol. Sur., Prof. Paper No. 72., 1911.

« Hoyt, W. G., and Troxell, H. C., " Forests and Stream Flow," Proc. Amer. Soc. Civil Engin., pp. 1037-
1066. Vol. 58, August 1932.

318 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Fish Creek and during the 6-year period after the fire an average
annual increase of 29 percent. Blaney (op. cit.), however, has attrib-
uted this increase to the destruction not of the chaparral, which
constitutes 97 percent of the watershed, but of the canyon-bottom
forest. Hoyt and TroxelFs implied conclusion that in semiarid regions
the land should be denuded of forest to increase stream flow cannot be
accepted without first considering the certainty of greatly increased
erosion and the usableness of the increased run-off.

Hoyt and Troxell themselves point out that under normal conditions
erosion in the watersheds of Fish Creek and adjacent creeks was
negligible, but that samples of water collected from these streams
during 4 months immediately after the fire showed a total sand and
ash content of 20 to 67 percent by volume and 6 to 40 percent by
weight. They state also that in the first year after the fire the large
deposit of silt from the burned-over area caused considerable damage
to orchards, railroads, and highways adjacent to the mountains.

Cecil,23 in discussing the usability of water from southern Cali-
fornia watersheds, states :

The prime requisite in water production is that the water must be usable.
This factor is of greater importance than the quantity produced and is vastly
more important than a minor increase in the sustained summer flow. Probably
95 percent of the water used for domestic and industrial purposes, outside the
city of Los Angeles itself, is pumped (from underground reservoirs), as is also
upward of 80 percent of that used for irrigation. * * * The replenishment
of these underground reservoirs * is of paramount importance. In

order that the water finding its way from the mountain areas onto the coastal
plain may perform its maximum of use, as much of it as possible should percolate
into the underground strata near the months of the canyons from which it issues.
For years past, several communities, represented by the water companies supply-
ing them, have spread the flood waters over the detrital cones by means of lateral
ditches, increasing the wetted area and materially increasing percolation over that
obtaining under natural conditions. The experience of these companies has proved
beyond a doubt that, in order that water may be spread successfully and the maxi-
mum of percolation secured, it must be free of suspended matter. It is often
necessary, during the first run-off of the season, to by-pass to the ocean a varying
part of the flood flow. In the case of a watershed that has been run over by fire,
the quantity that must be by-passed because of the silt load is many times as great
as that under normal conditions.

Reports of the Forest Service indicate that before the 1924 fire on
Fish, Sawpit, and Rogers Creeks practically all the run-off of these
streams was either used for direct irrigation or went to replenish
underground reservoirs as described by Cecil. After the fire, much
of the run-off in 1925 was unusable because of erosion debris.

Under the semiarid conditions of southern California it ordinarily
takes not less than 5 years for enough vegetation to be reestablished
on burned watersheds to serve effectively in handling semitorrential
rains. In instances where much of the productive top soil is washed
off from the slopes as a result of hard rains in the first year, it will take
considerably longer than 5 years to reestablish a closed canopy for
the soil.

Farther north in California the foothills of the Sierra Nevada have
suffered disastrously from fire. The effect of destruction of cover by
fire in the transition between woodland and forest, in Madera County,
is shown by experimental plots of the California Forest Experiment
Station. In 1929, with 18 inches of the season's precipitation, 747
cubic feet of water per acre ran off the surface of burned plots and

?3 Cecil, Q. H. " Discussion of ' Forests and Streamflow.' " Proc. Amer. Soc. Civil Eng., December 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

319

10

1924 (BEFORE FIRE)

DA

A

\LY PRECIPITATIC

N

1925 (AFTER FIRE)

DAILY PRECIPITATION

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

FIGURE 1.— Precipitation and run-off relationship in the Sawpit-Fish Creek drainage, Los Angeles County,
Calif., before and after a forest fire occurring in the summer of 1924.

320 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

only 4 cubic feet from plots with woodland coyer undisturbed. About
4 cubic yards per acre of soil were lost by erosion from the burned
plots and only the barest trace from the unburned. Serious erosion is
occurring over much of the foothill belt.

In 1929 a fire burned over a considerable portion of the Camas
Creek watershed on the Challis National Forest in Idaho. It was
evident in the next year that the fire had materially increased erosion.
Extensive dry erosion (i. e., trickling of dry soil down steep slopes)
and heavy sheet erosion had occurred. This process, begun immedi-
ately after the fire, was still going on in 1932.

Serious erosion was also evident on many of the older fire-swept
areas. Such examples may be found around Lookout Mountain on
the Idaho National Forest which was burned in 1919 or before, and
on Sabe Mountain on the Bitterroot National Forest in Idaho,
burned in 1910. The exposed roots of the snags and the elevated
clumps of bear grass indicate that some 5 inches of soil has been
eroded from the burned-over slopes since the 1910 fire.

A torrential rain on the Challis National Forest in 1932, for example,
caused excessive run-off to originate on a 1931 burn, resulting in a
heavy deposit of sand and debris in tributaries of Loon Creek, suffi-
cient to destroy all possibility of fishing in the stream at least for a
number of years. Run-off, the result of a heavy rain in 1932 on a
1931 burn in Richardson and Mann Creeks on the Idaho National
Forest, caused deep gully erosion on the slopes and erosion of the
stream channel to bedrock. The debris that was swept down these
creeks into the Salmon River was sufficient to dam the swift-flowing
Salmon River to a depth of 20 to 25 feet and a length of 450 feet, and
to cause a new rapids to be formed in the river.

A marked effect of fire on stream flow has been evident under some-
what more humid conditions in the northern Rocky Mountains. In
1919 about 18 percent of the Clearwater River drainage, largely tim-
bered, above Kamiah, Idaho, was burned over, but reclothed rapidly
with brush and herbaceous vegetation. The Clearwater River gage
records of the United States Geological Survey and data of the
Weather Bureau for 10 years, 5 before and 5 after the fire, were
analyzed by L. F. Watts, of the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest
Experiment Station. These indicated a somewhat higher flow, in
relation to precipitation, following the fire, but one much less equable.
The average date of peak flow of the Clearwater was advanced by 14
days, in contrast with that of the Salmon River, the drainage of
which had suffered much less from fire, which was only 2 days earlier.
The average flow of the Clearwater on the peak days was 9.5 percent
greater after 1919, in spite of the fact that the highest peak of the
period occurred in 1917, as a result of exceptional rainfall in April
and May. Furthermore, the April to June run-off increased from 66
percent of the total annual flow to 73.5 percent, and the July to
September run-off decreased from 13 percent of the yearly flow to 9
percent. In other words, after the fire the spring flood was 1 1 percent
greater than before the fire, and the summer run-off was 32 percent
less. April to June flow is, of course, chiefly the result of surface
run-off from melting snow, while July to September run-off results
almost entirely from the slow drainage of ground water. The fires
appeared to have increased the spring flood flow, but largely at the
expense of summer flow.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 321

LOGGING

Logging in the United States, which includes the removal of other
products besides logs, is very variable in the proportion of the trees
which it removes and its effects on run-off and erosion. Although a
few small areas — mostly farm woodlands — are only culled of a few of
the larger or choicer trees at any one time, the common commercial
practice on the 10 million acres of forest annually cut over is a very
close approach to clear cutting. Through a combination of cutting
and fire about 850,000 acres of this are devastated each year — that is,
left in such condition that they are incapable of producing another
commercial crop of timber within a tree generation. The greater
part of this area is almost devoid of standing trees, particularly in
the softwood forest regions of the South and West, but some of the
eastern hardwood land may have a considerable stand — worthless as
a source of wood but very satisfactory as a watershed protection.

Logging alone, if neither preceded nor followed by fire, destroys a
smaller proportion of the understory of young trees and shrubby
species than of the main stand. However, important areas are still
logged by high-powered machinery that drags logs over the ground
and wipes out the lesser vegetation. It may even so churn the soil
as nearly to obliterate the litter.

On a clear-cut area there is no longer appreciable interception of
precipitation by tree crowns, and little high shade to retard snow melt
or prevent evaporation from the soil. Temporarily, at least, there is
small transpiration. There is, however, a very considerable shading
of the ground by slash. This, in a good stand of southern pine, may
cover 25 to 40 percent of the ground, and, in such conifer types as
Douglas fir, western white pine, southern white cedar, or red spruce,
may cover practically 100 percent. After a year or two, this slash
itself may become powder dry, but it continues to exert some bene-
ficial effect on evaporation from the soil. It may persist for as many
as 10 to 20 years.

In many forest types, clear-cut areas are very abundantly invaded
within a season or two by herbaceous plants. These at least serve to
check erosion and start to rebuild the extremely important litter.

During a few years after logging, a sloping clear cut or severely cut
area will unquestionably erode somewhat. The skid trails produced
by power handling of logs in the California pine region, and logging
elsewhere, have been found to start erosion.

It is impossible to generalize concerning the time which must elapse
before reforestation restores conditions in cut-over land to the point
where total run-off and seasonal run-off are essentially the same as in
the preceding tree generation. Clear cutting has converted some
forest types from all-aged to even-aged ones of probably permanently
different character. An even-aged stand, for example, must permit
of much less wind movement than an all-aged, once it has raised its
canopy well above the ground. A sprout forest will, of course, restore
the conditions more promptly than most seedling forests, because of
the early vigorous growth.

This is borne out by the results of a watershed study at the Wagon
Wheel Gap in the high mountains of Colorado,24 in which the Forest

» Bates, C. G., and Henry, A. J. Forest and Stream Flow Experiments at Wagon Wheel Gap, Colo.
Final report. Mo. Weather Rev. Suppl. 30. 1928.

322 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Service and the Weather Bureau cooperated. Here for 9 years,
1910 to 1919, stream flow from two adjacent watersheds was measured
under undisturbed conditions ; then the forest on one watershed was
cut. As the forest was mostly aspen, sprouts of this species took
possession of the area in the following year, so that the only real
result of the cutting was the removal of the conifers which previous to
the cutting were dominant on about a fourth of the area. Despite the
fact that the forest cover was so promptly replaced by sprouts, the
total yearly run-off was increased by about 15 percent and the summer
run-off by about 10 percent. Flood crests were advanced about 3
days and the maximum height of crest averaged 64 percent greater
in the cut-over area than in the undisturbed watershed. As previous
to logging the height of crest from the cut-over area exceeded the
undisturbed area by 6 percent, the net increase amounted to 58 percent.
The silt load of the stream after logging increased seven and one
half times.

OVERGRAZING

FOREST RANGES

Overgrazing on forest lands of the West was without doubt much
more wide-spread 25 to 40 years ago than at present. However,
serious depletion of the herbaceous and shrubby vegetation under the
trees of the forest or in the openings within the forest — the result of
past or present overgrazing — still prevails on enormous areas of
forest land. The worst of it occurs in the semiarid regions.

If not utilized too closely, the forage produced each year by herbs
and shrubs on forested lands is rather well maintained except in the
occasional drought year. Investigations of the Forest Service clearly
indicate that perennial herbaceous plants, principally grasses, were
once the chief forage on most forest ranges, and this is still true except
where these plants have been depleted. Studies also show that
where trees do not grow in sufficiently dense stand to form a closed
canopy, such as the woodland type, and also in openings in the denser
forests, these perennial herbaceous plants if still present, are the chief
erosion-control agent.

Overgrazing disturbs the forest cover chiefly in two ways : first, by
consuming more of the herbage of the more palatable plants than they
can withstand, and, second, by increased trampling. Under such
overutilization, the palatable forage plants are grazed closer and closer,
and their vigor is sapped. As these plants produce less forage and
their stand is thinned, the less valuable plants are grazed more severely
until they, too, are thinned. Studies by the Forest Service show that
there are many areas now producing not more than 20 to 30 percent
of the forage of which they once were capable, and under such con-
ditions erosion is usually severe.

Conditions in central Utah as a result of past abuse illustrate this
depletion. Good stands of wheatgrass and bromegrass in the openings
of the aspen and subalpine forest types of the higher mountains were
once capable of supporting a cow for a month on less than 2 acres.
Remnant areas indicate that soils were deep and rich. Overgrazing
depleted the open areas until they supported chiefly annual grasses
and weeds, of which 10 acres or more are required to furnish a cow
feed for a month. With such an inadequate protective cover several
inches of topsoil has been eroded away over extensive areas.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

323

Forsling 25 has pointed out that depletion of forage is accompanied
by severe soil losses without any material gain in the total water
obtainable from watersheds in this region. He studied conditions on
two subalpine watersheds of about 10 acres each at the head of Ephraim
Canyon, Utah. On watershed A, a 16 percent cover, mainly of
annuals, was maintained from 1915 to 1920, but was improved
gradually until in 1924 it reached 40 percent, made up chiefly of
perennial grasses and weeds. In this condition it was maintained
through the 6-year period 1924 to 1929. On watershed B, used as a
check, a 40 percent cover, largely of perennial grasses and weeds,
was maintained for the full period 1915 to 1929. Table 7 presents the
comparative data from these two watersheds.

TABLE 7. — Comparison of surface run-off and sediment removed from two water-
sheds under different densities of vegetative cover

Period and watershed

Vegetative
cover

Total rain-
fall!

Total sur-
face run-
off

Run-off per
inch of
rainfall

Sediment
removed
per acre

Sediment
per inch
of rainfall

1915-20:
Watershed A

Percent
16

Inches
30.45

Inches
1.5084

Inch
0.0495

Cu.ft.
802.9

Cu.ft.
26 37

Watershed B

40

32.01

.2529

.0079

148.0

4.62

Difference

.0416

21 75

1921-23:
Watershed A

16-40

17.20

.7618

.0443

315.1

18.32

Watershed B

40

17.43

.2153

.0124

111.9

6.42

Difference

.0319

11.90

1924-29:
Watershed A

40

25.21

.4914

.0195

114.9

4.56

Watershed B

40

25.96

.2271

.0087

46.4

1.79

Difference

0108

2 77

1 All storms coming as rain, or rain with snow and hail, and exclusive of storms that were snow only.

It is significant that the difference in surface run-off in summer rains
between the two watersheds is 75 percent less after watershed A
reached a reasonably good vegetative condition. It is excessive
run-off from summer rainstorms that causes the destructive floods in
this locality. In both periods the records available indicate that
total surface run-off from summer rains amounted to less than one
twentieth of the total annual surface run-off from the watersheds.
Annual soil losses from watershed A in its depleted condition were
over 8 tons per acre, nearly 85 percent of which was the result of
summer rains. Approximately 133.8 cubic feet of soil per acre were
removed annually from watershed A in the 1915-20 period and
only 19.2 cubic feet per acre per year in the 1924-29 period. The
difference in sediment removed between the watersheds was strikingly
reduced following the improvement in vegetative cover — 87 percent
between the first and last periods.

Destructive floods have occurred in Utah in the last 10 years in
the thickly populated area near Salt Lake. Studies made by Prof.
Reed W. Bailey 26 of the Utah Agricultural College, in cooperation
with the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station and

25 Forsling, C. L. A Study of the Influence of Herbaceous Plant Cover on Surface Run-off and Soil
Erosion in Relation to Grazing on the Wasatch Plateau in Utah. U.S.Dept.Agr.Tech.Bul. 220. 1931.

» Bailey, Reed W. Statement in hearings before the House Committee on the Public Lands on H.R.
11816, 72d Cong., 1st sess. 1932.

324 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the Utah State Land Board, have shown that the 75-foot or deeper
channel cutting and the enormous amounts of waste debris deposited
by these recent floods were far in excess of any earlier flood action in
that locality since the geologic Lake Bonneville ceased to exist some
30,000 or more years ago.

After the floods of 1930 the governor's special flood commission
established the fact that the heavily silt laden flood waters had
collected chiefly on small areas of private land at the heads of the
drainages where the vegetative cover had been destroyed or seriously
depleted by overgrazing, fire, and to some extent by logging. These
areas are badly gullied and the surface soil has been stripped away
through sheet erosion. Slopes, too steep for grazing, that at inter-
mediate elevations make up the greater part of the mountain face,
bear a substantial brush or forest cover. No gullies originated on
these densely vegetated slopes, where the thick litter cover and the
large humus content in the surface soil permitted effective penetration
of water and restrained the surface flow sufficiently to prevent undue
soil or water losses.

There are in the West large areas of coarse readily erosible granitic
soil. This is especially true of the Boise River drainage of south-
western Idaho where the underlying granite easily disintegrates,
crumbling to coarse sand and fine gravel which combined make up
80 percent or more of the total soil mass. These soils are so extremely
loose that where the plant cover becomes scarce the soil is readily
swept off as sheet erosion. In the subalpine forest zone 4 to 8 inches
of the black surface soil has been removed, and at lower elevations
practically all the surface soil has been lost. Heavy run-off quickly
causes the formation of gullies from a few inches to several feet deep.
Loose soil on the edges of the gullies soon crumbles, and within a year
or two after being formed many of the smaller gullies have so smoothed
over as to appear to be healing when actually they are not.

Past overgrazing on practically all of the open areas within the
forest and on some timbered areas of the Boise River watershed is
known to have greatly reduced the protecting vegetative cover and
trampling of these inadequately protected soils has often set in motion
a downhill movement of the soil which is greatly accelerated by run-
off from torrential rains.

Of nearly 350,000 acres examined by the Forest Service, more than
80 percent is in timber and heavy brush, which occupies all the north
and parts of the south slopes. Fifty-six percent of the timber or
brush areas subject to grazing has suffered sheet erosion, and 9 per-
cent additional has suffered gully erosion as the result of overgrazing.
Of the 53,000 acres of timber and brush areas too dense or on too steep
slopes to permit grazing, only 14 percent had suffered sheet erosion
and but 2 percent additional light gully erosion.

In contrast to these heavily grazed areas on the Boise watershed,
only about 5 to 10 percent of similar locations and exposures on the
game preserve on the nearby Payette drainage, subjected for many
years only to light grazing, have lost the top layer of black soil.
Beneath 1 to 3 inches of litter in open areas and 1 to 6 inches in the
dense timber, the preserved soils contain 4 to 11 percent organic
matter. This compares with 1 to 2 percent on the raw eroded soils,
on which there is no measurable depth of litter.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 325

WOODLAND PASTURES

In pastured farm woodlands of the Middle West, studies by the
Central States Forest Experiment Station show that overgrazing
results in the destruction of the sprouts of hardwood timber species,
and that trampling of the livestock tends to destroy the litter and
compact the soil, making it less receptive of precipitation and subject
to erosion. Under extreme use, such as occurs in the Corn Belt where
many farm woodlands are used as much for shade as for the feed they
produce, practically the entire understory of vegetation and the litter
covering the soil has been destroyed. When such a situation has
developed the topsoil is invariably lost. Bates and Zeasman 27 have
shown, on comparable soils, that, from a plot in pastured oak wood-
land with a slope of 38 percent, 13 percent of the rain ran off, while
from a dense unpastured oak forest with a slope of 42 percent only
0.2 percent ran off, and only 2 percent from open unpastured oak
woods with a slope of 49 percent ran off.

Auten (op. cit.) has shown in his studies of soil conditions in grazed
and ungrazed woods in Ohio that the top 9 inches of soil in the grazed
areas averaged 15 percent heavier than similar topsoil from ungrazed
woods. This increase in density is a reflection of the greatly reduced
capacity of the grazed soils to absorb water.

The work of Stewart 28 reveals the same tendency in New York
State for long-continued grazing use to reduce permeability and water
storage of soils.

SMELTERS

Fumes from smelters and other industrial plants may completely
destroy or injure forest and other vegetation. Destruction by smelter
fumes is found near Ducktown, Tenn., Kennett, Calif., Anaconda and
Butte, Mont., and in the vicinity of a number of other smelters located
within forested areas. Large areas around them demonstrate to a
superlative degree the debt mankind owes to vegetation for its influ-
ence on surface run-off and erosion and the price we must pay when
we destroy it. At Ducktown, an area of from 10 to 12 square miles
around the smelters has become denuded of natural vegetation with
the exception of occasional clumps of sage grass and wild smilax.
Bordering this barren region is one varying from 1 to 5 miles in width,
covered with sage grass, vines, and a few stunted shrubs and small
trees, the latter often with dead tops. Beyond this border of almost
treeless vegetation the country is not heavily wooded for some dis-
tance, the growth being unthrifty and trees with dead or dying tops
being numerous.

Glenn (op. cit.) states that the annual rainfall hi the region is 50
to 60 niches, and often torrential, so that during the downpours soil
surfaces almost literally melt away. The wasted soil accumulates
along the stream courses. He states further:

On Potato Creek this waste has been accumulating for a number of years at the
rate of a foot or more each year, and has been built into a flood plain from 100
to 300 yards wide, in which telephone poles have been buried almost to their
cross arms and highway bridges, roadbeds, and trestles have either been buried
by the debris or have been carried away by floods. ^. . . The normal flow of
Potato Creek is said to be only about half as large as it used to be, and there can

27 Bates, C. G., and Zeasman, O. R. Soil Erosion, Wise. Agric. Expt. Sta. Res. Bui. 99. 1930.

28 Stewart, Q. R. "A study of soil changes associated with the transition from fertile hardwood forest
land to pasture types of decreasing fertility." Ecological Monographs, January 1933.

326 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

be no question that a much larger part of the rainfall now finds its way imme-
diately into this stream and is carried off in floods, leaving a much smaller part
to soak into the ground to supply the wells, springs, and streams during periods
of dry weather.

Near Kennett, Calif., all vegetation has been destroyed on an area
upward of 67,000 acres and partial destruction has occurred on 86,000
acres additional. Without the protecting vegetative cover, the surface
soil of the denuded portions was soon washed off, exposing an inert
subsoil which continues to wash and gully at a rapid rate. Munns M
estimated a total of more than 35 million cubic yards had been
removed from the Kennett area in 10 to 15 years. Conditions are
very similar in other smelter areas.

CLEARING FOR AGRICULTURE

Hundreds of millions of acres once in forest have been cleared for
crop production. This was a natural process in the settlement of the
United States. At the time many were cleared little was known of
the productive capacity or the erosiveness of the soils, and it is natural
that many areas have later proven to be unsuited for permanent
agricultural use. In the section of this report entitled " Agricultural
Land Available for Forestry", the Bureau of Agricultural Economics
estimated that today there are over 50 million acres of cleared land,
which, abandoned or idle, are available for reforestation. Of these
probably 11 million will require artificial reforestation. Present
trends indicate an additional abandonment of some 25 or 30 million
acres of potential forest land in the next 20 years.

These areas, abandoned or in process of abandonment, have largely
passed such usefulness as they had for crop production. Many owe
their abandonment to loss of productivity through erosion of the
fertile topsoils and in some instances of large amounts of the subsoil.
They are found most often in hilly and mountain regions, in regions of
more level topography but having soils which erode with extreme
ease, and in regions where the soils dp not erode readily, but where
the topsoil is so shallow and the subsoil so unproductive that the loss
of a few inches of soil by erosion renders them practically worthless.
These lands are widely distributed east of the Great Plains, but are
found in parts of the West as well.

Through the adoption of contour plowing, terracing, crop rotation,
and other suitable methods of cultivation doubtless much of the
slightly eroding agricultural land can remain in crop production or in
pastures. Such land is beyond the scope of this report. On most of
the 50 million acres of abandoned lands, however, the loss of soil pro-
ductivity has reached such proportions that cropping methods can-
not be expected to overcome the active erosion and hazards of agri-
cultural production. As Bennett30 has stated:

When the mellow topsoil is gone, with its valuable humus and nitrogen, less
productive, less permeable, less absorptive, and more intractable material is
exposed in its place. As a rule this exposed material is the "raw" subsoil, which
must be loosened, aerated, and supplied with the needed humus to put it into the
condition best suited to plant growth. This rebuilding of the surface soil requires
time, work, and money. In most places this exposed material is heavier than

29 Munns, E. N. Erosion and Flood Problems in California. Calif. State Bd. Forestry Rpt. to the
Legislature 1921 on Sen. Con. Res. 27. 1923.

30 Bennett, H. H. "Parti. Some Aspects of the Wastage Caused by Soil Erosion." Pp. 1-3. Dept.
Agr. Circ. 33, "Soil Erosion a National Menace." (H. H. Bennett and W. R. Chapline) 1928.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 327

the original soil, is stiffer, more difficult to plow, less penetrable to plant roots,
less absorptive of rainfall, and less retentive of that which is absorbed, and appar-
ently its plant-food elements frequently have not been converted into available
plant nutrients to anything like the degree that obtains in the displaced surface
soil. . . . Such raw material must be given more intensive tillage in order to
unlock its contained plant food^and on much of it lime and organic manures will
be needed in order to reduce its stiffness sufficiently to make it amenable to
efficient cultivation, to the establishment of a desirable seed-bed tilth. It bakes
easier and, as a consequence, crops growing on it are less resistant to dry seasons,
because of rapid evaporation from the hardened surface, and the many cracks
that form deep into the subsoil to enlarge the area exposed to direct evaporation.
Crops also suffer more in wet seasons because the material becomes more soggy or
water-logged than did the original soil. On much of it both fertilizer and lime
will be required for satisfactory yields.

While these difficulties of tillage and the lowered productivity are being attended
to by the farmer in those fields not yet abandoned, the unprotected fields con-
tinue to wash. Unfortunately the farmers in many localities are doing little or
nothing to stop the wastage and much to accentuate it.

Even on moderate slopes the soil losses from the cultivated fields on
certain s-oil types, under unfavorable climatic conditions, are enor-
mous. Forest Service studies at Holly Springs, Miss., in the loessial-
soil belt, show that a single torrential rain falling on a cornfield
having a 10 per cent slope washed soil from a study plot at the rate
of 23 tons per acre. Preliminary results show that under such con-
ditions only 2 to 3 years are required to wash away 1 inch of topsoil.
These data, substantiated by observations, indicate that the culti-
vable life of these upland soils ranges from 5 to 20 years. Yet the
serious danger of erosion from the cultivation of fields of slight slope
in this region which have readily erosible soils is not so generally
recognized and many such fields are being cleared and plowed to
take the place of other fields which have lost their productivity.
Bennett points out (op. cit.) that "some soils can not be cultivated
without steady decline due to erosion, even where the slope does not
exceed 1 or 2 percent. The Knox silt loam, for example, is such a
soil. On this soil erosion goes on in all tilled fields where there is any
slope whatever. "

The high run-off from slight slopes is further shown by Duley and
Hays31 in their studies in Kansas. They found run-off increased
rapidly as the slope increased from 0 to 3 percent grade. Over 63
percent ran off with a 2 percent grade in their experimental tank.
The increase in run-off was then very slight for each 1 percent of
increase in slope, reaching about 86 percent with a slope of 20 percent
grade. Erosion, on the other hand, increased gradually until the
slope was about 4 percent; then the increase was found to be more
rapid up to about 7 or 8 percent, after which there was a still greater
increase in the rate at which the soil was removed from the plots.

If level agricultural land were scarce in the United States, and there
were a great need to increase crop production, very intensive farm
management could unquestionably be applied to rather steep slopes
to meet the situation. Under existing circumstances, however, it
seems likely that clearing new ground on slopes of over 10 to 15 per-
cent is destined eventually to swell the area of abandoned land and
add to the problem of reclaiming gullied land by reforestation. ^

The process of planting trees on actively eroded land is not simple.
Preliminary measures, in the form of temporary terracing, "plowing

si Duley, F. L., and Hays, O. E. "The Effect of the Degree of Slope on Run-off and Soil Erosion.?'
Jour. Agr. Research, vol. 45, no. 6: 349-360. 1932.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 22

328 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

in" of gullies, planting vines and herbaceous plants, will often be
needed where the brush and forest vegetation do not naturally reclothe
the area quickly enough to check the erosion. Considerable research
on such methods is needed, and on the most effective type of forest to
establish on the depleted soils, now incapable in many instances of
maintaining the original forest cover.

WATERSHED-PROTECTION FORESTS IN OTHER
COUNTRIES

In many countries "protection forests " are defined by law. They
are forests the main object of which is to help to prevent avalanches
and snowslides ; check or reduce soil erosion ; retard snow melt ; preserve
favorable conditions of run-off; stabilize shifting sands; protect other
forests or property from wind, or contribute to the national defense.
In short, the definition embraces all the many indirect benefits which
the forest exerts upon water, soil, and climate.

Disastrous floods, silting of navigable channels, and destructive
soil erosion gave impetus to the development of forest policies in
numerous countries during the nineteenth century. It was readily
recognized that these evils were greatly aggravated by denudation
of forest lands in the mountains and along the streams. In Europe
policies of alienating public forests, which had been adopted folio whig
the French Revolution, were halted. Instead, the public began to
extend its ownership of forest lands, largely in the mountains, for the
purpose of restoring and protecting the forest cover.

At the same time, governments began to impose restrictions upon
the management of privately owned forests, where their preservation
was deemed essential for protecting soil and water. As the years
have passed, more and more countries have adopted such restrictions,
until now the list includes practically all the countries of Europe, as
well as Japan and a few others.

The scope of these restrictions varies widely, but in general the
laws require that classified protection forests, regardless of ownership,
be handled in such a manner that the forest cover will be maintained.
Clearing of the land is usually prohibited, and timber cutting and
grazing are generally subject to a greater or less degree of supervision
by public authorities. The reforestation of denuded land and con-
struction of engineering works to check or prevent erosion or control
torrents are commonly provided for, partly or wholly at public expense.
In Switzerland, for instance, more than $57,000,000 was spent on
stream control works between 1862 and 1923. Nearly one half of
this cost was borne by the Federal Government, and most of the
remainder by the cantonal governments. Similar policies have been
pursued by France, Italy, Austria, and Japan, as well as by other
countries. Either by cash payments or by reduction in taxes, many
of the countries reimburse the land owners, at least partially, for any
loss in income which they may suffer as a result of the restrictions.

In case an owner is unwilling to retain his forest and manage it in
the manner prescribed, it is commonly provided that the public
shall buy him out. France and several other countries have a
definite policy of acquiring private forests and denuded, land in
mountain districts, for the purpose of safeguarding protective values.
Within the last few years very large-scale programs of public acquisi-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 329

tion and reforestation, mainly of protection forests, have been under
consideration in a number of countries. Shortly before her recent
revolution, Spain appropriated $19,000,000 for this purpose. France
has been considering an even larger program.

Public forests that have protective value are, of course, almost
universally managed so as to preserve and increase their protective
effect. Soviet Russia has excepted forests that lie along or on the
headwaters of important streams from the present policy of liquida-
tion of timber values which is said to be applied to other forests.
Just as in the United States, a large proportion of the public forest
area in many countries, particularly that belonging to provincial
or national governments, is in mountain regions and consequently of
high protective value. The less accessible mountain forests naturally
were the last to be sought by private owners. This is less true of the
communal forests, which are generally located fairly close to settle-
ments. Forests belonging to mountain communes, however, such
as many of those in Switzerland, Austria, France, and Spain, also
have high protective value and are managed accordingly, generally
under the supervision of the national governments.

More detailed information on the foreign legislation dealing with
protection forests is given in the section on "Public Regulation of
Private Forests."

CLASSIFICATION OF WATERSHED PROTECTION INFLU-
ENCE OF FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES

With a view to determining the relative importance of forests in
the regulation of stream flow, in water supplies, in erosion control, or
in influencing other watershed values, the forest areas of the United
States have been classified into three groups: (1) Those of major
influence; (2) those of moderate influence; and (3) those of slight
to no influence. It is recognized that adequate scientific data and
results are not available for an absolute classification. In classifying
the forest lands, however, the possible application of such research
data as are available has been considered for all areas, and these data
have been supplemented by field observations and study of all avail-
able records. In order that the interpretations would be most use-
ful, general observational surveys were supplemented by specific
examination of representative areas. The classifications represent the
best combined judgment that the Forest Service could bring to bear
on them.

Forests considered as of major influence included those occurring
on steep slopes subject to heavy or concentrated rainfall; on areas
with excessive and rapid snow melt; and on areas having unusually
erosible soils, where in the absence of the forest cover serious damage
would be apt to be done to soil or other values of the watershed itself,
or to land, improvements, navigation, or other values. In a number
of localities, particularly hi the West, where the demand for water is
unusually great and where because of scant rainfall it is necessary to
conserve as much of the stream run-off as possible, the forest cover,
even though far from a complete canopy, has been classed as of major
influence. These forests include many areas of the woodland type,
where disturbance of the forest cover has caused or would cause
abnormal erosion and endanger water conservation through the exces-

330 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

sive silting of reservoirs, or of gravel beds into which run-off is sunk
for underground storage and later pumping, as in southern California.

Forests considered as of moderate influence include those occurring
on moderate slopes, on areas of moderate or scant rainfalls, on soils
which do not erode readily, and on areas where the forest cover quickly
reclothes the land in case fire, lumbering, or other cause depletes the
cover.

Forests considered as of slight to no influence include those areas
where it appears that the forest exerts only a poorly defined or very
indirect influence upon streams, w^ater supplies, or erosion. Forest
areas classified as slight include those more or less level areas occurring
on old lava flows, or on deep sandy soils through which precipitation
readily percolates, and from which erosion is very slight. Likewise
forests occurring on poorly-drained and nearly level areas have been
considered as of slight influence.

In order to indicate these broad classes on the maps accompany ing
the report it has been necessary to include with a larger area of another
classification many small areas not strictly classifiable as shown. As
intensive a classification as possible was made, however, and is shown
diagramatically on the regional maps whenever the areas were large
enough to be recognized.

DRAINAGE BASINS OF THE UNITED STATES

Forest conditions throughout the United States differ so widely,
their influence on watershed problems is so varied, and the importance
and character of the watershed problems so varied, that for purposes
of even somewhat detailed description the country has been divided
into drainage regions. In part these are purely geographical, in part
they represent large drainage basins. Figure 2 indicates the division
of the United States into these regions.

For each of the drainage regions the influence of the forest is rep-
resented. The present condition of the forest, and its effectiveness
in exerting the influence of which it is capable are also indicated.

NORTHEASTERN DRAINAGES

The northeastern drainages as here covered include all those streams
which flow into the Atlantic Ocean north of the Potomac River,
excepting tributaries of the St. Lawrence River. In considerable part
they include the two regions discussed elsewhere as the New England
and the Middle Atlantic States (fig. 3).

CLIMATE AND PHYSIOGRAPHY

Compared with many portions of the United States where water-
shed and stream flow problems are also acute, the northeastern drain-
ages receive abundant rainfall — from 30 to 50 inches annually at most
points, and up to 75 inches on some of the higher mountains. There
are no conspicuously wet or dry seasons; the average monthly rainfall
during the wettest months of the year is rarely more than double that
of the driest months.

In spite of the normally high and equably distributed rainfall, how-
ever, deficiencies and irregularities in rainfall are by no means uncom-
mon. In 1930 for example, the southern and central portions of the

A NATIONAL, PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

331

?8«JS I

in to r» co o> 5 ~

332

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

region were visited by a drought of extraordinary length and severity.
Maryland received only 56 percent of the normal rainfall in that year,
Delaware 65 percent, and Pennsylvania 68 percent. Although this
drought was a record one for the region as a whole, in central New
England it was exceeded by the drought of 1929. Extremely heavy
downpours in brief periods of time are also characteristic of the re-
gional rainfall. The middle Atlantic coast, with its center in north-
eastern New Jersey, is particularly subject to very heavy precipita-
tion; between 1843 and 1929 this region experienced 102 storms of

DOMINION or CANADA

RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
ON WATERSHEDS

•y--^< MAJOR INFLUENCE

MODERATE INFLUENCE
'2%%i\ SLIGHT INFLUENCE

FIGURE 3.— Northeastern drainages, and lower portion of St. Lawrence River Basin.

5-inch precipitation in 24 hours. Two storms during that period pro-
duced 15 inches of rain in 24 hours. Annual snowfall ranges from an
average of 14 inches at the Delaware capes to 150 inches in the Adiron-
dack Mountains of New York. It is from 50 to 100 inches through-
out Maine, but in the southern part of the region reaches 50 inches
only at the higher elevations. Snow lies on the ground for one to
five months, depending on latitude and altitude.

Elevations above sea level are less than 500 feet throughout the
coastal plain and much of the adjacent piedmont province, and in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 333

the southeastern half of Maine. They exceed 3,000 feet in the Alle-
gheny Mountains, 4,000 feet in the Catskills, 5,000 feet in the
Adirondacks, and 6,000 feet in the White Mountains. Differences
in elevation of 1,000 to 1,500 feet between ridges or plateau tops and
the adjacent valleys are common.

Glacial soils are characteristic of the region as far south as northern
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. These include considerable sandy
areas. Sands are of course characteristic of the coastal-plain province
from the tip of Cape Cod to the shores of Chesapeake Bay. On the
whole, however, heavier soils predominate. The soil mantle becomes
extremely thin at the higher elevations and there are some areas of
practically bare rock, either outcrops or of glacial deposition.

WATERSHED AND STREAMFLOW PROBLEMS

There are five major watershed and streamflow problems in the
region, in the solution of which the forests of the region may play an
important role. These, in their order of importance, are urban water
supplies, water power, navigation, erosion, and floods.

URBAN WATER SUPPLIES

The problem of obtaining adequate water supplies for municipal
use — both for domestic and industrial purposes — has received much
attention in the Northeast, because of heavy concentrations of popu-
lation. The metropolitan districts of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland
contain over 15 million people. Forty percent of the population of
the last four of these States is concentrated about the cities of New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. The Regional
Planning Federation of Philadelphia estimates the present con-
sumption of water in Philadelphia and the surrounding territory to
be 467 million gallons daily, and that of 50 years hence at 800 million
gallons. More than half of this consumption is by industries.
Using as a basis the per capita consumption of Philadelphia, 132 gal-
lons daily, water requirements for the metropolitan centers of the
region may be estimated in excess of 2 billion gallons daily.

In the Northeast much of the water for urban consumption comes
from surface streams. The larger available rivers are for the most
part rather heavily polluted, at least in the lower reaches, by mining,
pulp, and industrial waste, and by the sewage of scores of communi-
ties. Although practically any polluted surface water may be so
cleansed as to be clear, palatable, and normally safe, the consequences
of a failure in the treating process are so serious, and public prejudice
against the use of polluted streams is so great, that a clean raw water
supply is preferred by most cities. Largely for this reason, the city
of Boston is planning a dam and reservoir 60 miles from the city,
and New York City obtains part of its present water supply from a
reservoir located 92 miles away. New York City's investment in
four dams, behind which 166 billion gallons of water may be stored,
exceeds $66,000,000. The communities of northern New Jersey plan
a high-level development costing about $45,000,000 exclusive of the
distributing systems, and according to the Water Policy Commission
of New Jersey even this huge project will not meet the needs of these
communities beyond 1960. Philadelphia draws its water supplies

334 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

from the Delaware and Schuylkill Kivers. Of the Schuylkill River
the Regional Planning Federation of Philadelphia states: "It is
doubtful if there is a river of similar size in the United States, unde-
veloped by storage, which is utilized more intensively and com-
pletely for water supplies than the Schuylkill."

Even underground water supplies have felt the heavy drain of
human use. The coast resorts of southern New Jersey, for example,
which obtain municipal water supplies largely from deep wells, have
found the ground water table seriously lowered in recent years, and
face the threat of an invasion of salt water from the ocean. The
draught on the underground water supplies of Camden and the
adjacent territory in New Jersey is said to be increasing at the rate
of about 3 percent a year.

The droughts of 1929 and 1930 emphasized the seriousness of the
municipal water-supply problems in the Northeast. In 1929 several
communities near Boston, having independent water supplies nor-
mally adequate to their needs, were obliged to tap the already depleted
metropolitan district water system with temporary pipe hastily laid
on the surface of the ground. An official of the Maryland State
Department of Health said of the 1930 drought in his State:

Few things have more seriously affected our lives, our health, or our peace of
mind, than did the drought of 1930 * * *. Nevertheless, the results of the
long-continued drought have not all been bad. Faced with a disastrous shortage,
if not a complete lack of water, people in towns fed by public water supplies,
and others in settlements or on farms drawing water from wells, springs, or
cisterns, have been compelled to think and devise means of escape.

Equable streamflow for domestic and industrial use remains a major
public problem of the northeastern United States.

WATER POWER

Water power has been extensively developed in the Northeast. It
was the basis for the original manufacturing supremacy of New
England. In Maine, 70 percent of ah1 power for industries and
public utilities is developed from streams. The horsepower developed
by five plants recently constructed on a comparatively short stretch
of the Connecticut River aggregates 350,000. In 1931 New^York
produced more power from her streams than any other State in the
Union except California, and nearly twice as much as the State third
in rank — North Carolina. At three points on the lower Susquehanna
River are power plants with capacities of 158,000, 170,000, and 378,000
horsepower, respectively, and the electrical energy developed on the
entire Susquehanna is about two thirds that which will be developed
on the Colorado River at the Hoover Dam. According to the figures
of the U.S. Geological Survey for January 1931, more than 30 percent
of the Nation's water power is produced in the Northeast.

In the absence of a natural uniform flow, power plants must rely
upon costly reservoirs or else resort to supplementary steam power.
Streams from forested watersheds tend toward uniformity. Irregularity
in stream flow made necessary the Conowingo Dam on the Sus-
quehanna River in Maryland, which cost $52,000,000.

NAVIGATION

A third watershed and stream-flow problem of great local magnitude
in the Northeast is the maintenance of navigation. The annual

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 335

report of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, shows that in 1929
commercial tonnage on the principal rivers of this region was con-
siderably greater than that transported on the Mississippi River,
from Minneapolis to New Orleans. In order to maintain a ship
channel of proper depth in the Delaware River to the port of Philadel-
phia, the War Department between 1920 and 1931 spent $31,500,000,
chiefly in dredging, and from Philadelphia to Trenton, an additional
$800,000. Dredging the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia has cost
the Federal Government $1,300,000 in the same period. The main-
tenance of these and other ship channels of the Northeast in the face
of continued deposition of silt and similar material brought down by
the streams, is closely related to the fourth major stream flow and
watershed problem of the region.

EROSION

Soil erosion resulting from a rainfall of 35 or more inches a year,
at times concentrated in very brief periods, depends on three main
factors : Degree of slope, character of soil, and vegetative cover. Of
the forested area on the northeastern drainages, 10 percent has been
classified as very steep, 22 percent as steep, 15 percent as moderately
steep, 40 percent as gently rolling, and 13 percent as level. The
streams of northern New England are relatively free of silt and debris,
showing that erosion is not particularly serious. It is more than a
coincidence that even in the mountainous portions erosion is slight
and percentage of forest cover high. In southern New England,
Pennsylvania, and northern New Jersey erosion is prevalent. Here
the soils are heavier, and there is a greater proportion of agricultural
land.

Erosion is unquestionably most severe on agricultural lands exposed
by plowing and clean cropping. Farm-land abandonment has been
general throughout the northeastern States; only a single small
county in one State — New Jersey — has escaped it. In Hamilton
County, N.Y., there has been since 1900 a decrease of 78 percent in
the area of cultivated land; in Cameron County, Pa., the decline is
63 percent; in Berkshire County, Mass., the decline is 60 percent.
For the northeastern drainages as a whole the acreage of crop land
abandoned in the past two decades amounts to over 10,000,000 acres.
Some of these lands have developed a sod which is holding the soil in
place. Many others lack cover, and are eroding seriously.

How much of the present decline is due to decreased fertility of
farm land is not known, but the condition of some abandoned fields
shows that erosion was at least partly responsible. Although shoe-
string gullies in abandoned fields on steep slopes are not uncommon
in any State, sheet erosion is far more prevalent than gullying. ^ In
many parts of New England and New York, for example, the wide-
spread occurrence of gravel and stones on the surface of fields is
evidence that the finer soils have been removed by erosion following
clean cultivation. Several thousand acres of formerly excellent agri-
cultural land in northern New Jersey have gone entirely out of cul-
tivation as a result of such erosion.

Clear cutting of the timber and burning of forest land exposed the
soil, at least temporarily, to erosion. The more complete the ex-

336 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

posure, the more nearly are conditions reduced to those existing on
clean-tilled land.

Erosion is unquestionably responsible for the major part of the
expenditure to maintain channels in the Delaware River, as has been
previously described. Erosion has its effect on water storage, for
municipal supplies and power. In 1915 the State forester of Mary-
land described as follows the results of erosion along the Patapsco
River in his State :

Between Relay and Alberton, a distance of 11.4 miles, there are 10 water-
power developments, 8 of which are now in operation. Power for these plants
is furnished by the Patapsco River, and its value for that purpose is measured
by the evenness of flow and freedom from silt * * *. The steep slopes
along the river that have been cultivated in years past have largely contributed
to the accumulation of silt which has collected behind the dams built for storage
purposes and has clogged the river channels, increasing the frequency of floods
and carrying immense quantities of silt into the upper Patapsco near Baltimore,
requiring the expenditure of large sums of money for dredging.

Another erosion problem of considerable local importance in the
northeast is not created by water, but by wind. The shores of
both the Atlantic Ocean and the sheltered bays behind sandy spits
are used for recreation by enormous numbers of people. In places
drifting sands have seriously interfered with this use. Efforts have
been made to control the dunes on Cape Cod and at various other
places along the coast, but individual effort has not been effective
in the face of a problem common to many owners of shore properties.
The need for studied and concerted effort is emphasized by the
constant increase in number of the recreationists. Not less than
500 miles of coast line is involved in varying degree.

FLOODS

Low water during the summer in streams used for municipal
supplies, for generation of power, and for navigation, is scarcely
more of a problem in the region than is high water at other times
of the year. Parts of the northeast have suffered very greatly
from floods. The 1907 report of the Water Supply Commission of
Pennsylvania stated that:

Pennsylvania is one of the worst sufferers from floods among the eastern
States * * *. It is not alone the large streams on which damage has been
wrought, for many of the smaller streams overflow their banks with disastrous
results, and in such cases the damage has been increased by the failure of dams
or embankments, thus releasing the additional water into the already over-
flowing channel.

The North Branch of the Susquehanna River has repeatedly in-
undated the city of Wilkes-Barre, and the floods of 1902 and 1904
in this stream destroyed $1,300,000 worth of bridges alone, as well
as millions of dollars worth of other property. According to a report
made in 1931 by the New Jersey State Water Policy Commission,
a repetition of the 1903 flood in the Passaic River would today cause
a damage of over $42,000,000. Such floods in the Passaic may be
expected only about once in 200 years, but a flood causing $1,000,000
worth of damage will occur on the average once every 5 years, and
one causing over $2,500,000 damage every 10 years. The com-
mission concluded that the values at stake in this watershed justify
the expenditure of $93,000,000 on channel improvements. The
New England flood of the fall of 1927 took 88 lives and caused

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 337

damage of $30,000,000 in Vermont alone. The board of engineers
studying the Vermont flood situation reported that it would cost
at least $40,000,000 to prevent, by means of storage reservoirs, a
repetition of the 1927 disaster.

FORESTS AND THE WATERSHEDS

Considering the importance to the northeastern States of their
municipal water supplies, their water power, and their navigation,
and the damages which they suffer periodically from floods and at
all times from erosion, the condition of their watersheds with respect
to control of run-off is obviously a matter of the greatest concern.
The vegetative cover on these watersheds is the one factor in this
condition which it appears to be within human power to control.

LOCATION OF THE FORESTS WITH RESPECT TO CRITICAL AREAS

Practically the entire region was once densely wooded. Some kind
of forest still covers 54 percent of it. The forests are in general
located on the steeper slopes at the headwaters of the streams, where
there is every reason to believe that a cover of protective vegetation
is most badly needed. Forests are, however, nearly absent from
a few streams which flow for almost their entire length through
agricultural land and which are important as sources of municipal
supply. On one of the most critical watersheds of the entire region,
from the standpoint of floods, the percentage of forest is rather
low: this is the Passaic River watershed, with little over 50 percent
in forest.

ORIGINAL AND PRESENT CHARACTER OF FORESTS AS AFFECTING EROSION

AND STREAMFLOW

The original forests of the northeast, now practically gone, were
composed of spruce and fir in the north and at the higher elevations
further south; northern hardwoods, white pine, and hemlock at
intermediate elevations; and mixed hardwoods, largely oak, or
hardwoods and hard pines, at the lower elevations. The early
cuttings, except when followed by fire, probably did little real
damage to the forest.

Even at the height of the lumber industry large continuous areas of
forest were not often cut clean, and removal of the logs from the woods
with animals generally in winter, injured the remaining trees and
young growth very much less than have the logging methods of many
other forest regions. Unfortunately, fires have followed cutting on a
great many areas, so that there are in the region as a whole about
10 million acres of forest land not now satisfactorily stocked to value-
able tree species. These areas include grey birch, scrub oak, aspen-
pin cherry, and similar forest types nearly worthless commercially.
Probably the most conspicuous and important change wrought by
cutting fires in the original forests has been a reduction in the propor-
tion of softwoods. A second important result has been the conversion
of great areas of originally all-aged forests to an even-aged condition.

Cutting in the spruce woods for pulp and lumber has unquestion-
ably resulted in an inferior growth, but not often in the total destruc-
tion of the cover. Over considerable areas the spruce and balsam

338 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

have been replaced by aspen, birch, and other hardwood species.
Although probably not as effective as the conifers in building up a
good vegetative cover and a heavy litter, these species are excellent
soil binders. There are some areas where restocking, even with hard-
woods, has not followed cutting and fire, and here and there in New
England and New York are mountain tops which have been denuded
of their very soil by severe fires and consequent erosion. On less,
thoroughly denuded areas the first cover to appear is scanty grass and
herbs, followed by brush. The conversion to a good forest condition
is extremely slow.

The white-pine forests have probably suffered more severely from
cutting and fire than any other forest type in the region. When
destroyed, the white pine often has difficulty in reestablishing itself
in competition with inferior vegetation. Exposure of the soil during
the slow return of the pine is less serious than it would be if the pine
did not occur for the most part on sandy soil.

The northern hardwood forests are probably in better shape than
any other forest type in the region. Fires are less prevalent than in
the conifer or oak forests. Slash appears to decay more quickly after
cutting, and the forest seems to be less inflammable at every stage of
development. The hardwood leaf litter breaks down rapidly into
humus. In the absence of fire, reproduction is excellent even follow-
ing clean cutting. Repeated fires, or a single severe fire in slash, may
reduce this type to aspen-pin cherry of no commercial value and too
open to produce a deep leaf litter.

The oak forests have suffered from overcutting, fire, and the
chestnut blight. A large portion of the oak type is today at least the
third generation from the original forest, and because the second
cutting generally took place before the trees had reached full seed-
bearing size, the third growth is very largely sprouts. The blight has
eliminated chestnut from the region, and although its place in most
stands has been taken by other species, there are ridges and south
slopes where a good forest cover has not yet developed. Where fires
have been particularly frequent in this type, as in the anthracite-coal
region of Pennsylvania, the forest has degenerated into scrub oak and
grey birch thickets. The scrubby species are not only commercially
worthless but render artificial rehabilitation — planting — of the site
extremely difficult. In southern New Jersey the mixed oak and pine
forests have been repeatedly cut for fuel wood on a short rotation.
Because some of the hardwood stumps fail to sprout, and because
periodic fires have tended to wipe out pine seedlings starting from
windblown seed, the forest has become progressively more open and
filled with underbrush.

OWNERSHIP

The farm woodlands which constitute a considerable part of the
forests of the region are generally in better shape than the larger tracts
owned by forest industries. Some of the loblolly-pine woodlots of
the Eastern Shore of Maryland are particularly productive.

Substantial areas in State ownership, notably in New York and
Pennsylvania, have received better-than-average fire protection for
a good many years, and have been subject to little or no cutting.
Their growing stock has steadily built up. Locally, a long-continued
ebb in forest industries has brought about a similar condition on lands

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 339

in all ownerships. It is probable that there is now more timber at or
near merchantable size in northern New Jersey, for example, than at
any time since the Civil War. Fire protection is unquestionably
beginning to show its effects in most of the region.

Public ownership has been an unquestioned factor in the restoration
of the forests of this region. Over 10 percent of the forest area is
now publicly owned, and most States have an acquisition program of
considerable magnitude. New York already possesses nearly 2 % million
acres of forest land, and is actively buying another million. Penn-
sylvania has nearly 2 million acres in State forests and State game
lands. Federal ownership in the White and Green Mountains of
New England now covers more than half a million acres. These
Federal forests have been established primarily because of their
watershed value. It is particularly significant that many municipali-
ties in this region own watershed forests. In every State communities
have acquired part of the land from which they obtain water, and
where these lands have required reforestation they have been planted.
Some 350 communities in New York now possess municipal forests;
New York City has the largest area on its Ashokan Reservoir drainage.
Glens Falls has planted more than 2 million trees on the denuded
land acquired as a city watershed. Cities and towns in Massachusetts
own over 50,000 acres of watershed forests. Forty towns in Vermont
possess municipal forests, largely for watershed protection. Newark,
N.J., has a watershed forest of 35,000 acres. Private water companies
own considerable acreage of forest land. Forests on municipal water-
sheds not only serve the local public by yielding good water, but they
have returned revenues from the sale of forest products. Altogether
in the region of northeastern drainages the public owns some 5K
million acres' of forest, the greater part of which may be classed as
protection forests.

CONCLUSIONS

The abundant rainfall and the many streams of the northeastern
United States are during the greater part of the time, and under most
conditions, an enormous asset to the region. At other times, and
under some conditions, they are a very great liability. Both as an
asset and a liability they are of extreme importance.

Because rates of run-off and stream flow are immensely increased by
steep slopes protection of watersheds is particularly necessary in the
more mountainous portions of the Northeast. The zone, shown in
figure 3, where the forests are believed to exert a major influence on
watersheds, is prevailingly mountainous, and includes most of the land
previously described as very steep or steep. The forests here should
be classified as protection forests. The area of moderate influence
coincides roughly with the moderately steep and part of the gently
rolling land, and that of slight influence with the remainder of the
gently rolling and practically all of the flat land. There are local
exceptions to these classifications, but only the coastal sands subject
to wind erosion are large enough to map. The forest on the latter is
today either in very bad shape or entirely lacking, but it or some other
form of soil-binding vegetation is clearly needed. It should be noted
that the relatively level watersheds from which many large munici-
palities in the region derive their domestic and industrial water have
not been included in the area of major forest influence, although their

340 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

inclusion might be justified by the critical importance of water in
this zone of dense population. The low percentage of forest land,
however, makes it difficult to justify such a classification in advance
of evidence, drawn from local experimentation, on both the absolute
influence and the relative influence of the forest as compared with
very carefully managed agricultural crops.

Roughly, one third, or 14,000,000 acres, of the forest area of the
region is included in each of the zones in which the forest is believed to
exert a major, a moderate, and a slight influence on run-off and
stream flow.

There is every reason to believe that whatever measures of protec-
tion and management promote other values of the northeastern
forests will also increase their value as regulators of stream flow and
preventives of erosion. They should be adopted forthwith. These
measures, as described in other sections of this report, include ^(1)
intensified fire protection wherever in the region recognized objectives
of fire control have not yet been reached, (2) halting devastation of
any land, public or private, and (3) improving watershed conditions
by planting where necessary. Present knowledge leads to the belief
that about a half million acres of major influence land in the north-
eastern drainages require planting for watershed purposes alone.
If adequate fire protection and planting in certain localities' — such as
the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania' — involve expenditures
so far beyond those which the private owner can afford to make that
the public is forced to assume the greater part of the burden, outright
public acquisition appears inescapable. Intensified fire protection
and halting of devastation will go a long way toward protecting the
existing forest cover against degeneration. The public need for water
and for safety from floods and erosion suggests that some 7.8 millions
acres should be publicly owned and managed. Approximately
900,000 acres of this total is abandoned farm land.

A third major need in the solution of the stream-flow and watershed
problems of the region is research. There is need for exact experi-
mental evidence on the relative water use of the different species of
native vegetation under the climatic conditions peculiar to the
region and under different geological conditions. Differences in
interception of rainfall by the crowns, in rate of percolation and
absorption through the leaf litter and in rate of snow melt beneath
tree crowns, must be determined for various types and species.
Control of drifting sands by vegetation should be studied. The effect
upon run-off and stream flow of a mixed conifer and hardwood forest
as compared with a pure forest of either conifers or hardwoods; the
effect upon wind movement and evaporation of an all-aged forest as
compared with an even-aged forest — these and similar problems arising
out of intensive management may be solved only by experimentation.
Research should be conducted first and on the most comprehensive
scale in the zone of intensive use of water for domestic and industrial
purposes.

SOUTH ATLANTIC DRAINAGES

The South Atlantic drainages, as the term is here used, include the
Potomac River and all of the streams draining into the Atlantic Ocean
southward from it, to but not including the Savannah River (fig. 4).
Because of the difficulty of segregating for different portions of a

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

341

State many of the State-wide statistics later quoted, this report will
make little or no reference to Maryland, and treats South Carolina
as a unit.

CLIMATE AND PHYSIOGRAPHY

The region is one of abundant rainfall — 40 to 50 inches annually at
most points. A few valleys at the head of the Potomac River receive

NORTHEASTERN

DRAINAGES

GULF

DRAINAGES

DRAINAGE
BASINS

RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
ON WATERSHEDS

HHJH MAJOR INFLUENCE

MODERATE INFLUENCE
W/W'A SLIGHT INFLUENCE

(T) POTOMAC RIVER

(|) JAM ES-ROANOKE RIVERS

(3) CAPE FEAR-NEUSE RIVERS

@ PEEDEE RIVER

(f) SANTEE RIVER

FIGURE 4. — South Atlantic drainages.

less than 35 inches of rainfall a year, and in South Carolina adjacent
to the zone of highest precipitation in the eastern United States, the
Blue Ridge receives an annual rainfall of 65 inches. Although there
are no well-marked wet and dry seasons, rainfall is less equably
distributed throughout the year than in the northeastern United

342 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

States. Midsummer precipitation, although high on the average, is
irregular. At several places as much as 9 inches is recorded as having
fallen in 24 hours, and at one point there is a record of 22 inches
within 2 days.

Snowfall is generally unimportant, running from a yearly average
of less than 5 inches along the seacoast of South Carolina to 30 or 40
inches on the upper Potomac watershed.

The region is divided into three distinct physiographic provinces:
The coastal plain, the piedmont, and the Appalachian Mountains.
The coastal plain rises from sea level to between 200 and 400 feet at
the Fall Line, where it adjoins the piedmont. Considerably more
than half of the coastal plain is flat, and below 100 feet in elevation,
but with the rise in elevation westward the land becomes gently
rolling, and breaks into rather sharp differences in elevation between
the ridges and the stream bottoms. The piedmont plateau rises from
the Fall Line to elevations of 600 to 1,500 feet; the general topography
varies from gently rolling to somewhat broken.

From the western boundary of the piedmont plateau the mountain
province rises, sometimes by as much as 2,000 feet in the space of 3
miles, to the summit of the Blue Ridge, which in the Carolinas is from
3,000 to over 4,000 feet above sea level. In the Virginias and Mary-
land the eastward flowing streams originate against ridges farther to
the west, and flow in narrow gorges through the Blue Ridge which is
here much lower in elevation than farther south.

The soils of the coastal plain are predominantly sandy, but there is
considerable diversity as between the nearly pure sands of the Sand
Hills, and the loams and even silt loams of other localities. The
piedmont soils are predominantly deep clays, with some sandy
loams, clay loams, and silts, which are particularly subject to erosion.
The mountain soil types merge with those of the piedmont on the
slopes of the Blue Ridge. Although on the whole remarkably deep
for mountain soils, they are shallower, of lighter texture, and more
stony than the piedmont soils. West of the Blue Ridge in Virginia
many soils are derived from limestone and calcareous shales.

EROSION

Erosion, involving both deterioration of soil and the silting of
reservoirs and navigable channels, is the overwhelmingly important
watershed problem of the South Atlantic drainages, and one which
has reached very serious proportions on the piedmont plateau and in
adjacent portions of the other physiographic provinces.

The clays, clay loams, and silts which characterize the piedmont
are subject to erosion wherever exposed by clearing or by lumbering
and fire. They are particularly subject to erosion when loosened by
plowing, and, as has already been stated, when robbed of organic,
material by long-continued cultivation or repeated forest fires. Silt
lands erode even more readily than the compact clays. Surface run-
off in time cuts tremendous winding gullies through such soils.

The piedmont soils probably erode more rapidly under even the
most skilful cultivation than if the native vegetation had remained
undisturbed. Unfortunately great areas of these soils have been
handled with little skill. Thousands of fields in the piedmont have
been plowed up and down hill instead of along the contours, or in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 343

terraces; cash crops — corn, cotton, and tobacco — have been grown
under clean tillage; and the organic content of the soil has been
steadily depleted. Tenancy has increased, in many counties up to
80 percent, and the irresponsible attitude of the typical tenant farmer
has accentuated these tendencies. Whitney, in his "Soils of the
United States", says of tenancy: "It is a general experience that
soils deteriorate under tenant farmers, who have little interest in the
welfare of the farm beyond the year of certain occupation and little
capital and insufficient stock to work with."

Fairfield County, in the Santee River drainage of South Carolina,
is an example of the erosion situation in the piedmont. The soil
survey of this county in 1912 showed that 90,000 acres of land, largely
cultivated at one time, had been permanently ruined by erosion. The
whole area has been dissected by gullies, and bedrock is exposed in
thousands of places. The State Forester estimates that in each of the
adjoining counties from 10,000 to 30,000 acres have been similarly
injured. W. W. Ashe computed in 1908 that an average of more than
850 pounds of soil per acre were yearly washed from the watershed of
the Yadkin River above Salisbury, N.C. Of this more than 125 pounds
was humus, chiefly from farming soils, and the balance mineral soil.

Erosion from cleared lands, continues at least for a period, when
the lands pass out of agricultural use. If the abandonment is perma-
nent, they become potential forest land, and their erosion is the
forester's problem. In the past two decades there has been a general
decline in rural population and an increase in land abandonment.

Opinions differ as to how rapidly abandoned farm lands in the pied-
mont will revert to forest or other volunteer cover, and thereby be
preserved against further serious erosion. The county demonstra-
tion agent of Fairfield County, S.C., believes that 75 percent of the
gullied land in this county will restock naturally within 3 to 5 years.
On the other hand, the extension forester of North Carolina, who
estimates that for his State as a whole there are approximately 2
million acres of idle and submarginal cleared lands which should be
returned to forest, believes that only 50 percent of this will restock
naturally within 10 years. The other 50 percent, he asserts, will
require definite planting, and 25 percent, or 500,000 acres, will require
some mechanical assistance such as soil saving and brush dams,
plowing in of gullies, etc.

Unquestionably such differences of opinion arise out of variations
in the condition throughout the very large territory involved. The
light-seeded loblolly and shortleaf pines characteristic of the region are
difficult to keep out of cleared land adjacent to mature stands, but a
few scattered trees along fence rows across large cleared areas cannot
be counted upon to seed the land promptly and effectively after
abandonment for cultivation.

Poorly farmed land and abandoned farm land are the chief sufferers
from erosion on the piedmont plateau. A third class of land which is
subject to some degree of erosion is heavily cut and repeatedly burned
forest. Abused forest land is important because even on the piedmont
a considerable percentage of the land is in woods; only two counties
out of ah1 those in the region have less than 20 percent of their area in
forest and only 24 show less than 40 percent of forest cover. Leaf
litter from several years' fall accumulates on forested ground. A

168342°— 33— vol. 1 23

344 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

single fire may remove this entire protective mantle. Heavy cutting
of the forest prevents its prompt replacement. Because hardwood
leaf litter blows from place to place, and may thereby be absent from
considerable areas, any cutting in mixed stands of pine and hardwoods
that reduces the proportion of pine encourages erosion.

In the mountain province, in spite of heavy and often concentrated
precipitation and abuse of the forest by fire and cutting, the streams
from forested watersheds run extraordinarily clear. However, the
soils of the mountain area are easily eroded when exposed. Land
clearing for agricultural purposes, although of minor importance as
far as area is concerned, is a major factor in erosion. Indeed, so
rapidly does erosion take place that many fields are eroded and aban-
doned before the girdled trees have fallen. Geologists, foresters, and
agriculturists alike agree in ascribing most of the erosion in the moun-
tains to land clearing and to agriculture on steep slopes.

Investigations by the Geological Survey 32 in the southern Applach-
ian region have shown that erosion takes place almost universally on
cleared slopes. Glenn estimates that slopes in excess of 15 percent
should not be cleared although as he points out, some slopes of 10
percent erode faster than those of 30 percent. What the safe gradient
should be in any case depends upon the erosive characteristics of the
soil. The soil of some fields is so impoverished by erosion that vegeta-
tion is unable to obtain a foothold and gullies continue to erode
actively long after the abandonment has taken place. In places, the
deeper gullies even eat back into the forest before the erosion is
finally checked.

Measurements were made by the Appalachian Forest Experiment
Station of the dry weight of suspended matter found in streams of
western North Carolina following heavy rains in August, 1928.
These showed that as the percentage of cultivated area in the drainage
increased, a progressive increase occurred in the amount of silt carried
by the stream. This ranged from 4,370 parts per million on a water-
shed from 85 to 90 percent in cultivation to 1 1 parts on a watershed
where only 5 or 10 percent of the area was cleared. The material
obtained from the agricultural watersheds was fine sand, clay, and silt ;
from the forested watersheds, mostly organic matter.

Grazing, although not important as a whole, is locally a cause of
serious erosion. Too intensive grazing use and pasturage of steep
slopes have been responsible for deep gullying. On some of the
" balds," cattle trails have resulted in erosion which, spreading rapidly
in the shallow soil, has exposed large areas of rock.

Timber cutting is often of little consequence as a source of erosion
because new growth returns to the land quickly. Cutting, however, is
often followed by slash fires which result in understocked stands and
in these, erosion often continues for many years. In many cases, the
dragging of logs down mountain slopes starts small gullies, but these
are usually soon healed over.

Erosion is not a great problem in most parts of the coastal plain.
Large areas near the coast are so close to tide level that exceptionally
heavy precipitation, or overflow from the streams, remain on the
surface of the ground for considerable periods before finally draining
away. At higher elevations percolation of rainfall into the sandier

32 Glenn, L. O. Denudation and Erosion in the Southern Appalachian Region. U.S.Geol.Sur.Prof.
Paper 72. 1911.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 345

soils is very rapid. It is only where a loamy condition is approached
that there is appreciable sheet erosion even from cultivated soils.

The relation of forest cover to erosion and other watershed and
stream flow problems in the South Atlantic drainages is diagra-
matically shown in figure 4. In the mountains steep slopes and
relatively heavy rainfall combine to make a permanent vegetative
cover necessary if erosion is to be minimized. Forests still cover a
high percentage of the mountains, and clearly exert a major influence
on erosion. A considerably smaller proportion of land remains
forested on the piedmont, in the mountain valleys of Virginia, and
on the coastal plain adjoining the piedmont, where topography is
only moderately broken and slopes are relatively short. In spite of
this fact the absolute area of forest is so large, and erosion of the
cleared land is so general, that here also the forest is considered to
exert a major influence. The forests of the mountains, the piedmont
plateau, and a strip of the coastal plain bordering the plateau may
properly be classified as protection forest. In the greater part of
the coastal plain, however, low relief would render serious erosion
unlikely even in the absence of forests.

Wind erosion is common along the seacoast, where sand dunes
occur. The drifting sand is held in place in some localities by a
cover of pine and brush species, but elsewhere marches upon roads
and other improvements, and in some places fills dredged channels.
Fixation of drifting sand is a problem of some importance at points
along several hundred miles of coast in Virginia and the Carolinas.

WATER POWER

Water power is an extremely important and valuable natural
resource in the South Atlantic drainages. According to the United
States Geological Survey, North Carolina ranked third among all
States in the Union in 1929 in generation of power from streams, and
South Carolina ranked sixth.

Water storage on a large scale is highly desirable in producing
power in this region, because of the extreme fluctuations in stream
flow. The maximum flow of the major streams is here from 150 to
400 times the minimum flow; this contrasts with a ratio of 100 to 1
in the case of the Kennebec River in Maine. In order to maintain
a steady flow for the generation of water power, artificial reservoirs
have been created. The reservoir at Dreher Shoals, on the Saluda
River in South Carolina, has a storage capacity of 524 billion gallons,
which is said to be the largest capacity of any reservoir constructed
for power, flood control, or water supply in the United States.

Control of silting is a grave problem in the management of storage
reservoirs throughout the region. The Whitney Dam, above Badin,
N.C., on the Yadkin River, was a 38-foot dam constructed in 1910.
In 15 years silt filled the reservoir within a few feet of the top of the
dam. Another example of a reservoir completely filled with silt
from erosion is the Parr Shoals Reservoir in Saluda County, S.C.

NAVIGATION

Maintenance of navigable channels in streams and harbors, in the
face of continuous deposition of enormous quantities of solid matter —
the product of erosion, is the third major stream-flow problem of

346 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the region. According to the Chief of Engineers of the United
States Army, about 7,860,000 short tons of freight were carried on
the 14 principal rivers of the South Atlantic drainages in 1928.

The 1932 report of the Chief of Engineers shows that enormous
sums have been spent by the War Department during the past 50
years in the improvement, chiefly by dredging, of these navigable
waterways and harbors. Existing improvement projects have cost
about $33,000,000 in that period.

The total sum spent by the United States in the improvement
and maintenance of channels in South Atlantic streams, since the
founding of the Republic, would come to a much larger sum.

FLOODS

As might be expected in a region where differences of 30 to 60 feet
in the height of large streams may occur within a few months, floods
are sometimes very destructive. They are generally the result of a
succession of rains, rather than of a single very heavy storm. The
Santee River drainage basin, a high proportion of which has been
cleared, appears to suffer particularly heavy losses, although records
are fragmentary. Near Spartanburg, a flood in June 1903 took over
50 lives, swept away 14 cotton mills, and caused a total property
damage of over $3,500,000. Unofficial figures, furnished by the State
forester from Weather Bureau sources, indicate that between 1913 and
1922 South Carolina suffered losses of^ $19,337,000 — practically
$2,000,000 a year. Among recent floods in the region as a whole
those of 1928 and 1929 were the most severe, causing damages in the
three States of over $9,000,000. Virginia has suffered much less than
the Carolinas from high water.

Glenn has indicated the great change which has taken place in the
behavior of the South Atlantic streams. In addition to increased
silting, this change has included greater irregularity of flow, and more
frequent and higher flood stages. He states that this change is
" reasonably believed to be due to the denudation of steep mountain
slopes and their consequent erosion." Most of the change in the
behavior of the streams he places at about the period of 1885 to 1890
when there was a rather general revival of industrial activity after
the slow recuperation from the Civil War depression.

URBAN WATER SUPPLIES

A considerable number of municipalities in the region derive their
water supply from surface streams. Among these are Richmond,
Va.; Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C.; and Spartanburg and Columbia,
S.C. Storage is necessary, and here also control of silting presents a
problem. For example, the municipal reservoir built by Raleigh in
1914 has been reduced more than one third in capacity by silt from the
cleared land which makes up a portion of its watershed. A reservoir
built in 1923, the watershed of which is wooded, has been silted very
slightly.

PERCENTAGE FORESTED

About two thirds of the total acreage of the region is in forest
cover — probably a higher percentage than in the earlier period when

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 347

land clearing was at its height. The forest is remarkably evenly dis-
tributed. The proportion varies from 50 to 75 percent as between
the larger drainages. A considerably higher percentage of the moun-
tain and the coastal plain provinces is forested than of the piedmont
Erovince, but, as already stated, only 24 counties in the region show
?ss than 40 percent forest cover, and only 2 less than 20 percent.

ORIGINAL AND PRESENT CHARACTER OF FOREST AS INFLUENCING
EROSION AND STREAM FLOW

Comparatively little of the virgin timber of the region now remains.
A large area has been cleared for agriculture. Some of it went back
to forest during the Civil War, and some has again been cleared. On
the piedmont farm woods are typically interspersed with agricultural
land. But on the poorer sandy lands and alluvial bottom lands of
the coastal plain, and in the rougher portions of the mountains there
are extensive and continuous forests.

In the mountains, about 70 percent of the area is in forest. This
is largely a mixture of oaks, hickories, tulip poplar, ash, maple, beech,
basswood, chestnut, and a large number of other species. Repeated
culling of the better quality woods has converted much of the original
high-grade forest into an inferior one. Fire has resulted in further
depletion of the culled stands, until now the forest in many places is
for the present almost worthless commercially. The most obvious
effect of fires on watershed protective values is the destruction of leaf
litter. Litter under a good forest cover in the mountains accumulates
to a depth of several inches; its dry weight, in one study made by the
Appalachian Forest Experiment Station, was found to be as much as
13,000 pounds an acre. Other studies by the station show that it
may absorb up to four and one half times its own weight of moisture.
This retention of water by litter may itself be important in lessening
run-off from heavy storms, but its effect has been shown by experi-
ments in this region and elsewhere to be completely overshadowed in
value by the favorable effect of litter upon absorption of water into
the soil below. When litter is destroyed, as by fire, the soil soon be-
comes less porous, and less able to store large quantities of water.
Fire protection in the mountain region is variable. In some places,
as on the national forests, fire losses have been kept to a reasonably
satisfactory figure. State and county effort has developed well in
part of the region. Private efforts at protection of the forest against
fire are sporadic.

The forests of the piedmont are characteristically a mixture of
hardwoods and pines. Pure hardwood stands are common, as are
pure stands of shortleaf and Virginia pines at the north, and of short-
leaf and loblolly at the south. In places a mixed hardwood forest is
found. The farm woodlands, being isolated, have suffered less from
fires than have the large continuous areas of forest land in the moun-
tains, and the cutting methods applied to them have probably been
less destructive than those employed elsewhere. Grazing, which is
permitted in many farm woodlands, is a severe handicap to young
growth.

On the coastal plain, from Virginia south, the original upland forest
was dominated by longleaf pine, although on the more compact clays
and silts loblolly pine, and in South Carolina slash pine took its place.

348 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Hardwoods, such as oaks and gums, formed an important part of the
forest. Along the rivers and in the coastal swamps a mixed forest
occurred, but cypress and southern white cedar were also of great
importance. The forests of the coastal plain have been cut very heav-
ily. Longleaf pine has been practically exterminated from Virginia,
and in North Carolina it has been very largely replaced by loblolly
pine. Fires have been particularly frequent and widespread in the
coastal plain, and would have devastated wide areas had not the
indigenous species of pine, particularly longleaf , been relatively resist-
ant. In Virginia and the Carolinas as a whole an average of 366,000
acres of land under protection burned yearly between 1926 and 1930.
Of the millions of acres not protected in the region, it was estimated
that in 1931 about one quarter burned over. Statistics for the coastal
plain separately are lacking, but it is probable that the bulk of the
fires occurred in this physiographic province.

By far the greater area of forest lands in the South Atlantic drain-
ages are in private ownership, and the present impoverished condi-
tion of the watershed cover is a reflection of private land management.
Some national forest lands purchased in the mountain area are in
decided contrast to the private lands because in the past 20 years
they have received incomparably better fire protection, the cutting
has been done in such way as to encourage regro*^th, and the badly
eroded agricultural lands have largely reforested. Although a full
cover has not yet developed in the short time these lands have been
administered, watershed conditions have steadily improved. Private
lands, however, still evidence the lack of adequate protection and
management. Conditions on State and other local public lands, with
some notable exceptions, resemble more those on the privately owned
land than they do those on the national forests.

CONCLUSIONS

That a permanent vegetative cover on a watershed is a powerful
preventive of erosion is clearly shown in the South Atlantic drainages
by the relative clarity, even in flood, of streams flowing from land in
forest or permanent sod, as compared with the turbidity and heavy
silt load characteristic of streams flowing from cultivated land.
Although there has not been enough experimentation in this region to
furnish conclusive evidence that forests exert other favorable influ-
ences on streamflow, research elsewhere in the United States, even
though with other forest types, climates, and soils, tends to the belief
that they do. The magnitude and gravity of the erosion and stream-
flow problems of the South Atlantic drainages certainly warrant the
following conclusions: (1) That where forests already exist in the
region they should be protected against fires, destructive lumbering,
and other treatment likely to impair their favorable influence on
erosion and streamflow, and (2) that where erosion of land now cleared
has forced, or is forcing, its abandonment for agriculture, its prompt
reforestation and administration as a permanent protection forest are
necessary.

First-class fire protection is justified from every point of view —
either that of reaping a full crop of wood under a climate favorable to
rapid growth, or of realizing the full indirect benefits of a forest cover.
A very small percentage of the region is now receiving first class fire
protection. After 18 years' effort Virginia does not even attempt to

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 349

protect more than 63 percent of her forest area, and after 18 years
North Carolina does not attempt to protect more than 39 percent.
In South Carolina only the barest start has yet been made toward
fire protection. Even within the protected areas the percentage of
burn in 1931 ranged from 1.4 in Virginia to 7.7 in South Carolina.
The standards set up in the section " Protection Against Fire" should
by all means be put into effect in the region, through the combined
efforts of the public and the landowners.

Such simple restrictions upon cutting and grazing as are necessary
to prevent devastation of forest land (see the section "How to Stop
Forest Devastation"), and control of epidemic insects and diseases,
are obligations of ownership, and may be expected to contribute to
the beneficial influence of the South Atlantic forests on erosion and
streamflow.

Restrictions are also necessary upon clearing of steep slopes because
such clearing is a very fruitful source of erosion and heavy surface
run-off.

Again, as in the Northeast, there is a very great need for substantial
research into the relationship of forests and waters, including water
use by different species of trees and other natural vegetation; inter-
ception of rainfall by crowns; capacity of leaf litter to absorb and to
filter precipitation; nature and condition of the organic layers of the
soil hi relation to percolation and run-off ; effect upon wind movement
and evaporation of pure versus mixed forest, and of even-aged versus
all-aged stands; and control of drifting sands by tree growth.

The most critical watershed and streamflow problem of the South
Atlantic drainages, however, is not that of land now in forest, but of
cleared land which has been abandoned for agricultural use, or which,
under present methods of farm management, is certain to erode until
so abandoned. The Bureau of Agricultural Economics estimates the
present area of abandoned farm land available for forestry in Virginia
and the Carplinas at slightly more than 5 million acres. Although
no direct evidence is available on the point, it is probable that ap-
proximately two thirds of this area, or roughly 3.3 million acres, is
eroding seriously. In so far as improved farm management can save
eroding lands still in agricultural use from further deterioration, and
can point the way to their continued use at a profit, the erosion
problem is not one for the forester. But if abandonment of agri-
cultural land continues here at the rate predicted by the Bureau for
the nation as a whole, by 1950 over 2}£ million acres — probably half
of it eroded — will be added to the present abandoned acreage, and
reforestation will be the only alternative to completely ignoring the
erosion menace.

Prompt reforestation of these abandoned farm lands is necessary
to meet the menace. If the estimate of the local foresters that a
large part of eroded farm land will reforest naturally within 10 years
of abandonment are applied to the region, planting will have to be
done on about 2 million acres. It also seems probable that of this
huge area of abandoned farm lands, about 1 million acres will require
preliminary treatment, such as plowing in of gullies and building
dams. It is very difficult to see how the landowner can be persuaded
to undertake such work on any adequate scale. It is entirely out of
the question to interest a tenant in it,

350 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Public acquisition and management of 3.3 million acres of aban-
doned lands or of such submarginal farm lands clearly headed for
abandonment, none of which will reforest naturally within a decade,
appears to be the only prompt and effective solution of the erosion
problem on much of the piedmont plateau, in adjacent portions of
the coastal plain, and in the mountains. Wherever the areas to be
acquired are scattered, or difficult to administer because of small
size, local handling — preferably by counties — is naturally suggested.
But it is very doubtful whether counties that have suffered a con-
tinuous shrinkage in their area of improved farm land, and even the
States themselves that have not yet financed State-wide fire protec-
tion, can handle a purchase, planting, and engineering investment
covering hundreds of thousands of acres. Even if tax- title were
obtainable, there would still remain the planting and other items,
and subsequent annual costs of protection and administration.
Heavy Federal participation seems inevitable. It is certainly logical
for the Federal Government, which has spent $33,000,000 on dredging
and other maintenance of navigable streams within the States com-
prising the South Atlantic drainages, to spend a few million dollars
additional to safeguard its investment.

Similarly, the large area of mismanaged and inadequately protected
forest land in the mountains and in the piedmont should also be in
the hands of the public. Administration of a type similar to that
given the national forests would meet the watershed situation and
restore the streams to their pristine condition. All of the forest area
of major influence, some 15% million acres, should be in public owner-
ship. Whether these lands, like the abandoned agricultural lands,
should become national forest, or county and State forest through
some form of Federal cooperation, is a detail to be worked out when
all the facts have been more carefully ascertained than at present.

EAST GULF DRAINAGES

The East Gulf drainages as here discussed include those portions of
the Southern States drained by the rivers from the Savannah to the
Mississippi. As shown in the accompanying map, figure 5, there are
seven of these rivers. The map shows the areas on which according
to our present knowledge a forest cover exerts or should exert a
favorable influence upon stream flow and erosion, and in a general
way indicates the relative degree of this influence. The forest areas
of the drainages are classified according to watershed protective
influence as f oUows :

Acres

Major influence 18, 709, 000

Moderate influence 4, 335, 000

Slight influence 50, 269, 000

The southern portion of Florida, which is not shown on the map,
and the portion of south Georgia that drains into the Okefenokee
Swamp present no watershed protection problem. They are very flat
and very near tidewater level. Much of the excess water from torren-
tial rains collects in swamps and runs off slowly. The soils are mostly
absorptive sands, and comparatively little erosion takes place on
the cultivated lands.

In Florida the more inland dunes, as on the Chocatawhatchee and
Ocala National Forests, have become stabilized under a forest or

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

351

brush cover. Some of the coastal dunes are in motion because of
distrubance to the cover or of the inability of vegetation to become
established. Occasionally dune movement threatens roads or other
improvements, but for the most part, the moving dunes do little
damage.

FACTORS IN STREAM FLOW AND EROSION

PRECIPITATION

The East Gulf States receive about 55 inches of rainfall annually.
Rains occur throughout the year. Heavy torrential rains are com-
mon close to the Gulf and also, to a lesser degree, in the interior.

SOUTH

MAJOR INFLUENCE
MODERATE INFLUENCE
SLIGHT INFLUENCE

DRAINAGE BASINS

(T) SAVANNAH RIVER (f) TOMBIGBEE RIVER

© ALTAMAHA RIVER © PEARL RIVER

@ APAUACHICOLA RIVER (?) SUWANNEE RIVER
@ ALABAMA RIVER

FIGURE 5. — East Gulf drainages.

Weather Bureau precipitation records for the Alabama River drainage
show a wide variation in the quantity of rainfall that occurs in indi-
vidual storms. In one instance in the basin of the Coosa River, a
major tributary in central Alabama, the rainfall ranged from 8 to 20
inches.

Rainfall exceeding 2 inches in 24 hours is not uncommon; indeed,
summer rains of more than 5 inches in a 12-hour period have been
recorded. Storms of such intensity, particularly if the soil happens
to contain much moisture at the time, result in major floods and
widespread erosion. Some storms cover a relatively narrow belt,
others are widespread. Some storms, principally in the fall, originate
as tropical hurricanes. Most of the rains causing severe floods come
in the winter or spring.

352 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TOPOGRAPHY

The East Gulf area may be divided into three physiographic prov-
inces ; the coastal plain, the piedmont, and the Appalachian highlands.
The Coastal Plain rises from sea level to between 200 and 400 feet,
where it adjoins the piedmont. Much of the Coastal Plain area is
flat and less than 100 feet in elevation. Inland the elevation increases
more rapidly, the land becomes more rolling, and occasionally sharp
differences in elevation occur. The piedmont rises to elevations of 600
to 1,200 feet, the topography varying from rolling to broken. Most of
the hills are broad and of such even slope that agriculture early claimed
a large part of the hill land. The Appalachian highlands rise to a
maximum elevation of about 4,000 feet in northern Georgia, at the
southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. Rough topography is
characteristic of much of the highland area.

It is largely because of steep slopes and rapid run-off from bared
soils that a very large part of the highland forest is classed as having
a major influence on watershed conditions. It is largely because of
poor drainage due to insufficiency of relief that the Coastal Plain forest
is classed as having little influence upon watershed conditions.

SOILS

In the Coastal Plain, absorptive sands are the predominate soil
type. These are comparatively shallow on some areas where hardpan
has developed. On the upper Coastal Plain the sandy soils give way
to highly erosible loams.

The piedmont soils are predominantly deep clays, which erode
rapidly when exposed. Cultivation greatly hastens erosion. Although
the piedmont subsoils unlike most others, can be cultivated if ferti-
lized, yet here as elsewhere the subsoils are much inferior to surface
soils in both absorptive and water-holding capacity. Consequently,
exposure of subsoils over large areas increases floods and renders
stabilization of streamflow difficult. It is largely because of their
easily eroded soils that the forests of the piedmont are classed as having
a major influence.

The soils of the highlands are inclined to be stony. Some are clay
soils derived from limestone and shales, others are loam. Save for
occasional pockets of deep loam and for rare areas unburned by
recurrent fires, the highland soils are much shallower and poorer than
those of the piedmont. For this reason they do not absorb and hold
as much water as the piedmont soils. The fact that they are shallow
makes it all the more necessary to maintain the cover upon them
intact.

FOREST CONDITIONS

In the highland section, hardwoods predominate. At less pro-
nounced elevations pines, particularly shortleaf, occur with the
hardwoods. This mixed forest has been repeatedly culled of its best
timber. In places it has been severely cut and repeatedly burned,
with the result that it has been converted into a more or less open
and scrubby woodland. On approximately 20 percent of the forest
land in the highlands the forest stands have been either destroyed or
badly culled and burned. Much of this land is pastured, and this
form of use intensifies the deterioration of the remaining forest.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 353

Many slopes in the highlands have been cleared and put into crops.
Observations indicate that on slopes steeper than about 15 percent
agricultural use leads to gullying so severe that the land is quickly
abandoned.

Privately-owned forest lands in the highland section burn frequently.
Hardwood sprouts and other vegetation come in on some areas
denuded by fire, but because of fire many cut-over lands have failed
to restock quickly and are without adequate litter and humus. On
public forest areas such as the Cherokee and Alabama National
Forests, litter and humus have developed under fire protection.
These national forests were established at the headwaters of the
Apalachicola and Black Warrior Rivers because of the influence of
the areas on stream flow and erosion. That this influence is decidedly
beneficial is shown by the fact that the streams from the national-
forest areas, formerly muddy, now usually run clear.

In the Piedmont and Coastal Plain sections, where pines predomi-
nate, fires are much more common. In the piedmont section, where
much of the forest area is on farms, pasturing and fires go together.

Most of the upland pine forest is second growth. In logging pine
stands it is customary to cut fairly clean, but usually a sufficient seed
supply has been available to insure reforestation if fires are not too
destructive. This is evidenced by the fact that although severe
cutting and repeated burning have occurred extensively on the pine
lands, only about 5 percent of these lands have been devastated.
Fires kill small loblolly seedlings ; shortleaf has the faculty of sprout-
ing after being burned. Both pines are resistant to light ground fire
after they have reached a diameter of a few inches.

Longleaf is the predominating tree of the Coastal Plain forest.
Usually, before the mature pine forest is cut all trees large enough to
support a turpentine face are worked for naval stores. Frequent fires
before the naval stores operation and annual fires during it destory
much advance growth. In logging, the trees large enough for the
saw are cut first, then the larger trees that have survived the subse-
quent fires are taken for poles and piling. In some localities, logging
followed by fire leaves the land completely devastated. On some
areas, conversion from forest to grassland has taken place within a
very few years. Only the remarkable persistence of longleaf seedlings
in the face of repeated fire and the ability of the saplings to survive
defoliation prevent this species from being almost wholly 'destroyed.
As it is, something like 10 percent of the longleaf area has been dev-
astated. If given a chance, however, the longleaf with the help of
other species such as slash and loblolly reclaims some of the denuded
areas. Clear cutting is less usual with second-growth stands, but
they are heavily worked for turpentine and are subjected to frequent
fires.

In the more moist parts of the lower Coastal Plain slash pine occurs
with the longleaf. Practically all this is second growth. The slash
pine is much more susceptible to fires in early youth than the longleaf,
and escapes only because of its ability to grow in moist locations.
During drouth, fires in these locations play havoc with the pine
stands.

Cutting in the southern forests need not be destructive. In some
places greater care in logging may be required than in others; on the
whole, it should not be difficult to utilize both the timber and the

354 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

forage and yet maintain satisfactory watershed conditions. Control
of fire, often set purposely, is far more necessary than any great
change in cutting methods. Adoption by landowners of the stand-
ards set up in the section of this report entitled "Protection Against
Fire " would satisfactorily meet watershed protection needs on private
forest lands.

In Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, good fire-control
organizations have been developed in some localities but only 20
percent of the forest area is protected. Until better fire control can
be provided or until local woods-burning practices change, it will be
impossible to get adequate protection. In 1929 and 1930 about 29
million acres, or 40 percent, of the total forest area not now pro-
tected (about 71 million acres) burned over each year. Where fires
annually cover large areas of forest land, not even a scanty litter
cover can develop.

Probably the largest fire-control effort of a single landholder is that
of the Great Southern Lumber Co., in southeastern Louisiana. This
company has succeeded in protecting its lands from fire largely
because it has bought many of the small intermingled holdings and
put considerable forest acreage under a tight fence. The latter has
not only interfered with trespass and eliminated grazing fires but also
excluded the hogs which destroy young longleaf seedlings.

Cattle grazing on forest areas is widespread, especially in the pine
regions, but probably does little if any damage to the watersheds.
Only locally, and usually only on farms, does overgrazing of conse-
quence occur.

Forest conditions such as those described do not tend to regulate
stream flow or to prevent erosion. The open forest does not develop
a full litter cover even if unburned, and grass often occupies the
space between the trees. As indicated in the introduction to this
section, grassland has a higher surface run-off rate than forest. Thus
a reduction in the density of the forest tends to increase flood heights.

How far a change from good forest cover to scrub or sprout forest
cover affects surface run-off and erosion in this region is unknown.
Data taken by the Southern Forest Experiment Station in the silt
loam uplands of northern Mississippi show that a scrub forest helps
to retard surface run-off in times of heavy rain. A dense scrub or
sprout forest can probably prevent erosion, but all too often the sprout
stand to which cutting and fire convert a high forest is an under-
stocked stand. Such a forest certainly burns more frequently than
the forest it succeeds.

STREAM FLOW

The streams coming from the Blue Ridge highlands have a greater
annual run-off than any other streams of the East Gulf drainages, the
discharge being approximately equivalent to 30 inches of precipitation
over their watersheds. Those from the piedmont and the coastal
plain have a run-off equivalent to a precipitation of 20 to 25 inches.
Fluctuation in flow is much less for the highland streams than for
those of the piedmont and coastal plain; their ratio of minimum to
maximum flow is about 1 to 100, whereas the Tallapoosa, for example,
fluctuates from 65 to 102,000 second-feet, a minimum to maximum
ratio of 1 to 1,569. The Army Engineers report that "in common
with all rivers rising in the Appalachian Mountains, the (Apalachicola
River) system exhibits a wide periodic fluctuation in volume of flow.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 355

During dry periods the flow at the headwaters is well sustained
through ground storage. The effect of low water is severely felt in
that portion of the drainage area lying in the piedmont upland and
the upper portions of the coastal plain." This undoubtedly is a
reflection of forest conditions, since the forest occupies perhaps 60
percent of the total area in the highland section as contrasted with
about 30 percent in the piedmont. It is more than coincidence that
most of the power development is in the section where the largest
area of forest is located.

At one time all the major East Gulf drainage streams were much
used for navigation. Prior to the time of the railroads the head of
navigation for the Apalachicola River was Columbus, Ga., 276 miles
upstream. The upper stretches of the Apalachicola are no longer
navigable except for the very lightest craft. On the Chattahoochee
considerable sums have been spent by the Army Engineers in recent

?ears to maintain an open channel of 4 feet. The report of the
nland Waterways Commission (1908) says of the Pearl: "This river
has completely changed its character in the past 50 years; from a
slow, clear stream it has become a swift, muddy one and from a good
channel with a depth of 5 or 6 feet, it is now shallow and much ob-
structed by logs and drifts." In the Pearl River the available low
draft for the low^er 104 miles has decreased since 1875 to 2 feet, and in
consequence all navigation-maintenance work by the Federal Govern-
ment has been dropped. This change, which is common to all the
East Gulf streams, reflects to a considerable degree the decrease in
forest area and the degradation of the forest itself. It also reflects
the decreased absorptive capacity of the soil brought about by
agriculture and erosion.

Floods are not uncommon in this region. For their size they cause
surprisingly slight property damage, largely because property values
in the flooded areas are low and because the region is without a large
urban population. Flood stages have been reached on the Chatta-
hoochee River in 16 instances since 1900, and on the Tombigbee in 98
instances since 1903. On the average these high-water stages have
lasted about 10 days each, but the most disastrous flood, in 1916,
lasted 66 days. Nearly $100,000 was spent in aiding the victims of
this flood . The average crop losses due to floods in the lowlands have
been estimated at $3 per acre per year.

The floods of March 1929 caused damage estimated by the Weather
Bureau to exceed $5,000,000 in the Choctawhatchee Basin, $1,000,000
in the Apalachicola, and $1,700,000 in the Alabama, in addition to
heavy losses in other river basins. Cities such as Jackson, Miss.,
West Point, Ga., and Montgomery, Ala., have experienced serious
inconvenience if not distress because high water entered the city
water supplies, interfered with power and light service, or disrupted
transportation systems.

EROSION

Under the agricultural practices in effect in the piedmont and upper
coastal plain, the top soil has been sluiced from thousands of acres of
farm lands. As a result, a large area has lost its productivity. Some
lands have been so gullied as to become worthless for agriculture. As
in the South Atlantic drainages, a very large part of the agricultural
land is being cultivated under a tenant system. In general this

356 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

system is characterized by indifference on the part of both the owner
and the tenant toward the condition of the land. Census data show
that in some counties negro tenants, many of them illiterate, are
farming more than 80 percent of the crop lands.

According to H. H. Bennett, of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils,
much of the sloping land in the piedmont region on which pure stands
of second-growth pine are growing is abandoned agricultural land
from which the original soil was completely washed away. Mr.
Bennett reports that in Spartanburg County, S. C., examination of
the soil profile in remnants of the virgin forest of mixed hardwoods and
pine showed the original soil to have consisted of about 4 to 8 inches
of brownish or yellowish mellow sandy loam and loam. This top
layer is gone or largely gone from 297,000 acres.

The loss of productivity on the eroded agricultural lands is reflected
by census data. These show some 6K million acres of farm land in the
East Gulf drainages to have been abandoned in the past 20 years.
Census data for Georgia show that the area of cultivated lands has
decreased by 70 percent in Muscogee County, by 65 percent in Chat-
tahoochee County, and by 51 percent in Hancock and Lincoln
Counties. A reduction of almost 40 percent is shown for Coosa and
Tallapoosa Counties, Ala., and similar reductions for counties in
Mississippi. On many of the abandoned lands erosion is continuing.

In the report on a soil survey of Muscogee County, Ga., made in
1922 by the Federal Bureau of Soils in cooperation with the Georgia
State College of Agriculture, it is stated that :

Most of this soil type (Norfolk sand) was formerly cleared and farmed for a time
because of its easy cultivation, but yields were small and erosion was so excessive
that much of it was abandoned and allowed to grow up in pine and oaks. * * *.
(The Norfolk sandy loam is) one of the most intensively farmed soils in the
county * * *. The steeper eroded portions are allowed to remain in brush
and pine.

The construction of terraces on the slopes (Cecil soils) for the prevention of
erosion and washing is now customary, and if this policy had been adopted when
the land was first cleared many of the gullied fields that have since been turned
out and allowed to grow up in pine and brush could be in use today
Great care must be taken to prevent gullies from starting (in the Greenville clay
loam), for they quickly destroy valuable fields if allowed to go unchecked.
* *' *. A large part of it (the Susquehanna clay) was originally cleared and
considered excellent cotton soil, but erosion quickly made it of little value and it
was abandoned. Most of it at present supports a growth of scrub oak and
short-leaf pine.

The report on the soil survey of Stewart County, in western
Georgia, made in 1903, states:

A lower belt of broken country has been formed by the originally smooth upland
being dissected by stream erosion. This belt is characterized by deep gullies,
steep hills, and ridges with undulating crests. Some of the deeper gullies, locally
called "caves", vary in width from a few feet to one fourth mile, and in depth
from 50 feet to 100 feet or more. Their sides are precipitous or perpendicular.
The roughest topography in this belt is south of Providence Church, where the
surface is very broken, being probably the roughest section in the southern part
of the State. In this section there is scarcely an area of land suitable for agri-
culture the size of an ordinary garden. Steep ridges rise to an elevation of 200
feet or more above the deeper stream bottoms. The country is so rough and
broken as to lead some of the inhabitants of the county erroneously to believe
that the hills are a southern extension of the Appalachian Mountains.

The majority of the settlers occupied the clay hills, the level section of the
county being avoided until a later day because of a belief that the land was of
poor quality. Subsequently, the hill country became so badly gullied by erosion
that this region was almost entirely abandoned. Many substantial buildings in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 357

the vicinity of Louvale, Union, and Providence, abandoned many years ago,
remain as an evidence of the early settlements. * * *. There is little pos-
sibility of this gullied land being restored to a condition favorable to cultivation.
*. Except where some measure is taken to check the progress of the
gullies, they extend with destructive effect at a rapid rate.

A watershed survey made in 1932 by the Southern Forest Experi-
ment Station within the East Gulf drainages indicated widespread
occurrence of erosion. In the piedmont section of the Altamaha
River drainage 32 percent of the area was found to be eroded. In
the central portion of the Apalachicola River Basin 24 percent of the
area examined was found to be eroded. This was almost entirely
crop land, pasture land, and abandoned farm land. In the Apalachi-
cola drainage as a whole 15 percent of the piedmont and 12 percent
of the coastal plain was found to be undergoing erosion. In the other
basins similar conditions obtain. The total area of land on which
erosion was markedly noticeable was estimated at about 1,000,000
acres in the Alabama River drainage, about 2,000,000 acres in the
Apalachicola River Basin, and more than half a million acres in the
Tombigbee River Basin.

Erosion on such a large scale results in deposits of soil where they
are not wanted. The Dunlap Dam (Gainesville, Ga.), with a pond
area of 350 acres, was completed in 1904. The drainage area is 483
square miles. In 26 years the reservoir was almost completely
silted, the volume of silt deposit being estimated at 5,250 acre-feet,
or 202 acre-feet a year. The original pond area of 700 acres behind
the Morgan Falls Dam near Atlanta, also completed in 1904, has
been completely silted. The silt deposit here is estimated at 16,800
acre-feet, or 646 acre-feet a year, for a watershed of 1,390 square miles.
Some 35,000 acre-feet of silt in 18 years has been deposited behind the
Goat Rock Dam at Columbus, Ga., from a drainage area of 4,530
square miles. The North Highlands Dam at Columbus and the New
Bridge Dam on the Chestatee branch of the Chattahoochee have
been silted to the limit. On the basis of silting studies carried on by
Army engineers it is estimated that silting in reservoirs on the
Chattahoochee River may be expected to progress at the rate of 45
acre-feet annually for each square mile of catchment area. Large
deposits of eroded material have been deposited on flooded bottom
lands, in some instances ruining fertile lands for further agricultural
use. The Bureau of Chemistry and Soils reports some 9,000 acres
of bottom lands in Stewart County, Ga., to have been thus ruined.

As erosion on agricultural lands proceeds, abandonment takes
place. The control of erosion on abandoned land is in considerable
part a forest problem. Deeply gullied lands, according to Bennett,
probably cannot be reclaimed for crops without centuries of soil
building. Much land in this condition will restock naturally to pines.
Where the stiff clay subsoil has been exposed, however, it is at least
questionable whether a stand sufficiently dense to control rapid run-
off and erosion can develop without artificial aid and some special
measures to control erosion. On probably one third and possibly one
half of the lands needing planting, conditions are so critical that
special erosion-control measures will be necessary if planting is to be
successful and erosion is to be controlled. These will include check
dams, the plowing of gullies, and perhaps even the use of sod to hold
the soil in place until tree growth has become established. Certainly

358 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

planting of a large area is justified to halt erosion as quickly as pos-
sible, if for no other reason than to stop soil wastage.

Data are lacking as to the extent to which forest areas are eroded
as contrasted with areas that have been in agriculture. The survey
by the Southern Forest Experiment Station just referred to disclosed
no forest areas where serious erosion existed. Undoubtedly some
erosion occurs on forest areas, especially after fire and cutting, but in
contrast with that on agricultural lands it is so slight as not to call
for mention.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The most critical watershed situation in the East Gulf drainages is
in the piedmont and upper coastal plain, where mismanagement of
agricultural lands has brought about widespread erosion and changed
stream conditions. Abandonment of agricultural land is proceeding
on a large scale. Although some of the abandoned lands will restock
naturally with forest growth in a few years, it is estimated that about
a million acres of watershed land needs artificial reforestation. Plant-
ing alone will not be enough; on probably one third and possibly one
half of the lands needing planting, special erosion-control measures
will be needed.

In the highland area, land clearing has resulted in so much erosion
that it should not be permitted to continue on the steeper slopes.

On private forest lands, lack of management is reflected in under-
stocking due largely to fire and cutting. Fire control probably would
bring about better watershed conditions more quickly than any
other possible measure.

Where cutting and pasturage practices have led to watershed deteri-
oration they should be modified. If these practices cannot be changed
on certain critical areas through education of the timberland owners
and operators, these areas should be brought into public ownership.
The present condition of unmanaged private lands in the highlands
as contrasted with that of managed national-forest lands suggests
that there should be a material expansion of the present public forest
enterprise.

In the highland and piedmont sections, where erosion has reached
a critical stage on some 4.6 million acres of abandoned agricultural
land, there is need for some form of public control or for public owner-
ship. The large area of forest land having a major influence on
streamflow and erosion, 15.4 million acres, should be similarly handled.
Only through good management can the streams wiiose regimen has
been so seriously upset by man's activities, be restored to their former
condition. Shrinkage of the tax base of the counties, and difficulties
experienced by local governments in financing forestry enterprises
and bringing about fire control, suggest that local political units can
not go far by themselves.

Investigations are needed locally to determine how watershed con-
ditions are affected by the forest cover, to what extent good conditions
can be preserved through forestry practices and what special measures
are needed.

WEST GULF DRAINAGES

The watersheds of the West Gulf drainages comprise, in the aggre-
gate, an area of approximately 124 million acres. The basin includes
all of the streams in western Louisiana, and, with the exception of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

359

the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers, all the main drainages in Texas
(fig. 6). The principal streams are the Sabine, Trinity, Brazos, and
Colorado Rivers. The extreme variations in climate, soils, and
vegetation throughout this extensive area have had a correspondingly
profound effect on land utilization as well as on watershed con-
ditions.

CLIMATE IN RELATION TO WATERSHED PROBLEMS

Precipitation on these drainages comes almost entirely in the
form of rainfall the rains varying tremendously in different portions
of the basin. In the humid region of eastern Texas and western Louisi-
ana the rainfall averages 50 to 60 inches annually as compared with

MAJOR INFLUENCE
MODERATE INFLUENCE
[H SLIGHT INFLUENCE

FIGURE 6— West Gulf drainages, Arkansas— Red River drainages, upper Rio Grande Basin and lower

Mississippi River Basin.

about 15 inches in the arid region of western Texas. In the latter
region evaporation rates are high and this tends to decrease further
the supply of moisture available for plant growth. However, a
tendency to torrential rainfalls in some portions of the basin makes
annual averages unreliable indexes of true rainfall conditions, as in
central and western Texas where a single heavy rain may account
for as much as two thirds of the average annual precipitation.
In eastern Texas and in the Gulf region intense rains are also common
but they seldom reach cloudburst proportions. The maximum rain
recorded in the Trinity River watershed is 5^ inches an hour and over
10 inches in 24 consecutive hours.

The fact that these torrential rains are most frequent during the
winter when pasture and range are least protected and cultivated

168342° — 33 — vol. 1 24

360 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

lands are totally unprotected has an important influence in promoting
a high run-off ratio. This in turn is reflected in floods, soil erosion,
and decreased ground water supplies, especially in the more arid and
sparsely vegetated portions of the basin.

STREAMFLOW PROBLEMS

CHARACTER OF FLOW

The streams of the basin are in the main perennial. In western
Texas the headwater tributaries of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers
are, however, dry for large portions of the year. The greatest range
in flow is found in arid regions of torrential rainfall in central and
western Texas. According to records of the Geological Survey the
Little River, a tributary of the Brazos, had a maximum daily flow
over a 14-year period of 647,000 second-feet and a minimum flow of
only 3 second-feet. The Brazos River at Mineral Wells, Tex., has
been completely dry on several occasions during the last 6 years and
has had a maximum daily flow of 95,600 second-feet. The Colorado
River at Austin, Tex., has varied over a 32-year period from 151,000
to 13 second-feet.

On the other hand, the Sabine River, draining a catchment basin
having heavy rainfall and forests covering approximately 43 percent
of the total area, fluctuates far less than the streams draining more
arid con try, varying over a 6-year period at Ruliff, from 61,200 to
372 second-feet.

FLOODS

Floods are relatively common in all the drainages. In the Brazos
and Colorado River drainages in central and western Texas, severe
floods have been occurring at least once in a decade, caused as a rule by
local rains of high intensity and rendered doubly destructive because
of the lack of an adequate cover on the watersheds. The flood of 1900
caused the failure of the Austin Dam on the Colorado River and
flooded large areas of bottomland from Austin to the Gulf. The
Brazos flood of September 1921 is reported to have cost the lives of
164 people and damaged property to the extent of more than
$12,000,000.

Floods are even more common in the Trinity River drainage,
occurring most frequently during spring and fall. According to
Weather Bureau records, overflows in the vicinity of Dallas, Tex.,
have averaged about 4 a year during the last 8 years, and the
Trinity River at Trinidad, Tex., has been at flood 33 times in the last
8 years. Both of the above stations are located in the black waxy
belt — a region of heavy but productive soils practically all of which
are in cultivation. On the Sabine River floods occur almost annually,
but they are seldom general throughout the drainage and are most
frequent during the winter months as the result of heavy rains of
rather local occurrence.

STREAM-FLOW UTILIZATION

The streams of the West Gulf Basin are and apparently must be
relatively unimportant for navigation and the development of hydro-
electric power, owing largely to uncertain flow and heavy silt loads.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 361

Water supplies for domestic use and irrigation are reported to be
critically low in the arid portions of the basin. Irrigation is locally
important on the Nueces and Concho Rivers and to a minor extent
for rice growing near the mouth of the Sabine-Neches drainage.

SILTING OF CHANNELS

The streams of the west Gulf Basin are normally clear but during
periods of flood carry enormous quantities of soil eroded from the
watersheds. Ashe 33 states that the silt burden of the Colorado River
is roughly estimated at 1 percent of its volume or an average of 18,000
acre-feet a year; and that the Brazos River, above Waco, with a
drainage area of 30,000 square miles, carries more than 3,200,000 tons
of soil a year. Records of measurements made in the Brazos River
at Rosenberg over an 8-year period by the United States Bureau of
Agricultural Engineering, cooperating with the Texas Board of Water
Engineers, show that the maximum monthly silt load carried during
a flood period by this river was the 20,000 acre-feet carried in May
1930.

Direct evidence of the economic significance of these silt loads are
cited by Ashe who states that the ill-fated Austin Dam on the Colorado
River, which broke after only 10 years of service, had its storage
capacity reduced 56 percent as a result of silting. The new reservoir
constructed in 1913 had by 1922 lost 84 percent of its capacity through
silting.

Flood waters of the Trinity and Sabine Rivers are also quite muddy.
The Trinity River has overflows known locally as "black floods" and
"red floods", depending on whether the storm occurred in the black
waxy belt or in the regions of predominantly red soils. These heavy
soil loads are, however, considered by engineers to be much less than
the huge quantities transported by the Colorado and Brazos Rivers.

EROSION PROBLEMS

Extremely active erosion of the badlands type is occurring in a
region in northwestern Texas known as the "Breaks." This escarp-
ment, between the high plains on the west and the red prairies of
Edwards Plateau, varies in width from 1 to several miles and is intri-
cately dissected by the headwater streams of the Colorado and Brazos
Rivers with many steep and unstable slopes — the zone of active
erosion extending out along the water courses into the red prairies.

In central Texas, along the border of the Edwards Plateau, standing
400 to 1,000 feet above the coastal plain, the streams have cut deep
channels and have converted the original plateau edge into a ragged
escarpment of mesas, buttes, and rocky canyons. In many places
over an extensive area the relatively thin soil has been removed,
leaving the parent rock exposed. Moisture conditions are not particu-
larly favorable for tree growth, hence it is largely only where cool
exposures exist or when a deep soil occurs that the forest is able to
maintain itself. The stand is open and the woods frequently occur
as merely scattering patches interrupted by grassy openings. In such
locations, any marked disturbance to the cover results in erosion,
which when once under way progresses for a considerable period before

33 Ashe, W. W. Financial Limitation in the Employment of Forest Cover in Protecting Reservoirs,
U.S.Dept.Agr.Bul. 1430, 1926.

362 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

the vegetation can stop it. On steep slopes such erosion often con-
tinues unchecked by any possible vegetational control.

In the eastern portion of the region and more particularly in the
Trinity, Sabine, and Neches watersheds, cultivation has led to equally
severe erosion. Extensive surveys by the Southern Forest Experi-
ment Station indicate that erosion in these drainages is largely con-
fined to areas in cultivation or to those worn out and abandoned.
The data indicate that a million acres of such land is badly eroded,
about one fourth of it in the black waxy belt and " cross- timbers "
region, and three fourths within the upper coastal plain. In the
upper coastal plain nearly 2 million acres of formerly arable land is
now lying idle, and of this about 250,000 acres is barren and actively
eroding.

The above estimates are undoubtedly very conservative since they
take no account of sheet erosion on many of the cultivated fields.
Experimental data obtained by the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils,
the Texas Experiment Station, and other agencies have demonstrated
that in the agricultural sections of Texas soil losses from very gentle
slopes are enormous. Bennett338 states that at the Spur substation
of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, in west Texas, 40.7 tons
per acre of soil was removed from a 2 percent slope of fallow land by a
total rainfall of approximately 27 inches. Gullying is by no means
as rapid on these drainages as on similar land in the silt loam uplands
of the lower Mississippi Basin. As a rule, gullies more than a few feet
in depth are not common.

FORESTS OF THE WEST GULF DRAINAGES
CHARACTER AND EXTENT

The forest area of the west Gulf drainages is estimated as 36,736,000
acres, or about 30 percent of the gross area of the basin. Less than
half of this consists of true forest, the remainder includes sparsely
stocked areas of scrub oak, juniper, mesquite, and chaparral which
predominate throughout the zone of meager tree growth in central
and western Texas. The areas of commercial forest, made up of two
major types — the longleaf pine and the shortleaf-loblolly hardwoods —
occur entirely in the eastern part of the basin and are limited mostly
to the upper coastal plain portion of the Sabine, Neches, and Trinity
watersheds.

The long leaf pine forests, restricted almost entirely to the lower part
of the Sabine drainage, have been so heavily cut over as to be prac-
tically denuded and to be restocking only very slowly if at all. Were
this condition to exist in a region of steep slopes, at the head of im-
portant streams, the situation would be disastrous. Here, however,
although run-off is probably greatly encouraged, the relatively level
topography and the abundance of protective ground cover serve to
hold the soil. The soils of the long leaf land are too low in fertility
to be extensively cleared for agriculture. The National Forest
Reservation Commission has approved the purchase of 24,575 acres of
cut-over long leaf land in west central Louisiana, of which 17,965
acres have already been acquired.

The remainder of the commercial forest consists largely of upland
stands made up of shortleaf or loblolly pines, or both, in mixture

"« Bennett, H. H., and Chapline, W. R. Soil Erosion a National Menace. U.S.Dept.Agr.Circ. 33, 1928,

A NATIONAL 'PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 363

mainly with such hardwoods as mixed oaks and hickory. On alluvial
bottom lands ash, sweet and black gum, magnolia, sycamore, and other
moisture-loving species are included. Upland stands are seldom cut
clear and an abundance of smaller trees and reproduction is custom-
arily left. Cut-over areas within the range of the pines restock at a
very rapid rate as a rule. Large areas of the pine-hardwood lands
cleared for agriculture have been abandoned because of erosion, but
observations indicate that many old fields are taken over within 5
or 10 years by shortleaf and loblolly pine reproduction which tends
to check gullying and to heal lesser forms of erosion.

More than half of the commercial forest area is unprotected from
fire and an average of 865,944 acres of this area, largely in long leaf
pine, was burned over annually during the years 1926 to 1930 inclu-
sive. These ground fires, usually set by livestock owners during the
winter season, destroy the forest litter and are so frequent as to pre-
vent the accumulation of duff and other surface debris, thereby les-
sening the protective efficiency of the forest cover.

In the Edwards Plateau and " cross- timber" regions of west
central Texas the predominant cover consists of scrub oaks, juniper,
elm, hackberry, and other species, except along the water courses,
where elm, cottonwood, sycamore, and other water-demanding
species tend toward luxuriant growth. Toward the west, the scrub
species give way to mesquite and shrubs which merge into the grass-
land of the prairies and high plains of western Texas.

The scrub forests of the plateau region are seldom cut extensively,
although they are an important source of firewood, fence posts, and
other products for local use. The heaviest inroads have been made in
the cedar stands. The scrub oak and juniper stands as a rule do not
form a continuous forest but often occur as scattering woodland inter-
spersed by areas of grassland which, particularly those in the western
portion of the plateau, furnish range for large herds of livestock.
Heavy and unregulated grazing, the rather thin soils of the region,
and the lack of adequate rainfall all combine to keep ground cover in a
rather depleted condition. Bray 34 describes the transition from former
prairie to scrub-oak woodland that has occurred in this region as the
result of overgrazing and a decrease in the number of fires. ^ He also
cites the spread of mesquite and shrubs over cattle country in central
Texas.

According to Bray, fires have become relatively infrequent through-
out the Edwards Plateau since settlement of the country, but during
dry seasons they occasionally do considerable damage to juniper
stands.

RELATION TO WATERSHED PROBLEM

Experimental studies carried out in northern Mississippi by the
Forest Service point to the influence of similar forest cover on the
west Gulf drainages in preventing surface run-off and regulating
stream flow. Data obtained in 1932 in the upland watersheds of the
Yazoo River during a flood period show that less than 0.5 percent of
27 inches of ram falling on an undisturbed oak forest ran off the surface
while 62 percent ran off a cultivated field. Other data obtained in
May 1930 by the United States Bureau of Chemistry and Soils in the
fringe forests of Oklahoma show that surface run-off from burned

3< Bray, W. L. The Timber of the Edwards Plateau of Texas. U.S. Dept. Agr. Forestry Bui. 49, 1904,

364 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

scrub-oak woodland was 110 times that from a comparable unburned
area. In the light of these studies it would seem that similar forest
in the west Gulf Basin would exercise a like influence.

Of the total forest area of some 37 million acres, about 3 million
acres is classed as exerting a major influence on watersheds (fig. 6).
In east Texas the highly protective forests consist of rather well-
stocked stands made up mostly of shortleaf pine and mixed oaks and
other hardwoods. They occur on hilly portions of the upper coastal
plain where the heavy and rather erosive clay soils and hilly topog-
raphy tend to limit the absorption of rainfall and make for a high
run-off ratio. Approximately 2 million acres of this protection class
occurs in the Sabine and Trinity drainages. In west Texas the forest
exerting a major protection influence is the sparse woodland largely
in the Breaks region where a cover is essential to stable soils and to
decreased flood run-off. It is felt that if more were known of this
region, a much larger area would be classed as having a major
influence.

Roughly, 21 million acres of forest are classed as having a moderate
influence on watersheds. This class includes not only the well-
stocked stands of pine-hardwoods in the coastal plain portion of the
Trinity and Sabine drainages but also the more extensive scrub oak
forests of central Texas.

About 11 million acres of forest in regions of mild topography
where the soils are little subject to erosion and surface drainage is not
excessive are classed as having only a slight influence on watersheds.
They occur in the lower portions of the main drainages, i.e., in the
interior flatwoods, coastal prairies, and the more level portions of the
upper coastal plain. Another 2 million acres of forest located on
alluvial bottom lands are classed as having no influence on watersheds,
though some of them are beneficial in holding the stream banks against
erosion.

WATERSHED NEEDS

In general, watershed conditions throughout the West Gulf Basin
are far from satisfactory. The prevalence of floods, the inadequacy
of water supplies in certain sections, and the extent of erosion all
indicate that present vegetative cover is not adequate. The forests
are too open, litter is absent, the forest is returning but slowly to
denuded lands, and the ground coverts badly depleted.

Of the forestry measures aimed at improving watershed conditions
it appears probable that the establishment of new forests will play a
minor part. The data collected by the Forest Service in 1932 indicate
that of approximately 2,775,000 acres of abandoned fields in the
eastern half of the region where climatic conditions permit the growing
of commercial forests, about 1,250,000 acres are seriously eroding.
However, a very large part of this land is in the upper coastal plain
where, given protection, tree reproduction and other native vegetation
can be depended on to reclothe the land rather quickly and to check
erosion within a few years. Reforestation is needed, however, on
about 250,000 acres of badly eroded land. On the remaining aban-
doned lands some kind of vegetation has already become established.
This is serving to hold the soil and, if protected from fire, a forest
will gradually take poese&sdon and develop more favorable conditions
of stream flow.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 365

Improving present forest cover, however, offers a considerable
opportunity for combating the watershed problems of portions of the
basin. Fire protection on some 8 . million acres of unprotected
commercial forests would promote the accumulation of forest litter
and other ground cover. The extensive scrub forests of central
Texas and of the " Breaks" region are, however, in greatest need of
improvement. Here fire protection and probably less cutting would
do much to encourage scrub oak, mesquite, and other chaparral
species. A number of authorities have commented on the deleterious
effects of the heavy grazing in this region as contributing to the deple-
tion of the original grass cover. Proper management of livestock to
prevent overgrazing, therefore, appears to be the outstanding require-
ment for improved watershed protection.

In view of the fact that most of this land is in private ownership
and that the private owners probably will be financially unable to
adopt those corrective measures for the eroded abandoned land which
will make for the control of erosion and favorable conditions of
stream flow, public ownership appears needed. This ownership should
include about 2,300,000 acres of land in those parts of the region
where watershed conditions are most critical and where the forest
cover exerts a major influence. This would mean about 400,000
acres of abandoned agricultural land and about 1,900,000 acres of
forest land. However, as cover conditions and watershed relation-
ships in the West Gulf drainages are imperfectly known, it is more
than likely that a much larger area should be in the hands of the
public. The lack of specific information as to erosion-control methods
indicates that investigations are needed and that these are particularly
necessary in the " Breaks " region.

ST. LAWRENCE RIVER BASIN

The St. Lawrence River (or Great Lakes) drainage in the United
States amounts to nearly 85 million acres, of which about 50 percent
is forest land. The western portion of this basin is shown in the map
of the upper Mississippi River Basin, figure 7 ; the eastern is shown
with the northeastern drainages in figure 3. The forest areas of the
basin are classified according to watershed-protective influence as
follows: Major influence, 5,029,000 acres; moderate influence, 4,112,-
000 acres; slight or no influence, 33,105,000 acres.

The relative slightness of forest influence on watersheds in this
drainage is more marked in the western half than in the eastern. It
is due largely to the fact that much of the St. Lawrence drainage has
been heavily glaciated and that large parts of it, particularly in the
west, are without marked topographic relief. Throughout many
parts of the drainage occur the gravelly and sandy hills and rolling
lands typical of glaciated regions. Extensive areas of outwash plains
occur, the sandy soils of which are highly absorptive.

The comparative uniformity of the water level in the Great Lakes
is due to the very large areas of water and of absorptive soil surface
in the drainage rather than to the influence of forest cover. Water
supplies are ample. On certain areas in the drainage, however, from
a watershed standpoint, a forest cover is necessary.

366 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

DUNE LANDS

Dunes occupy only a narrow strip of land along the eastern shore of
the Great Lakes. In many places the width of this strip is scarcely
half a mile; in some it is as much as 10 miles. The area involved is
probably not more than 125,000 acres. Locally, however, the dunes
do considerable harm. As they migrate eastward under the pre-
vailing westerly winds they become a constantly increasing menace
to tillable lands and to improvements. They have invaded factory
yards in Gary, Ind., and have repeatedly encroached upon railroads
and highways.

Usually a scattered stand of oaks or a low, shrubby vegetation occurs
on the dunes. Where this cover is complete, it holds the sand in place.
Cutting, fire, and trampling by recreationists have' so deteriorated the
cover that many of the dunes, formerly stable, are now in motion.

A problem akin to that of the shore dunes has developed in New
York west of the Adirondack Mountains. As a result of cultivation
the top soil has eroded away, exposing fine sand. Unless held in place
by a plant cover, this sand moves easily with the wind and in places
forms inland dunes. The uncovering of this sand and its movement
have led to abandonment of agricultural land which according to
census data has caused the area of crop land in these counties to
decrease by from 10 to 20 percent. Undoubtedly this condition has
been responsible for a considerable part of the farm-land abandon-
ment in St. Lawrence, Lewis, Oswego, and Jefferson Counties. In an
effort to control this soil movement the State of New York has pur-
chased many abandoned farms and is reforesting them.

MOUNTAIN AREAS

The roughest lands in the St. Lawrence drainage are in the Adiron-
dacks and the Green Mountains. Here heavy precipitation, steep
slopes, and heavy soils make for rapid run-off and for erosion from
cleared lands. For the most part these mountains sustain a hardwood
and spruce forest that protects the soil.

On State lands in the Adirondack State Park good coyer condi-
tions are safeguarded by a constitutional prohibition of timber cut-
ting. Areas in private ownership within the park, however, are
subject to cutting. On these the present selective cutting, winter
logging, and infrequent fires disturb the soil but slightly. The land
cut over is soon reclaimed by hardwood sprouts. Poor cover con-
ditions brought about by earlier over cutting and by heavy summer
fires are gradually improving under fire protection. The State plans
to acquire additional lands within the park area.

In the Green Mountains, with their more rolling terrain, a larger
area has been brought under cultivation than in the Adirondacks.
Abandonment of cultivated lands is common, owing in part to sheet
erosion of the heavy soils. In the hardwood stands logging and
other disturbances are not destructive. Much of the cutting is done
by farmers in the winter, the fire hazard is low except for dry grass in
abandoned fields, and there is little grazing on forest lands. On no
class of forest land does the forest cover have difficulty in reestab-
lishing itself except on abandoned agricultural land.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 367

OTHER AREAS

Elsewhere in the St. Lawrence drainage, rather localized problems
exist. In the drainage to Lake Ontario in New York and to Lake
Erie in northeastern Ohio, erosion is taking place on cultivated lands
and local floods occasionally do damage. On areas that have not been
cleared for agriculture, the cover is usually sufficient to hold the soil
and to maintain favorable conditions of water flow. Cutting has little
disturbing effect on the cover, because of the sprouting capacity of the
hardwoods, and serious fires and extensive overgrazing are in general
absent. On abandoned farm lands the forest has great difficulty in
reestablishing itself naturally.

The most wide-spread type of erosion, although probably the least
recognized, is slow sheet erosion on the soils of the Volusia series.
This is particularly severe on the cleared hill lands of western New
York, and is common also in northeastern Ohio. Studies by Pro-
fessor Barren and associated pasture specialists, of Cornell Univesity,
indicate that on these soils sheet erosion, acting since the land was
first cleared, is an important factor in decreasing soil fertility and lead-
ing to land abandonment. On many hill farms sheet erosion mani-
fests itself in an increasingly stony condition of the surface as the finer
top soil is gradually washed away. In extreme cases the surface soil
of the steeper slopes, largely in pastures, becomes too shallow for
further cultivation.

In a study made by G. R. Stewart at Cornell University, the perme-
ability of fertile hardwood forest soil was compared with that of run-
down pastures on the same soil types. The forest soils were found
to be more permeable to water and more retentive of water. All grass
lands compared with the best forest soil showed a poorer physical
condition. The greatest difference was shown by the run-down
poverty-grass pastures located on the compact Volusia soils. Here
water passed into the soil very slowly. It is on such compact soils
that much farm abandonment occurs. Census data show marked
decline in the past two decades in the crop land of Ashtabula, Geauga,
Trumbull, Summit, and other counties in Ohio, in Erie and Crawford
Counties in Pennsylvania, and Chautauqua County in New York.
Compact soils are general in these counties.

Another type of erosion on agricultural lands takes place on the
deeper soils. This consists of sudden breaks or gullies that may form
in a few days' time when the top soil is fairly well saturated with
water, as in the early spring. It is especially marked on the steeper
hillsides. This more serious erosion, according to Professor Barron,
probably grows out of sheet erosion and a decrease in the fertility of
the soil. It is reflected in a poor growth of grass in the spring. The
thin sod is easily broken by cattle and a small gully, once formed,
grows rapidly. Such gullying was found by the Northeastern Forest
Experiment Station to be not at all uncommon in the Genesee River
Valley, from the headwaters of the river to the lower levels adjacent to
Conesus Lake. Gullies of this type combine and grow steadily in each
season of heavy rainfall. A decline of from 15 to 20 percent in crop
land, reflecting this situation, is shown by census data for such New
York counties as Genesee, Wyoming, Cattaraugus, and Allegheny.
New York State has taken a positive step toward bettering conditions
on eroded lands by acquiring and reforesting such lands. New York

368 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

municipalities, also, have acquired lands on the watersheds from which
they obtain their water supplies and planted them with trees. At
the rate at which public ownership and management are now progres-
sing, however, many years would be required to bring about good
forest cover conditions on all the abandoned agricultural lands in this
drainage that have watershed-protection value.

In the western part of the St. Lawrence drainage, although forest
depletion is extensive, no serious erosion or watershed troubles have
been reported. In the upper peninsula of Michigan and along the
north shore of Lake Superior a complete forest cover prevents erosion.
Here the slopes are steeper than in many other sections of the Great
Lakes region and deforestation would lead to rapid run-off and severe
erosion.

SUMMARY

Although the forest lands of the St. Lawrence drainage, except in
the Adirondack State Park, are in poor shape from the standpoint of
commercial forestry, because of cutting and fire in the past, yet these
forest lands are not in a serious condition from the standpoint of water-
shed protection. Some areas, such as the sand dunes, will require
special treatment if erosion is to be stopped, but in general rather
simple measures of forest management and fire control will meet the
objectives of watershed protection. Estimates indicate that about
500,000 acres are in need of planting, and about 50,000 acres are in
need of some special form of treatment to help stabilize the soil.

The present survey of existing conditions shows that in the region of
major influence, an additional area of about 1 million acres should be
in some form of public ownership. About 300,000 acres of the total
are the abandoned agricultural lands, and 700,000 acres are other forest
lands. Just what form this ownership should take, whether national,
State, or local, depends upon the interest and ability of the agency
involved.

HUDSON BAY DRAINAGES

The drainage to Hudson Bay includes some 40,000 square miles of
land in northern Minnesota and North and South Dakota, practically
all of which is drained by the Red River of the North and its tributaries
(fig. 10). The Red River is a lazy, meandering prairie stream that
winds through a broad agricultural valley, the terrain of which is
without notable relief.

About 25 percent of the Hudson Bay drainage can be considered
forest land. By far the larger part of this is in Minnesota, where the
prairie transition forest appears at a distance of from 30 to 50 miles
from the river, on the first important rise of ground. The outer fringe
of the transition forest is of bur oak and associated prairie tree species.
At greater distances from the river occur swamp forests, once
principally of spruce. By reason of cutting and fires, the spruce
has largely given way to aspen. Not much pine is present except
on the better-drained soils toward the eastern edge of the drainage.
Open oak forests again appear on the Pembina and Turtle Mountains
in North Dakota, on the international boundary. On the sandier
soils of North Dakota, such as the uplands about Devils Lake, and
along the streams, occur some severely culled small forests.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 369

The small quantity of forest along the stream courses and the small
scattered areas of upland forest in North Dakota are insufficient to
have much effect on the flow of the Red River. They are important
in preventing erosion. Some erosion has followed cutting on the
Pembina and Turtle Mountains in North Dakota, but it is of little
consequence except very locally. Recreational use, which would pre-
serve watershed values, might conceivably be the best use for this hill
land, because of the absence of nearby recreation areas on the Ameri-
can side and because the Canadian half of the Turtle Mountains is
managed for recreation.

Some of the spruce forest swamp areas in Minnesota have been
drained for agricultural use, but increasing abandonment of cleared
lands indicates that these areas are probably submarginal for agricul-
ture. As the ditches become clogged following disuse, the forest is
gradually taking possession again.

In the Red River Valley windbreaks and shelterbelts have been
planted about farm buildings. Their aggregate area is not large, and
they have little, if any, bearing on stream conditions. Further tree
planting, desirable from the standpoint of farm comfort, would have
little if any effect upon the streams.

UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN

The upper Mississippi River Basin is that portion of the area
north of the Ohio that drains into the main river. It includes some
15 percent of the entire Mississippi drainage system. It is divided
roughly in two by a line running in a northwest and southeast direc-
tion through Minnesota approximately at St. Paul and so continuing
through Wisconsin. In the present discussion the two divisions will
be referred to as the northern or heavily glaciated area and the
southern or silt loam uplands area.

Both areas have been severely glaciated, first by ice sheets that
extended as far south as the Missouri and Ohio Rivers and later by
the Wisconsin stages, which reached central and southeastern Wis-
consin and central Minnesota. The earlier glacial soils are largely
till, in which clays predominate. Silt loams are common in the old
lake beds. The Wisconsin advance was so recent that the topography,
drainage, and soils of the deposit have been but little modified. Con-
sequently sands and gravels predominate, although clay deposits
have covered some of the sand. In the older glaciation, the land is
for the most part level or gently rolling. In the northern area are
pronounced moraines and drumlins, some of them sufficiently promi-
nent to form the divides between such Wisconsin rivers as the
Chippewa, Black, Wisconsin, and St. Croix.

On the areas more recently glaciated the sandy soils support a
pine forest and the heavier soils support har4wood stands in which
beech, maple, elm, and ash are common. The swamps, some of which
are of considerable size, contain spruce, fir, cedar, and tamarack.
The heavier soils of the older glaciation having weathered and
leached more, support oaks, hickories, walnuts, and other typical
upland species.

A small area escaped glaciation. This driftless area lies chiefly
in southwestern Wisconsin, and extends into Illinois, Iowa, and
Minnesota. Here the deep soils, derived from parent rock, are highly

370 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

erosible. This old plain was thoroughly dissected by normal erosion
probably even before the advance of the ice on neighboring areas.

Deposits of loess are a distinctive feature of the upper Mississippi
Basin. These are found f or ^the most part east of the Mississippi
River, though extensive deposits are found also in Iowa and Missouri.
The loess is thick about the terminals of the ice sheets in northeastern
Iowa and southern Illinois. Away from these borders it thins out on
interstream areas, although it retains its thickness along the larger
valleys. It occurs commonly on bluffs immediately overlooking the
valleys. Under a vegetative cover it is very porous and absorptive.
On this loess soil oaks and other upland species predominate.

These physiographic features are largely responsible for the water-
shed-protective classification given the forest area of the upper
Mississippi River Basin. Of the total 28 million acres only slightly
more than 10 million acres is classed as having a considerable measure
of influence upon watershed conditions. The lands so classed occur
principally in the southern half of the basin, on loess areas and drift-
less areas and in the uplands of the older glaciation. In the northern
division, the areas of greatest influence upon watershed conditions
lie in the large moraines at the head of the Chippewa River. Some
5,700,000 acres of forest is classed as having a major watershed-
protective influence, and 4,430,000 acres as having a moderate
influence. The remaining area is considered to have relatively slight
influence largely because of the absorptive nature of the soil and the
presence of numerous lakes and swamps. The areas ascribed to each
class are shown in figure 7.

The average annual precipitation totals 25 to 30 inches in Minne-
sota, 30 to 35 inches over the Wisconsin portion of the basin, and more
than 35 inches in some parts of Illinois. Most of the precipitation
occurs during the spring and summer months. Snowfall averages
between 40 and 60 inches in the north, and from 20 to 30 inches in the
south. Rainfall of more than 1 inch in 24 hours sometimes occurs
four times in a single year in the northern part. In the southern part,
24-hour rainfall exceeds 1 inch still more frequently, exceeds 2 inches
as often as once a year, and has been known to total 4 inches.

Local floods are not uncommon. In the north, "freshets" rather
than major floods occur. Occasionally severe floods occur in the
southern streams as a result of rapid snow melt. The high percentage
of cleared land is a factor in these floods, because so much of the culti-
vated land is without a cover crop during early spring.

HEAVILY GLACIATED REGION

In the heavily glaciated region the character of the terrain and
soils makes for low run-off. In much of the region hills are either of
gentle slope or largely of gravel. Outwash sand plains are compara-
tively flat. The sands provide a large absorbing surface, and much
of the land characterized by heavier soils is poorly drained. The
stream-flow regulation effected by the many swamps and lakes is
supplemented by artificial reservoirs.

Forest conditions have greatly changed in the last century. Settle-
ment, which began in the prairies and in the scattered oak forests of
southern Wisconsin, gradually spread northward and westward into
the more densely forested areas. Extensive tracts were cleared and
put into cultivation. Timber cutting followed closely upon agricul-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

371

tural development. So far has the removal of the old-growth timber
progressed that almost any tree that will saw out a board is market-
able.

Cutting has not been solely responsible for the change in the forest
cover; fires have been common and extensive. On the cut-over areas
fires destroyed what timber was left after logging. Fires have occurred
repeatedly on many of the cut-over areas, making conditions even
more unfavorable to future forest growth.

RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
ON WATERSHEDS

MAJOR INFLUENCE
MODERATE INFLUENCE
SLIGHT INFLUENCE

FIGURE 7.— Upper Mississippi River Basin and upper portion of St. Lawrence River Basin.

The conifer forest, destroyed by fire and cutting, has been replaced
by such cover types as sweet fern, brush, aspen, fire cherry, or birch.
On some areas an oak woodland type has developed, and on others with
sandier soil a jack pine woodland has appeared.

Because the soils at the headwaters of the Mississippi are for the
most part very porous, it is possible that even the destruction of the
humus has not materially changed their capacity to absorb and hold
water.

372 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

Although cutting and fire have depleted the hardwood forests,
regrowth has taken place rather promptly. When the mature forest
has been destroyed, coppice and other new growth have taken pos-
session. Hardwood litter helps to increase soil fertility and porosity.
On hardwood areas, particularly in the rather rough country at the
head of the Chippewa River, the forest cover prevents erosion of the
fine soil that would easily be floated away.

SILT LOAM UPLANDS

Only about half the upland area was originally occupied by forests.
The most extensive of these forests were in southwestern Wisconsin and
northwestern Illinois, and in southern Illinois and southeastern
Missouri. The others existed as scattered areas of woodland in the
prairies and in the bottom lands. Toward its western edge the basin
was practically treeless.

Some of the forests were exploited commercially. In the lead
region of northwestern Illinois and in the limestone areas, extensive
fuel-wood cuttings were made. Commercial timber production for
other than local needs prevailed in the bottoms, particularly in south-
ern Illinois. Although fires were a usual concomitant of cutting,
devastation was prevented by the fact that the forests were largely of
hardwoods which sprouted.

In the prairie region, small areas of the scattered original forests
remained as farm woodlands. These have been repeatedly culled and
most of them have been pastured. Culling has left only the poorest
trees, and in many instances pasturage has grown so heavy as to
prevent tree reproduction.

The upland soils were very fertile and very absorptive when first
put under cultivation, because of the accumulations 01 organic matter.
Agriculture gradually exhausted the humic deposits. Sheet erosion
increased as the humus was dissipated. On the hilly lands it soon
developed into small shoestring gullies, and these rapidly grew into
more serious gullies.

Severe gullying took place wherever water collecting on the plateau
lands ran over the bluffs. It has now gone so far that on many hill
lands it prevents the farmers from reaching some of their fields with
farm equipment.

INFLUENCE OF FOREST COVER ON WATERSHED CONDITIONS

Because the silt loam soils of the uplands are eroded so easily when
bare, the forest cover on them is classed as having a major watershed-
protective influence. That a forest cover maintains favorable con-
ditions of water flow on these upland soils is shown by observations
of the Lake States Forest Experiment Station as to run-off from
summer rains in southwestern Wisconsin.35 Data from these in-
vestigations show that the run-off from pastures that have been
cleared, plowed, and seeded, as well as from areas in timothy,
clover, or alfalfa, is approximately the same as that from cultivated
fields. Seeded pastures, because of close cropping, packing of soil,
and slopes generally steeper than those prevailing in fields, were the
largest contributors to run -off.

35 Bates, C. Q., and Zeasman, O. R., Soil Erosion, Wisc.Agri.Expt.Sta.Res.Bul. 99, 1930.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 373

Not only did the timbered lands produce a negligible run-off but
there was no erosion from such areas.

As shown in these investigations, the effectiveness of forest stands
of different densities in holding back run-off on these uplands varies
materially with density of stand and intensity of grazing.

BEHAVIOR OF SMALL STREAMS

Although reliable quantitative measurements on intermittent small
streams are unavailable, field observations indicate that those origi-
nating on field and pasture areas may yield 50 percent or more run-off
from hard rains. Thus a watershed of 100 acres may readily develop
a stream the peak flow of which exceeds 100 second-feet. It would
be virtually impossible for such a flow to be developed by an area
having a complete forest cover.

Of greater interest is the behavior of permanent small streams
draining watersheds so small that the entire area is likely to be
affected by a single local storm. A watershed area of 5,000 acres, for
example, may deliver normally a stream of about 5 second-feet.
Under extreme conditions such a stream may be swollen to 800 or
more times its normal volume, developing a peak flow of 0.8 second-
foot per acre of watershed. On larger watersheds, although under
similar conditions the total flood volume may be proportionately the
same, because of the greater length of stream and greater diversity of
watershed conditions, there is a tendency for the flood to be relatively
more prolonged and for the peak flow to be relatively lower.

The flashy run-off of the small streams is strikingly illustrated by
Gilmore Creek, near Winona, Minn., having a watershed area of
only about 15 square miles, of which about 40 percent has been
cleared and having, under normal conditions, a discharge of 10 second-
feet. During August 1932 the discharge of this stream rose in 2
hours to nearly 5,000 second-feet, sweeping everything in its path,
including finally the concrete weir at which the discharge was meas-
ured. Such phenomena have not been infrequent in the history of
this stream since the advent of agriculture.

SILT LOADS OF STREAMS

According to conservative estimates by the Lake States Forest
Experiment Station based on sampling, the Wisconsin River carries
2 million cubic yards of silt, despite the fact that some of the load
from the upper three fourths of its drainage now settles above power
dams. A proportionate silt contribution from the Black River, on
which conditions are similar, would probably be about 1 million cubic
yards annually.

The smaller streams that rise within the unglaciated area are like-
wise heavily loaded with silt. Their contributions of water may
never be large enough to affect appreciably the flow of the Mississippi,
but they bring silt loads entirely disproportionate to their water
discharges. Temporary streams that empty directly into the Mis-
sissippi often carry 5 to 10 percent of solid matter. Larger and
more permanent streams such as the Buffalo River sometimes carry
5 percent of silt to their outlets.

374 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

EROSION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS

Soil surveys recently made in the Central States by various State
agencies have revealed some 17 million acres of badly eroded agri-
cultural land on which the continuance of agriculture is at least doubt-
ful under present conditions. Of this total something like 6 or 7
million acres lies in the upper Mississippi River drainage. On these
lands farm abandonment is progressing.

The widespread occurrence of erosion is indicated by figure 8, based
on data of the Illinois Soil Survey, which shows the extent and dis-
tribution of lands "destructively" and " seriously " eroded in Illinois.
The field work which this map represents included sampling of every
10 acres. " Destructively eroded" areas are defined by Dr. A. E.
Norton, assistant chief of the Illinois State Soil Survey, as "areas
which cannot be cultivated by any practical known means at a profit
because they erode faster than it is possible to build up the soil.
* * *. Within this division there are areas suitable for pasturing,
orcharding, and timbering. The percentage of the first two is rela-
tively small in comparison with that suitable for timbering only."
Dr. Norton defines "seriously eroded" lands as "areas which can
be cultivated by specialized methods for profit. Certain treatment,
such as terracing and the application of readily available organic
matter, must be given the land before it can be cultivated. No
doubt much of it could best be utilized in forests until such time as
there is a greater demand for cultivated crops than at present." The
Illinois Soil Survey recognizes a third class of eroded land: Harm-
fully eroded areas are subject to sheet erosion. Unless the methods
of agriculture are changed in the future, "this area will some day
fall in the destructive erosion division." Land of this class is not
indicated on the map. The survey data show some 3 million acres
of destructively eroding land, 3 million acres of seriously eroding land,
and 12}£ million acres of harmfully eroded land.

State soils specialists and State foresters have estimated that be-
tween 50 and 75 percent of the more severely eroded land in the upper
Mississippi River basin has already been abandoned. Much of this
land is almost completely denuded.

According to the results of investigations made by the Missouri
Agricultural Experiment Station on loamy soils continuously in corn,
a 7-inch layer of soil is removed in 49 years from tilled land that slopes
4 feet in 100. This is at the rate of 20.5 tons of soil per acre per year.
It is possible that even greater soil losses have occurred on areas of
loess soil such as those in southern Illinois.

In the driftless area, dairying has been extensively developed.
There is every reason to believe that it has been overdeveloped. Too
much land has been cleared, too large an area has been put into crops
and pasture, too much trampling has taken place. Consequently
gullying is making it impossible for the industry to continue on its
present scale. Although only about one third of the total area
cleared is being cultivated, areas under cultivation include much land
with grades exceeding 20 percent and occasional slopes with grades
of 35 percent. On such slopes erosion, if once started, proceeds
rapidly. In Europe, slopes with grades of more than 15 percent are
considered unsuitable for cropping. In this country the same belief
has long been held by foresters and is coming to be entertained by
agriculturists and soils experts.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

375

GULLYING ON CLEARED LANDS

In 1929, the Lake States Forest Experiment Station made a
field examination to determine the number and extent of the active

EXTENT OF
EROSION

More -than 75%
SI -75%

---- II -25

FIGURE 8.— Map of Illinois prepared from data of the Illinois Soil Survey, showing the percentages of
county areas affected by erosion of a "serious" and a "destructive" nature combined. (See text for
definition of classification.)

gullies in Buffalo County, in southwestern Wisconsin, an area of
about 50,000 acres containing the river terrace land along many

J 68342°— 33— vol. 1 g".

376 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

miles of the Buffalo River and some such land on tributary streams.
From the 170 gullies individually mapped had been removed 3,247,000
cubic yards of soil, or an average per gully of some 20,000 cubic
yards. Since on the average these gullies have been active for about
10 years, erosion is removing annually from this small area approxi-
mately 300,000 cubic yards of soil, or about 4,000 cubic yards per
square mile. With more than 100 square miles in the watershed under
cultivation, it is estimated that the average annual silt load of the
Buffalo River may total as much as a million cubic yards.

On the adjoining Black River there is no large area where gullying
is so prevalent, but some gullies of enormous size have formed in the
deep and wide terrace, mostly concentrated in one locality of about
8 square miles. A single one of these gullies has, in about 15 years,
dumped directly into the Black River slightly more than a million
cubic yards of coarse and fine material. Examination of the drainage
revealed 31 active gullies. The volume of soil removed amounted
to some 3,850,000 cubic yards, or an average of about 125,000 cubic
yards per gully.

Similar conditions exist on loess areas in various places along the
upper Mississippi Kiver, as in Calhoun and other counties in southern
Illinois.

The fact that so much of the land in the silt loam uplands is being
eroded, that the eroded material is dumped so promptly into the
Mississippi, and that all run-off from this area is so closely related to
the floods in the lower river make this situation one of the really
critical national problems. Plans have been proposed for a gigantic
waterway system linking the Great Lakes with the Gulf. Because of
the excessive erosion now taking place, exceedingly costly dredging
would be necessary to construct and to maintain this channel. The
silt brought down by streams into the upper portion of the river is
creating difficulties for the present 9-foot navigation channel in the
upper part of the river.

GULLYING OF BLUFFS

In addition to sheet erosion and the deep gullying of terrace soils a
type of erosion independent of the character of cover occurs on the
uncultivated bluff area, induced solely by run-off from the cultivated
or pastured ground above. Such run-off is often diverted from natural
channels to some artificial channel over the bluff. Even though it
left the fields without picking up a heavy load of soil, it is capable
of causing immense destruction as it passes over the steep rocky
slopes, cutting away the loose residual soil mass, undermining and
uprooting trees, and eventually, in extreme cases, causing landslides.
Coarse detritus deposited by these streams in the valleys often ruins
tillable land, and the torrent of water often destroys roads, bridges,
and other improvements.

MEASURES NEEDED FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION

To prevent erosion on a private property in the upper Mississippi
River Basin is often beyond the power of the owner. Effective
control can be brought about only through the initiative and partici-
pation of governmental agencies. Great as is the local interest of
various public agencies, such as the States and counties in these

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 377

erosion problems of the upper Mississippi Basin, it is far exceeded by
the Federal interest. Nowhere do conditions at the " headwaters of
navigable streams" have a more direct and crucial bearing upon
Mississippi River problems than in these uplands of Wisconsin,
Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. In few other portions of
the United States do erosion conditions approach the seriousness of
those of the silt-loam uplands of the Mississippi. The conditions
existing on certain eastern mountain areas prior to their purchase for
national-forest purposes do not compare with those that now exist
on these uplands.

A public acquisition policy is needed. The purpose of such a policy
would be first to acquire the more critical areas, plant or otherwise
revegetate them, and place them under the form of management
that would most quickly develop a full protective cover. Altogether
something like 7 million acres in all should be brought into public
ownership, including probably 2}£ million acres of abandoned farm
lands.

Public acquisition would be very difficult. The land involved is
held by many small owners, and parts of it are still sufficiently pro-
ductive that high prices would be asked. The urgency of the situa-
tion, however, should prevent these factors from acting as a deterrent.
Could sums equal to those that are annually expended for dredging
and stream improvement in the upper Mississippi Basin be spent in
acquiring eroded land and reconditioning it, the need of continuing
this dredging would be largely eliminated.

Planting would be required on at least one third of the eroded
abandoned farm lands. This reclamation would be difficult at best;
not only has cultivation changed the structure of the topsoil but the
subsoil has been exposed over large areas. Investigations are needed
to determine what methods of planting should be used.

It would seem desirable to require that on slopes, the grade of
which exceeds 10 or 15 percent, a forest cover be restored and main-
tained.

Special measures of erosion control are needed to reclaim at least
250,000 acres of the most severely gullied land. These would include
the use of check dams, soil-saving dams, contouring and ditching,
and similar devices. Research is necessary to determine where each
of these devices is needed. If erosion proceeds much further, still
greater works will be necessary, and over a very much larger area.
• Additional fire protection, so badly needed elsewhere, is not
urgently required in this basin. Most of the States have very
largely attained the objectives set up in the section of this report
entitled " Protection Against Fire."

SUMMARY

In the heavily glaciated portion of the upper Mississippi River
Basin watershed conditions are not bad. The forest cover, while
helpful, is of relatively little consequence in watershed protection
because of the absorptive character of the soils, the large areas of
swamps, and the relatively level terrain. Only at the very head of
the Chippewa River is there any outstanding need for protection
forests. Here a forest area of about a million acres should be managed
for watershed protection. Because of the very great influence of this

378 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

basin on Mississippi floods, the Federal interest predominates.
Good fire control and simple forestry measures will maintain good
watershed conditions.

In the uplands portion of the basin, erosion due to farming and
pasturage has affected very large areas and is contributing greatly
to land abandonment. The eroded soil is being sluiced into the
Mississippi River, constituting an added load to a stream that is
notorious for the frequent shifts of its channel and for its sand bars
and shoals, and necessitating heavy expenditures for dredging to
maintain a navigable channel. Abnormal surface run-off, increased
by cultivation, swells the flood crests.

The extensive erosion that is now taking place on the silt uplands
calls for definite action. One step would be to prohibit clearing of
slopes the grades of which exceed 15 percent and to reforest slopes of
this grade that have been used for agriculture. Another would be to
reduce pasturage on slopes. Action of this kind would call either for
public regulation of forest land or for public ownership of something
like 7 million acres of land. The Federal aspects of the problem are
far more important than the local aspects.

Possibly a half million acres should be planted in order to insure
prompt control of erosion and betterment of conditions. Planting
alone, however, will not hold the soil where great gullies have formed ;
the correction of such gullies will require check dams, soil-saving
dams, seeding to grasses and weeds as a temporary aid to forest
planting, and correction of stream channels. Such extra work will
be required on 250,000 acres of the most severely eroded land.

THE OHIO RIVER BASIN

The Ohio and its tributaries compose one of the most important
watersheds in the United States. Although its area of 203,782 square
miles is only 16.5 percent of the whole Mississippi River system, the
Ohio and lower Mississippi alone can produce a great flood without
assistance from the upper Mississippi River or the other tributaries,
the latter usually being in moderate flow when the two greater rivers
are in flood. 36 The Ohio is the largest eastern tributary of the
Mississippi, and contributes on the average 300,000 second-feet to
the flow of the greater river. Within its borders about 17,600,000

Eeople or 14.3 percent of our population reside. The region contains
ne farm lands, great natural resources, industrial cities, and good
markets. The boundaries of the Ohio River Basin in relation to the
portions of 14 States which it drains are shown in figure 9.

TOPOGRAPHY

Wide extremes of surface are exhibited by the Ohio River Basin.
In the northern and northwestern portions, level to gently rolling
agricultural lands predominate on the drainages of the Wabash,
Miami, and Scioto Rivers. The elevation varies from about 300 feet
in the Wabash bottoms and 800 feet in eastern Illinois to 1,000 to
1,200 feet above sea level in Ohio. South of these level to rolling
lands, although the general elevation does not gain, the country be-

«« Frankenfield, H. C., 1923— The Spring Floods of 1922. Monthly Weather Review Supplement No.
22, p. 5.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

379

comes more broken and hilly and differences in elevation of 100 to
300 feet in rather short distances are common. Along the Ohio River
itself, steep bluffs and highly dissected topography are found from
Pittsburgh down to about 50 miles below Louisville, Ky. Within the
bluegrass country of Kentucky and the central basin of Tennessee the
surface is rolling, but both of these localities are enclosed by rims of
higher steep hilly land called the Knobs in Kentucky and the High-
land Rim in Tennessee. In the southwestern portion of the basin,

iELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
ON WATERSHEDS

MAJOR INFLUENCE
MODERATE INFLUENCE
SLIGHT INFLUENCE.

FIGURE 9.— Ohio River Basin.

on the low^er stretches of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, roll-
ing to hilly land is found which in places is comparatively rough.

The southeastern and eastern portions of the Ohio Basin are
decidedly mountainous in character. They include three distinct
provinces, the Blue Ridge, the Appalachian Valley, and the Appa-
lachian Plateau. The Appalachian Valley separates the other two
provinces and drains to the southwest as part of the Tennessee River
Basin. Within the valley are found long parallel steep-sided moun-
tainous ridges. The Appalachian Plateau to the west includes the
Cumberland Plateau of eastern Tennessee and Kentucky and the
Allegheny Plateau north of the Kanawha River in West Virginia and
Pennsylvania.

380 A KATIONAL PLAtf FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

Within the Cumberland Plateau, the Cumberland, Kentucky, Big
Sandy, and Tennessee Rivers have carved out topography of a highly
dissected and mountainous character. Slopes are steep, and ridge
tops reach elevations of 4,000 feet. To the northeast the Kanawha,
Monongahela, and Allegheny Rivers have dissected the Allegheny
Plateau in similar fashion, but the elevations reach only to about
3,200 feet in Pennsylvania. The Blue Ridge in eastern Tennessee
and North Carolina attains the highest elevations east of the Rocky
Mountains. From a base of about 1,600 feet in the Appalachian
Valley, the Ridge rises to high mountainous country containing some
40 peaks over 6,000 feet in elevation the highest of which, Mount
Mitchell, is 6,684 feet. Farther north in Virginia, the Blue Ridge
reaches an elevation of about 4,000 feet.

SOILS

In the more level northern and northwestern portions of the Ohio
River Basin, the soils are of glacial origin. They are derived from
glacial flour and drift resulting from the grinding of limestones,
shales, and sandstones. For the most part they include loams, silt
loams, and loamy clays, but in places rather light sandy soils are
found. They have not developed the porosity characteristic of much
older soils.

Most of the rest of the basin contains residual soils formed in place
by the weathering of underlying rock formations. Exceptions are the
alluvial soils along stream bottoms and river benches, and certain
areas of loessial soil in western Kentucky, southern Illinois, and adja-
cent Indiana and Ohio, along the lower portions of the Wabash, Ohio,
and Tennessee Rivers. Large areas of weathered clays, loams, and
sandy loams in the hilly and Appalachian Plateau provinces have
been derived from shales, limestones, and sandstones. In the blue-
grass country of Kentucky and the central basin of Tennessee, the
soils are derived from limestone. In the Blue Ridge province the
soils are derived from granites, gneisses, schists, and other crystalline
rocks which upon disintegration yield light-textured soils. The
Appalachian Valley contains soils derived in large part from limestone.

PRECIPITATION 37

The average annual precipitation varies from 35-40 inches on the
minor drainages north of the Ohio River to 60-70 inches in the Blue
Ridge headwaters of the Tennessee River. Throughout most of the
lower hilly portion of the basin in Tennessee, Kentucky, and West
Virginia the annual rainfall frequently reaches 45-50 inches. Ex-
tremes of recorded precipitation range from 19 inches in Illinois to as
high as 120 inches in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

A relatively small part of the total precipitation comes as snow.
The heaviest average annual snowfall, approximately 80 inches,
occurs on the headwaters of the Monongahela and Kanawha Rivers.
The lowest snowfall is found in the Tennessee River Basin. The
average fall of snow north of the Ohio River is about 25 inches.

As a rule, precipitation is well distributed throughout the year,
with heavier monthly averages from December to March or April,

" Precipitation records cited are taken from Precipitation and Humidity, by J. B. Kincer, U.S. Dept.
Agr. Atlas of Amer. Agr. pt. II, A. 1922.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 381

and lighter averages during autumn. Exceptionally heavy precipi-
tation has been experienced in many localities in the basin. Sudden
downpours of the " cloudburst" type have been recorded frequently
on the higher and mountainous portions of the basin. Concentrated
heavy rains covering most of the Ohio Basin have been experienced.
During the 4 days, March 23-27, 1913, storms brought from 1.4 to
11.1 inches of rain to various portions of this basin.

WATERSHED PROBLEMS
FLOODS

Floods are a recurring event for the population living in communities
along the major river and on portions of its tributaries. Speaking of
the Ohio River in 1913, Horton and Jackson 38 state than in no year
since 1873 has the Ohio River failed, at some point along its course, to
overflow its banks and flood large areas of adjoining bottom lands, in
some years flooding as many as five times. King 39 recites the dis-
asters on the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins which have
come in 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1929, and shows that the Cum-
berland River at Nashville has been in flood 73 times since 1874, or
an average of more than once every year.

The primary natural cause of floods in this basin is either concen-
trated and excessive rainfall over a period of a few hours time, as in
the floods of March- April 1907, and of 1913, or, in the northern part
of the basin, the unfortunate combination of frozen ground followed
by snowfall and warm rains, a condition which was responsible, accord-
ing to Horton and Jackson, for the 1884 flood.

Among man-made causes, Horton and Jackson list the failure of
reservoirs, the breaking of levees, and the constricting of stream and
river channels by buildings, factories, abutments, grades, and the
like. A fundamental man-made cause of floods, not stressed by these
writers, but second only in importance to concentrated rainfall, is
deforestation and the disturbance or destruction of soil cover.

The damages which can be charged against floods run into very
high totals. Horton and Jackson estimate the damage in the Ohio
Valley from the 1913 flood as more than $180,000,000. Of this, it is
estimated that Dayton, Ohio, received damage amounting to $100,-
000,000. Four hundred lives were reported lost. In the same
deluge, Columbus, Ohio, lost 3 bridges, more than 4,000 dwellings
were inundated, 20,000 people homeless, and 100 lives lost. A review
of damages as reported in the Monthly Weather Review indicates that
the annual losses from floods in the Ohio Valley have averaged about
$4,600,000 for the period 1920-32, exclusive of 1925 and 1931. In
Tennessee it is estimated that in the years 1926 to 1930 floods brought
losses of $20,000,000, or an average of $4,000,000 a year. The flood
of March 1929 destroyed more than 100 bridges in the Cumberland
Plateau region and middle Tennessee. King estimates conservatively
that floods yearly cost Tennessee $1,000,000.

ss Horton, A. H., and Jackson, H. J. Flood of March-April 1913— The Ohio Valley. U.S.Qeol.
Survey Water Supply Paper 334, 1913.
39 King, W. R. Surface waters of Tennessee. Div. of Geol. Dept. of Educ. Bui. 40, 1931.

382

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In the southern Appalachians, Glenn 40 states, the flood loss during
1910 reached some $18,000,000 and in the following year totaled
about $9,000,000 more.

The Wabash and White River at flood in January 1930 did
$6,862,000 damage (Monthly Weather Review for February 1930).
The Southern Appalachian flood of July 1916 did nearly $22,000,000
damage (Ibid., for August 1916).

Records indicate that floods in the Ohio basin are on the increase.
Leighton 41 shows by his studies on the three' major branches of the
Ohio River above Wheeling, W.Va. (the Allegheny, Youghiogheny,
and Monongahela), for the period 1885-1907, that "a marked
increase in the number of days of floods " is clearly indicated. Table 8
points out the trend in flood increases from 1871 to 1922 in different
portions of the watershed of the Ohio Valley. The agreement of data
by the United States Weather Bureau for Cincinnati, Ohio, with that
for Pittsburgh, Pa., by the flood commissioner, implies that causes
of flood increase are similar on the basins of the Muskingum, Kana-
wha, Scioto, and Big Sandy Rivers to those on the Allegheny and
Monongahela Rivers above Pittsburgh. Ashe 42 has indicated an
increase in number of days of flood on the Ohio River at Wheeling,
W.Va., where the flood stage is 20 feet, from 102 (1838-47) to 220
(1898-1907) and in number of floods from 34 for the early period to
55 for the latter. In the southern part of the drainage on the Cum-
berland River at Burnside, Ky., he notes a similar increase in the
number of floods above the stage of 40 feet (table 8). In the Ten-
nessee River Valley, King anticipates higher flood crests for storms
of the same magnitude than those in the past. It is probable that
the frequency of floods is increasing here as in the eastern por.tion
of the Ohio basin.

TABLE 8. — Trend in number of floods, Ohio River Basin, 1871-1922

Period

Cumber-
land River

Allegheny and Monon-
gahela Rivers

Ohio River

Tennessee
River

At Burn-
side, Ky.i

At Pitts-
burgh, Pa.2

At Pitts-
burgh.Pa.3

At Cincin-
nati, Ohio 3

At John-
sonville,
Tenn.3

1871-75...

Number

Number
2
3
6
8
7
5
11

5 11

Number

}
} »
} '°
}

14

Number
4

7
7

9
12

Number

1876-80

<7
6

3

10

1881-85

1886-90

1891-95

3

8
13

1896-1900

1901-05

1906-10

1911-22

Total

24

53

55

39

26

1 Data by Ashe, W. W., 1905— In Preliminary Report of the Inland Waterways Commission. 60th
Cong., 1st sess. S.Doc. 325, p. 522.

2 Data from Report of Flood Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1911, p. 46.

3 Data from The Spring Floods of 1922, by H. C. Frankenfield, U.S.Dept. of Agr. Mo. Wea. Rev.
Suppl. 22. 1923.

* Includes 1880.

« Includes the floods during January 1911.

<° Glenn, L. C. 1911— Denudation and Erosion in the Southern Appalachian Region. U.S.Geol.Sur.
Prof. Paper 72.

« Leighton, M. O. Floods. U.S.Geol. Survey. Water Supply Paper 234. 1909.

42 Ashe, W. W. Special Relations of Forests to Rivers in the United States. Preliminary Report of the
Inland Waterways Com., 60th Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Doc. 325. 1905.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 383

The causes of this increase in flood frequency, insofar as they arise
from human activities, are subject to modification and correction.
A solution of the flood problem demands a full recognition of all
factors concerned, a determination of methods and objectives, and
application of those methods.

WATER SUPPLY 43

Only in years of drought, as 1925 and particularly 1930, do the
water problems appear in their true and full importance. Rains
are usually so well distributed throughout the growing season that
precautions or preparations against exceptional droughts are not
usually made. The drought of 1925 was severe, but the great 1930
drought caught many communities quite unprepared for the reduced
water supplies on which they had to depend. Both in towns and
country the pinch of want of water was severe.

A thorough study of ground waters and wells showed that the
water table was declining. Dr. W J McGee of the Bureau of Soils
found that, over a period of 22 years, records of 9,507 weUs (a great
many of which are within the Ohio Valley) revealed a lowering of
the water table at a minimum mean rate of 1.315 feet per decade,
corresponding to an aggregate of 13.8 feet for the 80 years since
settlement began. The experience of communities, which have
found it necessary to deepen their wells periodically, fuUy corrobo-
rates this trend and indicates that the water table and deep ground
supplies are still shrinking.

Water supplies are drawn from ponds, cisterns, surface wells, deep
wells, and from open reservoirs. For many cities, water is drawn
directly from rivers. For example, Columbus, Ohio, has two reser-
voirs to supply the city, both located on the Scioto River, one above
the other. Nashville, Tenn., draws its supply from the Cumberland
River; Cincinnati, Ohio, has a municipally owned plant with water
taken from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River; Pittsburgh, Pa.,
takes its water from the Allegheny River. Other cities in the Ohio
Valley also use river water.

The 1930 drought emphasized the inadequacy and shrinking of
water supplies in the Ohio River Basin. Stream flow ceased in many
cases and only the larger streams continued to flow. Within the
Wabash Valley, water supplies were frequently so very low that
Bloomington, Batesville, Bloomfield, and a number of other towns in
southern Indiana had periods of shortage of varying length during
which residents had to haul or ship water from outside points. In
rural districts, water, both for livestock and domestic use, had to be
hauled over considerable areas at various times beginning in midsum-
mer of 1930. It was estimated in February 1931, that in some south-
ern Indiana counties a fourth of the farmers were hauling water.
Not until March 1931, was the shortage in municipal and domestic
water supplies relieved. In the Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum
Valleys, conditions were likewise severe. In the Muskingum River
Valley the normally dependable springs went diy. Within the

43 Data on water supplies in the Ohio River basin, and the effect upon them of recent droughts have
een obtained in large part from H. E. Grosbach, U.S.Qeol. Survey district engineer, Indianapolis,
Ind.jfrom Roy L. Morton, State sanitary engineer, Nashville, Tenn.; from Effect of the 1930 Drought

.

upon Ohio Public Water Supplies, by F. H. Waring and F. D. Stewart (Ohio State Univ. Eng. Exp.
Sta. News, 3 (3), Suppl. 1931); and from Principles of Water Power Development by Dr. W J McGee
(Science, N.S. vol. 34 (885)): 813-825. Dec. 15, 1911.

384 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland Kivers, water supplies
also were severely diminished. Inadequate ground water failed to
maintain the springs; too much of the rain has been running off
instead of percolating into the soil.

The quality of waters from open reservoirs and rivers, such as
communities use during droughts, is far from satisfactory. Because
of the open condition of the supply and its temperature, organic
life such as algae increases tremendously. During 1930, operation
of municipal water-supply systems was affected by a condition of the
water approaching stagnation. Waring and Stewart state that
palatability of the supply for eight cities and villages using water
from the Ohio River was impaired, in spite of the fact that sufficient
water was in the river to supply the pumps and piping systems. They
report that the river became a succession of pools created by the
Government navigation dams, and the more or less stagnated water
developed obnoxious tastes that could not be entirely removed even
by purification. Acids and other industrial wastes became sufficiently
concentrated to damage plumbing and fixtures in water systems and
households.

Problems of water supply are among the most pressing and im-
portant facing the people of the Ohio Valley. Not only are sufficient
quantities to meet needs at all times essential, but the water must be
pure, potable, tasteless, clear, cool, and reasonably soft to be accept-
able.

EROSION

A third major watershed problem of the Ohio Valley is that of
erosion. The loss of soil and soil fertility is a fundamental reason
for the decline of communities and their prosperity. Loss of capacity
to produce wealth makes land less capable of bearing taxation to
support local government. Aside from the decline of soil fertility
arising from overcropping and lack of proper care of the soil, the
greatest cause of soil deterioration is the washing away of the invalu-
able top soil.

The entire area of the Ohio Valley is subject to erosive processes.
The northern and northwestern portions have been damaged rela-
tively little because of the generally level surface. Other factors being
constant, the severity and rapidity of erosion varies closely with degree
of slope and the roughness of the topography. The greatest severity
of erosion is consequently found in the hilly to mountainous sections
where erodible soils have been cleared unwisely.

On the hilly southern portions of the Wabash Basin, destructive
erosion has taken place. Fisher ** emphasizes the occurrence of
thousands of acres of eroded lands in southern Indiana which were
formerly quite fertile. These areas have been destroyed by loss of
soil.

In the watershed of the Raccoon Creek in Ohio, a study of Vinton
County 45 revealed that although there is not much gullying, sheet
erosion occurs generally over the county, especially on the steeper
cultivated slopes. In the Muskingum River Valley, surveys by Dr. G.
W. Conrey, of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, have shown

44 Fisher, M. L. The washed lands of Indiana: a preliminary study. Purdue Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta.
Cir. 90. 1919.

4« Bitterly, J. H., Moore, H. R., and Falconer, J. I. Land utilization in a southeastern Ohio county.
Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 485. 1931.

'A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 385

in some localities as high as 24 percent of the area severely damaged
by gullying alone. In the basin of the Monongahela River, Glenn found
less erosion in 1911 than commonly occurs in the Appalachian Moun-
tains farther south, because of the practice of seeding the slopes to
grass. On the Green River drainage certain soils have been found to
erode very severely,46 and great damage has followed the clearing and
use of these lands for agriculture. When erosion progresses far
enough, abandonment follows. On the mountainous lands of the
headwaters of the Kentucky River, tremendous erosion 47 was found
to follow clearing slopes for crop production. On the Tennessee
River, Dr. C. A. Moores, director of the Tennessee Agricultural
Experiment Station, reports that washing is very severe, involving
serious losses, which have, indeed, occurred over the whole State.

Accepting conditions of watershed as continuing in their present
state, King concludes that higher flood stages will be developed in the
future, owing to the deposits in stream channels and on river flood
plains of material eroded from side hills and steep slopes.

Close estimates have not been made of the amount of land in the
Ohio Basin which has been and now is badly damaged by erosion. In
this connection, Knight 48 states that between 10 and 15 million acres
of the 78 million acres in the Appalachian Mountain area have been
seriously eroded and approximately 2 million acres have been per-
manently ruined for farming by gullying. The total area of badly
and seriously eroded land is very large — an immensely important
factor in the watershed problems of the Ohio River.

POWER

Because of the large proportion of the Nation's population and large
industrial activities which lie within its borders or adjacent to it, the
development and realization of long-lived sources of electric power
are of fundamental importance hi the Ohio Valley and constitute a
major watershed problem in the solution of which local topographic
features are favorable. From average State estimates by the Secre-
tary of Agriculture in 191 1, it seems probable that in the neighborhood
of 2 million horsepower can be generated.49

Present hydroelectric installations comprise over 1,220,000 horse-
power. Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River, costing about
$127,000,000, is the largest individual plant. Only a portion of the
available power in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North
Carolina has been harnessed. District Engineer H. E. Grosbach esti-
mates that Indiana normally produces 150,000-160,000 kilowatt-hours
yearly from plants run by water power, part of them being in the
northern part of the State, and that Kentucky has installations of
hydroelectric plants for 145,000 horsepower.

Rates of streamflow are of primary importance to the power indus-
try. When streams are in flood the output is reduced; when streams
are low, insufficient water is available to maintain the output. Both
extremes of greater floods and lower streamflow work to the disadvan-

« Soil Survey of Muhlenberg County, Ky. U.S. Dept. Agr. 1924

4< Craig, R. B. Forestry in the economic life of Knott County, Ky. Ky. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 326.
1932.

48 Knight, H. O. Soil conservation a major problem of agricultural readjustment. Proc. of Nat. Con.
on Land Util. Government Printing Office. 1932.

49 Sec. of Agri. 1911. Electric Power Development in the U.S. S.Doc. 316, pt. II. 1911, table 2,
p. 14. ••

386 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

tage and loss of power generation. In the recent drought, according
to Grosbach, production of power on the Wabash River in Indiana had
an output of 59 percent normal in 1930 and 72 percent in 1931.
According to the same authority, at Lock 7 on the Kentucky River
the output during 1930 was 58 percent of the 1929 output and for
1931 80 percent of 1929. At the hydroelectric plant of 3,000 horse-
power capacity on the Miami River at Hamilton, Ohio, the output
for 1930 was cut down, along with other installations in Ohio, to
about 65 percent normal.50

Erosion and the burden of debris, as conditions of stream flow,
are fundamental in the life of storage reservoirs and their capacity
to store water. Although the fact is usually soft pedaled, the erosion,
which is taking place is greatly reducing the life and efficiency of
storage reservoirs for power-plant uses. Glenn, in the 1911 report
already cited, wrote as follows regarding such conditions in the
Southern Appalachians:

From the slopes along these streams a steadily increasing amount of waste is
working its way down their channels, filling the dams and destroying their
storage capacity; and this loss of storage means a decrease of efficiency that is
calculated by the most experienced mill engineers to amount to 30 to 40 percent
in plants that have been built especially for storage and a somewhat less marked
decrease in other plants, the exact amount depending on the topography of the
basin and the regimen of the particular stream on which the plant is located.
So universal is this silting of storage basins that a prominent mill engineer of
wide experience in his reports on the construction of power plants nc longer
calculates on power or on anything except the flow of the stream, and he has
increased his usual construction estimates by an allowance for increased storm
waters that must be taken care of without endangering the dam or plant. Ex-
perience has shown that storage basins constructed in this region in recent years
are rapidly filled with sand and silt, through which the stream maintains a channel
only large enough to carry the ordinary flow.

There can be no denying the fact that conditions of watershed
are pertinent to the power producer and consumer alike, because
of the costs and life of developments which are involved. In view
of the large capital investments, and in view of the permanence of
the market for power among the industries and communities of this
region, watershed protection is essential in order to effect the longest
possible life of the storage capacities of reservoirs, and the greatest
efficiency of installations.

NAVIGATION

The fifth major watershed problem of the Ohio River is that of
navigation. The Ohio has greatly changed since settlement in its
basin really began on an extensive scale. Its French name, "La
Belle Riyi&re," the beautiful river, depicts its early condition. The
Jesuit missionaries that visited the region told of its placid waters"
that flowed as clear as crystal. Audubon writes of watching the fish
in the water as he floated down the river on a raft. The records of
those who early journeyed to New Orleans on the white pine rafts
from the headwaters of the Allegheny tell of the exceptional clearness
and purity of the Ohio. Today the'Ohio has a different appearance.
It is murky and carries a heavy burden of silt. It is defiled with the
mining and industrial wastes and sewage of dozens of cities and
towns from its head to the Mississippi.

so Lee, Lasley, 1931— The Ohio Stream Flow Survey. Ohio State Univ. Eng. Exp. Sta. News Suppl.
to vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 54-57, 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 387

Navigation was far more important in the past than today. Not
only the Ohio but many smaller tributaries of the Ohio were formerly
navigable, at least for portions of their lengtns. The first steamboat
appeared on the Ohio in 1811. By 1840 there were 1,200 of them
plying the waters.51 Thereafter, largely because of the appearance
of the railroad, boat travel declined. By raising the water level
through a system of Federal locks, sufficient depth (9 feet or more)
is now gained to float boats over the major bars and shoals. A series
of 49 dams was completed in 1929 at a cost to the public of over
$118,000,000. The annual cost of maintenance is $2,000,000.52
Some 22,337,000 tons of freight were shipped on the Ohio in 1930,
half of which was in the vicinity of and just below Pittsburgh, Pa.

Navigation has fallen off on the Tennessee River also. It is at
present interrupted by low flow about 60 per cent of the time and
by flood and overflow 1 or 2 percent of the time.53 In order to restore
use of the Tennessee River for water transportation, Congress has
recently adopted a new project for this river creating a 9-foot navi-
gable depth from the mouth to Knoxville, a distance of 640 miles,
and has authorized an expenditure of about $75,000,000 to accom-
plish this.

Despite the tremendous investment in water transportation, in-
adequate or little effort has been made to protect the watershed
contributing to the flow of the Ohio and its tributaries to establish
a more uniform flow, or to eliminate the silt burden dumped in it
continuously from eroding lands by unnecessary and abnormal
run-off.

CAUSES OF WATERSHED PROBLEMS

The causes of increasing floods, inadequate water supplies, destruc-
tive erosion, reduced efficiency of power plants, and hindrances to
navigation very largely arise from misdirected human activities.
Because these disturbances are man made, they are subject to cor-
rection and modification. Deforestation and destruction of surface
litter is a primary cause of the extremes of stream flow which the
communities in this region now experience. Run-off has been greatly
increased in times of rainfall with consequent decrease of stream flow
in times of drought. Several practices are responsible for these
circumstances.

CLEARING OF NONAGRICULTURAL LAND

The clearing or cultivation of land which erodes badly when cleared
is a primary cause of unbalanced stream flow. Many observers have
recorded the accelerated run-off and waste of soil which follow the
clearing and exposure of mountain lands within this basin. Ashe and
Ayres64 credit land clearing as the most permanently destructive
practice used on mountain lands and maintain that much of this land
should forever remain in forest, some of the cultivated fields sloping at
an angle of 30° to 40°, and some being even too steep for the mountain
steer and bull- tongue plow.

» Switzer, J. E. The completed Ohio River Project. Proe. Indiana Acad. Sci. 41: 339-349. 1932.

s» Annual Report, Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army. 1929 pts. I and II, 1932, pt. I.

" Report from Chief of Engineers on Tennessee River and Tributaries, 71st Cong., 2d sess., H.Doc.,
pt. (1): 328, 38-41.

M Ayres, H. B., and Ashe, W. W. The Southern Appalachian Forests. U.S. Oeol. Survey. Prof.
Paper 37, 1905.

388 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Glenn points out the immediate gullying of cleared slopes which,
even though in grass, wash down to the bare rock. Craig in Ken-
tucky, in the bulletin already cited, notes the use of land for corn
fields on slopes as steep as 75 percent, where, because of erosion, the
maximum limit of arability is 15 years.

Even in lower country severe soil losses take place. In Hopkins
County in western Kentucky, a small reservoir and watershed of
2,340 acres were examined 65 for siltage after 20 years' time. Maxi-
mum differences in elevation in the watershed amounted to only 206
feet. The steeper slopes were wooded. Of the 930 acres farmed,
350 were in grass. Silting had taken place, however, at the average
rate of 3,534.6 cubic yards a year. The cultivated land was rolling
and had only 40 feet difference in elevation; yet the burden of silt,
almost entirely from the cultivated lands, amounted to 6 cubic yards
per acre per year. This is illustrative of the loss that can and does
occur from erosion of gentle or rolling arable lands. It does not
adequately portray the soil damage being done on rougher and
steeper lands.

Glenn notes that in the process of land clearing in the mountains,
the soil frequently has been washed away and the area abandoned
before the land is completely cleared of the girdled forest. Adjacent
areas are then cleared and the process is repeated. Ayres and Ashe,
as already cited, estimated that 24 percent of the Appalachian Moun-
tain area has been cleared. The reclearing of abandoned areas has
helped to lower the net total cleared average.

Not only does the land soon wash away when slopes are deforested
and exposed, but rainfall runs off down the stream courses in excessive
quantity instead of percolating into the soil. Leighton, by his studies
(already cited) on the three major branches of the Ohio River above
Wheeling, W. Va-> clearly proved the increase of run-off and the
progressive increase in flood occurrences on a drainage area the
deforestation of which had been constant and rapid for 30 years. He
states without qualification that —

the increase in flood tendency * * * is due by far the largest measure to
the denudation of forest areas.

Run-off varies in different portions of the basin and is increasing in
proportion to the deterioration of the surface conditions. Humphreys
and Abbot 56 estimated in 1861 that the proportion of run-off to rain
in the Ohio basin is 24 percent. Measurements given in the 1911
report of the Pennsylvania Flood Commission show that for the
period 1899-1910 mean annual run-off above Pittsburgh varied from
40.0 to 71.7 percent of the rainfall, and that at Wheeling, W.Va.,
for 1904-8 it was 58.9 percent. On the Allegheny at Aspinwall, Pa.,
it was 66.4 for the years 1903-7. Recent measurements in Tennessee
reported by King indicate that 45 percent of the precipitation usually
runs off into streams of that State, and that in the "cloudburst"
causing the 1929 flood, measurements indicate that 91.5 to 97.3 per-
cent of the concentrated rainfall was immediately lost as run-off.

88 Atkinson, J. B. Watershed of Loch Mary. The Bee, Earlington, Hopkins County, Ky., Mar.
11, 1909.

«6 Humphreys and Abbot, The Physics and Hydrology of the Mississippi River, Philadelphia, 1861;
see also Fuller, M. L., Underground waters of eastern United States. U.S. Geological Survey. Water
Supply Paper 114, 1905.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

389

Loss of soil porosity, a major reason for the accelerated and at
times almost complete run-off from cleared lands, is shown by studies 67
in Ohio. These show that the top inch of forest soils absorbs 51
times as much water per minute as does the top inch of adjacent field
soils; that the forest soil at a 3-inch depth absorbs water 14 times as
fast as do field soils; and that forest soils at an 8-inch depth absorbs
water twice as fast as similar field soils. Studies in Mississippi and
Wisconsin on the relative volume of run-off from cleared bare soil and
from forested land fully substantiate the evidence of greatly increased
run-off following removal of forest growth.

FIRE

Forest fires have greatly deteriorated portions of the Ohio watershed.
Uncontrolled fires in the slashings following lumbering, and light
burning to encourage the growth of grasses and sprouts, have con-
tributed heavily to the creation of conditions unfavorable to regulated
stream flow. Brooks 68 states that the wholesale destruction by
fire of the protective softwoods forests and peaty soils began about the
time of the Civil War, when an opening was begun by a fire which
spread from the camp of Confederate Scouts on the Roaring Plains
of Randolph County, W.Va. Prior to 1915 very few records were
kept to show the extent of early forest fires in this basin. Prof. C. S.
Sargent in volume IX of the tenth census, records the burning of
2,183,393 acres in the States of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee,
and West Virginia during 1880. In 1908, a particularly bad fire year,
3 percent of the estimated standing timber in West Virginia (some
944 million board feet) was destroyed according to the report of the
West Virginia Conservation Commission, as quoted by Brooks.
Every county in the State was visited by fire, and the total area
burned over by the 710 reported fires represented more than 10 per-
cent of the whole surface of the State and 20 percent of its forest area.

The areas of watersheds now damaged by fire are very large.
Data compiled by the Forest Service on the areas of land burned over
since 1920 are given in table 9 for States lying almost wholly in the
Ohio River basin. Inability to subdivide States makes it inadvisable
to show areas being damaged by fire for other States. The causes of
fire are almost entirely man-made.

TABLE 9. — Areas of forest burned over, by years and States, Ohio River Basin,

1921-31

Year

Indiana

Kentucky

Ohio

Tennessee

West Vir-
ginia

Total

1921

Acres
2,275

Acres
32,940

Acres
9,851

Acres
30,437

Acres
11,900

Acres
87,403

1922

2,834

104, 735

17,215

83,141

159, 182

367, 107

1923

33,405

287, 421

10,666

115, 118

189, 916

636,526

1924

32,093

367, 998

13, 491

224,944

32,406

670, 932

1925

12, 765

69, 377

19, 479

310, 248

61,681

473,550

1926

3,090

41,040

2,285

114,000

50,763

211, 178

1927

9,000

48, 910

2,260

84,590

18,030

162, 790

1928

10,000

184,850

13,600

151, 700

121,210

481, 360

1929

18,350

154,150

5,830

78, 610

41,170

298,110

1930

200,000

755, 720

30,710

859,490

353, 400

2, 199, 320

1931

146,000

718, 450

16,090

674, 400

136, 530

1,691,470

" Auten, J. T. Porosity and Water Absorption of Forest Soils. In press for Journal of Agricultural
Research, U.S.Dept.Agr., 1933.
" Brooks, A. B. Forestry and Wood Industries. W.Va. Geol. Survey. 5 : 51, 52, 1911.

390 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The greatest damage by fire to the Ohio watershed is the loss of the
forest litter, consisting of leaves, needles, twigs, moss, peat, decaying
wood, and other vegetative parts. This forest litter acts as a protec-
tive soil covering, and is essential in maintaining the porosity of soil
and the preservation of channels and minute holes in the topsoil from
the pounding action of falling rain. The destruction of litter by fire
removes this protection and partially exposes the soil. Furthermore,
the heat of fire damages the loose, granular, porous structure of top-
soil, by destroying the organic and inorganic colloids which are so
important in maintaining this porous flaky condition.

Very hot fires may burn the forest trees themselves, completely
killing them, but this is less serious, in terms of watershed control,
than is the loss of litter in every type of fire. The hardwoods tend
to renew themselves after fire by sprouting, but repeated burning
often prevents more than a brush cover, which while undoubtedly
helpful in holding the soil is probably much less effective than the high
forest in building up the soil and in preserving favorable conditions
of water flow. In the spruce forests at high altitudes particularly,
fires have been very destructive. Here the soil is shallow, in places
scarcely more than deep duff of undecayed litter. Where this has
been burned, the soil itself is practically destroyed. Studies by the
Appalachian Forest Experiment Station in West Virginia on the
Shavers Fork burn of 1924 indicated that from 12 to 18 inches of
spruce and hardwood litter and detritus accumulation was destroyed
by fire. On such areas vegetation is slow to return.

Efforts to control fire took form first in West Virginia in 1908. In
Ohio, organized fire protection began about 1921 for the southern
forest zone; for southern Indiana, about 1930. Efforts to effect fire
control in Kentucky and Tennessee have been inadequate, and protec-
tion on federally controlled areas has begun only as the first units were
established. Far better and more adequate fire protection is needed
throughout the forested portions of this basin, in addition to the
excellent work done heretofore. With more adequate fire protection,
watershed conditions in this basin should rapidly improve insofar as
fire is concerned.

GRAZING

The influence on stream flow which grazing exerts in the Ohio River
watershed consists of the effect which domestic animals have on woods
and soils conditions. Confining stock to small areas of forest results
in destruction of forest litter from continual and repeated trampling
and cutting by sharp hoofs. The porous condition of the forest soil
is then quickly destroyed, not only by the loss of forest litter, but by
the heavy weight of the animals themselves. By repeated trampling
and moving around, the soil is compacted and firmed until it is
impervious except to very slow rainfall. Further damage includes
the loss of undergrowth and seedlings which the livestock consume and
the barking and trampling of tree roots.

The greatest influence of grazing is found in the agricultural regions
where large numbers of livestock are raised, and are confined on small
areas. Within the rougher, more wooded portions of the basin,
grazing is a minor factor; but in the agricultural localities it is a very
important one. Later reference will be made to grazing.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 391

LUMBERING

The removal of the forest by logging has been a very disturbing
factor in the Ohio River drainage. But the harvesting of virgin timber
in itself has not been as disastrous to the conditions of stream flow as
have been the elements of repeated fires and the clearing of nonagricul-
tural land, especially in the rougher portions of the basin.

In the smoother portions of the basin, on the Wabash, Miami, and
Scioto Rivers and in the Karst, Bluegrass, and Central Basin regions
of Kentucky and Tennessee, cutting was originally done to clear land
for raising crops. Available records69 show that the forest area of
Ohio declined from almost 14 million acres in 1853 to less than 5 mil-
lion acres by 1880. Similarly, in Indiana, forests were reduced by 3
million acres in the decade 1 870-80. *° In the rough eastern portions
of the basin, clearing occurred later. Leighton, already cited, implies
that rapid deforestation was occurring on the Allegheny and Mononga-
hela Basins from 1875 to 1907. In the rough Cumberland and Alle-
gheny Mountains cutting and culling of the forest waited upon but
closely followed development of railroads.

Since 1900 lumber companies have been rapidly cutting over the
remaining forests in the rougher sections of the Ohio Basin. The peak
of lumbering in the Ohio River Basin was reached about 1899-1910,
with a cut of some 5 billion feet, and has since fallen to the 1869 level
of about 2 billion feet in 1929. There is very close agreement between
the advance of lumbering, the period of repeated uncontrolled fires,
the increase in run-off, and the increase in number of flood crests, save
that the damage done to watersheds has rather increased than other-
wise with the decrease in lumbering.

DIVISION OF LAND USE

For purposes of this report, the Ohio Basin is found to classify
broadly into (1) the level agricultural land, which, because of soil
fertility and ease of cultivation, has the ability, when intelligently
handled, to stand up under the demands of agricultural use; (2) the
forest land, which because of its rough, steep, and broken surface is
unstable and subject to erosion when cleared. Broadly speaking,
this division follows the line of glaciation.

North of the Ohio River, the level to gently rolling plain is a result of
several advances of the ice sheets. In the balance of the basin the land
is in the process of eroding down to a more level surface. In general,
the glaciated section is farm land, and the major part of the rest of
the basin is too steep or credible to bear cultivation. Within the
unglaciated regions there are such provinces as the Karst, Bluegrass,
Appalachian Valley, and Central Basins of Kentucky and Tennessee
which are agricultural. In this report they are considered with the
farm lands north of the Ohio River.

. FARM LANDS

Fire is not a serious problem on farm land because of the separation
of remnant woods by the large cultivated areas. Most farm woods
are seriously overcut and overgrazed and these are the major destruc-

*• First Annual Report— Ohio State Bureau of Forestry, Columbus, Ohio, 1886.

6° Pegg, E. C., and Thomas, M. B. The Woodlot for Central Indiana. Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. 18 :419-440,
1910.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 26

392 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

tive agencies. In their present limited extent they can be classified
as having slight or at best only moderate influence on watershed prob-
lems within the glaciated province, and moderate influence on the
agricultural lands to the south and in the Appalachian Valley. (See
fig. 9 for relative influence of forests on watersheds.)

Under constant grazing, these woodlots have steadily deteriorated
until the forest has become merely open parks, open-air pens, or feed
lots. Under such a condition the forest is of little value from a water-
shed standpoint, and there is reason to anticipate the destruction of
the woodlots themselves.

Auten's work, already cited, in the Central States Forest Experi-
ment Station's study of soil conditions in grazed and ungrazed woods
in Ohio, showed that for 36 plots, the top 9 inches of soil in the grazed
area averaged 15 percent heavier than similar top soil from ungrazed
woods. This increase in density is a reflection of the greatly reduced
capacity of the grazed soils to absorb water.

In Ohio, the survey of deep-well supplies following the 1930 drought,
by Waring and Stewart (already cited in the discussion of " Water
Supply"), revealed that, instead of being replenished by fall and
winter precipitation, the water level of the deep ground-water supplies
was either stationary or slowly receding. Obviously, water is not
getting into the soil in adequate quantities. Whether through loss of
forest cover and forest soil porosity, or through tiling and open drain-
age ditches which drain off rainfall immediately, the effect of lowered
water table is the same.

The problems of run-off and erosion in the farming section are agri-
cultural problems and as such farm practice is responsible for them.
The judicious treatment of farm lands can very largely meet the
demands of watershed considerations in so far as they concern farming
sections. Owners of valuable farms can, by the best farm practices,
maintain their lands in a continuously productive state. Intelligence
and concern are essential to careful handling of these lands.

FOREST LANDS

The original forest exerted a very great influence on the streams
and rivers which had their source in the high Allegheny and Cumber-
land Plateaus and the Southern Appalachian Mountains. An esti-
mate of the influence of forests on stream flow in this basin, as shown
in figure 9, is given in terms of area in the following tabulation:

Acres

Total area of Ohio River Basin 130,420,480

Total forest area 45, 391, 000

Forest area of great influence 35, 919, 000

Forest area of moderate influence 7, 569, 000

Forest area of slight influence 1, 903, 000

OWNERSHIP OF FOREST LAND

By far the largest portion of forest lands in the Ohio basin is in
private ownership. In the aggregate, small owners control a large
area of forest, but there are also many large holdings, as coal, gas,
and oil corporations, as well as a few lumber companies. This private
ownership is unfavorable to conservative handling of these lands.

The need for protection and management of watershed land at the
headwaters of the Ohio has been recognized by the Federal purchase

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 393

of certain lands in this basin. The Allegheny National Forest is on
the headwaters of the Allegheny River, a portion of the Monongahela
National Forest occurs on headwaters of the river of that name, parts
of the Unaka, Cherokee, Nantahala, Pisgah, and Alabama National
Forests are on portions of the headwaters of the Tennessee River, and
a portion of the Unaka National Forest takes in headwaters of the
New River. Because the present extent of these lands (about 2,400
square miles) is too limited to be most effective, the Forest Service
plans to add to them. Plans have also been approved by the National
Forest Reservation Commission for a national forest purchase unit
on the headwaters of the Kentucky River.

Some States in the Ohio basin are also engaged in programs of
forest-land acquisition. Reference to the section of this report on
" State Accomplishments and Plans" will yield in tabular form the
acreages of State forests in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West
Virginia.

A few progressive communities are protecting reservoir sites and
watersheds by forests. For example, Akron, Ohio, has 5,000 acres
in a municipal forest. Wellston, Ohio, has a 300-acre watershed above
its storage reservoir. Denuded lands on this area have been planted.
Other Ohio cities having municipal forests include Oberlin and Cin-
cinnati. The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, which supplies
water to Niles, Youngstow^n, and Girard, possesses 4,500 acres.

MARGINAL FARM LAND

A necessary step in the solution of watershed problems for the Ohio
River is the removal of submarginal and marginal land from the status
of farm land. Such land is not agricultural at the outset because of
many considerations, and continued use aggravates the problems of
watershed as well as of agriculture. For example, Sitterley's study
(already mentioned) in the southeastern section of Ohio shows a
shrinkage in improved lands in farms from 56 percent in 1900 to 26
percent in 1930. The number of farms has decreased 51 percent in
30 years. The population of Vinton County in this region shows a
decline of 40 percent. A similar study in another county found a
decrease of 20 percent in the acreage of land in farms since 1880 and
a decrease of 50 percent in the improved land in farms since 1900.
Only 15.7 percent of the total area of the county was in harvested
crops in 1929.61

It is evident that these areas of land are unable to support an
agricultural system, its population, and local government. These
studies are illustrative of about 14 counties in this vicinity, in which
a million acres of land are lying idle outside of farms and half a
million acres within the boundaries of farms. Much of the badly
eroded farm land has been abandoned to revert to forest. As high
as 50 percent of certain counties in southern Ohio might well be in
forest. The use of much marginal land for pasturing seems un-
likely. A specialist in crops and soils 62 at Ohio State University
states, ''Between 55 and 60 percent of the now so-called permanent
pastures in Ohio * * * should be returned to forests as the
cost of liming and fertilizing makes pasture production prohibitive."

61 Sitterley, J. H., Moore, H. R., Falconer, J. I. Land Utilization in Lawrence County, Ohio. Ohio
Apr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 514. 1932.

62 Bailey, M. V., Permanent Pastures. Ohio State Univ. Agr. Ext. Service Bui. 61.

394 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

A study of Laurel County, Ky.,63 by the Division of Land Economics,
United States Department of Agriculture, and the University of Ken-
tucky, led to the conclusion that cropping land for corn on steep
slopes results in rapid erosion and early abandonment ; that the cycle
of subsequent reclearing and recultivation leads to decline in soil and
economic returns to the point where returns are less than direct
costs; that this is the condition on 25 percent of the crop land at
the present time; that on an additional 19 percent soil " mining"
was necessary to cover costs; and that 4 out of every 10 acres of
crop land are losing money.

In his similar study in Knott County, Craig found that all the
better agricultural land on these slopes has been made nonarable
through erosion.

A recent study in West Virginia 64 found that 85 percent of the
locally raised taxes were absorbed by schools and roads, and that
''although the maximum rates permitted by law have been levied
for most purposes, deficits are common, particularly in the general
county and the various school levies. The deficits are becoming more
frequent on account of the declining value of agricultural, coal, and
timber lands. " Another West Virginia investigation65 pointed out
that the prosperity and well-being of farmers is closely related to
the soil type and topography of their farms.

It is thus shown that a considerable part of the problem of the
agricultural lands is also a problem, and an important one, of the
forestry problem on watershed lands. The seriousness of the situa-
tion is too great to be ignored, and the area is far too large to be
left to take care of itself. The social phases no less than the strictly
economic phases require thoughtful consideration. Since con-
ditions of stream flow have been unbalanced by the removal and the
deterioration of the forest, they may be improved by reestablishing
the forest on denuded lands and by building up the forest where
it has deteriorated.

SUMMARY

The problems of watershed are among the most important ones
which confront the communities of the Ohio Valley. Floods causing
yearly damage of about $4,600,000 and as high as $180,000,000 are
on the increase; domestic water supplies are inadequate and too
frequently drawn from questionable sources. Erosion is destroying
or else robbing the producing capacity of millions of acres of the
soils, especially those which have been exposed injudiciously. Hydro-
electric power of some 2 million horsepower has immense potenti-
alities, the full realization of which depends on the regulation of
stream flow and the elimination of a heavy burden of debris and
soil wash. The maintenance of navigation is being heavily subsi-
dized at public cost with inadequate attention to the watershed
concerned. Over the last 11 years, about 15, 738,000- tons of freight
have been shipped annually on the Ohio River alone, whereas in 1930
all shipments by water were some 22,337,000 tons.

63 Clayton, C. F., and Nicholls, W. D., Land Utilization in Laurel County, Ky. U.S.Dept.Agr-
Tech. Bui. 289. 1932.

6< Peck, M., Frank, B., and Eke, P. A., Economic Utilization of Marginal Lands in Nicholas and
Webster Counties, W.Va. U.S.Dept.Agr.Tech.Bul. 303. 1932.

es Phillips, S. W. 1925-Soil Survey of Nicholas County, West Virginia, U.S.Dept.Agr.Bur. Soils
Field Operations. 1920. Rpt. 22. 39-59 illus.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOK AMERICAN FORESTRY 395

The irregularity of stream flow is directly increased by man-
made causes. The increase in run-off and period of low stream
flow has been caused by deforestation, in clearing large areas of
nonagricultural land, by uncontrolled forest fires, by grazing, and
by unregulated cutting with no care for the future. Since 1921
over 660,000 acres have been burned over annually. The forests
of this basin have been so depleted that production of lumber has
declined from 5 billion feet in 1899-1910 to 2 billion feet in 1929.

In the agricultural sections of the basin, the solution of these
problems is to be found in using better agricultural practices and in
the elimination of harmful grazing from wood lots. Fire is a small
factor. On the forest lands, the permanent regulation of streams
demands a rebuilding and improvement of the forest through the
elimination of fire, harmful grazing, and unregulated lumbering.
The extension of organized fire protection to the entire area needing
protection with higher standards and better organization is essential.
The return of forests to 4 million acres of land of nonagricultural
character must be accomplished in part by planting. Because private
initiative is incapable or unwilling to attempt these measures, a
vigorous policy of public acquisition of cut-over, abandoned, and
marginal land amounting to 28.6 million acres is essential. Of this,
probably 6 million acres will be in abandoned farms, and 22.6 million
acres will be forest land. Most of this latter area is located in the
higher and rougher portions of the drainage and including the moun-
tainous sections at the headwaters. Only through good protection
and management of these forests can favorable conditions of water
flow be restored. Part of this public ownership must be Federal,
because of differences between States in wealth and ability to meet the
task. An enlarged program of public education through extension
under active leadership and with full participation by all agencies is
highly desirable.

Ashe writes (op. cit.):

The work of the engineer to protect the large river becomes useless unless it is
protected by the forest. In the Appalachians * * * and indeed wherever
forest influences are high, the river engineer and the forester must work hand in
hand.

MISSOURI RIVER BASIN

The total drainage' area of the Missouri River is about 525,000
square miles, including all or parts of 10 States and some 13,000 square
miles in Canada (fig. 10). Of the 28,642,000 acres of forest, some
20,515,000 acres is classed as having a major influence and 6,769,000
acres a moderate influence upon watershed conditions. The remain-
der is rated as exerting comparatively slight influence.

Topographically the Missouri Basin is most varied. About one
twelfth of the surface is mountainous, one sixth plains, and the
remainder rolling. Because conditions vary so widely, the drainage
is considered as in two parts, the upper Missouri, or semi-arid section
to the west, and the lower Missouri, or humid sections to the east.
The dividing line between these approximates the one hundredth
meridian.

UPPER MISSOURI RIVER

The headwaters of the upper Missouri River lie in the Rocky
Mountains, a region of rugged topography. The mountain area
consists principally of a strip of high mountains, varying in width from

396

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

10 to 100 miles, along the western edge of the basin. Along the Con-
tinental Divide the mountains are broken and exceedingly steep.
Crests and peaks, and in some localities high rolling plateaus, at
elevations of 9,000 to 11,000 feet or more, rise above narrow valleys of
5,000 to 6,000 feet elevation. Within the Plains region, many miles

from the Rockies proper, are a number of forested outposts, of which
the Black Hills of South Dakota are an example. In portions of the
plains are scattered areas of Badlands and of sand hills.

The soils are usually loams varying from gravelly phases in the
mountains to heavy clay loams elsewhere.

The precipitation varies from 10 or 12 inches in the semiarid
plains of the Big Horn and Milk River Valleys to 50 inches or more in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 397

the mountains. On the average, the precipitation in the forested
regions probably reaches 30 inches. Most of this comes in the form
of winter snows. Wide variations in the precipitation occur from
year to year and from season to season, variations of 50 percent of the
normal being not uncommon.

The thaws are mainly responsible for local floods. Very appreciable
differences in run-off occur from year to year, due as much to varia-
tions in rate of thawing as to the depth of the snow. As indicated
in the introductory statement to this section, the rate of snow melt is
affected by the condition and character of the cover, and hence the
spring flood flows.

The floods in this upper basin usually have little relation to those
in the Mississippi, since by the time the high water reaches the Mis-
sissippi, the main floods of that river have already passed on to the
sea. They are important locally, however, primarily because of their
effect on sustained stream flow. Excessive spring floods affect
adversely the summer flow. The agriculture of a very large part of
the upper plains region is dependent upon stream flow from the
forested areas. In some years, practically all the summer flow is
taken for agricultural use. The forested area provides all or prac-
tically all the water used by such cities as Denver, Cheyenne, and
Rapid City. Any condition that adversely affects sustained stream
flow from this area, therefore, reacts to the detriment of regional
welfare and prosperity.

Ordinarily the streams in the high mountain area are clear, fed by
thousands of forest springs and flowing through numerous lakes.
They become muddy or silt-laden only during the period of heavy
run-off. Streams rising in the more impoverished soils of the wood-
land areas are usually not clear, except those coming from high
plateaus.

FOREST COVER

The forest belt stretches along the mountain slopes at the western
edge of the basin, and takes in the mountain outposts. Although the
forest belt includes about 6K percent of the area of the upper basin,
about a third of it is nonforested lands — largely range lands, such as
meadows, parks, and grassland plateaus.

The higher elevations are taken by spruce forests, usually dense
and maintaining a heavy litter cover. On steep slopes, the forest
may be open, but where soil exists, minor vegetation covers the
ground.

The lodgepole pine forest is usually fairly dense. Where the lodge-
pole gives way to ponderosa pine, the forest usually becomes more
open.

Ponderosa pine is the principal species of the mountain outposts
and sand hills. Owing to the lower precipitation of the plains region,
the trees are often of low stature and the forest open but a good ground
cover is found where grazing, fire, and cutting have not been too
heavy.

The brushy or woodland forest seldom forms a complete cover,
reflecting the semiarid conditions under which it has developed.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FOREST

For the most part, the forest cover of today is relatively little
different from that which existed prior to the advent of the white man.

398 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Early uncontrolled fires did much damage, especially in portions of
Wyoming and Colorado. In the pine regions, restocking has taken
place. In the spruce type, the devastation caused by some of the
early fires has been so complete that after 50 or more years a forest
cover is still lacking on many of the burned areas.

Overgrazing probably has caused greater change in the cover con-
ditions of the upper Missouri than any other factor. Large herds,
especially in the woodland areas, have so depleted the forest ranges
that only a scanty ground cover is found where formerly a more or
less complete carpet occurred. Overgrazing still continues in many
places.

Timber cutting, particularly about mining and agricultural settle-
ments, has often been most severe in those places where conditions
were least favorable for regrowth. As a result, the forest cover on
some areas has been badly depleted.

In a few localities where smelters have operated, such as at Butte,
Mont., the cover on nearby slopes has largely been destroyed by
fumes. In such places the top soil has washed away, leaving an
erosion pavement of rock fragments on the surface.

OWNERSHIP OF FOREST LANDS

Private forest lands play a very small part in the water or soil
conditions of the upper Missouri Basin. They are mostly in small
units, scattered throughout the forested region, more of them in the
Badlands than elsewhere. Intermingled with the national forest
lands, as many of them are, they receive protection from fire. Few
are so accessibly located as to be merchantable and consequently
their condition is for the most part about the same as that of the
national forests. Where cutting has taken place it usually is too
heavy, and where grazed, overgrazing is common. Those in the
Badlands have suffered particularly from overgrazing. There is
a small area of State or other local public lands in the upper basin.
Much of this area is in need of better care. The much larger area of
public lands is in Federal ownership or control. These are included
in the national forests, nation parks, Indian lands, and public domain.

NATIONAL FORESTS

Of the public lands, the national forests are the most important
because of the area of approximately 9 million acres involved, and
because of their location at the very headwaters of the river. All
forms of use, such as cutting and grazing, are so handled that the
watershed cover is maintained in an effective condition. On some
of the national forests, where serious overgrazing took place before the
areas were put under administration, watershed conditions are not yet
entirely satisfactory, but the cover is gradually improving under
regulated use.

Fire is not a serious factor. In occasional bad fire years control is
difficult, but with the extension of transportation improvement and
with more and better equipment there is much less danger of disaster
than formerly.

On the whole, the watershed conditions on the national forests are
satisfactory and are steadily becoming better.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 399

NATIONAL PARKS

Some 300,000 acres of national park areas located in this basin — the
Rocky Mountain, the Yellowstone, and the Glacier — are involved.
Under the park policy of excluding commercial use, watershed con-
ditions are being maintained. Cover conditions, which even before
the establishment of the parks were not seriously disturbed, are
improving.

INDIAN LANDS

There is something over a million acres of forest lands in Indian
reservations in this drainage. These are subjected to cutting and to
grazing. Past missuse on some of these lands has caused deterioration
of the cover. The stands have been cut too heavily, fires have been
common, and some overgrazing has taken place. In recent years
there has been considerable improvement in the cover due to better
fire control and to cutting restrictions. More recently, efforts have
been made to institute a type of range management similar to that in
effect on the national forests. Although this management has not
been in effect long enough to bring about marked changes in depleted
ranges, it is to be expected as time passes that watershed conditions
will gradually improve.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Federal lands in the unreserved public domain are in less fortunate
circumstances because they are not given as much care and attention
as is accorded other public lands. Many of these are in small tracts
so scattered that management is difficult. Efforts at fire control and
range and forest management on the unreserved public domain have
been made, but in the absence of an organization whose specific duty
it is to' cope with the problem, the situation is not satisfactory. On
the whole, much of the cover, particularly the minor vegetation, has
been seriously depleted with attendant increased surface run-off and
erosion. This is particularly marked in the Badlands.

BADLANDS

" Badlands" is the name given to rough lands in the plains region,
mostly in Montana and in the Dakotas. Something over 10 million
acres are involved. Although not covered with a commercial forest,
most of the Badlands support a brush and low woodland cover that,
if adequately maintained, would probably be highly effective in water-
shed protection. Some support only a sparse vegetation of brush,
and some only grass or other minor vegetation. Woodland is char-
acteristic of the north-facing slopes, and grass of those to the south.

Many of the Badlands soils are silty loams which, lacking a binding
material, virtually melt in the rain. Although much of the eroded
material is so fine as to be carried to the Gulf, a part of it is deposited
in the lower part of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. ^ Because
of the area involved, the extent of the erosion, and the ease with which
erosion takes place, this situation is the most critical one in the upper
Missouri, and calls for early remedial action. Of the 413 million
cubic yards of soil estimated by the War Department as the amount
annually carried by the Missouri River into the Mississippi, probably
more than half comes from this section.

400 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Most of the Badlands area is grazed and much of it too heavily
grazed for the cover to maintain itself. Where grazing is heavy,
erosion is greatly accelerated. Even under light grazing use, many
of the steep, unstable clay slopes erode excessively. The soils in-
volved, the paucity of precipitation, the alkaline character of the
soil, and the character of cover make good management imperative
in the interests of watershed protection. Even with good manage-
ment, it is doubtful whether erosion can be wholly prevented by
vegetation alone. Probably some special measures of erosion control
will be necessary. The fact that a very large part of this area is
public domain serves to emphasize the fact that public ownership
alone is not sufficient to insure good watershed conditions.

LOWER MISSOURI RIVER
GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The more humid part of the Missouri River drainage is essentially
a prairie region well suited to agriculture. About 4 million acres of
commercial forest land is included in this region. This forest is in
the form of stringers which follow the streams far into the prairie
region, of scattered woodlands in farming communities, and of more
extensive forest areas on the rougher lands. A scrubby wroodland
type of about a million acres is found towards the western extension
of the forest in southwestern Missouri and eastern Kansas and
Nebraska. The topography is level to gently rolling. Rough lands
occur only in the Ozark region of southern Missouri. In northern
Missouri and southern Iowa the terrain is more rolling than on the
west side of the river.

The precipitation varies from 20 inches in the plains section to 45
inches in southern Missouri. Most of its comes as rain and the greater
proportion in the spring and late summer. During the flood years of
1915, 1922, and 1927, spring storms brought between 20 and 30 inches
of rain to the Ozark region and the resulting local floods were a mate-
rial factor in the flood stages of the lower Mississippi. Torrential
rains frequently occur. The Weather Bureau reports a rainfall of
6.61 inches in 24 hours at Columbia, Mo., and a fall of 3 inches in
30 minutes at Fayette. Such rams are unusual, but numerous rams
have occurred in " which more than 2 inches has fallen in 24 hours.
Heavy rains result in a high run off particularly from deforested or
burned land.

The Ozark streams contribute markedly to the floods of the
Mississippi River. Records of the Mississippi River Flood Commis-
sion show that of the Mississippi River flow of 1,850,000 second-feet
at Cairo on February 6, 1915, the Missouri River contributed about
200,000 second-feet, or 11 percent, of which 150,000 second-feet or
about 8 percent of the Mississippi flow at Cairo came from the Osage
River, which drains southwestern Missouri. On April 24, 1922, the
Missouri River contributed 460,000 second-feet of a total of 1,550,000
second-feet; of this the Osage accounted for 30 percent, or 9 percent
of the flow past Cairo. On April 20, 1927, when the highest flood
peak of the year at Cairo occurred, the Missouri contributed 20 per-
cent and the Osage 6 percent of the flow of the Mississippi.

The streams of this area also contribute heavily to the silt load of
the river. Thus, on the basis of data from the University of Mis-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 401

souri, the Grand River, which drains part of southern Iowa and north-
ern Missouri, furnishes to the Missouri River some 8% million tons
of soil annually. This is about 5 percent of its silt load. The Grand
River drainage is but 1.2 percent of the Missouri River Basin.
Because of the large contribution of the lower Missouri region to the
floods and silt burden of the Mississippi, most of the forest area is
classed as having a major influence upon watershed conditions.

FOREST

Most of the forest area is in southern Missouri, of which about 90
percent is privately owned, largely in the hands of farmers. The
present condition of the forest, therefore, is largely the result of the
use which the farm owner has made of the woods. Only in the more
inaccessible areas are there large ownerships.

The forests are chiefly oak, though scattered pine is found in the
higher elevations and sandier soils. Timber cutting is typically a
culling in which the best trees are taken. Fires usually follow, often
purposely set to freshen the grass and to obtain more sprout growth
for the cattle. Where fires have occurred repeatedly, they have pre-
vented the extension of pine and caused the development of a low
coppice forest. This has been further deteriorated through heavy
grazing. Brushy, open, and understocked stands occupy about one
fourth of the forest area.

At present there is no organized protection for the forest lands of
Missouri. Fire control, where it exists, is strictly a local or private
matter. Elsewhere, there is general indifference to protection needs.
The result is repeated fires, which render impossible the maintenance
of a good litter cover or the development of good watershed conditions.

As described in the introductory statement, studies in oak stands
in eastern Oklahoma under conditions which greatly resemble the
Ozarks show that surface fires markedly increase surface run-off and
erosion. Wisconsin investigations have shown that open and heavily
pastured forests do not hold back surface run-off much, if any better,
than open land and that grass land is responsible for a high percentage
of run-off. Undoubtedly some of the very large contributions this
area makes to the floods in the lower Mississippi are due to the
recurrent fires and heavy grazing.

In the Ozark region, most of the agricultural development has been
on the broad ridges and in the bottoms. The 1930 census data show
an increase in the area of crop land in a number of Ozark counties".
The new areas are largely on the hillsides where continued agricultural
use is doubtful because such lands erode rapidly. It is decidedly
questionable whether the public should permit land clearing of hill
lands in view of the fact that the resulting erosion is so quickly
poured into the Mississippi River. More and more agriculturists and
soil specialists are coming to believe that hill lands with slopes greater
than about 15 percent should not be cleared.

The question of how these practices — use of fire, heavy cutting,
pasturage of restocking and steep lands, and the clearing of liill lands
for cultivation — can be controlled is an open one. Certainly some
positive steps appear desirable. If public restrictions upon private
use are not in order, then public ownership is the only alternative.

402 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

The heavy contribution the Ozark region makes to the Mississippi
floods indicates that a part at least of the Ozark area should be in
public rather than in private hands. The situation is more largely
one of Federal than of local interest, and the values at stake are too
high to permit continued malpractice to threaten extensive public
works and the safety of a large population. About 150,000 acres of
abandoned farms and denuded lands need reforestation. Special
control measures are necessary on about 50,000 acres.

ABANDONED AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN THE UPLAND LOAMS

The agricultural lands of the upland silt loams have reached a
critical stage. Clean cultivation, largely for corn, has resulted in
erosion so serious as to make a large area of formerly prairie land of
doubtful agricultural value. Much of this area is drained by the
Grand River. According to H. H. Bennett of the Bureau of Chemis-
try and Soils:

Under continuous cropping to corn the rich top soil (Shelby silt loam of north-
ern Missouri) has been swept away from innumerable areas by erosion, down to
a yellow clay subsoil, within a period of about 50 to 60 years on 4 percent slopes,
and in about 10 to 20 years on 8 percent slopes. The exposed stiff, yellow clay
produces little grass of any value and only about 20 bushels of corn per acre
(no corn in dry years) as against more than 50 bushels for the best years on the
less severely washed soil. The vegetative changes resulting from erosion on this
extensive prairie soil have been most violent, a change from almost exclusive
stands of bluegrass, in density of 100 percent ground cover, to scattering weeds
and dwarfed grasses of very low grazing value.

At the Bethany (Mo.) Soil Erosion Station, the water loss from an
8 percent slope in corn during 1931 was 30 percent of the total pre-
cipitation and the soil loss 84 tons per acre. The corresponding losses
from a similar area planted to alfalfa were 0.36 percent of the precipi-
tation and 2 tons of soil per acre. Since forest has been shown by the
investigations of the Lake States Station to be more effective than
grass or hay cover crops in controlling run-off and erosion, it can be
readily realized that forestation on at least some of these badly erod-
ing lands would help to control flood flows and erosion. As forests
originally existed on about 40 percent of the abandoned farm land area
in southern Iowa and northern Missouri, it is not, therefore, a ques-
tion so much of putting forest where it has not previously grown, as in
restoring it. In 1919 the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station said :

Much of the rolling and rough land in southern Iowa that is subject to erosion,
especially that near the rivers, was originally in timber and should probably be
reforested or seeded down to grass. If this were done little erosion would ever
occur.66

Recent data from the University of Missouri indicate that 6
million acres of agricultural lands in Missouri are seriously eroding,
with gullies 6 to 10 feet deep not uncommon. Dr. M. F. Miller and
Dr. C. Hammer of the university estimate that some 2,250,000 acres
of these eroding lands need forest planting. Based on an incomplete
survey of the whole State, the Iowa State Soil Survey now in progress
is revealing that between 2 and 3 million acres of eroding land in Iowa
should be permanently taken out of cultivation and planted to trees.
The Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station estimates that more

«6 Eastman, E. E., and Glass, J. S. Soil Erosion in Iowa. Iowa Agric. Exp. Sta. Bull. 183, 1919.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 403

than 8 percent of the farm land in eastern Nebraska is seriously
eroded.

Altogether there are about 10 million acres of once fine agricultural
land in the lower Missouri drainage which now are of doubtful agri-
cultural value. Because of their relationship to the flood problem of
the Mississippi, they are of national significance. Early action should
be taken to place this land under some form of management that will
prevent further erosion and greater flood losses. For some of the
abandoned land that is at least of doubtful value for agriculture,
forestry offers a solution. On these lands, it should be possible within
a few years to control surface run-off and erosion through planting
and other forestry practices.

Conditions are now so serious that it seems scarcely possible for
private initiative to correct them. Public ownership of a large area
appears to be the only real solution.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

It has been pointed out that where forest lands in the upper Mis-
souri Basin are given management, satisfactory conditions of stream
flow obtain, and that on most lands not administered or managed,
watershed conditions are not satisfactory. Public lands under close
supervision are in the best shape, and some private lands in the worst.
The unreserved public domain approaches very closely the worst of
the private lands. This is especially marked in the Badlands where
grazing is principally at fault. Here in addition to range management,
forest planting, reseeding, and the use of erosion control devices are
needed to prevent further soil and water losses. Investigations are
particularly essential to determine how far these need to be applied
and their proper place.

In the lower Missouri, conditions on the commercial forest lands are
very unsatisfactory, especially in view of the far-reaching effect of the
run-off from the Ozark highlands. Fires are widespread and there is
no organized protection against them. Cutting is done without re-
gard to the watershed conditions. Overgrazing in pastures hastens
run-off and increases the flood troubles of the Mississippi. Land
clearing on steep slopes has gone too far. Private ownership has given
little thought to stream-flow conditions. Whether private enterprise
will take any specific action is doubtful. Public acquisition appears
necessary on about 7.6 million acres. In this area, the National Gov-
ernment is primarily concerned because of the contribution this area
makes to the Mississippi River floods.

On the agricultural silt loam uplands within the prairie region,
erosion has reached a stage where land is rapidly going out of agri-
culture. About 10 million acres of these lands are so eroded and im-
poverished as to be of doubtful agricultural value. Some of them could
support a forest of a land if planted. Public ownership of a large part
of these lands is apparently necessary, but the question of ownership
as well as that of future use is one that cannot be determined in the
light of present knowledge. If erosion is to be controlled and better
conditions of stream flow developed, some combination of forestry
with other use is necessary. Thorough investigations of conditions
and of the measure needed to restore watershed conditions are
necessary.

404 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

ARKANSAS AND RED RIVER DRAINAGES

The Arkansas River heads in the Rocky Mountains of southern
Colorado and northern New Mexico, and after flowing tlirough the
plains passes through the mountains in Arkansas to reach the Missis-
sippi. The Red River rises in the foothills of the Rockies in west
Texas, flows through the Red Plains, skirts the southern edge of the
mountains in Arkansas, and empties into the Mississippi River in
central Louisiana. The region drained by these rivers is shown in
figure 6, which indicates also the location of the forests in these drain-
ages and their relative influence upon watershed conditions. Of the
total forest area of 52,220,000 acres 34,560,000 acres, or 66 percent, is
classed as having a major influence upon watershed conditions,
15,525,000 acres, or 30 percent, as having a moderate influence, and
only 2,135,000 acres, or 4 percent, as having little or no influence.

FLOODS AND EROSION

The Arkansas and Red River drainages contribute proportionally
more to the floods of the Mississippi River than any other section of
the great Mississippi Basin. The greater part of this contribution
has its source in the Ouachita-Ozark Mountain area of southern Mis-
souri, Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma; records of the Mississippi
River Commission show that at the times of the great flood disasters
of 1915, 1922, and 1927, and at other times, this mountain area,
although constituting only about 5 percent of the total area of this
Mississippi River Basin, has contributed as much as 40 percent of the
flood waters in the delta region of the Mississippi. The records show
also that the Ouachita-Ozark section contributed more than 50 per
cent of the peak flow on May 1, 1927, and nearly 25 percent of the
peak on May 7, 1927.

The White River, a tributary of the Arkansas River that drains
northern Arkansas, contributes heavily to these flows. W. W. Ashe,
using data of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, has shown
that the drainage of the White River, although it contains only 2 per-
cent of the total Mississippi Basin, contributed 7.3 percent of the
flood waters of the lower Mississippi in the period 1911-27, inclusive.
He pointed out that the western portion of the Arkansas River drain-
age, although a much larger area, contributed less than 2 percent of
the same flood waters. The White River, as its name implies, origi-
nally ran clear. For the year 1927 its silt burden was estimated by
Ashe at nearly 3 million tons, or 105 tons per square mile of drainage
area, or 11 percent of the total silt load of the Arkansas.

Ashe estimated the total annual silt load carried by the Arkansas
at some 26 million tons. Of this, he estimated only 5 million tons
came from the Ouachita Province. A large part of this silt load
reaches ^the Gulf; the heavier and coarser material, however, is de-
posited in slack water at or near the mouth of the Arkansas and is the
chief cause of shifts of the stream banks and of the channel at that
point which sometimes have serious consequences in time of flood.

The western part of the Arkansas and Red River drainages is
characterized by different stream-flow conditions. Floods are much
more rare, and where the Arkansas passes out of the Rockies it usually
runs clear. The water problem is one of getting sufficient supplies
for irrigation ; in a considerable portion of southeastern Colorado and

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 405

northeastern New Mexico agriculture is dependent upon the flow of
mountain streams included in these drainages.

In the central or plains portion of the two drainages floods, water
supply, and erosion are all important locally. On the upper part of
the Cimarron, a tributary of the Arkansas, the Folsom flood of
August 1908 cost many lives and almost totally destroyed the town
of Folsom. The State of New Mexico plans to construct three flood-
control reservoirs on the head of the Cimarron. To impound about
50,000 acre-feet of water the Oklahoma State Commission of Drain-
age, Irrigation, and Reclamation has developed plans for 18 flood-
control reservoirs in the Cimarron Basin which would have a storage
capacity of nearly 1,750,000 acre-feet. The value of these reservoirs
would depend largely upon controlling soil erosion and thus preventing
sedimentation.

TOPOGRAPHY

Topographically, the Arkansas and Red River drainages are most
varied. In the extreme west the Rockies rise to elevations of 14,000
feet, some of the high peaks bearing perpetual snow. Steep slopes
and rugged topography prevail in the Rockies. The foothills, below
6,000 feet, are much less broken. Largely because of the roughness
of the topography, most of the Rocky Mountain forest area is classed
as having a major watershed-protective influence.

The plains region, which constitutes something like 60 percent of
the two drainages, is largely a gently rolling area. The "Breaks " are
a badly dissected area in the Red Plains of western Oklahoma and
northeastern Texas where the streams flow in cuts from 300 to 500
feet below the plains level. This area is characterized by steep
escarpments or sometimes almost perpendicular cliffs with steps and
terraces down to the streams.

Western Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, and
southern Missouri are composed largely of highlands. Elevations in
excess of 2,600 feet exist, although most of the hills are below 2,200
feet. The topography is much broken and slopes are steep; partly
for this reason, the forests that occur on these highlands are classed
principally as protection forests.

Rolling hills, seldom exceeding 500 feet in elevation, occur in
southern Arkansas, eastern Texas, and northern Louisiana.

The alluvial valley at the eastern end of these drainages is prac-
tically a level floor less than 200 feet above sea level. Flood waters
drain from this valley slowly. The bottomland forests are classed
as having little or no watershed protective influence.

PRECIPITATION

Great differences exist between different parts of the Arkansas and
Red River drainages as to quantity, intensity, and seasonal distribu-
tion of rainfall. In the east the average annual precipitation is
around 50 inches, but annual precipitation as high as 109 inches has
been recorded. Toward the west the precipitation gradually be-
comes less, reaching a minimum of about 12 inches in the plains. It
rises again to 30 or 35 inches in the Rocky Mountains, where a con-
siderable portion of the precipitation occurs as snow.

406 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

In the lower part of the drainages about one third of the precipita-
tion occurs during the spring months. In Arkansas 24-hour rainfall
is recorded to have totaled as high as 8l/2 inches and exceeds 5 inches
not uncommonly. In the spring flood periods of 1882, 1912, 1913,
1922, and 1927, the rainfall in the Quachita-Ozark region ranged from
15 inches to 35 inches. In the plains region the precipitation during
the winter and spring months is only about one third of the annual
total. Most of the rains come in midsummer, with marked irregu-
larity from season to season. At Twin Buttes, Colo., 8K inches,
or half the total annual precipitation, .has been known to fall in 1
month.

In the foothills and lower slopes of the Rocky Mountains, cloud-
bursts are not uncommon. This type of rainfall has been responsible
for much of the flood damage in eastern Colorado. The Pueblo flood
of June 1921 which caused damage in excess of $25,000,000 and the
loss of 120 lives, was caused by a rain of more than 7 inches of which
half fell in 1 day.

In the Rocky Mountains proper, a great part of the total precipita-
tion is snow. The melting of this snow causes high water in the
streams but no particularly damaging floods.

SOILS

In this region Ashe recognized four broad types of soil in addition
to the alluvial soils. He described these, and estimated the propor-
tion of the drainage areas on which they occurred, as follows:

1. Silts, very fine sands, and fine sandy loam, which are deficient
in cohesion and are eroded rapidly by heavy rams. About 60 percent.

2. Clays and related highly cohesive soils, subject to erosion but
not eroded so readily or destructively as the silts. About 15 percent.

3. Sands and similar light soils that have a high capacity for storing
water and are only slightly subject to erosion. Nearly 10 percent.

4. Stony soils, occurring particularly in the mountain regions.
Stone fragments sometimes form a heavy mantle on the surface of
cleared land that greatly obstructs erosion. About 15 percent.

Forests that occur on sandy soils are in general classed as having a
comparatively slight or at most a moderate influence upon watershed
conditions, because these soils are highly absorptive even in the
absence of a vegetative cover. Forests that grow on clay soils, as in
the rolling hill lands of northern Louisiana, are for the most part
classed as having a major influence because such soils are eroded so
readily in the absence of cover.

FOREST COVER

The forest area in these olrainages totals about 52 million acres,
forming about one third of the total area. It has three parts. The
Rocky Mountain area is relatively small, a narrow strip extending
about 300 miles along the eastward front of the mountains. Most
of this is in the Arkansas River drainage. The eastern forest area
lies largely east of the ninety-seventh meridian. The central area,
relatively small in extent, lies largely in the Breaks.

In the Rocky Mountain section dense forests of pine, fir, and spruce
exist. On the poorer sites the forest is open. The foothills and mesas

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 407

support only open woodlands of pine and cedar, in which grass is
abundant.

In the Ozark-Ouachita section commercial forest occurs in the
more humid eastern portion and the "fringe forest" in the western.
About half the forest area of the Ozark-Ouachita section has now been
cleared for agriculture.

The "fringe forest" is the rather scrubby forest and woodland
that borders the commercial forest of the Ozark-Ouachita Mountains
on the west. The Arkansas and Red River drainages contain about
10 million acres of woodland, of which Oklahoma has 1% million
acres. This woodland type, which reflects the dryness of the region,
is composed largely of oak. Pine, mostly shortleaf, occurs on the
better sites.

Within the plains region the woods occur as islands and stringers
on the lighter soils and north slopes. Poplars and willows follow the
streams far into the plains. The forest of the Breaks is largely
woodland and brush, scrub oaks and brushy vegetation predominating.

Because the Arkansas and Red Rivers contribute great quantities
of water and silt to the Mississippi floods, it is highly desirable in the
drainages of these rivers to retard stream flow during the flood periods
and to protect the soil from erosion. Watershed-protection service
rendered by the forests in these drainages at critical periods is a matter
of national importance.

The effectiveness of the forest cover in maintaining good watershed
conditions is indicated at least in part by the behavior of the Current
River, a northeasterly tributary of the White River. The upper part
of the basin of this river is rough and hilly, the lower rolling. Most
of it is in forest. The ordinary flow of the river is derived almost
entirely from springs. Discharge measurements made by the Geo-
logical Survey show that, originating from deforested or burned areas,
its ratio of maximum to minimum flow is only 65 to 1, whereas for the
main Arkansas River at its mouth the ratio of maximum to minimum
flow is 600 to 1.

WATERSHED PROTECTIVE CONDITIONS BY REGIONS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN FORESTS

In the Rocky Mountain part of the Arkansas and Red River
drainages some timber has been cut but the relative inaccessibility of
the forests has prevented extensive exploitation. Relatively few
fires occur, though it is evident that fires have been severe in the past.
In the spruce type fires have been particularly disastrous, many burns
having failed to restock. Unrestricted grazing in the early days led
to serious gullying of mountain meadows, which has not yet healed.

Some 80 percent, or about 2}£ million acres, of the forest area in this
section is included in national forests. This acreage is protected
from fire, and is so managed that cutting and grazing do not destroy
the cover and that forest conditions are steadily improving.

Outside the national forests, forest land is not being given the care
that its watershed values justify. Cutting has removed much of the
forest cover, and recurrent fires destroy the litter. Loss of the litter
has decidedly impaired watershed values, resulting in increased surface
run-off, decreased absorption, and increased erosion. Overgrazing,

168342°— 33— vol. 1 27

408 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

typical of the foothills and lower slopes, has accentuated watershed
damage. The stony soils are easily erosible. Erosion caused by too
heavy grazing use progresses with special rapidity during severe rain-
storms. Trout Creek, near Buena Vista, Colo., furnishes an out-
standing example of the results of reduction of cover. Formerly this
stream for 20 miles was clear and willow lined, and gave no evidence
of erosion. Timber cutting in recent years has been followed by fire
and overgrazing. The fertile bottomland soil has now been washed
away, all the willows are gone, and the stream is imbedded in a deep,
wide gully practically throughout its length. Heavy rains now cause
floods which result in damage to agricultural lands and to transporta-
tion improvements.

OZARK-OUACHITA FORESTS

Lumbering on a large scale in the eastern mountains began about
1890. It was concentrated on the pine lands at first, but soon moved
into the hardwoods. The first cuttings were usually light, but as
time passed heavier cutting became the rule.

Slashings rarely escaped burning. Repeated fires gradually
deteriorated the forest. In many places, especially on the poorer
soils, the stands became more or less open or brushy. A recent study
of hardwood stands on the Ozark National Forest by the Central
States Forest Experiment Station showed that only 1.5 percent of the
stands studied were of seedling origin.

Settlement in the Ozark-Ouachita region began about 1830. By
1860 the greater portion of the White River Valley of northern Arkan-
sas and most of the Arkansas Valley to the Oklahoma line had been
settled. The prairies and oak openings were first to be occupied.
A great part of the alluvial and rolling hill land of the main Arkansas
Valley has since been put into cultivation.

Clearing and cultivation of row crops on hillsides has led to rather
general erosion as the humus in the top soil was exhausted or washed
away, and to subsequent abandonment of crop lands. Many of the
hill farms should never have been cleared. Census data show that
the crop-land area in Garland and Baxter Counties of central Arkansas
has declined by nearly one third, and that a similar decline has taken
place in counties in the forest belt of southern Missouri and northern
Louisiana. Serious erosion is occurring in the hill lands in north-
eastern Texas. Certain of the soil types, such as the loess found on
Crowley's Ridge in northeastern Arkansas, are eroded rapidly into
deep gullies that not only make further cultivation impossible but in
many instances prevent reforestation. Fortunately the shortleaf
pine of the mountains and the loblolly of the lower slopes and bottoms
bear seed frequently and scatter their seeds widely, and thus quickly
reclaim abandoned fields. In many cases, however, fires on the
restocking fields prevent maintenance of the good forest and litter
cover so necessary to proper watershed conditions.

In Arkansas, which lies almost entirely in the Arkansas and Red
River drainages, the average area burned over annually in the 5-year
period 1926-1930 was some 2,350,000 acres of a total forest area of 22
million acres, this burned area including 2,190,000 acres of the unpro-
tected forest area of 18}£ million acres. Cutting and fire together
have deteriorated the forest on approximately half the total forest
area of Arkansas. On some of these lands there is a brush or other

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 409

low type of cover, but frequent fires prevent the development of a
good litter cover.

For the Ozark-Ouachita section as a whole, grazing is not a factor
of great importance in watershed conditions. Some hardwood forests
are grazed, with consequent opening of the stand and dissipation of
the litter. Cattle are turned loose on pine lands, also, especially in
the Kisatchie Hills section of northern Louisiana, but not in sufficient
numbers to create critical conditions through depleting the minor
vegetation. The practice of burning for the purpose of range better-
ment is the most serious factor connected with grazing.

FRINGE FOREST

In Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and northern Texas, extensive
areas of woodland have been cleared for agriculture. As settlement
increased the practice of burning the woods became prevalent.
Under burning, humus conditions deteriorated and the perennial
herbs gave way to annual grasses. Overgrazing, also, has greatly
depleted the vegetative cover and in the stands thus opened litter
cover cannot form because winds scatter the leaves.

The extent of fires in the fringe forest type is indicated by fire
records for Oklahoma, where the fringe forest makes up about two
thirds of the total forest area. The records do not separate the wood-
land type from the commercial forest, but probably at least half and
possibly two thirds of the fires recorded occurred in the woodland
type. In 1931, 7,600 forest fires in Oklahoma burned almost 2%
million acres of the 12% million acres of forest land in the State and
did damage to the extent of more than $3,000,000. This damage
estimate takes no cognizance of watershed values impaired or
destroyed.

The effect of fire in this type is shown by investigations recently
made at the Red Plains Erosion Experiment Station, near Guthrie,
Okla., which are described in detail in the discussion, " Consequences
of Disturbing the Forest Cover. " These investigations showed that
the run-off from a burned plot of post-oak timber was more than 110
times as great as the run-off from a similar unburned plot. Erosion
similarly removed 15 times as much soil from the burned area.
Although the litter found in post oak woodland is not so dense or so
effective in limiting run-off as that in forests of many other species,
in this experiment it showed great value for flood control.

Erosion is common on the upland cultivated soils, especially on
those that are hilly or rolling and not terraced. As a result of this
erosion heavy silt loads are carried by the streams of southwestern
Missouri and eastern Kansas. Of the two Hanceville soil types the
State forester of Oklahoma said: "Much of the land when cleared is
so subject to erosion that only a comparatively few crops can be
raised before it has to be abandoned." In the Wichita and Arbuckle
Mountains of central Oklahoma, agriculture on steep hill lands has
caused both sheet and gully erosion. Many of the eroded lands have
been abandoned. On these lands a forest cover is slow to return.

In 1930 an erosion survey by the Oklahoma Agricultural College
disclosed that of the approximately 16 million acres of cultivated land
in the State 13 million acres was subject to excessive washing, 6
million acres had reached the gullying stage, and 374,000 acres was

410 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

so badly gullied that farm machinery could not be used on it. The
survey revealed also that in the preceding 3 or 4 years 1,359,000
acres of formerly tilled land had been abandoned because of erosion.

BREAKS FORESTS

In the Breaks sparsely wooded, brush-covered, or even naked
slopes occur in the gorges of the Arkansas and Red Rivers and their
tributaries. In many places the vegetation is in such delicate balance
that any disturbance results in extensive gullying. Erosion has been
intensified by the torrential character of the rains, and has been
accelerated by overgrazing.

Erosion from the Breaks probably accounts for two thirds of the
silt load of both rivers.

WATERSHED-PROTECTIVE CONDITIONS BY TYPE OF LAND OWNERSHIP

NATIONAL FORESTS

The value of the forests in the Arkansas and Red River drainages
has been recognized by the Government through the establishment of
national forests, which include much of the headwaters forest area
in the Rocky Mountains, and through plans for national-forest
extension. On these national forests, conditions resulting from over-
grazing are being corrected through range management, methods of
cutting timber that provide for restocking are in effect, and fire
control is on an organized basis. Watershed conditions are therefore
improving. In the Ouachita-Ozark highlands, the national-forest area
amounts to some 1,250,000 acres. Here, likewise, measures have been
put into effect to restore the forest cover where it has been depleted
and to protect the forests from fire, and timber cutting is regulated.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Some 770,000 acres of unreserved public-domain forest land still
exists in these drainages, mostly woodland areas at the headwaters of
the rivers. Conditions are less satisfactory on these lands than on
the national forests, because management is lacking. The Forest
Service recommended to the Public Domain Commission in 1930
that many of these lands be added to existing national forests.

STATE LANDS

State ownership of forest land in the Arkansas and Red River
drainages covers only 105,000 acres. Most of the State forest lands
are so located and in such small units that adequate management is
practically out of the question. They are consequently in about the
same condition as private lands.

PRIVATE LANDS

Private owners of forest lands, for the most part, have not con-
cerned themselves with maintaining good watershed conditions on
their holdings. A number of owners are endeavoring to protect their
lands from fire, but this effort is not general; in 1931, fire protection
was afforded for only 17 percent of the privately owned forest area of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 411

Oklahoma and Arkansas. Some companies owning extensive tracts
of timberland in Arkansas and Louisiana have purchased the lands
of settlers believed to be responsible for frequent fires.

Some landholders are cutting their timber in such a way as not to
cause deterioration of the stand and on a continuous-production basis.

Much idle farm land is potential forest land, since it is at least
exceedingly doubtful that it will again be needed for crop production
for many years.

MEASURES NEEDED FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION

In the Arkansas and Red River drainages the adoption of adequate
fire-control standards such as are outlined in the section of this report
entitled "Protection Against Fire" would better watershed condi-
tions more quickly than any other measure. Adoption of simple
forestry practices would contribute greatly to the improvement of
watershed conditions. These would include better cutting practices
and the elimination of grazing from cut-over hardwood areas — at
least until the forest cover has reestablished itself. Clearing of hills
that are too steep for profitable cultivation should not be permitted.
The present widespread erosion of hill crop lands and the increasing
abandonment of these lands indicate that cultivation of slopes the
grade of which exceeds 12 or 15 percent is uneconomic except under
most unusual circumstances.

Forest planting is needed to supplement natural restocking, on
abandoned agricultural lands and on some forest lands. Some
500,000 acres in the Ozark-Ouachita highlands and about 250,000
acres in the upper coastal plain region should be reforested.

Special measures of erosion control and probably of water control
are needed on many areas. These would include such devices as
soil-saving dams on badly gullied abandoned agricultural lands,
check dams on mountain areas to assist in holding back the surface
flow, terracing of some of the most severely eroded abandoned agri-
cultural lands, sodding of some particularly bad areas, and stream-
bank correction to prevent undercutting.

In the Breaks areas, grazing, which is probably more responsible
than any other factor for extensive erosion, should be more closely
regulated. Much can be done to control severe washing and gully-
ing by such devices as check dams, erosion fences, etc. Such devices
can only be of lasting benefit if cover conditions are properly main-
tained. Investigation should be made into the possibility of reduc-
ing by range management, tree planting, reseeding of depleted range
land, and special erosion-control measures the quantity of silt added
by this area to the burden of the Arkansas and Red Rivers.

In these drainages satisfactory cover conditions might be expected
to result from extending to the unreserved public domain and to
private forest lands the practices now in effect on the national forests.
It is doubtful that the private owner can undertake to put these
measures into effect. Forest planting, elimination of grazing, and
other needed erosion-control measures would result in heavy charges
against the land. For this reason, and in view of the relationship
between forest conditions in these drainages and the floods of the
lower Mississippi, public ownership of about 19.2 million acres in

412 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR. AMERICAN FORESTRY

the drainages appears desirable. This will include about 2.2 million
acres of abandoned agricultural lands and 17 million acres of forest
land. The very large national interest created by conditions in these
drainages suggest that this public ownership be Federal rather than
State or other local.

LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN

Floods in the Mississippi Valley are most common and of greatest
concern in the " Delta" or bottomland region of the lower Mississippi
Basin. Here all the major tributaries of the big river pour in their
flood contributions, the control of which constitutes the outstanding
flood problem in the United States. Responsibility for the havoc
wrought by floods in the bottomlands of the lower Mississippi Basin
must be attributed largely to flood waters from other sections. How-
ever, were the latter all under control, there would still be a local
flood problem of considerable magnitude in the lower Mississippi
Basin as a result of the condition of its watershed and the relatively
large area of alluvial bottomlands on which its own flood waters are
poured.

LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION OF DRAINAGE BASIN

For purposes of this discussion, the lower Mississippi Basin (shown
in fig. 6) includes not only the alluvial lands extending from Cairo,
111., to the Gulf of Mexico but also the upland watersheds of the streams
draining directly into the lower river. These are small and relatively
unimportant streams with the exception of the Yazoo River which
heads in the uplands of north-central Mississippi and flows over a
wide alluvial flood plain to join the Mississippi River at Vicksburg.

The lower Mississippi Basin is from 500 to 600 miles long and up
to 150 miles wide. It has a total area of 33,886,000 acres. Nearly
one half the total area is in overflow bottomlands. Here forest occu-
pies lands not protected by levees and lands behind the levees which
have not been cleared for agriculture. These overflow areas are often
covered with water during the winter season and thus perform an
important service in flood control since they serve as natural storage
reservoirs for the detention of flood waters.

The remainder of the drainage basin^ consists of rolling to hilly
uplands. The principal area — the Mississippi bluffs and silt loam
uplands — borders the Mississippi Delta on the east and extends in a
strip 35 to 100 miles wide throughout the length of the drainage basin.
A much smaller but similar upland area known as Crowley's Ridge is
located west of the Mississippi River. The latter area occupies a
narrow belt up to 10 miles wide and about 200 miles long and rises
about 150 feet above the level of the surrounding bottomlands. Also
included in the drainage is a relatively small area of hilly country in
southeastern Missouri.

These uplands because of their location with reference to low-lying
bottomlands and because of their present condition play an important
part in the destructive floods and soil erosion that are the major
watershed problems of the drainage.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 413

STREAM FLOW AND FLOOD PROBLEMS OF THE DRAINAGE

As has been pointed out, major overflows in the Mississippi Delta
have their source outside the boundaries of the drainage basin. In
the lower Mississippi Basin the outstanding flood problem directly
attributable to run-off from within the drainage occurs in the Yazoo
Delta. This is an alluvial flood plain 180 miles long and up to 65
miles wide, lying between the Yazpo and Mississippi Rivers north of
their confluence in western Mississippi. Here major floods occur
periodically every few years, frequently during the winter months
after heavy and prolonged rains. They originate in north central
Mississippi on the watersheds of upland tributaries, and are the result
of surface run-off from the uplands poured quickly and in large
volumes on a region of nearly level topography and poor drainage.
These overflows often cover hundreds of thousands of acres and do
widespread damage. The most recent Yazoo flood occurred during
the period December to February, 1931-32. This overflow, the
greatest on record, inundated some 600,000 acres and imposed great
hardships. According to estimates of the United States Weather
Bureau, it resulted in property damage of almost $1,500,000, not
including the damage to crops and livestock.

Floods of less magnitude occur on the bottomlands of other streams
draining the uplands of the lower Mississippi Basin. These streams
have a low gradient and are rather sluggish. Some have developed
flood plains several miles in width and these are flooded almost
annually during periods of heavy rainfall. On these bottomlands,
the most disastrous floods occur during the summer months when
heavy rains produce overflows that inundate growing crops.

Although the normal discharge of these streams is slow, discharges
at flood are turbulent. Even at normal flow the water is strongly
discolored and carries large volumes of silt. In addition, flood waters
transport enormous quantities of heavier materials and, during periods
of overflow, often cover productive alluvial farm lands with an infer-
tile blanket of sand and gravel. The channels of creeks and other
small tributaries are frequently filled with such detritus, thereby
causing more frequent and extensive overflows on adjacent bottom-
lands. The sediment carried by the headwater drainages becomes of
Greater economic concern when it reaches navigable streams and is
eposited in the channels, thus necessitating costly dredging opera-
tions. In 1931, such work in the Memphis district of the Mississippi
River cost nearly $800,000. For the lower river as a whole it has
cost to date some $19,000,000 to remove soil eroded from the water-
sheds of the Mississippi River system.

The streams of the lower Mississippi Basin are perennial and flow
throughout the year. The flow, however, is not uniform and is par-
ticularly erratic for those streams draining only upland watersheds.
Irregularities in flow are indicated by stream gage records of the
United States Geological Survey which show, for the Coldwater
River, a ratio of maximum to minimum discharge of 725 : 1 ; for the
Yallobusha River, 486 : 1 ; and for the Yazoo River 43:1. The erratic
behavior of these streams in common with others in the basin is
evidenced during periods of heavy and prolonged rainfall when rises

414 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

are comparatively rapid. Flood stages are often reached in a few days
and subsidence occurs just as quickly when the bulk of the surface
water has drained away.

CHARACTER AND CAUSES OF EROSION

While erosion problems are confined to the upland portions of the
drainage basin they are intimately related to the flood and stream-flow
problems of the lowlands since both are quite largely the product of
uncontrolled surface run-off. That the uplands of the basin are espe-
cially susceptible to erosion is shown by the results of surveys made in
1930 by the Southern Forest Experiment Station. These reveal that
28 percent of the entire upland area in northern Mississippi is denuded
land, barren of cover and actively eroding. In 4 counties more
than 30 percent of the total area is eroding, while in 2 more than
40 percent is so classed. An additional area of 27 percent of the
region is abandoned land, the abandonment of which in part was
caused by soil impoverishment. These data apply specifically to the
upland watersheds of the streamy tributary to the Yazoo River, but
the widespread and destructive soil destruction found in this portion
of the Mississippi silt loam uplands characterizes a large part of the
entire region.

A mere quantitative estimate of erosion, however, gives little indi-
cation of the real seriousness of the problem . Much of the erosion is of
a peculiarly destructive type. Washes 20 to 30 feet in depth are
common and occasionally gullies nearly 100 feet in depth are found.
Such erosion has made these silt uplands and their counterpart in the
upper Mississippi drainage, a region of outstanding watershed and
erosion problems.

A combination of factors is responsible for the serious erosion and
flood problems of the region. The precipitation is heavy and aver-
ages, for the region, between 40 and 55 inches, more than half of it
falling when the cultivated lands are bare of cover. Most of it comes
as numerous rains, frequently torrential in character. According to
United States Weather Bureau records, there have been about 35
days annually over a 20-year period with rainfall of one fourth inch
to 1 inch and about 4 days with rains of 2 inches and over. A maxi-
mum precipitation of 4 inches an hour and 9 inches in 24 hours is
reported.

The soils of the region are highly erosible and consist mainly of
silt loams and clay loams derived from loess. When protected by
forest or other vegetative cover these soils do not erode easily and are
capable of absorbing large quantities of rainfall. When bared, how-
ever, they wash badly. The silty soils are frequently underlain at
depth of a few feet by unconsolidated sands and other incoherent
materials. Once a gully has cut through the surface loams and
exposed these unstable strata, erosion proceeds on a gigantic scale,
and is extremely difficult to control.

The unwise use of these uplands for agriculture is responsible for
practically all of the soil wastage that has occurred. The cultivation
of cotton and corn to the exclusion of other crops leaves the soils
exposed to the action of the elements during much of the year. Even
on moderate slopes the soil losses from the cultivated fields of the
region are enormous. Forest Service studies at Holly Springs, Miss.,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 415

show that a single rain falling on a cornfield having a 10 percent slope
washed soil from a study plot at the rate of 23 tons per acre. Pre-
liminary results also show that under such conditions only 2 to 3 years
are required to wash away 1 inch of topsoil These data, substantiated
by observations, indicate that the cultivable life of these upland soils
ranges from 5 to 20 years.

As a result of such conditions, wholesale abandonment of farm lands
has occurred. The surveys of the Southern Forest Experiment Sta-
tion indicate that on the upland watershed of the Yazoo River, totaling
roughly 3,487,000 acres, there are 813,000 acres of abandoned farm
lands and almost as large an area additional of land formerly aban-
doned but now used for pasture. More intensive surveys of five farms
also show that more than 50 percent of the total area of each farm
had been abandoned because of erosion. The abandonment of eroded
marginal lands is an important factor in the growth and spread of
gullies which usually proceed unchecked once the fields are taken out
of cultivation. Unless control measures are promptly taken, com-
plete destruction of the abandoned field results.

RELATION OF FORESTS TO FLOOD AND EROSION PROBLEMS OF
THE DRAINAGE BASIN

The original forest of the uplands was largely mixed pines and
hardwoods. In the southern portion of the region loblolly pine is pre-
dominant and seeds in abundantly on waste and abandoned areas.
In northern Mississippi shortleaf pine occurs in mixtures with the
mixed oak forest. Further north, the forest consists almost entirely
of oak, hickory, and other hardwoods.

Clearing, primarily for agriculture, has been extensive. Less than
25 percent of the uplands area originally completely timbered is still
in forest.

Lumbering is now of minor consequence in this region. In the past,
cutting as a rule was not heavy, and stands were culled of their large
white oak, yellow poplar, and other desirable species, rather than cut
clear. Later cuttings for ties and other minor products have seriously
depleted the stands. Logging seldom produced devastation conse-
quently, unless the logged-over area were put into cultivation, pro-
tection values were little changed. Within the range of the pines, cut-
over areas reseed within a few years as a rule and reproduction becomes
established in spite of fire and other mistreatment. Hardwood stands
are rarely cut clear and reproduction is usually complete.

Fire is a much more serious factor than cutting, because fires, often
purposely set, burn over extensive areas of forest annually. Litter
accumulations, so necessary to good watershed conditions are thus
prevented, and in those areas where repeated fires occur at short
intervals, the forest often has greatly deteriorated.

Grazing is typically a woodlot problem, although in some localities
the stock is turned loose in the woods. Most of the really serious
damage to the forest is done in cut-over hardwood stands where
repeated browsing of the new growth tends towards the formation of
brushy stands or in some places rather open woods.

It is estimated that in the entire lower Mississippi Basin there are
approximately 17,854,000 acres of forest land, of which roughly
6,857,000 acres have a major influence on watershed values and 1,877,-
000 acres have a moderate influence. The relative influence ascribed

416 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

to each class of forest is based largely on the location of the forest with
respect to regions where conditions are particularly conducive to
excessive surface run-off and erosion. The forests of each protection
class are shown in figure 6.

The forests having a moderate and heavy influence are in the silt
loam uplands, Crowley's Ridge, and the hill lands of southeastern
Missouri. However, only 25 percent or less of the total area of these
erosive uplands is now forested. Therefore, if the protective influence
of forest is to be more fully realized there should be marked extension
of the present forest area and the restoration of forest cover to large
areas of now idle land. Such upland forests as remain afford some-
what less than the maximum possible protection, but they unquestion-
ably exert a considerable and beneficial influence on erosion and on
stream flow. In the Yazoo River flood period of 1931-32, the Southern
Forest Experiment Station found that of the 27 inches of rain that
fell, 62 percent ran off cultivated fields immediately and carried soil
with it at the rate of 34 tons per acre. In barren abandoned fields
the run-off was 54 percent of the total rainfall. During the heaviest
rains from 75 to 95 percent of the rain falling on these classes of land
became surface run-off. On the other hand, of the 27 inches of rain
falling on an undisturbed oak forest, less than 0.5 percent ran off the
surface, taking only about 75 pounds of soil per acre. The run-off
from a plot located in a scrub-oak forest, and with a litter cover, was
2 percent of the rainfall.

For the period of observation, the surface or flood run-off from land
in cultivation was 127 tunes greater than from forest land, and the
eroded soil over 900 times greater.

WATERSHED AREA IN NEED OF SPECIAL ATTENTION

As the upland area of the lower Mississippi Basin has such an inti-
mate bearing upon floods and upon the amount of eroded material
which reaches the Mississippi River, it is one of the outstanding
critical areas of the country, one in which every effort should be made
to bring about more favorable conditions.

Of these uplands, the situation in the Yazoo River drainage probably
is in most need of early attention. From this unit of roughly 3 ,487 ,000
acres gross, surface run-off is quickly concentrated hi drainage chan-
nels and the flood waters are almost immediately debouched into the
low-lying, poorly drained Delta where extensive areas of true agricul-
tural land are subject to destructive inundation as the result of unwise
land use in the adjacent uplands. Residents of the Yazoo Delta,
one of the most productive of all agricultural regions, with half of its
nearly 6 million acres in fertile farm lands, have made numerous
demands for the construction of a complete system of levees, which
would protect them not only from the Mississippi floods but also
from those of the Yazoo as well. Engineers estimate, however, that
adequate levee protection from floods would cost many millions of
dollars. In this whole situation lies strong evidence of a need rather
to control run-off at its source through changes in land utilization in
adjacent uplands.

Something like 35 percent, or 1,214,000 acres, of the Yazoo uplands
are in cultivated crops. This large area appears to be a serious ob-
stacle to any program aimed at complete control through forest cover.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 417

Of the cultivated area, the data indicate that about 470,000 acres,
or 13 percent of the total, is badly sheet eroded and hence will quite
likely be worn out and abandoned within the next 10 or 15 years.
These eroded submarginal lands could very easily be converted into
forest or pasture if remedial steps were taken promptly at time of
abandonment. Unless a vegetative cover is quickly established,
uncontrolled run-off soon transforms these old fields into gullied
wastes which are difficult to reclaim. An additional 350,000 acres
of eroded pasture land will quickly revert to forest or other native
vegetation if protected from livestock.

Of the total area of the Yazoo upland watershed, 23 percent, or
about 813,000 acres of once arable land, has been abandoned and is
now lying idle. Of this area about 500,000 acres is not seriously
eroded and is reverting naturally to forest and grasses. The remain-
ing 313,000 acres is, however, very badly gullieof and actively eroding.
The preliminary run-off studies in northern Mississippi indicate that
the areas which are or have been in cultivation are the outstanding
contributors of flashy run-off and suffer most of the soil losses. As
the badly eroded and impoverished abandoned lands will not revege-
tate except after a long period, it will be necessary to establish the
forest cover largely through artificial means. About 250,000 acres
probably need planting, many of which need special erosion-control
measures as well.

The planting of these severely gullied lands offers many difficulties
that are at present being investigated. In certain cases, however,
such plantings have already proved successful and practicable. In
western Tennessee, black locust plantations have been established
on many eroded fields. These plantations in 10 to 15 years have not
only effectively stopped erosion but have developed such a cover that
soil and water conditions approach those of a much older forest.

Plantations alone cannot stop the further extension of gullies.
They are too deep and the erosive processes are taking place too
rapidly. Special works, such as soil-saving dams and check dams, are
needed. Seeding and sodding of slopes will be required. Probably
150,000 acres in all will require special treatment. The upland types
receive little fire protection. Adequate fire control would permit
many abandoned lands to restock fairly promptly and would enable
the restocking lands to develop a denser cover. It would also permit
the formation of a good litter layer.

Erosion on the areas in need of planting has already progressed
far beyond the stage where the land can be again reclaimed for culti-
vation. Furthermore, from 65 to 85 percent of the farm lands,
according to 1930 census figures, are in the hands of tenant farmers
who have little incentive for improving them inasmuch as the absentee
owners are, as a rule, indifferent to their destruction. At the present
rate of abandonment, it seems highly probable that in 10 or 15 years
less than 25 percent of the uplands area will be in cultivation, provided
that new areas are not cleared nor old fields again put into cultivation.

At the present time practically all of the silt loam uplands are in
private hands. In view of local conditions and the abandonment of
agricultural lands, it appears unlikely that watershed conditions can
be corrected through the efforts of the private owners. These efforts
would place a heavy financial burden on the owner and most of them
do not hold out to him the possibility of monetary return. Public

418 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

acquisition of a large area therefore seems certain, and, in view of the
national interest involved, Federal participation may be called for.

Study of the watershed needs in the lower Mississippi River Basin
leads to the belief that some 5.8 million acres should be in public
ownership. Of these 1.2 million acres are classed as abandoned and
eroded agricultural lands and 4.6 million acres as forest lands. All of
this land is in the region having a major influence on streams. Public
ownership and management of these lands will assist greatly in restor-
ing more favorable conditions of water flow.

CALIFORNIA DRAINAGES

An honorary watershed committee appointed by the Governor of
California, in a report published in 1932 under the title, "Forestry in
the State-Wide Water Plan", states: " * * * the best possible
development and conservation of the waters of the State are of the
utmost importance to the continued prosperity of both the rural and
urban communities of California." In this committee's opinion " any
great increase in population in this State is impossible without the
fullest feasible conservation of its waters. Without a sound program
of water conservation * * * California cannot continue to
maintain even its present population."

The California drainages (fig. 11) as here considered include all
lands in the State except the eastward slope of the Sierra Nevada,
which drains into the Great Basin, and include also portions of Oregon
that are drained by the Klamath and Sacramento Rivers. According
to the 1930 census these California drainages include 4,765,000 acres
of irrigated land, and the value of this land, together with that of
improvements and equipment and of irrigation enterprises serving the
land, totals nearly $3,000,000,000. This high value is due to condi-
tions favorable to production of high-value fruit and other crops on a
considerable part of the irrigated land. The very large urban popu-
lation of the drainages makes a heavy demand for water for municipal
use. In waterpower development California ranks first among the
States, with a present installed capacity of 2,321,374 horsepower
which has been yielding an average output of about 1,173,000 horse-
power. It is expected that ultimate development will raise the
average output to 6,674,000 horsepower available 50 percent of the
time.

In order most effectively to develop and conserve its water resources
California has developed a State water plan that calls for expenditure
of approximately $500,000,000 in constructing reservoirs and canals.
The proposed reservoirs would be located largely in the foothills of
the Sierra Nevada with a view to impounding flood waters from the
higher watersheds, and the canals would transport water from areas
of surplus to areas of inadequate supply. The water shortages which
this plan is designed to overcome in part occur principally in the San
Joaquin River Basin.

The State watershed committee estimates that the mountain and
foothill areas upon which the valleys and lowlands depend as their
source of water aggregate some 40 million acres, approximately 40
percent of the total land area of the State. Effective precipitation
occurs on these areas during a period of about 5 months in the winter
and early spring. Summer rains are not uncommon in the northwest
coast belt and in the Sierras but are extremely rare in the other parts

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

419

of the State. Furthermore, summers are hot. Precipitation occurs
below the 2,500-foot contour as rain, between the 2,500-and 5,000-foot
contours as rain and snow, above 5,000 feet as snow. Annual precip-

o

CALIFORNIA DRAINAGE! BASINS

SAN JOAQUIN RIVER BASIN
SACRAMENTO RIVER BASIN
NORTH COAST DRAINAGES
CENTRAL COAST DRAINAGES
DESERT BASIN
SOUTH COAST DRAINAGES

PACIFIC

CASCADE
DRAINAGES

SAN FRANCISCO

RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
ON WATERSHEDS

^ MAJOR INFLUENCE
EH^j MODERATE INFLUENCE
E.I.WxJ SLIGHT INFLUENCE
o

FIGURE 11.— California drainages.

itation totals 50 inches or more in the northern Sierra Nevada and in
the northern coast ranges. It gradually decreases toward the south.
Likewise the proportion of the precipitation that accumulates as
snow in the mountains decreases toward the south. In view of the
long, dry summers and the present incomplete development of reser-
voir storage the heavy winter snow pack, especially in the Sierras, is

420 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

of the utmost importance to both power and irrigation interests.
Run-off from snow melt at the higher elevations remains plentiful well
into July, and a rather well-sustained flow continues through the
summer in many of the streams from drainage of water that has seeped
into the soil. Upward of 2,500 mountain meadows and 1,500 lakes
act as natural storage basins helping to maintain this stream flow.

The mountain areas are largely forested, chiefly with conifers.
Interspersed with the coniferous forests are extensive brush fields,
many of which, under proper management, could be converted again
into coniferous forest. The foothills are covered mainly with brush
and chaparral, with lesser areas of woodland and grassland. As a
whole the forests of the California drainages amount to approximately
29,780,000 acres, this total including timberland, woodland, chaparral,
and brushland.

While the bulk of the forest lands are still virgin, extensive areas
show the effects of destructive fires to which they have been subjected
in the past and of destructive lumbering. The foothills, in particular,
have suffered disastrously from fire. Overgrazing, also, has seriously
injured the watershed cover of forested lands.

Destruction of watershed cover has resulted in abnormal erosion
over millions of acres, particularly in the foothill belt. The eroded
material is rapidly silting up reservoirs, canals, ditches, and other
engineering works, shortening their life or adding to the cost of
maintenance far beyond what silting from normal erosion would do.
Eroded material also seals the surface soil of gravel beds at the
mouths of canyons over which run-off water is spread in order to
increase storage in subterranean basins. This method of increasing
water storage is used extensively in southern California. The silting
up of these gravel beds retards the salvage of flood waters. The
heavy draft on underground water supplies is lowering the water
level and increasing the cost and difficulty of irrigating from wells.

The eroded material, added to the rapid run-off from exposed slopes,
greatly intensifies the destructiveness of floods. In 1928 North
Sacramento and other towns of the Sacramento Valley suffered a loss
of $736,000 as a result of floods in the Mokelumne, Consumnes,
American, and Feather- Yuba Rivers.67 Destructive floods have
occurred in many parts of the State.

FOREST COVER IN RELATION TO WATERSHED PROBLEMS IN
INDIVIDUAL DRAINAGES

On the basis of watershed problems and the relation of forest coyer
to them, the California drainages logically divide into six units:
(1) The San Joaquin River Basin; (2) the Sacramento River Basin;

(3) the north coast drainages, including that of the Klamath River;

(4) the central coast drainages; (5) the desert basin; and (6) the south
coast drainages. These units differ as to physical and other factors
contributing to the influence of forests upon water supply, erosion, and
floods, as to the demand for water, and as to other watershed con-
siderations.

California watershed lands are chiefly of three classes — forest,
range, and agricultural. It is probable that erosion and the influence

67 Taylor, N. R. "The Floods of March 1928, in the Sacramento Valley," pp. 100-102. Monthly
Weather Review, March 1928.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 421

of run-off on floods is more serious on range and sloping agricultural
lands than on forest lands. This discussion covers forest land, range
and agricultural lands occurring within the forest in such a way that
the watershed relationships cannot be effectively separated, and lands
cleared of timber that should have remained forested. The following
discussion of forest conditions and use will deal both with the timber
and its use by cutting and with the forest-range plants and their use
by grazing. Destructive factors such as overcutting or improper
logging, fire, and overgrazing are considered, as they influence both
the timber and the understory of other vegetation.

SAN JOAQUIN RIVER BASIN

Water is in especial demand in the San Joaquin River Basin, which
includes together with the broad San Joaquin Valley many westward
drainages from the southern half of the Sierra Nevada and a narrow
strip of the eastern part of the Coast Range. Approximately
2,405,380 acres are now irrigated and a total of 3,773,964 acres is
irrigable. The Hetch Hetchy project, costing $126,500,000, is de-
signed to provide San Francisco and its environs (1930 population,
634,394) with an adequate water supply drawn from the Tuolumne
drainage of the Sierra Nevada. Many valley towns and cities, also,
depend upon the forested watersheds of this basin for their water
supplies. Numerous power plants have been developed or are con-
templated. On the whole, the water supply is inadequate.

Toward the southern part of the basin the water shortage is intense.
The State water plan proposes to augment supplies in that part from
those farther north, through the construction of reservoirs in the
Sierra Nevada foothills and of canals to transport the water.

Approximately 22 percent of the basin's area is occupied by conif-
erous forest, which occurs in a belt along the west slope of the Sierra
Nevada. It is from this belt that most of the water comes. The 40
to 50 inches or more of precipitation in the northern part and the 20
to 30 inches in the southern part occur chiefly as snow, which accumu-
lates, particularly in the northern part, in such a way as to furnish
large reserves for summer flow. In the main, timber stands are dense
and there is a good litter cover which, together with undergrowth,
completely covers the soil. Accordingly, snow melt is retarded and
there is good absorption into the soil. Normal erosion of the soil,
which is derived largely from granitic rocks, does not exceed soil
formation unless the cover of vegetation is removed. All this area
has been classed as of major watershed influence. In the heavily
forested belt, which is chiefly included in national forests or national
parks, watershed conditions are generally good. National-park
management aims to keep the forest in as natural a condition as
possible, and national-forest lands are administered to maintain water-
sheds in the most satisfactory condition feasible.

In the foothills where the woodland and brush types occur, an
exploratory survey by the Forest Service indicated that abnormal
erosion is very serious even though rainfall totals only 15 to 25 inches.
Much of the woodland and brush area has passed into private owner-
ship, although parts of it remain as unappropriated public domain.
Fire is the greatest threat to the woodland cover. A great part of the
foothill belt is burned yearly. Many fires are set by stockmen in

422 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the belief that fire will keep the brush cover open and improve grazing
or by owners for the purpose of clearing land. The effect of destroying
cover by fire has been excessive loss of soil from heavy rains. As was
stated earlier in this section, this loss amounted to 4 cubic yards of
soil per acre on experimental plots near Northfork during one winter
rainy period, during which only the barest trace of detrital material
was washed from adjacent unburned woodland plots.

Woodland areas in the foothills furnish winter grazing for herds
that occupy higher range during the summer months. Long, dry
summers normally make it difficult for forage to grow, and the recent
series of dry years has so depleted the forage cover on these vital
watersheds that the problem of range feed supply and erosion control
has become alarming. Studies recently begun in the foothills by the
Forest Service are indicating why overgrazing has often been destruc-
tive to forage and watershed values there. Annual plants begin
growth immediately following the start of winter rains, and livestock
are usually placed on the range at that time. Growth in early winter
is extremely slow ; and the scant vegetation, depleted by overgrazing,
does not effectively protect the soil against erosion from heavy rains.
In addition, accelerated erosion has resulted from the clearing for
agricultural development of certain sloping lands that should have
remained in woodland. Because of the great danger of erosion when
the vegetation is depleted, and the seriousness of the erosion damage
to irrigation enterprises as well as of loss of soil productivity on the
eroded lands, woodland and brush areas in the foothills have been
classified as of major watershed-protective influence.

SACRAMENTO RIVER BASIN

The broad, rich, irrigated Sacramento Valley is bordered by moun-
tains rising in a semicircular belt. Precipitation in the mountains
is heavy, in general, occurring largely in winter as snow which at the
higher elevations accumulates to considerable depths. Over most
of the westward slopes of the Sierra Nevada, annual precipitation
varies from 40 to 75 inches. On the plateau area in the northeastern
part of the State drained by the Pitt River it varies from 15 to 35
inches. Along the east slope of the Coast Range it varies from about
20 to 35 inches. The melting of heavy snows furnishes abundant
run-off for irrigation and power, especially in the spring and early
summer. Rapid melting of the snow pack or heavy rains may cause
damaging floods; for example, as has previously been mentioned, the
March 1928 floods in the Sacramento Valley caused a loss of $736,000.

About 40 percent of the Sacramento River Basin is occupied by a
dense forest of conifers. This coniferous forest develops a thick
ground litter of needles and twigs. A rather dense stand of under-
growth, largely brush, also occurs. Where the vegetative cover has
not been devastated by fire, destructive logging, or excessive grazing,
it is effective in regulating run-off, and especially in preventing
erosion, and is classed as of major watershed influence. On areas
covered with partly decomposed lava and largely level, especially on
the plateau in the northeastern part of the State, moisture readily
penetrates the soil and the danger of serious erosion is slight. On
such areas the forest, which is largely ponderosa pine, is considered
to influence watershed values but slightly. Much of the Coast

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 423

Range area is covered with soils derived from sedimentary rocks such
as sandstones and shales, which absorb water slowly and when exposed
are readily eroded. Soils in the Sierra Nevada derived from lavas
and basalts also are easily eroded when well decomposed. On soils
of these classes the forest exerts a major watershed-protective in-
fluence by facilitating penetration of water from the heavy snow
blanket and by controlling erosion.

In the Sacramento River Basin as in the San Joaquin Basin, the
woodland and brush areas have been classed as having a major
watershed-protective influence. The woodland and brush types
occupy nearly 25 percent of the area of the basin. Where dense, the
brush type forms a heavy mulch of litter on the soil, which retards
run-off and erosion principally by maintaining the soil profile at its
maximum absorptive capacity, its own absorption of water being
a minor factor. Unfortunately from the standpoint of watershed
protection, the owners of most private lands use fire to clear them or
open the brush. On sloping lands, destruction of the cover is nearly
always followed by severe erosion.

Erosion control is particularly necessary in this basin because of
the importance of the reservoirs planned for the foothill belt under
the State water plan. There is grave danger that the largest of these,
the Kennett Reservoir in the upper Sacramento Basin, would fill with
silt very rapidly. On an area near Kennett, where smelter fumes
have caused complete destruction of all vegetation on upwards of
67,000 acres and partial destruction on 86,000 acres, "the hills are
everywhere cut and gashed by the long furrows which run from prac-
tically the top of the hills to the bottom in straight lines, growing
deeper and wider as they near the watercourses, which formerly were
forest-lined, and now are gravel washes in the summer and -torrents
during the winter".68

NORTH COAST DRAINAGES

The north coast drainages extend northward along the Coast Range
from San Francisco Bay and include the Klamath River, which drains
a small part of southwestern Oregon east of the Cascades. Coniferous
forest occupies more than 55 percent of the area of these drainages.
Woodland occupies more than 15 percent of the area. Although
precipitation in the upper reaches of the Klamath River watershed
is about 20 inches or less, at some places along the Coast Range
precipitation reaches 80 to 100 inches, the highest in the State.
Most of this precipitation comes in winter, and at the higher eleva-
tions snow accumulates to considerable depths. Since precipitation
is heavy, the forest cover good, and the demand for water relatively
light, there is a considerable surplus of water over much of the drain-
age area, although in parts, such as the upper Klamath River, storage
is necessary to assure a sustained supply. In this upper Klamath
River area open volcanic soils absorb water so readily that the forest
exerts only a slight influence on watershed values.

In the Coast Range serious erosion is possible, because of the heavy
precipitation, steep slopes, and soils that are eroded readily when

«8 Munns, E. N. Erosion and Flood Problems in California. Calif. State Board of Forestry Rpt. to the
1921 Legislature on S. Con. Res. 27. 1923.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 28

424 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

exposed. Very severe sheet and gully erosion is occurring, for ex-
ample, on slopes cleared for cultivation. Most of the higher Coast
Range forest areas have been considered as having a major watershed-
protective influence. Areas classed as of moderate influence are
those draining more directly into the Pacific Ocean.

CENTRAL COAST DRAINAGES

Coniferous forest occupies less than 8 percent of the central coast
drainage area, which extends along the Coast Range from San
Francisco Bay to about 20 miles southeast of Santa Barbara. The
coniferous forest is largely confined to areas near the coast where
precipitation is rather heavy, averaging 25 to 40 inches annually.
The woodland and brush types occupy approximately 40 percent of
the drainage area, in general the portions where precipitation averages
from 15 to 25 inches annually. They cover the bulk of the steep
Coast Range slopes.

Demand for water for municipal and domestic use is heavy. It is
from the northern part of this basin, the Spring Valley development,
that San Francisco obtains a large part of its water supply. Many
communities depend upon wells, the water table of which is dropping,
and will require new storage. In the southern part of the basin there
is a shortage of water to meet the demand for domestic, industrial,
and irrigation supplies.

Fires in the chaparral, brush, and forest cover in these drainages
are sometimes disastrous. A record fire that occurred during the fall
of 1932, resulting from carelessness of a recreationist, consumed the
forest cover on more than 200,000 acres in the southern part. The in-
evitable, silting from erosion of fire-devastated slopes will seriously
threaten the permanency of the Santa Barbara and Montecito reser-
voirs. The seriousness of this prospect is suggested by the silting of
the Gibralter Reservoir of the city of Santa Barbara that has followed
fires.

In 1923 and 1925 fires destroyed the brush and small-tree cover on
40,000 acres, or 30 percent, of the 133,000-acre drainage basin of this
reservoir. By 1928, sediment washed into the reservoir by erosion
from the burned area amounted to 6 percent of the reservoir's storage
capacity, and large quantities of sand, gravel, and boulders were piled
along the streams in position to be washed down in future years.
In 1932, silt deposits occupied more than 14 percent of the reservoir's
original capacity. Since construction of the reservoir cost $57.50 per
acre-foot of storage space, these erosion deposits have cost the city
$120,750 in the 10 years since completion of the project. The loss of
investment in storage in the Gibralter Reservoir, in 10 years, has been
more than $3 for every acre burned. Silting from a drainage densely
covered by brush is comparatively slight. The entire forested area
in this basin has been classed as having a major watershed-protection
influence.

DESERT BASIN

Of outstanding importance in the desert basin, which includes much
of the southeastern part of California, is the maintenance of as ef-
fective a cover as possible on the Owens Valley watershed, from which
the city of Los Angeles obtains water. The east slope of the Sierra

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 425

Nevada is narrow and steep. Only a very small part of that watershed
is covered by coniferous forest. A somewhat larger part of it is
woodland. The principal forest trees, whitebark pine, Jeffrey pine,
pinon, and juniper, grow in open stands and produce only small
quantities of litter, and there is seldom a dense cover of undergrowth.
Rainfall is light, ranging for the most part from 10 inches to 20 inches
or slightly more at the higher elevations. The granitic soil is rather
porous and ordinarily is not readily eroded. Because of these con-
ditions most of the forested area has been classed as of moderate and
some as of slight watershed-protective influence. The importance of
the water supply, however, may justify classifying part of this area
as of major influence.

The forested areas at the southern extremity of the Sierra Nevada,
on the Tehachapi Mountains, and on the east slope of the southern
coast mountains, chiefly woodland and brush lands, have been
classed as of major watershed-protective influence. The flow of
streams from these areas, such as the Mojave and Whitewater Rivers,
is rather meager and flashy. The demand for water for irrigation and
domestic use exceeds the surface supply. The deficit is made up by
pumping water from wells.

The plant cover, naturally sparse owing to low precipitation and
high evaporation, has been so depleted that the basin is exposed
to a considerable danger of floods from torrential rains that occur
fairly frequently. A storm of more than 7 inches near Tehachapi
Pass in late September 1932, caused a flood that killed 15 people and
did about $1,000,000 worth of damage to property. Flood discharges
from the storm area are reported to have been estimated by engineers
of the Los Angeles Flood Control organization to have varied from
2,000 to 5,000 second-feet per square mile. Where the rain was most
intense, representatives of the California Forest Experiment Station
found it washed away 4 to 6 inches of the poorly vegetated surface
soil. No gullies were found on areas having a good plant cover.

SOUTH COAST DRAINAGES

In the south coast drainage area, which lies west of the summit
of the Coast Range and extends from near Santa Barbara to the
Mexican border, the water-supply problem is one of the greatest in
the United States. Projects planned or actually under way to provide
additional supplies for the part of the basin around Los Angeles, as
reported in South Coastal Basin, Bulletin No. 32 of the California
State Division of Water Resources, will cost in the aggregate close
to $350,000,000, exclusive of distribution systems. That report
states that in the drainages of the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and
Santa Ana Rivers there are —

* * * 57 incorporated cities, numerous urban communities not incorporated
and 2,200 square miles of irrigable land or land suitable for residential develop-
ment. About 2,500,000 people, or nearly 50 percent of the population of the
State, live in this basin, although the area is less than l%o percent of the total
area of the State and only seven tenths of 1 percent of the water supply is found
here. Population and irrigated area are rapidly increasing.

From this it may be inferred that water supply will be the limiting
factor in development of the section. It is isolated and remote from other sources
and to bring water to it is an engineering undertaking of the first magnitude. To
amplify the local supply, the city of Los Angeles has constructed its 250-mile
aqueduct to bring in Owens Valley water from the north and. now proposes to
extend this to Mono Basin still farther north in order to reach additional supplies.

426 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The metropolitan water district is actively proceeding with its Colorado River
project to bring in 1,500 second-feet. [Through an aqueduct more than 200
miles long] * * *.

If importations for Los Angeles City from Owens Valley be neglected, about
90 percent of all water supplies are derived from underground reservoirs under-
lying the valley floors on which the major part of the cities and towns and
agriculture have been developed. These underground reservoirs or basins in
turn get their supply by retaining a part of the wild and sudden floods of the
region and a part of the rainfall which comes upon the valley floors overlying
them. They regulate by natural processes the surplus waters of the wet for use
in the dry years and have made the present economic development of the region
possible. All plans for additional water supply propose further utilization
of the underground reservoirs and control, insofar as possible, of the supplies
placed in them.

* * * The water plane in practically all of these has been falling for many
years past. Into some, salt water is penetrating from the ocean. Water is
being pumped from below sea level in 162 square miles of the Coastal Plain,
according to recent surveys. * * *

The run-off that supplies these underground reservoirs comes
principally from the forest and brush covered slopes of the mountains
on which annual precipitation averages about 23 inches. Coniferous
forest occupies less than 5 percent of the south coast drainage area,
occurring principally on the higher mountain slopes and plateaus.
Practically all the steep mountain slopes are covered by chaparral,
brush, or woodland, which together occupy more than 40 percent of
the 11,075 square miles included in the drainages, ordinarily in a
dense stand that forms a complete canopy. All the lands having such
cover are classed as exerting a major watershed-protection influence.

In these drainages there are two types of vegetative cover: Dense
chaparral on the slopes, and hardwood trees along stream channels.
In experiments carried on by the California Forest Experiment
Station, surface run-off from slopes recently burned has amounted
to only 1 or 2 percent of the season's precipitation of 20 to 30 inches.
Even this small surface run-off is from 2 to 30 times that from adjacent
brush-covered slopes. They showed also that on a level bare surface
with no run-off 60 percent of a 23-inch seasonal precipitation was
evaporated, leaving about 40 percent to become a part of underground
supplies. In contrast with this, an average of only 30 percent of the
seasonal precipitation was evaporated from soil covered with forest
litter from which no surface run-off occurred. Shrub growth and
litter on slopes prevent abnormal erosion, which would otherwise
become destructive. The annual run-off in streams from chaparral-
covered watersheds, which stream-flow records indicate amounts on
the average to from about 10 to 20 percent of the annual precipitation,
in large part reaches the streams by underground seepage from
slopes. In the long, dry summer period run-off is normally low,
and in many streams surface flow sometimes ceases entirely.

Canyon-bottom vegetation of alders, wiUow, and such water-loving
species, transpires very large quantities of water back into the atmos-
phere, and by that much reduces the surface and subsurface stream
flow from the watershed, during periods of highest demand for water
in the valleys. In the south coast drainages this canyon-bottom veg-
etation occupies not more than 5 percent of the total area, but loss
of water through transpiration during long dry summers by this sub-
irrigated vegetation is relatively very large. Much water that would
otherwise be lost in transpiration in mountain canyons can be saved by
piping the water through the canyons past the stream-side vegetation.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 427

Fire danger is extreme on the steep mountain slopes. In summer
the chaparral becomes almost tinder dry and fires run rapidly, as
much as 12 miles in an hour, and are difficult to control. Summer
fires ordinarily consume the chaparral cover entirely, leaving the
steep slopes bare and exposed to rapid run-off and abnormal erosion.
As previously mentioned, in experiments conducted by the California
Forest Experiment Station surface run-off from soils burned clean of
vegetation and litter exceeded that from similar soils with a Litter
cover in ratios up to 66 to 1 . Erosion was about 400 times as great
on the denuded soils.

The results of these studies partially explain the heavy run-off from
recently burned canyons in southern California which valley residents
often attribute to "cloudbursts." The Burbank flood of 1928, for
example, followed a fire of 1927 which burned over 704 acres of the
watershed above this town. With only 1.07 inches of rain in 3 hours,
but with a maximum intensity of 1.70 inches per hour for about 10
minutes, surface run-off was three times as great as on adjacent
unburned canyons. Between 25,000 and 50,000 cubic yards of
eroded material was swept off the burned watershed, while no notice-
able erosion took place on adjacent unburned canyons.

Chief Engineer E. C. Eaton of the Los Angeles County Flood Con-
trol District is quoted in the bulletin Forestry in the State- Wide
Water Plan as follows :

Intense rains falling on a brush-covered watershed washed down only 400 cubic
yards of debris per square mile, while the corresponding amount on adjacent
burned-over areas rose to 12,000 cubic yards.

Even with the controlling influence of 300 check dams per square mile on the
burned area, the detrital material still amounted to 7,000 cubic yards. It is
further important to note that the brush cover not only proved to be a strong
check on the debris movement, but that it also effectually functioned in reducing
the surface run-off. With 1.36 inches of rain per hour the burned-over area gave
1.01 inches in surface run-off while the area covered with brush produced only
0.42 inches. It follows that on the burned-off area only 0.35 inches of water
were available for percolation * * * in contrast to 0.94 inches of water on
the unburned area.

Such erosion debris rapidly impairs the permanency of flood-control
ind other reservoirs. Eaton, in discussing the Los Angeles flood-
control district in the bulletin South Coastal Basin, points out that
mountain fault lines limit the number of available reservoir sites and
that construction on these sites would be costly.

While expenditures for fire control are heavy, practically nothing
is being spent for restoration of cover. Intensive studies are war-
ranted to determine economical means of rapidly reestablishing a
vegetative cover and possibilities of replacing some of the highly
inflammable species of chaparral with species more resistant to fire.
The California Forest Experiment Station has made an important
start in studying methods of revegetating the great cuts and fills of
mountain highways in southern California. Autumn sowing of
winter wheat and of seed of sunflower and native shrubs in contour
furrows reinforced by cuttings of willows and elder, although rather
costly, has proved very effective. This mixed vegetation, developing
rapidly, maintained the treated slopes practically intact, while adja-
cent untreated slopes gullied at the rate of 800 cubic yards per acre
during one winter and required heavy filling to restore them to safe
grade.

428 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

CLASSIFICATION OF FOREST AREAS ACCORDING TO INFLUENCE

Of the 29,780,000 acres of forested land within the California
drainages, about 21,056,000 acres has been classified as of major
influence in protecting watersheds, that is, in regulating run-off or
reducing soil erosion, or both. As pointed out in the foregoing,
this acreage of major influence occurs chiefly in the foothill and
mountain areas of the Sierra Nevada and along the Coast Kange.
The mixed conifer, woodland, and brush cover of the Sierra Nevada
and its higher foothills, the redwood and Douglas-fir mixtures and
dense brush types of the north Coast Range (with the exception
of a narrow strip near the coast north of San Francisco Bay), and
the redwood, Douglas fir, and other conifer cover and dense brush
of the central Coast Range, all are considered to exert a major water-
shed-protection influence. All the forests of southern California,
being chiefly chaparral and woodland on the lower slopes and mixed
conifers (Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, Coulter pine, white fir, incense
cedar, juniper, and pinon) on limited areas at elevations greater
than 4,000 or 5,000 feet, have likewise been classed as of major
influence. These forests differ widely in respect to rainfall, vege-
tative composition, soil, and underlying geological structure.

Approximately 3,736,000 acres of forest area has been classified
as of moderate watershed-protective influence. This includes the
narrow strip of whitebark pine and Jeffrey pine forest and pinon-
juniper woodland on the abrupt east slope of the Sierra Nevada
facing Owens Valley. It is classed as of moderate rather than major
influence chiefly because of the scantiness of the rainfall and the
porous nature of the granitic soil. The other large area of moderate
influence is that along the coast north of San Francisco Bay occupied
by dense stands of redwood and Douglas fir. On this area the forest
effectively protects the soil against erosion and has a material in-
fluence in retarding the run-off of the heavy precipitation. After
logging or burning, forest cover is rapidly reestablished. Erosion
damage is ordinarily very much localized, and high water is seldom
serious. Furthermore, the water supply is adequate to meet all
demands.

Approximately 4,988,000 acres in the northern part of California
and in the adjacent part of Oregon included within the California
drainages has been classed as of slight watershed-protective in-
fluence. This large area of forest is made up chiefly of ponderosa
pine, white fir, and other coniferous species growing upon volcanic
hills and ancient lava flows. Here the precipitation percolates so
promptly through the porous soil and lava into underground chan-
nels that very little surface run-off occurs and abnormal erosion is
almost negligible. Such rivers as the McCloud and other tribu-
taries of the Pitt River are fed by large springs, which are in fact a
bursting forth of underground streams of considerable size.

WATERSHED-PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS AND HOW THEY

ARE BEING MET

The principal factors modifying or disturbing watershed-pro-
tective forest cover within the California drainages are fire, grazing,
and lumbering. The State watershed committee in its report
Forestry in the State-wide Water Plan pointed out that —

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 429

hot, dry summers favor intense and widespread burns which leave watershed
surfaces bare and ash-covered, exposed to the full effects of the wash of torrential
fall and winter rains.

During the 3-year period 1928-30, inclusive, 7,957 forest and brush
fires occurred in California and burned 2,193,114 acres, the com-
mittee states, adding " Unfortunately these fires are, in the main,
set by owners of land and local residents * * *." Another
serious source of fires has been carelessness on the part of some of
the recreationists who visit California's forests by the millions every
year.

While most of the fires occur on foothill woodland and brush
areas, large areas of virgin forest and of cut-over land are still burned
every year. Fire protection is improving both on Federal lands and
on private lands protected by the State. Climatic difficulties,
however, require intensification of suppression activities by the
Federal Government on the national forests, national parks, and
Indian reservations and by the State on State and private lands.
The State division of forestry is charged with the duty of protecting
private lands from fire. As stated by the honorary watershed
committee :

meager funds and, frequently, lukewarm public support, it has
attempted to meet its obligations through educational means, endeavoring to
create popular sentiment for the prevention and control of fires. By slow stages,
it is developing a machinery for fire protection covering the territory outside the
national forests. It must be noted that the owners of forest and woodlands
under State protection often are interested in other than the water crop of which
they themselves are not the direct beneficiaries. Under these conditions, fre-
quently the type of occupancy and use seriously impair the watershed values.
This conflict in use and values must be weighed and judged in the light of the
relative need for timber, forage, recreation, and water crop. Under sound
forest management, such conflicts will be avoided and all of the inherent values of
forest lands safely and wisely utilized. Larger State expenditures will be needed
in order to carry out an adequate protection program.

Excessive use of range feed once was common over a large part of
California's forested areas. Grazing has been practically eliminated
from the steep brush-covered slopes within the national forests of the
south and central coastal basins. Efforts have been made, also, to
adjust grazing to the quantity of feed available on all national forest
lands within the California drainages that are still open to grazing.
With long dry summers, however, restoration of depleted cover has
been slow. On private forest lands, particularly in the foothills,
heavy grazing use and the common practice of burning with a view to
opening up brushy areas or improving the forage have seriously
impaired the watershed values of extensive areas.

In the past destructive logging and the broadcast burning accom-
panying it were a menace to watershed values. Broadcast burning
following logging has been practically abandoned, and logging
practices have been made less destructive by substituting tractor
logging for high-lead skidding with heavy machinery. As a result
timber stands are being left in better condition for protection of
watershed values.

The national forests of the California drainages contain 13 million
acres of forest land, approximately one third of the total forest area
in these drainages. Watershed protection has been given careful
attention in national-forest administration. In the management
of timber and range numerous curtailments of use have been made

430 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

in order to safeguard water resources more fully. Enough trees are
left in logging to afford satisfactory reforestation and to safeguard
watershed values. The subordinate vegetation in the forest is in gen-
eral improving under grazing regulation. Further strengthening of
the fire-control program will be necessary. Within the national
parks, grazing and timber cutting are not permitted and a satisfactory
watershed cover is being maintained except as it is depleted by fire.

On the 966,000 acres of forest land within the unappropriated
public domain, conditions are far from satisfactory. Much of the
herbaceous and shrubby vegetation is heavily grazed. Fires are set
on these lands just as on private lands, exposing the soils to erosion.
This area should be given a status that will insure proper management.

The situation on private lands, especially in the foothills is such
that the public should acquire about 10,000,000 acres in these drain-
ages, 5,000,000 acres of which is in commercial timber types and
5,000,000 acres in noncommercial forest types in the foothills.

Approximately 75,000 acres of land in critical condition should
be planted to trees and another 100,000 acres seeded to herbaceous
plants in order to more effectively safeguard watershed values. If
practical methods can be developed for planting trees or shrubs on
the depleted foothill areas the reforestation program should be
greatly expanded.

COLORADO RIVER BASIN

The outstanding watershed problems of the Colorado River basin
are (1) supplying adequate water for irrigation, power, and domestic
use, (2) controlling erosion, and (3) reducing damage from local
floods. As is shown by figure 12, the basin includes portions of
California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and
Wyoming. The perennial flow of the Colorado River and its main
tributaries originates almost entirely on the higher mountain areas,
nearly all of which are forested or above timber line. Most of the
sediment carried by the main river and its tributaries comes from
erosion of the lands at the lower elevations, which are largely non-
forested, or from the scouring out of channels. Large areas of for-
ested land, also, have soils that are readily eroded if the protecting
vegetative cover becomes depleted. The intensity of the scouring of
channels is greatly increased by the soil and other erosion debris
washed from slopes. Local destructive floods most commonly
originate at medium or low elevations, often on depleted forest areas.

EXTENT AND WATERSHED-PROTECTION VALUE OF FORESTS

Of the 242,000 square miles of the Colorado River Basin within the
United States about 70,422 square miles (45,070,000 acres), or nearly
29 percent, is forest land. Approximately one fourth of this is
occupied by coniferous forests, largley commercial timber, made up
principally of rather dense stands of spruce, white fir, or lodgepole
pine at the higher elevations and of more open stands of ponderosa
pine or Douglas fir, with an understory of herbs and shrubs, at
intermediate elevations.

The aspen-brush type, predominantly aspen, occupies about one
tenth of the forest area. In this type undergrowth normally is fairly
dense, and small intermingled areas of brush and grassland occur.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

431

The mountain brushland type, prevailing mainly on slopes at eleva-
tions below those supporting good stands of ponderosa pine, covers
more than one fifth of the forest area. In this type oak brush is the
most common species.

Practically throughout the basin, the coniferous, aspen-brush, and
mountain brushland types have been classed as of major watershed
protective influence. By retarding snow melt, and by facilitating
the absorption of snow and rain water into the soil, they reduce the

RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
ON WATERSHEDS

MAJOR INFLUENCE:
MODERATE: INFLUENCE
'''/''//\ SLIGHT INFLUENCE

ARKANSAS -RED RIVE*
DRAINAGES

FIGURE 12.— Colorado River Basin and portion of upper Rio Grande Basin.

crests of floods resulting from snow run-off, aid in maintaining a
sustained flow of water in springs and streams, and protect the soil
against abnormal erosion. These functions are especially important
on steep, rugged mountain slopes having a normally scant soil layer
or soils of sedimentary origin and having an average annual pre-
cipitation of about 20 inches to 35 inches or more, much of which
comes as winter snow and tends to run off rapidly in the spring unless
the slopes are well protected with vegetation. Where these forest
types occur on undulating or level plateau areas from which run-off
normally is not rapid and on soils derived from lava or basalt that

432 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

are not readily eroded, they are considered to exert a moderate water-
shed protective influence. A level forested area of porous volcanic
soil about 45,000 acres in extent on the Colorado Plateau of northern
Arizona is classed as having practically no watershed-protection value.

The pinon-juniper woodland, occupying about half the forest area,
occurs principally near the lower limits of forest growth. The quan-
tity of usable water obtained from this type is small. ^ At these levels
snow seldom accumulates. Most of the summer rains are so mild
that there is little surface run-off from them and their effect on the
water supply is negligible. Semi torrential rains are rather common
and sometimes reach the proportions of " cloudbursts. " Such storms
cause very rapid run-off accompanied by severe erosion especially on
steep and unstable slopes that are inadequately protected by a plant
cover. In the woodland type there is normally but little undercover
on slopes and the tree cover itself is seldom dense enough to form
a closed canopy and heavy litter. This cover, such as it is, should
be maintained and improved where it is depleted. As previously
mentioned, studies by the Southwestern Forest and Range Experi-
ment Station have indicated that on most of the soils on which the
woodland type occurs in Arizona, which are fairly representative of
woodland soils throughout the basin, a stand of herbaceous and
shrubby vegetation can be maintained which with the trees is suffi-
cient to check run-off and abnormal erosion. Growth conditions are
so severe that the protecting cover can easily be seriously depleted
by overgrazing, fire, or too heavy cutting.

Woodland areas have been classed as of major watershed-protection
influence if their potential forest cover would aid materially in check-
ing run-off and erosion on slopes, a heavily silt-laden run-off from
which is resulting, or would result in undue damage to irrigation
developments or other property. Woodland areas the topography
of which is level, rolling, or moderate, and the soil of which is not
readily eroded, have been classed as of moderate watershed-protec-
tion value.

Of the total forested area within the Colorado River Basin approxi-
mately 36,196,000 acres has been classed as of major watershed-
protection influence, 8,829,000 acres as of moderate influence, and
45,000 acres as of scant influence.

WATER SUPPLY FOR AGRICULTURE, POWER, AND DOMESTIC

USE

In the Colorado River Basin agriculture, the most important
industry, is almost wholly dependent upon irrigation. More than
2,700,000 acres of land is already under irrigation from Colorado
River water. Rural homes and villages dot the irrigated valleys,
and large urban centers have gained added impetus in growth from
irrigation farming. The irrigated portion of the Salt River Valley,
for example, contains one fifth the population of Arizona. In the irri-
gated Imperial Valley of southern California unusually large values are
present, and in the upper portion of the Colorado River Basin valley
after valley owes its present development to irrigation. The United
States Bureau of Reclamation has estimated69 that the irrigated
area within this basin could be expanded to 6,930,000 acres. The

6» S.Doc. 142, 67th Cong., 2d sess., 1922.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 433

future prosperity of the basin depends in large part upon safe-
guarding the irrigation-water supply and the storage reservoirs.
While the main irrigation projects have developed large storage
facilities, the small enterprises in the mountain valleys have only
slight storage facilities or none; hence their effectiveness depends
upon sustained stream flow throughout the irrigating season.

Numerous power plants and many communities throughout the
basin are dependent upon sustained stream flow to meet their water
needs. Of outstanding importance to the future of southern Cali-
fornia is the Hoover Dam project. This stupendous project with its
700-foot dam will impound 30,500,000 acre-feet of water, irrigate
more than 2,000,000 acres, develop more than $6,500,000 worth of
power annually, and furnish the supplementary water supply needed
for Los Angeles, San Diego, and other southern California cities and
communities.

The flow of the Green River and its tributaries in Colorado, Wyo-
ming, and Utah illustrates rather clearly the fact that the perennial
flow for sustaining irrigation, power, and domestic supplies, comes
principally from the higher mountain areas. On that watershed
about 60 percent of the 18 to 30 inch yearly precipitation comes as
snow, which above 7,000 or 8,000 feet elevation accumulates from
October until mid-April. During the late spring months heavy sur-
face run-off from this melting snow swells the streams to a normal
high-water stage. Stream-gage records of the United States Geolog-
ical Survey show that 74 percent of the annual run-off occurs in the
4-month period April to July. The low-water stage is maintained
rather uniformly through the remainder of the year by the flow of
hundreds of springs scattered throughout the higher mountain areas
and by that of many mountain lakes. Summer rainfall at any eleva-
tion, and snowfall and springs at low elevations, make only a rela-
tively small contribution to stream flow. The snowfall at high ele-
vations and the conditions under which its transformation into water
takes place are the important factors in water production.

EROSION

In the Colorado River Basin abnormal erosion, since white settle-
ment has removed from 1 to 7 inches of the fertile topsoil from exten-
sive slope and even plateau areas, is still occurring on far too high a
percentage of the forest land, and is cutting out valuable alluvial soil
along nearly all water courses below the dense timber belt.

The most serious erosion conditions on forest lands are found in the
pinon-juniper, ponderosa pine, and mountain-brush types, especially
on the heavy clay or adobe soils and sometimes on sandy loams.
These soils are ordinarily deficient in humus, are more or less alkaline,
do not readily absorb water, support only a thin stand of vegetation,
and readily disintegrate when thoroughly wet. Thus under the
influence of semitorrential rains, if inadequately protected by vegeta-
tion, they are eroded at a rapid rate. The serious effect of vegetative
depletion is exemplified by the extensive areas (largely privately
owned) in the pine forests near Pagosa Springs, Colo., that were logged
beginning in the nineties and continuing until about 1920. The
timber was heavily cut and the areas have been overgrazed, mainly
by sheep. Throughout these areas there is excessive sheet and gully
erosion, in practically all stages of intensity and activity.

434 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

Erosion has greatly increased in practically all the tributary water-
sheds since settlement. Much of the pifion- juniper type is still in
the unreserved public domain, open to unregulated grazing use.
Wherever water is available for livestock this land is invariably
overgrazed and badly abused; furthermore, cutting and fires are
widespread. Vegetative depletion has accentuated the erosion and,
if we may judge from C. K. Cooperrider's studies of the Southwestern
Forest and Range Experiment Station in the woodland and brush
types of Arizona, the loss of soil productivity through erosion, in turn,
has made maintenance of even the reduced vegetation more difficult.
Thus is established a trend toward destruction that is difficult to
check.

In the Verde River Valley near Jerome, Ariz., smelter fumes have
killed tree growth on a considerable area. Where the grass and other
vegetation, as well as the trees, have been practically eliminated
erosion has become extremely serious. Over most of the affected
zone, however, the soil is still protected by a good growth of grass.

At the higher elevations the soils are gravelly loams, sandy loams,
or sandy silt loams. They are fertile, dark, and high in organic
content. Typically they are rather thinly deposited on steep slopes,
but they attain a fair depth in depressions. They support abundant
forest cover and are relatively free from erosion where the cover is
not depleted, although they receive the greatest precipitation occur-
ring in the basin. Even heavy clay soils under the more humid
conditions at the higher elevations produce fairly abundant plant
cover which affords them good protection, although these soils erode
readily when the vegetation is depleted or on areas where they have
never reached stability.

According to an extensive erosion survey made by the Forest
Service on the Colorado River watershed above Grand Junction,
Colo., areas of heavy erosion compose 33 percent of the watershed,
areas of moderate erosion 27 percent, and areas of little or no erosion
40 percent. As a general rule the heaviest erosion occurs in the non-
forest types or in pinon-juniper woodland. Moderate erosion occurs
in pinon-juniper, brushland, and nonforest types where cover has been
somewhat depleted. Little or no erosion occurs on well-forested
areas or on non-forested areas where a good vegetational mantle is
maintained.

One of the most serious effects of erosion is the silting which
threatens to shorten the usefulness of reservoirs. The Roosevelt
Reservoir on the Salt River of Arizona already has great silt banks in
its head. Portions of these are cut away and the material washed
closer to the dam by each big flood; then, as the lake refills, new
deposits are added. Such silt is made up of material cut from
watercourses and soil from slopes where the vegetative cover has
become depleted. According to settlers, serious destruction of the
vegetative coyer was general 30 to 40 years ago. With drought con-
ditions prevailing during many of the last 15 years, the slopes are but
slowly revegetating.

Fortier and Blaney estimate70 that the Colorado River carries
137,000 acre-feet of silt annually past the Hoover Dam site. If this
continues the reservoir will fill with silt in about 220 years, and its

™ Fortier, Samuel, and Blaney, Harry P. "Silt in the Colorado River and its Relation to Irrigation."
U.S. Dept. of Agri. Tech. Bui. 67, 1928.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 435

value for storage of flood water for use in extended drought periods
will be greatly impaired much sooner. Losses of investment in engi-
neering works from silting may be liquidated to the satisfaction of
financial interests and additional dams may be built to suffer a similar
fate, but the consequent decay of communities dependent upon
irrigation cannot be so liquidated.

FLOODS

Closely related to rapid run-off from slopes depleted of vegetation
and to abnormal erosion are destructive summer floods. In the
Colorado River Basin such floods occur, often in intermittent stream
courses, mainly as a result of heavy rains. High water results
normally each spring from snow melt, sometimes assuming destruc-
tive proportions in the lower reaches of the river and in its main
tributaries. Those spring flows seldom become destructive in the
smaller tributaries except in the occasional year when heavy warm
rains produce unusually rapid snow melt. The destructive flash
floods which follow semitorrential summer storms originate in greatest
number and greatest in tensity in the pinon-juniper and mountain-
brush types and on nonforested areas at lower and intermediate
elevations where the vegetation is thin. In 1921, for example,
severe floods largely from such types occurred in the Dolores River,
Henson Creek, Lake Fork, and East and West Rifle Creeks of Colorado
following a 4-day rainy period with a maximum precipitation at
Ashcroft, near Aspen, Colo., of 2.5 inches. -The Dolores River
washed out many miles of railroad track, and Henson Creek caused
considerable property loss at Lake City by cutting a new channel
through part of the town.

Price River has had numerous floods originating on the higher
mountain forested areas. In 1927, for example, floods transporting
immense amounts of debris and silt damaged railroad and mine
property, highways, bridges, irrigation works, city water supply, and
farm crops to the extent of at least $500,000. The watersheds of
Gordon Creek and Willow Creek, the two tributaries which con-
tributed most of the flood waters, had suffered a heavy reduction
in plant cover on forested areas through extreme grazing use. In
contrast the drainage of Miller Creek, a nearby tributary comparable
to Gordon Creek, has been protected from excessive grazing use
since a time several years prior to the 1927 flood, and maintains a
relatively abundant ground cover even in the nonforested portions.
It shows almost no abnormal erosion or channel cutting, while
Gordon Creek is newly channeled to a depth of 50 feet and a width of
100 feet.

Floods have been a source of great loss to the agricultural industry.
The valley bottom lands most suitable for irrigation have been
subjected to inundation and debris deposit or have been cut away by
flood waters. A number of small reservoirs have been rendered
useless by silting or the dams have been washed out. Silting of
irrigation ditches and loss of headgates and diversion dams have
occurred to some extent on every stream in the region.

Conditions on the Paria River, in southern Utah, present an
outstanding example. Approximately two thirds of the Utah
portion of this watershed, i.e., 11 or 12 townships, is occupied by
forests, chiefly of the woodland and mountain-brush types, with

436 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

ponderosa pine near the headwaters. Paria was first established in
1871; by 1884 it had grown to a community of 107 permanent resi-
dents, all living on irrigated farms along the river. Floods, beginning
in 1885, have channeled the valley bottom. The shifting bed of the
river is now only a sandy wash, in some places a quarter of a mile
wide. At Paria there have been no permanent residents since 1925,
and the land still arable does not exceed 60 acres. At Henrieville
and Cannonville, two of the three remaining settlements on the river
approximately one third of the land capable of cultivation in 1880
has been cut away. The third settlement, Tropic, has suffered
heavy, but unestimated, losses of farming land.

Kanab Creek, near Kanab, Utah, further demonstrates the effect of
floods and erosion. This stream began to erode its bed about 14
years after the settlement of Kanab in 1870. It has continued to
entrench until the stream bed in places is now at the bottom of a 60-
foot gully 200 to 300 feet wide. The gullying extends through the
woodland, which covers rather large areas of the watershed above
Kanab, to the heads of tributaries in the mountain-brush type, which
now have new channels 4 to 6 feet deep. The eroded material has
been carried downstream, filling the Kanab Reservoir with silt and
contributing to the silt load of the Colorado River.

WATERSHED-PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

That the accelerated erosion in southern Utah and adjacent States
is not due to climatic change alone is evidenced by the fact that the
channeling did not start in all valleys at the same time. In some
valleys it is much more recent than in others, and a few valleys are
still uneroded.

The greatest damage caused by controllable factors to plant cover
as a protection for watershed values on the Colorado River has come
from overgrazing, fire, and excessive timber cutting, named in the
descending order of importance. Nearly all the lands of the basin
have value for grazing or timber production or both and are subject
in varying degrees to damage by fire. Adequate watershed protection
in the basin, therefore, requires proper range and timber management
and fire protection. Research results indicate the desirability of
controlling grazing, timber cuttings, and fire so as to make possible the
maintenance of a plant, litter, and soil cover approximately equal to
that which would be brought about under complete protection from
use and fire.

Especially on forest areas at lower elevations, restoration of cover
is essential. Range research of the United States Forest Service indi-
cates that where soil and moisture conditions are favorable and a seed
supply of suitable native plants is present, under careful management
the cover can ordinarily be restored on moderately depleted areas in
from 3 to 5 years. Where soil and vegetative depletion have reached
an advanced stage, artificial restoration will be necessary if a satisfac-
tory cover is to be reestablished within a reasonable period. This
would take the form of planting trees on the more favorable sites and
herbaceous plants on those somewhat less favorable. On the latter
sites establishment of forest trees is so uncertain and growth is usually
so slow that it is difficult to establish a stand of trees sufficient in itself
to afford the necessary watershed protection.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 437

CONDITIONS ON LAND IN VARIOUS TYPES OF OWNERSHIP

In general it may be said that watershed requirements are being
met reasonably well or are in process of being met on the 21,913,000
acres of forest lands in the Colorado River Basin included in national
forests. Fire protection is afforded, range conditions are improving
under the system of management in effect, and timber cutting is
regulated. Some areas that wrere seriously depleted when the national
forests were created are not yet in satisfactory condition to safeguard
watershed values. In southern Utah, for example, where the balance
between the forces that build up soil and those that tear it down is
extremely delicate, many national-forest areas are still affected by
abnormal erosion. Lumbering, fire, and insects have been partly
responsible, but the major factor has been the extreme grazing use to
which the plant cover was formerly subjected. Although forage con-
ditions are generally better within the national forests than elsewhere
in the locality, from a run-off and erosion standpoint large areas within
the national forests are still in a critical condition. Likewise within
the national forests in the important Salt and Gila River drainages in
Arizona and New Mexico, there are areas where abnormal sheet and
gully erosion have not yet been corrected. These are chiefly granitic
and clay soils from which the top layer has been removed and on
which, because of normally low rainfall, it is difficult to restore a
satisfactory cover.

Generally, however, within the national forests of the Colorado
River Basin the forest cover is in a satisfactory condition for erosion
control and for water delivery. Research is justified to determine
further possibilities for the discharge of water in maximum quantities,
at times when it is most needed, and in a condition largely free from
undue silt burden.

On the national parks in the Colorado River Basin timber cutting
and the grazing of domestic livestock have been materially restricted
or eliminated, which should facilitate restoration of herbaceous and
shrubby vegetation within these areas and increase their protective
value. On the Kaibab Plateau, however, some overgrazing of the
underbrush by deer is occurring which, if continued, may adversely
affect the watershed-protection values of the forest. ^

The seriousness of erosion within Indian reservations of the basin
is emphasized by Lee Muck, Percy E. Melis, and George M. Nyce in
their report to the Committee on Indian Affairs of the United States
Senate entitled "An Economic Survey of the Range Resources and
Grazing Activities on Indian Reservations".71 This report reads in
part as follows:

* * * It can be said without exaggeration that the control of erosion pre-
sents a grave problem in the management of every Indian reservation in both New
Mexico and Arizona. On many reservations the situation is quite acute and in
every case the principal contributing factor has been overgrazing. When the
soil of this territory has been laid bare by overgrazing it is peculiarly subject to
erosion, and the climatic conditions, particularly the prevalence of sudden and
violent summer storms, tend to further aggravate the condition. When these
soil and climatic conditions are considered in connection writh the excessive num-
ber of stock that have for years been grazed on these areas, the disastrous progress
of erosion in this region is readily understood. * * *

« Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States. Part 22. Hearings before a subcomittee
of the Committee on Indian Affairs, of the United States Senate, 71st Cong., 2d sess., 1932.

438 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Owing to the stand of coniferous timber occurring on the higher elevations of
this region, the severity of erosion has been considerably lessened, but it is
obvious to even the lay observer that the removal of this protective forest would
result in even a more serious condition than is now so prevalent on the lower
slopes. * * *

Severe overgrazing within the timbered areas has been observed by the for-
esters of the Indian Service throughout the southwest region and the destruc-
tion of young growth through the activities of hungry sheep and goats is a matter
of common occurrence. The continuance of this overgrazing to this degree will
eventually result in the destruction of the forest and the serious erosion of the
present forested areas.

Efforts are being made to establish management that will overcome
the present unsatisfactory watershed conditions on the 8,493,000
acres or so of timber, woodland, and mountain brush lands in Indian
reservations in the basin.

The most serious erosion and flood situations within forested areas
on the Colorado River watersheds exist on the 5,998,000 acres of
forested land in the unreserved public domain. Conditions are es-
pecially bad in the pinon-juniper woodland, the principal forest type.
The public domain should at once be placed under public administra-
tion. On these lands and on much of the State and private land
intermingled with them, unregulated grazing has led to excessive
depletion of the undergrowth. Trees and even brush have been
heavily cut, especially around mining camps, and forest fires are
seldom controlled. Administration of the Federal lands that will
restore a satisfactory forest cover is essential.

Conditions on most private lands in the basin are little if any
better than those on the public domain. Overgrazing has seriously
depleted the herbaceous cover, fires ordinarily burn uncontrolled, and
the cutting of trees is seldom managed with a view to regeneration of
the timber cover. Rapid run-off of wrater and abnormal erosion ac-
cordingly are prevalent. Education of private landowners as to the
effects of abuse of watersheds is badly needed. Public acquisition of
about 2,800,000 acres of lands having a major influence will probably
be necessary in order to restore forest cover conditions that will
afford the necessary watershed protection.

Within the public forests 150,000 acres of devastated land should
be reforested and artificial re vegetation with soil binding grasses or
shrubs is needed on 200,000 acres.

UPPER RIO GRANDE BASIN

The upper Rio Grande Basin, including the Pecos River drainage
(see figs. 6 and 12) has an area of about 169,000 square miles in west-
ern Texas, New Mexico, and southern Colorado, and an area of more
than 50,000 square miles in northern Mexico. Approximately 27,281
square miles (nearly 17,460,000 acres), or 16 percent of the portion
of the watershed within the United States, is classed as forest land.

WATERSHED PROBLEMS

The most important watershed-protection problems in the upper
Rio Grande Basin are accelerated erosion, the destructive flood
menace, and the demand for adequate water for irrigation.

This basin was settled by the Spanish as early as the sixteenth
century. While the settlements were mainly concentrated in the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 439

nonfprested valleys some, including the capital of the territory under
Mexican administration, were within the forest. There is little ques-
tion that the protecting vegetation near these settlements was partly
destroyed in the early nineteenth century. Destruction of vegetation
sufficient to menace watershed values, however, apparently did not
occur over extensive areas until sometime after the Civil War, follow-
ing introduction of large herds of cattle and sheep. Mining and
other settlement resulted in extensive fires and some devastation of
timber stands.

Following deterioration of the grass and other protecting vegeta-
tion, rapid run-off of rainfall removed much of the surface soil over
enormous areas through sheet erosion, materially reducing the pro-
ductivity of the land. For example, an erosion survey of the drainage
above the Elephant Butte Dam made in 1931 by C. K. Cooperrider
and B. A. Hendricks of the Forest Service disclosed that 35 percent
of the area is being eroded seriously, 40 percent moderately, and the
remaining 25 percent slightly. While a much higher percentage of
nonf ores ted than of forested area was found to be seriously and
moderately eroded, the total forest area thus affected was large.

The rapid run-off from these depleted and eroded lands has formed
an extensive system of gullies, small near the upper parts of slopes but
often 10 to 30 feet deep and several hundred feet wide in main stream
courses. Such a system of gullies is extremely efficient in concentrat-
ing water from torrential rainfall into flood proportions. The water
thus accumulated, heavily charged with soil and other debris, con-
tinually adds to its burden and its destructive power by erosion from
channel banks as it flows through the alluvial valleys.

Floods and erosion combine to cause serious losses almost every
year. Excessive high water resulting from melting of snow, and from
torrential summer rains, cut away valley farm lands, wash out rail-
road and highway bridges, endanger lives, and silt up reservoirs,
other irrigation works, and stream channels.

Kirk Bryan, on the basis of early records and of field surveys, has
outlined 72 as follows the trends on the Rio Puerco, in New Mexico. A
small channel existed before 1885. While the stream banks may have
been as high as 20 to 30 feet in places, in other places they were so
inconspicuous as not to be mentioned by early surveyors and explor-
ers. The river was subject to numerous floods of short duration and
to occasional floods of great magnitude which overflowed the valley
floor. Beginning in the late eighties, accelerated erosion has cut an
arroyo in some places nearly 50 feet deep from the mouth of the Rio
Puerco almost to its head. The present channel has an average depth
of 28 feet and an average width of 285 feet. The continuing erosion,
deepening and widening the channel, has destroyed much farm land
and caused the abandonment of six small settlements including Los
Cerros, San Ignacio, and San Francisco. Silt to the amount of 9,400
acre-feet a year, on the average, has been poured from the Rio Puerco
into the Rio Grande for the past 42 years.

Because of floods the railroads and the State and county highway
organizations are forced to expend considerable sums for special road-
bed drainage and for protection works to prevent destruction of the

« Bryan, Kirk. Historic Evidence on Changes in the Channel of Rio Puerco, a Tributary of the Rio
Grande in New Mexico. Jour. Geology, v. 36, no. 3 : 265-282. 1928.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 29

440 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

tracks, and to replace washed-out bridges, culverts, and parts of
highways and trackage.

The 1929 floods, largely from the Rip Puerco and Rio Salado,
according to the report of the New Mexico State engineer caused a
loss of $950,000, excluding damage to roads and railroads. Thou-
sands of acres of farm land were buried under an almost worthless
layer of clay and sand, and the town of San Marcial was practically
wiped out by flood waters and by sand deposits as deep as 7 feet.

Silt deposits resulting from erosion and floods have become so great
in the Rio Grande channel near Albuquerque that work has been
started on a drainage and flood-control project which the chief engineer
of the conservancy project estimates will cost $10,300,000 when com-
plete. In 17 years about 337,939 acre-feet of silt has been deposited
in the Elephant Butte Reservoir, the storage basin for the Rio Grande
project of New Mexico, Texas, and old Mexico, according to estimates
of the United States Reclamation Service, reducing its capacity by
nearly 13 percent.

Since erosion, once started, accelerates and increases cumulatively
in seriousness until it is checked, it is reasonable to expect greater
flood damage and greater silting in the future unless corrective action
is taken.

Erosion and flood problems exist on both the forest and the range
lands of the Rio Grande Basin. Although they are more serious on
the range lands which make up the larger part of the basin, this report
is concerned only with the situation on forest lands.

Agriculture in the Rio Grande Basin is mainly dependent upon
irrigation. Irrigation developments in the small mountain valleys
aggregate several hundred thousand acres. The most extensive irri-
gation, accompanied by important urban developments occurs along
the Rio Grande and the Pecos Rivers and their main tributaries where
reservoirs have been established to impound flood waters and the
permanent run-off from the mountain forested areas. Existing
erosion conditions threaten the permanency of irrigation agriculture.

EXISTING WATERSHED CONDITIONS BY FOREST TYPES

Erosion and rainfall run-off conditions are in general more unsatis-
factory in the woodland type than in any other forest type in this
basin. The woodland type, the lowest type as to elevation, consists
of orchardlike, or occasionally rather dense, stands of jumper, pinon,
and oak with an understory of grasses, other herbs, and brush.
Originally such vegetation and the litter accompanying it covered up
to 50 percent, or occasionally more, of the soil surface. In open
stands of this type the litter cover is ordinarily slight and the under-
story vegetation is an important supplement to the trees in watershed
protection. Studies made by C. K. Cooperrider of the Southwestern
Forest and Range Experiment Station in Arizona, the semiarid climate
of which is comparable to that of the Rio Grande Basin, have shown that
the herbaceous vegetation of the woodland type varies in quantity as
between years of high rainfall and years of drought, but that a vigorous
vegetative stand covering as much as 35 percent of the soil surface
usually prevents excessive run-off and protects the soil against abnor-
mal erosion. With annual rainfall averaging only 14 to 20 inches,
normally dry springs, extreme droughts sometimes lasting several

A HATIONAL PLAK FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 441

years, high evaporation, and soils which lose fertility readily through
their tendency to be eroded easily, nature's balance for maintaining
he plant cover is delicate.

Over extensive woodland areas the loss in plant cover has averaged
one half to three quarters, as shown by the erosion survey of the
watershed above Elephant Butte Dam. Such destruction is largely
the result of overgrazing since the drainage was settled by whites,
although locally, extreme changes have resulted from timber cutting.
In some instances an increase in tree reproduction has failed to offset
declines in grasses and weeds. Sheet erosion is widespread, and
wherever this has reached an advanced stage gullying also is severe.
Rapid soil wastage is attested by remains of grass clumps, sagebrush,
and tree reproduction on soil pedestals often a foot or more in height,
exposure of large tree roots, and the formation of straight-sided gullies
even on slopes of low gradient. The loss of fertile top soil and of its
moisture-holding capacity has intensified the deficiency of soil mois-
ture, which at best severely limits the density of vegetation.

Such conditions prevail on most of the woodland areas in the unre-
served public domain and on far too many private holdings, including
many of the large Spanish land grants. On the national forests,
efforts to improve conditions through regulating grazing and timber
cutting have been in progress for 20 to 25 years; on many of the wood-
land areas, however, destruction of vegetation and soil had reached
such a serious degree, particularly on readily erosible clay soils, that
improvement of plant cover has been extremely slow and has not yet
stopped the abnormal erosion.

Woodland areas have been classed as of major watershed-protective
influence if erosion resulting from depletion of their cover would
endanger irrigation or other values in valleys below. Most areas in
this type where erosion would chiefly affect the productivity of the
forest soil, and have little influence on other values, have been classed
as of moderate watershed-protective influence.

Within the forest types above the woodland, watershed conditions
are in general reasonably good. The greater part of the water supply
for irrigation and for municipal use in this drainage comes from these
forested mountain lands, largely as stream flow from immediate sur-
face run-off of snow water and from springs fed by percolated snow
water. The forest types which produce lumber, the ponderosa pine
at intermediate elevations and the spruce at higher elevations, exert
a major watershed-protective influence through retarding snow melt
and run-off of snow and rain water, aiding in absorption of moisture,
and protecting the soil against erosion. In the ponderosa pine type
the tree stand is rather open but the litter cover and undergrowth of
grasses, other herbs, and occasional shrubs, where not depleted, is
normally sufficient to afford good watershed protection. In the uncut
spruce forests the stand of timber is generally rather dense and, with
its heavy duff, serves admirably in watershed protection. In these
types lumbering, overgrazing, and fire usually decrease the watershed-
protective values of the forest cover.

Most of the commercial timberland is within the national forests.
Here deterioration of the protective cover has been or is being checked
in most instances. Marks of past erosion still remain, but numerous
eroded areas have been restored to cover conditions capable, under
effective regulation, of arresting abnormal erosion. For example, on

442 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the ponderosa pine area at the head of Senorita Canyon near Cuba,
N.Mex., on which as lately as 20 years ago low vegetation was rather
scanty and erosion was very active, as a result of grazing regulation
the slopes are now well carpeted with bunch grasses, sheet erosion
is practically stopped, and the cutting in gullies is checked. Sides
of gullies formerly 1 to 3 feet deep have assumed an angle of repose
and the grasses that have come in on them have stabilized the soil.

On many private commercial timberlands, timber cutting and
grazing have been, and are continuing to be, severe. The vast
timbered area at the headwaters of the Chama River comprised by
the old Tierra Amarilla Grant, for example, has been cut over within
the last 40 to 50 years, and this cutting has been followed by severe
grazing. As a result much of the area formerly forested is now brush
land or low-density grassland. Observations by members of the
Forest Service extending over the last 20 years indicate that these
changes have been followed by an intensification of floods, increased
bank cutting, and an increase in the silt burden of flood waters in
the Chama River. Some of the once fertile irrigated farm lands on
the river have become silt-sand wastes.

Interspersed with the timber types, a rather dense chaparral type
occurs largely on high mountain slopes. The brush consists principal-
ly of scrub oak, New Mexican locust, and aspen, with an undercover
of grasses and other herbs. This type affords a high degree of water-
shed protection. Fire is very injurious to it and the destructive
grazing, also, has greatly impaired its protective value.

Above the commercial spruce stands is the subalpine forest type,
consisting of scattered patches of spruce and fir interspersed with
grassland or brush areas. Few of these small patches of timber have
been depleted. With their rather dense growth, large quantity of
litter, and herbaceous and shrubby vegetation they control erosion
and reduce surface run-off from snow and rain to an almost negligible
quantity. The grasslands intermixed with these timber clumps
furnish a very effective watershed cover unless depleted. Being
naturally good forage, before the creation of the national forests
they were subjected to severe overgrazing which thinned the grasses
and often caused them to be replaced by a scant stand of w^eeds of
far less value in controlling run-off and erosion. The rather deep
soil common on grassland areas of the subalpine type has been rather
severely eroded. This erosion has not yet been entirely controlled,
although on most of the eroded areas a protective grass cover is
being restored. The rapid run-off made possible in part by the
system of gullies in this grassland type, and the eroded material carried
by this run-off, have tended to cause continuance of active cutting
of stream banks in timber areas below.

Of the 17,460,000 acres of forested land in the Rio Grande Basin,
14,168,000 acres has been classified as of major influence and 3,292,000
acres as of moderate influence in watershed protection. (See figs. 6
and 12.)

LAND MANAGEMENT AS AFFECTING WATERSHED PROTECTION

Measures necessary to correct unsatisfactory erosion and run-off
conditions at the source, on the slopes of the watershed, include
eliminating destructive grazing and timber cutting, controlling fires,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 443

aiding restoration of suitable vegetative cover, and modifying highway
construction to obviate unnecessary acceleration of run-off.

At the time when most of the national forests in the upper Rio
Grande Basin were created, about 27 years ago, overgrazing and
depletion of forage cover were widespread in this drainage. Destruc-
tive lumbering and fires were common, also. Although excessive
erosion is not yet checked on all the 5,364,000 acres of forest lands
within the national forests of the basin the vegetative stand is now
declining on few national-forest areas. Not only has the regulation
of grazing benefited the livestock industry by providing more ade-
quate range feed on the greater part of the national forests, but the
improvement in range conditions has materially reduced the rapidity
of run-off and soil washing. Timber is now cut under regulation
and fires are controlled with little loss of forest values.

On the 2,820,000 acres of forested public domain land in the upper
Rio Grande Basin, the use of which is practically unregulated, cutting
of trees is locally excessive, fires are often allowed to burn without
efforts at control, and most of the range is still deteriorating. The
public domain is often intermingled as alternate sections with railroad
grant lands or with State lands or private holdings. Under such
conditions it hampers attempts to control range use on these lands.
It should be placed under public administration.

State lands within the national-forest boundaries are ordinarily
managed under cooperative agreements which assure reasonably good
fire protection and timber-sale administration. Those outside
national forests are seldom so well managed. State forested lands
are usually leased for grazing without any provision for maintaining
the range resource or for protecting watershed values.

Cut-over lands in this basin which once had stands of saw timber
offer little promise of profitable timber production in private owner-
ship at present. Timber growth is slow, timber values are not high,
and current returns from grazing or other uses will hardly pay taxes,
fire-protection costs, arid interest on the investment. However,
uncut saw timber now privately owned will doubtless remain in private
ownership until cut. In 1931 more than half the private forest land
bearing stands of saw timber was protected from fire through coopera-
tive agreements between the owners and the State or Federal Gov-
ernments.

While range management adequate for satisfactory watershed pro-
tection prevails on some private forested lands, on far too many such
holdings the range is in as bad a condition as on the public domain.
The large values in the agricultural valleys that are endangered by
these erosion conditions would warrant drastic remedial action.
Private lands totaling about 5,000,000 acres showing excessive deter-
ioration of cover on steep slopes or on soils that are readily eroded
should be acquired by the public within the near future, and either
totally protected from grazing or subjected only to drastically re-
stricted grazing until a suitable plant cover has been restored.

In the vicinity of the numerous Mexican and Indian settlements
both within and outside the national forests, where agriculture has
been practiced for many years, erosion and floods have in many
instances decreased or eliminated irrigation farming. This has
resulted in increasing the intensity of other land uses such as grazing
over a large area around each settlement. To permit the last vestige

444 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

of plant cover to be eliminated, as is occurring about many of these
settlements, means lasting destruction of watershed-protection values.
How to correct this situation without destroying an already unstable
economic structure is a problem demanding most intensive study and
one the importance of which cannot be overemphasized.

The danger of serious erosion resulting from construction of forest
roads on soils that are naturally unstable and that are readily eroded
has seldom been given adequate consideration within this basin.
In many instances abnormal run-off, accumulating in roads or in
drainage ditches built to protect roads, has cut veritable canyons in
slopes and valleys. In very few such instances has the erosion been
checked. Drainage methods that will turn water from mountain
roads before it has accumulated to destructive proportions, and
methods of developing a cover on bare cuts and fills, deserve much
greater attention.

Because channel cutting is progressing at such a rapid rate, exten-
sive engineering works are justified as a supplement to restoration of
vegetation on slopes. The cost of engineering works adequate to
control the erosion would be considerable.

Definite effort should be made promptly to control erosion and rapid
run-off from slopes by restoring tree growth, understory vegetation,
and litter. Intensive research is justified to determine just what
forest cover is most effective for each soil and forest type and what
use should be permitted. Where tree growth is necessary and where
devastation has reached such a point that tree growth will not come
back maturally, planting is recommended where it appears prac-
ticable. This would involve about 50,000 acres. Where the herba-
ceous vegetation has been so destroyed under open tree stands or in
openings in the forest that its restoration will be slow, artificial re-
seeding should be resorted to as satisfactory methods are developed.
Approximately 50,000 acres would appear to justify such reseeding
immediately.

GREAT BASIN

Adequate recognition has not been given to the need for watershed
protection on forest lands of the Great Basin, which consists essen-
tially of the eastward drainages of the Sierra Nevada of California, a
portion of southern Oregon, most of Nevada, the western part of
Utah, and small parts of southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wy-
oming (fig. 13). In this basin, drainage is all to the interior and, in the
main, timber values are low. Here the watershed-protective function
of forest lands derives its significance principally from the extreme
demand for water for irrigation agriculture and for urban use, the
scantiness of the water supply available, the danger of destructive
silt-laden floods or even mud-rock flows from local drainage areas,
and the necessity of protecting the soil against abnormal erosion and
of restoring soil productivity on certain mountain lands.

DEMAND FOR WATER, AND RELATION OF FORESTS TO
WATER SUPPLIES

Irrigation agriculture and its related industries are the basic perma-
nent industries of the Great Basin, although less than 2 percent of the
area is irrigated. Irrigation is the main support of most of the com-
munities. It is essential to such leading local industries as sugar man-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

445

ufacturing, canning, dairying, and poultry raising, and plays a very
important part in the sheep, beef-cattle, and meat-packing industries.
The great demand for water is well illustrated by conditions on the
Sevier River. All the water in the channel is diverted several times for
irrigation, 7 or 8 dams being used for this purpose and in part to form
storage reservoirs. The return seepage from the agricultural lands
below each dam supplies water for the next reservoir. In years of

RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
ON WATERSHEDS

" HHi^l MAJOR INFLUENCE

H MODERATE INFLUENCE
F/;;//iM SLIGHT INFLUENCE

FIGURE 13.— Great Basin.

normal or greater precipitation all the reservoirs fill at least above the
point of dangerous water shortage. In years of sparse precipitation,
however, 2 or 3 of which usually occur in every decade, the lower reser-
voirs and some of the upper ones fail to receive enough water for more
than 1 or 2 irrigations and occasionally the lowest reservoir receives
none.

Nearly all the water for irrigation comes as run-off from forest
areas. These total some 20 million acres, only 14 percent of the whole
basin area. They occur mainly above 5,000 feet elevation, on moun-
tains and plateaus. Valleys or desert basins alternate with the

446 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

mountain chains. Another part of the water supply comes from
large springs at lower elevations or from underground storage basins
fed principally from forest-covered mountain slopes. The main irri-
gation developments depend upon large streams, but numerous small
streams furnish the water necessary to irrigate a large number of
widely scattered farms and ranches.

In the Sierra Nevada the principal coniferous timber types are the
ponderosa pine at the lower elevations and a mixture of white fir,
incense cedar, Douglas fir, and sugar pine at somewhat higher eleva-
tions. Still higher Jeffrey pine and western white pine come in, ulti-
mately blending into the subalpine forest. In the eastern part of the
basin the coniferous timber type is made up mainly of Douglas fir,
alpine fir, and white fir, with some spruce. The aspen-fir-brush type
is characterized chiefly by extensive aspen stands and by mixed
stands of aspen, fir, and brush. It occurs principally in the eastern
portion of the basin, on mountains and plateaus above elevations of
7,500 or 8,000 feet.

Both the coniferous and aspen-fir-brush types normally form a
moderately dense cover of trees and subordinate vegetation, have a
fair to good litter cover, and produce a rather deep layer of humus.
Precipitation within these types is probably 20 inches or more in
nearly all parts of the basin, and in some localities exceeds 40 inches.
Much of this precipitation comes in the form of snow, which tends to
accumulate, especially at the higher elevations. Rising temperatures
in March, April, and May and occasional warm rains at that time
cause rather rapid melting. The chief watershed-protective value of
these types lies in maintaining a surface soil condition favorable to
percolation of moisture from melting snow and rams, in retarding
snow melt and surface run-off, and in checking erosion.

Water for domestic use, power, and other urban purposes, also,
comes mainly from forest areas. Such important cities as Salt Lake
City and Ogden, and more than 130 other communities having a pop-
ulation of 500 or more, obtain their supplies from these watersheds.
Several rather large power developments have been installed on the
mam rivers to supply cities and large towns and in portions of Utah
and Idaho included in this basin many towns have their own power
plants on nearby streams.

FLOODS

Of almost equal importance with adequate water supply is the con-
trol of local floods, which are destructive chiefly because of the exces-
sive load of soil and rocks which they carry. Floods of greater or less
seriousness have been reported from many areas within the Great
Basin in the last 30 to 50 years, especially following destruction of
cover on the watersheds through the excessive grazing which came
with extended white settlement and through fires and heavy timber
cutting. Some of the most destructive floods have occurred in the
last 10 years in the thickly populated area near Salt Lake.

Studies made by Prof. Reed W. Bailey, 73 of the Utah Agricultural
College, in cooperation with the Intermountain Forest and Range
Experiment Station and the Utah State Land Board, have shown
that the 75-foot or deeper channel cutting and the enormous amounts

73 Bailey, Reed W., statement in hearings before the House Committee on the Public Lands on H.R.
11816, 72d Cong., 1st sess. 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 447

of debris deposited by these recent floods were far in excess of any
earlier flood action in that locality since Lake Bonneville ceased to
exist some 30,000 or more years ago.

In 1923, for example, disastrous floods occurred at Farmington and
Willard, Utah. Mountain sides were gullied, farm property in the
valley was destroyed, and six people were killed in Farmington Can-
yon. The damage to town and farm property at Willard was between
$75,000 and $85,000. Again, in 1930 and 1932 increasing numbers of
areas in Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah Counties were flooded. News-
papers estimated the damage at more than $1,000,000. The Red
Cross report on floods in these counties in 1930 states that 179,200
acres of high-priced truck and orchard land was flooded and 295
acres of such land rendered completely useless, that 134 families were
left homeless. It cost Utah about $100,000 to clear the State high-
way.

By careful examination after the floods of 1930 the Governor's
special flood commission established 73a that the silt-laden flood water
had collected chiefly on small areas of private land at the heads of the
drainages where the vegetative cover had been seriously depleted or
destroyed by overgrazing, by fire, and to some extent by timber
cutting. This was determined by observing where gullies 10 to 20
feet deep led into the main channels. From these large gullies smaller
ones radiated out into many tiny channels on almost barren spots
where the surface soil had been entirely stripped away through sheet
erosion. The steep slopes, at intermediate elevations, that make up
the greater part of the mountain face bear a dense brush or forest
cover. No gullies originated on these slopes, where the plant cover
and thick litter restrained the surface flow sufficiently to permit
effective penetration of water into the mellow humus-filled surface
soil and prevent undue soil or water losses. The results of examina-
tions made in 1931 and 1932, by representatives of the Utah Agricul-
tural Experiment Station, the Utah State Land Board, and the inter-
mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, of more than 15
recently flooded areas in Utah and the watersheds from which the
floods came show a similar relation of cover depletion on small critical
areas to rapid run-off and floods.

Paul and Baker,74 reporting on the 1923 floods of northern Utah,
attributed the floods to destruction of cover at the heads of stream
courses.

That floods in the Great Basin can at least be alleviated is clearly
indicated by Forest Service studies on the Manti National Forest, in
central Utah. The forest and brush covered slopes and subalpine
grassland openings of the Manti Canyon watershed, for example, had
been badly overgrazed by cattle and sheep as early as 1890.
Reynolds 76 pointed out that—

between 1888 and 1905, the Wasatch Range, from Thistle to Salina, was a vast
dust bed, grazed, trampled, and burned to the utmost.

No flood of consequence occurred in Manti Canyon before 1888, but
the canyon discharged serious floods in that year and in 1889, 1893,

rsa "Torrential Floods in Northern Utah, 1930." Eeport of Special Flood Commission. Utah Agr.
Expt. Sta. Circ. 92. 1931.

?< Paul, J. EL, and Baker, F. S., " The Floods of 1923 in Northern Utah." Univ. of Utah Bui. v. 15, no.
3, 1925.

» Reynolds, Robert V. R., "Grazing and Floods: A study of conditions in the Manti National Forest,
Utah." U.S.Dept.Agr.For.Serv.Bul. 91, 1911.

448 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

1896, 1901, and 1902. Beginning in 1904 livestock were excluded
from the canyon except for drift (the national forest was established
in 1903). By 1909 the vegetation had materially improved. A heavy
storm in August 1909 that resulted in floods from the still depleted
Ephraim and Six Mile Canyons, on either side of Manti Canyon,
caused little injury in Manti Canyon. On September 18 and 19,
1910, a 1.59-inch rainfall following one of 1.16-inch on September 16
in the grazed Ephraim Canyon resulted in a heavy flood. A 1 .18-inch
rainfall on September 18 and 19 following a 1.51-inch rainfall on
September 16 in the protected Manti Canyon produced no flood.
Since then destructive floods have been unknown in Manti Canyon.
In recent years there has been a considerable improvement in the
vegetative cover in Ephraim Canyon, and no floods of consequence
have occurred.

That the restoration of herbaceous cover in large openings in the
subalpine timber type contributes to the control of surface run-off and
erosion from summer storms is shown by studies of the Intermountain
Forest and Kange Experiment Station 76 on two watershed areas of
about 10 acres each in the head of Ephraim Canyon, Utah. Alpine
fir, spruce, and brush occupy completely a few square rods of each
area; otherwise, the cover consists of herbaceous vegetation only.
In 1915, when the studies began, one area (B) was in reasonably good
condition, about 40 percent of its soil surface being covered largely
with perennial grasses and weeds. This cover was maintained during
the study period, through careful grazing management. The thin
vegetative stand, mainly of annuals, that was present on the other
area (A) in 1915 occupied only about 16 percent of the soil surface.
After being maintained in about that condition for 6 years the cover
on this area was improved, through protection from grazing and
through artificial reseeding, until about 40 per cent of the soil surface
was covered, chiefly with perennial grasses and weeds.

By comparing the quantities of surface run-off and of sediment
removed from the two areas during the 6-year periods 1915-20 and
1924-29, as a ratio of results on A divided by those on B, it was found
that the increase in vegetative cover on area A had caused a reduction
of 64 percent in surface run-off from summer rains and a reduction of
54 percent in soil material removed in erosion by summer storms.
An even greater percentage reduction occurred in the difference be-
tween areas A and B in the two periods in respect to the surface run-
off and sediment removed per inch of summer rainfall. The actual
quantity of soil removed from area A was 133.8 cubic feet per year in
the 1915-20 period and only 19.2 cubic feet per year for the 1924-29
period. This decrease is not precisely representative of the results
of the increase in vegetative cover since the rainfall was lower in the
latter period than in the former. Since, in the three years of record,
summer storms carried off 85 percent of all the soil washed from
area A annually during the period when the cover was depleted, and
since summer storms are largely responsible for the destructive floods
in this locality, these reductions in summer run-off and quantity of
sediment carried by summer run-off indicate a definite influence of
plant cover in reducing danger of destructive floods from rains on such
mountain watersheds.

76 Forsling, C. L., "A Study of the Influence of Herbaceous Plant Cover on Surface Run-off and Soil
Erosion in Relation to Grazing on the Wasatch Plateau in Utah." U.S. Dept. Agr. Tech. Bui. 220, 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 449

EROSION

As these flood situations indicate, in the Great Basin erosion of
mountain and foothill slopes is intimately related to flood destructive-
ness. Some floods are so heavily charged with erosion debris that
they become mud-rock flows. Doubtless the most serious phase of
this erosion, however, is soil wastage from slopes. Close observation
of soil conditions on the Wasatch Plateau in central Utah indicates
that in large areas of open grassland in the forest, 6 inches or more of
the fertile topsoil has been lost through sheet erosion. Observations
by the Forest Service show that in the juniper-sagebrush type along
the edges of the Toyabe National Forest, Nev., on private land, on
the public domain, and to some extent on national-forest land, con-
siderable areas are cut with shoestring or larger gullies, accompanied
by sheet erosion. In Keese River Valley, also, there are gullies 2 or 3
feet to 8 or 10 feet deep in this type. Another area a few miles north
of Elko shows considerable surface erosion and some gully erosion.
On most of the forest area in the Great Basin erosion has not gone so
far but that it can undoubtedly be checked by restoring the vegetative
cover.

While abnormal erosion has been severe in all forest types in the
Great Basin, preliminary surveys by the Forest Service show that it
is most serious in the pinon-juniper type, which occupies two thirds
or more of the basin. This type is largely characterized by orchard-
like stands of pinon and juniper, scattered oak and other brush, and
herbaceous growth. The pinon-juniper type occupies the lower, drier
foothills and mountains, where the annual rainfall ordinarily totals
only 12 to 16 inches, part of which may come in occasional semitor-
rential rains. At best the vegetation is scant and little litter accu-
mulates. On large parts of the area, particularly in the public domain,
even this scant stand has been reduced one half or more. Sheet and
gully erosion occurs almost throughout the pinon-juniper type,
although within the national forests the vegetative cover in this type
has shown on the whole a slow but steady improvement and the
excessive loss of soil is being checked.

The loss of soil productivity through erosion is shown by studies of
the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station of soils from
openings of the subalpine timber type in Ephraim Canyon. The
growth of many-flowered bromegrass and of wheatgrass was more
than twice as great and that of peas more than eight times as great
on noneroded as on eroded soils. Furthermore, eroded soils used 38,
23, and 80 percent more water for each pound of growth in brome-
grass, wheatgrass, and peas, respectively, than did the noneroded soils.

WATERSHED-PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

The 19^ million acres of forested land within the Great Basin has
been classified according to watershed-protection influence as approxi-
mately 5/£ million acres of major influence, 12 million acres of moderate
influence, and 2 million acres of slight influence. ^ (See fig. 13.)
Those lands classified as of major influence are chiefly mountain
forested areas, the water from which is in great demand or on which,
if their cover becomes depleted, destructive floods may originate, and
foothill or low mountain areas, chiefly woodland, having readily
erosible soils, the erosion of which might seriously endanger irrigation

450 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

or other works or add to flood destructiveness. Those areas classified
as having a moderate watershed-protection influence are chiefly
woodland areas from which little water normally is delivered and the
erosion of which would not seriously damage lands other than the
forested areas themselves. A rather large area in northeastern
California supporting ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, and woodland
species has been classed as having a slight influence on watershed-
protection values. Most of the area is level or of rolling topography.
Its soils, derived from volcanic rocks or dust, absorb precipitation
readily, and run-off and erosion are seldom serious.

By far the most important requirement for overcoming the unsatis-
factory watershed-protection conditions in the Great Basin is control
of grazing. Timber cutting and fires also must be controlled. On
the 6,670,000 acres of forested lands within the national forests, where
grazing and timber cutting are regulated and fires are held to small
acreages, forest cover conditions are, in general, improving, and
erosion and extremely rapid run-off are being checked.

There is nearly 9 million acres of public domain in the woodland,
mountain brush, and timber types within the basin. Most of this is
not now producing anywhere near the quantity of forage or protecting
vegetative cover that it could produce were it placed under public
administration. Conditions on private and State lands are little, if
any, better. Many areas in the woodland and lower-brush types have
been so badly overgrazed and burned that hardly anything is now
growing on them except downy bromegrass, an annual of very low
value from either a grazing or a watershed-protection standpoint.
On some areas of readily erosible soils where the herbaceous vegetation
has been practically destroyed it may be necessary to eliminate
grazing for a time in order to restore a suitable protective covering,
unless it is possible to find plants that can be established artificially
on these areas. On by far the greater percentage of the basin area,
however, adequate regulation of grazing will doubtless restore a
satisfactory watershed-protection cover.

The State, county, or Federal Government should acquire about
1,800,000 acres of major-influence forest land, especially the critically
denuded areas at the heads of canyons, now in private ownership,
from which destructive floods have come. On these areas, in order
to restore the forest or herbaceous cover, it will be necessary to correct
present overgrazing and to seed or plant erosion-control plants.
Dams in the larger gullies and terraces seeded to grasses or other
plants on the steeper denuded slopes will aid in attaining control of
erosion in a reasonable period. Some 50,000 acres in this basin
should be planted to trees and an additional 200,000 acres reseeded
to grasses or other herbaceous erosion-control plants.

COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN

The Columbia River Basin (which as here considered includes only
lands east of the Cascade Divide) drains parts of Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada, and also a part of
Canada, as is shown by figure 14. It is a region of valuable forest
growth, heavy snows, rapid spring run-off, large and valuable irriga-
tion developments, extensive power possibilities, great demands for
domestic water supplies, and large areas of easily erosible soils.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

451

FOREST TYPES AND THEIR WATERSHED-PROTECTION VALUES

Of the 204,873 square miles in the basin 92,226 square miles
(approximately 59,025,000 acres), or 45 percent, is forest land, located
principally in the rougher mountain country. This forest land sup-
ports some of the most valuable timber in the West.

Near the point where the Columbia River passes through the
Cascade Range the Pacific Coast Douglas fir type occurs, forming a
dense stand of large trees with heavy undergrowth and litter. Where
uncut and unburned it serves unusually well in controlling run-off
of the heavy precipitation which occurs in that part of the drainage,
often totaling 80 inches a year. Chinook winds in winter sometimes

FIGURE 14.— Columbia River Basin and Pacific Cascade drainages.

cause such rapid melting of snow as to bring about floods of short
duration. After fires the land is likely to reclothe quickly with a new
growth of timber reproduction or of shrubs and herbaceous vegetation
that is effective in preventing erosion and, at least moderately, in
slowing down run-off. The Douglas fir areas have been classified
as of major watershed-protection influence.

On areas of lower precipitation throughout the basin, at the lower
fringe of the timber, the main tree cover is scattered ponderosa pine
or juniper. The trees ordinarily do not form a closed canopy. Litter
is scant. Here precipitation usually averages about 15 to 25 inches a
year, with a dry summer period. Run-off from these forests is not
particularly large or rapid except in occasional instances when snows
melt rapidly or semitorrential rains fall. In these open forest stands
the principal erosion-control influence is the undergrowth of herbs
and shrubs. On large areas the perennial herbaceous vegetation has

452 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

been seriously depleted. Studies by the Forest Service in southern
Idaho have shown that in the main these open timber stands, under
satisfactory management and with a good understory of a herbaceous
plants, are highly effective in controlling abnormal erosion that
would otherwise become serious. Where such conditions prevail,
these forests have been classified as of major watershed-protection
influence. In the volcanic pumice soils, especially in central Oregon
and part of eastern Washington, absorption of rain and melting snow
is normally so rapid, and the danger of abnormal erosion so slight,
that where these forests occur on such soils their watershed-protection
influence has been classified as moderate or slight.

At intermediate elevations the forest is more dense, made up chiefly
of ponderosa pine, often with an intermixture of larch or fir. The
western white-pine type occurs as an unusually dense forest with a
heavy litter on the better soils, especially of northern Idaho. Usually
above these types but also intermixed with them in places are extensive
stands of lodgepole pine. Mixed with these several types and some-
times occurring as an individual type is Douglas fir. In these types
precipitation is somewhat higher than in the lower fringe types. It
ranges from as low as 20 inches in the ponderosa pine type at the
lower elevations to 50 inches or more at higher elevations. Summers
are normally dry; much of the precipitation comes in the form of
snow, which accumulates to depths of 5 or 10 feet or more. The
melting of this snow causes a high spring run-off and sustains reason-
ably well a low summer stream flow from underground seepage. An
adequate forest litter prevails which together with the timber and
understory vegetation ordinarily controls erosion and regulates
stream flow rather effectively.

In northern Idaho and northeastern Washington these dense forests
have been classed as of moderate watershed-protective influence. In
this section water yield is normally high, the demand for water is
only moderate, and erosion is seldom serious, although the loess soils
characteristic of the region are eroded readily if exposed. After
destruction of the cover by fire a plate moss forms on the soil and holds
it in place until brush, herbs, and timber reproduction reclothe the
soil completely. Erosion of course can become serious if this reclo thing
is hindered by overgrazing.

Types in which the timber and other growth is dense have a very
high watershed-protection value on the easily eroded granitic, clay,
or clay-loam soils and where delivery .of maximum quantities of
usable water is important, as in southern Idaho. On the pumice soils
of Oregon and Washington these dense forests exert a slight to mod-
erate moisture-conserving influence through delaying snow melt and
improving and protecting the soil with their litter.

In the upper reaches of Clark Fork River, in western Montana,
forest types commonly in more open stands are of major watershed-
protective influence. The demand for water and the need of regular
stream flow are great. Erosion may become serious if fire, grazing, or
some other agency thins the coyer, since revegetation tends to take
more time than in the more humid area on the lower reaches where the
forest is classed as of moderate watershed-protection value.

Excessive run-off and erosion occur on areas around Butte and
Anaconda, Mont., that have been rendered practically barren by
smelter fumes. The fumes have killed tree growth over an extensive

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 453

area, but on much of the affected area sufficient grass remains to
retard abnormal erosion.

The subalpine forest, usually scattered growth or patchy stands of
alpine fir and white-bark pine with intermingled grass or brush lands,
occurs at the higher elevations, extending to timber line where winter
snow depth often exceeds 10 feet. The patches of tree growth,
together with good stands of herbaceous and shrubby vegetation in
the openings, serve very well for erosion control and bring about a
rather satisfactory delivery of the heavy snow blanket. When the
herbaceous cover is broken the value of the type for erosion control
ordinarily is impaired.

Brush fields, often the result of fires, are intermixed with areas of
dense timber. The dense growth of brush, the understory of grasses
and other herbs, and the litter formed within the brush clumps control
erosion with unusual effectiveness unless the cover is depleted. Forest
Service studies in southern Idaho have shown that on extremely steep
brush slopes the dense vegetation and the loose soil maintained under
the brush cover facilitates rapid absorption of moisture, and erosion
is negligible.

WATER-SUPPLY PROBLEMS

How to obtain adequate water for irrigation on the Columbia River
drainage without excessive cost for storage is a great problem, which
becomes more intense when rainfall is subnormal for several years, as
has recently been the case on much of the area. The large quantity
and high values of the irrigated land, as well as the high average
annual returns from the land, make irrigation agriculture a dominant
industry. According to the 1930 census irrigated land in the basin
totals 3,389,000 acres and represents an investment in lands, buildings,
irrigation enterprises, and implements of several hundred million
dollars.

Many large irrigation projects are found in the basin, including the
Twin Falls and Boise projects of Idaho and such important apple-
producing areas as the Yakima and Wenatchee of Washington and the
Hood River of Oregon. Of outstanding importance is the projected
Columbia Basin project of Washington, which involves irrigation of
some 1,200,000 acres. Many other areas are capable of irrigation
development ; in southern Idaho, for example, there is more than 2,600-
000 acres of irrigable land.

Water power, also, is of great importance in the Columbia River
Basin. On the Snake River and its tributaries of southern Idaho, for
example, 166,000 horsepower has already been developed. The Lake
Chelan development alone has a present capacity of 125,000 horse-
power. Smaller plants are in operation on many rivers, and the
undeveloped possibilities in the basin run into several million horse-
power. The domestic water supplies of numerous cities and towns,
also, originate chiefly on forested watersheds of the basin.

The influence of forest cover in regulating stream flow in the Colum-
bia River Basin is indicated by a preliminary Forest Service study in
the Clearwater River drainage in northern Idaho, previously dis-
cussed. The burning of some 535,424 acres, or 17.7 percent, of the
watershed in 1919 caused the following changes in stream flow in the 5
subsequent years as compared with the 5 years prior to the fire: (1)
An average advance of 14 days in the date of peak flow; (2) 9.5 percent

454 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

greater average flow on peak days, and nearly 36 percent greater flow
in May; (3) an increase in the flow during the period April to June,
inclusive, from 66 percent of the total annual flow to 73 percent; (4) a
decrease in the flow during the period July to September, inclusive,
from 13 percent of the yearly flow to only 9 percent; and (5) approxi-
mately 96.5 percent as much run-off from 88 percent as much precipi-
tation. These changes are of great moment. April to June flow is,
of course, chiefly the result of surface run-off from melting snow,
while July to September run-off results almost entirely from the slow
drainage of ground water. The effect of the fires appeared to increase
the spring flood flow, and to do this largely at the expense of ground
storage of water that would have fed the streams later in the year,
particularly during the summer period.

EROSION

Of equal or greater importance with effective regulation of stream
flow is control of erosion. A large part of the forested area of the
Columbia River Basin is made up of coarse, readily erosible granitic
soil. This soil is so loose that where plant cover is scarce or absent it
is readily swept off in sheet erosion. Rapid run-off then forms gullies
from a few inches to several feet deep. Loose soil on the edges of the
gullies soon crumbles, and within a year or two after being formed
many of the smaller gullies have so smoothed over as to be almost
unnoticeable. Such abnormal erosion is taking place over extensive
areas.

How serious such erosion is on this granitic soil is shown by a Forest
Service survey of a part of the Boise River watershed in Idaho.
Approximately 62 percent of an area of nearly 350,000 acres had
suffered distinct sheet erosion and 10 of this 62 percent was also cut
by gullies of a type not readily obliterated by creeping soil. Deple-
tion of vegetation from past overgrazing and trampling by livestock
of soils inadequately protected by vegetation are important causes of
the erosion. Of the 190,991 acres in the grazed timbered area, sheet
erosion had taken place on 64 percent, and on 8 of this 64 percent
gully erosion also had taken place. Of nontimbered grazed areas
more than 78 percent had suffered sheet erosion and 15 percent
included in this had suffered gully erosion. Of the 52,817 acres of
timber and brush areas where the cover was too dense or the slope too
steep to permit grazing only 16 percent showed sheet erosion and but 2
of this 16 percent showed gully erosion.

In many places crowns of old grass plants are found elevated 4 to 8
inches above the surrounding surface, from which erosion has removed
all fine dark soil, exposing a raw, inert stratum of unconsolidated
gravelly sand that offers no real resistance to water erosion. On those
areas protected by a dense cover of timber, wheatgrass, and yarrow,
or of mountain brush a mellow black soil 6 to 18 inches deep still
remains and soil loss through normal erosion is probably offset by soil
formation.

Studies by the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Sta-
tion in this locality showed that noneroded soils contain from 6 to 19
percent organic matter as compared with % to 4 percent in the raw
eroded soils. The average water-holding capacity of the soils of
greater humus content was 81 percent, as compared with only 44 per-

A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 455

cent for the eroded soils lacking in humus. On the latter soils there is
no measurable depth of litter, whereas there is 1 to 3 inches of litter
on lightly grazed noneroded soils of nontimbered areas and 1 to 6
inches on the soils of densely timbered areas.

Some rather large areas of private forest within the Columbia
River basin have been heavily cut and burned, and this has caused
material thinning of the timber stand and some erosion ; the principal
cause of erosion, however, has been the decline of the herbaceous
undergrowth of the forest, largely from overgrazing but in part from
fires. Bunch grasses, which in good stands effectively control erosion
and build soil, have, over large areas, been almost replaced by downy
brome and other inferior annuals or perennials. This replacement is
especially marked on the several million acres of forest land in the
public domain. Forage production on the forested public-domain
areas and on intermingled private land has been found by Forest
Service observers to have been reduced in many instances by from
50 to 80 percent. Such conditions are adversely affecting the live-
stock industry as well as the watershed-protection values of the
forest.

FLOODS

Where only scant cover is present on the watersheds to interrupt
run-off, the combination of semi torrential rains, rapid snow melt, and
ready formation of gullies causes local floods on many of the smaller
tributaries. These local floods sometimes do considerable damage,
destroying improvements and depositing mudrock flows at the mouths
of the drainages, sometimes destroying good agricultural land.

A cloudburst in 1932 on Loon Creek, on the Chain's National Forest
in Idaho, for example, caused heavy run-off to originate on a 1931
burn, resulting in a deposit of sand and debris in tributaries of the
creek so heavy as to destroy fishing in parts of this stream for at least
several years. A similar rain in 1932, on a 1931 burn on the water-
sheds of Richardson and Mann Creeks, on the Idaho National Forest,
caused a heavy flood that cut deep gullies, gutted stream channels to
bedrock, and swept debris down these canyons into the Salmon River.
The mud flow at the mouth of Mann Creek dammed the Salmon
River to a depth of 20 to 25 feet and for a length of 450 feet, causing
the formation of new temporary rapids.

High water can be expected practically every spring in nearly all
important tributaries of the Columbia River as a result of the melting
of the large accumulations of snow in the mountains. This high water
in the main streams seldom assumes the proportions of destructive
floods, although usually it causes minor damage along the stream
courses. It does, however, move a considerable quantity of silt which
has collected in small tributaries down to the main river channels.
By 1930, 15 years after the construction of the Arrowrock Dam of the
Boise project, silting was estimated to have reduced the storage
capacity of the reservoir by 7,000 to 8,000 acre-feet. This amount of
storage space represents more than $100,000 of the original cost of the
dam. Officials of the water-users' organization estimated that by
1930 the sand deposit at the power dam had reduced its capacity by
25 percent, and considerable silting of canals and other irrigation
works has caused additional expense.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 30

456 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Another reason for preventing silting of the Columbia River is the
use of the river for navigation. The value of shipping and of rafts
of logs and piling moved on the Columbia River annually from 1926
to 1930 amounted to about $383,000,000.

PRESENT WATERSHED CONDITIONS ON FEDERAL AND OTHER

LANDS

In the Columbia River Basin fire is by far the most damaging influ-
ence on the watershed-protection values of the forest. Summers are
normally rainless, and with relative humidities often below 10 percent.
Under such conditions the heavy accumulation of litter, the drying
of herbaceous vegetation, and the density of the timber growth com-
bine to make a serious fire hazard. Insect killing of such species as
lodgepole pine over extensive areas has added to the depth of the
litter and to the difficulty of controlling fires once they are well started.

Fires burn hundreds of thousands of acres in the Columbia River
Basin nearly every year. In dry years the fire situation becomes
almost catastrophic. Very drastic and energetic measures have been
taken by the Forest Service to overcome the extreme natural fire
hazard and reduce the national-forest area burned yearly to a point
at which, serious impairment of timber growth or watershed values
will not be involved. In northern Idaho, for example, for watershed
areas where the watershed-protection values of the forest are classed
as moderate the best information available places the permissible
burn at about 0.7 percent per year, or 7 percent in 10 years. Where
the watershed-protection values of the forest are rated as high, the
limit of annual burn should not be greater than one half of 1 percent.
Even on national-forest lands, unfortunately, the average area burned
during the 10-year period 1921-30 exceeded the allowable percentage,
particularly in the valuable commercial timber types such as the
larch-fir, western white pine, and cedar-hemlock. On the Clark Fork
River drainage 24 percent of the western white pine area was burned
over. If such losses continue, profitable timber growing in these
valuable types will become impossible. For timber production,
allowable burns in these types would normally be less than those
indicated above for watershed protection. Accordingly if fires can
be so far controlled as to permit profitable timber production, it is
reasonable to assume, watershed-protection requirements will be met.

On private lands outside the national forests fire protection is even
less satisfactory. It is probable that few private owners will attempt
to carry their cut-over land until it is ready for another cut, for much
of this land has already been devastated by excessive cutting and
fires. As more and more private lands are cut over the incentive for
fire protection becomes less. Thus it is to be expected that damage
to watershed values by fire on private lands will increase unless more
adequate fire protection is provided.

Large areas of cut-over land are reverting to public ownership for
nonpayment of taxes. On many such areas, fire control is far from
what it should be. Timber cutting is often severe, and where fire
follows cutting devastation is widespread, materially influencing the
watershed values. On some rather large areas still in the unreserved
public domain, reburns of timberlands cut over in the early days are
greatly adding to deforestation.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 457

Present logging methods ordinarily do not seriously injure water-
shed values except where logging is followed by fire. On national-
forest lands, cutting usually is more or less selective and leaves an
understory of young trees and underbrush. On private land, also,
cutting is seldom so severe at the present time as to have serious
effects on watershed values except on some western white-pine areas.
On certain large areas, however, for example in Idaho, the timber has
been practically clear cut and burns to clear the slash have seriously
delayed restocking to timber, thus materially reducing protection
values.

Overgrazing is or has been an important factor in unsatisfactory
watershed conservation throughout the basin. On some areas, especi-
ally in northern Idaho and western Montana, demand for grazing is
so light that watershed values are not greatly endangered by grazing
use. On many forest areas in southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, and
central Washington, however, because of easily erosible soils, steep
slopes, open tree cover, and semitorrential rains, overgrazing has
created a critical erosion problem. On large private holdings grazing
is usually leased without restriction on use. Because of overgrazing
in the past and even at present, the vegetative cover on many private
lands and on the public domain is so seriously depleted that it does
not effectively protect the soil against erosion. Heavy grazing
together with the trampling of livestock, especially on loose, granitic
soil, tends to destroy the vegetation and litter that normally would
keep the top layer of soil mellow and open.

REQUIREMENTS FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION

On the 34,755,000 acres of forest land within the national forests
in the Columbia River Basin, watershed conditions are in the main
rather good. Fire protection needs strengthening. Cutting is
ordinarily not detrimental. Although forage conditions are improving
or being maintained on most range areas, overgrazing has not been
entirely corrected and some special adjustments on critical areas may
yet have to be made. In general, conditions are rather good also on
the 2,225,000 acres of forest land in Indian reservations.

Practically all the forest area on the public domain, amounting to
about 1,776,000 acres, could justifiably be added immediately to the
national forests for the purpose of watershed protection. Grazing
regulation on this area should permanently benefit the livestock
industry, as well as assuring more adequate protection to watershed
values. Greater effort to control fire is needed. In addition, timber
cutting should be regulated more strictly.

Since few counties can afford adequate forest fire protection, it
seems logical that the States or the Federal Government should
acquire a considerable part of the private lands that are reverting to
public ownership for nonpayment of taxes, in order that the watershed
and other values of these lands may be adequately safeguarded.
Available data point to the need for public acquisition of about
12,400,000 acres of forested watershed lands in this basin.

On badly depleted areas efforts should be made to restore a cover
that would be more profitable and that would protect the soil and
water flow more effectively. The area on which forest planting will
be necessary for watershed protection is roughly 150,000 acres.

458 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Many of the burns in the western white pine type, for example, should
be planted with trees. About 200,000 acres of openings in the forest
where the vegetation is depleted, but where moisture conditions are
favorable, should be reseeded to herbaceous erosion control plants.
If practical methods for artificial reseeding of the drier low-elevation
forest ranges to forage plants can be developed, many of the areas,
now supporting a thin cover of annual plants, should be restored to a
perennial type of vegetation more typical of what they formerly
produced.

Thorough research is justified to determine just what cover is most
satisfactory for the different exposures, soils, and other conditions,
how to restore and maintain such a cover, and what utilization if any
can be permitted under various watershed conditions.

PACIFIC CASCADE DRAINAGES

The region west of the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington
(see fig. 14) is one of heavy precipitation, deep snows, and steep and
rugged topography, all conducive to heavy and rapid run-off. Over
most of the drainages the forest growth is dense, as a result of heavy
precipitation, fertile soils, and a long growing season. The forests
are predominantly Douglas fir, with western hemlock and silver fir
also prominent. At the higher elevations occur mountain hemlock
and alpine fir. A heavy undergrowth, principally of brush and ferns,
combines with the tree growth and thick litter to form a protective
cover for the slopes, which is unusually effective in conserving mois
ture and preventing erosion. The forest reaches elevations of 4,500
to 6,000 feet in the northern Cascades and 7,000 feet or more in the
southern. At the upper elevations the forest is mainly open and is
often difficult of access. Above the forest are rugged mountain
ridges and numerous peaks, several with glacial fields. Of the total
area of 49,450 square miles in these Pacific Cascade drainages 41,386
square miles (about 26,487,000 acres) is forested land or potential
forest land now bearing a brush cover. Of this area approximately
15,564,000 acres, principally the steep slopes of the Cascade Moun-
tains, has been classified as having a major watershed-protection
influence, 9,509,000 acres, largely bordering the Pacific coast, as
having a moderate influence, and 1,414,000 acres, chiefly on islands
in Puget Sound, as having only slight to no influence.

Because of the extremely heavy precipitation, averaging from 50 to
75 inches and in some places totaling as much as 125 inches a year, the
heavy snowfall, which at the higher elevations totals 30 to 50 feet,
and the occurrence in winter of Chinook winds accompanied by warm
rains, floods are inevitable. Stream channels have, in the main,
adapted themselves to take care of large amounts of water. Occasion-
ally, however, floods do considerable damage to high-value land and
improvements.

Owing to the abundance of water and the great fall in streams, these
drainages contain the greatest concentration of waterpower resources
in the United States. About 625,000 horsepower has already been
developed, at a cost of more than $65,000,000, and more than 4,500,000
horsepower remains to be developed.

A very large population draws upon the water supplies of these
drainages for municipal use. Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and prac-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 459

tically all the smaller towns and cities obtain their water from forested
watersheds. Most of these municipal watersheds are within national
forests and have been set aside as special reserves on which other uses
are restricted or entirely eliminated. The larger cities have developed
water storage for dry periods. The pure, clear water from the heavily
forested slopes is ideal for municipal use and for long life of storage
reservoirs.

Within the upper Willamette, the Rogue, and other river drainages
of southwestern Oregon, irrigation has made it possible to produce
high- value crops such as fruits and vegetables in the rather dry interior
valleys. Approximately 80,000 acres of otherwise low-value land has
been placed under irrigation, and as a result a considerable number of
prosperous communities and cities have been developed.

Without forest cover or other protective vegetative growth the soil
over the greater portion of these drainages would erode easily; where
there is a heavy forest cover, however, indications of erosion are prac-
tically lacking. Logging operations cover some 200,000 acres in these
drainages each year, but because of the heaviness of the timber growth
the individual logging areas are relatively small. The destructive
logging methods used in the Douglas fir type, including the burning
of slash following cutting^ expose the soil to sheet and gully erosion.
Rank herbaceous vegetation and a brush cover of sprouts quickly
reclothe the soil surface and check whatever erosion has started. It
is but a few years until the rapidly growing timber reproduction which
comes in thickly on the exposed mineral soil following the slash burn
overtops the low-growing vegetation and true forest conditions are
restored. If repeated fires take place, however, the timber cover is
destroyed and forested areas are transformed into brush fields, which
according to Forest Service observers are less capable of retarding
snow melt and of regulating stream flow from the heavy precipitation.

On the upper slopes of the Cascade Range, particularly in the north-
ern part of the range, avalanches occur commonly. Occasionally they
have been exceedingly destructive of life and property. Many of
them start above timber line, on steep slopes at the heads of canyons,
and follow a definite course down the canyons. Such avalanches,
known as "canyon slides", occurring almost yearly, keep a "slideway "
thoroughly stripped of sizeable tree growth. This type of slide must
be considered the inevitable consequence of very heavy snowfall on
steep, nonforested slopes.

Another type of avalanche known as " slope slide" is characteristic
of hillsides that were once forested but have been devastated by fires
or logging. On such hillsides great areas of wet snow some tunes start
to slide, as snow does on a steep roof, carrying with them all in their
path. Slides of this type do not occur until the forest has been burned
or cut, because the trees pin the snow blanket to the ground, so to
speak, as nails hold the shingles to a roof. Keeping the steep slopes
well forested will forestall the damage which such avalanches do to all
in their path and to the valleys below.

The main slopes of the Cascades are within the boundaries of na-
tional forests. The national forests of the Pacific Cascade drainages
include 8,588,000 acres of forested land in Federal ownership and large
acreages of private forest holdings. Of the Federal lands within the
national forests, the watershed-protective influence of approximately
5,188,000 acres is classified as major and that of about 3,400,000 acres

460 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

as moderate. The dry summers make tinder of dense vegetative
growth, and although energetic efforts are made to protect these lands
from fire extensive fires still occur. Fire-suppression efforts must be
further strengthened if timber and watershed values are to be ade-
quately safeguarded. Under proper regulation the timber, grazing,
wild-life, and recreational values of these lands are used advantageously
without impairing watershed values.

Private holdings compose more than half the forested area of the
drainages. Of this private land, approximately 8,576,000 acres are
classed as of major watershed-protective influence, 4,781,000 acres as
of moderate influence, and 868,000 acres as of slight influence. The
usual practice is to clear cut the timber and burn the slash. This
practice is ordinarily followed by satisfactory vegetation of the area.
Fire protection is far from adequate on a large part of these private
lands, especially on the cut-over timberlands. Reburns are frequent.
Valuable timber reproduction has been replaced by brush, a change
that materially increases the fire hazard. Cutting of private timber
is often followed by tax delinquency and abandonment, which inten-
sify protection difficulties. The net result of such conditions is a
poorer watershed protective cover.

The drainages west of the Cascade Divide include approximately
1,897,000 acres of public domain and revested Oregon and California
Railroad grant lands. The watershed-protective influence of theselands
is classified as follows: approximately 1,200,000 acres, major; 482,000
acres, moderate; and 215,000 acres, slight. Timber is sold from the
revested lands classified as timberland, but no provision is made for
their permanent forest productivity. These lands are given some fire
protection. No provision has been made, however, for protecting
their timber from insects or disease, and bark beetles have killed
immense quantities of the ponderosa pine. The net result of the
policy governing the protection and use of these lands is a tendency
toward less effective protection of watershed values.

Much true timberland in the Oregon and California grant lands
has been classed by statute as agricultural land, and some of this,
although unsuited to agricultural crop production, as a result of this
classification has passed to private ownership, usually to be aban-
doned when the timber has been cut.

In a region of such steep slopes, high precipitation, and deep SQOWS
as that west of the Cascades, a high, dense forest cover, such as that
formed by the existing coniferous stands, is essential to retard run-off,
hold the soil in place, and prevent avalanches. The high timber
values per acre of the virgin forest have resulted in large private hold-
ings. Private lands are rapidly being cut over, and after cutting are
largely devastated by fire. There is considerable doubt, therefore,
whether the watershed requirements of these drainages as a whole
will be adequately safeguarded if conditions continue as they are or
become worse, as they can easily do. Public agencies should acquire
about 5,000,000 acres of the private land on steep slopes. Approxi-
mately 100,000 acres of devastated forest lands should be replanted.
Research is needed to determine how the forest cover of the Pacific
Cascade slope can be made most effective in watershed protection and
what use of the forest can be combined with maintenance of satisfac-
tory watershed conditions.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 461

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The foregoing discussion has presented a picture of watershed con-
ditions as they exist in the United States today. In view of the fact
that the program necessary to correct the watershed troubles of the
country is so intimately related to the conclusions, it has seemed best
to combine the two. Accordingly, the reader is referred to the section
"A Watershed Protection Program."

THE FOREST FOR RECREATION

By ROBERT MARSHALL, Collaborator

CONTENTS

Page

Volume and value of forest recreation 463

The present volume 463

The future volume 465

The value 466

Purposes 468

Types of recreational forest areas 471

Superlative areas 471

Primeval areas 471

Wilderness areas 473

Roadside areas • 476

Camp-site areas 477

Residence areas 478

Outing areas 478

The problems of forest recreation 479

Use without destruction 479

Preservation from natural enemies i 481

Administration 482

Forestry and recreation 484

The area to be set aside for recreation 485

VOLUME AND VALUE OF FOREST RECREATION
THE PRESENT VOLUME

The use of the forests for recreation probably dates to the time when
some wandering savage, returning to his cave through the depths of
the primeval forest, may have noticed a beam of sunlight shining on
some darkened tree trunk and felt all at once without knowledge of the
reason a moment of great, surging joy in the chaotic passage of his life.

Until very recently, the recreational enjoyment of the forest has
been chiefly of this incidental nature. Today, however, forest recre-
ation is no longer an unpremeditated matter. People do not, as a
rule, live in the forest any more, and if they go there to enjoy them-
selves they are fully conscious of their purpose. Consequently they
have come to realize that forest recreation has a definite value in their
lives, that it is something for which they are willing to sacrifice time
and money and so they desire to plan 'for the preservation of its
possibility.

The word "recreation", as it is used in this report, means anything
that is done directly for the pleasure or enrichment which it brings to
life, in contrast with things that are done primarily to obtain the
necessities of life. The diverse purposes of forest recreation and the
many different forms which it assumes will be discussed later.

Table 1 shows in round numbers the best available statistics on the
use of American forest lands for recreation during the year 1931.
These figures are valuable not as giving a precise measure but for the
general impression which they convey of the tremendous volume which
recreational forest use has already attained in America.

463

464 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 1. — Recreational visitors to forest land in the United States in 1931

Type of land

Number of
visitors

Type of land

Number of
visitors

National parks l

2 3, 000, 000

County and municipal parks *

4 60,000,000

2400,000

Private lands

< 100 000 000

3 32 000 000

Other Federal lands

4 1, 500, 000

Total

246 900 000

State parks and forests . . --

« 50, 000, 000

i Exclusive of the urban Hot Springs National Park.

* National Park Service figures.

s United States Forest Service figures. About 24,000,000 of these recreationalists were transients who
merely drove through the national forests.

* Estimates based on known use of limited areas of this type of land.
6 National Conference on State Parks figures.

6 Exclusive of parks within urban limits.

There is, of course, a great deal of duplication in these records.
Some people visited several different parks or forests; some people
visited the same area on a number of occasions and were checked sep-
arately each time; perhaps some people made use of all seven types
of land for recreation. No doubt there were individuals who were
counted more than a score of times in the total figure. It is therefore
impossible to state how many different persons made recreational use
of the United States forests during the year.

It is reasonable, however, to estimate that each visitor spent on
the average one full day in each park, forest, or private timberland
for which he was recorded. Some remained only for a few hours,
it is true, but many remained several days, and a few spent the entire
summer on a single forest area. If the estimate of one day per visitor
is correct, a total of approximately 250 million man-days were spent
during 1931 in recreational enjoyment of the forest.

The national parks and the national forests have kept count of
the number of their recreational visitors since 1916 in the one case,
and since 1917 in the other. These records started just prior to the
era when long-distance automobile travel became mechanically and
financially possible for a large proportion of our population, when
consequently old notions of distances were altered almost overnight,
and when entirely new recreational habits were formed by millions
of Americans. The astounding increase in the number of both park
and forest visitors, as shown in table 2, reflects the fact that forest
recreation has grown during the past 15 years from a relatively
unimportant variety of diversion into one of the most universally
adopted forms of recreation.

There is, of course, considerable duplication in the records pre-
sented in table 2. The standards of tabulating visitors have varied
considerably, also. Nevertheless the resulting inaccuracy probably
is not of serious moment in the face of an apparent 750 percent
increase in national-park use and an apparent 920 percent increase
in national-forest use during the brief period of 14 years. The
multiplication of the recreational use of these Federal lands has been
not only tremendous in volume but virtually unbroken.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 465

TABLE 2. — Recreational use of national parks and national forests

Year

Number of visitors to —

Year

Number of visitors to-

National
parks !

National
forests 2

National
parks i

National
forests 2

1916.-.

237, 357

1924

1, 258, 178
1, 495, 372
1, 670, 955
2, 173, 120
2, 323, 089
2, 496, 080
2, 607, 499
2, 999, 451

11, 394, 366
15, 279, 730
17, 112, 024
18, 523, 888
23, 008, 997
31, 758, 231
31,904,515
32, 228, 613

1917

353, 268
311, 661
594, 835
756, 654
876, 367
938, 333
1, 168, 886

3, 160, 000
3, 322, 565
3, 064, 344
4, 832, 671
5, 633, 420
6, 172, 942
10, 543, 893

1925

1918

1926

1919

1927

1920

1928

1921

1929

1922.

1930

1923

1931

1 Exclusive of the urban Hot Springs National Park.

2 The national-forest and national-park figures are not comparable because in recent years about three
quarters of the national-forest visitors have been transients who merely drove through the forest area, while
virtual'y all of the national-park visitors came for more protracted sojourns. The 1931 Forest Service figure
which would be comparable to the Park Service record for the same year would be the 8,073,917 hotel and
resort guests, summer-home guests, campers, and picnickers.

There is no reason to suppose that the general trends on Federal
lands are different from those on other recreational territory. Con-
sequently, it is fair to state that recreational use of forest lands is
growing with tremendous acceleration.

THE FUTURE VOLUME

Is there reason to believe that this present growth in recreational
use will continue? What factors are likely to inhibit and to stimulate
future demand for forest recreation?

The most serious of the possible inhibiting factors seem to be com-
mercial exploitation and fires, which threaten to deplete severely the
beauty of many recreational areas. There can be no doubt that the
greatest attraction of the forests is their natural beauty. If this is
not adequately safeguarded, unquestionably millions who now delight
above all else in the loveliness of the forest will forsake it for some
other source of recreation.

Another of the possible inhibiting factors may readily be observed
at any popular camp ground over a holiday. Here one sees swarms
of tourists who not only destroy, by their mere numbers, the very
isolation which was one reason for their journey to the forest, but
also kill the ground vegetation around the camp site and tramp down
the soil so compactly as even to kill many of the trees. This type
of destruction has its remedy, like the destruction resulting from
commercial exploitation, but unless the remedies are applied these
factors will definitely tend to decrease the recreational use of the
forests.

Factors which may be expected to stimulate recreational use of
the forest are :

(1) Increasing population. — The predictions of reputable biome-
tricians place the eventual saturated population of the United States
between 145 million and 185 million. This represents an increase
over present population of between 20 and 50 percent. It would in
all likelihood result in a corresponding increase in the number of
recreational seekers, even if no other factors were involved.

(2) Shorter working hours. — Whereas the average working week in
1929 ranged from 40 to well over 60 hours, with a mean, for all in-

466 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

dustries somewhere around 50 to 55 hours, estimates for the not
distant future place the average in some cases as low as 24 hours
and in the majority of cases at least as low as 30 hours. This change
would greatly increase the available leisure, and it seems reasonable
to assume that a share of the additional leisure time would be devoted
to forest recreation. If shorter working hours mean smaller income,
however, the change may actually work against an increase in re-
creational use of the forest.

(3) Probable rising standard of living. — Most economists, whether
they be capitalists or socialists, predict a great eventual improvement
in the standard of living of the majority of American citizens. This
means that millions of workers who cannot now afford to go to the
forest will find it possible to make regular excursions to the woods.
In many cases these excursions will probably be provided for at
public expense. Already a number of cities perform such welfare
work. It is not unreasonable to believe that sooner or later it may
be considered just as much the function of public agencies to provide
healthful recreation as to provide schooling.

(4) Increasing ease of transportation, — The advent of the auto-
mobile has decimated distances and made it possible for people living
500 miles from attractive forest areas to visit them as readily and
cheaply as people a few years ago visited tracts but 50 miles away.
With airplane and autogiro transportation rapidly being perfected
and cheapened, there is every reason to believe that the forests will
become still more accessible.

(5) Increasing psychological necessity for escape to the primitive. —
As society becomes more and more mechanized it will be increasingly
difficult for many people to stand the nervous strain, the high pres-
sure, and the drabness of their lives. To escape these abominations,
increasing numbers will seek the primitive for the finest features
of life.

THE VALUE

An evaluation of forest recreation may be attempted upon either a
monetary or a social basis.

In terms of dollars and cents, there are several ways of estimating
the recreational worth of the forest. One is to determine the number
of people who visit the forest annually, ascribe some average value
to the pleasure which each one gets from it, and multiply. A second
is to estimate the amount of money invested in forest recreation. A
third is to figure the taxable wealth resulting from the recreational
use of the forest. A fourth is to calculate the amount of money
which recreationists spend in visiting the forests. The few figures
available for each of these approaches will be presented as suggestive
of the tremendous economic importance which forest recreation already
assumes.

(1) It seems distinctly on the side of conservatism to estimate that
each all-day visitor to the forest derives as much pleasure from it as
he would derive from a 2-hour motion-picture show. On the basis of
the best statistics available we have estimated that in the United
States approximately 250 million man-days a year are devoted to
forest recreation. If the admission price to a movie averages 25
cents, this gives the annual American forest recreation a value of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 467

$62,500,000. This is what people probably would pay for the priv-
ilege of using the forest if the price were asked. The incidental fact
that people have to pay for admission to the movies and do not
usually have to pay for admission to the forest does not mean that
the outdoor recreation is any less valuable.

(2) No inclusive figures are available for the amount of money
invested in forest recreation. The special Senate Committee on the
Conservation of Wild-Life Resources 1 estimates that "the invest-
ments which the Federal and various State Governments have made
for the purpose of preserving or increasing wild life comes to a total
of $507,134,935." The total amount of money so far spent in the
purchase of State parks and forests used primarily for recreation
amounts to nearly $50,000,000. The annual expenditures by States
for forest recreational developments, including chiefly the mainte-
nance of parks and reservations, amounted in 1929 to $4,612,711.

In New England alone, it is estimated, $550,000,000 is invested in
recreational property.2 Of all New England's recreational appeals,
the dominant ones are natural surroundings among which lakes and
mountains rank first.3 Consequently a very considerable proportion
of the $550,000,000 recreational investment may be attributed to
forest recreation.

In Wisconsin 4 "it has been estimated that the investment in a
resort area 40 miles square in the highland lake district is almost
$40,000,000."

In view of the $40,000,000 estimated to have been expended on
the area 40 miles square in Wisconsin, it is interesting to speculate
what amounts may have been invested in such extensive, popular,
and much-developed forest playgrounds as California, Colorado, or
the Adirondacks.

(3) Private recreational investments in many regions bear an
especially important relationship to the rural tax problem. It has
been found, for instance, that recreational lands contain 37 percent
of the tax base in Oneida County, Wis., and 63 percent of the tax
base in Vilas County, Wis. In these counties "even on the acre
basis, recreational land is usually assessed for more than farm land
or merchantable timber." 5

It is impossible even to estimate how much taxable wealth results
from forest recreation in the entire United States. A material frac-
tion of the billion dollars of taxes paid in 1931 on motor vehicles and
gasoline must be prorated to forest recreation. In addition there are
the taxes on forest hotels, resorts, residences, and services; on scenic
railroads, trolley lines, and tramways; on camping clothing and other
equipment; and on the manufacture and sale of arms and ammunition.
The sum of ah1 these taxes certainly involves a huge total.

Of course much of this tax bill would be collected even if there
were no forest recreation. If people could not go to the forest, a good
many of them would take their vacation tours somewhere else. Sim-
ilarly, if the people who now have woodland summer homes were
obliged to give them up, a goodly percentage would be content with

1 Wild Life Conservation, Senate Report No. 1329, 71st Cong., 3d sess., 1931.

2 New England Council News Letter, Nov. 19, 1931.

3 "New England's Recreational Appeals," Laurence W. Chidester, 1930.

4 Forest Land Use in Wisconsin, committee on land use and forestry, Madison, AVis., 1932.

5 "Recreation as a Land Use," George S. Wehrwein and Kenneth H. Parsons, Agricultural Experiment
Station, Madison, Wis., 1932.

468 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

seashore dwellings. But the substitutability noted in forest recrea-
tion applies equally to any other resource. The taxable wealth re-
sulting from the commodity use of the forest also would be greatly
reduced if all the possible commodity substitutions were effected.

(4) The American Automobile Association estimates that almost
$4,000,000,000 was spent in motor camping and vacation motor travel
in the United States during the year 1929. It does not seem un-
reasonable to assume that one quarter of the vacation motor travel is
through forested country, and this would mean that annual forest
vacation motor expenditures amount to about $1,000,000,000.

The Special Senate Committee on Conservation of Wild-life
Resources 6 calculates that in 1929 hunters and fishermen spent
$650,000,000 in addition to transportation expenses. It would be
conservative to estimate that at least three quarters of this enormous
sum was spent on forest hunting or fishing, which would mean that
this form of forest recreation accounts for an annual outlay of approxi-
mately half a billion dollars.

No national figures are available for the amount of money spent
each year on summer homes, hotel, and resort accomodations (other
than those paid for by automobile tourists), hiking equipment, or the
outfits required for wilderness journeys. These expenditures would
unquestionably run half as high as those for hunting and fishing.
Consequently the following would seem to be a reasonable, although
admittedly a very rough, estimate of the amount of money spent on
forest recreation during the peak recreation year of 1929 :

Forest vacation motor travel $1,000,000,000

Hunting and fishing 500, 000, 000

Summer homes, resorts, hiking, wilderness j ourneys 250, 000, 000

Total 1, 750, 000, 000

Although huge sums of money are involved on any basis of calcula-
tion, the most important values of forest recreation are not suscept-
ible of measurement in monetary terms. They are concerned with
such intangible considerations as inspiration, esthetic enjoyment, and
a gain in understanding. It is no more valid to rate them in terms of
dollars and cents than it would be to rate the worth of a telephone
pole in terms of the inspiration it gives. The only common denomi-
nator for the recreational and commodity value of the forest is the
human happiness which may be derived from each use. Unfort-
unately no quantitative measure of human happiness has ever been
designed, and consequently it is impossible to describe accurately
the contribution which forest recreation makes toward the welfare
of mankind. About all one can do is to point out the purposes for
which men seek the forest and let each reader make his own evaluation
of their intrinsic importance.

PURPOSES

Perhaps the most frequent purpose of those seeking forest recreation
is simply to have a good time in the outdoors. The majority of
vacation motorists enjoy what features of the forest they can observe
at a velocity of 40 miles an hour, but never really transfer their lives
from the highway to the forest. The woods are only a pleasant back-

6 Wild Life Conservation, S.Rept. 1329, 71st Cong., 3d sess., 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 469

ground for a type of satisfaction which could be enjoyed with no
essential dimunition in any open-air environment. The urge to go
somewhere and the desire for amusement and a change from everyday
life are the vital concerns with this particular type of recreationist.

Millions of people go to the forest for the preservation, restoration,
or stimulation of their health. The therapeutic value of forests has
long been recognized in selecting sites for sanitoria. More recently
it has come to be realized that healthy people may be immensely
benefited by the pure air, the wholesome exercise, and the relaxation
which are such important attributes of forest recreation.

There are many people whose primary concern in the forest is the
pursuit of beauty. The joy which such people derive from a sunset
across some forest lake, from the unfathomable immensity of the
panorama off some wilderness summit, from the unmarred splendor
of a virgin forest, is not essentially different from what another
esthete might derive from the paintings of Rembrandt, from the
sulpture of Rodin, from the music of Beethoven, from the drama of
Shakespeare, or from the poetry of Keats. In spite of the analogy
with these artistic forms of beauty, the forest has unique values which
make it a most distinctive source of esthetic pleasure.

Closely allied with the pursuit of the beautiful is the desire for
communion with nature. For many people there is a significance, as
vital and as satisfying as that which any communicant ever derives
from feeling his spirit one with God, in feeling themselves to be one
with nature, in cutting all bonds of habit and drifting into the time-
less continuity of the primeval.

The primeval environment often proves exceptionally inspiring
and exceptionally favorable to contemplation. Many of our greatest
American thinkers — men of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson, Henry
Thoreau, Mark Twain, William James, and John Muir — have found
the forest an effective stimulus to original thought. John C. Merriam
has well remarked : 7

The man or woman who goes to Grand Canyon or Yellowstone or Yosemite
for a week's vacation is cut off, for the moment, from the business of making a
living. Nearly all of the small cares that make up a good part of our ordinary
living are also left behind. Under such conditions the mental and spiritual
processes turn not only toward appreciation of nature but toward enjoyment of
intellectual life. Frequently at such times consideration is given to the greatest
of our problems. The most intimate and deepest spiritual experiences may
develop and great decisions be made.

Some visitors to the forest are primarily interested in its scientific
aspects. They want to study the forest, to learn the fundamental
reasons for its development, to appreciate the causes of the functioning
of its myriad component parts. To them the forest is a laboratory,
unbounded by the conventional four walls, floor, and ceiling of the
usual research center but fully as significant in the development of a
knowledge of the laws of nature.

The tradition of the pioneers is inculcated into most American
children even before they start their schooling. All through their
formative years they read about the glorious adventures of the Amer-
ican frontiersmen, and often they relive in games and imagination
the stirring pioneer days. Many of them grow up to long for some
real adventure and become sick and tired of getting their thrills in

* Educational Values of Recreation, Educational Record, October 1932.

470 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

such vicarious forms as the lurid movie, the cheap novel, or the
travelogue. A depressingly large number of the more energetic of
these malcontents try to appease their unfulfilled yearning in the
pursuit of crime and racketeering. Others long for a declaration of
war in the hope that in battle they may capture some of the rightful
thrills of life. This same psychological urge lures some people to the
forest, where in less antisocial ways than crime and fighting they add
genuine dash of adventure to their lives.

Finally, there are those whose chief purpose in visiting the forests
is simply an escape from civilization. These people want to rest from
the endless chain of mechanization and artificiality which bounds their
lives. In the forest they temporarily abandon 'a life to which they
cannot become wholly reconciled and return to that nature in which
hundreds of generations of their ancestors were reared.

It is patent that people who go to the forest with such different
purposes will find their recreation in many different forms. Some
of them will tour the forest, or temporarily reside in it, without haying
recourse to any means of transportation other than the mechanical.
Others will resort principally to natural means of transportation in
the course of hiking, riding, canoeing, hunting, fishing, or traveling
the wilderness. Of course many of these must use mechanical modes
of transportation to reach localities where they can make use of the
natural modes.

The differentiation between forms of recreation employing mechan-
ical transportation and those employing natural transportation is of
fundamental significance. In the former case the recreationist
considers nature a mere background to his enjoyment; in the latter
he becomes for a while a part of nature. When a man travels in the
forest by natural means all his capability and all his understanding
are called into use, and an infinite number of subtleties which cannot
possibly be discovered from the highway, the camp ground, or the
house are clearly appreciated and become vitally significant to him.
On the other hand millions of people who enjoy the forest in the
luxury of mechanical transportation would not dream of undergoing
for pleasure the hard work which delights the hiker or canoeist. The
mechanical modes of transportation appeal to those who desire espe-
cially comfort, speed, and a superficial acquaintance with many areas.
The natural modes are chosen by those who want adventure, freedom
from the rush of life, and an intensive knowledge of small areas.

There is no object in trying to compare the different forms of forest
recreation as to importance or value. Each form has at least tens
of thousands of devotees who prefer it to any of the other forms. We
cannot say that if fish and game resources become exhausted fishermen
and hunters will be satisfied with hiking, or that if we cut up all our
large wilderness areas those who in the past enjoyed wilderness travel
will enjoy automobiling just as well. For large numbers of people
such losses would represent an irreparable destruction of the richest
aspects of life. A rational program for forest recreation in America
must assure to the adherents of each of the different types of enjoy-
ment an ample opportunity to indulge their desires.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 471

TYPES OF RECREATIONAL FOREST AREAS

The varied purposes of those who seek recreation in the forest,
and the different forms that the realization of these purposes assumes,
necessitate recognition of several distinct types of recreational forest
areas. Since each of these types has its special standards of size,
beauty, and administration, and since therefore a separate recre-
ational program must be developed for each, it is well to explain
their character and function.

SUPERLATIVE AREAS

"Superlative areas" are localities with unique scenic value, so
surpassing and stupendous in their beauty as to affect almost every-
one who sees them. Examples of such superlative areas are the
Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, the Canyon of the YeUowstone, the
mountains of Glacier National Park or the Teton Range, the Valley
of Yosemite, and the Big Trees. This category includes also natural
features of exceptional scientific interest such as the geysers of the
Yellowstone and the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. If any of
these areas should be destroyed or seriously injured there would be
no substitutes.

Most American citizens are enthusiastically convinced of the
importance of thoroughly safeguarding the inspiring beauty of these
areas. Even those least appreciative of recreational values are
generally willing to admit that we should reserve our relatively few
superlative areas. Consequently it will not be necessary here to
justify the retention of such tracts for recreational purposes. Already
most of them have been set aside in national parks. A number are
located in national forests, national monuments, and State parks,
where their unique values are adequately safeguarded. A few
remain in private ownership. The last mentioned should be ac-
quired by public agencies.

No maximum or minimum size can be assigned to superlative
areas. Each superlative feature is a law unto itself, demanding
preservation of the entire area which it occupies and of a certain
terrain from which it may be viewed.

PRIMEVAL AREAS

"Primeval areas" (sometimes called natural areas) are tracts of
virgin timber in which human activities have never upset the normal
processes of nature. They thus preserve the virginal growth con-
ditions which have existed for an inestimable period.

Primeval areas have two different values. First, they are of
great scientific significance. They are an absolute necessity for any
future studies of the natural distribution of the flora and fauna of
the world. Further, in trying to plan methods of cutting which
will assure the perpetuation of the forest, it is of utmost importance
to have various unmodified stands with which to compare the results
of human modification. Innumerable laws of nature can never be
thoroughly understood without some access to the conditions of the
primeval. These scientific values are quite generally recognized,
and both the Forest Service and the Park Service are making pro-
visions for preserving them.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 31

472 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

The importance of the primeval in the more subtle aspects of forest
recreation is much less generally recognized. Yet observation of
many recreationists gives convincing evidence that most of those who
visit the forests for contemplation, inspiration, communion with na-
ture, or enjoyment of the beautiful receive very much more pleasure
from the beauty of primeval areas than from the beauty of areas mod-
ified by man. To argue that because lovers of the woods get some
enjoyment from cut-over lands it is unnecessary to finance the reten-
tion of samples of the primeval w^ould be as unconvincing as to argue
that because lovers of music may get some enjoyment from the con-
certs of mediocre pianists it is unnecessary to finance a Paderewski
or a Rachmaninoff.

It seems necessary not only to reserve samples of the primeval but
to reserve a considerable number of such samples in every important
forest type in the country. There are at least three important reasons
for this: First, in order to avoid such overcrowding as would speedily
destroy primeval conditions; second, to make the advantages of pri-
meval areas readily accessible to people in as many different parts of
each forest region as possible; and third, because there is still so much
danger that any forest stand will be wiped out by fire or insects.
Therefore, unless it is already too late, at least half a dozen primeval
areas should be set aside in every forest type.

It is not reasonable to contend that if all the samples of primeval
conditions in one forest type were destroyed other forest types would
do as well. Each timber type has its own unique charms, its own
unduplicated manifestation of beauty the destruction of which would
distinctly lessen the potential esthetic enjoyment of nature. There
are as great differences between the beauty of the redwood, the
Engelmann spruce, the western white pine, the northeastern hard-
wood, the southern pine, and the cypress forests as there are between
the paintings of De Vinci, Turner, Rembrandt, Sargent, Goya, and
Diego de Riviera. If anyone proposed that public expenditures for
the housing of art should be reduced by disposing of the works of
Turner, Sargent, and De Riviera, because their paintings are less
distinguished than those of the others the suggestion would be greeted
with uproarious derision, because everyone knows that art cannot be
relatively evaluated, and that it is of the utmost importance to pre-
serve the finest example of each important type. Similarly no defen-
sible rating can be made of the relative beauty of timber stands, and
consequently each important type should be preserved in the museum
of the forest.

In general, the same primeval area may be put to scientific and
recreational use. On certain areas, however, recreational use will
have to be entirely barred in order to permit undisturbed research.
In any event, visitors to primeval areas will be subjected to certain
restrictions. Except on spacious areas it will not be possible to permit
camping, for any great amount of such activity tends to deteriorate
the primeval with exceptional rapidity. Where there are large num-
bers of visitors it will be desirable to construct trails through the area
to save underbrush and reproduction from trampling.

The minimum area necessary for the maintanence of primeval con-
ditions varies with forest type, climate, and topography. In general
the Forest Service believes that 1,000 acres is about the smallest area
desirable, though in special cases where so much as 1,000 acres of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

473

virgin forest cannot be found the largest available area will have to
be sufficient. A tract of 1,000 acres, while well adapted for research,
is too small for satisfactory recreation. The person with a yearning
for the beauties of the primeval wants to do more than just stroll into
a virgin stand of timber and squat. He desires to be able to walk
around in it for a considerable period, losing himself entirely for a
while in its timeless beauty, forgetting that there is such a thing as a
machine-age world. This is extremely difficult to do in 1,000 or even
5,000 acres. While the figure varies considerably with timber type,
a primeval area should contain not less than 5,000 acres, which is,
after all, scarcely 8 square miles. Wherever possible, tracts of at
least double that area should be set aside.

Table 3 shows the major timber types in the United States and the
number of primeval areas of even 5,000 acres which have been set
aside in each. It will be observed that little progress has been made
in reserving primeval areas of even the minimum size. It is vitally
important that any additional areas which are to be preserved should
be set aside right away, for without early action the possibility of
maintaining primeval areas in a number of important timber types
will be lost, if, indeed, it has not been lost already.

TABLE 3. — Number of 5,000-acre primeval areas reserved in each major forest type

Forest type

Total

National
park

National
forest !

State

Spruce and fir ...

11

1

0

10

Jack, red and white pine

o

o

o

o

Northeastern hardwood - .

3

0

o

3

Chestnut, chestnut oak, and yellow poplar

1

1

o

o

Oak and pine . .

1

1

o

0

Oak and hickory

1

1

o

o

Cypress, tupelo, and red gum . ....

0

0

o

0

Southeastern pine

o

o

o

o

Ponderosa pine . . .

3

3

o

0

Sugar pirm find jnixfid wnifar

2

2

o

o

True fir

2

2

o

o

Redwood

2

o

o

2

Sitka spruce . _ . . .

0

0

o

0

Douglas fir

2

2

o

0

Lodgepole pine _________

7

7

o

0

Engelmann spruce

5

5

o

o

Subalpine.. . .. . .._

7

7

0

0

Western white pine

0

0

o

o

Larch and douglas fir

1

1

o

o

Aspen.

1

1

o

o

i The Forest Service has established 16 smaller areas, between 160 acres and 4,230 acres, and averaging
about 1,250 acres each.

This list of forest types excludes several distinctive minor types
which are so limited in distribution that it would be impossible to
attain the minimum standards of either number or size which were
set for the major types. In each minor type at least one primeval
area, as large as possible should be set aside. These minor types
include the pitch pine, southern white cedar, mangrove, port orford
cedar, Jeffrey pine, monterey pine, and mountain hemlock types.
Provision is already being made for the reservation of all existing
stands of Bigtree.

WILDERNESS AREAS

" Wilderness areas" are regions which contain no permanent
inhabitants, possess no means of mechanical conveyance, and are
sufficiently spacious that a person may spend at least a week or two

474 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

of travel in them without crossing his own tracks. The dominant
attributes of such areas are : first, that visitors to them have to depend
exclusively on their own efforts for survival; and second, that they
preserve as nearly as possible the essential features of the primitive
environment. This means that all roads, settlements, and power
transportation are barred. But trails and temporary shelters, fea-
tures such as were common long before the advent of the white race,
are entirely permissible.8

It will not be possible to preserve primeval forest conditions through
the whole of any tract large enough to fulfill these requirements.
Indeed there may be some wilderness areas, as for instance in Maine,
where practically the entire tract will have been logged. The differ-
ence between primeval and wilderness areas is that the primeval area
exhibits primitive conditions of growth whereas the wilderness area
exhibits primitive methods of transportation. Of course wilderness
areas may contain within their boundaries much that is primeval.
Their chief function, however, is not to make possible contact with
the virgin forest but rather to make it possible to retire completely
from the modes of transportation and the living conditions of the
twentieth century.

In 1930, the United States Forest Service adopted the policy of
reserving portions of its territory from road or residential develop-
ment. The Park Service had meanwhile enunciated the policy of
preserving most of its territory in a state of roadlessness. Under
these two administrative policies it will be possible to preserve an
adequate number of wilderness areas in the West. In the East the
situation is less favorable for except in New York and Minnesota the
potential winderness areas are almost exclusively controlled by States
or private owners having no policy of preserving wilderness con-
ditions.

Wilderness areas in general will have to be sections of high moun-
tain country where commercial values are low, because practically
all of the more accessible and productive lands have already been
subjected to development. The great bulk of the remaining potential
wilderness areas could not possibly be managed for timber produc-
tion. Their inaccessibility and the low quality and slow growth of
their timber would render futile any hope of either a financial profit
or a sustained yield. The fact that most of the wilderness areas
will of necessity be low-grade land will make the cost of maintaining
them much less serious than their large acreage might lead one to
expect. Further, a great part of such land will need to be reserved
anyway, as protection forests for the control of stream flow and the
prevention of erosion.

Cattle or sheep grazing is not incompatible with wilderness use.
In occasional instances storage reservoirs may be permissible. On a
number of wilderness areas, logging will be allowed, though in
most of these tracts the timber will be so remote that cutting op-
erations will not be feasible. For fire-protection purposes it will be
necessary in most parts of the West to permit telephone lines and
lookout cabins within wilderness areas and to permit airplane trans-
portation of men and equipment. Otherwise, wilderness areas should
be kept as much as possible in their pristine wildness.

8 The Problem of the Wilderness, Robert Marshall, the Scientific Monthly, February 1930.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 475

As regards area, no absolute limits can be set. Americans who want
wildernesses of the sort which existed in frontier days will need to
retreat to the more remote expanses of northern Canada and Alaska.
Some semblance of pioneer conditions might be obtained in tracts of
more than a million acres, of which several still remain uninvaded by
roads. For those wishing to spend one or two weeks in wilderness
travel without retracing their routes, 200,000 acres (about 300 square
miles) is the least area that would generally prove satisfactory. In
this report that acreage has been adopted as the minimum size for a
wilderness. In many cases smaller units have a great recreational
value, but it is not the value of wilderness travel, and consequently
such tracts will not be considered as wilderness areas.

There remain today in the United States only 9 areas of 1,000,000
acres or more, 18 areas of 500,000 acres or more, and 38 areas of 200,000
acres or more which could still be set aside as wilderness tracts without
involving any serious sacrifice of commercial values, any great risk
to adequate fire protection, or any major changes in existing highway
plans. These tracts total about 26,950,000 acres. Approximately
8,425,000 acres in the East is almost entirely covered by forest. The
18,525,000 acres in the West includes at least 7 million acres of non-
forested land. This leaves about 20 million acres of wilderness in a
forested condition. As has been explained, almost no sacrifice of
economic values would result from preserving these forest areas as
wilderness. The only sacrifice involved would be in barring tourists.
In view of the fact that 486 million acres of forest land in the country
would remain subject to highway development, it would not seem
unreasonable to bar mechanized development from 20 million acres.

The wilderness journey is still relatively unusual, both because for
full enjoyment it requires considerable facility and training, and be-
cause it is expensive. Only a strong and experienced woodsman can
pack on his back the necessary equipment for more than a week of
wilderness travel. The great majority of wilderness travelers must
buy or hire pack horses or boats, or employ back-packers. Unless
they have had considerable experience in the woods they must also
employ guides. Consequently, although a competent man can take
a 2-week wilderness journey with one pack horse for $30, most people
would require a couple of horses and a guide at a cost of at least
$125, even if they do not have to buy special clothing and camp
equipment. A month's trip with an elaborate outfit in especially
inaccessible country ma}7 easily cost one man $1,000.

In the future, however, as more and more people learn how to care
for themselves in the woods, and above all as wilderness journeying
becomes recognized as an important and exceptionally virile form of
recreation, a decrease in cost of participation may be expected similar
to that which has accompanied the development of other popular
pastimes. Furthermore, the heightened standard of living which it
is reasonable to predict for the future may be expected to make
travel in the wilderness a possibility for tens of thousands who today
yearn futilely for such adventure.

In consequence, a greatly increased amount of journeying in the
wilderness may fairly be expected. It would seem reasonable, there-
fore, to establish as wilderness areas all tracts for which no definitely
higher present utility exists. If in the future the use of these tracts
does not justify their retention as wilderness areas, it will always be

476

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

possible to cut them up with additional roads. But once roads are
built, it will be very difficult to restore the wilderness. In table 4
are listed the 38 established, partly established, or potential wilderness
areas i

4. — Forest wilderness areas, established and potential

Name of area

State

Acreage

Ownership

Present status

Idaho

3, 375, 000

National forest

Part established

Aroostook-A lagash

Maine

2, 825, 000

Private

Potential

South Absaroka

Wyoming. ..

1,825,000

National forest, national park

Established.

Upper St John

Maine

1,300,000

Private .

Potential

Minnesota -

1, 275, 000

National forest, private

Established

California

1, 075, 000

National forest, national park

Do

South Fork

Montana

1, 050, 000

National forest

Part established

Glacier-Bridger

Wyoming. ..

1,050,000

National forest, Indian reservation

Do

North Cascade

Washington

1 025,000

National forest

Potential

North Absaroka

Wyoming _.

825, 000

National forest, national jark

Established

Snoqualmie

Washington. .

800,000

National forest .

Potential

Maine

775,000

Private

Do

Olympic - --

Washington

725,000

National forest

Part established

Dead River

Maine

600, 000

Private

Potential

Nantes Mountains

Arizona. - -

575,000

Indian reservation

Do

Gila

New Mexico -

575,000

National forest -__„___-_____.

Established

North Glacier

Montana

550,000

National park

Do

Moose River

New York.. .

500,000

State, private

Do

North Yosemite

California

475, 000

National park, national forest

Do

Aquarius Plateau

Utah .

475, 000

National forest

Potential

Mount Marcy

New York-. .

450, 000

State, private __ _

Established

Pitchstone Plateau

Wyoming

450, 000

National park

Do

Okefenokee

Georgia

400, 000

Private

Potential

South Glacier

Montana

400, 000

National park

Established

South Yosemite

California ..

350, 000

National park, national forest

Do

Madison Plateau

Wyoming ..-

350, 000

National park

Do.

San Juan

Colorado

300, 000

National forest

Do

Oven Lake

New York.. .

300, 000

State, private _ . _

Do.

Goat Rocks

Washington

250,000

National forest, Indian reservation

Part established

Salmon Trinity Alps

California

250, 000

National forest

Do.

High Uintas

Utah

250,000

do

Established

Marble Mountain

California

250,000

...do..

Do

Beartooth

Montana

225, 000

do

Do

Eagle Gap

Oregon

225, 000

. do .

Do

Grand Teton

Wyoming

225, 000

National park, national forest

Part established

Central Plateau

do

200, 000

National park

Established

Bighorn

do

200 000

National forest

Potential

Mission ..

Montana

200,000

National forest, Indian Reservation

Part established

ROADSIDE AREAS

The great majority of people who visit the forests for recreation do
so by automobile. While most of these visitors do not penetrate into
the forest, they are very much concerned with the part which they can
see from the highway. If this were destroyed or seriously damaged,
their enjoyment of touring would be immeasurably impaired, and
indeed many of them would largely give up their vacation journeys.
Consequently, it follows that for these people it is of great importance
to preserve from serious scenic damage the timbered strips adjoining
the more important roads. These strips will be referred to as "road-
side areas." This classification will include also strips of timber left
along lakes, rivers, and all other boat and canoe routes.

Obviously it would not be feasible to preserve scenic strips along all
the 3,009,000 miles 9 of highways in the United States. Many of the
highways receive only occasional use, and the great majority are
rarely visited by people in quest of recreation. However, it would
seem that the 324,500 miles of State highways receive sufficient use to

9 Estimate given in Facts and Figures of the Automobile Industry, National Automobile Chamber of
Commerde, 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 477

justify protection of roadside areas. Therefore, wherever State
highways pass through forest lands, it is recommended that strips
of land at either side of the roadway be preserved on which scenic
values will not only be safeguarded where they already exist but also
restored through planting, the elimination of billboards, the tearing
down of ramshackle houses, and cutting to open attractive vistas.

About a quarter of the land area of the United States is covered
with forest, but roads do not sample all this territory equally. They
are much more apt to lead through fields and clearings. It would be
liberal to estimate that one sixth the State highway mileage, or about
54,000 miles of such road, leads through forests. If there were added
to this figure a nearly equal mileage of county and local roads having
particular recreational value it would mean that a maximum of
about 100,000 miles of roadside strips should be retained to give
scenic protection to the highways.

The width desirable for these strips varies with the density of the
forest, the topography, and the danger of windfall. Along roads that
are used chiefly in summer, when forest visibility is much less than in
winter, the strips can be narrower. In most cases the width of the
strips on each side of the road should probably range from 125 to 250
feet, which would be sufficient to hide any impairment of the scenery
behind them.

CAMP-SITE AREAS

For the benefit of the many automobilists and boat travelers who
spend their nights in camp, it is important to provide " camp-site
areas." These will not only make camping more comfortable and
convenient for the travelers, but will also curtail the very serious
damage to forests which results when the hordes of tourists who
throng many popular highways camp chaotically through the sur-
rounding woods.

The minimum area desirable for individual camp grounds is difficult
to determine precisely. Probably one-quarter acre is about the least
size to which a single tent site ^could be contracted and still retain
reasonable isolation for the camping party which occupies it, though in
many cases isolation is what the campers do not desire. However, too
great crowding also tends to deteriorate the camp site. The number
of tent sites on a camp ground may vary from one to upwards of a
thousand.

Jn general it is desirable to locate camp-site areas some distance
back from highways. This spares the camper the continual dust
cloud raised by passing automobiles, and spares the tourist constant
interruption in his enjoyment of the forest. To a certain extent the
location of camp grounds will be determined by the occurrence of
water, though wells and preferably piped water will make almost any
area available for this use. In many populous parts of the country
practically every possible camp ground should be developed. The
laying out of camp-site areas calls for landscape architecture and
recreational planning of high quality.

Camp-site areas may sometimes be necessary along much-
frequented trails in order to avoid a haphazard camping which would
seriously mar scenic beauty and wildness. The State of Maine has
found public camp sites in the interior of the forest most desirable from
a fire-prevention standpoint. In most cases, however, camp grounds

478 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

away from roadsides and main trails and boat lanes are undesirable
because they give the recreationalist an unnecessary impression of
the very regimentation and artificiality which he is seeking to avoid.

RESIDENCE AREAS

"Residence areas" provide space for private homes, hotels and
resorts, group camps, sanitoria, and stores and services of one sort
or another. They are in most cases privately owned, though the
national forests in 1931 furnished summer-home sites for some
493,235 special-use permittees and their guests. The rent which the
Government got from the summer-home sites in that year amounted
to more than $150,000. For the acreage involved this was the best
paying activity which the Forest Service undertook. Many of the
better-run private residence areas have been sources of great profit
to their owners.. There is here no conflict with commodity exploitation
because the returns from recreation are so much greater than they
could be from any other source.

About one-quarter acre is the minimum desirable area for a single
forest residence. One acre would probably not be an unreasonable
average, for both public and private land. Of course a few immense
private estates run into thousands of acres, but only a small fraction
of each of these tracts could fairly be considered a residence area.
A store or service station generally necessitates a little less acreage
than a private home, while a hotel or a group camp requires consider-
ably more.

OUTING AREAS

While for many people the automobile tour in itself supplies every
want, increasing numbers of people desire more intimate contact with
the woods. Their first trip may be confined to the highway, but
soon a curiosity as to what lies beyond the roadside fringe is aroused,
and they return to find out. Once the joys of intimate contact with
the forest are discovered, the idea of taking a vacation exclusively
on the highway seems almost as preposterous as it would seem to
have moving sidewalks established in picture gaUeries so that one
might enjoy the paintings without stopping.

These people may be interested only in an afternoon's walk or an
all-day hike or at most in an overnight trip. They do not require
the large expanse of a wilderness and may not have ready access to
any superlative or primeval areas. Consequently, yet another type
of recreational area is needed. This type of area will be referred
to as an " outing area."

For this use any tract of forest on which one can get away from the
sounds of the highway and which has not been severely injured
scenically will be acceptable. The outing areas will thus be inter-
mediate between primeval areas and commercially operated timber
tracts. In most cases it will be perfectly possible to combine sus-
tained-yield forestry with the recreational use of outing areas. While
even the best silviculture generally injures the aesthetic value of a
forest for many years, there are high recreational values on most
well-managed timber areas at least during the second half of the
rotation. Obviously, recreational use and timber operation can never
be combined unless there is assurance of sustained yield. In view
of the almost uniform failure of private owners to practice sustained-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 479

yield forestry, it is virtually imperative that where there is combined
timber and recreational use the area must be in the hands of the
public.

Throughout the East a good part of the forest hiking will have to
be done in outing areas. In the West outing areas are often import-
ant adjuncts to popular residence areas. An example is the Desola-
tion Valley in California, a tract of 41,000 acres near the much- visited
Lake Tahoe. This basin has neither remarkable beauty nor remark-
able timber, yet the Forest Service has set it aside exclusively for
recreational use. It is much too small for any real wilderness journey,
but is splendidly adapted for a day's walk or an overnight trip.

The character of outing areas will depend on what forest is avail-
able. In certain devastated sections of the East the most beautiful
stands of timber remaining are such as might not even be considered
for recreation in most regions. On the plains the only forest will
generally be plantations which, although in their particular locality
they may seem of surprising beauty, in other parts of the country
would appear exceptionally unattractive.

Outing areas will have special value as buffers for superlative and
primeval areas. Superlative areas tend to attract large numbers of
people. If these crowds are permitted to camp in the midst of the
most stupendous scenery, they seriously distract the onlooker, for a
throng of tourists does not seem to blend with surpassing natural
beauty. Yet hotels, camp grounds, and various services are needed
for the crowds which visit these superlative areas. Hence arises the
desirability of attractive buffers adjacent to the unique phenomena
which draw the tourists. Here the large number of visitors can
reside comfortably and amid pleasant surroundings, and yet not mar
by their presence the value of the beauty which they came to enjoy.

The need of outing areas as adjuncts to many of the primeval areas
is quite different. Primeval areas will generally be small, simply
because in most forest types no large tracts of virgin timber are
available. Any development of trails within these small primeval
areas should link with forests outside, so that the pedestrian or horse-
back rider may not be confined in his enjoyment to the relatively
brief time it takes to travel through the primeval forest. Such
outside trails should lead through forest areas characterized by a con-
siderable degree of beauty. Often this will necessitate the exclusion
of all logging from the buffer forest.

The size of outing areas will vary from a few acres up to the lower
size limits of wilderness areas. In general such areas will be dis-
tinguished by their accessibility, and this will tend to curtail the
possibility of large dimensions.

THE PROBLEMS OF FOREST RECREATION
USE WITHOUT DESTRUCTION

Anybody who visits the popular outing centers near the large
American cities on public holidays cannot fail to be impressed by the
immense number of people in search of forest recreation. Almost
every possible open spot along the highways will be filled with pic-
nickers and campers cooking their meals, pitching tents, playing
games, swinging from trees, and noisily giving vent to pent-up child-
like impulses which are rigidly curbed under city regimentation. At

480 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

night time it sometimes seems almost as if every tree and every bush
sheltered a sleeping figure. Such heavy use does more than kill the
possibility of enjoying one of the chief recreational values of the
forest, its privacy and quiet. It threatens to destroy the forest itself.

This damage to the forest comes from several sources. Small trees
are cut down for fuel and tent poles. Reproduction and underbrush
which gets in the way is removed. Trees and the lesser vegetation
are killed by abrasion. Gas and oil leaking from cars onto the forest
floor seriously injures all forms of plant life. Finally, the mere con-
stant tramping on the forest floor kills the moisture-absorbing,
nitrogen-providing ground cover, and packs down the soil so firmly
that proper areation for the roots of the trees becomes impossible.
Many much-frequented camp grounds originally laid out in beautiful
groves have become virtually deserts, with the few remaining trees
all sickly, with the undergrowth and reproduction virtually extinct,
and with the surface of the camp ground merely bare soil which in
wet weather becomes a slimy mud and in dry weather gives off a
constant cloud of dust.

The remedy for such intolerable conditions is fourfold. It is first
of all essential to set aside a sufficient quantity of camping ground in
the vicinity of large centers of population that no camp site will be
overused. How many camp sites will be needed for each community
is a subject for individual study, involving a consideration of the
population, its present and probable future recreational habits, the
quantity of other types of recreational land accessible for use, and
finally 'the susceptibility to damage of each type of forest available
for camp sites.

A second important remedy is to educate the public in the proper
use of camp sites. There is an immense difference between the dam-
age caused by careful, considerate campers and that caused by camp-
ers who appreciate nothing except their own immediate pleasure.
Lack of regard for social values is in most cases not willful but simply
thoughtless. Much of the misuse and destruction of public camp
sites could be eliminated by educating people in a consciousness of
the necessity for care with fire, prevention of needless damage to
trees and other vegetation, cleanliness in garbage disposal, and rea-
sonable consideration of the peace of neighboring campers.

There is need also for careful planning of camp sites so that cars
may be parked, tents pitched, camp fires built, and meals eaten at
definite places instead of all over the camp ground.10 In this way the
quantity of vegetation destroyed by camping can be greatly reduced
and much more efficient use can be made of the available space.
Enough well planned camp sites are already in use to indicate clearly
how much better the forest values are protected on such areas.

Finally, it is desirable to have definite regulation of all camp
grounds. In the case of large, much-frequented camp-site areas this
will necessitate a resident administrative officer ; in the case of smaller,
less popular areas, an occasional visit by an inspector. The adminis-
trator will see that necessary regulations are enforced, he will help to
educate the camp-ground users as to the desirability of good camping
manners, he will assist them where they require help, he will build
fireplaces, garbage receptacles, driveways, he may in some cases even

w A Camp Ground Policy, E. P. Meinecke, 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 481

Erocure fuel for campers, and he will clean up any mess they may
mve behind and repair any damage that can be repaired.

The problem of use without destruction is in many respects even
more critical in the case of primeval areas. The only reason it is not
in all respects more critical is that fewer people visit primeval areas,
unless the areas are along main routes of travel, as in the case of the
California redwood groves.11 Primeval areas are the result of a very
delicate balance of natural conditions. As soon as they become over-
run by hordes of people the original conditions are upset and the
natural balance of the forest destroyed. To prevent this it will
generally be necessary to prohibit camping, most destructive of the
recreational uses of the forest, in all primeval areas except a few of the
most extensive. Where camping is permitted it will have to be con-
fined to specially prepared camp grounds. Trails will have to be con-
structed through the areas so that the great bulk of people, instead of
tramping promiscuously over everything, will limit their wanderings
to the pathways.

PRESERVATION FROM NATURAL ENEMIES

Areas of forest land that are devoted to recreation require just as
serious protective measures as do commodity areas. Fires, insects,
and fungi may in fact be even more destructive to recreational than
commercial values. Dead trees often have a salvage value as com-
modities, but there is no way of salvaging the destroyed beauty of a
ruined forest.

In spite of the best protective efforts, however, there is one natural
enemy against which the primeval forest can not in the long run be
protected. This enemy is senility. Sentimental conservationists
talk glibly about setting aside virgin timber tracts to be preserved in
all their natural glory forever. Nevertheless relatively few forest
trees live beyond 400 years. What is a beautiful virgin forest today
may in 40 years be a very ragged stand in which most of the old trees
are dying and in which the understory will require a century or more
to attain the size and beauty of the former forest. There is good
evidence that in the past great areas of overmature timber were wiped
out by widespread insect epidemics, often followed by fire.

Just recently the disastrous mountain pine beetle epidemic among
the lodgepole and ponderosa pine stands of the northern Rocky
Mountains has destroyed the overmature timber on millions of acres,
in spite of strenuous efforts to control it. Such natural devastation is
bound to occur among trees that have passed their normal life span.
Expensive protective measures may delay it, but they can never make
trees immortal. The primeval forest, though it is a self-perpetuating
unit, is bound to go through cycles of deterioration and upbuilding.

Since deterioration is inevitable, and many years or even several
centuries may elapse before the beauty of the primeval is restored,
sustained-yield principles must be applied to primeval areas as well
as to lands which are being logged. It is necessary, in other words,
to maintain in a primitive state a complete rotation of age classes, so
that when the overmature forest decays a mature stand will be grow-
ing up to take its place and a stand of reproduction will be advancing
toward maturity.

11 A report upon the Effect of Excessive Tourist Travel on the California Redwood Park, E. P. Meinecke,
1928.

482 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

To illustrate this principle specifically, let us suppose that it is
desired to set up a primeval rotation in the western white pine type.
This type does not reach its finest development before 200 years.
By 300 years the white pine elements of the stand begin to dis-
integrate rapidly. Thus the 200-year-old primeval stands which we
set aside today at their most beautiful stage of development will be
considerably less splendid in 2032. Consequently it is desirable to
reserve mature stands of aJbout 100 years which today lack much of
the beauty of the older forests but in a century will have ^surpassed
them in aesthetic value. Similarly it is desirable to set aside stands
of present reproduction which will grow into the primeval forests of
the twenty-second century.

In actual practice the first necessity is to preserve the virgin areas
of the present. This action cannot be postponed. If many of the
present overmature forests are not set aside as primeval areas within
the next few years, they probably never will be set aside. The ac-
quiring of the mature and immature age classes can safely wait in
most cases, but sooner or later it will be desirable, in all except a few
uniformly uneven-aged types, to make provision for preserving the
important stages in the life cycle of the forest.

ADMINISTRATION

It will be well to consider briefly the different agencies which control
forest land, to mention the theory under which their administration
functions, and to point out which types of recreational land each
ownership is adapted to handle.

NATIONAL PARKS

National parks are supposed to be confined to areas which remain
essentially in their primitive condition, which are sufficiently inspira-
tional to attract visitors from the entire country, and which are the
finest samples in the United States of the particular types of natural
phenomena which they exemplify. All commercial exploitation is
barred. They are maintained as outdoor museums of the superlative
and primeval. They are intended to serve chiefly as sources of
inspiration, education, and aesthetic enjoyment, rather than as play-
grounds, health resorts, or week-end camping sites. They include
most of the superlative areas, are peculiarly well adapted for main-
taining primeval areas, and owing to a recently formulated policy of
keeping roads out of most of their territory they include splendid
possibilities for wilderness areas.

NATIONAL MONUMENTS

The national-monument system of the United States is administered
by the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and War. The num-
ber of monuments administered by each of these agencies is respec-
tively 38, 16, and 24. The Agriculture Department monuments are
included in national forests. The War Department monuments em-
brace barely 1 square mile altogether. National monuments ad-
ministered by the Interior Department are of five classes : (1) Remains
of prehistoric civilization, (2) historic relics, (3) geologic examples, (4)
botanic reservations, and (5) wild-animal reservations. It is in the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 483

fourth class that forest recreational lands may well be administered.
The Muir Woods near San Francisco and the Glacier Bay National
Monument in Alaska are splendid forests preserved in national
monuments from commercial exploitation. The national-monument
system of the Interior Department is capable of taking over further
primeval areas which it may be desirable to purchase, though on the
whole the administration of such areas would seem to be more the
function of the Forest Service.

NATIONAL FORESTS

The national forests are managed on the principle of providing "the
greatest good to the greatest number in the long run." Under this
policy the Forest Service recognizes that some lands are so valuable
for recreation that no commercial exploitation should be permitted
on them. Other lands are much more valuable for the timber, forage,
and water power which they can produce, and on these lands recrea-
tion receives no consideration. On still a third sort of area some of the
recreational values are safeguarded at the same time that the develop-
ment of commodities is permitted.

In national-forest recreational development the stress is laid not
on preserving the primeval but in providing healthy outdoor recrea-
tion. Camping, the development of health resorts, and general frol-
icking are encouraged. As a result national forests, in addition to
providing some superlative areas and primeval areas, provide wilder-
ness areas, camp grounds, residence areas, and outing areas for
millions of people.

OTHER FEDERAL LANDS

Certain forest lands which could be used for recreation are found
on the public domain, naval reservations, military national forests,
and lighthouse reservations. The last three classes of lands embrace
less than 60,000 acres. They can well continue under their present
administration, with any recreational use they receive ranking dis-
tinctly secondary to their major purpose. Public-domain lands that
are chiefly valuable for recreation should be turned over to the national
parks, national monuments, national forests, or State parks, according
to which type of management is best adapted to administering them.
Provision has been made in the Recreation Act of June 14, 1926, for
turning over to the States or minor political units public-domain lands
of recreational value which seem better adapted to local than to
Federal administration.

STATE PARKS OR FORESTS

State parks and State forests which may be devoted to recreation
are supposed primarily to meet the recreational needs of the citizens
of the State in which they lie. They should generally be distributed
as evenly as possible throughout the State so that all the citizens may
have a reasonable opportunity of enjoying their benefits. "They
should be sufficiently distinctive and notable to interest people from
comparatively distant parts of the State to visit and use them, not
merely good enough to attract people from the region in which they
are situated and merely because of the absence of more interesting
areas within easy reach." 12

« Olmsted, California State Park Survey, California State Park Commission, 1929.

484 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In most cases State parks will be under less stable control and more
subject to political influences than Federal reservations. They will
not, therefore, be so well adapted for the permanent retention of
primeval areas, although the Adirondacks and California belie this
generalization. They will usually be much smaller than Federal
parks and forests, and consequently will seldom contain possible
wilderness areas, although the Adirondacks again make a notable
exception. Their chief value will be in supplying roadside, camp
ground, residence, and outing areas for citizens of the States in which
they lie.

COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL PARKS

In general the parks controlled by the minor civil divisions are
meant for the ordinary outings of the local citizens. They will lack
the sensational features which attract people from distant parts, but
will make up for their constricted appeal by the intensive use to which
they are put by those who live near them. They will be even more
important than State forests for camp site, residence, and outing
areas. Each municipality and county will have the responsibility of
planning for the forest recreation of its own citizens, and the amount
of land which each will have to supply will be in inverse ratio to the
amount of Federal and State land in the vicinity.

PRIVATE LANDS

Private holdings are usually adapted only to those types of recrea-
tional land capable of yielding a profit. These are in general residence
and camp-site areas. In competition with free or very cheap public
camp grounds it is doubtful that many private camp grounds could
pay, and certainly the various governments would not be justified in
giving up this social service to their citizens simply to permit private
operators to make a profit in this field. There are several privately
owned wilderness areas in Maine and one in Georgia, but their
preservation under this form of control is very perilous. One experi-
ment is being broached in Maine for developing an outing area on
private lands, the proceeds to come from toll roads, summer home
sites, and concessionaires. The few large private estates and game
reserves which still remain in the United States might also be classified
as outing areas.

SUMMARY

In summary, the types of recreational area for which each of the
principal forms of forest administration is especially adapted are :

National parks: Superlative, primeval, wilderness.

National monuments : Primeval.

National forests: Superlative, primeval, wilderness, roadside,
camp site, residence, outing.

State parks and forests: Roadside, camp site, residence, outing.

County and municipal parks : Camp site, residence, outing.

Private: Camp site, residence.

FORESTRY AND RECREATION

Without the practice of forestry on the lands devoted to timber
production, the best values of forest recreation would be doomed.
For no matter how solemnly we may set aside in perpetuity lands on

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 485

which timber may be neither "sold, removed, nor destroyed", the
fact remains that if the need for timber becomes sufficiently acute
the protected lands will be opened for exploitation. Men in general
have always attended to their physical needs ahead of their aesthetic
and recreational ones. Consequently, if our physical forest needs
cannot be met on the areas devoted to commodity production, it is
almost certain that the aesthetic and inspirational forest values will
be sacrificed. But if the commodity forests are managed on a sus-
tained-yield basis there will be no need to call on the recreational
forests for wood products, and people may still continue to enjoy
the adventure, the beauty, the inspiration, and the opportunity of
communion with nature which the forest alone can supply.

AREA TO BE SET ASIDE FOR RECREATION

It will be impossible to make any precise calculations as to the
area necessary to meet the country's forest recreational needs until
some survey, much more thorough than anything yet attempted, has
been made. However, the following estimates may have some
validity as rough approximations.

SUPERLATIVE AREAS

It is generally agreed that all forest areas of superlative scenic
value should be set aside exclusively for recreational use. The total
of such areas in the United States probably does not amount to more
than 3 million acres, of which over 2% million acres have already
been reserved for exclusive recreational use.

PRIMEVAL AREAS

An average of 150,000 acres of overmature forest would seem like a
conservative estimate of the acreage to be set aside as primeval area
in each of the 20 major forest types. The departures from this
average in individual types will be wide, for much will depend on the
availability of satisfactory stands. In addition to the 3 million acres
of overmature forest which it is important to reserve immediately,
it will eventually be desirable in all except a few uniformly uneven-
aged types to set aside an equal area in both the mature and immature
forest in order to have that succession of age classes wiiich alone
will insure the perpetuation of primeval areas. Furthermore, about
500,000 acres in minor forest types should be reserved, making prime-
val areas total about 9}<> million acres.

WILDERNESS AREAS

Of the 20 million acres of forested land included in wilderness areas
that have already been established or might be established, about
5 million acres in Maine are in private ownership. This land has
practically all been cut over, and will no doubt continue to be handled
for both commodity and recreational use. About 4 million acres of
national forest wilderness will also be subjected to logging according
to present plans. Approximately 1 million acres of the forested
wilderness total is also superlative area. With these deductions

486 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

there remains a total of 10 million acres of forest land which will
probably be reserved primarily for wilderness recreational use.
Some grazing will occur on much of this area.

ROADSIDE AREAS

It was estimated that a maximum of 100,000 miles of road leading
through the forest should be protected by scenic strips on either side
of the right of way. The width of these strips would range from 125
to 250 feet, with an average of perhaps 175 feet. Two strips 175 feet
wide and 100,000 miles long would involve an area of approximately
4 million acres.

CAMP-SITE AREAS

It may reasonably be estimated that not more than one tenth of
the American population is likely to go camping in the forest at one
time, or in other words a maximum of 16}£ million people out of an
estimated stabilized population of 165 million. If the average area
required by each camping party is about one third acre, and if, as
the American Automobile Association has calculated, touring parties
include an average of 3K people each, each camper would require
about one tenth of an acre. This would make the total camp-site
area, in round numbers, \% million acres.

RESIDENCE AREAS

The acreage required for residence areas is even harder to estimate
than for other recreational land. There were in 1930 about 30 million
families in the United States. If the stabilized population of the coun-
try is one third greater than the present population, it may be ex-
pected that the number of families will increase by at least that ratio,
making the stabilized figure not less than 40 million. It does not seem
unreasonable to expect that one tenth of these families, or in other
words, 4 million, will have forest residences. If the average area for
each residence were 1 acre, the total area would amount to 4 million
acres. In addition it seems reasonable to calculate at least 100,000
group camps, hotels, and resorts, with an average of 20 acres of forest
for each, making an additional 2 million acres. Thus the total area
required for residential use might be calculated very roughly as around
6 million acres.

OUTING AREAS

By far the larger share of those who make use of the forest for
recreation do not demand the unusual qualities which characterize
superlative, primeval, and wilderness acres. Their demands are satis-
fied by any land which retains a considerable growth of timber and has
not been recently scarred by logging. Consequently, a goodly frac-
tion of the forest recreationists can obtain the values they seek on any
well-managed forest lands which have had sufficient time to recuperate
from the effects of logging.

Theoretically, if the population of the United States were equally
distributed, there would be no necessity for special outing areas.
People might take their ordinary forest outings on lands which are
being properly managed for the production of commodities. How-
ever, in the vicinity of certain centers of population the value of forest
land for recreation may be so great that there will be no social justi-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 487

fication for turning any of it over to commercial exploitation even
for a few decades. Lumber is much cheaper to transport than
people, and so it seems that wise land-use planning will favor exclusive
recreational use of some at least of the land near areas where the
population is particularly dense, leaving the more sparsely settled
regions as the principal sources of commodities.

The total acreage of such outing areas as are needed for exclusive
recreational use would only be a small fraction of the acreage of the
well-managed forest land which might provide both recreation and
commodity production. Nevertheless, it would probably amount to
a good many million acres in the entire country. It seems conserva-
tive to estimate 10 or 12 million acres as the minimum territory
which would meet the requirements for exclusive recreational outing
areas. If, however, sustained yield forestry should not be practiced
on the commercial forest areas, and recreational values on cut-over
lands should be as seriously depleted in the future as they generally
have been in the past, the 10 or 12 million acres would only meet an
insignificant fraction of the total outing area requirements.

SUMMARY

These estimates, though admittedly crude, indicate that approxi-
mately 45,000,000 acres will be required primarily for recreational
use. These acres will probably be distributed among the different
types of recreational land about as follows :

Millions of
acres

Superlative areas 3

Primeval areas Q%

Wilderness areas 10

Roadside areas 4

Camp-site areas 1H

Residence areas 6

Outing areas 11

Total 45

It is well to point out that 45 million acres is only 9 percent of the
total of 506 million acres of commercial timberland in the United
States. Already 11 million acres have been withdrawn from timber
use in national, State, and local parks. Of the remaining 34 million
acres, at least 13 million acres are so remote and of such low produc-
tivity that it will undoubtedly be many years before they can possibly
be considered for commercial exploitation.

The withdrawal of 45 million acres of land for recreational use would
involve a very distinct economic benefit. It would concentrate the
growing of timber for commodity use on a smaller acreage than is at
present available, would consequently increase the value of commer-
cial forest land, and would thus indirectly aid in making the commer-
cial operation of timber lands more profitable.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 32

WILD LIFE A FOREST RESOURCE

CONTENTS

Page

Birds and mammals 489

Wild life dependent on forest lands 489

Present economic and social wild-life values 491

Relationship of wild life to other forest uses 497

Grazing of domestic livestock 498

Wild-life management- _ . 501

Forest land used by game 506

Fishery management in forest w aters of the United States 510

Influence of forests on fish life 511

Economic and social values of fish in forest waters 513

Fishery management 516

Means of carrying into effect a program of fishery management in the

forest areas 519

BIRDS AND MAMMALS

By PAUL H. ROBERTS, Administrative Officer, Branch of Research, and J. H.
STONE, Junior Forester, Forest Service, in Cooperation with the Biological
Survey

WILD LIFE DEPENDENT ON FOREST LANDS

Wild life since the mythical days of Robin Hood has been insepar-
ably associated with the forests in song, story, and in fact. European
history records the protection accorded the wild life of the forest that
the nobility might have the full enjoyment of the chase. In some
parts of Europe at the present time wild life is managed as one of the
forest resources. The close association of the forests and game and
the specific place given game as a forest resource in European forestry
probably goes back to the time when game production was the
primary purpose of the forest, and when foresters were in the main
gamekeepers.

American history teems with accounts that show conclusively the
importance of game as a food supply, as a source of clothing and many
other materials needed in the everyday existence of our earlier
civilization, and as a source of commercial return. Lacking this
great resource of food and materials for livelihood and barter, the
westward progress of the pioneers would unquestionably have been
greatly retarded. Fur trading was one of the first, if not the first
economic activity of the westward movement. The rich value con-
tained in the pelts of fur animals was one of the important commercial
attractions that drew the white man into the westward regions.
Most species of these fur bearers thrived in the wooded areas.

As industry and agriculture advanced westward the natural
ranges of wild life species were more and more restricted to the
forest regions until today a great part of our wild life, with the excep-
tion of migratory wild fowl and certain upland game birds, is depen-
dent on forest and wooded land in one form or another for all or part
of its habitat.

Wild life, from the viewpoint of environment, may be divided into
four general classes, viz: forest, range, farm, and water and marsh.

489

490 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Much forest wild life requires large areas of woodland. In this class
are included elk, moose, deer, bear, some species of grouse, turkeys,
and some fur bearers and predators. Range wild life includes the
plains animals, such as buffalo, antelope, jack rabbits, and some spe-
cies of grouse and prairie chickens, which for the most part seek the
open, and thrive there under natural conditions. Farm wild life in-
cludes small birds and mammals and such game species as pheasants,
Hungarian partridges, quail, squirrels, and rabbits, which profit by
the easily obtained food supply on farms and prefer areas where brush
cover and open spaces occur. Migratory wild fowl mostly seek wild
coastal lakes and marsh areas for resting places, food, and breeding
grounds.

Although specific figures are not available, it is safe to state that
the forested and wooded lands of the country provide all or part of
the habitat for a major percentage of the remaining wild life, which
for the purpose of this report includes birds and those mammals of
importance for food, fur, hunting, and aesthetic qualities, and those
commonly classed as predators.

The forest is a favorable natural habitat of wild life because, for
most species, it furnishes three prime essentials: food, breeding
grounds, and protection from enemies and the elements.

Forest and other wooded lands furnish these environmental condi-
tions in whole or in part for all classes of game, fur bearers, and other
wild life, except those that frequent the open country and unwooded
marshes. In general, the topography and the flora of the wooded
lands of mixed growth are most suitable to accommodate a great
abundance and variety of animal life. Marginal areas are particu-
larly favorable. Streams, lakes, wooded swamps, open marshes,
ridges, and rough mountain areas afford a vast range of climatic
conditions, varieties of food, and other factors of environment neces-
sary for a great variety of dependent animal life. The forest mantle
provides the cover needed for protection against natural enemies,
and the increasing numbers of hunters.

Space limitations will permit the citation of only a few specific
examples of forest requirements for wild life. H. L. Stoddard reports
as a result of investigations in Georgia that in seed years pine mast
is one of the chief foods of quail during the fall and early winter.
Longleaf pine cones open rapidly and the seed falls within a 2-week
period. Since it sprouts quickly, it furnishes food for only a short
time. Loblolly pine cones open slowly and furnish a food supply
well into the winter. Stoddard's investigations disclosed that in
1925 pine mast formed 32.5 percent of the quail food during the above
period. The food supply is naturally affected by seed years and,
when pine seed is not available, quail seek sweetgum seeds, acorns, or,
as in the Central States, seeds of legumes which grow in woods, to-
gether with field weed seeds, corn, other grains, many wild fruits, and
insects. In Northern States pine seeds are less important. Ruffed
grouse derive a still larger part of their food from the forest. In
addition to tree seeds, this species eats insects and a great variety of
buds, leaves, and fruits.

Among the larger game, deer obtain practically all of their food
from the forest. An examination of the deer range in Pennsylvania
by experts from the United States Biological Survey and the State
game commission disclosed that deer food consisted almost wholly

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 491

of products of forest land. In the late fall in that State, they fatten
on oak and beech mast. During winter they subsist on buds and
twigs of most tree species. When food is scarce, especially during
periods of heavy snowfall, they subsist largely on laurel or rhodo-
dendron and the inner bark of trees. In spring and summer and
early fall they eat clover, vetches, weedy plants, berries, and fruits,
and browse. Deer are largely species of the forest. They are tra-
ditionally a part of the forest, and their existence is dependent upon
its presence.

Cover is essential to the existence of wild life. Aldo Leopold, a
specialist in game management, in an article in the Journal of Forestry
for October 1931, entitled "Game Range", says that all animals
require from one to four types of coyer in their environment. This is
essential both for food and protection. Game species of low mobile
powers, according to Leopold, prefer as their abiding place an area
where various types of cover meet. For example, quail in the Central
States are most frequently found where farm woodland and cultivated
land adjoin. They require the forest cover for protection from natural
enemies and a haven into which they can fly to escape from cats,
snakes, and other ground enemies. Gradual reduction in cover by
grazing farm woodland in the Central States and by removal of
hedgerows and brush on the farms has been an important factor in
the serious depletion of the quail in that section. Evidence of this
importance of cover is shown by developments, as cited by Mr.
Leopold in his Game Survey of the North Central States.

Forests and wooded lands have been obstacles over large areas to
the encroachments of agricultural settlement, and have thus tended
to preserve favorable environmental conditions for wild life, enabling
many important species to persist in numbers, where in contrast
many plains-dwelling species have been crowded out. Antelope, for
example, which once thronged the feeding grounds and watering
places of the Great Plains have been reduced to a mere fraction of
their former numbers.

Although migratory water fowl, whose principal habitats are
marsh and lake areas, are not directly dependent upon the forest,
some species find food in forest mast, and further, the water supply
for many of the marshes and lakes used by ducks and geese is de-
pendent on maintenance of a forest cover on the headwaters of
tributary streams. Thus the forest contributes in an essential way
to their well-being.

PRESENT ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL WILD-LIFE VALUES
WILD-LIFE POPULATION

Reliable factual information regarding the full extent of our
wild-life resource is sadly lacking. Many States do not have esti-
mates of game population nor reliable figures of kill wilich might
serve as a basis for calculations of population. A few States, where
the importance of the game resource is recognized, have compiled
considerable data on both population and kill. Such information
for the most part pertains to the various species of deer, as these
animals are doubtless the most widely distributed and most hunted
big game species as well as those most commonly found in parks and
preserves. In the West the Forest Service, in cooperation with the

492 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Biological Survey and the State game departments in many States,
has for many years made estimates of numbers of various species of
game animals on the national forests and has compiled records of
kill by species. The Biological Survey has also made independent
counts and estimates of game animals in many localities. Such
figures for game populations are, of course, estimates only. On
the national forests they have, however, been kept for a sufficiently
long period to indicate trends in game population.

Certain local situations requiring application of plans of game
management have necessitated more detailed counts and estimates.
Notable examples are the Jackson Hole elk herd, the Oregon-Nevada
antelope herds, and the Kaibab deer. The accuracy of such estimates
depends on the size of the areas concerned and the physical condi-
tions obtaining in each locality. Such counts are of inestimable
value, not only in the formulation of plans of management for the
specific areas concerned but as indicators of game population and
probable game forage requirements and capacity under other com-
parable environmental conditions. It should, however, be borne in
mind that such counts or detailed estimates as have been made
center around a few well-known species of game animals, principally
deer, elk, antelope, and bear, and that nowhere is there to be found
any reliable estimate of the existing numbers of small game, birds,
or fur bearers, or in fact reliable statements as to what should be the
population of such animals and birds or the extent to which they may
be developed and perpetuated.

In general the data extant on the quantity and value of wild life
give no more than an inkling of the astonishingly large and wide-
spread importance of the resource. Lack of reliable nation-wide
data is in itself sufficient to justify a systematic organized effort to
obtain comprehensive information regarding our country's wild-life
situation. Common sense demands that working plans not only for
the development of this resource but for its coordination with broad
plans embracing other forms of land utilization must be based on
sound, fundamental facts.

Table 1 contains the estimates of big-game population on the
national forests by States. The national forests of the Western United
States comprise about 75 percent of the total western big-game range.
It should again be borne in mind in considering this table that the
numbers of animals shown are estimates only, and the figures repre-
sent comparative density of game by regions rather than actual densi-
ties. It has been demonstrated by experience, in cases where actual
counts have been obtained for comparison with previously estimated
numbers on the same area, that game estimates are in most instances
materially less than actual numbers disclosed by counts. Conse-
quently, the figures contained in the table are considered to be
conservative.

Several interesting indications are to be found in table 1, showing
the results to be expected in the development and use of the game
resource, under a system which provides for multiple use of all forest
resources. In the multiple-use management of the national forests
game has for many years had a definite place, particularly in the
West where there has been for the most part a close coordination of
effort between State game departments, the Biological Survey, and
the Forest Service. Some species of big game in the national forests

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

493

of the West have increased definitely in numbers under this manage-
ment. The high density of the Pacific-coast region is itself very much
lower than that for California alone, where about 65 acres per big-
game animal is the average for the State. In the East the figures are
equally significant. In the South and Central regions, the acreage
per head is high and this indicates the need for a study of the develop-
ment of the game resource. In Pennsylvania, the sole representative
of the Middle Atlantic region where game management has for some
time been practiced, the density (chiefly "due to the deer population)
is nearly as great as that in California.

TABLE 1. — Estimate of big-game animals on national forests by regions as of Decem-
ber 1931

EASTERN STATES

Animal

New
England l

Middle
Atlantic *

Lake

Central «

South <

Total

Bear, black..

Number
880

Number
300

Number
1,789

Number
325

Number
969

Number
4,263

Deer

3,945

5,000

20, 145

635

11,220

40 945

Elk

5

14

475

494

Moose

10

2,834

2 844

Mountain sheep

2

2

Total

4,835

5,307

24, 782

960

12 664

48 548

Area per animal 5 7

Acres
102

Acres
69

Acres
70

Acres
958

Acres
244

Acres
136

WESTERN STATES

Animal

Pacific
Coast

North
Rocky
Mountain

South
Rocky
Mountain

Total

All United
States, 1931

All United
States, 1926

Antelope

Number
2,030

Number
3,363

Number
7,332

Number
12, 725

Number
12, 725

Number
6 942

Bear, black

23 409

10 785

6 389

40 583

44 846

41 965

Bear, grizzly ...

13

526

208

747

747

814

Deer

418, 485

118, 535

315, 765

852, 785

893, 730

613 750

Elk

19, 719

24, 485

52, 181

96,385

96,879

82, 478

Moose

3

2,044

2,444

4,491

7,335

5 142

Mountain goats . .

4,380

6,882

11,262

11,262

9,418

Mountain sheep

472

3,488

7,093

11,053

11,055

11 285

Total

468, 511

170, 108

391,412

1, 030, 031

1. 078, 579

771, 794

Area per animal 6 7

Acres
83

Acres
195

Acres
109

Acres
111

Acres
112

Acres
154

1 Only New Hampshire represented.

2 Only Pennsylvania represented.

3 Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

* Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Virginia.
8 Figures on net area.

6 Figures on gross area forested land, antelope excluded.

7 Areas as of June 1932.

SOCIAL VALUES

In Europe hunting was traditionally the sport of the nobility or
of the privileged classes. The American ideal, in contrast to
European tradition, is hunting for all who wish to enjoy it. There
are several motives and reasons which underlie this traditional Ameri-
can conception of hunting.

The first Americans had to rely on wild game to fill the family
larder. The pursuit and killing of game was a vital necessity, and
skill in the use of firearms was the natural result. The skilled hunter,

494 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

and the "crack shots", had a definite standing in the early American
community life. The Thanksgiving turkey came from the wild —
unmangled by poor marksmanship. These attributes of the hunter,
when hunting was an essential factor of livelihood, have been trans-
mitted more or less to succeeding generations as traditions of Ameri-
can life. They in part inspire the hunting urge today, which, however,
is directed primarily for the purpose of sport.

Our early American stock lived in the country. It was essentially
rural. The movement to- the cities came with later industrial
development. The man who moved from the rural district to the
city retained the desire for the sport to which he was accustomed.
He reverted to it' when opportunity arose, and he in turn taught
his sons to appreciate and enjoy it.

Additional leisure for the average man, through the seemingly
inevitable shorter hours and fewer days of work, will add tremen-
dously to the number of those who seek out-of-doors recreation.
Hunting and fishing will attract large numbers of these folk. These
sports have an attraction not akin to formalized recreation. Some
kinds of hunting especially offer a means of satisfying the human
urge for temporary return to the primitive. They offer variety.
They demand virility, courage, and fortitude. They are a test of
skill, and require arduous endeavor, wherever man pits his skill
and endurance fairly against those of the game he pursues. In-
sofar as a return is made to original methods of hunting, the sport-
ing aspect of hunting is improved and chances for survival of game
are increased.

The human need for recreation is given detailed treatment in
the section of this report entitled "The Forest for Recreation."
Wild life in general affords enjoyment, the opportunity for building
health and character, and for increasing scientific knowledge for
all who care to pursue as well as for those who care only to observe.

The report of the Senate Committee on Conservation of Wild Life
Resources (S.Rept. 1329), estimates that there was during the decade
ending in 1930 a 400 percent increase in the numbers of people who
enjoy the pastimes of hunting and fishing. The report also contains
information collected by a representative of the Southern Newspaper
Publishers Association, who, seeking to determine for purposes of
publicity the relative news value of hunting and fishing as compared
with baseball, football, golf, and tennis, assembled figures available
for 14 Southern States. These showed that there were 4,420,876
hunters and fishermen in 1929 against a combined total of 4,916,652
for all other sports mentioned. The report estimates the number of
licensed hunters in the United States in 1929 at 7,000,000, and the
total of all hunters and fishermen as probably 13,000,000.

The maintenance of satisfactory hunting conditions in the face of so
great a demand for hunting privileges will require more and more
effective game and land management on all lands usable by game, in
consistent relationship to other uses.

ECONOMIC VALUES

This discussion is concerned primarily with positive values of wild
life as a whole rather than destructive tendencies of certain species
that may require control in any effective wild life program. No
attempt has been made to segregate the economic value of wild life

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

495

on forest land alone, because of insufficient data. The available
figures do show the great importance of the resource. In the past a
great deal of thought and effort by biologists and other interested
individuals and organizations has been devoted to wild life chiefly from
the standpoint of preservation of species and the maintenance of
hunting and fishing. Present-day problems of land management
are turning the attention^of land managers and economists to the
present values and potentialities of this important land resource.

The financial burden on individuals and on the public arising from
idle lands — principally those of marginal and submarginal agricultural
character — and of depleted and devastated lands is constantly in-
creasing. The alleviation of this condition requires that every
resource capable of doing so must be made to yield a direct return.
Forest wild life is capable of bearing a sizable share of the load.
Direct values attributable to it are, (1) income from sale of hunting
licenses and other fees, and (2) meat and fur values. Indirect values
include, (1) receipts from the sale of hunting and fishing equipment
by the manufacturers of arms, ammunition, fishing tackle, clothing,
and other outdoor supplies; (2) expenditures of sportsmen for board,
transportation, guide, and other local services; (3) annual expendi-
tures of sportsmen and clubs, for hunting and fishing privileges on
private lands; and (4) value of wild life, chiefly birds, as destroyers of
insects preying on agricultural crops.

Table 2, the data for which has been prepared by W. L. McAtee and
F. P. Callaghan, of the Biological Survey, records an annual income
to the States of nearly $10,000,000 in 1930-31 from sale of hunting
licenses alone. This represents less than 1 percent of the total annual
value attributed to wild life. In many States this license income
represents the total outlay of the State for game management and
administration. It is that part of the direct annual income from
gams which is reinvested in the business. A few States supplement
this income from the general fund, but, by and large, game manage-
ment is at present chiefly self-supporting.

That the annual meat and fur value of game is considerable is
reflected in the estimated total of more than $190,000,000 for the
whole country, or nearly a fifth of the total annual value of wild life.

TABLE No. 2. — Estimate of the annual positive values of wild life

HUMID AREA— EAST OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN

State

Direct values

Recreational values

Total

Meat and
fur (14 cents
aland
acre)

Destruction
of insects
by birds
(22.6 cents
an acre)

Fish (44
cents an
acre water
surface)

Hunters'
fees
1930-31 i

Spent by
hunters ($25
each)*

Spent by
tourists (13
cents an
acre)3

Alabama

$4, 594, 598
4, 706, 240
431,872
176,064
4, 915, 545

5, 261, 760
5, 021, 452
3, 229, 632
4, 980, 505
7, 326, 950

$8, 729, 736
8,941,856
820,556
334, 521
9, 339, 536

9, 997, 344
9, 540, 760
6, 136, 300
9, 462, 960
13, 921, 205

$22, 879
228,096
40, 832
114,048
1, 071, 488

152,064
175, 155
87, 014
157, 977
108, 134

$110, 530
78, 427
4 115, 988
« 3, 390
119,644

85, 646
239, 489
279,262
283, 073
« 131, 384

$1, 989, 500
1, 599, 475
« 776, 525
« 44, 975
1, 205, 900

1,204,450
7, 582, 525
5 7, 619, 650
« 6, 990, 725
3, 265, 100

$4, 326, 233
4, 437, 472
413,088
197, 184
4, 881, Oil

4, 930, 848
4, 714, 528
3, 024, 652
4, 671, 430
6, 835, 545

$19, 773, 476
19, 991, 566
2, 598, 861
870, 182
21, 533, 124

21,632,112
27, 273, 909
20, 376, 510
26, 546, 670
31, 588, 318

\rkansas

Connecticut -- - - -

Delaware

Florida

Georcia

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

496 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE No. 2 — Estimate of the annual positive values of wild life — Continued

State

Direct values

Recreational values

Total

Meat and
fur (14 cents
a land
acre)

Destruction
of insects
by birds
(22.6 cents
an acre)

Fish (44
cents an
acre water
surface)

Hunters'
fees
1930-31 i

Spent by
hunters ($25
each) 2

Spent by
tourists (13
cents an
acre)3

Kentucky

3, 600, 217
4, 068, 646
2, 703, 792
890, 713
720, 294

5, 150, 208
7, 244, 876
4, 154, 035
6, 157, 939
6, 881, 996

809, 177
673, 254
4, 269, 798
4, 367, 104
6, 288, 396

2, 810, 304
6, 219, 494
4, 016, 947
95, 603
2, 732, 352

6, 887, 372
3, 735, 155
23, 510, 860
817,510
3, 607, 475

2, 152, 371
4, 950, 937

6, 840, 413
7, 730, 428
5, 137, 204
1,692,355
1, 368, 559

9, 785, 395
13, 765, 265
7, 892, 666
11,700,084
13, 075, 793

1, 537, 437
1,270,183
8,112,616
8, 297, 497
11,947,953

5, 339, 577
11,817,039
7, 632, 199
181, 646
5, 191, 468

13, 086, 008
7, 096, 794
44, 670, 635
1, 553, 269
6, 854, 202

4, 089, 505
9, 406, 781

117,427
872, 115
885, 632
671, 897
63, 923

140, 800
1, 076, 838
141, 644
195, 148
200,499

87,296
199, 936
436, 480
1, 037, 977
184, 166

84, 480
181, 068
82, 790
50, 969
139, 110

210, 355
94, 336
985, 036
123, 904
665, 984

41, 676
228,098

74, 174
102, 469
113,240
115,476
291, 239

4 646, 476
4 170, 052

2, 122, 925
2, 394, 225
5 2, 806, 375
1, 552, 900
5 2, 851, 175

7, 582, 775
4, 604, 225

3, 364, 753
4, 035, 699
2, 748, 928
1, 025, 606
687, 731

4, 823, 936
7, 045, 542
3, 899, 168
5, 775, 744
9, 209, 408

777, 171
684, 236
4, 093, 772
4, 361, 843
5, 893, 638

3, 414, 528
5, 828, 742
3, 754, 483
103, 833
2, 578, 284

6, 457, 568
3, 496, 230
22, 122, 547
795, 724
3, 546, 566

2, 010, 944

4, 664, 691

16,119,909
19, 203, 582
14, 395, 171
5, 948, 947
5, 982, 921

28, 129, 590
33, 906, 798
16, 087, 513
29, 014, 903
34, 129, 180

4, 777, 595
7,931,913
32, 544, 596
20, 942, 771
25, 019, 299

23, 495, 197
26, 386, 719
29, 991, 469
674, 330
13, 055, 770

28, 442, 223
15, 620, 928
94, 350, 394
4, 453, 908
18, 398, 654

10, 744, 994
23, 701, 335

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi. ._

Missouri

4 244, 088
4 187, 509

4 136, 214
4 273, 004
1, 108, 605
177, 100
4 45, 721

4 456, 583
92, 076
1, 095, 025
4 19, 654
146, 706

86,320

68, 088
220, 516
61, 451
239, 777

4 151, 448
157, 453

5 4, 941, 900
5 4, 573, 975

5 1, 430, 300
s 4, 831, 300
5 14, 523, 325
2, 701, 250
659, 425

11,389,725
2, 248, 300
13, 410, 025
222, 625
2, 267, 850

1,714,600
1, 130, 325
2, 840, 800
5 1,102,050
5 3, 484, 650

* 2, 299, 050
4, 293, 375

Nebraska _ ..

New Hampshire
New Jersey-

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota .

Ohio

Oklahoma. ..

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota..

Tennessee .

Texas

Vermont

Virginia..

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Total

60, 161, 443

304, 297, 745

11, 357, 271

7, 927, 297

136, 258, 275

55, 633, 306

775, 635, 337

ARID AREA-WEST OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN

State

Direct values

Recreational values

Total

Meat and
fur (4 cents
a land
acre)

Destruction
of insects
by birds
(13.3 cents
an acre)

Fish (44
cents an
acre water
surface)

Hunters'
fees
1930-31 1

Spent by
hunters
($25 each) 2

Spent by
tourists (13
cents an
acre) 3

Arizona __ ..

2, 913, 536
3, 984, 691
2, 653, 644
2, 133, 862
3, 742, 745
2,811,417
3, 136, 076
2, 447, 539
2, 103, 910
1,711,001
2, 498, 406

9, 687, 507
13, 249, 098
8, 823, 368
7, 095, 092
12, 444, 629
9, 347, 963
10, 427, 465
8, 138, 067
6, 995, 502
5, 689, 080
8, 307, 201

41,113
236,992
81, 664
150, 374
224, 153
244, 710
36, 889
307, 507
790, 169
645, 145
90,112

4 75, 395
4 423, 718
218, 607
4 173, 446
4 163, 122
4 15, 195
98, 541
4 225, 981
102, 428
357, 286
4 79, 051

s 681, 725
5, 358, 550
5 2, 521, 300
s 2, 219, 500
5 2, 374, 575
147, 975
5 534, 875
5 1, 612, 525
5 1, 174, 050
s 5, 102, 125
5 577, 225

9, 481, 139
12, 950, 246

8, 648, 473
6, 979, 481
12, 230, 150
9, 209, 408
10, 203, 148
8, 045, 356
7,071,168
5, 751, 366
8, 146, 444

22, 880, 415
36, 203, 295
22, 947, 056
18, 751, 755
31, 179, 374
21, 776, 668
24, 436, 984
20, 776, 975
18, 237, 227
19, 256, 003
19, 698, 439

California

Colorado. _-

Idaho

Montana

Nevada

New Mexico

Oregon

Utah

Washington

Wyoming

Total-

30, 136, 827

100, 204, 962

2, 848, 828

1, 932, 770

22, 304, 425

98, 716, 379

256, 144, 191

TOTAL, ALL AREAS

United States

190,298 270

404 502 707

HOOfi OQQ

254, 349, 685

1,031,779,528

i Includes amounts from combined hunting and fishing licenses but not from fishing only

| Expenditures incident to hunting exclusive of license fees

< Percentage of tourist expenditures attributed to attraction of wild life

4 Seasonal figures 1930-31.

* Based on combined hunting and fishing licenses plus hunting licenses

6 Returns cover period May 1, 1930, to Aug. 31, 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 497

That those who go in search of game contribute in many ways to
business activity throughout the country is shown in the total re-
turns of about $158,600,000 for hunters' expenditures and $254,-
300,000 of tourist expenditures credited to wild-life attraction.
Hunters' expenditures include equipment, arms and ammunition
purchases and in addition transportation, lodging, food, guide, and
other personal expenses. Tourist expenditures are concerned with
all of these but arms and ammunition purchases.

The Michigan Department of Conservation reported that hunters
spend $5,000,000 for sundry items. The expenditure for gasoline
was estimated at $500,000.

In Utah data on hunters' expenditures were obtained during a
period of regulated deer hunting on the Beaver Ranger District of
the Fishlake National Forest. Not including the hunters' time, the
average cost per hunter amounted to $35.65. The total expenditures
for 2,542 hunters amounted to $90,622.30. Only direct equipment
costs, transportation, and supplies were included in these figures.
They are believed to be quite typical for the State.

In addition, throughout the eastern regions, some private-land
owners derive a substantial income from leasing their lands to hunting
clubs or from selling hunting privileges to sportsmen. In the southern
pinelands, Leopold states (Journal of Forestry, 28:321-326), the quail
crop has an established market value for leasing purposes of 15
cents per acre per year. In his survey of the Central States, he says
that in certain States of this region, preserves are leased for 10 to 15
cents per acre and toll charges of $1 to $5 per man-day are received.
Such returns from a game crop, would be of tremendous assistance to
the landowner in meeting carrying charges.

To the farmer, the dollars-and-cents value of wild life in destroying
insects harmful to crops is very difficult to evaluate but without ques-
tion is enormous. An idea of the value involved is given by W. L.
McAtee's figure in table 2 of 22.6 cents per acre in the eastern region
and 13.3 cents per acre in the western, or a total value for the United
States of $404,502,707. This amounts to a substantial subsidy for
the landowners of the United States.

The values shown in table 2 have been cited not as a strictly mathe-
matical evaluation of the worth of our wild-life resource. They are
estimates for greatly fluctuating values and no claims of great accuracy
are made for them. But they do serve to indicate its present wide-
spread economic importance as a direct land resource susceptible of
expansion and development under wise multiple-use land management.

RELATIONSHIP OF WILD LIFE TO OTHER FOREST USES

Wild life is directly concerned with practically all other forest-
land uses. To discuss all these relationships in detail in this report
would involve the treatment of a great part of the field of plant and
animal biology. It is desired to set forth only a few of the significant
facts in which those concerned with forest and game management
are becoming more and more interested, as the sciences of forestry
and wild-life management develop with increasing knowledge.

TIMBER PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION

In general it can be stated that those things necessary for the pro-
tection of the forest from fire, as well as the application of such

498 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

measures as are necessary to keep forest land productive, contribute
to the welfare of wild life.

The requirements of game, previously mentioned in connection
with habitat, for various types of cover, are directly concerned with
silvicultural methods used in cutting, slash disposal, and reforestation.
Cutting operations open up the forest canopy and provide food and
cover by encouraging the growth of low herbaceous and shrubby
vegetation, and succulent sprouts highly relished by various wild-
life species. On the other hand, game populations so increased may
be expected to diminish gradually as the forests mature and food
supply diminishes. Management must seek a proper balance based
on the relative importance of each resource in the locality concerned.

For several years after unburned hardwoods are clean cut, sufficient
food is available for deer but the shelter, except where mild climate
prevails, is inadequate. Either advance growth should be available
or maturing timber is needed to provide shelter.

Aldo Leopold, in the article in the Journal of Forestry already
cited, asserts that in the layout of plantations, the effect of food
and cover requirements on deer population should be considered.
If the daily cruising radius of a deer is about 2 miles and the seasonal
about 15 miles, the planting program should provide the different
types of cover sought by them accordingly. His investigations of
game in the Central States show that a bird supply on farm wood lots
is dependent on the farmer leaving his brush on the ground and pre-
venting destruction of undergrowth which furnishes cover for the
birds.

The heavy deer population on forested lands in Pennsylvania has
seriously affected certain forest areas, according to Henry E. Clepper
in his bulletin entitled "The Deer Problem in Pennsylvania/' He
shows that protective measures resulted in an increase in numbers of
deer in some sections to the extent that in their search for food they
destroyed all advanced tree reproduction by browsing, and ate all
foliage and twigs within their reach.

GRAZING OF DOMESTIC LIVESTOCK

Probably in no other phase of forest-land management is the
interrelation of wild life production and other forest uses so apparent
as in the use of the forest range by wild life and domestic livestock.

Measures adopted on the national forests during the past 20 years,
resulting in an increase of grazing game animals, and requiring in many
instances adjustments between game and domestic stock, have sharply
focused the attention of foresters and game specialists upon the need
for carefully planned and coordinated use of forest grazing areas.

The outstanding example is on the Kaibab Plateau where an area
now comprising about 857,000 acres, was set aside in 1906 as a Federal
game preserve, with deer the principal game species. A measure of
protection was afforded by the operations of the United States Bio-
logical Survey up to 1923 in destroying predators, and conditions were
made favorable for the deer in other ways. As a result, deer increased
until the forage-producing capacity of the area was insufficient not
only for the deer and domestic stock, but even for the deer alone.
Notwithstanding a reduction of domestic livestock, to a point where
competition with the deer was at a minimum, the continued increase

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 499

in deer resulted in great damage to the more valuable forage plants
and timber reproduction. By 1929 expert biologists estimated that
it would take a minimum of 50 years under practically complete pro-
tection to restore the area to its original condition and that the pro-
ductive capacity had been reduced to a degree which would sustain
not more than 5 to 10 percent of the game which it was capable of
supporting under proper conditions of normal use. Action has been
under way for several years to remedy the situation and the excessive
deer population has been reduced. Restoration of properly balanced
wild life and vegetative conditions presents intricate problems of
biological relationships and management.

There are many other places where action taken primarily for the
purpose of game protection has brought results comparable with con-
ditions on the Kaibab, and where the problem, from being one of
game protection, has changed rapidly to many problems or a single
interrelated problem involving game, livestock, recreation, timber,
and other intricate phases of forest-land management.

The Jackson Hole elk herd in Wyoming is an example, known
Nation-wide by foresters, biologists, sportsmen, and others interested
in wild life, of the need for intensive research and the best obtainable
knowledge and skill in solving problems of the relation of game to
grazing land use.

Similar problems of concentration of game and its interrelation
with domestic livestock grazing arise where grazing game animals are
introduced into localities favorable to them. Elk plantings furnish
examples of this nature. In 1913 a shipment of elk was made from
the Jackson Hole herd to the Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona.
Seventy head of this shipment survived and were liberated in the lo-
cality south of Winslow, which had especially favorable environmental
conditions. It was estimated in 1919 that there were 350 to 500 head
of the animals. At the present time the estimate is over 5,000 head.
During recent years damage has occurred to brush and tree growth
along the streams. Unlike deer these animals are apparently con-
stantly spreading to new range. The area is used by domestic sheep
and cattle. The problem is one of working out the proper relation-
ship, that each may be given its proper weight and place in the scheme
of forest-land management applied on the area.

The relation between game animals and domestic livestock is not
altogether concerned with particular conditions of concentration or
competition between the two. Increasing knowledge of forage re-
quirements for game, the plant species which they select and upon
which they will thrive, as differentiated from the plant requirements
of domestic livestock, offer excellent opportunities for determining a
well-balanced relation between numbers of game and livestock, and
of both to timber production under a system of correlated use of forest
lands. Correction of current instances of improper balance is a mat-
ter of temporary concern. Satisfactory determination of permanent
ratios, however, requires additional research and fact finding for a
multitude of varying conditions and, in the final analysis, should
afford the means of obtaining the best development and use of the
game resource in its proper relation to timber and other lines of pro-
duction. For example, the Forest Service, from information now
available, believes that the present deer population on the national
forests in Colorado, estimated at about 41,000 head, could, from the

500 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

standpoint of forage requirements of both deer and livestock, be in-
creased to approximately 150,000 without interference with livestock
or timber production if additional winter range were made available
outside the national forests. Similar increases of double the present
numbers of deer and development of the wild-life resource are possible
on other national forest areas.

Use of forest lands by wild life involves not alone the relationship
between wild animals and domestic stock, but concerns also the proper
balance between and interrelation of various classes of wild life.
Experience in many places has amply demonstrated that the satis-
factory status of the natural wild-life population may be disturbed by
changes in food and coyer conditions that favor one or more species
over others, or by special measures provided for the protection of
certain species from natural enemies or man. Here again the ulti-
mate goal of land use is not the correction of what may be a temporary
condition, but rather the application on a broad scale of principles that
will result continuously in a smoothly flowing, properly balanced
use for production of timber or other products and uses of forest land
and of the various wild-life species which should be included in the
objectives of wild life management on the area.

Competition between wild-life species may at times be a vital factor.
In the southwestern part of the Sacramento Mountains in New
Mexico, on the Lincoln National Forest, wild turkeys are very scarce.
They have in fact nearly disappeared from that part of the moun-
tains. On this particular range deer have increased on private
holdings and adjacent national forest land to a point where they,
together with domestic stock, have destroyed much of the more
palatable shrubs and must turn to mast, i.e., acorns and juniper
berries which they eat practically as soon as these fall from the trees.
The use of the acorns and juniper berries by deer, together with
reduction of other turkey feed through overgrazing, destroys the
winter forage supply for turkey. In the north end of the Sacramento
Mountains deer are not so plentiful and there are great numbers of
turkeys.

An instance of competition between elk and deer has been noted on
the Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona, where a deer refuge is
located within the elk range. Each winter the elk as they increase
in number demand more of the forage along the south exposures of
the canyons. In the winter of 1931 elk concentrated on one arear
defoliating junipers to a height of about 8 or 9 feet and eating up other
forage plants in proportion. Of the mule deer wintering on this range,
16 head were observed this spring (1932) in such poor condition that
bones stood out all over their bodies. In the winter of 1931 and
1932 elk took practically all of the juniper within reach on several
other areas within this refuge. If this herd of elk is allowed to con-
tinue to increase, it will be only a matter of time until it will extermi-
nate the deer as the elk can reach higher and, therefore, can get food
after none is left within reach of the deer.

Adequate discussion of the influence of predators in relation to a
proper balance in nature by their repressive effect upon excess popu-
lation of the smaller herbivores, such as mice, rabbits, and squirrels,
which feed on forest vegetation, or to dwell on the effect of bird life
in limiting destructive insects would require extended treatment.
Briefly the relationship in the aggregate is of far-reaching importance
in the fundamental management of forest lands.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 501

WILD-LIFE MANAGEMENT

All of the relationships existing between game and other of the
various products, uses, and services inherent in forest lands emphasize
the extremely fundamental character of the problems confronted in
obtaining satisfactory control and balance of the intricate and inter-
related natural factors, and in the application of sound plans involving
not only game but timber and all other products and uses of forest
land.

DEVELOPMENT OF WILD-LIFE MANAGEMENT

Wild-life management as a phase of general multiple-use forest-land
management, and especially with respect to game birds and animals,
contemplates proper stocking of forest areas with game; removal of
the surplus of either sex under proper procedure; the furnishing of
suitable food and cover requirements for wild life; the regulation of
protection from natural enemies and other injurious factors; funda-
mental research and fact finding ; public education ; and other measures
that may be necessary to the welfare of wild life in a proper coordina-
tion with other products, uses, and services of forest lands. It con-
templates the removal of the crop of game and fur bearers in accord-
ance with the principle of sustained yield, which involves continuous
production for human benefit, and yields the greatest economic and
social return. Management requires cropping and utilization under
plans providing for perpetuation and development of breeding stock.

The public mind has yet to be attuned to a full conception of the
possibilities of wild-life management. Some people overlook the
fact that protection alone may defeat its own purpose. Progress is
being retarded even at present by those who are honestly loath to
accept or cannot see the application of the principles of wild-life
management even on areas where it is an obvious necessity.

This attitude or conception is due to inordinate depletion of wild
life through reduced range and cover, lack of proper regulation of
kill, and resultant threatened extinction of species and curtailment of
suitable hunting. The disappearance of the passenger pigeon and
the heath hen, of which there is now one remaining individual; the
decimation of prairie chicken and wild duck; the reduction of the
buffalo to the status of a park animal ; the suppression of the antelope
nearly to the last limits of survival — these well-known abuses have
left, with lovers of wild life, as an almost indelible impression, the
belief that the dominating action to check further depletion must be
protection.

Protection was the underlying idea in the original conception of
the game refuge, aside from special cases where the purpose was
perpetuation of species or other special reasons. It was believed that
if refuges could be established permanently that they would become
breeding grounds from which game animals, as increases occurred,
would drift to adjacent areas and supply such adjacent areas in
number sufficient to provide good hunting.

The expected result has not occurred with certain important
species. On the contrary, it has been demonstrated that deer espe-
cially are very local in their range, and that they will concentrate on
their home range in the face of starvation rather than travel to areas
a few miles distant where food is obtainable. Over a period of years,
however, they will gradually extend their range. This characteristic
of deer may limit locally the value of the refuge idea, and has resulted

502

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

in overpopulation and in many instances in depleting the forage
supply on the refuge. This accentuates the importance of having a
system of management which will provide for a game supply on all
forest lands susceptible to such use, except in cases where game or
wild life of any given kind must be eliminated for specific reasons
or for purposes not admitting of wild-life use.

The game policy of the American Game Association proposed at
the seventeenth annual game conference in December 1930 was the
first general presentation of a plan for systematic game management.

ADEQUACY OF PRESENT PROVISIONS FOR MANAGEMENT

As has already been indicated in the discussion of social and
economic values of wild life, the present information as to wild-life
populations and annual kill are fragmentary and inadequate. There
is much fundamental biological research needed in regard to wild-
life interrelationships, breeding and feeding habits of various animals,
diseases, etc. German foresters recognize the value of such informa •
tion. Their management plans as to regulation of kill are based on
accurate game counts. The annual kill is carefully regulated, both
quantitatively and qualitatively.

Such intensive management would not now be generally practical
in this country, where we are concerned with vast areas of land in
contrast to the small, intensively managed areas in the German
forests. While conditions here are radically different from those in
Germany, we also need definite and reliable information regarding
our wild life resource upon which to base sound management.

Table 3 shows the distribution of the land upon which wild life
abides, according to ownership or control, whether in Federal, State,
county, municipal, or private. This diversification of ownership of
land by individuals and Federal and municipal governments, coupled
with the fact that the 48 different States, with widely varying legisla-
tion regarding wild life, claim regulatory power over the wild life
within their boundaries, obviously results in a complicated situation
having endless ramifications affecting national or local aspects of
wild-life management.

TABLE 3. — Areas forest land usable for game management, by type of ownership

and region

Region

Federal

State,
county,
and
municipal

Private

Total

Lands
owned
or leased
by
States
for
public
shooting
grounds l

Farm
woodland

Other

New England

Acres
544,000
366, 000
3, 534, 000
799,000
3, 899, 000

Acres
852, 000
4, 299, 000
4, 899, 000
327,000
535,000

Acres
6, 400, 000
8, 693, 000
14, 244, 000
33, 438, 000
69, 750, 000

Acres
19, 638, 000
16,412,000
37, 668, 000
31, 495, 000
142, 684, 000

Acres
27, 434, 000
29, 770, 000
60, 345, 000
66, 059, 000
216, 868, 000

Acres
375,000
4, 101, 000
4, 269, 000
143, 000
246,000

Middle Atlantic

Lake States ._

Central

South

Eastern United States
Pacific coast

9, 142, 000

10, 912, 000

132, 525, 000

247, 897, 000

400, 476, 000

9, 134, 000

41, 158, 000
33, 059, 000
69, 362, 000

1,916,000
1,404,000
3, 248, 000

9; 499, 000
2, 680, 000
5, 242, 000

28, 722, 000
6, 044, 000
11,748,000

81, 295, 000
43, 187, 000
89, 600, 000

North Rocky Mountain-

South Rocky Mountain

Western United States
Total United States

143, 579, 000

6, 568, 000

17, 421, 000

46, 514, 000

214,082,000

152,721,000

17, 480, 000

149, 946, 000

294,411,000

614, 558, 000

9, 134, 000

Figures probably very incomplete.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 503

For example, the Forest Service's administration of national forests
in 31 States of the Union embraces an area of approximately 140
million acres, not all of which, however, is forested. The net forested
area of the national forests is approximately 108 million acres. The
regional administrative units of the Forest Service cover all or parts
of two or more States. The Forest Service then is in the position of
being responsible for the administration and protection of large areas
of land involving the proper management of wild life, together with
timber and other resources, without having direct control of game
except as a final recourse for protection of the land and other re-
sources.

Not only does the Forest Service not have use or control of this
wild-life resource, but administrative plans that it develops and which
tie in with wild-life management must be shaped and fitted to meet
in some degree requirements of State game departments and State
legislation. This situation may affect vital administrative measures.

Certain States have ceded the authority to the United States to
administer the game on national-forest lands. Georgia, by acfc ap-
proved August 15, 1922; North Carolina, by act approved March 9,
1915; and Tennessee, by act of March 28, 1917, consented to the mak-
ing by the Congress of the United States or under its authority of all
such rules and regulations as the Federal Government shall determine
to be needful in respect to game animals, game and nongame birds,
and fish in such lands as shall have been, or may hereafter be, pur-
chased by the United States under act of March 1, 1911.

Arkansas, by act of February 9, 1925, consented to the same Federal
control of game animals, game and nongame birds, and fish as in the
above instances, but limited it to specific counties.

Some States have recognized the value of game to the private
landowner and have enacted laws encouraging game management
and allowing the private landowner to share in its benefits. Various
plans are now being tried out. The " Texas shooting preserve
statute" requires the landowner wishing to sell or lease shooting on
his land to purchase a license which is renewable on condition that
the licensee has enforced laws and kept a record of hunters and kill.
State protection against trespassers is not extended to those charg-
ing over 25 cents per acre or $4 per man-day. The Michigan "shoot-
ing preserve statute" authorizes on licensed preserves a regulated
pheasant kill under a special long season. To qualify under this
privilege the owner must release twice the proposed kill under warden
supervision and operate the preserve satisfactorily. Under the
Williamston plan operating in Ingraham County, Williamston
Township, Mich., the farmers pool their land resource and issue
tickets to members, who may dispose of them as they see fit. The
number of tickets to each family represents the number of hunters
his land can carry simultaneously. Under the Pennsylvania plan
the State leases auxiliary refuges at a nominal rate, and the owners
of immediately adjacent land agree to allow public hunting with per-
mission in consideration of State patrol, State restocking, and laws
regulating conduct of hunters. Indiana has enacted a tax law of
fundamental importance to game, particularly quail. This law en-
courages the development of ungrazed woodland and extends to
registered woodland a flat valuation of $1 per acre, against which

168342°— 33— vol. 1 33

504 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the usual current local tax rate is applied. There is no yield tax, but
the owner must agree not to pasture and must have the area surveyed.
These isolated cases indicate the growing appreciation of the value
of the wild-life resource and the need for its perpetuation and
management.

THE PISGAH NATIONAL GAME PRESERVE MANAGEMENT PLAN

The important requirements of game management have been
embodied in the plans of the United States Forest Service for the
Pisgah National Game Preserve. The important facts and features
of this plan are as follows:

The preserve was created by proclamation of President Wilson,
October 17, 1916, on lands which the Government had acquired in
January 1915 under the Weeks law from the Vanderbilt Estate. The
number of deer on the 98,513 acres now in the preserve was probably
less than 1,000 at the time it was established.

In, order that the Federal Government might assume sole control
of game, the State of North Carolina on March 9, 1915, ceded to the
Federal Government the authority to make and administer rules and
regulations relative to game, birds, and fish, and Congress on August
11, 1916 (39 Stat. 476), authorized the President to designate areas
that should be set aside for the protection of game animals, birds, and
fish and provided a penalty for trespass. From January 1915 to
October 17, 1916, the acquired lands now forming a portion of the
Pisgah National Game Preserve were open to public hunting, and
shortly after the preserve was established trespass was bold and
frequent. By 1919 law enforcement was very active, and the turn-
ing point in trespass came about 1922. The game census for this
area shows an increase in deer from 1,000 in 1916 to 5,500 in 1931.
The game-management plan states:

Outstanding values as to natural resources of timber, water, and soil, charac-
terize the Pisgah district of the national forest of the same name. The wild-life
resources and their management and development are an integral unit of the
successful administration of the forest and preserve, which are coextensive.
This fact makes it imperative that the wild-life plan be closely harmonized with
other plans and objectives. Fortunately, this may be readily accomplished with
few compromises.

Briefly, the plan involves stocking depleted game areas; removal
of the surplus of any species of either sex on a definite area under an
established procedure that includes transfer of live animals to other
areas for restocking and hunting; the proper determination of boun-
daries of the hunting area, seasons, and bag limits ; the improvement
and maintenance of the capacity of the area to produce forage ; inten-
sive studies of the wild life on the preserve in all its aspects; and edu-
cation of the public from many angles for the purpose of eliminating
influences adverse to game management.

This plan contemplates the minimum disturbance of wild life and
seeks to preserve a proper balance between the plant life and animal
population. The underlying idea is to apply the weight of corrective
measures so that desirable species may be favored, as, for example,
by the control but not the extermination of predators. The desirable
species are to be maintained at the maximum reproductive capacity
by removal so far as possible of the less desirable individuals. The

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 505

natural fauna is considered adequate in point of variety and abundance
to furnish the stocking required.

The plan of wild-life management for the Pisgah National Game
Preserve is probably one of the most forward-looking game plans in
this country. It embodies many of the essential features of good
conservation practice, such as unity of control, the principle of sus-
tained yield, and correlated multiple-use forest-land management.

WILD-LIFE SUPPLY

Table 1, allowing for considerable variation in estimates, indicates
wide differences in game supply by broad regions of the United
States. Certain species of wild life are unquestionably increasing in
an appreciable degree and over considerable areas. The estimated
increase in numbers of game animals on the national forests during
the period 1926-31, for example, is 40 percent. This increase can be
attributed primarily to the practice of good land management over
a long period, which has provided the variety of food, cover, and
protection essential for game welfare. Better regulation of hunting
is provided through the cooperation of the State game departments
and the Forest Service than can be afforded to areas of diverse
ownership. Many States do not have the finances to provide ade-
quate regulation when such regulation is dependent entirely on State
patrol. Another important factor in the management of national
forest lands is the technical research, advice, and assistance provided
by the Biological Survey.

Outside of the national forests in several States certain species of
game are increasing where conditions have been made favorable for
them, and regulation has been applied. Elsewhere, and in general,
game has without question decreased and is still decreasing on much
of the forested area of the country. There are numerous reasons for
this condition. Increase of hunters is one. The statement in the
report of the Senate Committee on Conservation of Wild Life Resources
which notes a 400 percent increase in hunters and fishermen in the
decade ending in 1930 has been previously cited. Greater mobility
of hunters who, first by automobile and lately by air, can travel
great distances to obtain their favorite form of sport, lack of adequate
control of hunting, fire, and disease have all played their part. More-
over, notwithstanding the inroads upon game supplies from the
above causes, deterioration and destruction of food and cover and
other right enrivonmental conditions of habitat have been important
factors in still further reducing the numbers of game. Reduction in
quail in the Central States and other eastern regions is due^in large
measure to removal of quail cover by clean farming operations and
woodland grazing, according to Aldo Leopold. In this region agricul-
turists have exhorted the farmer to clean up his farm, brush, and
fences, plow up hedgerows, and clear away brush from farm woodlands.
This has effectively reduced the quail and grouse population on
farms.

Quail in the San Joaquin Valley region of California are generally
decreasing in numbers, and the area over which they occur in sufficient
abundance is rapidly narrowing, according to men who have observed
conditions for many years. This decline in numbers and range is

506 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

directly attributable to deterioration of habitat. Quail formerly
inhabited the valley in great numbers, and the finest part of their
habitat was in the brushy foothill regions where there was abundant
food and cover. Overgrazing of these foothill areas has destroyed
much of the herbaceous vegetation and low shrubs that furnished not
only cover but also quail food. Good land management, restoring
the productive capacity of the land for grazing of livestock, would
coincident ally restore the conditions favorable to quail.

Good wild-life management on forest lands in the ultimate analysis
is simply one phase of good multiple-purpose forest land management,
which seeks for the highest quality and quantity output of products,
uses, and services. In general the practices that contribute to the
perpetuation and development of other products, services, and uses
may be made to contribute to the welfare of wild life.

FOREST LAND USED BY GAME

Recent estimates by the Forest Service place the total forest-land
area of the United States, in round numbers, at 615 million acres,
variously distributed by region and ownership, as already shown in
table 3.

FEDERALLY OWNED OR CONTROLLED

The Federal Government owns, or controls, in round numbers, 153
million acres of forest land, or approximately 25 percent of the total
area of forest lands in the United States. In the three western regions
the Federal Government's share is 67 percent of the total forest land
in the West. In the eastern regions the Federal share of forest land
is only 2 percent. The importance of these figures lies in the fact
that Federally owned forest lands, particularly the national forests
and the national parks and monuments, in general constitute the
largest and most consolidated areas susceptible of wild-life manage-
ment, particularly in the West.

Of the Federal area, national forests embrace 107,773,000 acres, or
70 percent; national parks and monuments, 4,420,000 acres, or 3
percent; and the remaining 40,528,000 acres, or 27 percent, is made
up of Indian reservations, public domain, and other lands. All of
these areas comprise large acreages of protection forest where the
forest growth is mainly w°°clland and chaparral. On the public
domain there is no administration of game except such as may be
done by the States. Indian reservations, generally speaking, are
susceptible of game management. However, on some reservations
peopled by primitive Indians, game and fish constitute a relatively
important source of food supply to these Indians, whose right to
continue to hunt and fish at all times as they have been accustomed
to for generations has been guaranteed under treaty provisions. It is
understood that as Indians increasingly adopt the white man's

Eractices they do not rely on game for food so much as formerly.
n the western regions, 26,311,000 acres are in game refuges, Federal
game preserves, and other areas wholly or partially closed to hunting.
These great acreages of Federal forest land, most of which is well
consolidated in extensive tracts, offer the very finest opportunity in
the country for the development of the wild-fife resources for public
benefit. The environmental conditions for game and other wild
life are of the best. All of this land except the public domain areas

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 507

is under management for one purpose or another, some of it with the
primary objective of wild-life conservation. Where the timber
resource is a principal objective, such management in the main is
beneficial to the welfare of wild life. In the national parks wild life
is one of the important attractions. The development of the wild-
life resource on all of these Federal lands, including parts of the public
domain in its proper relation to other resources and use values, will
add materially to the public benefits, social, as well as economic,
derived from their management.

STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP

The nearly \1% million acres of State, county, and municipal forest
lands amounting to 3 percent of the total forest area, of which roundly
11 million acres is in the Eastern and 6K million in the Western Unitecl
States, include many areas used especially for wild-life purposes, and
most of the areas utilized for wild life in parks and zoological gardens.
In the Middle Atlantic and Lake regions they include large areas of
public shooting grounds.

Although comprising only a small percentage of the total forest land
area of the country, these areas afford probably the best opportunity,
particularly through State forests and parks, for the proper coor-
dinated development of wild-life values. This is especially the case
in the East where most of the forest lands are in private ownership,
and the management of wild life is thereby a much more complicated
problem.

With the increase in area of these lands, owing to reversion of tax-
delinquent lands and other forms of State acquisition, the develop-
ment of the wild-life resource under coordinated multiple-use manage-
ment will have great possibilities in alleviating the financial burden
that such lands entail and in furnishing other public benefits that are
afforded by wild life.

PRIVATE OWNERSHIP

Of the privately owned forest land amounting to about 444 million
acres, the large acreage in farm woodlands in the Eastern United
States, and more especially in the Lake, Central, Middle Atlantic,
and South regions (table 3), is particularly significant in relation to
the management of small game species such as quail, certain species
of grouse, pheasants, and rabbits — the last mentioned of which fur-
nishes shooting, according to the Biological Survey, for by far the
majority of the hunters of the United States. Again, the large areas
of farm woodland are in the Eastern United States, the area of the
greatest concentration of population. Because of their general dis-
tribution, these lands to a great degree furnish the forest-land part
of the game habitat for these regions. Other lands in private owner-
ship not classifiable as farm woodlands play their part in the same
manner, but are probably not as important in this respect because
they are not of such general distribution, and because they contain
considerable acreages of more or less unbroken timber or woodland,
more suceptible of use by big game. Such privately owned lands
contain areas available for lease and management by individuals and
clubs as private hunting preserves.

Here again recognition of wild-life values and their development
under coordinated multiple use land management may be made to

508

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

ease the financial burden of the private owner and provide other
public wild-life benefits. A happy circumstance also is that good
management of the woodland and timber resources will contribute
in great degree to the welfare of wild life.

FOREST LAND WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY CLOSED TO HUNTING

Table 4 presents a classification by ownership of Federal forest-
land area wholly or partially closed to hunting. These areas, accord-
ing to the available information, amount to about 29 million acres,
or 5 percent of the total forest-land area of the United States. This
acreage includes some of the especially valuable game and wild-life
breeding grounds of the country, many areas suitable for fundamental
research and for obtaining basic facts regarding wild life, areas devoted
in part to the aesthetic values of wild life in its natural habitat
(notably the national parks and monuments). In addition to the
Federal lands, there is an indeterminate acreage of State, county,
and municipal forest land which would fall in the same category and
which would amount to several million acres.

TABLE 4. — Area of public forest land wholly or partially closed to hunting 1

Region

National-forest land

National
parks and
monu-
ments

Total

State
refuges 2

Federal
game pre-
serves 3

Game areas
by admin-
istrative
restrictions

New England

Acres
8,000
18,000
837,000
224,000
371,000

Acres

Acres

Acres
12,000

Acres
20,000
18,000
840,000
365,000
750,000

Middle Atlantic

Lake States. ._

3,000
30,000
269,000

Central. .

111,000
110,000

South

Eastern United States.

1, 458, 000

302,000

233,000

1, 993, 000

Pacific coast

5, 107, 000
4, 165, 000
9, 968, 000

21,000

234,000
2, 192, 000
625,000

1, 122, 000
898,000
2, 167, 000

6, 484, 000
7, 255, 000
13, 669, 000

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

909,000

Western United States

19, 240, 000

930,000

3, 051, 000

4, 187, 000

27, 408, 000

Total, United States

20, 698, 000

1, 232, 000

3, 051, 000

4, 420, 000

29,401,000

1 Areas given, particularly in West, include some nonforest land. These figures represent the best
estimates obtainable from available information.

2 There are some State game refuges on forest lands on the public domain for which definite figures are
not available.

3 Some areas included here open to regulated hunting.

NOTE.— There are some areas of Federal game preserves on forest land not within the national forests
or parks for which figures are not available.

The areas in this table represent forest lands so far as data were
available, where special measures have been adopted for game pro-
tection and management by the Federal Government, and where
hunting in some cases may be allowed to meet management require-
ments. Areas in national parks and monuments, migratory bird
refuges, and other Federal wild-life areas, where hunting is prohibited,
are also included.

Some areas of nonforest lands are included, in the West particu-
larly, where sufficient data were not available to afford a satisfactory

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 509

segregation. The percentage of this nonforested land is, however,
so low that it will not materially affect the totals. The figures
exclude, as far as data were available, water areas within the forest
areas. No attempt has been made to include private lands posted
against hunting, because the actual hunting status of such lands is
indefinite; they are often hunted by the owner or others to whom he
may extend or sell the privilege. The column " Game areas by admin-
istrative restriction" in table 4 includes national-forest lands closed
to the grazing of domestic livestock.

The areas in State refuges on national-forest lands are transitional
only. In several States some of the areas listed are subject to open-
ing for hunting when conditions justify such action and areas that
are now open are subject to restrictions on hunting.

The division of this whole area between the western regions (93
percent) and the eastern regions (7 percent) is in contrast with the
distribution of total areas of forest land shown in table 3, where
some 65 percent of the 615 million acres of forest-land area of the
United States is attributed to the eastern regions. The 27 million
acres closed to hunting in the western regions is 13 percent of the
total forested land area of these regions, whereas in the East the area
closed to hunting is less than 1 percent of the total forested area.

PUBLIC SHOOTING GROUNDS

The ideal and traditional conception of the public shooting ground
idea is shooting for all who desire it for sport or other social reasons.
Much of the social benefit to be derived from wild life, particularly
for the rank and file of the hunting public, is dependent on maintain-
ing large areas of land available for this purpose.

With the passing of public lands into private ownership, especially
in the East, the land open to public shooting has become more and
more restricted. In many sections of the East the situation is acute
and involves all species of game animals. Privately owned lands are
often posted against hunting. Many areas are leased by individuals
or clubs for exclusive use. Hunting grounds for the ordinary hunter
who cannot afford to pay high charges are very limited in many
localities.

Several States in the eastern United States, because of the re-
stricted conditions, have taken measures to relieve this situation and
are establishing areas for use as public hunting grounds. Table 3
shows the area acquired or made available for this purpose. Con-
siderable progress has been made in the Middle Atlantic and Lake
Regions, each having in excess of 4 million acres.

Publicly owned or controlled lands must in the main afford areas
available for public shooting grounds. The combined acreage of
Federal, State, county, and municipal forest lands in the eastern
United States is about 20 million acres, but a considerable part of
this acreage, however, is in State, Federal, county, and municipal
parks or other areas not usable for public shooting. Altogether there
is probably less than 10 million acres of public-owned forest land in
the East available for this purpose. This acreage will doubtless be
increased as time goes on by reversion of tax-delinquent forest areas
and by acquisition for National and State forests or for wild life and
other purposes.

510 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Forest land in the West under Federal, State, county, and munic-
ipal ownership or control now approximates 150 million acres, out of
a total forested area of 214 million acres. This should be ample to
take care of the demands for public shooting grounds for big-game
species in Western States. A shortage of public shooting grounds in
some localities is, however, felt with respect to migratory waterfowl
and quail. The situation as regards quail has developed from the
depletion caused by overgrazing on public domain and other areas,
and a considerable part of the remaining good quail shooting is
restricted to private lands. This situation is felt particularly during
the low period of the quail-population cycle. The need for public
shooting grounds for these upland birds in the West can probably be
very adequately met by (1) consolidation and administration of public
domain areas, (2) the use of areas recommended for addition to the
national forests from the public domain for watershed protection and
other purposes, and (3) by development of the game resource on
these lands.

The land area available for public shooting will probably never
exceed the requirements of the hunting public. Plans for wild life
and forest land management should provide the maximum available
area for this purpose.

In general, all forest land is susceptible of use by one or more wild-
life species having economic or social value. The acreage of forest
lands so used must be dependent on the importance attributed to
wild life in making an evaluation of land resources as a basis for sound
multiple-purpose forest-land management. Without doubt, wild life
has sufficient values to be accorded a place in good land utilization
on most of the total forested area and has minimum values only in
exceptional situations where peculiar local conditions direct manage-
ment toward special objectives which eliminate the wild life return
or reduce it to an inconsiderable amount.

FISHERY MANAGEMENT IN FOREST WATERS OF THE

UNITED STATES

By HENRY O'M ALLEY, Commissioner of Fisheries

The forested areas of the United States, including public lands
under the control of the National Forest and Park Services as well
as those privately owned, constitute the most favorable habitat of
many of our valuable game-fishes as well as the habitat during early
life of some of the commercial anadromous fishes such as the salmon
and shad. A complete program of forest management, therefore,
logically includes a plan for managing the supplies of fish found
therein for the public good, assuring not only perpetuation of the
supply for the benefit of future generations but wise husbandry per-
mitting development of potential supplies and their fullest use for
the benefit of the present.

In the following pages is presented a discussion of the place of
modern fish husbandry in the larger program of forest management,
prepared in response to a congressional resolution, in which is con-
sidered the influence of forests on fish life, the economic and social
values of fish in forest waters, present methods available for ade-
quately managing the fishery resources in the public interest, and the
means of carrying into effect such a program in forest areas.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 511

INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON FISH LIFE

That forests have a profound effect on fish and other aquatic life
must be evident to even the most casual observer. This influence is
far-reaching and affects almost every phase of the life and activities
of these animals. In streams, the growth and well-being of fish are
affected by the temperature of the water, the speed of the current, the
presence or absence of food, the nature of the bottom, the amount of
shade and shelter provided by the vegetation on the banks and in the
water, and by variations in the water level. In lakes and ponds the
relative extent of deep and shallow water is also an important factor.

One of the most obvious effects of forests on stream conditions is
in connection with the temperature. Forests tend to keep cool the
stratum of air overlying the water and prevent the stream bed and
surrounding ground from warming during the day. The result is
that in forested regions the temperature of the water is usually con-
siderably lower than in streams exposed to the full force of the sun's
rays. Not only is the average temperature lower but the daily
fluctuations are much less. The cooling effect of the forest is so
pronounced that we have numerous instances of streams in which
the temperature is lowered several degrees as a result of flowing
through a forested area.

The influence of the temperature on fish is most noticeable in the
case of trout, which are classed as cold-water fishes as distinguished
from such game fishes as bass or sunfish, which require warmer water.
The eastern brook trout thrives best at temperatures between 50° and
60° F. but may for short periods withstand temperatures as high as
75° F. when the water is well aerated. Under similar conditions ram-
bow and brown trout can survive temperatures of 80° F., and .pos-
sibly even higher, without apparent injury. This means that in
forested areas many streams are suited to trout which if fully exposed
to the sun would be uninhabitable by these fish. In many localities
as a result of deforestation streams which formerly provided ideal
conditions for trout are now unable to support these fish. Others
have become too warm for brook trout, which formerly were present
in great abundance, but are still suitable for brown or rainbow trout.

Forests usually exert a favorable influence on the supply of food
available for fish, but in some instances they may have an opposite
effect. As in the case of land animals, fish are, in the last analysis,
dependent on plants — especially the algae — for most of their food.
When the trees and shrubs on the banks of a stream are crowded
closely together the shade may be so dense as to seriously interfere
with the growth of plant life in the water. This, of course, results
in a marked scarcity of animals, and we frequently find such areas
to be almost devoid of fish. OccasionaUy dead leaves may accumulate
to such an extent in pools and quiet streams as to seriously interfere
with the growth of food organisms.

In most cases, however, the effect of forests on the production of
fish food is distinctly beneficial. Fallen trees in the bed of a stream
or along the shores of a lake furnish support for insects and other
aquatic organisms which can usually be found in such places in large
numbers. They also provide an ideal shelter for fish. Trout delight
to lurk in the cool depths of pools containing fallen logs and branches
beneath which they can retreat from their enemies. The impor-

512 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

tance of shelter in the daily life of fish is frequently not realized,
and yet even a casual investigation will show that ordinarily very
few fish are to be found where there are no hiding places near by,
even though other conditions may be favorable. This is especially
true of trout and bass, and every experienced angler knows that there
is no better place to cast for these fish than near an old log or a
tangle of submerged branches.

Food and shelter are largely dependent on a stable environment,
and there is probably no way in which the forests exert a more pro-
found effect on fish life than in regulating the run-off thus producing
a regularity and permanency in lakes and streams not usually found
in nonforested regions. It is well known that streams with a gentle
current and no great or sudden fluctuations in level have a much
richer fauna and flora than torrential streams subject to violent
floods. These floods scour out the stream beds and either carry off
or destroy great quantities of aquatic organisms. In some instances
fish may be killed in considerable numbers, but it is believed that
ordinarily it is the invertebrates on which fish feed that suffer the
greatest injury.

Following the unprecedented floods in Vermont several years ago,
it was found that the streams still contained large numbers of trout
but that insects and other invertebrates on which trout feed were
very scarce, and for months the fish showed every indication of par-
tial starvation. Severe floods may also destroy the spawning beds
and any eggs or fry which happen to be present.

Extensive fluctuations in the water level also result in large num-
bers of aquatic organisms being left behind and destroyed as the
waters recede. Not infrequently fish, especially the younger stages,
become stranded in small pools which eventually dry up or become
too stagnant for their support. The evil effects of rapidly fluctuating
water levels are especially noticeable in the case of hydroelectric
developments. In most instances the construction of reservoirs for
power purposes would be distinctly beneficial to fish if it were not for
the great fluctuations in water levels which are not only destructive
to the food but frequently expose the eggs and fry of fish to the
effects of wind and sun.

Floods and erosion go hand in hand and the resultant deposits of
silt frequently do immense injury to fish life either directly or indi-
rectly. The extent to which fish are directly injured by the presence
of large quantities of silt depends largely on other conditions in the
water and also on the species of fish concerned. Some species such
as catfish and carp are apparently but little affected by roily water,
but trout, bass, and other game fishes undoubtedly thrive best in
waters containing little silt.

The greatest damage to fish from the presence of silt is undoubtedly
indirect. The deposition of large quantities of sediment in a lake or
in the bed of a stream destroys great numbers of food organisms and
it is not infrequent to find areas which were once rich in food now
changed to wastes of barren sand. In fact, there is no type of bot-
tom which produces less food than the shifting sands which are now
becoming so common in our streams and lakes as a result of defor-
estation and cultivation. Vegetation is buried or prevented from
obtaining a foothold and pools which once furnished food and shelter
become filled and the fish driven elsewhere.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 513

The mere presence of silt in the water has a decidedly detrimental
effect on the smaller plants and animals. It has an especially dis-
astrous effect on the plankton which in lakes and quiet streams forms
such a large part of the basic fish food. Deposits of this material
also form a thin but continuous layer over all objects on the bottom
which smothers the smaller organisms and frequently kills large
numbers of fish eggs.

In view of these facts there can be no question that the tendency
in some quarters to lay all the blame for the scarcity of fish in our
waters on oyerfishing is far from justified. That overfishing is largely
responsible is evident, but in all fairness we must concede that the
removal of forests and other cover that have such an important func-
tion in reducing floods and 'erosion have had an important part in
producing the deplorable conditions we find today.

In order to obtain a proper appreciation of the importance of
forests in connection with the production of food and game fishes, it
is necessary to consider in some detail the extent and value of waters
in forested areas suitable for fish.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL VALUES OF FISH IN FOREST WATERS
EXTENT OF STREAMS AND LAKES SUITABLE FOR GAME AND FOOD FISHES

There is no inclusive or complete tabulation of the mileage or
acreage of streams and lakes suitable for game and food fishes covering
the Nation as a whole. The only data are ^ fragmentary, covering a
single State, or, in most cases, limited portions of a single State, or
certain specified areas such as the national forests. It is immediately
evident that the Great Lakes and other large lakes, as well as the
larger river systems such as the Columbia, Colorado, Rio Grande,
Mississippi, Missouri, Potomac, etc., represent a tremendous extent
of potential fishing waters. However, it is the minor interior waters
which actually account for the largest areas for potential fish produc-
tion, particularly of game forms. When it is realized that small pond
farms and reservoirs down to one half acre in area, as well as insignifi-
cant streams and brooks throughout the country, can be and are
quite productive of some species of fish, it will be seen that a listing
of the potential fish habitats is in reality a complete summary of the
entire water resources of the United States. Pollution has, it is true,
eliminated some of these resources from consideration as fish habitats;
but on the other hand there are constantly being created new areas
by impounding waters for hydroelectric development, irrigation,
flood control, and other purposes.

While it is not possible to make even a valid guess as to the exact
acreage or mileage of fishing waters in this country, some concrete
examples may be cited merely as an indication of the magnitude of the
problem. The United States Forest Service advises that in existing
national forests there are listed 58,194 miles of streams and 159,742
acres of lakes which may be considered as potential fishing waters,
whatever their value for this purpose at the present time. The
State of New York has been foremost in the scientific evaluation of its
water resources from a fisheries standpoint. Two watersheds alone in
New York State, including a typical forested area within the Adiron-
dacks, have an approximate area in lakes of 54,008 acres and an
approximate stream mileage of 6,402 miles. Even in arid and semi-

514 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

arid sections as in the Southwest there are sufficient permanent
water courses to justify an extensive demand for fish from Federal
hatcheries, and the areas to be stocked are constantly increased by
the impounding of water for the purposes specified above. It is
merely necessary to view States like Maine and Minnesota to realize
that a considerable proportion of the total area of these States is
actually under water and that the area covered by the thousands of
lakes must render its economic return largely as a recreational asset
in which the production of fish either for food or sport is probably
a major item. The absence of a Nation-wide summary of fishable
waters should not cloud the self-evident fact that problems concerning
this resource are of national scope and importance.

EXTENT AND VALUE OF ANGLING FOR RECREATION

As there is no evaluation of the actual potentialities of fish pro-
duction in the interior United States, there is likewise no compilation
of valid figures showing the extent and value of angling for recreation.
It is possible to cite the value of commercial fisheries in strictly interior
waters. Selecting only the commercial fisheries of the Mississippi
River and tributaries in order to avoid the confusing factor of the
maritime fisheries, it may be said that in 1930 these commercial
fisheries had a production value of $4,385,000, with a yield in pounds
of 108,171,000. It is indicated by the investigations of the Bureau
of Fisheries in the Mississippi River for a number of years that
changes taking place in the river, principally connected with erosion,
are having a detrimental effect upon the fish production. The role of
erosion in a forestry program is discussed elsewhere.

Probably the most complete data on the economic importance
of angling are embodied in the Report of the Special Senate Com-
mittee on Conservation of Wild Life Resources, Report No. 1329,
Seventy-first Congress, third session. This report cites license
figures tending to show the public interest in fishing and hunting, and
indicates that 13,000,000 people indulge in this sport. Due to the
practice of a number of the States in covering hunting and fishing by a
single combination license, it is impossible to ascertain the exact
number of individuals who took out licenses for the specific purpose of
fishing.

However, investigations by the Bureau of Fisheries show that for
the period ending June 30, 1932, there were approximately 4,850,000
State licenses issued which carried the privilege of angling. These
licenses paid in slightly under $8,000,000 during this period for the
above privileges. Senate Report No. 1329 further states that the
value of fishing tackle sold annually is estimated by a trade association
as being $25,000,000.

Further light may be thrown by a citation of the expenditures
involved in the maintenance of the supply of commercial and game
fishes. There are in operation by the State and Federal Govern-
ments and private interests approximately 650 establishments devoted
to the propagation of fish. The State and Federal hatcheries require
the services of approximately 1,500 employees, and the combined
expenditures of both agencies during 1932 were approximately
$4,500,000. The investment of the Federal Government in its fish-
hatchery system is approximately $3,500,000. There were dis-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 515

tributed from the combined hatchery systems over 11,000,000,000
fish and eggs during 1932, of which approximately 1,000,000,000
comprised game species planted in interior waters and directly affected
by the relationships of forests to waters. It should further be pointed
out that there is an interchangeability between the game fishes and
the so-called commercial varieties. With one or two exceptions, all of
the so-called commercial varieties of the interior section are taken to
some extent by the angler for recreation, and in many instances
anadromous forms (fish which migrate from salt water to fresh water
for spawning) are likewise sought by the angler.

IMPORTANCE OF MAINTAINING AREAS FOR PUBLIC FISHING

There is at the present time a tendency, possibly more emphatic
in connection with game, but readily noticeable as ^ regards fish,
toward the exclusion of the public from the more desirable angling
waters. Private ownership has not as yet taken an extensive hold
in the exploitation of the commercial fisheries of the interior waters.
As regards angling, however, private ownership now frequently yields
to a favored few the privileges of angling which the country has been
accustomed to view as a general public right. Landowners under
trespassing laws may in many States prohibit access by the public to
waters on their property.

Clubs are leasing extensively desirable stretches of water, which
forces the casual fisherman of limited financial resources to travel
farther and farther afield for catches which are becoming increasingly
unsatisfactory. The importance of this condition in the more thickly
populated sections is indicated by the action of the State of Connecti-
cut in leasing private streams or leasing fishing rights for the public.
The commendation which has followed this plan in Connecticut and
the favor with which it is viewed elsewhere is an example of the
lengths to which a commonwealth may have to go in order to insure
the perpetuation of a right which was considered inalienable a few
years ago. In the State of New Jersey, for example, it is apparent
that the major part of public fishing is maintained solely by hatchery
operations. In one sense, the purchase of a fishing license in that State
is a transaction which has the element of sale of game fish produced by
the funds derived from the license income. The hatcheries produce
sufficient fish to provide the angler a reasonable chance for a reason-
able catch, and the waters are, in a sense, administered by the State
for the purpose of providing an expendable resource in the form of
game fish. An essential feature of the successful working of this
system is an adequate mileage of public waters accessible to everyone
who has paid the license fee. Where there is a considerable proportion
of the fishing waters restricted to private use the hatchery operations
are futile and the whole program fails. Therefore, lands held in
public ownership or control for forestry purposes are a double insur-
ance against the ultimate disappearance of public fishing by virtue
of the fact that they furnish the maximum natural provision for the
survival of fish life and make this resource available to all. Waters
leased exclusively for the provision of public fishing, as is the case in
Connecticut, represent a charge against fisheries conservation funds.
The retention of lands for public forestation or forest-management
programs brings the above benefits without cost in addition to the

516 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

primary purposes impelling the sequestration of such lands. The
public funds derived directly from the angler are thereby available
entirely for the purpose of improving angling.

The extensive withdrawal of private waters from public fishing and
the growing popularity of angling has greatly increased the burden
which must be borne by the waters held in public ownership. Con-
sequently, it is imperative that a system of fishery management be
developed which will yield the greatest possible return from the money
and labor devoted to the improvement of angling conditions.

FISHERY MANAGEMENT

As a result of the continually increasing drain on the fish population
many waters which only a few years ago were well stocked with fish
are now seriously depleted. This is especially true in the national
forests and parks where the great influx of campers has resulted in
serious overfishing in the more accessible streams. Complaints that
the fishing is becoming poorer each year are heard on every hand, and
it is apparent that unless greater efforts are made to maintain the
supply of game fish many of our waters will become so depleted as to
furnish little sport for the angling fraternity. There can be no ques-
tion that the stocking of streams and lakes with artificially reared
fish has been of immense value in maintaining the supply of game
fishes, but it is evident, in many cases, that this alone is not sufficient
to enable us to reap the greatest benefit from our public waters.
Since true conservation consists not in hoarding but in using wisely
any policy of fishery management must have as its goal the greatest
production of fish for the use of the public.

METHODS AVAILABLE FOR CONSERVATION AND UPBUILDING OF FISH

SUPPLY

Four well known methods are available for the conservation and
upbuilding of our supply of game and food fishes and should enter
into any well organized system of fishery management in forest
areas. These are: (1) introduction of fish into suitable waters in
which they are not native, ^ (2) artificial propagation and stocking,
(3) protection from overfishing and (4) improvement of streams and
lakes to provide more favorable conditions for fish.

(1) The first method — the introduction of fish into waters in which
they did not previously occur — has been frequently utilized in the
past, and it is in this field that fish culture has achieved some of its
most notable triumphs. There are numerous instances where fish
have been introduced into new waters with extraordinary success.
The introduction of rainbow and brown trout in suitable waters in
our Eastern States is a case in point. This has been followed by the
equally successful introduction of the eastern brook trout in many
streams in the West. Other game fish such as lake trout and bass
have been successfully established in waters both east and west where
they were not native.

Possibly some of the greatest achievements in this field have been
the successful stocking of streams and lakes in which, due to the
presence of impassable barriers, there were previously no fish what-
ever. Many of these waters now support a large fish population and
furnish excellent sport to the angler. In the high mountains of our

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 517

Western States there are still many so-called barren lakes which are
capable of supporting large numbers of fish if properly stocked. Of
course, some of these lakes are for one reason or another not adapted
to fish production but this can be readily ascertained by investigation.

(2) The value of artificial propagation in maintaining and increas-
ing pur supply of trout, bass, and other game fishes has been so con-
clusively demonstrated as to require no discussion at this time.
There is still, however, much to be done in the development of better
and more efficient methods of handling these fish in our hatcheries.
There are even greater possibilities for improvement in the methods
of disposing of the fish after they leave the hatchery. Undoubtedly
in the past a large part of the benefits to be expected from the use of
hatchery fish have been nullified by improper methods of stocking.
Too often the fish have been planted in waters to which they were not
adapted or under conditions where they would be overcrowded or
unduly exposed to the attacks of their natural enemies. The proper
utilization of artificially reared fish can only be accomplished through
the development of a scientific stocking policy directed by experts in
this field, which will take into consideration the species of fish best
adapted to each individual stream or lake, the number of fish it can
support, and the age at which they should be planted to produce best
results. These and other factors must be fully evaluated before a
definite policy is decided upon.

In most cases artificial stocking should be considered as supple-
mentary to natural propagation and not as supplanting it. Some
fish culturists have assumed that artificial propagation is so superior
to the natural process that to all intents and purposes the latter may
be disregarded. It is believed that this is an entirely mistaken atti-
tude and that the proper function of artificial propagation is to
remedy the deficiencies of the natural process.

In some waters it is no doubt true that for various reasons natural
propagation is no longer to be considered an important factor and in
such cases it is obvious that practically the entire burden must rest on
artificial propagation. Fortunately, for the present at least, this is
only true in a few localities near large centers of population where
anglers are exceptionally numerous or in waters where conditions are
no longer favorable for natural spawning. On the other hand, it is
evident that in heavily fished waters even though conditions may be
favorable for natural propagation the drain on the fish population is
so great that natural spawning alone can no longer be depended upon
to maintain it at its proper level. Consequently, this deficiency must
be made up by the addition of artificially reared fish.

(3) Closely associated with the maintenance of natural propagation
is the necessity for various forms of legal protection such as limitation
of the daily catch, closure during the breeding season, the setting of
size limits to enable the fish to reach sexual maturity and the closure
of nursery streams. Unless this is done it is self-evident that in many
instances there will be little opportunity for the fish to reproduce
naturally. In some heavily fished waters it is becoming apparent
that a further curtailment must be made in the bag limit and in the
length of the open season if the fish are to continue to maintain
themselves.

(4) In spite of these measures it is becoming more and more difficult
to maintain a supply of catchable fish, and it is apparent that in order

518 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

to get the greatest possible benefit from the utilization of our waters
we must have recourse to the principle of stream improvement or
control. Although it is evident that the idea of environmental control
is sound in theory, there has been very little practical application of
the principle in this country. In Great Britain the importance of
stream conditioning has long been recognized and notable success
has attended its practical application to trout streams.

The purpose of stream improvement is to make the stream a
better place for fish to live. Less attention has been paid to lakes,
but it is evident that the principle is also applicable to them although
its practical application will be more difficult. The basic idea of stream
improvement is to ascertain what factors are limiting the abundance of
catchable fish and then proceed to overcome or remedy the natural
deficiencies. There are probably very few lakes ^or streams which can-
not be improved to some extent, and in many instances it is possible
materially to increase the production of fish at comparatively small
cost.

While different species of fish frequently differ widely in their
requirements in respect to certain features of their environment,
there are other fundamental requirements in which most species are
in essential agreement. These factors are a stable environment, pure
water, adequate shelter for young and old, sufficient food for fish of
all ages, and adequate spawning areas. A deficiency in any one of
these requirements may result in its becoming a limiting factor even
though in all other respects the stream or lake may be able to support
a much larger population. If we regard a body of water as a complex
biological unit, it is apparent that the correct balancing of conditions
is of the greatest importance. The overdevelopment as well as the
underdevelopment of any one factor should be avoided if we wish to
obtain maximum production. For instance an unlimited increase in
spawning facilities or in stocking would throw the fish population
out of balance in relation to the food supply. The greatest annual
production will be obtained when there are just enough and not too
many individuals in relation to the food.

The importance of a stable environment can scarcely be overem-
phasized. As previously pointed out, streams or lakes with great
fluctuations in the water level are much less productive than those in
which the level is fairly constant. Anything which will tend to check
rapid fluctuations such as the construction of dams or other obstruc-
tions which will impound the water or impede its flow will obviously
be beneficial to the fish. The importance of beaver dams, for instance,
in improving conditions for trout has frequently been emphasized.
Obviously this phase of stream improvement is closely linked with
the problem of flood control since, in general, any measures which
will tend to impede the run-off will be of direct benefit to the fish.
Measures which will reduce the volume of flow will also tend to reduce
erosion and the deposition of large quantities of sediment, the evil
effects of which have already been referred to. The beneficial effects
of reforestation in this connection can scarcely be overestimated.
Any cover which will reduce the run-off and erosion cannot fail to
have a beneficial effect on the streams and increase their capacity for
carrying fish.

Needless to say, one of the prime requirements for the production
of fish is an adequate food supply, and it is probably true that in the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 519

last analysis this is the most important factor in determining the
number of fish which a body of water will support. It is also true
that in many streams it is a comparatively simple matter to increase
the amount of available food. Logs, boulders, and gravel greatly
increase the hard stratum over which insects may crawl and also serve
as a support for an abundant growth of algae on which they feed.
Weed beds, especially of the submerged type, provide very favorable
conditions for the growth of food organisms. Comparatively little is
known, however, of the conditions which will promote the growth of
many plants and animals utilized as food and much remains to be
done before we will be in position fully to utilize the food-producing
capacity of natural waters.

Shelter and food should be considered in relation to one another
since most shelter devices tend to increase the supply of food. The
functions of shelter are primarily for protection, but in fast-flowing
streams such devices may slacken the current so that the fish may
rest. It also appears that sections of streams or lakes where ade-
quate shelter is present are more attractive to fish. Conversely many
sections of streams or lake margins are practically free of fish owing
to the absence of shelter. It has been shown recently in the case of
Michigan trout streams that long stretches of heretofore troutless
waters can be made to yield good catches of adult fish by the installa-
tion of proper shelter devices.

Shelter may be provided in many forms and degrees. Almost any
obstruction in the water gives some shelter and a few twigs or pebbles
may suffice for small fish. In streams shelter can best be provided in
connection with pools. Logs and boulders are soon undermined by
the combined action of fish and current and furnish excellent places for
the fish to hide. Weed beds also provide excellent shelter, especially
for young fish. Deflectors or dams so constructed as to cause the
stream to undercut its banks are very effective.

A prime requisite for a permanent fish population is the provision
of adequate spawning facilities. These, of course, will take different
forms according to the species of fish concerned. In the case of trout,
gravel beds in spring-fed streams are required, and the lack of such
beds is not infrequently a limiting factor. In some instances such
beds can be provided by the installation of deflectors which will cause
the current to sweep away silt or sand covering old gravel deposits.
In other cases it may be necessary to haul gravel for this purpose.
Small-mouth bass also require gravel beds near the lake shore or in the
bed of streams while large-mouth bass spawn on mud bottoms where the
roots of plants can be easily exposed by the fanning action of the fins.

Pollution is usually not an important factor in forested areas, but
in some cases sawdust or refuse from mining operations may cause
considerable damage. Their effect is much the same as that of silt,
being especially destructive to the eggs of fish and to their food.

MEANS OF CARRYING INTO EFFECT A PROGRAM OF FISHERY
MANAGEMENT IN THE FOREST AREAS

AGENCIES CONCERNED

There are many agencies concerned with the propagation, dis-
tribution, stocking, utilization, and management of the fishery
resources of the United States. These include various branches of the

168342°— 33— vol. 1 34

520 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMEKICAN FORESTRY

Federal, State, and local governments, but the complete coordination
of activities of these agencies in a general program of fishery manage-
ment is yet to be attained. That Congress is aware of the necessity
for unified action in the interest of wild-life conservation from a
national point of view is evident from numerous reports upon the
subject and from certain pending legislation.

Functions of the various national agencies and their responsibility
in the whole field of wild-life conservation have already been dis-
cussed in Senate Report No. 1329 mentioned elsewhere. In this
report the Senate Committee on Conservation of Wild-Life Resources
expresses the conviction that the major part of a successful conserva-
tion program in the preservation and replacement of wild life belongs
to the various States, but that without active participation and the
leadership of the Federal Government the work will fail. The Com-
mittee also expresses the view that the Park Service and the Forest
Service are the two major Federal Bureaus principally responsible for
the preservation and replacement of wild life by reason of the control
which they exercise over great areas of the publicly owned land. These
two organizations, however, and especially the latter, are concerned
with major problems in their own fields frequently of great technical
complexity, and they must of necessity depend upon the expert advice
and assistance of two other Federal bureaus: for the development of
a program of game management, Bureau of Biological Survey; and
for fishery management, the Bureau of Fisheries. In an effort
more clearly to define and coordinate the functions of these Bureaus,
the bill entitled "An act to promote the conservation of wild life,
fish and game, and other purposes" (S. 263, 72d Cong.), passed by
the Senate December 17, 1931, and now pending before the House of
Representatives, provides that the Secretary of Agriculture and the
Secretary of Commerce be authorized to provide expert assistance to
Federal, State, and other agencies in rearing, stocking, and increasing
the supply of game and fur-bearing animals and fish; in combating
disease and in developing a Nation-wide program of wild-life conserva-
tion and rehabilitation, and to cooperate with such agencies to that
end.

Another bill entitled "An act to provide consideration of wild-
life conservation in the construction of public works or improve-
ment of projects" (S. 5813, 71st Cong.), passed by the Senate Jan-
uary 26, 1931, requires consideration of the effect of the construction
of any public works or improvements upon the replacement and
conservation of wild life and requires the Bureau of Fisheries or
any other agencies of the Government, whose activities are con-
cerned with conservation, to advise and confer with the construc-
tion agency with a view to determining the most appropriate methods
for carrying out such construction with the least injury to wild life.

In discussing the functions of the various Government agencies,
the Senate Wild Life Committee in Report No. 1329 summarizes
the work of the Bureau of Fisheries in connection with the conserva-
tion of fishery resources in the following words :

This is the predominating agency for the collection and dissemination of
scientific and practical information concerning this resource. The coopera-
tion of other Federal agencies whose projects or operations are such as to affect
fish life or to require administration of it by the agencies concerned should be
obligatory. Federal agencies in charge of drainage projects or other projects
influencing water levels, erosion, or water pollution, should be required to advise

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 521

and consult with the Bureau of Fisheries to prevent unnecessary damage to
fish life and to emphasize such beneficial results as may occur under proper
management from such operations.

The Bureau of Fisheries maintains experimental stations and hatcheries. In
cooperation with other Government, State, and local agencies, the Bureau
assists in the distribution of fish, the control of inimical or undesirable forms,
in research work and educational activities. This Bureau has responsibility
toward the maintenance of valuable fish life in waters in the public domain and
should be enabled to assign biologists and skilled fish culturists to the national-
forest areas to conduct and supervise stream and lake surveys and develop a
rational policy, in cooperation with States, of stocking such waters, to give
instruction to rangers and others having the direct responsibility of planting
fish and in general to further the execution of an orderly national program of
replacement.

To further cooperation on fishery management in forest areas a
series of conferences between the Forest Service and the Bureau of
Fisheries culminated during the past year in a general agreement
regarding the responsibilities of the two Bureaus. It was agreed
that the Bureau of Fisheries recognize its responsibility in stocking
waters in the public domain with food and game fishes, particu-
larly in the national forests and parks. As a part of this responsibility
it was recognized that scientific surveys of forest waters are neces-
sary as a basis for drafting a rational program of fish planting. The
Bureau of Fisheries accepts responsibility for the production of food
and game fishes by artificial propagation through the feeding stage
up to the time of delivery of the fish for distribution. At this point
the Forest and Park Services receive and distribute the fish pro-
duced by the Bureau of Fisheries for planting in natural waters in
accordance with their predetermined plan of stocking. In this way
it is believed that maximum efficiency in stocking public waters will
be attained, for the Forest and Park Services are best prepared to
secure and coordinate cooperation in planting operations by indi-
viduals and sportsmen's organizations.

It is understood that the various States should at this time be
responsible for the enactment and enforcement of laws relating to
the taking of fish and the screening of irrigation ditches; moreover,
they should cooperate in the artificial propagation of fish where
existing Federal services are inadequate, but should not undertake
the planting of fish in the public domain except in accordance with
the Bureau's stocking policy and with its permission.

To carry out this plan the Bureau proposes the organization of a
fishery survey in each of the six national-forest areas of western
United States under the direction of a resident biologist in each area,
who shall conduct and supervise stream and lake surveys in waters
of the public domain and shall develop therefrom a rational policy
of stocking such waters with fish. In addition to the research units,
skilled fish culturists are to be detailed to each forest region to assist
in determining the needs for and organization of rearing and holding
ponds, to assist in the planting and distribution of fish from hatch-
eries, and to give instructions to rangers or others charged with the
responsibility for the planting of fish.

It is obviously impossible to complete the survey work under such
a program in the 167 national forests and parks in the continental
United States in less than 5 years with even an adequate personnel,
and under the present circumstances with reduced appropriations
the program will be materially delayed. Nevertheless, a start has

522 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

been made, and biologists of the Bureau have made surveys during
the past 2 years in national park and forest areas in regions nos.
1 and 4, including Montana, Wyoming, and Utah, and in region 5
in California. In view of the importance of maintaining fish life,
especially in heavily fished areas adjacent to popular routes of
travel, the work should be continued as rapidly as possible.

Fish-hatchery equipment is being extended in these areas. The
Bureau maintains two hatcheries expressly for the purpose of stock-
ing national parks and a third in Mount Rainier National Park is
nearing completion. A district supervisor of fish culture has been
appointed with headquarters at Salt Lake City, Utah, to coordinate
all activities in the intermountain region, embracing the greater
number of national parks and forests.

In the course of the past year efforts were initiated to attain closer
contact with the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior,
since the activities of that agency in constructing irrigation projects,
particularly in the Northwest, have a strong bearing on the welfare
of important fisheries. In most cases these fisheries may be preserved
or subjected to a minimum damage by giving attention to the
installation of adequate fish ladders in the dams or by the proper
screening of diversion canals for irrigation. The main thought
for consideration in connection with both State and Federal agencies
working in allied fields is to assure that the various projects shall be
actually carried on by the agency best qualified to effectively ac-
complish the object sought, at the lowest practicable cost.

In view of the fact that Federal agencies assume responsibility
for maintaining stocks of fish in waters of the national forests and
parks, little need be said with regard to functions of State governments
in this connection except as concerns fishery legislation. Federal
influence on fishery legislation by States is indirect but generally
effective inasmuch as recommendations when offered to the States
are unbiased by local interests and are based upon authoritative
information. Moreover, the Bureau is authorized to discontinue
fish cultural or planting operations in any State if regulations are
inadequate or enforced insufficiently to protect the supply of fish in
the lakes and streams. The Federal Government directly aids the
States in the enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale or interestate
shipment of black bass through the recent enactment of a Federal
black bass law, and an enforcement officer with several deputies in
various sections of the country have been appointed.

It would appear desirable, however, for the agencies responsible
for the full utilization of forest areas to have more direct control of
the utilization of fish in addition to the mere responsibility of produc-
ing and planting the supply. Such control is feasible in closely
controlled areas such as the national forests and indeed is an essential
feature of effective fishery management as mentioned above. It is
not proposed in this connection to abrogate State rights by an
extension of Federal authority, but regulative power, such as is
exercised in the national parks, might well be extended to the national
forests, ^specially those to be acquired in the future whereby the
responsible agency might provide additional protection for threatened
supplies of fish in particular waters by still further restricting bag
limits, size limits, or closed seasons or areas provided by State laws.
The entire question of legal restrictions upon fishing in forest areas

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 523

and its relation to the development of a program of fishery manage-
ment is of utmost importance, but it is believed that no detailed
plans in addition to those mentioned above can be made until basic
information derived from the surveys now under way by the Bureau
is available.

Close cooperation between the Federal Bureau of Fisheries and the
State fish and game commissions has been maintained for many years,
extending even to pooling of fish cultural resources, exchanging eggs
and fry, loaning technical personnel, and distributing and planting
fish. A statement of further details along this line appears unneces-
sary, but the Bureau feels that sentiment in practically all the States
is such that when occasion arises cooperative relations of mutual
benefit may develop.

The attitude of the large sportsmen's organizations, individual
sportsmen, and commercial fishing interests leaves no room for the
conclusion that there is an excess distribution of hatchery fish or a
surplus of facilities for their production. In view of this situation
the operation of both Federal and State hatcheries within any given
area cannot fairly be considered a duplication of effort, since too
frequently their^ combined output is not adequate to meet the pur-
pose for which intended, namely, the maintenance of an abundant
stock of food and game fishes. In the practical execution of these
enterprises cooperative programs may be developed which will insure
more effective work by the agencies concerned and prevent overlap-
ping or duplication of effort in some particular area without affecting
the essential truth that a vast field is not being thoroughly and ade-
quately covered. This cooperation is largely in the nature of tech-
nical management and more effective routine administration. During
the past year the Bureau maintained effective and mutually benefi-
cial affiliations with some 22 States. In the majority of cases the
States were the principal beneficiaries, which is in line with the orig-
inal concept of the Bureau's activities to aid and promote Satte
conservation work.

RESEARCH REQUIRED

From the foregoing sections it should be apparent that there are
so many technical problems involved in establishing a comprehensive
program of fishery management in forest areas, concerning which
there is disagreement and controversy or lacking information, that
scientific research is essential to the fullest utilization of the natural
resources of these areas. The first requirements of a research pro-
gram therefore include the physical assessment of the forest areas
themselves from the point of view of water resources on the one hand,
the fish populations present in the various districts, and the demands
made upon these natural supplies by the fishermen.

For the purpose of fishery management much more information is
required regarding the physical features of the individual forest areas
than is available from topographic maps provided by the Geological
Survey or the Forest Service. In addition to the actual location of
streams and lakes and their dimensions, the fishery officers must have
information regarding the flow of streams and their seasonal fluctua-
tions, the character of the stream bed, the extent of riffles and pools,
the physiography of the watershed, and the chemical composition
and thermal relations of the water. All of these factors influence

524 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

more or less directly the biota, both land and aquatic, of the forest
water areas.

In addition to these physical features, the fishery officers should
have a reasonably complete understanding of the biological conditions
in the area subject to management, especially the fauna and flora of
the waters themselves. This applies especially to a quantitative as
well as a qualitative assessment of the organisms present in the water
and available from adjacent land areas, which are suitable as food
for fishes.

A further requirement is an assessment of the existing fish popula-
tions. The different types of ecological associations among the various
species of fish are reasonably well known, and their relation as com-
petitors or predators of the more valuable game fishes in most cases
is well established; but the numerical relation of the components of
the fish fauna, insofar as they can be readily determined, is of prime
importance to the fishery administrator, for the aim of fishery man-
agement is to produce from a given area the maximum number of
food fishes of the most desirable or useful individual sizes. To as-
semble this information it is necessary for the fishery biologist to
personally survey the waters of each forest area, making detailed
observations to determine existing conditions. Such stream and lake
surveys are now under way in forest and park areas in the inter-
mountain region by the Bureau of Fisheries as mentioned above.

While conducting these stream surveys, however, it is necessary
for the biologist to consider an additional factor, namely, the demands
upon the supply by the existing or potential fishery. At present
facilities for determining the drain upon the supply are very inade-
quate. In national parks the number of tourists visiting the areas
in the year can be accurately determined. Park officers and forest
rangers can also maintain a general check upon the number of fisher-
men in any given watershed. There seems at present to be no
practical method, however, of determining the annual take of fish of
any species in the public domain. A completed program of fisheries
management should include the furnishing of such figures not^only
to determine the need for additional production but to provide a
more accurate check upon the success of methods devised and applied
to increase the yields.

In addition to conducting extensive physical and biological surveys
of streams and lakes in forest areas as a foundation for a rational
stocking policy in these waters, more intensive studies of the ecological
requirements of the fish to be planted are required. These may be
called experimental studies in field ecology, for they contemplate the
establishment of areas such as individual stream systems or smaller
lakes in which controlled experiments may be conducted bearing
upon the various factors of production. In such experimental waters
means of augmenting the food supply and the value of various food
components may be studied. The effect of competing species upon
each other may also be determined, proper levels of stocking intensity
can be determined, the migratory and breeding habits of the various
species can be investigated, and the general effects of each particular
system of management can be assessed.

Closely associated with experiments in field ecology are laboratory
studies for the purpose of improving hatchery technique. Studies in
this field conducted by the Bureau of Fisheries during the past several

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 525

years have been successful in improving feeding rations in hatcheries
and in combating disease. Notable progress has been made also in
demonstrating the effectiveness of using improved strains of breeding
stock to increase productiveness and the rate of growth, and to
heighten resistance to disease. Improved methods of prophylaxis
and treatment of diseases occurring in hatcheries have also been
devised. Much remains, however, to be done in these directions,
and especially must the principles devised in existing experimental
stations be adapted and applied to the particular conditions that
obtain in national forest areas of the West. The resident biologist
in the forest areas therefore must take active part in these experi-
mental studies, both in the field and laboratory, as well as in the
stream survey programs, in order to make proper use of the survey
data in the management of the fish supplies. In view of the vast
areas to be covered and the diversity of technical problems requiring
attention, it should be obvious that no single biologist is capable of
carrying on effectively all phases of the work simultaneously, but that
sufficient technical personnel should be provided to make division of
the work possible, thus assuring the acquisition of the most essential
information at the earliest moment.

Obviously many years will elapse before an area so great as that
covered by the national parks and forests of the United States is
brought under such a system of fishery management as is outlined
in the foregoing pages. The program, it is believed, is practical and
workable, however, for regardless of the extent of personnel or funds
available any progress made in the program of investigation, pro-
pagation, stocking, or improvement will have immediate value.
Even the information obtained from an area covered by a single
season's operations will provide a far sounder basis for fish stocking
in that area than exists at present, and within a few years time, with
adequate working support, a sufficient area will be brought under
scientific control to vastly augment the supply of food and game
fishes and to assure the perpetuation of this resource.

FOREST RANGES

By W. R. CHAPLINE, Chief, Division of Range Research, and R. S. CAMPBELL,
Associate Forest Ecologist, Southwestern Forest and Range Experiment
Station 1

CONTENTS

Page

Forage — An important forest-land resource 527

Western forest ranges 528

Extent and importance 528

Forage produced 530

Forest-range conditions 532

Management problems 534

Principles of management 540

Other features of forest-range management 543

The situation in different ownerships 544

Forest ranges in the South 547

Feed produced on forest lands 549

Forest-range problems 550

Forest grazing in the Central, Lake, Middle Atlantic, and New England

States 552

The forage on forest lands 552

Forest-grazing problems 553

FOKAGE— AN IMPORTANT FOREST LAND RESOURCE

The forage produced by herbaceous and shrubby plants under the
trees and in openings in the forest is one of the major resources of
forest lands. The proper utilization of the forage resource by domes-
tic livestock and game animals is therefore of primary importance in
multiple-use management which seeks to obtain the maximum con-
tribution to the national welfare, by a proper correlation of all the
products, uses, and services of forest lands. The forage cover of
forest lands plays an important role in the production of the Nation's
domestic meat and wool supply and furnishes a livelihood to the
stockmen whose herds or flocks graze it. It also supports a large and
valuable wild-life resource and produces numerous miscellaneous
by-products.

The use of the forage resource of forest lands primarily by domestic
livestock, but to an important extent in some localities by game
animals, vitally affects the management of such lands in several ways:
(1) It is a source of direct current financial return; (2) it affects the
reproduction of the timber crop ; (3) it has a direct bearing on the value
of the forest land for watershed protection, and (4) it has a direct
influence on fire protection.

The forest land grazing problem logically divides into three import-
ant phases : The western-range phase, that which predominates in the
South, and the pasture type in the farm woodlands. In the West
the problem centers around the utilization of large areas principally
of public land by many private owners of ranch property and live-
stock. In the South it largely concerns the use of extensive pri-
vate forest areas often not owned by the stockman yet of decided
value to the rural population. In the farming regions of the Central
States, and in parts of the New England, Middle Atlantic, and Lake
States, it involves small woodland areas on farms into which the

1 Acknowledgment is due George Stewart, Hugh O. Cassidy, and Gordon D. Merrick for cooperation
in the assembling of data for this section.

527

528

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

farmer turns his livestock. Thus the forest-range problem is one of
broad social economy and land utilization. It affects directly or
indirectly the permanent prosperity, development, and welfare of a
considerable part of the Nation. The forest and forage conditions,
as well as the character of use under each of the three major forest-
grazing situations, are so distinct that each is considered separately.

WESTERN FOREST RANGES
EXTENT AND IMPORTANCE

The extensive forest ranges of the West, largely occupying the
mountain areas, furnish a considerable percentage of the summer
feed for the beef cattle, sheep, and range horses of the Rocky Mountain
and Pacific Coast States. This region coincides with the three
western forest regions of "Forest Land the Basic Resource" section
of this report. It is composed of those States entirely west of the
100th meridian, and South Dakota. The region as a whole contains
more than 214 million acres of land classed as forest, of which it is
estimated that nearly 144 million acreas are grazed. (Table I.)2
These forest ranges include the relatively small parts usable for grazing
of the dense forests such as the spruce-fir of mountain areas, the Doug-
las fir and redwood forests of the Pacific Coast, the lodgepole pine of
the Rocky Mountains and Cascades, and the chaparral of California.
They include the more open forest areas such as the pond erosa pine type,
found from the Canadian to the Mexican borders and from the Great
Plains to the Cascades and Sierra Nevada; and the woodland areas
usually forming the lower fringe of the forest. Included also are the
aspen forests largely in the Rocky Mountain States and the large
areas of usable brush lands which are potential forests. In addition
to these forest areas is a large acreage of open grassland and usable
brush land so intermixed with the forest ranges that their utilization
is an intergral part of the whole.

TABLE 1. — Estimated areas of commercial and noncommercial forest lands grazed
by livestock in the United States, by regions and classes of ownership

COMMERCIAL AREAS
[Thousand acres]

Region

Total

Federally owned or managed

State

County
and
munic-
ipal

Private

Total

Na-
tional
forests

Indian
reser-
vations

Public
do-
main

Other

Total

Farm
wood-
land

Indus-
trial

New England . . - -

3,160
3,655
10, 852
23, 635
126,870
36, 411

18, 330
23,359

3

100

15
500
2,489
18,901

13, 627
18, 937

3
100

3,147
3,555
10, 837

3,147
3,555
10 837

Middle Atlantic
Lake

15

Central

500
2,433
15, 450

12, 643
14, 940

23

258
550

374
361

23, 112
124, 123
16,885

4,329
4,061

18,560
19, 530

4, 167

2,378
28

4,552
104, 593
12, 718

1,951
4,033

South

56
2,622

464

1,817

Pacific coast

432
520
2,180

397

75

North Rocky Moun-
tain

South Rocky Moun-
tain

Total.

246, 262

41, 292
78,100

54,572

618
51, 465

46,069

603
43, 033

4,959

3,147

15
3,132

397

1,566

23
1,285

75

190,049

40, 651
25, 275

62, 202

36,099
6,573

127, 847

4,552
18, 702

Eastern regions (ex-
cept South)

Western regions

4,903

397

75

2 In this table, using as a basis the total commercial and noncommercial forest areas shown in "Forest
Land the Basic Resource" section of this report, the estimated areas of forest land grazed by domestic live-
stock were calculated from Forest Service records and observations, the 1930 census, and "An economic
survey of the range resources and grazing activities on Indian reservations", by Lee Muck, P. E. Melis,
and Q. M. Nyce, in hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Senate,
71st Cong., 2d sess. S.Res. 79, 308 (70th Cong.), and S.Res. 263 and 416 (71st Cong.), 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

529

TABLE 1. — Estimated areas of commercial and noncommercial forest lands grazed
by livestock in the United States, by regions and classes of ownership — Contd.

NONCOMMERCIAL AREAS
[Thousand acres]

Region

Total

Federally owned or managed

State

County
and
munic-
ipal

Private

Total

Na-
tional
forests

Indian
reser-
vations

Public
do-
main

Other

Total

Farm
wood-
land

Indus-
trial

New England

1

1

1

Middle Atlantic..

Lake

94
315
22, 138
8,959

4,585
52,006

25
84
296
4,574

3,631
38, 283

25

69
209
21, 677
4,363

895
11,079

69

Central

84
296
3,110

2,637
14, 974

22
165
22

59
2,644

209

7,340

477

895
6,252

South

14, 337
3,886

Pacific coast .

193

456
6,520

1,271
538
16, 689

North Rocky Moun-
tain._-

South Rocky Moun-
tain..

100

4,827

Total

88, 098

410
65, 550

46, 894

110

46,488

21, 102

85
20,721

7,169
~~7,~ 169

18,523

25
18, 498

100

2,912

22

2,725

38,292

278
16,337

23, 119
8,713

15, 173

209
7,624

Eastern regions (ex-
cept South)

Western regions

100

ALL AREAS

New England

3,151
3,655
10, 946
23,950
149, 008
45, 370

22, 915
75, 365

4
100
40

584
2,785
23, 475

17,258
57, 220

4
100

3,147

3 147

Middle Atlantic

3,555
10,906
23,321
145, 800
21, 248

5,224
15, 140

3,555
10,906
18,560
33, 867
8,053

2,378
4,855

Lake

40

Central

584
2,729
18, 560

15, 280
29,914

45
423
572

433
3,005

4,761
111, 933
13, 195

2,846
10,285

South

56

2,815

920
8,337

Pacific coast

1,703

1,058
18, 869

397

75

North Rocky Moun-
tain

South Rocky Moun-
tain

100

Total

334, 360

41, 702
143, 650

101, 466

728
97, 953

67, 171

688
63, 754

12,128

21, 670

40
21, 630

497

4,478

45
4,010

75

228, 341

40, 929
41,612

85, 321

36,168
15, 286

143, 020

4,761
26, 326

Eastern regions (ex-
cept South)...

Western regions

12, 072

497

75

These forest ranges have represented on them nearly every character
of ownership prevailing in the West — Federally owned and managed,
State, and private. There are large Federal holdings. Of the 88
million acres of usable range lands within the national forests almost
64 million acres are classed as forest. More than 21.5 million acres
of the unreserved public domain are forest ranges. The Federally
managed Indian reservations contain some 12 million acres of forest
land usable for grazing. The forest lands usable for grazing in other
Federal reservations and withdrawals amount to about half a million
acres. It is estimated that about 4 million acres of forest, land in
State ownership is grazed. Forest ranges under other public owner-
ship or management are small and probably have little influence on
the forest-range problem of the West. It is estimated that almost
42 million acres of privately owned forest land are grazed, including
15 million acres of farm woodland (1930 census). The increase in
tax-delinquent land to the public may materially enlarge the forest-
range area in certain classes of public ownership and make it important
locally.

Among the larger private holdings are the areas still held by cor-
porations from the grants made as subsidies for construction of

530 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

railroads and wagon roads and otherwise to encourage colonization
and development. Many of these consist of alternate sections over
extensive areas. The existence of land holdings in this form in a
region where 640 acres is far from adequate as a range unit has com-
plicated their management. Spanish and Mexican grants in the
Southwest and California were usually made as solid bodies of land
which, because of their relatively large size and continuity, are sus-
ceptible of management. Most of the large timber holdings are in
the better commercial forest areas where forest growth is dense and
grazing is a minor use. There are, however, in addition to these
holdings a large number of small privately owned forest areas, most
of which are grazed. In those areas where timber or woodland values
are meager, many properties are held by their owners for the grazing
value alone. Others serve as a base of operations for use of larger
areas of adjacent public land.

Within or adjacent to almost every western forest range area are
agricultural communities where prosperity is dependent upon the
production of livestock. Many of the farms within these communi-
ties are small, far from markets and principally capable of producing
hay or other feed crops. Without the aid of complementary forage
furnished on the forest areas, a large proportion of these associated
farm lands and the accompanying community life would never have
reached the present stage of development. More than 4)2 million
acres of improved farm land and 22 million acres of private or leased
grazing land, for example, are used in connection with the 83 million
acres of national-forest land now grazed by domestic livestock.

The great bulk of the feed on the forest ranges is used by and the
principal financial return comes from the cattle and sheep, although
it also supports large numbers of horses and burros, mostly wild,
some goats and hogs, and a few mules, to say nothing of game animals.
It is estimated that during 5 to 8 months of the spring, summer, and
fall these Wes^ern forest lands furnish feed for over 2^ million mature
cattle, having a value in 1931 when prices were low of about $85,-
000,000, and also nearly a million calves. Most of the cattle are of
beef breeds; in only a few localities are dairy cattle run on forest
ranges. It is estimated from the 1930 census that they represent
nearly 40 percent of all the mature range cattle in the Western
States. Some go direct to market as killers, but a large part of them
go into feed lots for finishing.

Nearly 12 million grown sheep, largely ewes, which had in 1931 a
value of about $60,000,000, are estimated as grazing on forest ranges.
The grazing period is from 3 to 5 months, chiefly in the summer,
although in some places, grazing prevails in the spring, fall, or even
winter. It is from these mountain-range areas that most of the
lambs sold in the fall come. Since the average lamb crop is probably
70 percent, and these lambs graze in addition to the ewes, the large
number of sheep grazed during a part of the year on forest ranges
can be appreciated. Where the feed is abundant and succulent,
many of the lambs go direct to market as killers. From the drier
ranges, and especially those heavily used, most of the lambs are sold
as feeders.

FORAGE PRODUCED

The ponderosa pine is the most extensive western forest type
reaching into nearly every State west of the one hundred and t

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 531

meridian, largely on mountainous slopes and plateaus at relatively
low elevations in the northern part of its range and up to 8,000 feet or
more in places in the southern part. The type furnishes good feed
practically wherever it occurs. Ponderosa pine and its associated
tree species usually grow in stands sufficiently open to allow the de-
velopment of a great variety of herbs and shrubs. Over most of the
type the feed produced is mainly bunch grasses. Grama grass — an
excellent forage species, is abundant on the eastern slopes of the
Rocky Mountains and in the Southwest. Many range weeds and
shrubs add variety to the feed.

The sugar pine — ponderosa pine forests, which are principally in
California, are more dense than the typical ponderosa pine areas,
and therefore less feed occurs on the forest floor. The understory
vegetation is mainly of browse, a large part of which is composed of
such palatable species as bluebrush, birchleaf mountain-mahogany,
and bitterbrush. Many of the other brush species are of low grazing
value. Grasses and range weeds are important in places, but on forest
slopes tend to dry up by midsummer.

Another forest type which furnishes considerable forage in the
West is the aspen ^ type. It occurs at medium to high elevations,
usually on deep, rich soils which it helps to build up. It is of im-
portance in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, parts of Idaho,
and northern New Mexico and Arizona. Beneath the aspen, which
ordinarily grows in rather open stands, is usually a luxuriant under-
story of palatable grasses, weeds, and browse that is grazed with
relish by all kinds of livestock. The aspen itself is prolific in produc-
ing sprouts that are rather palatable to livestock but that can be
seriously damaged by too great foliage and twig removal through
browsing.

The lodgepole pine forest, which covers large areas in the central
and northern Rocky Mountains and on the east side of the Cascades,
usually occurs in stands too dense to allow satisfactory grazing,
especially since most of the herbaceous and shrubby species present
are of low feed value. However, in the more accessible open stands,
some use is made of the forage produced. In the western larch-
western white pine forests of northwestern Montana, northern
Idaho, and northeastern Washington, the stand is so dense that
there is even less grazing than in the lodgepole pine.

The spruce-fir forest, which occurs at higher elevations in the
mountains of the West, produces little forage in the more dense
stands. However, in the subalpine phase of the type, where the
stands are more open and patchy, good feed is produced in the
openings sufficient in quantity to furnish some of the best summer
range in the West.

In the Douglas fir and redwood forests of the west coast, a heavy
undergrowth, chiefly of ferns and of salal and other brush species,
occurs in spite of the dense stand of timber, and because of its low
forage value renders these areas practically worthless for grazing.
After destructive fires a luxuriant growth of moderately palatable
herbaceous and browse plants ordinarily prevails for some years
until forest reproduction shades it out. Good feed is also produced
for a number of years on cut-over areas of these forest types that have
been reseeded to forage plants.

532 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The woodland type, consisting mainly of juniper in the North, of
pinon-juniper in the central and southern Rocky Mountain States,
and of digger pine and juniper in California, occurs at lower eleva-
tions than the commercial timber types. On the plateaus and rolling
lands of the central and southern Rockies there is usually a fair
ground cover of grass, often grama, beneath the open stand of trees.
In spite of the naturally sparse forage coyer, which in many instances
has been seriously depleted by overgrazing, the woodland type is an
important part of the western forage resource. In the California
woodlands bitterbrush, bluebrush, and birchleaf mountain mahogany
are often important. Repeated burns in this type of extreme fire
hazard tend to replace the palatable browse plants with worthless
brush and inferior annual grasses and weeds.

The mountain brushlands, at the lower elevations of the central
Rockies and in the Southwest, consist principally of low-value oak
brush. At the higher elevations of the Rockies cherry, plum, and
willows are important. It appears that the oak brush areas were
once good range lands with moderately palatable grasses occupying
a large proportion of the vegetative stand, but the grass has been so
depleted by overgrazing and the low-value brush species have
spread to such an extent that at present it furnishes satisfactory
forage only on a relatively small part of the type. In California and
Oregon there are thousands of acres of mountain brushlands which
have practically no grazing value because of the dense stands of
snowbrush and manzanita which have largely become established
following fires.

FOREST RANGE CONDITIONS

Few areas of forest range are still in a virgin condition. The fact
that most commercial and many of the noncommercial forest areas
were fairly well watered and had a cool climate, together with the
good feed that was present, gradually attracted livestock owners to
the forest lands. As a result of the keen competition for open range
at the lower elevations, settlers in increasing numbers either located
openings in the forest or pushed their flocks back into the extensive
forest areas. With free range, an apparent abundance of feed, and
a prospect for quick profits, money poured into the western livestock
business in the eighties and excessive overstocking became general
followed by depletion of forage. Accentuated by periodic droughts,
the destruction of the forage plants, especially in the openings,
almost reached denudation on many areas. Fertile top soils were
washed away, slopes and valleys were cut by gullies, and farm lands,
irrigation works, and other improvements suffered excessive damage
from floods and erosion debris. Timber reproduction was devoured
by the hungry animals. Fires set in an effort to open up brush areas,
or with the belief they would improve range conditions, not only in
many cases seriously injured soil and range values but destroyed
valuable timber as well and made its reestablishment more difficult.

Creation of national forests, their protection from fire, and the
regulation of grazing on them tended to stop deterioration and restore
to some extent the forage on that part of the western forest ranges.
For example, the high mountain forest ranges of Utah, according to
stockmen, were practically dust beds in the late nineties. Study by
the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station on one area

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 533

in central Utah, after establishment of the national forest, showed that
in a period of 15 years, the forage cover was, through careful manage-
ment, restored sufficiently on the better soil areas to produce a grazing
capacity four times greater in 1927 than in 1912. Similar improve-
ment is recorded on many national forest areas in the West.

Some private owners, recognizing the folly of excessive use of their
lands, have modified their grazing practices; but this has been almost
impossible to accomplish where private holdings are so intermingled
with public domain lands as to make complete use of the forage neces-
sary to discourage intrusion of other livestock owners. Losses result-
ing from starvation in drought periods and forced shipments as a
result of uneconomic conditions have relieved the public domain and
most of the private lands for brief periods, but deterioration has con-
tinued on large areas of private and uncontrolled public forest lands,
usually as a result of overstocking during periods with favorable
markets, and as a result of recurrent drought.

Numerous examples might be cited of unsatisfactory range condi-
tions still present on private and uncontrolled public forest lands and
of their deleterious effects on the social, economic, and other condi-
tions in the West. For example, on a private range in the ponderosa
pine type of eastern Oregon the forage cover had been so closely grazed
in 1920 that the area was practically a dust bed. Needles on the
branches of timber reproduction within 3 feet of the ground had been
eaten so completely that the branches were killed. Reproduction
under 2 or 3 feet high was so closely grazed that it was making
practically no growth, and the soil was so trampled that seedlings
did not readily become established.

In Montana there is a large acreage of former grassland, occurring
as scattered openings in the forest, on which the cover has been con-
verted by overgrazing to low-value plants such as rabbit brush,
yellow brush, and various weeds. W. G. McGinnies has found that
this transition has reduced the grazing capacity of these areas from
about 2 acres to about 11 acres per cow per month.

Studies by the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Sta-
tion of spring-fall ranges in the foothills of Utah near the lower edge
of the noncommercial forest type show losses of 40 to 90 percent in
range values during the 50 to 60 years that they have been grazed.
On areas protected from fire and grazing for a number of years,
Pickford3 found that the valuable native wheat grasses and blue-
grasses constitute 68 percent and the practically worthless sagebrush
only 11 percent of the vegetative cover. Tracts which have been
over giazed furnish only three fifths as great a grazing capacity as
the protected areas, and they have much less perennial grass, more
than twice as much sagebrush, and a materially larger stand of low-
value annual grasses than the protected areas.

A striking constrast, showing the value of good range management
and maintained forage and livestock production, is afforded by the
Santa Rita Experimental Range in Arizona and the depleted adjacent
public domain. Although these ranges are mainly untimbered, the
example illustrates what can be done with adequate control and good
management on timbered lands. Areas on the outside range require
from 3 to 4 times as many acres to support each animal as do similar

s Pickford, G. D. The Influence of Continued Heavy Grazing and of Promiscuous Burning on Spring-
Fall Ranges in Utah, Ecology, v. 13, no. 2: 159-171. 1932.

534 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

types on the experimental range. The number of cattle that have
been grazed over the 17-year period have varied widely on the outside,
losses have been far greater, calf crops have been much lower, the cost
of producing calves has been greater, and their sale value less than
on the experimental range.

Depletion of the under-story vegetation had reached such a serious
stage and soil erosion had become so active on local areas of the
woodland and brush types before creation of the Tonto National
Forest that, even with regulation of grazing for the past 27 years,
it has not been possible to arrest the deterioration. The seriousness
of such depletion is evident when it is realized that the continuing
erosion is greatly adding to the silt problem of the Roosevelt Reser-
voir, the principal storage basin of the Salt River reclamation project
in Arizona.

The governor's special flood commission 3a concluded that the
destructive floods of northern Utah in 1923 and 1930 (and which
have continued in 1931 and 1932) were largely the result of the
depletion of the vegetation on critical parts of the mountain water-
shed largely through overgrazing and fires and to some extent over-
cutting of timber. The evidence, from further intensive cooperative
study of the cause of these floods by the Utah State Land Board and the
Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, points directly
to denudation of relatively small areas on private lands near the
headwaters of the affected streams. The damage in this heavily
populated part of Utah has amounted to well over $1,000,000 and
several lives have been lost.

On the Kaibab National Forest and Game Preserve, depletion
from overgrazing by game has become pronounced. The 1931 investi-
gative committee made up of representatives of several national
conservation, wild life, and livestock associations, and Federal and
State agencies, concluded that the area is not now producing more
than 10 percent of the nutritious forage that it once supported.
Although the numbers of domestic livestock grazing on the area in
1913 have been reduced about 85 percent, the large increase that has
occurred in the mule deer population is causing a continued deteriora-
tion of forage, especially on the winter range, which has meant
starvation losses among the deer.

MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS

The conditions on western forest ranges as cited above show the defi-
nite need for development and application of management that will,
through rehabilitation of the valuable subordinate forest vegetation
and stabilization of range use, permit effective coordination of grazing
with the watershed protection, timber production, recreation, and
wild-life services of forest lands. Restoration of depleted forest
ranges would ultimately not only benefit the livestock owners,
but contribute to more satisfactory watershed protection, aid in
protection of timber reproduction from grazing damage, and make
available more abundant feed for wild life.

3a" Torrential Floods in Northern Utah, 1930." Report of Special Flood Commission. Utah Agr.
Expt. Sta. Circ. 92. 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 535

RELATION OF GRAZING TO OTHER FOREST RESOURCES

Soil is the basic forest-land resource. The retention of the fertile
humus layer of top soil is essential to continued productivity. This
depends on satisfactory maintenance of the protecting plant cover.
In their original condition the forested slopes and valleys, except
on a tew areas of very unproductive soil, were well covered with dense
forests or open tree stands and an under story of herbaceous and
shrubby plants. This cover, together with its litter of decaying
vegetable matter, had built up the surface soil into a friable condi-
tion, added to it a large quantity of rich organic matter, protected it
from beating rains, and maintained it in a condition for maximum
penetration of precipitation. The result was that the forest cover
prevented excessive run-off or abnormal erosion. Through conserva-
tion of precipitation the productive soil yielded abundantly.

Overgrazing as well as fires set in an effort to improve forage have
seriously depleted the herbaceous and shrubby vegetation and the
litter on extensive areas of practically all forest types. Heavy rains
falling on such exposed soils have started erosion which has stripped
away much of the fertile surface layer. On an important portion of
the Boise Kiver watershed in Idaho, for example, depleted by past
overgrazing, a survey by the Forest Service disclosed that only 35
percent of the grazed forest and brush types had escaped erosion.
On the eroded portion a large part of the upper soil layer has been lost
by widespread sheet and gully erosion. Six inches or more of the rich
topsoil has also been lost from large areas of such important water-
sheds as the foothills of the upper San Joaquin Valley and the moun-
tains of central Utah. The raw subsoil remaining is incapable of pro-
ducing the plant cover the land once supported. Years of careful
management will be required to restore the soil and vegetation, yet
this must be done if the accelerated erosion is to be controlled.

It should be clearly understood that this loss of soil productivity
by erosion following improper range practices affects not the stock-
man alone but the general public quite as deeply. Loss of productivity
of the range resource, if allowed to proceed unchecked, removes
taxable wealth and possibilities for current income, thus directly
affecting community welfare. Furthermore, rapid run-off from de-
pleted slopes, especially that from rainstorms, and the erosion debris
which it carries increase the destructiveness of floods, and add greatly
to the silting problem of reservoirs and of other irrigation works in
the West. For example, an official of the Indian Service reported 4 to
Congress that the Zuni Reservoir in New Mexico had in 22 years
filled with erosion debris to over 70 percent of its capacity, practically
destroying its usefulness. The heavy investment in irrigated farm
lands, in irrigation and power properties, and the urban values built
up by these developments far outweigh the values represented in the
livestock enterprise ^ dependent upon the watersheds. Farm land
values in the Boise irrigation project alone of over $53,000,000 are
equal to $31 for every acre of the watershed. The public therefore,
is vitally concerned in the condition of the watersheds.

< Hearings before Subcommittee of House Committee on Appropriations on Interior Department Appro-
priation BUI for 1931, 71st Cong.-, 2d sess., pp. 304-305.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 35

536 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The importance of improving the vegetative cover is strikingly
shown by Forsling 5 in a study of two small subalpine watersheds in
central Utah. On one the vegetation has been maintained since 1915
with a cover of about 40 percent of the soil surface. The other sup-
ported a cover of only 16 percent from 1915 to 1920. This cover was
increased, partly by artificial reseeding, to 40 percent where it was
maintained from 1924 to 1929. Over 95 percent of the annual surface
run-off came from melting snow. Such run-off is the main supply for
irrigation, supplemented by a delayed drainage of percolated snow
water extending through the summer. Surface run-off from summer
rainstorms on the watershed in depleted condition (1915 to 1920)
swept away over 8 tons of sediment per acre, or for at least 3 years
of record about 85 percent of that removed yearly. After improve-
ment (1924 to 1929) the sediment removed annually by summer
rainstorms was only about 1 ton per acre. For the periods 1915 to
1920 and 1924 to 1929 the difference between the two watersheds in
surface run-off per inch of total rainfall was 0.042 and 0.011 inch,
respectively, and in sediment removed per inch of rainfall, 21.8 and
2.8 cubic feet. Thus, as a result of improvement in the vegetative
cover, a considerable reduction in the relatively small surface run-off
from rainstorms was accompanied by a marked reduction in erosion.

On depleted areas of important watersheds, therefore, it is not suffi-
cient simply to maintain a thin stand of vegetation. Management
should be adjusted to facilitate as rapid recovery as is practicable.
Although grazing can usually be adjusted through improved range
management to meet watershed-protection requirements, there are
areas within watersheds from which vegetation has been almost
denuded or on which the natural balance is so insecure that any grazing
in an effort to secure the negligible quantity of feed available would
cause undue sliding of soil and prevent new vegetation from becoming
established. Grazing should be excluded from such areas, at least
until enough vegetation has been established to check the extreme
erosion of soil from the slopes.

Large areas of western forest land are used for furnishing municipal
water supply. The extent of such use is indicated by the fact that
about two and one-half million people, living in over 700 cities or
towns in the Western States, obtain their water supplies from areas
within national forests. A pronounced public sentiment exists against
the grazing of livestock, and especially sheep, on watersheds from
which domestic supplies are derived. Sanitary engineers, however,
hold that danger of contamination is not from the livestock but from
the presence of human beings on the watersheds. Thus, the Wash-
ington State Board of Health, after an investigation of the watershed
furnishing Walla Walla with its domestic supply, advised the city
that removal of all stock would not insure purity and that filtration
was the only practical way to bring this about. The United States
Public Health Service in reporting on this case stated: " States have
not passed laws to prohibit grazing on watersheds, because it is
generally agreed among sanitarians that diseases are not transmitted
by water from animals to man." Nevertheless in many instances,
the Forest Service has entered into special agreements with munici-
palities for the more complete protection of their domestic supply of

« Forsling, C. L. A Study of the Influence of Herbaceous Plant Cover on Surface Run-off and Soil Erosion
in Relation to Grazing on the Wasatch Plateau in Utah. U.S. Dept. Agr. Tech. Bui. 220. 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 537

water from diminution or contamination, and grazing has been elim-
inated from about 720,000 acres of watershed lands on national
forests for this purpose.

Ordinarily, serious damage to timber reproduction will not result
from range management that is entirely satisfactory from the stand-
point of the maintenance or restoration of the forage resource on
western forest lands. Overstocking of the range as a whole, too great
concentration of livestock on local areas, and grazing after forage has
become coarse, dry, and of low palatability, or before new succulent
growth has started in the spring, is apt to result in unwarranted
damage to timber reproduction. The damage from grazing may
become more of a problem where the sprouts and other growth of
hardwood species are browsed readily, as for instance, commercially
used aspen in Utah.

Where climatic conditions are rather unfavorable to establishment
of timber reproduction, damage from grazing may be important. For
example, the half million acres or more of timberland in the South-
west, on which satisfactory timber regeneration has been prevented
or retarded by improper grazing, call for research to determine specifi-
cally how timber and grazing use may be best combined and adjusted
to each other. Drought, and long periods between the combination
of a good seed crop and favorable weather necessary for seedling
establishment, are such serious obstacles to regeneration of the forest
that grazing damage, which would otherwise be a small or even negli-
gible amount, becomes important.

Studies by the Southwestern Forest and Range Experiment Station
have shown that on cattle range in northern Arizona 27 percent of all
the reproduction advanced beyond the seedling stage had in 5 years
shown some damage from grazing and part of this had been browsed
recurrently. During the first 2 or 3 years of the existence of seedlings,
6 percent were injured and 1.3 percent were killed. On sheep range
9 percent of the advanced reproduction was injured during the 5-year
period. Of 2- and 3-year-old seedlings, 7 percent were injured and
less than 2 percent killed. Injury to advanced reproduction largely
takes the form of retarded growth. This together with the compara-
tively small seedling mortality from grazing may be the overbalancing
factor preventing satisfactory regeneration of the forest, as in this
instance, where at least 45 percent of the year-old seedlings and over
1 5 percent of the 2-year-old seedlings died from natural causes. These
studies also indicated, irrespective of whether the range forage was
depleted or overutilized, that lack of water or succulent forage is apt
to increase the grazing of terminal shoots in dry periods. Evidently
under these conditions livestock satisfy their thirst in part by browsing
the succulent new pine shoots.

Studies by the Forest Service have shown that livestock should not
be placed on summer forest ranges on areas in need of regeneration
until the forage has made a good start and should not be left on the
range after the more palatable plants are utilized. Sheep or goats
should not be bedded or allowed to shade up in areas of timber
reproduction, nor be driven through such areas in a close or compact
band. Open herding and 1 -night bedding grounds for sheep
grazing and a close approximation to this in handling goats will help
materially to keep damage to a minimum.

538 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

As shown in the section on "Wild Life A Forest Resource", the
game and fish supported by forest lands and streams provide sport
for hundreds of thousands of hunters and fishermen. Forests harbor
a large proportion of the commercially valuable fur-bearing animals.
They add materially to local business by expenditures of sportsmen
and to State and county revenues from the sale of licenses. In addi-
tion to the wild life, the forest has educational and esthetic values
which cannot be expressed wholly in terms of dollars and cents.

There is much forest land available for wild life which is too rough,
supports too dense a stand of timber or brush, or is otherwise unsuit-
able for grazing by domestic livestock. On most forest lands grazed
by livestock, however, there are or eventually will be problems of
coordination and adjustments between wild life and domestic animals.
The greatest difficulties so far have come in areas overstocked with
domestic animals or with game or both, as on the Kaibab Plateau.
Likewise an excess of elk south of Yellowstone Park during winter
months has made heavy feeding of hay necessary to prevent losses.
In general, there is ample summer range on western forests for present
numbers of game animals, and in some cases for increases, without
conflict with domestic livestock. Winter range on the other hand is
insufficient on most areas even for present numbers.

Stockmen as a whole have as much interest in the maintenance of
wild life as any other group of citizens. The interest of the public
in a large and well-maintained wild-life supply may require curtail-
ment or even elimination of domestic livestock grazing from limited
areas of public-forest ranges. Thus, on national forests nearly 3
million acres of usable forest range have been closed to grazing by
domestic animals for the benefit of game. Such feed reservations
are in addition to the large areas of forest land unsuitable for live-
stock grazing which are usable by game animals.

Although a large part of the recreational values of forested lands
are free to the millions of people who annually enjoy them, additional
taxable wealth is created through the development of such facilities.
Most of the western national parks are in forested areas, and thus
large acreages have been set aside for the sole purpose of recreation
and inspiration. From these parks grazing is practically eliminated.
This is largely true on the forest areas included within State parks.
On limited areas of national-forest land there is a heavy concentration
of recreational use, especially such areas as those near Pike's Peak and
Mount Hood, where literally hundreds of thousands of people visit the
forest each year. Recreational needs for camp grounds, summer-home
sites, and other cultural development may also lead to demands for
local modification of range use. Such recreational use has brought
about elimination of grazing from approximately 1,335,000 acres of
usable forest ranges, usually in small units. Some owners of private-
forest land have taken advantage of recreational opportunities and
have made necessary adjustments in grazing.

Many unreasonable demands have been made by recreational
enthusiasts for curtailment of grazing use on extensive areas of public-
forest land where all things considered there is no conflict between
such use and public interest. Horses and cattle, as well as shepherds
with their flocks, on forest ranges are by many people considered an
additional scenic attraction.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 539

REVEGETATION

The restoration of depleted ranges to a well-vegetated condition
is of the utmost importance. It is essential to more effective and
stable livestock production, to more adequate protection of water-
sheds against abnormal run-off and erosion, and to assuring feed for
wild life, as well as to enhancing other forest values.

Affording the native vegetation an opportunity to improve in stand
is the most feasible means of restoring forage productivity on large
areas of depleted forest ranges. On relatively small areas artificial
reseeding would appear practicable. In order to assure range re-
storation of the important palatable species they must be allowed to
develop sufficient growth to regain their vigor and to provide for
reproduction either by maturing seed or by other methods of revege-
tation characteristic of some species. In extreme cases this must be
brought about by total exclusion of grazing. However, except where
grazing on a very badly depleted area would endanger watershed
values it is seldom necessary to exclude livestock if grazing use is
properly adjusted to the needs of the important palatable plants on
the range. Such adjustments ordinarily will restore the plant cover
as effectively as leaving the range ungrazed.

Of the several methods of revegetation developed by research hi
the Forest Service, deferred and rotation grazing has proved to be a
very effective low-cost method applicable to many western range
conditions. Simply stated, it consists of deferring grazing on a part
of a range unit each year until the more important palatable forage
plants have matured a vigorous growth and, where reproduction is
by seeding, have matured seed. The rotation feature comes in
through deferring grazing for a year or two on different parts of the
unit in succeeding years. By such late fall use the mature seeds are
shaken to the ground where they may be partly buried by trampling.
During the following year light grazing or deferred use again may be
desirable in order to promote establishment of seedling plants. On
the average, ranges thus grazed for 10 to 15 years gain about 20 per-
cent or more in forage value. Certain areas in central Utah have
increased 50 percent, and some test areas 200 to 500 percent.

The more valuable forage species are so badly depleted on some
areas that natural revegetation will take at best many years. On
areas having favorable soil and moisture conditions and a thin stand
of native vegetation, such as depleted mountain meadows and moist
parks, and also on deeper alluvial soils rich in organic matter, sowing
of seeds of the better cultivated forage plants and of desirable native
range species, may greatly speed up restoration. In Ephraim
Canyon on the Manti National Forest in Utah, for example, studies
of the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station have
shown that the native wheatgrasses and brome, and the tame crested
wheatgrass, Kentucky bluegrass, and smooth brome, among others,
have tripled the grazing capacity of small test areas in openings
within the forest. However, where the rich top layer has been lost
the soil is unable to produce high yields, and although increases in
forage production up to 25 or 35 percent were obtained, increases
beyond that point wul doubtless be slow until productive soil is again
rebuilt. Several cultivated forage plants have given good results in
extensive tests on favorable sites in the central and northern Rocky

540 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Mountains and in the Pacific Cascade slopes. The forest range areas
suitable to reseeding are individually small but total a considerable
acreage as a whole. Reseeding ordinarily costs several dollars an
acre. For range use alone it may not pay as compared to the slower
natural revegetation. In the section of this report "A Watershed
Protection Program", the need is pointed out for the early revegeta-
tion of about 900,000 acres in order to more adequately protect im-
portant watershed areas against undue run-off and erosion. As
research develops cheaper and more effective methods, it is probable
that artificial reseeding will take a more prominent place in plans for
revegetation .

Selection and hybridization of range forages offer one of the greatest
ultimate opportunities in revegetation if this work is undertaken in
a comprehensive way to unite aggressive spreading habits of downy
brome, for example, with the desirable forage habits of mountain
brome. Such research is badly needed.

PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT

In the administration of western forest ranges to bring about the
proper coordination of grazing with other forest uses and the restora-
tion and maintenance of the forest understory, there are four main
underlying principles which should form the basis for plans and pro-
cedure. They are: (1) Use of the range by the class of livestock
best suited to use it. (2) Adjusting the number of livestock to what
the range can support satisfactorily on a permanent basis. (3) Ad-
justing the season of use to the most satisfactory period from the
standpoint of correlating maintained feed production with greatest
value from the use of the feed. (4) Distributing the grazing over
the range in such a manner as to reduce damage around natural con-
gregating places, to insure even utilization of all parts, to facilitate
use of feed of particular value at certain seasons of the year, and to
protect parts of the range needing special attention.

CLASS OF STOCK TO WHICH RANGE IS BEST SUITED

While the class of stock grazed on forest range will largely be
governed by the present class grazing the range, by economic condi-
tions, or by likes or prejudices of the particular owner, the trend
should be toward the class or classes which can best utilize each
particular range area. Cattle are attracted to open timber or wood-
land areas and grasslands or meadows in openings in the forest. They
can be induced to utilize rather steep timber or brushy slopes, but the
attempt to obtain a satisfactory degree of use of such areas is apt to
result in overgrazing the more level and more open areas where cattle
tend to congregate.

Sheep prefer a mixture of luscious grasses and weeds, and these are
essential to the best development of lambs. They utilize open range
to advantage and will penetrate and utilize areas of rather dense
timber or brush. Usually they graze steep slopes more thoroughly
than do cattle.

The advantage of adjusting class of stock to the range utilization
possibilities is well illustrated by a national forest range in central
Utah. This area was badly depleted before the creation of the forest
but under use by cattle made slow improvement during the first 15

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 541

years of Forest Service administration. To correct the overgrazing
prevalent in the local open valley areas and to speed up recovery
would have required such heavy reductions in the number of cattle
as to make further grazing by that class alone uneconomic. In 1922,
owners of part of the cattle grazing on the range were permitted to
replace them by sheep, and further changes were made later. As a
result, the sheep have made better use of forage on the slopes and
have been held off the open valley areas. The heavy grazing by
cattle on the spring range and in the previously overgrazed valleys
was practically eliminated. The spring ranges have improved from
100 to 200 percent and depleted parts of the summer range have im-
proved as much as 400 to 500 percent. A more profitable basis of
use of the range was developed and better watershed protection was
afforded as a result of the improvement of the protecting vegetation
on the depleted areas.

On areas in Texas, Arizona, and Utah, supporting a considerable
quantity of browse there has been a tendency toward an increase in
use by goats. If goats are grazed in reasonable numbers they can
use many browse ranges to advantage where grazing capacity for
cattle is so low that it is difficult for that class to be grazed satis-
factorily.

NUMBERS OF STOCK WHICH THE RANGE CAN SUPPORT

One of the greatest and most widespread causes of range depletion
has been overstocking. Too often stockmen have been tempted to
obtain reasonably full use of an abundance of low-value species on
their ranges, with the inevitable result that high-value forage was
badly damaged or eliminated. An example of this is the efforts to
obtain rather heavy use of oak brush on ranges of southwestern Utah
grazed in summer by cattle. An experiment by the Forest Service
on this type of range showed that under more conservative grazing,
although fewer animals are grazed, these will yield a higher return
than would a larger number of animals crowded onto the range.

The only safe basis of judging grazing capacity is the proper
utilization of the more important palatable forage plants of each
range area. In the West, as a whole, the main feed on forest ranges is
furnished by bunch grasses, some succulent weeds, and a few browse
plants that are of moderate to high palatability. Ordinarily average
utilization of approximately 60 percent of the foliage production each
year is as close use as these plants can withstand and maintain their
vigor, although a few plants will withstand utilization up to 80 or
90 percent of their foliage. Use of all the foliage of the main forage
plants robs them of their food-making parts and upsets their ability
to compete with the lightly grazed vegetation. Such use leads to
reduced grazing capacity and may result in rapid deterioration of
range values.

There is a considerable difference in the quantity of forage produced
in good years and in years unfavorable to plant growth. If stocking
is based upon average forage production rather than upon the
occasional very high forage yield, the intermittent years of poor plant
growth can often be tided over without unwarranted injury to the
range.

Precipitation is extremely important in forage production on forest
ranges. Studies by the Forest Service of precipitation in relation to

542 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

growth of vegetation in different parts of the West indicate that
below-normal conditions have prevailed on the average over much
of the range during the last 8 to 15 years. Thus in the foothills of
the San Joaquin Valley of California precipitation for the period
from 1923 to 1931 was about 14 percent below normal; precipitation
at Boise, Idaho from 1919 to 1931, inclusive, was below average in 9
years out of 13; while at Roosevelt, on the Salt River watershed in
Arizona from 1922 to 1930, inclusive, 6 years were well below average
and 3 years were only slightly above average. Such continued sub-
normal precipitation, in a naturally semiarid region, makes it ex-
tremely difficult for the vegetation to maintain itself. If stocking is
not adjusted currently to reduced forage production, rather serious
depletion results. For example, on woodland ranges of southern
Idaho, largely in private ownership and in the public domain, results
from measured plots have shown that the forage cover has been re-
duced from 40 to 80 percent of the original cover over large areas.
On national forests, where an effort is made to adjust numbers of
livestock to average feed production over the years and thus prevent
overgrazing, the large increases in numbers of livestock during the
war, as an emergency measure, resulted in overstocking on many
national-forest ranges. It has been difficult, in view of the sub-
normal precipitation, to reduce stocking rapidly enough to check
range depletion. Where voluntary reductions were not sufficient
it has been necessary to require reductions in the number of livestock.
Fortunately, such required reductions have not been great or wide-
spread.

PROPER SEASONAL USE

Grazing forage plants before they have made enough growth to
withstand cropping has also been one of the principal causes of the
deterioration of western forest ranges. If grazing promptly removes
the first growth it deprives the plants of their food-making parts.
As a result, the vitality of the forage plants is lowered, forage produc-
tion is reduced, and the weakened plants are unable to produce fertile
seed, or may be killed out entirely. Therefore, the date when grazing
can satisfactorily begin should be based upon the development of the
more important palatable plants on the particular range. With
sufficient growth, utilization of part of it will not injure the vigor of
the plants.

The close of a summer-grazing period should be governed usually
by weather conditions and by the supply of feed. It is not advisable,
as a rule, to graze the range in the fall up to the point that livestock can
get only enough forage for sustenance.

PROPER DISTRIBUTION OF LIVESTOCK ON THE RANGE

Adequate distribution of watering places and salt offer the most
practicable and economical means of procuring satisfactory distribu-
tion of cattle and full and uniform use of available feed.

Examples of beneficial results from more effective distribution of
cattle on national-forest ranges are numerous. While in most in-
stances the main result has been to overcome local overgrazing without
reducing the number of cattle, one national forest supervisor, for
example, reports an increase from 1,574 cattle to 2,200 on one range
in 7 years as a result of some 66 new, well placed salt troughs. Another

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 543

reports an increase of from 800 to 1,300 cattle in 3 years by additional
water development and the application of proper salting.

It is much simpler to obtain satisfactory distribution with sheep
since they are continually under the care of a herder. The open-
herding and bedding-out system of handling sheep, developed by the
Forest Service from studying sheep grazing in pastures and through
experimental tests of herding throughout the West, provides for quiet
grazing in open formation during early morning and evening, a mini-
mum of trailing and use of dogs, and bedding on a new ground every
evening. Its advantages compared to the old bedding and herding
systems are: (1) More even utilization of the forest understory,
permitting more satisfactory maintenance of cover for watershed
protection over the whole area grazed; (2) less heavy local damage to
timber reproduction; (3) an increase in grazing capacity of 20 to 25
percent; (4) cleaner and larger wool clips are produced; (5) a greater
average weight of lambs; and (6) great reduction in losses from
poisonous plants. Thus there is a direct benefit to the stockman as
well as to the range.

OTHER FEATURES OF FOREST RANGE MANAGEMENT

In the development and application of sound forest range manage-
ment, properly coordinated with other forest uses, the following items
need consideration : Range improvements and the control of poisonous
plants, rodents, and predatory animals.

As better range management has been perfected, increasing atten-
tion has been given to the development of such range improvements
as fences, water developments, driveways, pastures, corrals, and other
equipment and developments for controlling grazing so as to obtain
most satisfactory utilization of the forage. Often boundary fences
are the only practical means of eliminating trespass and keeping stock
within allotments, of dividing ranges for seasonal use, or segregating
classes of livestock. Water is an absolute essential to effective use of
the range. It is not abundant on many ranges of the West, particu-
larly in the Southwest ; therefore, it is necessary to drill or dig wells,
construct reservoirs for catching run-off water, to improve springs,
and to pipe water into troughs sufficient for watering all the livestock
that should water at one time. Driveways and trails, bridges across
swift mountain streams, riders' cabins, and other improvements also
facilitate the handling of livestock and otherwise aid in range manage-
ment that is needed for the fullest correlation of grazing with other
forest uses.

In 1930 it was estimated that 5,414 cattle and 24,883 sheep were
lost on the 1,300,000 acres of national-forest land known to be infested
with poisonous plants. At conservative low price figures, this loss
exceeded $250,000. Over one half of the cattle losses are attributed
to larkspur poisoning. Grubbing, at an average cost of about $5 per
acre, generally is an effective control measure for exterminating this
weed. Grubbing a relatively small area may release a whole range
from danger for several years. Chemicals have been used effectively
to kill larkspur but cost more than grubbing.

Water hemlock and death camas may also be controlled by grubbing.
It is thought, however, that the real remedy in many cases must be
the indirect method of revegetating the range and maintaining a

544 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

liberal supply of the more valuable forage. Properly placed drift
fences on infested cattle ranges and quiet herding on sheep ranges
may serve as makeshifts until the more permanent remedies of eradi-
cation of the poisonous plants or range revegetation may be provided.

The presence of rodents on many of the forest ranges reduces
seriously the subordinate vegetation needed for watershed protection
and forage. The Forest Service estimates conservatively that on
more than 15 million acres of rodent infested range in the national
forests, including 5.8 million acres already treated, the grazing capac-
ity is lowered fully 10 per cent by the destruction of forage plants and
by the consumption of current growth.

The more serious aspect of rodent damage is the destruction of the
protective vegetative cover of the soil, accompanied by a stirring up of
the surface soil which exposes it to erosion. Unfortunately this sort
of damage is most pronounced and serious on many areas where
originally the soil was deep and highly productive.

The Bureau of Biological Survey, in cooperation with stockmen and
the Forest Service, has done very effective work on many national
forests, particularly in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. The
ranges cleared of rodent pests have shown improvement, but follow-up
measures and continued extension of control work are necessary if
permanent beneficial results are to be obtained.

Stockmen suffer serious losses every year from predatory animals,
especially coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions. There are also heavy
losses in game animals. The Bureau of Biological Survey is conduct-
ing a control campaign upon predatory animals, cooperating with
State authorities, the Forest Service, and stockmen. While excellent
results have been realized, it has been impossible with the funds avail-
able to cover fully the vast area of country infested.

It is the policy of the Department of Agriculture to control rather
than to exterminate predatory animals. Many people believe that
predators largely offset their damage to livestock where they con-
tribute substantially to rodent control. Predatory animals are recog-
nized as an important consideration in game management. Where
surplus game animals cannot be utilized in beneficial ways control
of predators may be lessened. Where the reverse is true control
measures become a necessity to the maintenance of a proper balance
between predators and game species.

THE SITUATION IN DIFFERENT OWNERSHIPS

The basic conception at the present time for use or disposition of
forest ranges varies so widely between those public and private agen-
cies owning such lands that distinctly different situations have de-
veloped. On the national forests the principle of multiple use of all
resources for the benefit of local communities and the public prevails ;
but on the unreserved public domain, although Federal ownership
implies an equal obligation in the public interest, there is an utter
lack of policy either in use or regulation. Western States ordinarily
aim to obtain as much revenue as possible from their forest ranges
regardless of conservation of the resources. The chief concern of the
private owner is to make a profit from his land. A review of each of
these situations and the results of each is, therefore, warranted.

On publicly owned and managed forest ranges the method of dis-
posing of the forage varies considerably. Range feed is sold either on

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 545

a per head or per acre basis, although the latter method is likely to
encourage abuse of the range for immediate gain, unless the proper
stipulations as to number of stock and seasons are incorporated in the
lease. The grazing fee may be established either from competitive
bidding or from an appraisal of the individual range unit which recog-
nizes the priority of the established user. The fee based on appraisal,
when fixed on a reasonable basis over a period of years, undoubtedly
tends toward stability of range use, but experience has shown that it
is subject to pressure for reduction.

The competitive-bid basis produces a larger cash return to the land-
owner and seems largely to eliminate the grounds for agitation for fee
reduction, but requires very careful supervision to avoid the tendency
to overgraze the range in an effort to pay out on the higher fee at the
expense of future range productivity. It also tends to work against
continuing use of a range unit by the same stockman and thereby
lessens his interest in sustained range productivity.

NATIONAL FORESTS

The aim of the administrative policy of the Department of Agricul-
ture in handling the 64 million acres of forest ranges within the western
national forests is to obtain as fully beneficial use of the various re-
sources of the land as is consistent with their permanent conservation.
This concept, which lays stress on land management and on the use
and perpetuation of the resources in place of reservation for the future,
came in 1905 with the transfer of the then " forest reserves" from the
Department of the Interior. Consistent with conservation and use of
the timber, watershed, wild life, and other resources, the aim of the
range policy on the national forests is (1) to build up the forage re-
source and its productivity through the development and introduction
of the best possible methods of management, and (2) to promote a
stable and prosperous use of these resources by permanent settlers on
or adjacent to the national forests and dependent upon the use of
forest ranges for satisfactory development of their own lands and
livestock businesses.

No actual rights accrue to the stockmen using national forests,
although they hold preferences for the use of range for certain num-
bers of livestock. These preferences have come to have considerable
stability and, subject to the approval of the Forest Service, may be
transferred upon the sale of ranches or livestock or both.

Grazing privileges within the national forests are not sold at com-
petitive bid as is the common practice in disposal of timber. The
range feed is disposed of on the basis of a reasonable fee determined
after careful consideration of the forage available, accessibility, and
other phases of use. In 1931 the average fee for cattle was 14.5
cents per head per month and the average fee for sheep was 4.5 cents
per head per month. In 1932, because of the emergency conditions
created by the 1931 drought followed by a severe winter, the fees
were reduced by 50 percent by grant of the Secretary of Agriculture
and the President.

Range management plans have been prepared for national-forest
units. They are based upon the principles of forest-range manage-
ment already outlined, and are administered so as to carry out the
national-forest objectives.

546 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The degree of success attained in the past 28 years in accomplish-
ing the above objectives by means of the permit system on a per head
basis is noteworthy. The improvement in condition of the range
resource during this time, although it has not been uniform, is on
the average marked. This in turn has furnished a corresponding
improvement in watershed-protective values and in conditions favor-
able for wild life. Improved forage conditions also are of consider-
able value in sustained livestock production on national-forest
ranges.

A discussion of grazing on national forests is presented in this
report under "The National Forests."

INDIAN RESERVATIONS

The objective of Federal management of grazing on the 12 million
acres grazed of the 14 million acres of commercial and noncommercial
forested lands (including 6.7 million acres of pinpn-juniper type)
within the Indian reservations is to obtain the maximum benefit for
the Indians. In carrying out this objective the Federal Government
aims to obtain a maximum revenue for the Indians, insofar as it is
possible, and perpetuate the range resource. A grazing plan has been
or is being formulated for each Indian reservation. In connection
with this, provision is first made for Indian-owned herds, range not
needed by the Indians being leased under a system of competitive bids
to the local stockmen. These leases run for periods of from 1 to
5 years. Leased lands are either (1) lands allotted to individual
Indians, or (2) unallotted tribal lands.

The revenues obtained for lease privileges vary with the demand
for and the condition of the range. They have been on the average
16.9 cents per head per month for cattle and 7.3 cents per head per
month for sheep.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

The unreserved public domain contains approximately 21.5 million
acres of grazed forest land. This area is the forested part of the
land remnant held by the Federal Government after reservations,
grants, and private appropriations have been made. It is a free
range open to whatever grazing use individuals may make of it. The
serious conditions on it reflect the absence of management. A
rancher must graze the range near his property as heavily as pos-
sible, from early spring till late fall, or year long if in the region of
mild winters, in order to avoid having someone else crowd in on
him. During the summer growing season "tramp " herds may closely
utilize feed that should, for the best interests of the industry as a
whole, be reserved for winter. Such herds often come in and profit
by whatever protection local stockmen have given the range.

It is of the utmost importance, if such range is to be saved from
utter destruction, that these forested public-domain areas, as well as
the many million acres of nontimbered range land in the public
domain, be given a status which will make possible management and
restoration.

STATE LANDS

The aim of western States, in handling the State forest land grazed
by livestock, of which 4 million acres now remain, has usually been
to convert the land into cash by sale or to obtain the greatest pos-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 547

sible cash income from leasing. Much land formerly held by States
has been sold to any who would purchase, frequently to the highest
bidder at public auction. Two bad results have arisen from this
plan. In some cases the land has brought so little that it was
virtually a gift to the purchaser. In other cases because of the
anxiety of several stockmen, some of them transient, the price bid
was so high that it was never paid and the land after being badly
abused reverted to the State.

Leasing for the largest obtainable cash return has meant in most
cases competitive bidding, whereby the previous lessee had no assur-
ance that he would have continued use of the land. In some States
there is provision for protecting the interests of the previous resident
lessee, although he may have to increase his rental to meet a higher
bid. Under great necessity to obtain a certain area, a stockman
might be forced to meet an unreasonable bid, perhaps by an alien
who bid very high in order to get a local foothold, often with the idea
of extending his grazing to other lands. There are seldom any pro-
visions as to how the range shall be grazed or any field supervision and
ordinarily the stockmen use it as they deem best. Lack of provision
for adequate management in disposal or lease makes for lack of assur-
ance of permanency, and in some cases State lands have deteriorated
until they correspond closely in condition with the unreserved public
domain.

PRIVATE FOREST RANGE LANDS

Nearly 42 million acres of privately owned forest land in the West
is grazed by livestock. More than 15 million acres of this area is in
farm woodlands, according to the 1930 census. The remainder is in
larger holdings mainly owned by stockmen, lumber companies, or
other corporations. Holdings of stockmen are chiefly in noncommer-
cial forest types. While the majority of private owners use their
forest ranges with the expectation of continuing grazing use, they fail
to appreciate what is happening to the range under the heavy use
commonly practiced. Little concern is given to the timber and other
resources. The major objective is maximum income. These ranges,
as a whole, have declined in grazing capacity to a condition almost
as bad as that on the public domain. There are of course individual
privately owned ranges that are well managed and on which forage,
timber, and watershed-protective conditions have been well main-
tained. Occasionally forest range lands owned by railroads and other
corporations are leased under definite stipulations as to the manner
and degree of use, but this is the exception. In the numerous cases
where such stipulations are not made the result is nearly always serious
depletion of the range.

A considerable part of the private land within the national forests
is turned over to the Forest Service to be managed under the same
plans that apply to adjacent Government land. Such land is ordi-
narily kept in reasonably good condition.

FOREST RANGES IN THE SOUTH

The forests of the South furnish considerable feed for livestock, par-
ticularly for cattle during the spring and early summer. The region
here considered is identical with that presented in "Forest Land the
Basic Resource" section, and extends from Texas, Oklahoma, and

548 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Arkansas, through the Gulf and Atlantic coastal States to Virginia
and including that part of the southern Appalachians within these
States. It is estimated that nearly 150 million acres (table 1) of the
217 million acres classed as forest land is grazed at least to some degree.
The commercial pine and hardwood forests have been largely cut over
and although they are now mainly in some degree of restocking to
forest growth, most of the area supports a good growth of grasses and
shrubs suitable for livestock grazing. A large part of the noncom-
mercial forest lands are grazed.

Nearly 15 million cattle, 9 million sheep, and over 9K million hogs
(1930 census) in the region as a whole, are on farms, forest, improved

Easture, and un timbered range lands. Texas and Oklahoma together
ave 8.7 million cattle, 7.2 million sheep, and 2.6 million hogs, a
part of which graze on forest lands in the eastern sections of these
States. A still larger proportion of the cattle, sheep, and hogs in the
rest of the South obtain feed from the forest range. The grazing of
livestock on native forage produced on forest lands furnishes a liveli-
hood or supplemental income to a substantial proportion of the rural
population and in some instances provides a current return to the land-
owner to meet carrying charges. Timber growing and adequately
controlled livestock grazing seem to represent a dual use which can
contribute substantially to economic use of forest lands.

The " Forest Land the Basic Resource" section of this report shows
that approximately 98 percent of the forested area in the South is
privately owned. Nearly 70 million acres is in farm woodlands, of
which, according to the 1930 census, nearly 34 million acres, or almost
half, is pastured. It is estimated that about 112 million acres are
grazed of the 143 million acres in other types of private ownership,
chiefly large holdings of lumbermen and turpentine producers. Of
the area in public ownership, amounting to less than 4% million acres,
the largest part of which is in national forests in the southern Appa-
lachians, it is estimated that over 3.2 million acres are grazed. A
tax-delinquent situation has developed to such an extent during the
past decade that the forest lands reverting to the public for nonpay-
ment of taxes are reaching sizeable proportions.

The forest lands in the South are largely unfenced and are for the
most part grazed by livestock of local residents, who seldom own very
much of the land they use for grazing their livestock. Furthermore,
the leasing of grazing rights on privately owned timberlands is not
common practice. In most States these unfenced forest lands are
generally considered public ranges, and in the southern pine type
commonly are burned annually or periodically by the local livestock
owners. The original timber has been largely cut off, so that the
peak of forest productivity has passed for the time at least. The
practice of annually burning over the grass and other ground cover
during the dormant period interferes with satisfactory forest restock-
ing on much commercial forest area.

Much progress has been made in improving livestock-raising con-
ditions and methods in the South through cooperative efforts of the
United States Department of Agriculture and the various State
agencies. Perhaps the most outstanding accomplishment has been
the elimination of the Texas fever tick of cattle from most of the area.
As a result, pure-bred cattle have been brought in extensively to
improve the type and grade of native stock. The development of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 549

improved pastures and supplemental feeds with introduced cultivated
forage plants has greatly improved feed conditions on farms. All of
these have aided in a more systematic and profitable livestock-raising
program. And yet a poor grade of livestock and a care-free type of
management still prevails on much of the forest range in the South.
The wide extent of forest lands and the large amount of herbage
produced offer great possibilities for livestock grazing in conjunction
with the growing of timber crops.

FEED PRODUCED ON FOREST LANDS

The principal forest-range types in point of area are the longleaf-
slash pine, extending along the lower Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and
the shortleaf -loblolly pine -hardwoods type, which forms a wide
belt through the heart of the region from east to west. The less
extensive oak-pine and oak-chestnut yellow poplar types along the
northern edge of the region are grazed but little. Grazing is also
light in the river bottom hardwoods cypress type along the Mississippi
and other rivers. But the oak-hickory forests, west of the shortleaf
loblolly pine-hardwoods type in Texas and Oklahoma, are extensively
grazed.

The longleaf-slash pine type is one of the most important stock-
grazing areas of the South. Observations by State and Federal
agricultural workers indicate that the so-called "wire grasses", includ-
ing certain andropogons, needlegrasses, muhlenbergias, and dropseeds
and broomsedge are among the most important native grasses.
Introduced grasses, such as Bermuda grass, carpet grass, Dallis grass,
and crabgrass, are well established on limited areas, usually in clear-
ings. They are eaten readily by livestock and often are of great
importance as forage. Lespedezas, tick- trefoils, ground nuts, clovers,
and other legumes are also common in this region.

The shortleaf and loblolly pine-hardwoods type is rich in botanical
species, the most imporatnt from a grazing standpoint including
broomsedges and needlegrasses among the grasses, deervetch and
tick-trefoils among the legumes, and cottonwood, sassafras, black
willow, oaks, and in the eastern portion, yellow poplar, among the
species browsed. Tree growth is often so dense in the more southern
of the Mississippi River Valley bottomlands as to limit grazing. The
canebrakes, however, furnish excellent cattle grazing unless over-
grazed or impaired by fire.

The chief timber types in the southern Appalachians are the oak-
chestnut-yellow poplar, and, at lower elevations, the oak-pine type.
Forest Service and other studies indicate that besides the reproduc-
tion and accessible portions of such hardwoods as oak, hickory, chest-
nut, yellow poplar, and maples, numerous shrubs are browsed. Here
also occur a great variety of native woodland grasses, many of which
are valuable for domestic livestock. This is the region of greatest
development and abundance in this country for rhododendrons,
azaleas, and kalmia (mountain-laurel), all of which are highly poison-
ous to livestock but usually ungrazed. The grassy "balds" or
treeless areas of the southern Appalachian Mountains furnish natural
feeding places of high grazing capacity for cattle and sheep. The
cover of such balds is largely red top, Kentucky and woods bluegrasses,
with a number of palatable sedges.

550 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The noncommercial forests, principally in Texas and Oklahoma,
are not only extensive in area but also are used considerably by live-
stock. The oak-hickory belt in Texas, west of the shortleaf and
loblolly pine-hardwood type, usually contains post oak, blackjack oak,
and hickory. The accessible tender shoots and sprouts of the tree
species (especially on cut-over areas), as well as those of sassafras,
persimmon, and other smaller trees are browsed. Among the grasses
the needlegrasses, panic grasses, and broomsedge furnish considerable
forage.

FOREST RANGE PROBLEMS

Among the more important problems in the grazing of southern
forest lands are : The widespread practice of uncontrolled burning to
remove unused grass, the serious damage by hogs in rooting out
longleaf pine seedlings, and the grazing of sprouts of valuable timber
species in the southern Appalachian hardwoods. Another very
important problem is the need for a more adequate coordination
between the grazing on forest ranges, the use of improved pastures,
and supplemental winter feeding.

In a later section, "Protection Against Fire", it is shown that an
average of 37,571,500 acres of forest land were burned annually from
1926 to 1930 in the South, mostly on areas where no organized
attempt was made to control fires. A large part of these fires occur
in the southern pine belt and are mainly set by livestock owners to
remove the rough and to keep down the undergrowth. Fires are
also set in the belief that they contribute to the control of insect
pests, and in some instances to keep the country open for hunting.
Many stockmen also burn^the forest undergrowth in the belief that
the quality of forage is improved. Green,6 reports substantially
greater gains in weights of cattle on burned forest range in southern
Mississippi as compared to cattle on an adjacent unburned area.

Forest Service studies show that uncontrolled fires have already
caused great damage to southern pine forests, and are especially
damaging to turpentined trees, which are seldom carefully protected
after the turpentine operations have ended. Uncontrolled fires on
forest land kill out pine reproduction and retard the restocking of many
tree species, although longleaf pine is particularly resistant to fires.
The coordination of grazing use with timber production requires
either the prevention or the control of fire to insure the success of
forestry undertakings.

In the southern Appalachians burning to improve forest range is
much less widespread than in the pine belt of the South. Unfenced
forest grazing is of less importance than formerly because, with the
better grade of livestock now being raised and fence laws which make
the stock owner liable for trespass, more of the animals are being
grazed on improved farm pastures. Some sporadic grazing damage to
the better tree species such as yellow poplar, oak, and chestnut occurs
in the coves and on lower mountain slopes when cattle congregate
there.

Studies by the Forest Service have shown that considerable damage
is done to longleaf pine reproduction by hogs, which run at large
throughout the year. Mast — acorns and nuts from hardwoods

6 Greene, S. W. The Stockman's Interest in Protecting Forest and Range from Fire. Proc. Eleventh
Southern Forestry Congress. 1929.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 551

along stream bottoms — furnishes a valuable feed for hogs when
available. Hogs relish the seedlings and the spongy root bark of
longleaf pines, especially in early spring, when the mast becomes
scarce, or when they are driven out of the bottoms by high water.
They often destroy whole crops of seedlings by rooting them up in
their search for food. Longleaf seedlings several years old and
sometimes up to 6 feet in height may be killed. Considerable damage
may be done even to larger trees by removal of the outer layers of
bark from the lateral roots. The ranging of hogs under adequate
control can make good use of the forest range during a comparatively
long season without serious damage, but wild hogs in large numbers
ranging continuously over the forest do not fit into a forward-looking
plan for proper management of the longleaf pine forests.

The progress in development of improved pastures and forage crops
already effected on farm lands by the Department of Agriculture in
cooperation with State agricultural experiment stations and extension
services is considerable, as shown by the ^number of publications
available on these subjects. The coordination of forest-range
grazing with these improved pastures and with supplemental feeding
presents an important problem in the South.

In the Pine Belt, for example, the main forest range forage plants
make their best growth and are eaten most readily during the spring
and early summer. The graphs accompanying Greene's article in
the Proceedings of the Eleventh Southern Forestry Congress indicate
that steers usually make rapid gains in weight on forest pasture in
southern Mississippi from early April through June and part of July,
but gain very slowly or even lose weight during the remainder of the
year. A number of forage plants used in improved pastures, such as
carpet grass, Bermuda grass, and lespedeza furnish good grazing
until in October. While it is true that these pastures can be utilized
from any time after March or April, the good gains indicated by
Greene as possible on forest ranges through July might make it
advisable to remove livestock from the forests in late summer and
place them on supplemental pastures saved for that purpose. Some
stockmen are finding it advantageous to have fields of Abruzzi rye,
Italian ryegrass, or winter oats and legumes such as burr and crimson
clovers and vetch to use for winter grazing. Where small cultivated
areas within the forest can be used for production of these pasture
plants and opened for grazing during the period it is desired to use
them, livestock might be grazed year-long within the forest.

The 2,700,000 acres of timbered land grazed within the national
forests of the South constitute areas, even though comparatively
small, where regulated management of the forest-range resource
can be developed and demonstrated for those types of which they
are representative.

However, with 98 percent of the forest land in the South held in
private ownership and with much of the area used for grazing by
other than the owners of the land the problem of obtaining the
application of more desirable practices is largely one of education.
Much intensive study will be needed to develop the most desirable
management and effective coordination of timber growing, grazing,
and other uses of forest lands.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 36

552 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

FOREST GRAZING IN THE CENTRAL, LAKE, MIDDLE
ATLANTIC, AND NEW ENGLAND STATES

On the forest lands of the Central, Lake, Middle Atlantic, and New
England States grazing is confined almost entirely to farm woodlands.
It is mainly a pasture type, as contrasted to the open range type of
grazing prevalent in the West and South. The most intensive use of
forest lands by livestock occurs in the Central States, but farm wood-
lands are pastured at least to some extent throughout the whole region.

The area under consideration is so large and the use of the forest
lands by livestock offers such diverse conditions in different sections,
that few generalized statements are possible. Of the 63 million acres
of farm woodland in these regions over 36 million acres (1930 census),
or 57 percent, are grazed. There are approximately 106 million
acres of forest land in other private ownership, mostly in larger
holdings of sufficient size for commercial lumbering operations.
These have been mainly cut over. It is estimated that excluding
farm woodland there are less than 6 million acres of forest area grazed
to any great extent by livestock in these regions.

The grazed forest areas have an important part in the social welfare
of the regions. Although they support only a diminishing residue
of the original forest cover, they still produce a portion of the wood
used in these regions and can be restored to a higher state of timber
productivity with careful management. Only in the more open
timber stands is sufficient forage produced to furnish a supplemental
income of much value to the owners but, on farm woodlands especially,
the trees are often used to advantage as shelter for livestock. On
highly erosive soils, as shown in the section on" Watershed and Related
Forest Influences", these forests have a high watershed-protective
value, where the undergrowth and forest reproduction have not been
too severly damaged by excessive grazing and trampling. Forests
are especially desirable in these States for recreational, educational,
and wild life uses. Recreational and wild life values are practically
impossible to determine fully in terms of money, but generally are
recognized as necessary for the complete well being of both the urban
and rural population.

The function of forest pastures in the livestock industry varies con-
siderably in character and value in different parts of this group of
forest regions. According to the 1930 census, these regions have a
total of over 36% million cattle, both beef and dairy breeds; Y7% million
sheep; and 41% million hogs. Of these livestock, approximately
59 percent of the cattle, 69 percent of the sheep, and 82 percent of
the hogs are in the Central States. A considerable portion of the
livestock use forests at some time during the year. In the Corn
Belt States — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa — the farm woodlands
are so heavily stocked that little forage remains even in the open
stands, and their principal value is for shade and protection to live-
stock. Outside of the Corn Belt, the farms have more open pasture
land available and fewer stock; consequently the intensity of grazing
in the forests is considerably lessened.

THE FORAGE ON FOREST LANDS

Studies by the Department of Agriculture and State experiment
stations have shown that in the Lake, Middle Atlantic, New England,
and most of the Central States little real forage is produced in the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 553

understory of a good forest. Reproduction and accessible tender
shoots of hardwood trees and shrubs may be browsed by livestock,
but such use is discouraged or prevented where timber production
is the objective. Mast from oaks, hickories, walnuts, beech, chestnut,
and pines, where these species occur, is used widely by hogs. As the
forests are opened up by clearing or grazing, numerous grasses appear,
many of them naturalized introduced species. Studies by the Bureau
of Plant Industry show that many of these incoming grasses are very
worth while from a grazing standpoint. Where the soil is fertile, the
highly valuable Kentucky bluegrass and white clover furnish excel-
lent pasturage; and if the habitat is moist, bent and red top grasses
and frequently white clover supply good feed. After continued
heavy grazing, these better grasses give way to less valuable grasses
and weeds.

The oak-hickory type which forms a wide belt through the middle
of the Central States and extends along the southern and eastern
portions of the Lake States forested area is extensively grazed. The
oak-chestnut-yellow poplar forest, furnishing some browse and mast,
occupies a broad belt along the length of the Appalachian Range.
The birch-beech-maple-hemlock type extends in a belt mainly through
the Lake States well into the northern Middle Atlantic and New
England States. On the richer soils of which it is characteristic,
naturalized grasses and white clover are locally present and supple-
ment the native herbage.

The spruce-fir-hardwoods type, over most of its range, is usually
too dense for grazing except by game. In the Lake States, if the
forest is sufficiently open, a number of important grasses occur but
the type is now little used by livestock.

The oak-pine type of southern Missouri and on many south-facing
hill slopes from southern Ohio to the Southern States supports native
grasses and sedges which together with shrubby growth and mast
furnish feed for livestock.

FOREST GRAZING PROBLEMS

In the New England, Middle Atlantic, and Lake States forest
grazing is almost entirely on farm woodlands. In the Central States
it is estimated that approximately 77 percent of forest area used by
livestock is farm woodland. In the Lake States, some attempts have
been made to graze the forage produced in the understory of the
forest, and the herbaceous cover on cut-over hardwoods, spruce-fir,
and the pine forests, but little success has been obtained. Forest
grazing problems at present, therefore, are confined almost exclusively
to farm woodlands.

The need for coordination between grazing and timber production
on farm woodlands is becoming increasingly important on many
areas, especially in the Central States. Damage to timber repro-
duction is especially serious in the Corn Belt, in spite of the fact
that the real feed for the livestock grazing in woodlands is produced
on the farms from cultivated forage crop plants and on improved
pastures. Estimates by the Central States Forest Experiment Sta-
tion show that the woodland pastures of the Corn Belt are being used
by at least 5 times as many livestock as the grazing capacity of the
herbaceous and shrubby vegetation would support. The principal

554 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

effect of this overgrazing on the farm woodlands is the retardation,
deformation, and usually the complete elimination of timber repro-
duction between the heights of 6 inches and 12 feet. This, combined
with the death and occasional cutting of mature timber, is rapidly
converting the woodlands of the better agricultural sections into open
pastures.

Overgrazing of farm woodlands in the Central and Northeastern
States is ordinarily detrimental to watershed values of the forest.
For instance, studies by the Central States Forest Experiment
Station in the farm woodlands revealed the marked effect of grazing
upon the depth of litter and humus. On 87 plots in the oak-hickory
type, ungrazed plots had an average depth of litter of 1.8 inches;
lightly grazed, 1 inch; moderately grazed, 0.7 inch; and heavily
grazeol, 0.4 inch.

The average depth of humus on the plots under the grazed condi-
tions in the order named above was 0.5, 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1 inch. The
top 9 inches of soil was found to be 15 percent heavier and more
compact in grazed then in ungrazed woodlands. As shown in the
" Watershed and Related Forest Influences" section of this report,
litter, humus, and soil porosity are important for conserving precipi-
tation and preventing undue run-off and erosion.

If timber production appears to be the best source of income,
grazing should be adjusted to protect forest reproduction and assure
future timber crops. To continue to use entire woodlands on many
farms so heavily that timber reproduction is seriously damaged would
hardly appear best from either the standpoint of timber production
or most effective farm-land use. At least 1 million acres now classed
as commercial forest, mainly in the Corn Belt, should be considered
as primarily valuable as shade and shelter for livestock, and so with-
drawn from the area of commercial forest. This acreage would be
made up of a great many small units, doubtless of a few acres at
most, on individual farms where a part of the present grazed wood-
land would be fenced off for livestock. From a forestry standpoint
it would be best if grazing were eliminated from the balance of the
woodland. Where grazing is continued in farm woodlands held for
timber production, it should be limited to the actual feed available,
so that undue damage will not be done to the timber reproduction
and forest litter. The fundamental consideration in the use of for-
est pastures in these regions is primarily one of economic values.
The whole situation demands further study of coordination of grazing
with timber growing and other forest-land uses and an adequate
program of extension and education to apply the practices developed.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 555

MINOR BY PRODUCTS OF THE FOREST

By W. A. DAYTON, in charge of Range Forage Investigations

In order to form an adequate concept of the complexity of the
forest community and to understand its full actual and potential
importance, it is necessary to realize the enormous number and vari-
ety of organisms of which it is composed. In addition to upward
of 1,200 species and varieties of trees indigenous to the approximately
600 million acres of forest land in this country, and to the myriad
sorts and sizes of forest zoological denizens, there are probably at
least 25,000 species of flowering plants and ferns, besides a vast
uncounted host of lesser vegetation, including mosses, algae, lichens,
fungi, and bacteria.

As Clapp has pointed put in A National Program of Forest Research
(published by the American Tree Association, 1926), the forest, while
exceedingly complex, is a biological unit wherein all the component
parts affect the whole, often vitally. It is not possible in this brief
account to do more than hint at a few of the beneficial and detri-
mental effects of the subordinate forest vegetation on the forest itself.
This complex forest society of living organisms produces numerous
miscellaneous byproducts which, although of relatively minor impor-
tance in themselves, are yet in the aggregate of great actual and
potential value to industry and society. Among those already estab-
lished on a commercial basis are maple sugar and sirup, tanbark,
sumac, cascara bark, wild nuts, blueberries and other wild fruits,
and ornamental plants.

The maple sugar and sirup industry is chiefly confined to the opti-
mum range of the sugar maple tree, which (aside from adjacent por-
tions of Canada) embraces eastern New England, New York, Penn-
sylvania, the Lake States, the southern Appalachians, and a few
other localities of the northern and northeastern States. Along the
Pacific coast the bigleaf maple, and in various other places the silver
maple, boxelders, and a few other species of maple are occasionally
tapped. The sugar maple, with its varieties, is usually dominant
and ordinarily comprises from 25 to 75 percent of the total stand of
approximately 62,500,000 acres of the northern maple-beech-birch
type in the United States in which the tree characteristically occurs.

The heaviest sap production, aside from the effect upon it of
certain climatic factors, appears to be associated with great leaf
production (large crown and numerous branches), together with good
soil moisture and humus conditions, and a moderate amount of sun-
light; in general, the maple sugar and sirup industry requires a
different type of tree from the taller, clean-boled, few-branched,
narrower-crowned type favored by the lumber trade. The maple
sugar and sirup industry, with a product valued at several million
dollars annually, is largely conducted on privately owned lands by
individual farmers or associations of farmers. Because of present
economic conditions current price quotations for " sugar-bush " lands
hardly represent fair valuations. The George Washington (formerly
Shenandoah) National Forest, Va., is issuing sugar maple tapping
permits at 10 cents per tree per year. The latest census figures
show for the 9 leading States, 34,823 farmers reporting, 1,341,491
pounds of maple sugar and 2,341,023 gallons of sirup produced during

556 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

1929, which was a relatively poor season. The industry is a leading
one in parts of Vermont, New York, Ohio, and other States. It
furnishes employment and a source of income in late winter or early
spring, and has an important bearing on local phases of transpor-
tation, such as roadbuilding, as well as on the confectionery industry
generally.

The American tanning trade utilizes an enormous amount of forest
products, both domestic and imported. In 1925 (the latest year for
which census figures are available) 158,942 tons of hemlock bark,
103,775 tons of oak bark, 104,268 tons of chestnut wood, and 1,139
tons of sumac extract from American forest lands were consumed in
the tanning industry. This material is chiefly produced in the
Eastern, Southeastern, and Pacific Coast States, although oak and
sumac species are distributed (and potentially available) almost
throughout the United States.

Native chestnut is the source of nearly one third of the vegetable
tanning materials grown in this country, wood unsuitable for lumber
purposes being chiefly employed for this purpose. The natural
range of chestnut in the United States is from central New England,
through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and northern Virginia, following
the southern Appalachians (where it reaches its best development)
into the northern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and
westward into central and eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, to
Indiana and the more eastern portions of lower Michigan. Unfor-
tunately the chestnut blight has already spread throughout the
range of chestnut. In 1930 the Division of Forest Pathology of the
Bureau of Plant Industry estimated that at least 80 percent of the
chestnut trees as far south as Virginia were either dead or infected
with blight, and the infection is still spreading. Thoroughly healthy
stands are rare, perhaps nonexistent. Fortunately, however, the
wood loses its tannin content very slowly, and trees dead 25 or 30
years are, so far as their wood is then sound, practically as good as
living trees for use in the tanning industry. In spite of this devas-
tating scourge, commercial stands of chestnut still occur, occupying
perhaps about 15 million acres, composed of living (though mostly
diseased), dying, and dead trees. Blight-killed trees remain usable
for lumber for 5 or 6 years after death, and for an even longer period
for other purposes, such as posts, pulp wood, fiber board, and tannic
acid.

Large sums of money have been spent by the Federal Government,
by the State of Pennsylvania, and by private individuals in Delaware,
and energetic effort has been made by other public and private
agencies to combat the chestnut-blight disease, without avail. Many
authorities believe that the species, unless some unforeseen method of
treatment or control soon appears or blight-resistant strains are
shortly developed, is doomed to extinction, necessitating reliance on
oak, pine, and other species eventually to supplant chestnut. Ashe
(in 1912) estimated the yield of average 60-year-old stands of chestnut
in Tennessee, based on a cut of trees of 10 inches in diameter and
larger, as varying (according to site quality) from $32.70 to $66.80
per acre annually, with stumpage based at $1 a cord. Under such
conditions and in the event that means were later forthcoming of
stopping the blight or of developing immunity, chestnut growing on
these cheap forest lands might be a very profitable undertaking.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 557

Hemlock bark is the most important single item in American-
produced tanning material and is especially profitable in connection
with pulpwood and fiber-board production, for which latter purposes
peeled logs are preferred. Since under present conditions the price
of hemlock is decidedly low, the value of the species for tanning, in
addition to its use for paper pulp and fiber board is of distinct advan-
tage in lumbering operations. The eastern hemlock is confined (aside
from southeastern Canada) to New England, the Middle Atlantic
States, the Appalachian Mountains, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Latest available estimates of its stand in the United States are about
12 billion board feet, the greater part of which is privately owned.
The western hemlock, which occurs largely on Federal lands, ranges
from Alaska to western Montana and northern California, the latest
available estimates of its stand in the United States, exclusive of
Alaska, being about 85 billion board feet. Its bark is somewhat
richer in tannic acid per unit area than that of eastern hemlock but
is only about half as thick, so that it is inferior to its eastern relative
as a source of tanbark.

The bark of cascara buckthorn, a tree occurring from British
Columbia and the southeastern borders of Alaska to western Montana
and northern California, is an important item in materia medica.
The tree is largely limited to areas along or near streams and to
swales and moist slopes, and usually occurs in admixture with other
species; probably more than half of the stand is privately owned.
In general the bark^is best handled as a forest byproduct, but the
specific use of certain specially favorable lands for growing cascara,
under private ownership, is a possibility worthy of future considera-
tion. Nearly all of the commercial stand of cascara buckthorn is
west of the Cascades, where it has been estimated that 75 percent
of the region, or about 15 million acres, will produce bark in paying
quantities. Full utilization of this resource would be ahead of present
consumption but hardly in excess of possible future demand. In
removing the bark care must be taken not to girdle the tree, injure
the roots, remove more than about a quarter (or at most a third)
of the bark, or to have the incised portions too close together. It
has been estimated that the average section of 640 acres within the
optimum belt of the species will, if properly managed, yield 0.7 ton
of medicinal bark annually, worth, according to quality and the
season price scale, $80 to $200. The cut of bark on six national
forests of Washington-Oregon over a period of 13 years has amounted
to about 316 tons valued at over $30,000. Vancouver is a chief port
of shipment for cascara, an average of over 30 tons, valued at over
$6,200, being exported therefrom annually. Munger (Journal of
Forestry 17(5) : 605-607. 1919) reports that in the Northwest cascara-
bark collection is essentially a home industry for spring, when the bark
peels readily, and that for many Coast Range settlers it is the chief
source of ready cash during the first years of land clearing.

The forest lands of the United States produce an enormous wealth
of edible nuts and seeds. For example, the pecan crop of the United
States, according to the 1929 census figures, w^as derived from about
5% million wild and cultivated trees of bearing age, which produced
26,150,546 pounds of nuts whose value, at the conservative retail
figure of 20 cents a pound, was $5,230,109. Over half the bearing

558 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

trees are wild, chiefly occurring on privately owned land ; the culti-
vated trees, of course, produce the higher-priced grades of nuts.
The pinon industry is confined to the Southwest, from western Texas
to central Utah and southeastern California. The juniper-pinon
type covers approximately 100 million acres, largely owned by the
Federal Government. The harvest is uncertain because of the pro-
longed periods of drought to which the Southwest is subject, good seed
years being attendant upon a proper amount of rainfall. In 1925,
a good seed year, 1,200,000 pounds of shelled pinon nuts were shipped
out of New Mexico alone, according to available Forest Service
records. The gathering of pinon nuts is an important seasonal job
for certain residents, especially the native Mexican and Indian
population.

Edible wild fruits are another important byproduct of the forest.
Wild blueberry picking, for example, is on a commercial basis in
several regions of the country, notably New England, parts of the
Middle Atlantic States, the Blue Ridge region of Virginia, and parts
of Montana, Washington, and Oregon. Over 30 species of the blue-
berry genus, most of them widely distributed, occur on the forest
lands of the country, more especially in the North and Northeast, the
mountainous districts of the South, the Rocky Mountain region,
and the Pacific Northwest. Five species of the related huckleberry
genus are native in the wooded regions (mostly privately owned) of
the Eastern States. Western species of blueberry occur chiefly on
Federal, railroad, and State lands. Accurate figures as to the extent
of the blueberry-huckleberry industry are lacking, but it furnishes
seasonal employment to thousands of people, and many thousands
of boxes of fruit are picked annually for table use and the canning
trade.

Where it is abundant within its range, southwestern Oregon to
central California, the Pacific plum is an important element in local
economy; when its excellent fruit ripens in summer other local work
is often suspended and it is one of the most important food plants
among certain Indian tribes, especially the Klamath Indians.

Accurate figures are largely lacking for values involved in the
forest ornamental plant industry. There are enormous numbers of
ornamental plants in the wooded sections of the country, many of
which now enter the horticultural trade; doubtless many more will
ultimately do so. Rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel, and
other ericaceous plants are shipped out annually, by the carload,
from the mountain forests of North Carolina and other southern
States, and the total area of acid soils in the wooded districts of the
East where these species occur is probably in excess of 15,000,000
acres, probably the larger part of which is privately owned. The
latest figures available, which are for the calendar year 1931 and
represent fairly average conditions, show that 17,110 leucothoe plants
were removed for horticultural use, under permit at a nominal
sum, from the Unaka National Forest, Tenn., while 37,547 other
ornamental shrubs (chiefly rhododendron and mount am. laurel),

Ericed at $3,434.41, were sold under permit from three Appa-
ichian national forests, the Pisgah, Monongahela, and Unaka.
Removal of rhododendron and mountain laurel, where dense, assists
in the establishment of timber reproduction, and clear-cutting or
severe burning of timber in bottomlands tends to favor occupancy

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 559

of such sites by rhododendron. On the other hand, removal of
these species from the forest on a large commercial scale has in
some cases resulted in local extermination of rhododendron and
other ornamental shrubs of the heath family. Extermination (rather
than thinning) of these species is objectionable, especially along and
near highways, not only on account of their pecuniary value, but
because they greatly enhance the beauty of the woods and when
in bloom attract large numbers of visitors. In fact, for some
mountain communities these shrubs are an important advertising
asset, helping to bring in a seasonal tourist trade which is a vital
source of local income.

The Christmas-tree industry is a very large one, the annual con-
sumption in the United States being estimated at about 10,000,000
trees, which, at the very conservative retail figure of 50 cents per
tree, would amount to at least $5,000,000 a year. No other country
in the world has such a wealth of native conifers as the United States,
and there are possibilities as yet undeveloped in the Christmas-tree
trade both as a private business and from a public forest manage-
ment standpoint. The Christmas-tree business, when properly
conducted, involves a selective yearly thinning of the stand with a
continuous annual supply as the objective. As conducted on the
Pike National Forest in Colorado it largely represents a much-
needed thinning of young Douglas fir stands, the reproduction of
which ordinarily tends to be thicker than is desirable. The city of
Denver, Colo., annually consumes about 40,000 Christmas trees
plus 500 tons of boughs (for wreaths and other decorations) cut
under permit from the Pike Forest, an operation involving a thinning
of about 200 to 400 acres of forest annually. Prior to Forest Service
management local Christmas-tree demand in Denver was largely
met by promiscuous and destructive cutting on private lands,
unsightly lopping of trees along mountain highways, and similar
acts of vandalism. Such undesirable practices still largely obtain
in many localities where forest management has not been brought
to bear on the problem. It the East, one Pennsylvania farmer, on
1,500 acres of woodland, has annually averaged $5,400 net over a
7-year period from the sale of Christmas trees, handling his crop on a
selective-cutting basis.

The pre-Christmas season makes a wide-spread demand for labor to
cut and handle not only Christmas trees but a great diversity of
evergreens for wreaths and other decorative purposes, nearly all of
which are obtained from the forest: Conifers, lycopods, and club-
mosses from nearly all parts of the country, mistletoe from the South
and the South Central States, holly and kalmia in the Eastern States,
toyon, Oregon-grape, and salal from the Pacific States, and so on.
As mistletoe is a destructive parasite of timber species its harvesting
for decorative purposes is a positive benefit to the forest and is
worthy of encouragement. Unfortunately, however, only one of the
two native mistletoe genera possesses ornamental values.

Coville (U.S.Dept.Agr. Farmers' Bui. 1693) reports that the coastal
portions of Delaware and Maryland are the present center of produc-
tion for American holly greens and that this center is definitely mov-
ing southward. He states that in Maryland, during 1930 and 1931,
local retailers paid approximately 15, 25, and 55 cents apiece for
10-, 15-, and 24-inch wreaths, respectively, and that bulk holly, in

560 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

standard-size boxes (2 by 2 by 4 feet) brought pickers about $2 per
box. District Forester Seigworth, of the Maryland Department of
Forestry, estimates that, on the average, 10,000 persons (including
many entire families) in the eight counties on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland engage yearly in harvesting holly, from which they obtain
an annual income of $150,000. ^ About 10,000 boxes are shipped
annually. The Delaware Commission for the Conservation of For-
ests reported in 1927 that the holly-products industry of that State
amounts to an average annual shipment of about 7,600 cases, valued
at about $400,000 and consisting of 1,500,000 wreaths besides loose
sprays and branches. The crop is harvested chiefly by local farmers
who receive about $100,000 for their labor.

As already intimated, these miscellaneous forest byproducts have
many valuable sociological relations. They furnish seasonal and
local employment to numerous persons in the wooded portions of the
country. The tapping and rendering of maple sap comes in late
winter and early spring. Cascara peeling is largely a spring occupa-
tion. In North Carolina, especially in the region surrounding
Marion, the collection of galax leaves furnishes employment to a
great number of local people between November and March. Expert
pickers, it is reported, gather about 10,000 leaves a day, for which
they receive in the neighborhood of $5. The pre-Christmas season
makes a country-wide demand for ornamental forest evergreens.
All these sources of seasonal local employment bring in cash returns
or obviate expenditures as in the case of individual fuel supply,
foods, etc., and render possible not only the maintenance of better
standards of living but also in many cases the actual existence of
communities in forested areas and elsewhere which otherwise could
not survive.

The forest produces a great variety and amount of food available
for human consumption and, even at this date, numerous Indian
tribes are largely dependent upon the forest for subsistence. This
vegetable human food of the forest consists of a wealth of wild fruits,
edible seeds and nuts, bulbs, tubers, and farinaceous roots, succulent
stalks, " greens", mushrooms and other edible fungi, etc.

The future possibilities of miscellaneous forest byproducts are
exceedingly diversified and are of great importance. For example,
an immense potential source of rubber supply is on hand in numerous
native plants, largely of the forest, such as rabbi thrushes, pingues,
goldenrods, spurges, cichoriaceae, etc., although much research will
doubtless be needed to make rubber commercially available there-
from. There is an immense variety of indigenous forest medicinal
plants, some of which are already in commercial use. A vast host
of ornamental herbs, shrubs, and trees adorn the American forests,
and largely affect their aesthetic appeal ; these are becoming of increas-
ing importance in the American horticultural trade.

There are desirable fiber-producing plants such as yuccas and
dogbanes; lacquer and gum-producing species such as acacias and
sumacs; outstanding honey plants, in extraordinary variety and
abundance and often widely distributed, some of which (as in parts
of California and the Southwest) are mainstays of the local honey
industry; matting and basketry plants; dye plants; upholstery-
stuffing material such as mosses and tillandsias; and products with
numerous other uses, including yucca wood for splints, amole and

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 561

soapberry for soap, manzanita roots for pipe bowls, etc. Twenty-
eight hundred pounds of moss (mostly sphagnum) was removed under
permit during the calendar year 1931 from the White Mountain
National Forest, N.H., and the Unaka National Forest, Tenn.,
chiefly for surgical dressings and horticultural packing.

No satisfactory inventory has yet been made of the extent and
character of the minor products of American forests. For most of
the species research is necessary to determine: (1) Their beneficial
or detrimental relationship to the forest and. to forest management,
including timber, watershed, range, wild life, recreation, or other
values; and (2) methods of utilization consistent with highest and
perpetuated productivity and compatible with other outstanding
forest uses and values.

Forests serve as natural laboratories for research. Their vegeta-
tion is proving to be an increasingly important source of supply for
the plant breeder. Examples may be cited in the use of western forest
species in the development of needed types of strawberry, of native
aconite for the drug trade, of native forest grasses in the production
of cultivated forage plants for range and pasture improvement at home
and abroad, and in the breeding of plums. Important research is in
progress on the role of the forest in harboring obnoxious plants, such
as those that are poisonous, mechanically injurious, or which are
abundant and worthless.

The proportion of forest plants known to be injurious to agriculture
is relatively small; certain species serve as alternate hosts of timber
and agricultural crop diseases, subjects which also require further
study. For example, certain forest grasses serve as alternate hosts
for cereal stripe rust, while barberries and buckthorns occupy similar
roles for stem rust of spring wheat and crown rust of pats, respectively,
and the thurberia bush harbors the cotton bollweevil. Further fields
for study are indicated in the extent to which certain members of the
forest cover shelter insects and other organisms injurious to man and
beast, and the relationship borne to forest protection methods by
various subsidiary plants, e.g., resinous shrubs such as snowbrush
and bearmat, the inflammable spores of certain clubmosses, and cer-
tain fibrous tree lichens of the alectoria-evernia type. In the maple
sugar sirup industry more information is needed as to the best number
of tappable trees per acre, methods of obtaining the proper number per
unit area of trees of the most desired " sugar orchard" type, the best
diameter and depth of taphole, and, in general, methods and periods
of tapping that will insure maximum continuous yield. Research
is also needed regarding methods of collection, cutting, etc., of medic-
inal and ornamental plants conducive to permanent yield, and as to
the use of bee-plant range at heights of flowering seasons of the most
important plants.

The forest economics aspects of these minor by products need
additional emphasis for, by their proper utilization, opportunity is
afforded here and there to supplement income from forest properties
to a greater or less extent.

Regulations needed for minor forest by products on Federal lands
cover permits for sales and collection methods based upon use in
conformity with the best management principles, and in recognition
of the principle that the objective sought is permanent utilization and
enjoyment of these byproducts, as opposed on the one hand to nonuse

562 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMEEICAN FORESTRY

and on the other to abuse, destruction, or other uneconomic manage-
ment. However, further research is necessary to furnish the funda-
mental information on which the best management principles for these
minor forest byproducts must be based. Maryland, California,
and a few other States have enacted (largely on the initiative of the
Wild Flower Preservation Society and other conservation agencies)
laws and regulations to protect and perpetuate outstanding orna-
mental species of the forest, such as dogwood, trailing-arbutus, kalmia,
orchids, toyon, etc. Additional legislation of this sort is doubtless
desirable for other species and in other places to prevent extermination
or decimation of aesthetic, rare, or otherwise valuable or interesting
forest plants. Some communities and States have laws and regula-
tions for eradication or control of obnoxious agricultural and highway
plants, such as ragweed and puncturevine, and there is probably a
field for similar legislation in certain localities with respect to obnox-
ous forest species.

PROGRESS IN FORESTRY AND EXISTING PLANS

One of the essentials for the formulation of a comprehensive forest
policy and plan of land use is an understanding of the wide variation,
as between different aspects and as between different classes of land
ownership, in the present practice of forestry and the formulation of
plans for future progress.

In the following pages are presented the basic purposes, the progress,
and accomplishments, from the standpoint of forestry practices, first,
of Federal administrative agencies responsible for the national forests,
the Indian forests, the national parks and monuments, and other
Federal forest land. These are followed by a review of research in
forestry. The treatment of the Forest Service includes particular
reference to underlying objectives, and the principles which have been
followed in striving to meet these objectives.

A group of two sections reviews the situation as to State, county,
and municipal ownership and management of forest lands, including
the historical setting, the divergence of State forest policies, the objec-
tives, and the progress attained.

The last five sections review certain outstanding phases of the
forestry situation that have to do particularly with private owner-
ship or enterprise. The first of these discusses the character, extent,
and causes of forest devastation and deterioration — ills which tie in
very closely with private ownership of forest land. The succeeding
discussion of the break-down of private forest-land ownership deals
with the extent and causes of the recent unprecedented shifts from
private to public ownership largely via tax delinquency. The sec-
tion on status and opportunity of private forestry reviews the status
of outstanding economic problems as they affect the private handling
of forest land, and some of the equally important economic problems
involved in private forest-land management, and compares the
existing status and financial results of private forestry with the poten-
tialities. Following a review of forest research on the part of endowed
and other private agencies, a final section summarizes the considerable
degree of public regulation of privately owned forests which now
exists and the principles upon which this regulation is based, and
presents some of the factors to be taken into account in considering
an expansion of public regulation.

563

THE NATIONAL FORESTS

By C. M. GRANGER, Director, Forest Survey

CONTENTS

Page

Creation and contribution of the national forests 565

How the property was built up 569

Further additions from the public domain and by exchange. __^ 571

The acquisition program 574

Management and use of the resources of the national forests 577

The principle and practice of correlated use under unified control 577

Timber use 579

Forage use 586

Water conservation 589

Recreation use 590

Wild-life preservation

Miscellaneous uses 595

National-forest protection 595

Fire 595

Forest insects 600

Forest-tree diseases 60 1

Business administration of the national forests 602

THE CREATION AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE
NATIONAL FORESTS

In 1891, the people of the United States said to themselves some-
thing like this:

We have been parceling out the public timberlands right and left for, lo! these
many years; we have believed that the quickest and best way to build up this
country was to get all the publicly owned natural resources into private hands
as quickly as possible; the results have been mixed. On the one hand, we have
seen private initiative in the forests furnish the lumber that built the farm houses
and the towns in the great Mississippi Valley; the timberland bonuses we gave to
railroad builders helped us to get some of our transcontinental railroads; many
cleared acres have gone under the plow. But, on the other hand, there has been
too much on the wrong side of the ledger; we have seen the lumbermen cut out
and get out of New York and Pennsylvania, move into Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota and go most of the way through the same process there; the
experience promises to be repeated in the South, and it is only a matter of time
until the same things happen in the great western forests. We don't like these
deserted towns that remain in the wake of the sawmill, these vast areas of stumps.
Where are we going to get our timber in the future if nobody takes an interest
in where the next crop is coming from? We have hardly any public timberlands
left in the East, in the Lake States, in the South, but we still have some in the
West; we shall keep some of them, set up our own forestry enterprise, and see if
we cannot do a better job of insuring the satisfaction of our present and our
future needs for timber and for watershed protection.

So began the national forests — the symbol of a belated recognition
of the economic error committed by the Nation in passing so much
of its forest area to private ownership and of the intent of the people
to better safeguard their forest welfare by direct action.

At first the national forests, then called forest reserves, were just
just what the latter name implies — reserves. Then in 1897 Congress
provided authority to administer them, to sell their timber, and

565

566 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

granted broad powers to direct the utilization of their resources. In
recognition of the large and intricate problem of technical land and
organic resource management which their administration involved,
the forest reserves were placed under the jurisdiction of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture in 1905. In 1907 the name was changed to
national forests as being more descriptive of their real character.

With the undertaking of systematic management in 1905 came the
crystallization of the basic concept of the national forests. This con-
cept was a unit of land containing a variety of resources, all with a
public value, whose greatest potentiality for public service lay in a
system of management which would so correlate the development and
use of all the resources as to result in the largest net public benefit.
Coordinate with this theory of management of the national forests
was that of combining the maximum service to the Nation at large
with the greatest possible benefit to the local population, to the extent
of the latter 's dependence on the national-forest resources. The con-
trolling principle was stated to be the greatest good to the most people
in the long run. This concept has activated and controlled the
policies and practices on these Federal forests since that time.

What has been the result of this venture — a venture which at its
inception was new in the United States but which had been of proven
necessity in Europe's long forestry experience?

At first there was much local opposition to the national forests on
the ground of so-called interference with the hitherto unrestricted use
of the public domain. Bitter fights were waged in several parts of
the West to defeat the enterprise and to do away with many of the
national forests. By selecting the forest rangers and most of the
forest supervisors from the local population, by locating the directive
administrative organization mainly in the West, close to the forests
and the users, by striving to reduce to a minimum the mistakes in-
evitable in the administration of a new project, and by adhering to
the principle of making the national forests serve the local needs the
program of regulated use gradually demonstrated its value to both
the general public and the local user.

The annual payment of 25 percent of the national forest gross
receipts to the counties in which the national forests lie, to be spent
for schools and roads, and the expenditures by the Federal Govern-
ment for roads in and adjacent to the national forests, have con-
tributed heavily toward the favorable regard toward Uncle Sam as
a local landowner. Opposition changed to strong support. Instead
of seeking the abandonment of the enterprise, the demand became
widespread for an expansion of the system. A score of eastern States
have, by legislative enactment, expressed a desire to have the Fed-
eral Government establish national forests within their borders
under the purchase provisions of the Weeks law. The cut-over
private land problem has made the national-forest acquisition pro-
gram welcome in the Lake States, and bids fair to invite substantial
expansion of the national forests in several of the western States.
Several private owners have recently offered to give their cut-over
areas to the Federal Government to be added to the national forests.

So the national forests have been steadily built up until they con-
tain between one seventh and one sixth of the commercial forest
land in the United States. They embrace extensive and important
watersheds. They include a third of the volume of the Nation's

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 567

remaining saw timber and one eighth of its cord wood-size timber.
There is evidence that by demonstration the national forests have
exerted a measurable influence beyond their own borders toward
the attainment by the Nation of the objectives sought in their own
creation —

securing favorable conditions of waterflows, and to furnish a continuous supply
of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States.

Though still facing many unsolved problems of protection and
administration, and needing more facilities for their full develop-
ment, present public support of the national forests proves that they
have demonstrated the soundness of both the principle of conserva-
tion through wise use, and the policy of coordinated use of all re-
sources to produce the largest net benefit. The public support is
not only for continuing this form of Federal participation in the
permanent management of the forest resources of the United States,
but also for the further extension of the national-forest system,
especially to the regions, mainly eastern, where Federal forest owner-
ship is now far below its portion of the public share in the Nation's
forestry enterprise.

What are some of the tangible things which furnish a sort of meas-
ure of the contribution which the national forests have so far made
to the whole forestry development in the United States? For one
thing, the nearly one sixth of the Nation's commercial forest land
which is in the national forests is assured of permanent technical
management under the plan of coordinated use of the various re-
sources. Whereas, for the country as a whole, private timber is
being cut at a much faster rate than it is estimated to be growing, the
cut of national-forest timber is with rare exceptions fixed at or less
than the estimated growth capacity of each cutting unit, and it is
estimated that the total cut could be expanded nearly fivefold without
exceeding the total sustained yield capacity of the national forests.
The watersheds from which flow streams providing the domestic
water supply of 6 million people, and the water for over a billion
dollars worth of irrigation and power developments, are assured of
management designed to preserve the watershed values. The regu-
lated use of national-forest ranges has added materially to the sta-
bility of 25 percent of the range livestock industry in the West. The
recreational grounds of over 32 million people, measured by 1931 use,
are under management aimed at perpetuating and developing the
recreational resources.

Seventy-five percent of the range used by big game animals in the
11 Western States is being given increasingly productive manage-
ment, and the game is steadily increasing. And fire protection on
the national forests has reduced the burned area so that for the 5-
year period ending in 1930 it was only 7 percent over the objective,
while on lands outside the national forests it was, for the same period,
11 times the objective.

In the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast States, where 53 percent
of the commercial forest area and 42 percent of the saw-timber
volume is in the national forests, these Federal properties play an
important part in the forest economy of the region. Though the
timber cut on the national forests in this territory as a whole is still
only a fraction of the total cut of the region, established lumbering

168342°— 33— -vol. 1 37

568 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

operations are coming more and more to depend partly or entirely
on the national forests as the private timber is cut out. Since the
cut of national-forest timber is limited to the growth capacity of the
area, there is an ever-increasing leaven of permanence added to the
timber industry as a portion of it moves steadily into the national
forests.

The influence of this leaven goes beyond the direct contribution
of the national-forest timber. The obvious economic and social
advantages of stabilized forest industries and communities are be-
coming more apparent to the local population and local public
agencies, and public measures in such matters as cooperation in
forest-fire protection and improved methods of forest taxation are
more widely favored and adopted as a means of encouraging permanent
forest management on private forest lands. Timber owners them-
selves are gradually becoming more interested in managing their
lands under sustained yield, both independently and in cooperation
with adj acent national-forest timber.

Because the national forests contain one third of the saw timber
in the United States, including a third of the Nation's last large
remaining supply on the Pacific Coast, the regulated cut of national-
forest timber will have a noticeable effect in lessening the gap between
the cutting out of the remaining virgin supply of private saw timber
and the coming into merchantability of the great areas of young
growth on cut-over areas.

The substantial Federal ownership of timber on the Pacific Coast
and in the northern Rocky Mountains has had a very real and very
great value in preventing a still greater overburden of mature timber
in private hands in these regions. This overburden is one of the
major causes of the disastrous overproduction of forest products in
the Pacific Northwest, with its bad economic and social consequences.
Both the general and local economic welfare would be much better
served if the national forests had been created before so much of the
timber was privately acquired.

In the eastern half of the United States the national forests contain
less than 2 percent of the commercial forest area and the saw-timber
volume. Here their value so far is one chiefly of demonstration of
the advantages of permanently managed forest properties. In the
South, especially, where lies 40 percent of the Nation's forest land,
nearly all privately owned and in the main potentially very productive,
and where forest-fire protection and forest management are less
advanced than in any other region, the demonstration forest and
leadership possibilities of the little national-forest nuclei are very
great.

These values as stabilizers and demonstrators relate not only to
the timber of the national forests as a commodity ; they concern also
the watershed values, the forage resources of the western national
forests, and the less tangible but highly important scenic, recreational,
and educational values in the national forests. As each resource is
discussed this will be brought out in greater detail.

Despite many acknowledged imperfections in the past and current
execution of the national-forest project, and despite the fact that
many problems remain for future solution, the foregoing is believed
to be a fair appraisal of typical contributions by the national-forest
enterprise to the attainment of the whole of the Nation's forestry

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

569

objective. It is believed that it may be safely forecast that as further
experience continues to improve the management, and as the under-
taking expands in area, the contribution will be increasingly greater.

HOW THE PROPERTY WAS BUILT UP

The major part of the national-forest area has been made up from
the unreserved public domain — in most cases what was left after

Erivate ownership had, over many years, acquired the choicer timber-
ind under the public land laws. Thus, for the most part, the public
land available since 1891 when the first national forest was created
has lain in the mountainous portions of the West. Even here private
ownership had acquired considerable areas within what were later
established as the exterior boundaries of the national forests, both
through selection of the better stands of timber and by the checker-
board land grants made by the Federal Government to aid the build-
ing of several of the transcontinental railroads. In addition to this
form of alienation, there are within the national-forest boundaries
private lands obtained under the mining and town site laws, and
agricultural homesteads in the narrow valleys running up into the
national forests or pocketed in the surrounding timbered areas.
Thus, while there are 186,215,256 acres of land within the national-
forest boundaries (table 1), 24,854,565 are in other than Federal

TABLE 1. — National-forest areas and established purchase areas not yet proclaimed
as national forests, by administrative regions (as of June SO, 1932}

NATIONAL FORESTS

Region

Alienated

No.

Name

lands

Net area

1

Northern

Acres
26 541 106

Acres
3 889 020

Acres
22 652 086

2

Rocky Mountain

20, 926, 780

1, 764, 680

19,162 100

3

21 277 637

2 129 774

19 147 863

4

Intermountain. ._ ..-

31, 099, 926

1, 350, 087

29, 749, 839

5

California. . .. ..

24, 220, 331

4 861,655

19 358 676

6

North Pacific

26 946 305

3 855 452

23 090 853

7

Eastern .

10, 476, 844

5, 373, 998

5, 102 846

8

Alaska

21, 397, 006

52, 724

21 344 282

9

Lake States

3 329 321

1 577 175

1 752 146

United States . ...

186, 215, 256

24 854 565

161 360 691

PURCHASE AREAS

7

Eastern

325,000

259 970

65 030

9

Lake States

477 495

242 001

235 494

1 Includes only those within which lands are being acquired.

ownership, leaving 161,360,691 acres of federally owned national-
forest lands. Figure 1 shows the location of the national forests and
of 3 purchase areas in Wisconsin and 1 in Mississippi which are
are verging on national-forest status.

Despite the fact that the Federal Government waited for " second
table" for its forest-land meal, the public did get a large area of good
grade forest land in the national forests. The public also got much
of its land located where experience both in Europe and this country
shows it should be — at the headwaters of streams. The protection,

570

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

by ownership or strict regulation, of forests having a high watershed
value has been generally recognized as an essential public function.

Though Congress in 1907 took away from the President authority,
without specific congressional approval, to create new national forests,
or to add to those existing, in six of the Western States, and later in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 571

three others, many individual additions have been made by Congress
from the public domain upon the demand of local residents convinced
of the benefits of nearby national-forest administration. This has
been one of the most striking proofs of the success of the national-
forest enterprise. Often this demand has involved lands with little
or no timber on them, but of great local value for grazing or watershed
protection.

In the Weeks' Law (act of Mar. 1, 1911), a new national policy
was established — the purchase by the Federal Government of forest
lands necessary to the protection of the flow of navigable streams.
The Clarke-McNary Act of 1924 extended this policy to lands within
the watersheds of navigable streams necessary for the production of
timber. Under these acts the national forests east of the Mississippi
River have been established, except those created chiefly from the
public domain in Michigan, Minnesota, and Florida.

It became apparent early in the life of the national forests, both to
the Forest Service and to local residents and forest users, that the
national forests could much better serve their purposes nationally
and locally if much of the privately owned forest land within the
forest boundaries could be made a part of the national forests.
Management of the national forests is complicated in many ways by
the interspersed private timberlands, whose ownership is usually con-
cerned only with liquidating their timber assets rather than with
their permanent management for forest growing. Through local

Eublic support, and often upon local initiative, Congress passed a
irge number of acts authorizing the Forest Service to acquire pri-
vately owned lands within specifically described areas by the exchange
therefor of an equal value in either national forest land or timber.
Finally this plan so thoroughly demonstrated its soundness and value
that in 1922 Congress passed the general exchange law authorizing
this practice on all national forests. This act applies to lands within
the exterior boundaries of the national forests, but so great has been
the local interest in extending national-forest management to adjacent
lands that a number of special bills have been passed extending the
exchange authority to lands within specified limits outside the national-
forest boundaries. Altogether under the exchange laws 1,205,100
acres have been acquired up to December 31, 1931. This has been
mainly cut-over lands, though in some cases land bearing mer-
chantable timber has been offered at such favorable rates as to justify
its acquisition. Since the exchanges have usually been in the form
of national-forest timber for private land and timber, the national
forests have gained 814,685 acres in area by the exchanges.

FURTHER ADDITIONS FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND

BY EXCHANGE

There is still a large area of public domain in the Western States,
not now under any form of management, which by character and
adjacency should be considered for addition to the present national
forests or for the creation of new units. Figure 2 indicates the addition
to the national forests and the new units proposed by the Forest
Service to the President Hoover's Committee on the Conservation and
Administration of the Public Domain, based on the existence of public
domain suitable for national-forest purposes, and needing the national-
forest type of management to develop its fullest usefulness. Within

572 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the exterior boundaries of the additions as proposed there are
34,523,592 acres. Of this, 19,017,210 acres are unreserved public
lands, 1,901,344 acres are State lands, and 13,605,038 acres are private
lands. This distribution of ownership is similar to that now existing
within present national-forest boundaries. If these additions are
made, the land-exchange practice now in effect on the national forests
can then be extended to these areas. Perhaps 5 million acres or more
of the privately owned lands would be suitable for acquisition by ex-
change. These additions to the national forests would serve to make
the existing units even more useful by more nearly approaching the
logical boundaries as fixed by natural conditions. A complete dis-
cussion of the public domain forest lands is contained in the section of
this report dealing with " Public Doman and Other Federal Forest
Land."

Almost entirely in addition to the areas indicated on figure 2, there
are privately owned lands, extensive in the aggregate, adjacent to the
western national forests which are logical parts of geographic and
management units lying chiefly within existing national forests.
The major part of such areas adjoins the national forests in Oregon,
Washington, and Idaho. As these lands are cut over, or in some
cases before, they should be acquired as national-forest lands by an
extension of the national-forest exchange act. Since the exact limits
to which such extensions of the national-forest boundaries should go
are dependent in part upon constantly changing conditions as to
ownership of the private land adjacent to the national forests, and
the intent of ownership as to management of the lands, it is not
possible to establish an exact figure for the area of this class of lands.
Probably between 5 and 10 million acres would be included in this
category for ultimate acquisition. Wherever feasible, extension
of the national-forest boundaries should aim at including the whole
of natural units, such as entire main slopes or watersheds. Usually
the best management can be given where such natural units are under
single control.

Inside existing western national-forest boundaries there are prob-
ably from 10 to 12 million acres of private land which should be given
a national-forest status by exchange, or otherwise.

Much consideration by the local residents is being given to the
possibilities of adding to the national forests the parts of the Oregon
and California revested grant lands in Oregon which are within or
adjacent thereto, under some plan which will liquidate the State and
county equities in the O. & C. lands established by the re vestment
act of June 9, 1916.

The rate at which it has been possible to accomplisn land exchanges
so far forecasts a long period before even the land inside present
forest boundaries which should be acquired can be obtained in this
way. Only a minor portion of the timber cut on national-forest sales
can be used in effecting exchanges because the use of such timber
for this purpose reduces the cash payment to the counties involved
from the 25 percent of national-forest gross receipts which is paid
each year to the counties in which the national forests are located.
Since such exchanges, by adding to the productive capacity of the
national forests, inure to the benefit of the counties in the long run,
county authorities generally have favored the exchange practice,
but in most cases have felt able to relinquish only part of the 25
percent fund revenue for this purpose. The extremely conservative

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

573

timber-sale policy on the national forests restricts the revenue from
this source. Hence many exchange possibilities of a most favorable
nature in the public interest have to be passed by for lack of means
wherewith to take advantage of them.

FIGURE 2.— Areas involving public domain proposed by Forest Service as additions to existing national
forests or for establishment of new national forests would result in more closely approximating the
logical boundaries as determined by natural conditions.

One means of accelerating the progress of exchanges lies in author-
izing the use of the unreserved public domain as trading stock for
national-forest exchanges. There are opportunities in the public
interest to acquire private land within national-forest boundaries if
public domain land could be traded for it. Legislative action to this
end would be desirable.

574 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE ACQUISITION PROGRAM

With the approval of the National Forest Reservation Commis-
sion, the Secretary of Agriculture has set up a program of 41 purchase
units under the purchase policy established by the Weeks law and
enlarged by the Clarke-McNary law. Of the total area proposed for
Federal management under this program — between 14 and 15 million
acres — almost exactly half is now under Federal control; 2,503,875
acres having been reserved from the public domain, transferred from
other forms of reservation, or acquired by exchange, and 4,727,680
acres obtained by purchase at an average cost of $4.48 per acre.
The remaining half has been estimated to cost about $4.05 per acre,
but the current decline in land values probably forecasts a somewhat
lower price. Table 2 shows in detail the status of the program as of
June 30, 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMEBICAN FORESTRY

575

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Florida-
Louisiana.

South Carolina

Regional total..

LAKE STATES

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Minnesota
Wisconsin..

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Total timber un

Grand total

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 577

Although the act of June 2, 1930, authorizes an appropriation of
$3,000,000 for acquisition for the fiscal year 1933, the actual appro-
priation was reduced to $200,000 as a part of the economy program.
This sum is barely enough to complete unfinished business and permit
the retention of part of the highly specialized and skilled year-long
organization pending resumption of purchases. As soon as the
Government's financial situation permits, purchase funds should be
restored at the annual rate of not less than $3,000,000.

When the present specific purchase program is completed, the total
Federal forest holdings in the States concerned will be only 4.42
percent of all the forest land in these States. There are many indi-
cations that the Federal participation in forest-land ownership should
be materially expanded, particularly in the eastern part of the
United States. Of late proposals have been made that the purchase
of lands bearing mature timber should be undertaken on a large scale
as one means of decelerating the overliquidation of private stumpage,
with its adverse effects on both the national timber supply and regional
economic situations. The possible ultimate extent and character
of Federal ownership is discussed in the section, "The Probable Fu-
ture Distribution of Forest-land Ownership."

There is every indication that Federal ownership of forest lands
will be substantially increased by gift from private owners. The
Clarke-McNary Act provides for acceptance by the Federal Govern-
ment of lands donated for national-forest purposes, with reservation
by the owner of timber-cutting rights for a reasonable period if he so
desires. One such gift involving 100,000 acres, mostly cut-over, in
Idaho has just been accepted; another of a smaller tract in California.
Much more of this form of acquisition is expected to follow in the
near future as a part of the breakdown of private forest-land owner-
ship.

MANAGEMENT AND USE OF THE RESOURCES OF THE
NATIONAL FORESTS

THE PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE OF CORRELATED USE UNDER

UNIFIED CONTROL

The central thought in the management and use of the resources
of the national forests is to so adjust one use to the other that the
greatest net public benefit will result — to obtain the greatest total
of crops, uses, and services. Where necessary the attainable maxi-
mum of any one of these can be relinquished if the grand total of
public values is thereby increased. Where one use must be exclu-
sive, the highest use in the public interest is given the right of way.
Where two or more uses can occupy a given area with some conces-
sion by each, a suitable compromise is effected. Thus, in the first
case, where recreational use would incur risk of pollution of a city
water supply, it is excluded from the watershed; where public use
would create an unacceptable risk on an area of unusual fire hazard
on which a new tree crop is being fostered, the public is excluded
during the fire season ; where a water-power development would destroy
or seriously impair the recreational or aesthetic value of a lake, it is
excluded if the latter values are held to be paramount in the public
interest. In the second case, timber cutting is usually permitted
on watersheds, but so regulated as to avoid impairment of the water-

578 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

shed value; timber growing and livestock grazing may use the same
area as long as the latter use does not prevent or unduly damage
forest reproduction; and selective timber cutting may proceed with
scarcely any interruption of the nonconcentrated forms of recreational
use of the woods. Almost every national forest furnishes an example
of a large variety of overlapping uses so harmonized as to avoid any
measurable conflict — timber-sale cutting, livestock grazing, water
supply for domestic, irrigation, and power purposes, recreation, game
conservation, and many others. Timber-management plans specify
particular measures where required to safeguard lakeside or roadside
beauty, to avoid watershed damage, and to exclude livestock for
a temporary period after cutting if necessary to allow natural restock-
ing of forest growth to become established. Range-management
plans provide for keeping stock away from tourist camp grounds or
springs used by campers or out of areas needed exclusively for game.
Plans for recreational units provide for the particular type of recrea-
tion best suited to the area, so that a lone cottage will not occupy
a place needed for a public camp ground or a resort development.
And so on.

In order to attain this objective of correlated use it has been neces-
sary to adhere rigidly to the original concept of a national forest and
of the form of organization essential to its most productive manage-
ment. It is important to understand the true nature of the national-
forest enterprise as established by over a quarter century of laws,
appropriations, judicial and administrative decisions, established poli-
cies and practices.

This original concept of a national forest was a unit of land to be
managed by a single agency for the production of commodities (timber,
forage, etc.), services (watershed protection, etc.), and uses (recrea-
tion, game, etc.), which are inherent in the land and possessed of a
public value. Unity of purpose in management and undivided con-
trol and responsibility were and are indispensable factors in the con-
cept and in its execution.

At the very beginning of national-forest administration it became
evident that in order to obtain a high level of technical land and
resource management, the Forest Service would have to utilize a wide
range of technical and expert personnel of various kinds. Accordingly
it brought in as full-fledged members of the Service the technicians
needed for the actual execution of the task itself, and for the research
work which could best be done as a direct part of the enterprise.
Thus foresters, logging engineers, range-management experts, survey-
ors, road and hydroelectric engineers, and others have been brought
in to function in their fields under the unified administrative control
of the key administrative positions of the Forest Service — Forest
Ranger, Forest Supervisor, Regional Forester, Forester.

At the same time the Forest Service recognized that for certain
types of specialized advisory service it was more economical to draw
on the personnel of other Federal agencies than to duplicate these
services in its own ranks. Thus the cooperation of forest pathologists
from the Bureau of Plant Industry, forest entomologists from the
Bureau of Entomology, meteorologists from the Weather Bureau,
biologists from the Biological Survey, soil experts from the Bureau of
Chemistry and Soils, and others, has been extensively utilized. In
some cases these experts have been detailed to the Forest Service

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 579

permanently, though reporting to their respective chiefs. In either
case these technicians have functioned in an advisory capacity. The
advisory experts have determined facts, made recommendations, and
in some cases supervised operations which the administrative heads
of the Forest Service instituted on the basis of expert recommenda-
tions.

The most conspicuous public advantages of this plan of unity of
purpose and undivided control have been :

1 . The Forest Service as the agency responsible for the management
of the national forests has had a free hand to harmonize and coordinate
all the activities. No activity is an end in itself, but is merely a
means of accomplishing a larger objective in correlated land manage-
ment. No activity has been on an independent footing to follow its
own course regardless of the composite objective of national-forest
management.

2. The Forest Service has had the full advantage of the best availa-
ble expert service without duplication, and without losing sight of the
fundamental fact that the expert service was a means and not an end.

3. The constant contact with advisory experts has helped very
greatly in effecting continuous improvement in land management.

Any move toward breaking down this plan of unified purpose and
single authority by introducing the functional organization idea would
be a move away from the public interest. Superficial consideration
sometimes prompts proposals to separate activities which seem to be
a logical part of the field of a functionalized organization. For ex-
ample, the national-forest organization handles the construction and
maintenance of trails and of simple dirt roads intended primarily to
furnish access for forest-fire fighters. Crews working on these projects
are made up of local men chosen for their fire-fighting ability as well
as for usefulness in road and trail construction, and they are used for
fire fighting whenever needed. For this purpose they must be at the
instant call of the forest officers. If this sort of work were turned
over to a separate engineering bureau it would at once lessen the
value of the crews for emergency fire fighting by dividing the super-
vising authority, and it would also increase the cost of the activity
by duplicating in part the overhead already available in the Forest
Service, which handles this job in combination with many others.

TIMBER USE

On the national forests are found representative stands of every
major forest type in the United States, except the hardwood stands
of the Central States, the bottomland hardwoods of the Mississippi
Delta, and the coast redwoods of California. Quantitatively, the
most important national-forest timber resources are in the Douglas
fir, ponderosa pine, western hemlock, sugar pine, lodgepole pine,
and Engelmann spruce stands. Qualitatively the white and Nor-
way pine of the Lake States, the Port Orford cedar of Oregon, the
western white pine of Idaho, the sugar pine of California, and the
cypress of Florida bring the highest stumpage prices. The total stand
of national-forest timber of saw- timber size is estimated to be 552
billion board feet, of which 357 billion are in the three Pacific Coast
States and 189 billion in the Rocky Mountain States.

Part of this is now economically inaccessible because of location,
quality, etc. How much of it will ultimately be available depends

580 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

upon economic and utilization developments which cannot be fore-
seen. This wide distribution of the national forests among most of
the major timber types provides the opportunity to develop and test
at first hand principles of silviculture and management on all nation-
ally important types except the three mentioned above.

TIMBER MANAGEMENT PLANS

The principal objective of timber management on the national
forests is to obtain a steady and continuous yield of wood products
best suited to the public need. This may be saw logs to be made
into lumber for the general market, as in the Pacific Northwest, box
shocks for the huge fruit crops of California, hewed or sawed railroad
ties of lodgepole pine from the national forests in Wyoming, for a
transcontinental railroad, mine props for Colorado coal mines or
stulls for a South Dakota gold mine, a turpentine "crop" in Florida,
or maple heels for shoe factories in New England. Or, the market
may be a wholly local one, as that of the ranchers in and near the
South Dakota portion of the Custer National Forest, where the local
timber supply is so limited and the local demand so great that every
tree is zealously fostered until ready for cutting. A controlling
principle in the disposal of national-forest timber is first to provide
for the local need, if dependent on the national forests, before supply-
ing more distant markets.

The disposal of national-forest timber is controlled by formal state-
ments of policy which define the markets to be served, the policy for
the sale of the timber, and the general silvicultural methods to be
followed in its cutting. Where utilization becomes intensive, so as
to require the full output of a management unit or working circle, a
detailed management plan is prepared which defines the order in
which the various parts of the area will be cut, the silvicultural
methods to be followed, and the limitation of cut necessary to main-
tain the output on a sustained-yield basis. Thus the cutting of
national-forest timber is systematized under measures designed both
to improve and to perpetuate the stand.

In the Douglas fir forests of the Pacific coast and to a lesser extent
in some other types, clear cutting has been the most suitable method
to follow. Elsewhere, where the condition of the stand favors the
practice, national-forest timber is cut under a system which selects
the mature and overmature trees for cutting and leaves the thrifty
young trees for growth and later cutting when they in turn mature.

An essential part of the policy is to make the national-forest timber
contribute as fully as possible to stabilizing the industries and com-
munities partly or wholly dependent on operations based on national-
forest stumpage. A stable forest industry built up in and adjacent
to the national forests is desirable for itself, as part of the general
economic and social structure, and in the steady market it affords
for national-forest timber, thus giving the maximum opportunity to
cut the timber at the time best suited to the physical condition of
the stands, and to salvage promptly timber killed or damaged by
fire, insects, and disease.

Where the public interest will be best served thereby, management
plans and timber-sale contracts may require the manufacture of the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 581

timber within the working circle, thus insuring both the development
of a local manufacturing plant for the national-forest timber and the
realization of the greatest local benefit from the business based on its
utilization.

For every large timber sale on the national forests, there are hundreds
of small ones. In the calendar year 1930, which was a reasonably
normal year for the national-forest timber sale business, there were
9,451 commercial sales involving up to $500 worth of stumpage each,
and 232 sales for amounts over $500. In addition 5,410 sales at the
mere cost of administration, under specific legal provision, were made
to homestead settlers and farmers for material needed on the farm.
Thus, farmers buy at a nominal cost a load or two of fence posts, a
few hay-stacker poles, or logs for a new house or barn to be used in
the round or sawed into lumber at a local custom mill. Or, in the
slack season, a farmer may take out a small commercial sale for
hewed railroad ties which he sells to the local railroad- tie contractor,
thus employing himself and his team when they would otherwise be
earning nothing. This opportunity to work in national-forest timber
on a part-time basis, either independently or for some logger or saw-
mill men, adds in large measure to local stability of employment and
builds up a solid, permanent interest in the national forests.

The Harney National Forest in South Dakota is an example of the
union of national-forest management and local welfare developed to
the highest degree. Practically the entire forest is under intensive
management, with many small timber operators employing local help,
buying from local stores, stabilizing local revenues. Most of the small
towns in the region of 925 square miles depend chiefly on this business.
The local residents are educated to the workings and value of the
managed forests, talk management plans and working circles like any
forester, and local merchants put up on the main highways signs like
this:

Harney Forest under the present sustained-yield plan will produce 15 million
board feet of lumber annually if fire is kept out. Hundreds of woodsmen and
their families are employed in harvesting this annual crop. For 35 years this
store has served these men as a supply base. We are here to serve them in the
future as we have in the past. Do your part. Help prevent forest fires and keep
the lumber industry alive.

On January 1, 1932, 21 percent of the national-forest timber, ex-
clusive of Alaska, was covered by detailed management plans. An-
other 61 percent was covered by policy statements. Thus plans of
one sort or another have been made for 82 percent of the timber in the
national forests, excepting Alaska. Developments in Alaska have
naturally been slower than in the national forests nearer the market
and adjacent to private operations. Alaska has the capacity, how-
ever, to supply permanently a pulpwood cut equal to a fourth of our
current national newsprint requirements, and had it not been for the
depression substantial pulp and paper developments would have
already been under way there.

In the fiscal year 1930 the cut of national-forest timber for all
purposes and all commodities was equivalent to 1,653 million board
feet. The sustained yield capacity of the national forests, assuming
more complete economic availability, would permit a much larger
annual cut.

582 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PROGRESS IN TIMBER MANAGEMENT AND SILVICULTURE

Development of the timber-productive capacity of the national
forests would be hastened if cutting could be started at ^o nee in all
the mature and overmature stands, thus removing the ripe timber,
stagnant as to growth, in favor of new growing stands. Two prin-
cipal considerations prevent the immediate accomplishment of this,
even if a buyer could be found at once for all mature timber, which is
not possible. First, the sale of national-forest timber is held back so
as to avoid adding to the overproduction of lumber and other com-
modities which has been taking place of late years owing to overliqui-
dation of private timber. National-forest sales involving timber
values in excess of $500 are limited to supplying existing sawmills
dependent on the national forests and pulp mills for the domestic
market; to disposing of killed or damaged timber before deterioration;
and to cutting on areas where national-forest timber can be most
economically logged with the use of transportation facilities con-
structed primarily for other timber. Second, American silviculture is
still in the developmental stage, and despite great progress there is still
much to learn as to methods of cutting to insure the fastest and surest
replenishment of the timber stands and their greatest growth in both
quantity and quality. Intensive research and practical experience
are constantly improving the silvicultural technique, so that there is
much to be gained by not rushing the cutting of the public timber.

Aside from the handicap imposed by the fact that silvicultural
practice and forest management in the United States are still neces-
sarily in the developmental stage, there have been and still are other
major impediments in the way of full attainment of the forest-cultural
aims.

The adverse effect of the interspersion of privately owned timber-
lands has already been referred to. Unity of purpose in management
is essential to obtaining the maximum benefits from a given working
circle. The presence of private timberlands, which are usually cut
under a plan of "clean up and get out", offsets in part the benefit of
properly handled stands on adjoining national-forest lands. Pro-
tective measures against fire, insects, and disease are often ineffective
unless prosecuted on all lands in a given unit, regardless of ownership.
In some cases the private timber controls both the logical access for
logging purposes to the entire unit and the feasibility of developing
transportation facilities, thus making harvesting of the public timber
await the development of the private tract. Or, conversely, the cutting
of national-forest timber may be forced prematurely by the exploi-
tation of the intermixed private holdings, in order to avoid depreci-
ation in stumpage value of the public timber.

This handicap operates chiefly in the extensive tracts of large-size
timber on the Pacific coast, where until recently expensive logging
railroads and heavy machinery have been thought essential for prac-
tical logging. To justify the investment and operating expense, it
has been necessary to have control of virtually all of the timber in the
unit. Of late, however, the possibilities and in many cases the finan-
cial advantages, of tractor or light gasoline donkey logging, and truck
hauling of logs to the mill or main-line railroad, have become apparent
for so many different conditions that a way is seen to give much greater
flexibility to national-forest management by the construction of truck

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 583

roads which would give access to timber bodies heretofore held for
railroad ^ development. Such a publicly controlled transportation
system, installed when and where the conditions are favorable, would
permit logging public timber independently, in much smaller lots,
when opportune from the standpoint of market and physical condition
of the timber, or promptly^ after damage by wind, fire, insects, or
disease. It would also permit more to be done in the way of thinning
growing stands, utilizing the trees more closely, and partial cutting for
special products where desirable. So far, most of the national-forest
road construction in this region has had to be primarily for fire pro-
tection, calling for locations often not suitable for log hauling.

The advantages of this system have been proven in the other
national-forest regions, where access is much easier, and where small
sales can be made much more freely during normal economic periods.

One means of lessening the handicap of private timber interspersion
lies in the possibility of private and public ownership joining hands to
manage the combined holdings in logical units under suitable forestry
practice and for sustained yield. The allocation of national-forest
timber to purchase by an adjoining private owner in return for his
commitment to proper management of his own holdings has been
advocated by a number of leading private foresters and by the Timber
Conservation Board. It has been proposed that Congress authorize
the Forest Service to enter into such arrangements where clearly in
the public interest. While this would appear to involve some depart-
ure from the open competition feature of national-forest sale practice
as established by Congress, the actual present situation is such that
often only one operator bids. The present provision in law that no
national-forest timber shall be sold at less than its appraised value
would safeguard the public interest in the financial aspect of the plan.

Apart from the question of accessibility, the limitations of markets
open only to material above a certain minimum size and quality, or of
certain species of trees, have prevented intensive silviculture! treat-
ment. Thus the lack of market for lumber of so-called inferior species
like white fir in California, white fir and larch in Oregon, and the
Rocky Mountain type of Douglas fir and of larch in north Idaho,
has required leaving uncut many trees of these species intermixed
with trees of more valuable species, or avoiding pure stands of these
inferior species within units containing better species. This results
in materially falling short of putting the timber stands in the most
favorable condition for future growth, postponing this possibility
until the next cut, many years hence. Studies in California, for
example, show a larger net growth in the remaining stands in mixed
stands where the white fir was heavily cut compared with those in
which it was cut lightly. Likewise market limitations often prevent
use of the small trees or smaller parts of the large trees, thus preventing
thinnings in young stands to accelerate growth of the remaining stand.

In New England and Arkansas worthless hardwoods of some species
or tree forms often greatly retard the growth of valuable conifers.
Though the girdling or cutting of these hardwoods may be accom-
plished in timber-sale cuttings, these come infrequently and are in-
adequate in extent to cover the ground rapidly, with the result that
valuable growth is materially held back over large areas. It would
be both silviculturally and financially advantageous if funds were

168342°— 33— vol. 1 38

584 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

available for the removal of these hardwoods whenever such treat-
ment is needed. Similarly, improvement of the mixed hardwood
stands on the best sites in the Appalachians by thinnings and removal
of the worthless trees would be profitable.

Throughout the national-forest cutting areas it has been the prac-
tice to require timber purchasers to cut down trees worthless because
of disease or other cause, thus ridding the stands of trees which would
spread disease to others and improving growth conditions. The cost
of this work has been allowed for in fixing stumpage values. In the
California national forests, for example, fully 200,000 acres of cutting
area have been thus treated.

Disposal of the slash left from timber-sale cuttings has long been a
problem. Where the fire hazard is relatively low, as in the central and
southern Rocky Mountains, the limbs can be lopped from the tops
and left scattered on the ground, thus improving soil conditions as
they decay, and either improving or offering no obstacle to the chances
for natural reproduction to come in. In the northern Rocky Mountains
in Idaho, and throughout Washington, Oregon, and California, fire
protection has appeared to require piling and burning of the slash
except in the coast Douglas fir stands where broadcast burning is
required. This is expensive and silviculturally undesirable in its
effect on natural regeneration. Experiments in partial piling and
burning, with increased protective measures in other ways, are being
tried in representative California pine stands, and may develop a
compromise method less costly and more desirable silviculturally.
No such prospect is immediately in sight for the broadcast-burned
Douglas fir slash problem, but the possibilities of selective logging
by area, leaving more uncut timber to constitute breaks in the large
slash area, may make it possible to leave a considerable portion of the
slash areas unturned.

This selective-logging development also bids fair to help materially
in solving the problem of leaving adequate seed trees in the hitherto
clear-cut Douglas fir areas. The first plan of leaving individual trees
was largely unsuccessful because of loss through their being blown
down, or being killed by the slash fire or subsequent accidental fires.
A modified plan of leaving trees in strips or groups has been more suc-
cessful, but not wholly so. If the selective-logging principle proves
capable of general application, many stands of present low market
value will be left well distributed throughout the cutting areas,
awaiting future cutting, and the seed supply problem will be largely
solved.

One major objective in the development of national-forest cutting
systems is to obtain adequate reproduction following cutting. On
many selectively cut areas the stand left constitutes the major part
of the desired stocking, and extensive reproduction is not expected
until after the second or third cutting. Elsewhere, where thinner
stands have to be left, or larger openings made, prompt restocking
is the aim; as it is invariably where clean cutting is practiced. Both
systematic examinations and extensive observations on cut-over areas
show that in general after a reasonable lapse of time, usually not more
than 10 to 15 years, restocking is satisfactory on 85 to 100 percent of
cut-over land. There are exceptions to this in the Engelmann spruce
type of the northern Rocky Mountains and in Arizona and New
Mexico, where not more than 50 percent success has been obtained.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 585

The same is true of the Douglas fir type in Arizona and New Mexico,
and to a small extent in the ponderosa pine type in extreme south-
western Colorado. An even smaller percentage of successful restocking
exists on small areas of jack pine cut-over land in Michigan. None
of these exceptions, however, constitutes an important situation, but
they do challenge foresters to solve the problem.

Fire, of course, has wiped out the reproduction on some sale areas,
but except in the Douglas fir type in the Pacific Northwest and in white-
pine areas in Idaho, fires on cut-over areas have been of small con-
sequence. In those two regions the protection of cut-over areas,
though less troublesome than on outside lands, has not been fully
accomplished, owing to the extreme fire danger prevailing in the region
in general. Nevertheless the losses on sale areas have not been great.

In the pine forests of California donkey logging, even with the
restrictions in effect on the national forests, caused too much damage
to young growth. The substitution of tractors for donkeys on national-
forest sales has reduced the damage 25 to 50 percent, so that it is now
well within reasonable limits.

REPLANTING

This activity is lagging for want of adequate funds. Though the
aim of national-forest management and silviculture is to renew the
forests by natural restocking to the fullest possible extent, there are
approximately 2,100,000 acres of national-forest land chiefly old
burns, which require replanting if the area is to be restocked within
any reasonable period. At the current rate of between 25,000 and
30,000 acres annually it will take at least 70 years to catch up. Only
235,000 acres have been planted to date, in the 27 years of active
national-forest administration. Though many planting problems are
still being studied, the technique of planting has been pretty well
developed, the cost in general reduced to reasonable figures, and there
is no reason why it should not go ahead. Despite much planting
effort to date that must be charged to experimentation, at least two
thirds of the planting shows an acceptable degree of survival. Direct
seeding has not so far succeeded, and has been temporarily aban-
doned, though experiments are still under way. An annual appro-
priation for planting of at least $400,000 should be made available
as soon as the financial horizon clears, and it should be stepped up
each year to reach $1,600,000 in the fourth year and at least that
much each year thereafter. Early replanting is particularly impor-
tant on the eastern national forests, close to the areas of heavy timber
consumption. Some of the land purchased in this region was bought
at a low rate for the express purpose of replanting.

Thus a review of the timber-management situation on the national
forests shows a number of handicaps still prevailing — for example,
the fact that silvicultural and management technique is still in the
formative stage; the complication of interspersed private lands; the
lack of a road system and market possibilities needed for complete
flexibility of management, silviculture and utilization; lack of adequate
funds for cultural operations and for replanting denuded areas.

On the other side of the picture is ample evidence of progress —
such as the development of management plans which bring all present
knowledge to bear on the orderly development and systematic

586 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

handling of the utilization of the timber resources in the interest of
permanent productivity and both local and national public welfare;
silvicultural practices which do much to improve the stands and,
with minor exceptions, obtain regeneration; improvement of logging
methods to more fully protect young growth; the possibilities of
selective logging in improving seed -tree reservation; the promise of
improved slash-disposal methods to benefit both the expenditure
budget and the silvicultural objectives. After discounting for the
mistakes inevitable under the trial and error necessitites of a new
enterprise, and weighing the present and prospective handicaps, it
may be fairly said that American forestry has given a good account
of itself on the national forests, even though it has a long way yet to go.

FORAGE USE

When the national forests were created a heavy use of their forage
resources was already established under the prevailing custom of
unrestricted use of public lands for grazing range livestock. This use
was wholly unregulated and involved a mixture of well-established
occupation by nearby ranchers and more transient tenure by non-
resident herds of cattle or bands of sheep driven in from distant
winter ranges. There was a good deal of battling among users to
maintain their asserted rights.

The Forest Service set up a system of controlled use, under permit,
giving priority to those longest established on the ranges and most
dependent on the national-forest grazing resources by virtue of ad-
jacent home ranches. At all times the small local stock raiser, owning
his own ranch, has been favored.

Out of this system has grown a large degree of stability in the use
of the national-forest range resources. Within or adjacent to almost
every ranger district may be found thriving agricultural communities
whose prosperity is mainly dependent upon the stable production of
livestock. Climate, soil, and location combine to make this the most
profitable form of agriculture. In many, if not most cases, it is the
only practicable form. Small in area, the farms within these com-
munities are incapable of sustained production without the aid of
complementary ranges lying inside the national forests. It is these
ranges that provide feed during the season of the year when culti-
vated crops on the farms must make their growth. It is also these
ranges with their power to produce high-quality lamb and beef at a
nominal expense that offset the more expensive production and feeding
of cultivated crops and make the whole operation profitable. Without
the use of these ranges farm lands would have to be abandoned and
community life disappear. The fact that more than 4K million acres
of improved farm land and 22 million acres of grazing land are used
in connection with forest permits emphasizes this statement.

The fact that the use of national-forest range is made dependent
upon the ownership of ranch property of an area and character
suitable for farms induces a degree of stability in the business not
found in any other part of the range livestock industry. Owners
may and often do go out of the business, but the improved lands and
farms remain productive under new ownership.

About 83 million acres of national-forest land are used by domestic
stock for an average period of approximately 5 months. Owing to

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 587

favorable topography, good water supply, and a wide variety of
vegetation, this land furnishes ample feed as the season advances
from early spring to late fall. Year-long use of the range is provided
extensively only in the Southwest.

Of the usable range it is estimated that about 40 million acres are
timbered, 20 million acres woodland, 20 million acres grass, with
brush and burns making up the balance.

For the calendar year 1931, 19,388 permits were issued for 1,338,373
cattle, 37,335 horses, and 431 swine. For the same year 6,319 permits
were issued for 6,593,583 sheep and 14,645 goats. The total number
of stock grazed in 1931 was the lowest for the past 6 years. Lowered
range capacity due to the drought during this period was responsible
for four fifths of the reduction in numbers, and miscellaneous causes
such as closure of areas for various purposes, voluntary reductions,
adjustments due to land exchange, etc., accounted for the balance.

Over the years the use of range by domestic stock has had to be
adjusted to provide for the needs of other resources. In 1931, 1,334,-
659 acres of usable range were closed for recreation, 2,785,198 for
game, 719,492 acres for watershed protection, 191,902 acres for
timber protection, and 121,416 acres for other purposes.

RANGE MANAGEMENT

The forage resource lends itself to systematic management and
cultural treatment in the same way as does the timber. It is the
objective of range management to raise the productivity of the forest
ranges to the maximum and to regulate their use both in the interest
of the stock raiser and so as to avoid impairment of the value and
enjoyment of other resources. Thus grazing must be so limited as
not only to avoid damaging the forage resource itself, but also to
avoid starting erosion, to exclude stock from heavily used recreational
areas, to leave adequate forage for game, and, above all, to prevent
damage to young forest growth.

Range management plans are prepared or under way for each of
the 4,005 cattle and horse and 4,859 sheep and goat^ allotments.
These plans are both written and graphic. They prescribe the class
of stock to which the range is best adapted, the number of stock to
be allowed, the season best suited to growth requirements of the
vegetation, and the manner by which the stock will be handled to
secure uniform distribution and utilization, and to avoid conflict
with other important uses of the forest. The plan of management
also takes advantage of natural features which influence the movement
or control of stock, and prescribes such improvements as fences,
water development, bridges, corrals, and pastures as are necessary to
facilitate management. Seventy-eight percent of the cattle and
horse and 80 percent of the sheep and goat allotments were handled
under plans during 1931.

The effectiveness of such plans is indicated by the fact that the
majority of the ranges are properly stocked and have reasonably
satisfactory distribution, and nearly 90 percent have satisfactory
seasonal use. While these plans are the result of experience and
investigation, and are developed in cooperation with the permittees,
the inherent prejudice on the part of owners to changes recommended
is one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome. Furthermore,
reliance for the execution of the plans all too often must be placed on

588 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

hired labor of low quality. The burdens of ranch work and other
business interests often detract from the interest taken by permittees
in their stock while on the summer range. Tto inevitably leads to
confusion and difficulty in dealing with individuals other than the
owners. Despite these handicaps, real progress has been made in
obtaining the cooperation of the stock owner in the systematic manage-
ment of his allotment.

The successful application of plans, however, and the development
of the resource, is largely dependent upon the construction of improve-
ments and artificial reseeding of important areas, for which adequate
funds are not available. Though considerable progress has been
made, largely through cooperation by the permittees, in the erection
of stock control works, such as drift fences, water developments,
driveways, trails, corrals, and salt troughs, and in the eradication of
poisonous plants, there is still over $1,250,000 worth of this sort of
work to do. Further, as a means of preventing heavy damage to the
range itself, an estimated further expenditure of $750,000 is needed
during a 10-year period to control the activities of destructive rodents
on 5 million acres where heavy infestation occurs.

One of the greatest handicaps, if not the greatest, is the insufficiency
of scientific data on which management can be based. There is
need to know more about the extent to which the important species
of vegetation can be grazed without injury; how depleted ranges can
be restored most effectively and most rapidly under use; what adjust-
ments in normal stocking of ranges must be made because of recurring
droughts, or critical timber, game, or watershed situations; and many
related questions. These all involve intensive research, pending the
result of which we must of necessity resort to trial and test.

The use of the forage resources of the national forests has a value
beyond its worth to the livestock industry and the communities that
industry supports, and beyond the revenue accruing to the Treasury
from permit charges. There is a very real contribution to fire
prevention and control through removal of grass which, when dry, is
easily inflammable and spreads fire rapidly. Countless instances
attest the value of heavily grazed stock driveways, for example, as
fire lines, and of the greater ease of control of fire on grazed areas
than on ungrazed areas. There is also the advantage of checking
herbaceous growth which competes with tree seedlings for moisture
and light.

No phase of the national-forest enterprise proves more conclusively
the worth of regulation and management than that dealing with range
management. Out of an uncontrolled and often chaotic condition of
early occupation of the ranges has come regulated use. Many ranges
which were once tramped into dust by sheep before midsummer are
now grazed moderately and left in the fall with the making of next
year's crop intact. A long standing and very troublesome problem
of damage to forest reproduction over large areas in Arizona mainly
from range overstocking has been largely overcome and the forests
are now replenishing while livestock still use the area. Much progress
has been made in stopping early erosive processes.

As a general summary of the results of management, it may be
stated that, while there is still much to learn and to be accomplished,
a poor range condition is the exception rather than the rule as it was
at one time. The main problem in range management for some time
to come will be the healing of "sore spots" here and there.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

WATER CONSERVATION

589

" Securing favorable conditions of water flows" was one of the two
major purposes of the national forests as stated in the act providing
for their creation, and for the enactment of the Weeks' law provision
for purchasing national-forest lands on the headwaters of navigable
streams. It has been one of the controlling aims in setting up pro-

FIGURE 3.— Virtually every major stream west of the Great Plains, and most of the minor ones, head in
a national forest and supply a large part of the water for the great irrigated land areas.

visions for and restrictions on the use of national-forest resources and
in cultural operations relating to timber and forage.

Virtually every major stream west of the Great Plains, and most
of the minor ones, head in a national forest. The western national
forests contains a large part of the most important western water
supply area. From these watersheds flows water which is the indis-
pensable basis for the rich irrigated farm and orchard developments
found in practically every Western State. Figure 3 shows the location
of the national forests with reference to irrigated lands. Except for

590 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

irrigation, many of the eastern national forests have similar water-
shed importance, and are particularly involved in the protection of
the watersheds of navigable streams. ^

A few examples will illustrate the size of the values arising from or
potential in water coming from national forest watersheds :

For their domestic water supply 49 cities with a population of
10 thousand or more each, and a total population of nearly 5l/4 million,
and 327 cities with less than 10 thousand population each and a total
population of over 714,000, depend on national forest watersheds.
The investment by these cities in their water plans approximates
$493,703,000.

Of the estimated 38 million potential horsepower of water power in
the United States, a little over 11 million, or 29 percent, is in the
national forests. Already 1,618,000 horsepower has been developed
on the national forests which, at an estimated investment of $200
per horsepower, gives a present total investment of $323,625,000. Of
the total potential horsepower on the national forests, 78.3 percent has
been either developed or applied for, and this will involve an estimated
investment of $1,742,000,000.

Within the 11 principal national-forest States in the West, the
1930 census shows slightly over $932,000,000 invested in irrigation
enterprises. Approximately 89 percent of this sum is estimated to
be based on water from national-forest streams, or an investment of
$827,500,000.

Thus for domestic water supply, power, and irrigation national-
forest watersheds are already providing water for projects involving
a total investment of $1,644,828,000.

It is impossible, of course, to ascribe an exact part of these values
to the fact that the watersheds are within protected and managed
national forests, or to measure exactly the effect of good or poor
management of the timber and forage resources on the maintenance
of these values. There is so much evidence to show that unregu-
lated timber cutting and livestock grazing, and uncontrolled fire, on
watersheds, often cause adverse effects in the form of premature
run-off, floods which destroy crops and property, and erosion which
fills irrigation ditches and reservoirs and reduces or destroys soil pro-
ductivity, that it is unnecessary to reduce it to refined quantitative
expression in order to make a clear case for the need of regulated use
and cultural operations which will preserve and enhance the watershed
values of the national forests.

So, timber cutting is invariably regulated by the watershed factor;
grazing managed with one major objective to avoid watershed damage ;
replanting of watersheds given first consideration ; the public and live-
stock excluded from watersheds where necessary to protection of the
purity or palatability of the water for domestic use.

RECREATION USE

Because of their wide distribution, their highly diversified topog-
raphy, elevation, and cover, and their myriad manifestations of natural
phenomena, the national forests present large opportunities for public
use for purposes of residence, recreation, and education. Such uses,
properly coordinated with the other uses and services of the national
forests, do not conflict with the protection, management, and devel-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 591

opment of these public properties. They benefit many millions of
people, create additional taxable resources, yield a substantial annual
return to the Treasury, and yet involve only a minor percentage of
the national-forest lands. Extreme care is taken to prevent any
monopoly detrimental to full public use of the national forests, or
the establishment of any adverse rights. All exclusive occupancy
under permit is carefully planned and safeguarded by appropirate
contract provisions.

The public early discovered the recreational opportunities in the
national forests and has been taking advantage of them in rapidly
increasing numbers. Though it is obviously impossible to obtain an
exact count of national-forest recreationists, forest officers have been
able to get a very fair approximation of their number by periodic
counts at established points, tourists registers, etc. Despite the room
for substantial error and for duplication of count, these figures give
an excellent idea of the growth in the recreational use of the national
forests. For 1917 the estimate of national-forest visitors was
3,160,300; for 1931, over 32,000,000— a tenfold increase. Of the
1931 visitors, 493,235 were occupants of permitted residences on the
national forests, or their guests; 1,618,510 were guests at hotels and
resorts; 2,193,843 were campers; 3,765,027 were picnickers; and
24,037,428 were transient travelers on or across the national forests
who may or may not have made casual stops.

Recreational use assumes many forms. There is the family which
wishes to make its summer home in the national forests, by a stream
or a lake, or just "in the woods". There are 11,583 permits for
residence cabins of this sort in existence, covering structures ranging
from a simple 1-room cabin to much more elaborate dwellings with
their own light plants and water systems.

Then there are the fishermen, the hunters, the berry pickers, the
hikers, the picknickers, and those who "just camp", for those who
desire that form of living there are resort developments with bunga-
lows and hotels, and 933 resorts of various sorts are covered by the
permits issued to December 31, 1931.

Municipally operated camps have been developed under permit in
some of the national forests, notably in southern California, where
city residents may enjoy a 2 weeks' vacation at low expense. There
is room for much of this development.

In order to retain a suitable proportion of the outdoors in as nearly
its original state as possible, where those with pack horse or back
pack may find areas possessed of only the primitive transportation
facilities — trails or the way wholly undefined — the Forest Service has
so far designated 54 primitive areas, totaling 9,018,298 acres, em-
bracing nearly every typical natural condition. Here, where the eco-
nomic resources are limited, the plan is to keep out public roads and
other developments smacking of civilization.

As a means of providing for the large number of campers places
where they may camp under sanitary conditions and build fires safely,
simple camp grounds have been prepared containing simple toilets,
crude fireplaces, garbage disposal facilities, and safe drinking water.
This is a joint recreational and fire-protection development, and is
highly valuable for the latter purpose in its concentration of forest
use involving camp fires. The need for this form of development is

592 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

far from filled by the 1,800 camp grounds already developed. About
2,300 more are needed, at an estimated cost of about $1,800,000.

Another need is to amend the act authorizing term permits. This
now allows the issuance of permits for periods up to 30 years, for not
more than 5 acres of land each, for summer homes, resorts, and sim-
ilar developments. For many of the hotel and like developments
needed for the full enjoyment of the national-forest recreation oppor-
tunities, 5 acres is not enough. The act should be amended to enlarge
the area which may be permitted to not over 80 acres.

Because of its correlation with other phases of administration, the
cost of administering the recreational use of the national forests, per
visitor and in total, probably is and will be much below the cost
under any other practicable form of public administration.

Recreation is obviously one of the major uses of the national forests.
In the Western States a large part of the area where forest recreation
may be enjoyed is in the national forests. The Superior National
Forest in Minnesota embraces some of the finest canoe country in
North America. The recreational use of the White Mountain Na-
tional Forest in New England is heavy. It is the view of the Forest
Service that the recreational advantages of the national forests should
be widely enjoyed, that recreation should be fully recognized as one
of the major resources of the national forests, and that the recreational
use should be so coordinated with other uses as to avoid conflicts
which would undesirably impair any important values.

Every effort has been made to translate this view into active policy.
On the one hand specific provision has been made for facilities needed
by recreationists through permits for residences, resorts, municipal
camps, and similar developments; camp grounds have been developed ;
the location of especially attractive recreational features shown and
described on map folders issued to the public in connection with the
educational campaign in fire protection ; part of the public-road system
on the national forests has been constructed for access to recreational
areas ; timber cutting has been modified or excluded from areas where
the recreational and aesthetic values are high or paramount, such as
around lake shores, along highways, in summer-home colonies;
grazing of livestock excluded from meadows needed for campers'
horses, immediately around camp grounds, and where chosen areas
containing unusual wild-flower displays are to be safeguarded. On
the other hand, recreationists have been excluded from municipal
watershed areas where necessary to avoid danger of contamination
of the water supply, and from areas of exceptional fire hazard; recrea-
tional developments are not allowed to obstruct the only logging
access to large bodies of timber, nor to intrude on the borders of
highways or lake shores so as to impair esthetic values. The whole
effort has been to direct and regulate the recreational use to the extent
needed in a general plan of correlated use of all resources, with the
minimum restriction on the freedom of the recreationist to use the
national forest in his chosen way.

In order that there may be adequate authority for the Forest
Service to make modest expenditures for some expert assistance in
planning the proper development of the areas possessing outstanding
scenic or recreational quality, and for the other things needful in
properly handling the ever-increasing recreational use, it is desirable
to have specific congressional authorization along those lines.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 593

Legislation in about the following terms is recommended :

That in the administration of the national forests under the provisions of the
act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1103), and acts amendatory thereof or supple-
mental thereto, and in coordination with the activities authorized by such acts,
the Secretary of Agriculture may, and he hereby is authorized to, take such
measures as he may deem necessary to develop and make available for public use
and enjoyment the recreational, educational, and related values of the national
forests so far as may be compatible with the purposes for which they were created,
and with the proper consideration of their scenic and wild life resources.

WILD-LIFE PRESERVATION
GAME

The national forests contain about 75 percent of the range of the
big-game animals of the 11 Western States. They are also the prin-
cipal fur-producing areas in these States. They provide sport for a
half million hunters, by whom some 100,000 big-game animals are
killed annually. They constitute the largest and the best game area
under public ownership where the American system of hunting can
be perpetuated. In addition to the value of game to the sportsman,
econoinic and aesthetic considerations justify development of the
resource. The addition to local business arising from expenditures
of sportsmen is an important factor in many communities. The sale
of hunting and fishing licenses is an important element in State and
county revenues.

Game production is a recognized form of land use in the adminis-
tration of the national forests. The same systematic planning that
is applied to the production of timber, forage, and other resources,
is essential to the development of game, and is being developed.
There is one great difference, however, between game management
and the management of timber and forage. In the latter, manage-
ment is carried to the removal of the crop from the land. In the
former, Forest Service legal responsibility ends with the development
of plans. This is due to the division of responsibility between Federal
and State Governments which has grown up under the common law
and which imposes upon the latter and denies to the former regulatory
authority. The authority of forest officers is contained in the act of
May 23, 1908, which provides that all reasonable assistance in the
protection of game within the national forests shall be given State
authorities. Under these circumstances efforts of the Forest Service,
in cooperation with the Biological Survey, must of necessity be con-
fined to assistance in protective measures, study of conditions on the
ground, the development of plans necessary to meet the specific prob-
lems involved, and encouragement and assistance to State officers in
the application of those plans. The Forest Service has authority to
remove animals when damage to the forest occurs, but cannot insure
beneficial utilization of the animals removed.

Under this cooperative policy there have been established on the
national forests 289 State game refuges covering almost 21 million
acres, and 24 Federal game preserves covering more than 3 million
acres of land. These refuges were established at a time when the
thought on management began and ended with protection. Years
of protection, however, have proved the rapidity with which wild
life under the right environmental conditions increases. This has
brought into the picture that regulation of numbers of game animals

594 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

is just as essential as the regulation of numbers of livestock if over-
grazing of the range and depletion of the herds is to be prevented.
An increase of more than 100 percent in big-game animals generally
on the national forests during the past 10 years, and overstocking on
specific areas, emphasize the need of applying the same principles to
game management as have proved of such benefit to ranges used by
livestock, namely, the limitation of numbers to the capacity of the
range. The application of such principles is difficult if not impossible
so long as the State attempts regulation by laws applying broadly to
the State as a whole. Before they can be applied there must be a
recognition of the fact that each area is a unit by itself, capable of
supporting a given number of a certain species of animals and no
more. Until this principle is accepted there will continue to be areas
that might support large numbers but are prevented from doing so by
over-kill, and other areas where the kill is far less than the productive
capacity of the range justifies. The former is a state of unproduc-
tiveness, the latter a most destructive form of land use which inevi-
tably leads to overgrazing, with all its attendant evils, and in extreme
cases even to final extinction of game.

Better to visualize the problems involved, it is estimated that the
national forests now support approximately 12,700 antelope,' 50,600
black and brown and 3,700 grizzly bears, 969,000 deer, 97,000 elk,
7,800 moose, 22,000 mountain goats, and 12,500 mountain sheep,
and at least 10 important species of fur bearers. Game and nongame
birds are also important. As each locality has its own particular
problem, so does each species of animal involved. The problem,
therefore, of coordinated land use is of some magnitude. It cannot
be solved by arbitrary State laws or regulation, but rather by
systematic planning and adjustment.

Since both domestic and wild animals subsist on the native vege-
tation, conflict arises as numbers of either or both classes approach
the full capacity of range. This condition brings about the need for
adjustment, often in the way of reservation of specific areas for game,
but more generally in the way of reduction in numbers of either or
both classes.

Adjustments to provide reserved areas are indicated in the dis-
cussion of range management and in the statement relative to game
refuges. In the latter case, however, total exclusion of livestock is
not attempted, nor is it desirable, but the domestic livestock capacity
is reduced. This, together with the areas closed for game, is equiv-
alent to about 12 percent of the entire range capacity of the national
forests. It should be understood also that some species of game
occupy all areas, and that nearly 50 million acres of land in the
western national forests which cannot be used by domestic stock
because of topography, dense timber, and brush constitute some of
the very best game range.

In general, the national forests have ample summer range for
present numbers of game animals, and in some cases a large increase
could be provided for. But winter range, owing to high elevation
and deep snows, is inadequate in most cases for even present numbers.

The needs of the present situation may be briefly stated :

1. More basic knowledge on the life and feeding habits of the
various species of animals and birds.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 595

2. Better training in game management of both State and Federal
personnel, and some enlargement of the State forces.

3. Adequate plans of management for each natural unit, including
regulated kill by sexes and by topographical units.

4. A competent nonpartisan game commission in each State, with
full authority to install regulations necessary to meet the needs of
wild life and the range.

5. A clearer definition of the responsibility of Federal officers on
Federal land.

6. Better provision for winter range at low elevations outside of
the national forests or feed.

FISH

Within the national forests there are about 60,000 miles of streams
and many thousands of lakes suitable for fish porduction. Better
and more roads, with an increase in auto travel, have greatly increased
the yearly demand on these waters. This results in a gradual de-
cline in the productiveness of most waters, even though extensive
stocking operations are carried on by the Bureau of Fisheries and
State fish and game commissions in cooperation with the Forest
Service. It is estimated that the yearly planting equals or exceeds
50 million fish.

In cooperation with the Bureau of Fisheries, stream surveys are
now under way, and it is expected that complete plans for each stream
will eventually be developed, including stocking, rearing ponds, and
related measures for building up and maintaining this important
resource.

MISCELLANEOUS USES

A review of the almost endless list of miscellaneous uses of the
national forests provides an index of the well-nigh unlimited variety
of ways in which they lend themselves to economic enterprises or
pure enjoyment. There are apiaries and fox farms, artificial fish
ponds where trout are raised for market, cabins and courses for
skiing clubs, mineral springs developed for the ailing, trappers'
cabins, and branding corrals and counting pens used by stockmen.
Altogether there are 76 different sorts of uses under permit, a total
of 36,457 permits, which bring in around $300,000 each year to the
Treasury.

NATIONAL FOREST PROTECTION
FIRE

The steady downward trend of the curve showing acreage burned
is the most graphic proof of continuous progress in protection of the
national forests from fire. This has occurred in the face of a marked
and long-continued deficiency in precipitation in the regions of
greatest fire risk; a tremendous increase in human use of the forests;
recurring outbreaks of incendiarism, aggravated by unemployment;
and the growing hazard due to the steady increase in the acreage of
the hard-to-protect cut-over lands immediately adjacent to the
national forests and on some of the private lands within their bound-
aries. In the Douglas fir region of the Pacific Northwest the area of
cut-over lands burned is roughly 30 times that of the area of green
timber burned.

596

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Figures 4 and 5 contrast the adverse factors of precipitation
deficiency and increased human use and incendiarism with the
steadily dropping curve of burned area. There are irregularities in
this area curve, of course. Especially bad years like 1919, 1926,
1929, and 1931 send it up, but each critical year leaves the protec-
tion forces with still greater experience, which is turned to account in
meeting the next crisis more successfully.

When the Forest Service assumed the administration of the national
forests in 1905 there was no developed technique of forest-fire pre-
vention and suppression in the United States, and very scanty means
of action in the form of personnel, tools, and transportation and com-
munication facilities. A steady drive has been maintained to bring

-SOOOi — r

i
§

IPI
L
8

1910 1915

I9E5 1930

FIGURE 4.— Since 1916 there has been building up a huge deficiency in precipitation in the regions of
highest Sre danger. While precipitation is only one of the major factors influencing the difficulty of
fire control, this accumulative drying out of the forests has had a marked effect in increasing the
severity of the fire seasons. Despite the handicap of this 15-year drought, the fire-control campaign
has resulted in a down trend in area burned over.

these up to adequacy, to educate the public in care with fire in the
forests, and to reduce the hazard incident to lumbering, road clear-
ing, land clearing, slash burning, and similar sources of risk. The
following indicate the character of the attack on the fire problem :

1. Educational activities of many kinds to make forest visitors
more careful with fire in the woods and to build up public support of
fire prevention and suppression morally, legally, and financially.
One very tangible result has been in holding down the number of
man-caused forest fires wrhile the number of persons using the national
forests has increased many fold.

2. Regulation of forest travelers where necessary by such means
as requiring camp-fire permits, concentration of camping on prepared
camp grounds, restriction of smoking in the woods, and requiring
camping parties to carry a shovel and ax for emergency fire fighting.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

597

3. Development and enforcement of rules controlling the use of fire
in lumbering operations.

4. Systematic analysis of the causes of fires, with attack on specific
causes, such as camp fires and railroad fires.

5. Abatement of special hazards in dangerous areas, such as re-
moval of accumulated slash, snag falling, roadside cleaning.

6. Building up a lookout system for prompt detection of fires and
a telephone system for quick reports of fires to the control forces.
The portable radio is now being developed.

7. Road and trail construction to facilitate prompt arrival of men
and equipment on fires.

O
O

o

1905

1910

I93O

1935

FIGURE 5.— Despite steady upward trends in human use of the national forests and in incendiary forest
fires, fire-control efforts have kept the trend in acreage burned moving downward.

8. Gradual increase in the personnel available for detection and
first attack.

9. Systematic training in fire control, particularly in suppression
technique and the executive management phases of the problem, of
both year-long and short-term protection personnel.

10. Preparation and execution of fire-control plans for each ranger
district, which include a specific program of fire prevention, detection,
and attack.

1 1 . Systematic review of the effectiveness of control action on fires
in order to profit by experience.

12. Study of the behavior of fires to determine the required speed
and method of attack.

13. Provision of more nearly adequate stores of tools and other
fire-control equipment.

14. Development and use of power water pumps, water-tank trucks,
fire-trench plows operated by horses or tractors, special hand tools,
and lights for night work to speed the work of actually putting the fire
out. This use of machinery has been very effective.

598 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

15. Preparation of firebreaks where the conditions are suitable,
chiefly in the southern California watershed forests.

16. Systematic research directed at all phases of fire control-
prevention, preparation, and suppression.

17. Enlistment of large-scale cooperation, financial and otherwise,
by owners of private land within forest boundaries, by communities
in and adjacent to the forests, and by thousands of local residents who
individually and in organized groups act in emergencies to suppress
fires. The building up of this local interest in fire protection has done
much toward fire prevention as well as in fire suppression.

18. More effective protection by States, counties, and private
owners of areas bordering the national forests has helped materially
in the protection of the national forests. The Clarke-McNarylaw
cooperation has done much to stimulate this.

The descending curve of area burned is not the only obvious proof
of progress in fire control. Pine trees poking their heads up here and
there through the dense brush fields of the California foothills attest
the progress in solving one of the most difficult fire problems. The
advent of young tree growth under formerly parklike pine stands
whose floor was kept clean by frequent fires in pre-national-forest
days is so extensive that the numbers of livestock grazing on these
areas has had to be substantially reduced because trees are taking the
place of grass. Old burns are being reclaimed by tree growth.

The fire-control battle on the national forests is far from over,
however. Figure 6 shows that protective measures still fail to keep
losses within allowable limits on nearly one third of the area requiring
protection. Here the average annual burned area is almost five times
as great as can be tolerated. More progress is required along many
lines — in still more public care with fire and less public indifference
to incendiarism and to fires in " brush" which are really burning up
young tree growth. The preventable fires from railroads, land
clearing, lumbering, and other industrial or business operations have
not all been eliminated by a considerable margin; methods of slash
disposal still need much improvement; more physical means in men,
improvements, and equipment are required; greater efficiency in the
manpower must be sought by continued training; active cooperation
must be further developed; still more effective action on adjoining
State, county, and private lands must be stimulated; a substitute must
be found for private protection effort where it has broken down under
the overload of cut-over lands ; and much more fire research in all lines
is indispensable.

Where the highly aggravated brush-field protection problem is as
extensive as in California, serious study should be given to the possi-
bilities of hastening the reclamation of the land by the much more
easily^ protected tree growth. This may perhaps be accomplished by
planting scattered areas from which the forest cover will eventually
spread by natural seeding. Still better would be to find some cheap
method of completely replanting with trees these dense brush areas,
but so far this has proven too expensive and the survival has been
too small.

In order to provide effective fire protection for the 30,028,884 acres
of national-forest land still inadequately protected — that is, to hold
the average annual burned acreage to a figure which will not defeat the
full accomplishment of the resource management plans and objectives —

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

599

it will be necessary to continue the development of a road, trail, and
other improvement program and furnish and equip some additional

personnel. A recent study shows that for the next 8 years there
should be an annual appropriation of $2,300,000 for the construction
of protection roads and trails, and $1,400,000 for the maintenance of

168342°— 33— vol. 1 39

600 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the protection system of roads and trails, much of which has already
been built. There should also be an annual appropriation of $465,000
for the construction of other improvements, such as telephone lines,
lookout houses, etc., and $315,000 for maintenance of such improve-
ments. Beginning with the fiscal year 1935 there should be an appro-
priation of $80,000 for additional fire guards to compensate for the
loss of the fire-protection services of road, trail, and improvement
crews withdrawn as construction work is completed. This item
should be built up by approximately equal steps each year for the
ensuing 7 years, to reach $625,000 annually coincident with the com-
pletion of the road, trail, and improvement construction program.

This will result in an estimated eventual average annual protection
cost of $6,515,000 compared with the present average cost of $5,438,-
000. Per acre of protected land the eventual cost is estimated at
$0.06853 against a present average cost of $0.0572.

The foregoing figures represent merely the best present forecast.
The only proof of effectiveness of outlay is experience. Further
hindsight may well indicate a revision of these estimates either up
or down.

FOREST INSECTS

Destruction of timber by bark beetles is not spectacular like destruc-
tion by fire, but in several national-forest regions loss of merchantable
timber from this cause is far greater than by fire. In the pine forests
of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana losses have
been heavy. Forest entomologists estimate that about 250 million
board feet of timber is being killed annually by bark beetles in the
California National Forests alone. During the past 10 years, billions
of feet of national-forest timber have been killed by concentrated
attacks of these insects, with almost no opportunity for salvage before
rapid deterioration renders the timber unfit for use.

Where timber values are low and promise to be so for some time,
as in the case of some of the lodgepole pine stands attacked by the
beetle, it is debatable whether the cost of control is justified. In the
higher value western white, ponderosa, and sugar pine, control
measures developed in cooperation with the Bureau of Entomology
are worthwhile. Because the loss from insects goes on so quietly it
has been much less easy to focus public attention on it than on fire
losses, and to obtain adequate appropriations for control measures.
What is needed is a flexible fund like that used for fire suppression which
will enable control action to be undertaken promptly when the need
arises, as it often does quite suddenly. The next best thing would be
an annual appropriation of at least $200,000, to be used if needed, in
place of the approximately $100,000 appropriation such as was made
for the fiscal year 1933. Apart from this, the Bureau of Entomology
should have added funds for research into the habits of the insects
and the most effective means of control.

The more spectacular losses caused by defoliators, such as the hem-
lock looper, occur much less frequently, give little or no advance
warning, and are extremely difficult to control, though dusting with
insecticides from airplanes may offer substantial possibilities. To
meet emergencies arising from sudden attacks of this sort, the flexible
fund is especially important, particularly for further experimental
efforts of control.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 601

FOREST TREE DISEASES

The chestnut blight, which in the space of a few years killed nearly
all the chestnut timber in the Atlantic Coast States, is evidence of
what a forest tree disease can do. The productivity of the national
forests in the Appalachians, measured -in terms of value of product,
has been substantially decreased by the virtual elimination of chest-
nut. Unhappily no means of control has yet been found. The
only present hope for the return of chestnut lies in the possibility of
the natural development of a blight-resistant variety among the young
growth slowly coming back in spots.

There are other troublesome tree diseases which, though not of
major consequence, constitute a certain degree of handicap in timber
growing, and, in the case of two important species, may contain the
making of a real menace in the future. Of these, the various trunk
rots which infect trees injured by fire, logging, or other means, cause
a large annual loss of wood by their destruction of part of the mer-
chantable portion of the tree. The amount of material which has to
be discarded because of rot when timber is cut often runs as much as
10 per cent of the total volume of the mature stand, and occasionally
amounts to a third or more of the volume. Until the present mature
and overmature stands are cut and the forests placed under more
intensive management which will cut trees before ovennaturity
occurs and allows decay to become measurable, there will continue
to be a large aggregate loss of volume by the continued encroachment
of wood decay. Better fire protection and increased care in logging
will minimize the attacks of these wood-rotting fungi in the young
stands.

Damage in the form of retarded tree growth is caused by mistletoe,
abundant in some pine stands in the West. The only practical con-
trol measures lie in cutting infected trees as much as possible in timber-
sale operations. A form of rust has damaged some of the ponderosa-
pine plantations, but not to a serious extent in the aggregate. More
serious have been the losses of nursery stock from the " damping-off "
fungus, but effective control measures for this fungus have been
developed.

The possible menace lies in the potentialities of the larch canker,
which has appeared in the eastern larch stands but has apparently
been controlled, should it get into the more extensive western larch
forests, and in a Douglas fir canker, quite troublesome in introduced
stands of this species in Europe, but not yet found in the great Douglas
fir forests of the West. Constant watchfulness is required to prevent
these fungi from gaining a hold where they might cause extensive
destruction.

The tree disease of an immediately alarming nature is the white-
pine blister rust, which is rapidly gaining a strong foothold in the
western white-pine forests of north Idaho, northeastern Washington,
and western Montana, and is spreading steadily toward the sugar-
pine stands in California. Both of these high-value species mean a
great deal in the economic life of the regions where they are found in
abundance, especially in north Idaho, where the entire lumber
industry rests chiefly on the white-pine forests. Likewise, the lumber
of these species is an important, widely used commodity.

There is a big task on the national forests to eradicate this
menace. Part of the job of control is a joint one between Federal,

602 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

State, and private owners. Appropriations by all three agencies
have been made for a cooperative drive to control the pest, which can
be done by the practical measure of destroying the wild currants and
gooseberries which are the indispensable alternate host of the disease.
What has been done so far, however, is wholly inadequate to meet the
situation. For the national forests alone, in the north Idaho region,
not less than $400,000 per year should be appropriated, and this will
probably have to be continued for at least 10 years.

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS

A major objective of the Forest Service has been to bring the utmost
efficiency into the business management of the national forests.
The organization has been developed with that purpose constantly in
mind, and has been adjusted whenever necessary to promote that
object. More economical ways of doing work have been constantly
sought. The men of the Forest Service have done much of their own
inventing in the development of time-and cost-saving devices. Thus
special fire-fighting tools have been developed to lighten the fire-
chaser's pack and get him on the fire more quickly; plows have been
developed for machine or horse traction to speed and cheapen the
construction of fire trenches; a similar method has been adopted for
much of the trail construction; notable pioneer work has been done
in devising inexpensive machinery to lower the cost of the simple fire
protection roads constructed by the Forest Service; a cheap portable
radio has been built to afford quick communication with remote fire
crews and avoid telephone line investments. In all ways the effort
has been to make the public dollar buy the utmost in net public
benefit.

While business on the national forests has been growing at a steady
and rapid rate, the Forest Service has steadily reduced the number of
its ranger districts by putting more territory under one ranger, and
has likewise reduced the number of year-long employees engaged in
national-forest protection and administration. In several cases two
national forests have been combined under one head. Figure 7
furnishes a comparison between 1920 and 1931 in the matter of ranger
districts and the entire year-long administrative personnel of the
Forest Service, and the major items in protection and administration
handled by these employees.

Toward this, several major factors have contributed. One of the
most obvious is the much greater facility of transportation by the
substitution in large measure of the automobile for the saddle and
pack horse, enabling one man to cover much more territory and work
in a given time. The great extension of the telephone system has
been helpful in expediting business. The formerly sizeable jobs of
examining lands applied for as forest homesteads, of examining and
reporting on a large number of homestead and mining claims coming
up for patent, of getting evidence for action on timber trespass com-
mitted chiefly before active administration of the national forests
began, of running lines to find out where the national-forest boundaries
really were, of making long trips for mail and supplies, have all greatly
diminished, leaving more time for more productive business.

Changes in factors such as the foregoing, and in volume and char-
acter of work, have been caught up periodically by searching analyses

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

603

of the amount and seasonal distribution of the work on each ranger
district, and of the physical and other factors controlling the accom-
plishment of the work. Thus overloads and underloads could be

DECREASES IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION

. 842

NUMBER OF RANGER DISTRICTS <

2,505

NUMBER OF ADMINISTRATIVE ! 19CO
EMPLOYEES | IQCJI

INCREASES IN THE WORK

f

6,078

NUMBER OF FOREST FIRES 1 '92O
SUPPRESSED I |93|

8,466

I.26O

NUMBER OF'FIRE GUARDS TRAIN- 1 1920
ED AND SUPERVISED | 1931

f 1920
NUMBER OF RECREATION VISITORS<
|_I93I

NUMBER OF LAND USE PERMITS I I92°
IN FORCE (J93I

NUMBER OF LAND EXCHANGE 1 '92O
CASES CONSUMMATED j 1931

AREAS INVOLVED IN f I9£O
CONSUMMATED LAND PURCHASE <
AND LAND EXCHANGE CASES- ACR ES [_ '931

f 1920

3,395

4. 832,671
32,108,043

25.6OI

36, -*57

dl

135

1 16,217
893,085

894-, 191

TIMBER CUT- M. FT. BM. <
[_ 1930

NUMBER OF NATIONAL FOREST I '920
TIMBER USERS j (931

f I92O
NUMBER OF STOCK GRAZED <

f I92O
MILES OF ROAD CONSTRUCTIONS
(PLANNED AND DIRECTED) 1 193 1

(~I920
MILES OF TRAIL CONSTRUCTION^
(PLANNED AND DIRECTED) 1 1931

5O.6O6

97,^.91

9,587 166

8,061,309

7O3

8.613

FIGURE 1. — A steadily decreasing administrative organization has handled a steadily increasing volume
of work; a comparison between the years 1920 and 1931. Number of stock grazed has slightly de-
creased, but not enough to measurably lighten the work. (1930 is used for "timber cut" because it
was the last normal year for this class of business; 1920 is fiscal year, 1931 calendar year.)

adjusted. Systematic cost-keeping has shown the cost of each line
of work and each project, and has promptly disclosed opportunities
for more economical performance.

Of major influence has been the persistent effort to systematize
and improve performance by the use of carefully prepared work plans

604 A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

which set up a definite scheme for doing the work in the most time-
saving way, but always aiming at established standards of quality.
Coordinate with this is the training given the entire organization by
means of group training camps for both new and old men, meetings
for the discussion of problems and adoption of new policies and
programs, study courses conducted by correspondence on subjects
directly related to the work, and the systematic placing of recruits
under capable older men for breaking in.

One reason why these efforts have borne so much fruit lies in the
permanency of the wholly non-political organization which it has been
possible to build up under civil service appointment and in accord-
ance with well-established, long-time objectives and policies. Too
many State forest organizations have been unstable because of
political influences or lack of a definite program understood and
supported by the public. Too often privately emploved foresters
have been among the first to be discharged when adversity overtook
their employers. Forestry is a job demanding permanence of or-
ganization and program.

Coordinate with the permanency of the national-forest organization
is the character of the organization. It is one in which there are few
single line specialists, but rather men who are trained in the conception
of the multiple but coordinated purposes of the national forests, and
who are called upon to do well many different sorts of work. Thus
the forest ranger marks and scales timber, inspects the grazing
ranges, builds and repairs telephone lines, fights fire, lays out and
develops campgrounds, and does a multiptude of other things, dove-
tailing them through the medium of his work plan. This makes for
a large saving of time and expense otherwise inevitable under an
organization built up differently, along strictly functional lines.

Figure 7, while omitting the less time-consuming activities, gives
a good idea of the large volume of work on the national forests in a
normal year and emphasizes the importance of systematized execu-
tion.

The national forests have not yet become self-supporting. Aside
from the expenditures which go into capital investments, such as
improvements, planting, fundamental research, and the like, they
could easily in normal times be made to pay from income the current
administrative and protective costs if the sale of national-forest tim-
ber were pushed without regard to the general economic effect of
such action, if the grazing privileges were leased to the highest bidder
instead of apportioned among those most dependent thereon at a fee
fixed at the lower end of the commercial range — and that fee occa-
sionally remitted or reduced by Congress or administrative action
when severe drought or similar adversity overtakes the ranges — and if
all recreation were put on a charge basis. Table 3 shows the national-
forest costs and receipts for the 10-year period ending with the fiscal
year 1930, the last reasonably normal business year. This compari-
son shows that the ratio of receipts to the straight current costs of
protecting and administering the national forests, including main-
tenance of improvements, during the 10-year period never dropped
below 55 percent and ranged from that figure up to 99 percent, with
a 10-year average of 72 percent. Later, when the timber resources
are fully utilized, the current income will undoubtedly substantially
exceed the current expense, though some added personnel will be
required as the business substantially further increases.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

605

TABLE 3. — National forest receipts and expenditures, 10-year period, fiscal years

1921-30, inclusive

Fiscal
year

Administration and protection of national
forests

Capital in-
vestments 3

Total expendi-
tures

Total
receipts

Ratio
of re-
ceipts
to ad-
minis-
trative
and
protec-
tive
costs

Fire control

All other 1

Total

1921

$1,004,362.25
2, 251, 447. 84
2, 167, 053. 40
1, 841, 376. 31
3, 764, 399. 59
2, 765, 622. 58
4, 496, 379. 38
2, 835, 757. 68
3, 486, 863. 62
6, 014, 738. 84

$5, 450, 790. 50
3, 233, 066. 92
3, 430, 892. 80
3,442,156.68
3, 557, 316. 32
3, 960, 204. 30
4, 950, 608. 65
5, 232, 340. 96
5,341,716.81
5, 591, 218. 87

$6, 455, 152. 75
5,484,514.76
5, 597, 946. 20
5, 283, 532. 99
7, 321, 715. 91
6, 725, 826. 88
9, 446, 988. 03
8, 068, 098. 64
8, 828, 580. 43
11, 605, 957. 71

$1, 812, 439. 81
2, 567, 462. 51
4, 405, 616. 10
4, 726, 943. 60
5, 336, 322. 78
6, 149, 047. 58
5, 384, 254. 54
6, 108, 040. 62
5, 748, 974. 04
6, 208, 764. 28

$8, 267, 592. 56
8, 051, 977. 27
10, 003, 562. 30
10, 010, 476. 59
12, 658, 038. 69
12, 874, 874. 46
14, 831, 242. 57
14, 176, 139. 26
14, 577, 554. 47
17,814,721.99

$4, 151, 931. 42
5, 068, 527. 42
5,335,818.13
5,251,903.11
5, 000, 137. 49
5,155,661.02
5, 166, 605. 74
5, 441, 434. 80
6, 299, 801. 86
6,751,553.22

Per cent
64
92
95
99
68
77
55
67
71
58

1922

1923 .. .
1924.. .
1925..
1926. . _
1927. . .
1928 -. .
1929. . .
1930

Total-

30, 628, 001. 49

44, 190, 312. 81

74, 818, 314. 30

48, 447, 865. 86

123, 266, 180. 16

53, 623, 374. 21

72

1 Includes maintenance of improvements.

2 Roads, trails, other improvements, plantations, etc.

This difference between income and outgo for running expenses,
totaling approximately 21 million dollars for the 10 years, has been
a low price to pay toward the current benefits of the national forests
and the values added thereto in part by this outlay. For the period
1926 to 1930, inclusive, the ratio of area burned on the national for-
ests to the "allowable burn" 1 was 1.07, on all forest lands outside
the national forests 11.00; the productivity of the timber and forage
resources was substantially increased by cultural operations; the recre-
ational opportunities of the national forests were much more fully
explored and embraced within systematic plans for their use. Thus
the excess of current expense over income was no deficit; it was a
dividend-paying investment.

A full commercialization of the national forests might serve the
public interests less well than the present policy. It must always
be remembered, too, that the national forests create hundreds of
times as much income as goes directly into the Treasury from their
use. One thousand board feet of stumpage may bring the Treasury
$3, but before it has finally gone into a house as lumber or a news-
paper as paper pulp it will have been the cause of 10 to 20 times
that much money being paid in wages, transportation, taxes, and
for supplies and equipment. The steer which grazes on the national
forests for 75 cents for the season sells for 10 or 15 times that much
per hundred pounds in the fall, and out of that comes wages, taxes,
freight, supplies, and after that the packer, the railroad again, and
the butcher get their returns from handling the national-forest grass-
fed animal. The tourist who camps on the forest, who patronizes
a permitted resort, who hunts and fishes, puts money into circulation
which multiplies many times the direct return to the Treasury or
the cost thereto for supervising his use of the forest. So the national
forests are great producers of raw material, on which rests an inverted
pyramid of wealth in the form of both dollars and the intangible
things like recreational and spiritual enjoyment, which pay for them-
selves fully in one form or another.

1 Allowable burn is the average annual burned acreage which it is estimated can be tolerated without
defeating the full accomplishment of the resource management plans and objectives.

THE INDIAN FORESTS

By HENRY B. STEER, Senior Forest Economist, United States Forest Service

(Formerly Supervisor of Forests, United States Indian Service, Department of

the Interior)

CONTENTS

Page

Historical 607

Extent and importance of the Indian forest resources 610

Timber 613

Annual cut and potential production of timber 613

Management of Indian forests 614

Land and allotment policy 614

Peculiar aspects of Indian problem 618

General forest policy 620

Silvicultural practice 621

Grazing resources and administration 621

Watershed protection and water conservation 623

Wildlife 623

Recreational possibilities 624

Other uses of Indian forests by Indians 624

Forest fire prevention and suppression 626

Control of insects and disease 627

Development of personnel 628

Cost of forestry work 629

Conclusion 629

Literature cited 632

HISTORICAL

Among the duties assigned to the War Department, when it was
created by Congress under the act of August 7, 1789, were those
" relative to Indian affairs."

The Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was created in the
War Department by the act of July 9, 1832. Subject to the Secretary
of War and the President, the Commissioner was to have "the direc-
tion and management of all Indian affairs and all matters arising out
of Indian relations." Two years later, on June 30, 1834, an act was
passed "to provide for the organization of the Department of Indian
Affairs." Certain agencies were established, others abolished. This
act, considered the organic law of the Indian Department, provided
for subagents, interpreters, and other employees, the payment of
annuities, the purchase and distribution of supplies, etc.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs passed from military to civil control
when the Department of the Interior was created by the act of March
3, 1849. Under section 441 of the Revised Statutes —

The Secretary of the Interior is charged with the supervision of public business
relating to * * * the Indians;

and section 463 provides that —

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall, under the direction of the Secretary of
the Interior and agreeable to such regulations as the President may prescribe,
have the management of all Indian affairs and of all matters arising out of Indian
relations (1, p. I).1

Italic figures in parentheses refer to literature cited, p. 632.

607

608 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Thus the Bureau of Indian Affairs has had the custody and manage-
ment of Indian matters for over 100 years.

From the date of discovery of f this country, when, nominally at
least, the Indians were in possession of all the land, certain Indian
rights of occupancy have been recognized, and it has been customary
from the earliest days to secure at least a color of title from the Indians
by the payment of a relatively small sum for the land that was ac-
quired from the natives. A Federal act of 1790 (1 Stat.L.137) pro-
vided that no sale of land by an Indian or a tribe to any person or per-
sons or to any State should be valid unless made under the provisions
of a Federal treaty with the tribe. Under authority of this act the
Federal Government continued to make treaties with the Indians for
the cession of lands as if they were separate nations (2, p. 1041).
Lands reserved to the Indians by these treaties came to be known as
"Treaty reservations." This policy was discontinued in 1871, when
by act of March 3 (16 Stat.L.566) the Congress declared that there-
after no treaties should be made with Indian tribes. By this act the
Congress asserted its plenary power to legislate with respect to Indian
affairs and to make whatever disposition of Indian lands appeared
necessary or advisable. This power, even to the extent of abrogating
a treaty, has been fully sustained by the Supreme Court. Under
authority of this act, the lands which have been set aside for the use
and occupancy of the various Indian bands and tribes by Executive
orders have come to be known as " Executive order reservations."

Under various enabling acts, many allotments to individual Indians
or additions to existing reservations have been made from the unappro-
priated public domain and many thousands of acres of land have been
purchased for tribal or individual Indian use. Thus the four sources
of Indian lands now under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs are in order of their importance, as follows:

1. Treaty reservations.

2. Executive order reservations.

3. Additions to reservations by —

(a) Purchase.

(b) Executive order from public domain.

(c) Executive order from national forests, and other national

reservations.

4. Individual allotments —

(a) From unappropriated public domain.

(b) By purchase.

The various Indian reservations originally contained, as many of
them still do, a great deal of fine timber. As has been the case with
other forms of Indian property, the amount of interest, both official
and general, evidenced in Indian timber has kept pace with the
economic value of this Indian property. Generally speaking, Indian
reservations were made in what was then relatively inaccessible
country, and the exploitation of Indian timber resources, whether
irregular and illegal in the early days as has been alleged, or under the
supervision of the Federal Government in more recent times, has
grown with the general economic development of those regions in
which Indian reservations with important timber resources were
located. Thus, from 1789 when the "Indian problem" was first
officially recognized until the early 1880's, no great amount of atten-
tion was paid to the question of the actual ownership or management

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 609

of the timber on Indian reservations. It was an early policy of the
Indian Service, however, to permit Indians to remove timber from
reservations for sale.

Due to the actual need of the Indians and of their still more urgent imaginary
need for funds, and in view of the pecuniary interest of the lumbermen and their
agents in the acquirement of logs or stumpage from Indian lands, it may be
conceded that not all the proceedings were strictly regular and ethical (2,
p. 1042).

During this period the Indian timberlands were probably subject
to much less illegal pilfering than were the timber resources of the en-
tire Nation which were contained within the great area of unsettled,
unpatented public lands. Although many complaints of timber
stealing from public and Indian lands had been made in the early
part of the nineteenth century it was not until the late 1860's that
reports of reservation timber looting became numerous. Additional
complaints during the next 20 years aroused public interest in this
phase of the problem of Indian affairs, sufficiently to stir up a con-
gressional investigation of Indian timberlands in the Lake States in
March 1888 (3, p. 228).

For many years there had been a difference of opinion as to whether
or not the property rights vested in the Indians for reservations estab-
lished by treaties or Executive orders included standing timber.
As late as 1873 it was declared by the highest court that the Indians
had only a bare right of occupancy in their lands, and in 1888 and
1890 two successive Attorneys General of the United States held that
the proceeds derived from timber cut in trepass from lands held in
common by Indians under the ordinary Indian title belonged to the
United States and not to the Indians of the band occupying the
reservation (2, p. 1042). These decisions were greatly at variance
with the then existing policy of the Indian Service, which allowed
Indians to remove timber for sale. This difference of opinion, the
complaints of irregularities in Indian timber matters, and the grow-
ing consciousness or awakening of the entire Nation to the general
timber problem, were all factors in bringing the timber resources of
the Indians before the public, and for the enactment of legislation
looking to the proper management of these resources. Although the
question of property rights in timber has been definitely settled by
Supreme Court decisions, many people still think of and discuss
Indian timber resources as if they were public property.

By an act of February 16, 1889 (25 Stat.L., 673) the Congress
authorized the cutting of dead timber from any Indian reservation
for sale, providing the President was satisfied there was no evidence
that the timber had been intentionally burned. Several other acts
pertaining to specific reservations (3, p. 230) were passed from 1889
on, which are interesting mainly because they were instrumental in
setting up governmental machinery to dispose of Indian timber and
mark the beginning of forestry work in the Indian Service, in that
they provide for "the scientific and businesslike disposal of the
Indian pine lands and the full protection of the rights of the Indian
in connection therewith."

No act of general application other than the "dead and down" act
of February 16, 1889, was passed until the act of June 25, 1910 (36
Stat.L., 857) which authorized the sale of mature timber from allotted
lands anywhere within the United States and from tribal lands of any

610 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

reservation except those in the States of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
This act provided that the proceeds derived from sales of timber
from tribal lands should be used for the benefit of the Indians of the
reservation from which the timber was sold.

Prior to the passage of this act no general policy for the manage-
ment of the Indian forest property had been promulgated. Ques-
tions of forestry policies on the several reservations had been handled
administratively on the basis of the merits and needs of individual
cases, and in accordance with legislation concerning specific reserva-
tions. For a short period (January 1908 to July 1909) the adminis-
tration of Indian timberlands was under the jurisdiction of the Forest
Service of the Department of Agriculture, but this agreement was
in effect for too short a time to have much bearing on the develop-
ment of a forest policy on Indian lands. Prior to 1910 the main
development and exploitation of the Indian forests had, for economic
reasons, taken place in the Lake States. The more inaccessible
reservations of the West had received comparatively little attention,
for the economic development of the West had not yet reached the
point where there was any strong demand for the timber on these
reservations.

The act of 1910, however, clearly contemplated conservative man-
agement of Indian timberlands, providing as it did for departmental
regulations, and necessitating the development of a staff of men to
carry out the intent of the act.

The organization of the forestry branch of the Indian Service, as
it is today, was begun early in 1910, the Indian Appropriation Act
for the fiscal year 1910 having set aside $100,000.

To enable the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the
Secretary of the Interior, to make investigations on Indian reservations and take
measures for the purpose of preserving living and growing timber, and removing
dead timber, standing or fallen; to advise the Indians as to the proper care of
forests, and to conduct such timber operations and sales of timber as may be
deemed advisable and provided for by law.

Similar items in every Indian appropriation act subsequent to 1910
have made possible the building up of the Forestry Branch of the
Indian Service.

EXTENT AND IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIAN FOREST

RESOURCES

The fact that the net acreage of Indian land has increased in
recent years is of interest. On June 30, 1929, there were approxi-
mately 71 million acres of lands held in trust for the Indians by the
Government, of which 39 million acres had been allotted to individual
Indians and 32 million acres was unallotted or tribal land (table 1).
During the fiscal years ending June 30, 1930, and June 30, 1931, the
area of Indian allotted lands increased by about 43,000 acres, owing
to the excess of acreage of new allotments over acreage of allotted
land sold and fee patented, and the area of unallotted land increased
by about 181,000 acres, the excess of areas purchased and added by
Executive orders over areas allotted; making a net increase of about
224,000 acres.

Approximately 9 million acres of Indian forest land are under the
jurisdiction of the Forestry Branch of the Indian Service, but it is
impossible to list these lands as allotted or unallotted.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

611

There are approximately 40 millions of acres of grazing land on
the Indian reservations that are of major importance from a grazing
standpoint.

TABLE 1. — Areas of Indian lands, by regions

Kegion and State

Total area

Allotted
lands

Unallotted
lands i

Forest
lands man-
aged by
Forestry
Branch 2

Grazing
lands on
large reser-
vations 3

Middle Atlantic' New York

Acres

87, 677

Acres

Acres
87, 677

Acres

Acres

South:
Florida

26, 741

26, 741

North Carolina

63, 211

63,211

56,000

Oklahoma

19, 184, 863

19, 145, 906

38, 957

Total

19, 274, 815

19, 145, 906

128,909

56,000

Central:
Iowa

3,480

3,480

(4)

Kansas _ -

272, 661

271, 478

1,183

Nebraska..

360, 057

352, 652

7,405

Total

636, 198

624, 130

12,068

(<)

Lake:

Michigan

273, 702

273, 547

155

Minnesota - --------

1, 491, 026

935, 299

555, 727

870,000

North Dakota

2, 194, 010

2, 192, 903

1,107

462, 768

Wisconsin -

604, 459

330, 874

273, 585

410,000

Total

4, 563, 197

3, 732, 623

830, 574

1, 280, 000

462, 768

Rocky Mountain North:
Idaho

677,206

619, 847

57, 359

58, 675

428, 896

Montana.. _.

6, 529, 436

5, 759, 301

770, 135

1, 249, 986

5, 325, 062

Total

7, 206, 642

6, 379, 148

827, 494

1, 308, 661

5, 753, 958

Rocky Mountain South:
Arizona _ _ .

20, 463, 020

172, 868

20, 290, 152

1, 454, 000

20, 617, 068

Colorado

478, 154

82, Oil

396, 143

184,000

Nevada _ . _ . -

847, 409

15, 227

832, 182

4,000

271,449

New Mexico

3, 888, 821

353, 971

3, 534, 850

362,000

1, 799, 100

South Dakota . .. ... --

6, 671, 906

6, 408, 795

263, 111

40,000

4, 963, 656

Utah

452, 627

111,947

340, 680

131,000

311,333

Wyoming

2, 243, 822

246, 822

1, 997, 000

200,000

1, 869, 367

Total

35, 045, 759

7, 391, 641

27,654, 118

2, 375, 000

29, 831, 973

Pacific Coast:
California _ - . -

595, 171

99, 840

495, 331

253,000

Oregon

1, 742, 938

619, 063

1 123,875

1, 464, 000

1,551 963

Washington

1, 991, 818

1, 136, 917

854,901

1, 910, 037

2, 168, 897

Total

4,329 927

1, 855, 820

2 474 107

3,627 037

3 720 860

United States

71, 144 215

39 129,268

32 014 947

5 8 646 698

39,769 559

1 General data concerning Indian reservations. Office of Indian Affairs, October 1929, p. 21.

2 From an extensive survey made by the Forest Service, 1931-32.

3 From an unpublished report of an economic survey of the range resources and grazing activities on
Indian reservations, by Lee Muck, July 1931.

* Less than 500.

6 This figure does not include 6,772,000 acres of the noncommercial forest land, mostly of pinon-juniper
type, in Arizona and New Mexico.

In national terms, the 71 million acres of Indian reservations
amount to about 3.7 percent of the total land area of the United
States; the 9 million acres of Indian forest lands constitute only
1.4 percent of all potential forest land; and the 40 million acres
of grazing land on Indian reservations are only 5 percent of all
range lands. However, because the majority of the Indian reserva-
tions are located in the central and western regions of the country,
the importance of Indian forest and range lands is much greater
when considered from a regional standpoint. The distribution of
forest lands is shown in table 2. Similar detail for grazing lands is not
available, but since these are mainly found on the larger reservations,
the bulk of them is in Western States where the stock-raising industry
is most actively engaged.

612

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 2. — Comparison of Indian forest lands and timber with totals for States

and regions 1

Forest land

Saw-timber stand

Region and State

All land

Indian reservations

All timber

Indian reservations

Lake:
North Dakota

M acres
545
19,500
21, 127
16, 595

M acres

Percent

Million
ft.b.m.
53
16, 430
8,580
10, 824

Million
ft.b.m.

Percent

Minnesota - - -

870
410

4.12
2.47

115
969

1.34
8.95

Wisconsin

Total.—

57, 767

2,358
17,500

1,280

2.22

35,887

1,084

3.02

Central (West):

(2)

1,107
3,689

(2)

Missouri - - - -

Total

19, 858

(2)

4,796

(2)

North Rocky Mountain:
Idaho - - -

22,479
20,267

59
1,250

.26
6.17

96,592
49, 796

63
2,227

.07
4.47

Montana

Total

42, 746

1,309

3.06

146, 388

2,290

1.56

South Rocky Mountain:
Arizona - - -

19, 426
20,116
10, 847
1,875
19,729
8,383
6,714

3 1, 454
184
4
40
3362
131
200

7.48
.91
.04
2.13
1.83
1.56
2.98

19, 827
47, 379
778
3,208
14, 389
7,791
32,584

5,538

27.93

Colorado

Nevada - --. --- ... .-

South Dakota

48
534
10
865

1.50
3.71
.13
2.65

New Mexico

Utah - -

Wyoming .

Total

87, 090

2,375

2.73

125, 956

6,995

5.55

Pacific coast:
California

27, 371
29,956
22, 215

253

1,464
1,910

.92
4.89
8.60

282, 460
437, 852
321, 316

2,918
9,130
9,294

1.03
2.09
2.89

Oregon - - - - .

Washington

Total

79, 542

3,627

4.56

1,041,628

21, 342

2.05

1 Forest Service, data. Areas withdrawn from timber use, as in parks, not included.

2 Less than 500.

s These figures do not include the acreage of noncommercial pinon-juniper type.

In certain lumber- and livestock-producing localities (subdivisions
of the regions given in table 2), and on important protection water-
sheds, Indian timber, range lands, and protection forests constitute
one of the major classes of ownership and play an important part in
industry and protection.2 For example: Of the commercial timber
tributary to the Klamath Falls (Oreg.) lumber manufacturing dis-
trict, 47 percent is privately owned, 31 percent is on national forests,
and 22 percent is on the Klamath Indian Reservation.

Of the commercial timber tributary to the upper Columbia River
(Okanogan, Ferry, and Stevens Counties in Washington), 33 percent
is privately owned; 32 percent is on Indian reservations; 25 percent
on national forests; and 10 percent on State lands.

In eastern Oregon, including the Klamath District, the cut of
Indian timber is over 20 percent of the total annual cut.

Similar examples showing the regional importance of Indian pro-
tection forests and grazing lands could be given if space permitted.
Although some of the Indian reservations do not have timber and

2 The following examples are taken from an unpublished report (1931) by Lee Muck on the status of
Indian forests in relation to a national program of sustained yield.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

613

grazing resources of great commercial importance, and the develop-
ment of these resources will naturally be limited to local requirements;
yet, in formulating a national or regional forest program of general
application, the major commercial forest and grazing resources of the
Indians, comprising as they do a considerable portion of the total
regional potentialities, should be reckoned with and assigned to their
proper place in the general scheme of things.

TIMBER

Indian forest lands support various kinds of timber, including the
Appalachian hardwoods of North Carolina; the pine, hemlock, and
hardwoods of the Lake States; the pine-fir-larch of Montana and the
Inland Empire ; the fir-spruce-cedar of the North Pacific ; the redwood-
fir of California; and the pine types of Arizona.

Of the 16 Western States containing approximately 68 K million
acres of Indian land (or about 96 percent of the total) (table 1) six
States, the Dakotas, Nevada, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, do
not contain Indian-owned forests in sufficient quantities to be of
commercial importance. The bulk of merchantable timber in Indian
ownership is in the States of Washington, Arizona, Oregon, and
Montana, and consists of stands of timber typical of these States.

Accurate statistics of the extent and character of these resources
are not available. The Forestry Branch of the Indian Service esti-
mates, however, that there remained on June 30, 1931, approximately
30 billion feet of merchantable Indian-owned timber with a value of
approximately $100,000,000, and about 10 billion feet of unmerchant-
able timber. Although a large part of the merchantable timber stands
on lands which have been allotted to individual Indians, large bodies
of timber remain in tribal ownership on some reservations.

ANNUAL CUT AND POTENTIAL PRODUCTION OF TIMBER

Over 7K billion feet of timber with a value of about $33,000,000
has been removed from Indian lands under the jurisdiction of the
Forestry Branch of the Indian Service since 1910, as given by years
in table 3. This total does not include approximately 2 billion feet
of timber which was sold from lands of the ceded Chippewas in Min-
nesota under the supervision of the General Land Office, and sales of
land and timber belonging to the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes in
Oklahoma for about $9,000,000.

TABLE 3. — Timber cut from Indian lands 1

Year

Volume

Value

Year

Volume

Value

1910

Mft. b.m.

141, 532

Dollars
900,612

1922

Mft. b.m.
216, 583

Dollars
808, 551

1911

137, 208

752 303

1923

493, 563

1, 856, 323

1912...

123, 472

739, 699

1924

510, 314

1, 937, 245

1913

170, 766

1, 028, 184

1925

467, 779

1, 921, 157

1914

143, 426

780 856

1926

579, 958

2, 446, 455

1915

138, 624

773, 483

1927

627, 365

2, 953, 752

1916

167, 602

726, 483

1928

639,244

2, 676, 779

1917

205, 312

715 453

1929

660,257

2, 818, 317

1918

323, 131

1, 253, 651

1930.

561,415

2, 313, 644

1919

291, 164

1, 303, 840

1931

314, 528

1, 238, 814

1920

398 485

1 585 812

1921

348, 300

1, 390, 436

Total

7, 660, 028

32, 921, 849

i Under jurisdiction of Forestry Branch.

614 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Detailed possibilities of the potentialities of Indian forest lands
for the production of tree crops are not available. The following
general conclusions, however, are self-evident, and represent the best
judgment of those familiar with Indian forest resources:

(a) Indian timber is being harvested faster than it is being replaced
by growth.

(6) The amount cut annually may be subject to some fluctuation
in the immediate future, but must inevitably decline from the most
recent 5-year average.

MANAGEMENT OF INDIAN FORESTS

LAND AND ALLOTMENT POLICY

The general policies of the Indian Service since its organization
have been subject to more or less change due both to administrative
judgment and to the changing nature of the Indian problem itself.
Since the problem of handling Indian forests is but one phase of the
Indian question, forest policies cannot determine general policies.
On the contrary, the exact opposite is true. The uncertain status of
Indian lands is the crux of the present unsatisfactory situation. Not
only is there no assurance that areas of Indian forest land now held
in tribal ownership will have that status a decade from now, but the
probability is that, in view of decisions of the Supreme Court, many
thousands of acres of heavily timbered tribal land which is mainly, if
not entirely, valuable for the growth of timber will be allotted to
individual Indians.

The land policy of the Indian Service is and has been dependent
almost in its entirety upon the then existing policy as to how Indian
land was to be held in ownership, and especially with regard to the
removal of measures originally designed to restrict the assumption of
the Indian of the responsibility of property ownership and the extent
to which he was able to forego his ancient method of living and assume
economic independence in direct competition with the whites.

Originally all Indian lands, whether reserved by treaties or set
aside by Executive orders, were held in common by the several tribes.
Relatively early in the history of the Indian Service many allotments
of land to individual Indians were made in fee, with a restriction on
alienation, except with the consent of the Secretary of the Interior.
Later on, under authority of the General Allotment Act of 1887,
known as the Dawes Act, and numerous later acts of general scope or
which pertained to specific reservations, many millions of acres of
land have been assigned to individual Indians. Allotment acts have
generally provided that the United States would hold the lands in
trust for the allottee for a period of 25 years from the date of allot-
ment, and at the end of that time would convey the land to the
allottee or his heirs "in fee, discharged of such trust and free of all
charge or incumbrance whatsoever." Trust periods have in many
cases been extended, and many thousands of fee patents have been
issued before the expiration of the trust period.

The primary purpose of the allotment (2, p. 1045) is theoretically
to provide a home for the Indian, and by encouraging and aiding
him in achieving economic independence by the pursuit of agricul-
tural and stock-raising activities dissolve the tribal relationship and
thus solve the Indian problem. There can be no doubt, in view of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 615

the general objective sought in the allotting of land to individual
Indians, that the original intention was to allot only agricultural
land. By implication the General Allotment Act of 1887 did not
include timberland. However, upon reservations where there was
an insufficiency of agricultural land to supply all members of the
tribe with allotments, where the better agricultural land was covered
with timber, where practically all the land was forested, or where the
allotment was made under special acts, timberlands have been
allotted. In addition to this, decisions of the courts (unfortunate
from the standpoint of timber conservation and sustained yield forest
management) have forced the allotting of many thousands of acres of
timberland to individual Indians. A notable example is the Quinaielt
Keservation in Washington. Recent legislation has been passed (act
of May 21, 1928), authorizing the allotment of grazing lands on the
Shoshone Reservation in Wyoming from which no Indian (or white)
can wrest a living.

Individual Indian allotments soon pass out of governmental
control in either of two ways :

1. By the issuance of fee patents or certificates of competency to
the allottees or their heirs, permitting their sale by the individual.

The records show that the lands of a vast majority of Indians who have been
given absolute control of their allotments have passed from Indian ownership in
various ways — by sale for small values, through unredeemed mortgages, and in
some instances by tax deeds (13, p. 10).

2. Through outright sales, made to private individuals or corpora-
tions by the Government for and in behalf of the allottees or their
heirs. The heirship of an Indian allotment frequently becomes so
badly involved that the shares of each heir are of small value and the
tangled records can best be cleared by an outright sale of the land.

The policy of the Indian Service with regard to the issuance of fee
patents and certificates of competency, and the sale of allotments has
varied greatly since 1900 and has had a marked effect on the formula-
tion and canying out of forest policies on these lands. Under provi-
sions of the acts of May 8, 1906 (34 St-at.L., 182) and June 25, 1910
(36 Stat.L., 855) fee patents were issued under a rather conservative
policy, until about 1916, when " competency commissions'* were
appointed which recommended the issuance of fee patents to large
numbers of "competent" Indians.

In 1920, the Commissioner (14, p. 49) reported:

Since the Declaration of Policy in 1917 (patents in fee issued to Indians of one
half or less Indian blood without any further proof of competency), 17,176 fee
patents have been issued which is nearly double the number issued in the 10
years preceding.

The rather liberal policy followed from 1915 to 1920 with regard to
the issuance of fee patents was made more conservative in 1921.
In 1922 the Commissioner stated (15, p. 15):

A stricter policy has been followed in issuing patents to Indians on the ground
of competency, as seemed to be required in order to more fully protect their
interests.

In his report for the fiscal year 1926, the Commissioner stated
(IS, p. 10):

For the past 5 years a conservative policy has been pursued in granting fee
titles to individual Indians * * *.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 40

616 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In 1927, the Secretary of the Interior recorded (8, p. 12) a still
further back swing of the pendulum:

* * * The act of February 26, 1927, which authorized the cancelation of
patents in fee issued without application for or consent of the patentee in cases
where the land has been neither encumbered nor sold. Pursuant to this legislation
and to decisions of the Federal court, a number of patents heretofore issued were
canceled.

It is interesting to note that the acreage of Indian allotments fee-
patented in those years for which data are available varied from over
1,400,000 acres in 1920 to about 30,000 in 1931.

Meriam and associates stated in 1928 (9, p. 40) that:

All land which has been or will be allotted to individual Indians must become
inherited land in a relatively short space of time, and will pass from Indian
ownership, as millions of acres have already done.

The problem of inherited land should be given thorough detailed study * * *.
It is doubtful if the serious nature of this problem was appreciated at the time
the allotment acts were passed. Because of this feature of the allotment system
the land of the Indians is rapidly passing into the hands of the whites, and a
generation of landless, almost penniless, unadjusted Indians is coming on. What
happens is this: The Indian to whom the land was allotted dies leaving several
heirs. Actual division of the land among them is impracticable. The estate is
either leased or sold to whites and the proceeds are divided among the heirs and
are used for living expenses. So long as one member of the family of heirs has
land the family is not landless or homeless, but as time goes on the last of the
original allottees will die and the public will have the landless, unadjusted Indians
on its hands.

This condition is already well advanced in some instances, such as
the Chehalis, Nisqually, and Skokomish Indians of Washington.
Meriam and associates also state (9, p. 41) that:

The policy of individual allotment has largely failed in the accomplishment of
what was expected of it. It has resulted in much loss of land and an enormous
increase in the details of administration without a compensating advance in the
economic ability of the Indian.

As to what has happened to allotments which have been fee-pat-
ented, the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for
the fiscal year 1921 (16, p. 25) contains this very interesting state-
ment:

As is well known, the law provides for issuing to the Indian a trust patent upon
the land allotted to him, which exempts it from taxation and restricts him from
its sale or encumbrance until he is declared competent to manage his business
affairs, when he may, upon application, receive a patent in fee and be free to
handle or dispose of his land the same as any white citizen.

It is doubtful if a satisfactory method has been found for determining the
competency upon which to base a termination of the trust title. Applications
for patents in fee have too often been adroitly supported by influences which
sought to hasten the taxable status of the property or to accomplish a purchase
at much less than its fair value, or from some other motive foreign to the Indian's
ability to protect his property rights.

Notwithstanding the sincere efforts of officials and competency commissions
to reach a safe conclusion as to the ability of an Indian to manage prudently his
business and landed interests, experience shows that more than two thirds of the
Indians who have received patents in fee have been unable or unwilling to cope
with the business acumen coupled with the selfishness and greed of the more
competent whites, and in many instances have lost every acre they had.

Thus the net result of continued allotting of land to individual
Indians will result in continued loss of land to the Indians with no
real compensating economic gain, and "the public will have the
landless unadjusted Indians on its hands." This applies particularly
to forest and range land.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 617

Many Americans entertain the very erroneous view that the individuals in
every tribe or band of Indians, to whom allotments have been made, have received
all that they need to enable them to achieve economic independence. This
view is based upon egregious misunderstanding of the facts. There are hundreds,
possibly thousands, of instances (greatly increased since this article was written)
in which Indians have been given allotments of 80 or 160 acres upon which it
is utterly impossible for an Indian, or a white man, to make a livelihood. Such
individuals must on many reservations rely upon the privilege of grazing stock
on tribal land to obtain a living (12, p. 619).

On many reservations relatively large areas of forest and range
lands remain which if retained in tribal ownership and conservatively
managed will not only be a source of uninterrupted revenue to the
Indians but will continue to play an important and essential part in
the economic life of the Indians by their use of tribal grazing, hunting,
and fishing resources. On many reservations Indians have already
lost their allotments, have not been assimilated, and are dependent
on tribal lands of their own tribe or that of other tribes for a place
to live.

The breakdown of unified ownership of tribal lands has not only
been accomplished through the making of allotments but has been
furthered by the throwing open to homestead entry by whites of
hundreds of thousands of acres of so-called "agricultural land" not
infrequently covered with timber, on which the white settlers have
been unable to make a living and which they have abandoned. To
the substantiation of this fact hundreds of abandoned shacks and
fairly well constructed houses now scattered over the Flathead
(Montana) and Colville (Washington) Reservations give mute but
impressive testimony.

The checkerboard ownership of forest lands on Indian reservations
which has resulted from the above and the knowledge that this
condition is apt to become worse in the future are responsible for
what is perhaps the most difficult problem of forest and range adminis-
tration on Indian lands. Indeed the damage done must not only be
corrected insofar as is practicable, but if the proper management of
Indian forest and range lands, both from the standpoint of the
Indian owners and the general public, is to be made possible, prompt
action must be taken to prevent like occurrences on reservations where
large areas of forest land remain in tribal ownership.

The time when the American Indians as a race will have acquired
a sufficient amount of general economic background, knowledge, and
ability to enable them to live successfully in a white man's world
without governmental aid has certainly not arrived yet. When it
will arrive is a matter of opinion and will depend in a large measure
upon how thoroughly and promptly the United States discharges its
all-too-evident duty to these people. Meriam and associates, after
a thorough investigation of the Indian problem (9, p. 746), ventured
this statement:

The survey staff found no evidence that warrants a conclusion that the Govern-
ment of the United States can at any time in the near future relinquish its guard-
ianship over the property of restricted Indians secured to the Indians by Govern-
ment action. Although the staff believes in the transfer of the activities relating
to the promotion of health, education, and social and economic advancement of
the Indians to the several States as rapidly as the States are ready effectively
to perform these tasks, it is of the opinion that the guardianship of property
should be the last duty thus transferred if it is transferred at all.

618 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PECULIAR ASPECTS OF INDIAN PROBLEM

In considering the management of Indian forest lands, allowance
must be made for certain aspects which are peculiar to the Indian
problem.

Indian lands "are private property, held in sacred trust by the
United States for the benefit of the Indians" (5, p. 841). The
United States Indian Service was designated by the Congress more
than 100 years ago as the Government bureau responsible for the
custody and administration of -Indian property, and this property
has been and is now handled by the Indian Service in accordance with
provisions of laws enacted by the Congress and interpreted by the
courts. Under these laws and interpretations the Indians are entitled
to enjoy the full benefit to be derived from forests and other natural
resources on their lands. Indian forests are owned by Indians and
managed primarily for the best benefit of their Indian owners, and
Indian forest policies and Indian forestry activities cannot be deter-
mined and carried on solely from the standpoint of technically correct
forest working or management plans, nor with the forest needs of the
entire body politic primarily in view.

Furthermore, forestry on Indian lands is inevitably tied up with
the general Indian problem, a complex puzzle not yet solved and
necessitating the consideration of many questions connected with the
educational, social, and industrial welfare of this race. The admin-
istration of Indian forest-property interests is inseparably inter-
twined with other phases of Indian administration (5, p. 842), and it
has sometimes been necessary to adopt Indian forest policies widely
divergent from theoretically correct forest-management policies be-
cause of the needs of the Indian owners. Indian forest policies must
be varied and modified to fit social and economic conditions on the
several reservations and even on different parts of the same reserva-
tion.

On some reservations the merchantable stand of timber on tribal
lands constitutes practically the only source of revenue from which
the cost of social and industrial betterments for the tribe can be met
by the Indian Service. Hundreds, nay, even thousands, of destitute
Indians have been allotted tracts of heavily timbered land. The only
means the Indian Service has had through which to keep these un-
fortunate people from starvation is to sell their timber and derive
therefrom as large a revenue as possible. Other recipients of heavily
timbered allotments have needed money for educational purposes, for
the building of houses, or for the purchase of farming equipment
(6, p. 473). Under such circumstances, insistence upon the practice
of a highly intensive forest policy cannot be justified. Such condi-
tions demand flexibility not only in formulating general policies but
in carrying them out.

Under the peculiar conditions which surround and govern the ad-
ministration of Indian affairs, the permanency of Indian forest poli-
cies can be no greater than the permanency of general Indian Service
policies which are based on legislation enacted by the Congress, inter-
preted by the courts, and carried out under regulations promulgated
or approved by the Secretary of the Interior. Under decisions of the
Supreme Court of the United States the status of Indian lands may
be modified at any time by an act of Congress. Furthermore, there

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 619

have been court decisions holding that lands which the Indian Service
considers primarily valuable for the production of timber crops may
be selected by individual Indians for allotment purposes and thus
become subject to private ownership irrespective of any policy or
purpose of the Interior Department to hold such lands for timber
production (or protection) purposes (7, p. 430).

The science of forestry, or at least that most fundamental phase of
forestry dealing with the production and management of forest crops,
is unavoidably a long-time proposition. Reasonable assurance as to
the stability of land ownership of areas to be put under a scientifically
evolved forest-management plan must be given before the postpone-
ment of some revenue from timber capital (under selective logging)
and the expenditure of money for permanent improvements, refore-
station, afforestation, and in some cases fire protection, can be justified.

These facts have long been recognized by those responsible for the
management of the forest properties of the Indians, and must occupy
the foreground of any picture of Indian forest policy or practice.

A further consideration that must be taken into account in any
appraisal of the Indian forest problem is that the Indian Service as a
whole, and the Forestry Branch in particular, has been undermanned
and underfinanced since inception. The annual report of the Bureau
of Indian Affairs for 1927 (8, p. 1) reads:

The Indian Service has not kept pace with the progress elsewhere along health,
educational, industrial, and social lines. The appropriations for general purposes
for the fiscal year 1923 were $10,316,221.30, and in the 5 fiscal years since they
have been increased by about $2,338,463.70, principally for medical and health
activities. But the cumulative effect of many years of financial neglect has
demanded even larger appropriations, if the Government may perform its full
duty to the American Indian. Underrating the requirements of the Indian
Service has continued so long that it has become a habit difficult to correct.

In considering what has been accomplished in forestry activities on
Indian lands in the last 22 years, the fact that the Forestry Branch of
the Indian Service has never had sufficient funds for needed personnel,
equipment, fire prevention and suppression, timber sale administra-
tion, and all other kinds of forestry work, must be fully recognized.
Although a complete record of the quantity of timber involved and
proceeds derived from timber sales from Indian lands has been kept,
accurate statistics of other activities of the Forestry Branch of the
Indian Service and of the forest properties under its supervision are,
generally speaking, not available, solely because, with the limited
authorized personnel and funds available, it has not been possible to
compile data of this character.

Finally, the public attitude toward Indian lands must be consid-
ered to have had a very considerable influence on management policies.
With but few exceptions, interest of the general public in the Indians
has kept pace with the appreciation in value of Indian property.
To quote (7, p. 431):

Just as land-hungry adventurers sought homestead and mining claims within
national forests (mainly between 1905 and 1918), so did they surge about the
borders of Indian reservations whetting their land appetities on various morsels
of misinformation with respect to the fortunes lying dormant — yea, indeed locked
up — within the illogical and arbitrary boundaries of Indian reservations.

It is a sad commentary on human nature, but a fact nevertheless,
that a large amount of the interest of the public in general and the
big majority of public organizations and individuals in Indian affairs

620 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

and property has been caused by cupidity. The result of the appli-
cation of intense local and national political pressure has created
serious questions in the actual management of Indian forest property.

GENERAL FOREST POLICY

The general policy of the Forestry Branch of the Indian Service
may be quoted as follows (7, p. 434) :

A. To administer all allotted timber lands so as to insure the highest present
economic return consistent with a reasonable consideration of the future use to
which the land will probably be devoted.

B. To administer all tribal lands that are primarily adapted to the production
of timber, or the protection of slopes, in such manner as to secure the highest
present economic return for the tribe that is consistent with theoretically correct
forestry principles and to preserve these lands so that whether they remain per-
manently as communal lands of a tribe, are acquired by the Federal or State
Government, or are sold in large areas to private interests, they shall remain
productive and capable of doing their part toward insuring the future welfare of
the citizens of the United States of which the Indians themselves are a part.

All sales of Indian timber made under authority of the act of Con-
gress of June 25, 1910, have clearly contemplated the cutting of the
timber in such manner as to insure the maintenance of the forest
cover on all lands primarily adapted to the production of timber crops.

In evolving and carrying out timber-sale plans the following points,
given in order of importance, have been considered :

A. The financial need of the Indians, individually and collectively.

B. The potential and actual resources of the Indians and the extent
to which it is necessary for them to liquidate their timber capital to
provide funds for social, educational, industrial, and general economic
betterments.

C. The demand for Indian stumpage.

D. The extent to which scientific forestry can be practiced in view
of the above.

Timber-sale plans, in addition to the above, must be and have
been varied to fit different silvicultural conditions obtaining on the
several reservations and even on different parts of the same reserva-
tion. In fact, when other considerations (particularly economic)
remain constant, timber-sale plans are almost entirely dependent
upon what is desirable and feasible from a silvicultural standpoint.

J. P. Kinney states the situation (7, p. 433) in general terms thus:

On many reservations a large part of the standing merchantable timber was
mature or over-mature and the removal of all mature timber would leave little
reproduction or advance growth. On areas of this character it has been the policy
to leave a part of the mature timber for seed trees. Where there is a mixed
stand of mature and immature trees of yellow pine, or mixed types, in the yellow-
pine region, a true selective cutting has been made. In the Douglas fir, cedar,
spruce, and hemlock type of western Washington we have generally followed
the policy of cutting all mature trees and, as all who are familiar with these coast
types know, very few trees of any species remain uninjured when the logging is
completed.

* * * The conditions are quite variable on reservations both in the North-
west and the Southwest. On the Colville in Washington fairly satisfactory
reproduction conditions exist which are coupled with most extreme fire danger;
on the adjoining Spokane fully as good reproduction factors are found with
materially lower fire risk and with a much larger percentage of the timber land
included within allotments; on a large part of the Klamath there is little repro-
duction or advance growth associated with over-mature stands, and on the
Flathead the saw timber has been reserved for the tribe on tens of thousands of
acres for which individual Indians have been given trust patents. * * * On

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 621

the Mescalero and Fort Apache Reservations in the Southwest, where excellent
conditions for western yellow pine reproduction and quite generally fair advance
growth on tribal lands are found, the reserving of a fair stand of vigorous young
or middle aged trees is justified; but on the Jicarilla where practically all timber
land is allotted and the beneficial interest of the tribe in the timber will expire
in 1932, the removal of the greater part of the mature timber is clearly indicated.

SILVICULTURAL PRACTICE

The forestry branch of the Indian Service is now guided, and has
been for some years, by broad conservative forest policies which may
be summarized as calling for the maximum returns from Indian forest
resources consistent with sound silviculture. Although the silvi-
cultural practice followed on the various reservations has been made
to fit local forest conditions wherever possible, the utter impossi-
bility of accomplishing very much silviculturally as long as land tenure
is most uncertain is obvious. In spite of this obstacle of uncertain
land tenure Indian Service foresters have been guided in the devel-
opment of silvicultural practice by the probable future use of lands
now forested as well as by the necessity of realizing the maximum
returns to the Indians. Notwithstanding the peculiar difficulties
involved, the development of silvicultural practice on Indian reser-
vations has kept pace with the general development of this science
on publicly managed lands and is far in advance of that obtaining
on the vast majority of private lands. The results obtained on two
reservations where the land tenure is less uncertain than on the
average reservation, namely the Menominee in Wisconsin and the
Klamath in Oregon, have been highly commended by foresters of
national and international reputation.

In view of legislation and court decisions which have resulted in
the allotting of much valuable timberlands to individual Indians,
sustained yield cannot be successfully practiced on some Indian
reservations until the property rights of individual Indians established
by the courts have been taken care of. If tribal forests are to be
established and put on a sustained yield basis, or if Indian forest
areas in their present ownership are to be put on that basis, individual
Indians must, in all equity, be compensated for the loss of income from
their personal property. Any plan of sustained yield and unified
ownership cannot, in justice to the Indian, be promulgated and legis-
lated without acknowledging and fully satisfying the property rights
of individual Indians. "Foresters should not sacrifice the well-
established rights of men on the altar of speculative theory as to the
rights of trees."

GRAZING RESOURCES AND ADMINISTRATION*

The scope of country embracing the important livestock-producing
Indian reservations is very large and includes many variations in
range conditions. Of the 40 millions of acres of grazing land in
Indian reservations about 13 million acres is in the Great Plains
region of the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming; 4 million acres in the
Intermountain region of Idaho and eastern Washington and Oregon;
and 23 million acres in the Southwestern States of Utah, Colorado,
Arizona, and New Mexico. These large areas, conforming in general
characteristics to those of the semiarid regions in which they are

3 Material presented under this heading has been taken, in part, from a report by Lee Muck, entitled
"An Economic Survey of the Range Resources and Qrazing Activities on Indian Reservations. "

622 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

situated, are suited to the large-scale production of range livestock.
The natural features of some reservations limit their economic pos-
sibilities to the development of this industry, and the crop of native
forage is the most valuable product of a large area of Indian lands.
In 1929, 1,396,776 head of stock owned by individual Indians, 51,411
head of tribally owned stock, and 946,069 head of permitted stock
owned by whites obtain pasturage on Indian reservations and brought
in a cash income of about $700,000.

Immediately after the organization of a forestry unit in the Indian
Service in 1910, attention was given to grazing conditions on reser-
vations in the Southwest, and for 6 or 8 years supervision of grazing
activities was maintained on several reservations. As efficient forest
organizations were developed on timbered reservations in the North-
west, range control has been assumed on the Flathead, Colville, and
Yakima Reservations (some 15 years ago), and more recently on the
Klamath, Spokane, and Tongue River Reservations. With these
exceptions, grazing matters on Indian lands have not been an activity
of the Forestry Branch, but have been handled by the superintendents
of the several reservations. On April 15, 1930, the Secretary of the
Interior placed the supervision of all range activities on Indian lands
in the forestry branch.

In the administration of Indian grazing resources, it has been the
policy of the Indian Service, in accordance with existing regulations,
which provide for season of use, number and class of stock, etc.,
to give preference to Indians owning herds. Excess grazing land
not needed by Indians is then blocked out into units and ade-
quately advertised, sealed bids are required, and the units are leased
to the highest bidders. This policy brings to the Indian owners the
greatest financial return from use by whites of their grazing resources.

The objectives of management and grazing policy have been sum-
marized by Muck in the report already cited as follows :

A. The preservation of land, water, forest, and forage in a safe and entire
state; the utilization of these resources for the purpose to which they were dedi-
cated by nature; and the full enjoyment thereof, today, without destroying the
promise of continued enjoyment tomorrow.

B. The permanent welfare of the livestock industry, generally, and the Indian
livestock industry in particular, through proper care and improvement of grazing
lands, under principles conforming to the requirements of practical operations.

C. The protection of the interests of the whole Indian people against unfair
competition, the inequable utilization or distribution of forage values and the
exploitation of communal and individual assets of the open range by the more
aggressive individuals.

D. The conservative utilization of all forage resources, primarily through the
development of the livestock industry among the Indians and secondarily,
through the regulated sale of grazing privileges to the end that economic waste
will be largely, if not wholly, eliminated and a balanced net income realized for
the permanent benefit of the majority of the Indians.

The management policy contemplates the systematic regulation
of Indian grazing resources by—

(a) Increase in the number of stock on undergrazed lands.

(b) Readjustment of existing ranges by carrying out carefully
evolved and scientific grazing management plans to obtain the
maximum amount of revenue consistent with sound practice.

(c) The reduction of the number of stock on the overgrazed reserva-
tions of the Southwest.

Existing regulations specify that where sufficient tribal lands are
available, an Indian family may be permitted to graze not to exceed

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 623

50 horses, 100 cattle, or 500 sheep or a combined equivalent thereof
in the several classes enumerated. This regulation has been sus-
tained by Federal court opinion and has been rigidly enforced in both
the northern Great Plains region and the Intel-mountain region.
However, it has been violated and more or less consistently ignored
in the Southwest region (10, p. 12, 300) where for decades these
Indians have secured their main living from sheep and goats. The
rehabilitation and revegetation of these overgrazed lands, without
arousing the animosity and the violent opposition of those who
obtain their precarious living from these ranges, is regarded as "a
problem to tax the ingenuity and skill of any forester" (2, p. 1052).

Accurate data concerning the potential revenue which can be
realized from Indian grazing lands are not available. It is probable,
however, that, under scientific management, receipts in the future
from grazing permits will not be less than the amount received in
1931. On the contrary with the return of normal economic condi-
tions, the systematic use of available resources, and the discon-
tinuance of certain unwise practices, such as the use of valuable
range lands by large numbers of worthless Indian ponies, a substantial
increase in revenue may be made.

Immediately after the supervision of range activities was given to
the Forestry Branch an economic survey of the range resources and
grazing activities on Indian reservations was undertaken. Shortly
after the completion of this survey corrective measures were initiated
and considerable progress has been made in systematizing and im-
proving the management of this important Indian resource, although
the usual handicaps of insufficient funds and personnel exist.

WATERSHED PROTECTION AND WATER CONSERVATION

It is not possible to give accurate statistical data concerning the
importance of Indian forest lands for the protection of watersheds and
for water-conservation purposes. Forests on many thousands of acres
of Indian land may, however, properly be classified as protection forests,
for very frequently the headwaters of streams of immense importance
in irrigation projects are located within Indian reservations.

The policy of the Indian Service both with regard to forest and
range lands is to administer these lands with their protective impor-
tance clearly in mind and to insure the maintenance of an adequate
ground and tree cover.^ If, however, these lands are to receive the
protection which their importance warrants, the uncertain tenure of
ownership must be removed and the Indian Service given an increased
personnel and more funds for protection purposes.

WILD LIFE

The majority of Indian reservations in the Western States are
situated in the more inaccessible regions, and as a result of this
remoteness and because on practically all reservations where Indians
have been accustomed for generations to rely on game and fish for
food, the right to hunt and fish regardless of season has been reserved
for them in treaties.

Indian reservations as a rule are better stocked with wild life and
fish than are adjacent lands. Also, the Indian, generally speaking,
does not hunt or fish for sport but for food, and will not take more
than is needed for that purpose.

624 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Indians do not take kindly to the abrogation of hunting and fishing
practices which are as old as the race itself. However, as they adapt
themselves to the white man's methods of living their reliance on
wild life for food supplies diminishes.

Whereas, not so many years ago, the Indian tribes were accustomed
to hunt and fish on large areas of land; in recent years, due to the
restriction and development of adjacent land, they have been confined
to their reservations. Because of the restriction of hunting and
fishing by Indians to their reservations, the supplies of game and fish
have been reduced in recent years. While some streams have been
stocked with fish, there is urgent need for the restriction of hunting
and fishing out of season, and it will be necessary, if Indian streams
and forests are to produce fish and game to potential capacity, to do
a considerable amount of restocking streams with fish and woods
with game.

The importance of the wild-life resources of Indian lands to the
Indians varies with the degree that Indian tribes have departed from
ancient modes of living and methods of obtaining food supplies, and
they should be managed accordingly.

The policy of the Indian Service in this matter may be stated as
follows :

1. Conservation of these resources by education and encouragement
of the Indians in wise use.

2. Cooperation with State and Federal authorities and conformity
with State and Federal laws and regulations whenever such con-
formity is possible under existing Indian treaties and would not
deprive the Indians of an important source of food supply.

RECREATIONAL POSSIBILITIES

Development of the recreational possibilities of Indian reservations
must always give primary consideration to the Indians. These
possibilities are many, for Indian reservations include a great variety
of lands not only of scenic and inspirational value on which all forms
of outdoor sport and recreation may be enjoyed, but have an unusual
attraction for many thousand vacationists annually because of the
Indian himself and the history of his race.

The development of the recreational possibilities of Indian reserva-
tions for the benefit of whites cannot properly be undertaken by the
Indian Service through the use of Indian tribal moneys. Specific
gratuity appropriations would be needed for this work. The problem
of management has been summed up by Kinney (11) thus:

The full realization of these possibilities may be achieved only through sincere
and effective cooperation between the Indian Service, the Indians themselves,
and those representatives of the general citizenry of the Nation who are able and
willing to ascertain the true facts and ready to lend their support to all efforts
toward a solution of the intricate problem of properly integrating the Indian
lands and the Indian character with the national resources, physical, mental, and
moral.

OTHER USES OF INDIAN FORESTS BY INDIANS

Indian forests have played and should continue to play an important
part in the economic life of their owners by the use of Indian owned
and operated sawmills of two general classes :

(a) Small mills operated mainly to produce lumber and other
building materials for Indian buildings, and

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 625

(6) Mills designed to manufacture lumber and other products for
sale in commercial markets, as well as for Indian use.

As Indian labor is usually less efficient than white labor, and
because small mills (with a daily output of 2,000 to 20,000 board
feet) can be operated for only short periods, the commercial operation
of Indian mills is difficult and has not been attempted in most in-
stances. They are operated mainly to afford the Indians a means of
industrial training and to act as an incentive in the improvement of
housing conditions on the reservations, and their maintenance must
be justified on educational and social grounds rather than economic.
Accurate yearly statistics concerning these mills are not available.
The number in operation has varied from 30 in 1911 to 25 in 1931.
Besides paying the Indians a substantial amount of wages, these mills
have exerted no little influence in industrial and social betterments on
some reservations.

There are at present two sawmills (and logging operations) in
Indian timber which are operated commercially by Indians under the
supervision of the Forestry Branch, namely, on the Red Lake (Minn.)
and Menominee (Wis.) Indian Reservations.

The Red Lake operation dates from 1925, has an output of approx-
mately 5 million board feet per year, and (up to Apr. 1, 1930) paid
the Indians over $300,000 in wages and accumulated a stumpage
credit of over $250,000. The Menominee operation, started soon
after the passage of the act of March 28, 1908 (35 Stat. L., 51), has
earned (up to December 1930) a net income of over $3,700,000
(stumpage and net operating profit) besides paying millions of dollars
in wages to Indians. Meriam and associates in "The Problem of
Indian Administration,'* Institute for Government Research, 1928,
said (p. 516) concerning the Menominee operation:

At the Menominee Reservation Indians are employed both in the camps and
in the mill. One got the impression that the Indians there were doing more
work and prospering more than was the case on other reservations, and for this
situation the policy of employing Indians in the timber and mill operation was
apparently largely responsible. Interviews with the white officers on this
reservation brought out the opinion that the policy of employing Indians in-
creased the cost of production, that if a private commercial company had charge
of the operations they could reduce labor costs by employing a smaller force
made up almost entirely of white men. The tendency is to give the Indian who
applies for work a job, whether he is actually needed at the moment or not,
because the welfare of the Indians is placed ahead of the immediate interests of
the balance sheet. At times Indians have occupied some of the more responsible
positions requiring skill and experience, although it may be doubted whether they
could have held these positions in a commercial mill where they would have been
in direct competition with the whites. Despite this policy of preferring Indians,
the available statistics indicate that the operations are carried on at a profit.

The survey staff has not made a detailed examination of the accounts of the
Menominee operations, but it is of the opinion that even if the profits are not
what they might be with a white staff, the undertaking is well worth while because
of the training and economic opportunities it affords the Indians. It is not only
a commercial enterprise, it is also educational. The superintendent at the time
of the survey visit showed a keen appreciation of the social side of his task.

The number of Indians engaged in work with timber other than
at Red Lake and Menominee is small. It has been stated on numerous
occasions, however, that the advisability of initiating other tribal
enterprises such as are now being carried on at Red Lake and Meno-
minee should be carefully considered.

In addition to the above many thousands of Indians are dependent
upon Indian timber for their fuel supply.

626

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

FOREST-FIRE PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION

One of the most important duties of the Forestry Branch of the
Indian Service is the protection of at least 9 millions of acres of
Indian forest lands from fire. Many Indian reservations contain
large areas of timberlands which are relatively inaccessible and
undeveloped, making fire suppression exceedingly difficult and
expensive. Although appropriations for this purpose have been
somewhat increased in recent years, sufficient funds for equipment,
improvements, and personnel to protect Indian forest land from fire
adequately have not, generally speaking, been available. The
Indian Service has, however, made considerable progress in this work.
Since 1910, 43 lookout stations have been built, and over 4,500 miles
of road, over 900 miles of trail, and about 2,500 miles of telephone
line have been constructed which are principally of value for fire
protection and suppression purposes (table 4).

Accurate statistics as to the causes and extent of forest fires, the
resultant damage, and the costs of suppression of such fires on Indian
reservations are not available over a long period of time. Table 5
presents the best record obtainable, based on reports submitted by
superintendents and forest officers. It is probably somewhat in
error, especially in the early years, in that some grass and open fires
may have been included.

TABLE 4. — Roads, trails, telephone lines, and lookouts on reservations of major im-
portance from a forestry standpoint

Reservation

Gross area

Look-
outs

Roads

Trails

Tele-
phone
lines

Arizona:
Fort Apache

Acres
1, 664, 872

Number
5

Miles
445

Miles

Miles
320

Northern Navajo

3, 084, 200

117

21

San Carlos

1,610 240

1

25

46

Southern Navajo

3, 775, 765

1

450

191

Western Navajo

3, 500, 000

556

169

California: Hoopa Valley.

116,064

11

20

26

Idaho:
Coeur d'Alene

63 881

Fort Hall

492, 564

30

'2

Minnesota:
Consolidated Chippewa .

59, 270

3

32

20

Red Lake

543, 528

4

50

57

Montana:
Blackfeet

1, 492, 042

8

42

Flathead

1,240,000

j

1 200

183

Rocky Boy. _.

55,040

22

15

Tongue River

442, 960

2

31

66

New Mexico:
Jicarilla

743, 220

2

300

104

Mescalero

474, 240

1

300

114

Santa Clara

30, 360

1

5

3

North Carolina: Cherokee

63, 820

1

8

Oregon:
Klamath

1, 107, 336

3

1,040

366

Warm Springs . ...

463, 669

1

287

135

Washington:
Colville—.

1, 385, 086

6

409

488

305

NeahBay

26, 952

Quinaielt

189 621

2

12

29

Spokane.

148, 635

1

128

11

73

Tulalip

22,500

6

7

Yakima

1, 182 030

4

237

6

174

Wisconsin:
Lac du Flambeau ..

52, 491

90

8

Menominee

230 400

3

90

69

Wyoming* Shoshone

800 000

35

80

Total

25, 060, 786

43

4,616

905

2,553

i Roads and trails.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 627

TABLE 5.— Areas and total cost of forest fires on Indian Reservations

Year

Area

Suppres-
sion cost

Damage

Year

Area

Suppres-
sion cost

Damage

1910

Acres
634, 101

Dollars
31, 249

Dollars
897, 587

1922

Acres
42 043

Dollars
47,289

Dollars
27,937

1911. --.

20,841

3,060

16, 989

1923

47, 394

60,539

25, 307

1912

12, 504

4,319

11,581

1924

31, 101

22, 489

69,388

1913

144, 536

11,171

36, 634

1925

53 946

50,910

67, 337

1914

117, 173

14, 543

76, 983

1926

64, 553

51, 749

34, 521

1915

40, 354

5,803

62, 637

1927

133, 287

92,328

126, 532

1916

54, 492

10, 175

55, 448

1928

23 333

32 208

28,739

1917 . ..

121, 791

30, 036

62, 887

1929

46, 249

47, 336

78,602

1918

71, 968

11,871

37, 139

1930

57, 160

61, 683

126, 398

1919__.

87,201

32, 649

292, 135

1931

124, 324

136, 393

227, 564

1920

227 869

27 468

384 739

1921

140,231

38 808

205 878

Total

2 296,451

824, 076

2, 952, 962

It is impossible to furnish at this time, detailed estimates as to the
probable cost of adequately protecting Indian forest lands from fire.
The average area burned over annually during the fiscal years 1927
to 1931, inclusive, has been about 75,000 acres. In the judgment of
Indian Service foresters this average acreage could be reduced at least
to 40,000 acres, and to accomplish this objective an annual appro-
priation of about $450,000 is needed for the next 10 years. A large
amount of this annual appropriation would be expended for permanent
improvements such as roads, trails, and lookout towers, and in addi-
tion reasonable protection would be given to valuable timber resources
which are producing many millions of dollars in revenue to the Indian
owners as well as affording thousands of workers an opportunity to
earn a livelihood.

CONTROL OF INSECTS AND DISEASE

Infestations of insects and epidemics of disease which damage and
kill standing timber are not peculiar to Indian reservations. In fact
such plagues are usually, if not always, of such scope and magnitude
that they occur simultaneously and in common on national forests,
national parks, Indian reservations, private lands and the public
domain.

The most serious outbreaks now being combated are probably the
white pine blister rust, and the ponderosa pine bark beetle. There
is very little western white pine on most Indian reservations, but the
bark beetle has seriously threatened timber on the Klamath Reserva-
tion in Oregon since about 1920. In 1922 funds for suppression and
control of this pest were requested jointly by the Departments of
Agriculture and the Interior.

In this work the Government departments were joined by^ private
operators, since timber on lands owned by all three was infected.
There has been expended on the Klamath Reservation since 1922
about $118,000 on insect-control work, of which about $75,000 has
been spent by the Indian Service, about $40,000 by the United States
Forest Service, and $3,500 by the Bureau of Entomology of the
Department of Agriculture. The control work has followed recom-
mendations of experts of the Bureau of Entomology. Twenty
thousand dollars for insect control work on the Klamath Reservation
was appropriated for the fiscal year 1933.

628 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In 1912 approximately $5,000 was spent on insect control work on
the Tongue River Reservation in Montana, but funds were not avail-
able for this purpose in subsequent years until 1931 when about
$1,300 was expended.

Plagues of insect infestations and disease epidemics affecting
standing timber are usually wide-spread and constitute a national
menace. Funds for control work should be obtained and expended
in suppression activities in such a way as will insure a high degree of
correlated action between Federal, State, and private interests whose
timber holdings are threatened.

DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONNEL

When the forestry branch of the Indian Service was organized in
1910, a personnel program was contemplated (6, p. 475) providing
for the employment of a forester, assistant forester, and superin-
tendent of logging, whose duties were to be those of general inspection
and supervision; 3 men to have similar duties within 3 assigned
portions of the United States which were described as comprising
the Southwestern, the Northwestern, and the Central States; about
12 or 15 forest assistants and lumbermen in charge of the forestry
work on the more important timbered reservations under the juris-
diction of the superintendents of the reservations, and a force of
about 112 forest guards and rangers under the jurisdiction of the
superintendents on about 40 reservations having large forest interests.

In carrying out this program, which has been modified to some
extent as circumstances demanded, considerable difficulty has been
encountered in retaining the services of competent men because of
inadequate salaries (minimized somewhat since the reclassification)
and living conditions and the somewhat unusual working conditions.
A forester in the Indian Bureau, to render efficient and satisfactory
service must not only have technically trained and fully alert mental
equipment, but must be able to recognize fully the peculiar problems
confronting the Indian Service with respect to the Indian wards of
the Government; must win the confidence and respect of these
people; and be guided to a very large extent in his work by a con-
sideration of the best interests of the Indians. Although the turnover
in the total number of forestry employees has been relatively large,
the generally satisfactory progress which has been made in forestry
work on Indian reservations has been due in some measure at least
to the fact that the turnover in employees in supervisory forestry
work has not been as large as in the more subordinate positions.
The Director of Forestry has been able to build up a force of tech-
nically trained men who have acquired an intimate knowledge of
Indian affairs and who understand the importance of Indian forest
property in a general program which has as its objectives the social,
industrial, and economic improvement of the Indian race.

If forestry practice on Indian reservations is to be improved one of
the outstanding needs for all forest activities is an increased personnel,
particularly for forest-fire prevention and suppression, general timber
sale administration, grazing administration, and forest improvement
work.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

629

COST OF FORESTRY WORK

Table 6 gives the best available data of expenditures for forestry
work on Indian reservations by major funds and years since 1910.
Forestry is but one j)hase of a complex Indian problem and, as has
been stated above, is inextricably intertwined with Bother Indian
Service activities. Because of these things, foresters in the Indian
Service are called upon to perform many nonforest duties which, in
some instances, require an appreciably large amount of their time.
While some funds from tribal moneys (mainly the appropriation
" Indian Moneys, Proceeds of Labor") have been used for forestry
work and are not included in table 6, this amount is equalled if not
exceeded by the moneys spent (in wages and other items) on nonforest
activities from the forestry funds given in the table.

TABLE 6. — Expenditures for all forestry purposes under annual appropriation

Year

Industrial
work and
care of
timber,
forestry

Expense
account,
timber 1

Total

Regularly
employed
foresters 2

1910

Dollars

77, 741. 16

Dollars
7, 080. 82

Dollars

84, 821. 98

Number

1911

90,000.00

11, 572. 90

101, 572. 90

1912

99, 132. 15

10, 150. 24

109, 282. 39

1913

104, 675. 76

15, 297. 91

119, 973. 67

1914

91, 966. 47

16, 252. 17

108, 218. 64

1915 - -

112, 819. 26

13, 236. 68

126, 055. 94

1916

105, 221. 95

21, 967. 10

127, 189. 05

1917 - ...

104, 834. 74

32, 746. 79

137, 581. 53

1918

98,824 82

37,472 84

136,297 66

1919

106, 625. 85

46, 109. 42

152, 735. 27

1920

102, 800. 43

88, 478. 59

191, 279 02

1921

109, 077. 94

60, 623. 09

169, 701. 03

180

1922

89, 889. 59

50, 873. 02

140, 762. 61

175

1923 -

99, 455. 42

100, 190. 99

199, 646. 41

192

1924

95, 212. 25

153, 568. 33

248, 780. 58

190

1925

115, 625. 60

122, 442. 15

238, 067. 75

178

1926

106, 577. 23

167, 840. 15

274, 417. 38

176

1927

139, 939. 66

162, 407. 26

302, 346. 92

167

1928

97, 295. 39

196, 818. 55

294, 113. 94

125

1929

129 353. 69

217,701 90

347 055 59

126

1930S

166, 197. 26

240, 707. 43

406, 904. 69

135

1931 4

324, 427. 00

247, 769. 87

572, 196 87

116

Total

2, 567, 693. 62

2, 021, 308. 20

4,589,001 82

1 Authorized deductions from timber-sale receipts.

2 In addition to which there are or have been approximately 10 "at large" employees and 3 or 4 in the
Washington Office.

3 All grazing activities taken over by forestry employees.

4 Includes $50,000 for emergency employment on construction work (relief legislation) and an additional
amount of about $50,000 of deficiency appropriation for forest-fire suppression.

CONCLUSION

The approximately 71 million acres of land (being very nearly equal
to the combined area of all the New England States and the State of
New York) , which are the property of the American Indian and held
in trust for him by the United States Government, are of very great
importance in the Western States and regions in the timber and live-
stock industries. In formulating a national program of wise use of
forest and range resources, this large area of Indian land, under the
administration of one branch of the Government, is entitled to care-
ful consideration.

Viewed not only from the standpoint of the Indians themselves
but in terms of a national-forest and range-land policy, the crux of

630 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the present unsatisfactory situation on Indian lands in the face of
which sound management plans can hardly be evolved and carried
out is the instability of land ownership.

The discontinuance of the practice of allotting forest and range land
should immediately be accomplished by means of legislation pro-
hibiting further allotments of land of this character.

Repeated efforts have been made since 1910 to obtain legislation
necessary to insure the stability of ownership of large areas of Indian
forest land of such character that it should unquestionably be per-
manently maintained in consolidated ownership for forest production
and water-conservation purposes. The act of May 18, 1916 (39
Stat. 137), creating the Red Lake Indian Forest of approximately
110,000 acres has been the only legislation so far obtained, although
similar bills pertaining to the Colville, Klamath, Warm Springs, and
Yakima Reservations were introduced in the second session of the
Seventy-first Congress. Legislation of like character is needed for
the Flathead, Fort Belknap, and Tongue River Reservations in
Montana; the Neah Bay and Spokane in Washington; the Fort Hall
in Idaho; the Hoopa Valley in California; the Shoshone in Wyoming;
the Mescalero in New Mexico; the Navajo, Fort Apache, San Carlos,
and Truxton Canyon in Arizona; and possibly for several smaller
areas.

Bills covering these reservations should be introduced in the next
session of the Congress. With the realization that the establishment
of a permanent status for Indian forest lands is essential to their
highest economic use for the Indians themselves, and is also the most
desirable policy for the Nation at large, these bills should be actively
supported by all who believe that the present forest situation in the
United States calls for the adoption and carrying out of a conservative
national policy.

The United States Government should restore, insofar as is prac-
ticable, the former unified tribal status of Indian forest and range
lands, and should maintain in a tribal status these restored lands
as well as the present area of tribal forest and range lands, should
adequately protect them from fire, and fully preserve their protective
character and improve their productive value.

Just as the act of February 26, 1927, authorizing the cancelation
of fee patents on Indian allotments, was intended to correct insofar
as possible a mistaken land policy, legislation to restore to Indian
tribal ownership those parts of possible working units of forest land
which have been alienated and are now in varied ownership which
precludes their proper protection and economic use should be enacted.

This act should provide for the establishment of tribal forests in
units of sufficient size to be managed economically and for the buying
back and inclusion in such tribal forest land that was originally
Indian tribal land but which is now owned by individual Indians or
by whites. The price per acre should not be in excess of the going
price of nonagricultural cut-over timberland in the immediate neigh-
borhood and should be limited in the enabling act. Where possible
tribal funds derived from the sale of timber should be used for this
purpose, and where these funds are not sufficient gratuity appropria-
tions should be made available.

That the regulations and policies of the forestry branch of the
Indian Service, originally approved in 1911, were basically sound

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 631

and conservative is generally recognized. These policies which
have been modified and improved by subsequent regulations, should
be extended and intensively carried out. To this end larger appro-
priations are needed for additional improvements and equipment and
an increased personnel, the details of which would require a larger
amount of investigation and analysis than has been possible in
preparing this report.

The efficient functioning of the forpstry branch will be materially
aided when funds and personnel are available for the collection and
compilation of reliable and complete statistical data on all forest
resources and all details of costs and administration. In fact,
administrative officers cannot exercise proper control without such
data. The lack of sufficient funds and personnel for this purpose
has constantly handicapped the forestry branch of the Indian Service
and this situation should be immediately remedied.

The public has, through the Congress, given its approval to the
acquisition of large areas of mismanaged private forest production
and protection lands by the Government; for the incorporation of
these lands into new national forests; and for the extension of existing
national forests. The public good clearly justifies this program of
enlargement of the national forests. The general public is clearly
interested in and must be responsible for the maintenance of an
adequate supply of timber in the United States; for the protection
of watersheds (the source of its water for domestic use and the
protection of millions of dollars of invested capital in irrigation and
power projects) and for the regulation of streamflow; for the preven-
tion of destructive erosion of range and agricultural land; and for
the maintenance of forested areas of inestimable recreational and
inspirational value to the entire body politic.

Into this national picture the 71 million acres of Indian land fit
with such perfect clearness that the public responsibility is inescap-
able. Many Indian tribes are possessed of great natural resources
which are not susceptible of individual allotment and which from
the standpoint of sound national economy should be preserved in
large working units so that they may be conserved and used effec-
tively (9).

It is self-evident that the National Government should properly
conserve and use those areas of forest and range land now under its
jurisdiction. The welfare of the Indians and the public good demand
the prompt correction of easily discernible errors of legislation and
administration of Indian lands which have resulted in the breaking
up of the unified ownership of large areas of forest and range lands;
which have made impossible the proper protection and economic use
of these lands; and which have forced or will force many thousands
of acres of forest and range land through the gamut of Indian owner-
ship to private ownership and finally to swell the total of non-
productive, unprotected, tax delinquent, and tax foreclosed land.
Unless remedial action is promptly taken, these conditions, which are
deplorable from the national standpoint of conservation and wise use,
will constantly become aggravated and more extensive. Not only
will damage measured in dollars by millions have been done, but the
proper management of these lands will be postponed for several
decades at least, if it is ever possible.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 41

632 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

LITERATURE CITED

• 1. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Fiscal Year
Ended June 30, 1931.

2. The Administration of Indian forests, Kinney, J. P., Journal of Forestry,

December, 1930.

3. Development of Governmental Forest Control in the United States, Jenks

Cameron, 1928.

4. The Status of Indian Forests in Relation to a National Program of Sus-

tained Yield, unpublished Indian Service report to the Timber Conserva-
tion Board, Lee Muck, 1931.

5. Forestry Administration on Indian Reservations, Kinney, J. P., Journal of

Forestry, December, 1921.

6. Forestry on Indian Reservations, Kinney, J. P., Forestry Quarterly, Septem-

ber, 1912.

7. Forest Policy on Indian Timberlands, Kinney, J. P., Journal of Forestry, April,

1927.

8. Extracts from Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior Relating to the

Bureau of Indian Affairs for the Fiscal Year 1927.

9. The Problem of Indian Administration, Institute for Government Research,

1928.

10. An Economic Survey of the Range Resources and Grazing Activities on

Indian Reservations, Lee Muck, 1931.

11. Conservation on the Red Man's Land, Kinney, J. P., Outdoor America,

August, 1930.

12. Indian Timberlands, Kinney, J. P., Journal of Forestry, October, 1921.

13. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Fiscal Year

Ended June 30, 1926.

14. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Fiscal Year Ended

June 30, 1920.

15. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Fiscal Year Ended

June 30, 1922.

16. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Fiscal Year Ended

June 30, 1921.

THE NATIONAL PARKS AND NATIONAL MONUMENTS

By ROBERT MARSHALL, Collaborator

SIGNIFICANCE OF PARK FORESTS

The national parks of the United States proper contain more than
4 million acres of forest, which is less than 1 percent of the forested
acreage of the country. A goodly share of these stands are slow
growing and on inaccessible sites. From a commodity standpoint,
therefore, they are of little significance. Because so many of them
are located near the headwaters of important rivers or in very moun-
tainous country, they have a great significance in the regulation of
stream flow and the prevention of erosion. All animal life is protected
and consequently national parks are among the most important
game refuges in the country. Their primary value is recreational
and educational. Many of the finest scenic features in all America
are included in the national park system.

Consequently, the national parks, although they only embrace
about one third of the forest area so far set aside for recreational use,
are usually distinguished in the American mind as the acme of forest
beauty. This reputation has been earned by the high standards
which have generally been maintained in the establishment of national
parks. With few exceptions the national parks are confined to areas
sufficiently magnificent to attract to them people from all over the
country. With few exceptions each exhibits the finest example of
some particular type of outdoor beauty. In most cases they contain
primitive growth conditions and are over the larger part of their areas
accessible only to those who travel by primitive transportation
methods.

These unusually high standards make the national parks peculiarly
important for those whose objectives are to derive inspiration, to
commune with nature, or to study nature in its unaltered state. The
visitors to national parks tend to remain longer than those to any
other type of recreational forest land. Transient holiday outings,
which furnish the principal use of municipal, county, and often State
parks, are of secondary importance in most national parks. Excep-
tions are Yosemite National Park, which receives great patronage
from nearby centers of population, and Mount Rainier National
Park where the bulk of the visitors come from the neighboring cities
of Seattle and Tacoma. Generally, however, national-park recrea-
tionalists seek something more than just having a good tune in the
outdoors. They are in search of the highest aesthetic values which
nature has to offer.

The total area of the national parks is 8,433,422 acres, of which
4,353,298 acres is forested. Deducting the timbered acres in the
Hawaii and Mount McKinley National Parks, there remains

633

634

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

4,155,218 acres of forested land in the national parks of the United
States proper. This area is small in comparison with the 495 million
acres of commercial forest land in the United States. From a
recreational standpoint, however, this modest area of forest has
unassessable value.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is largely forested;
the area of its timberlands is at present estimated at 285,720 acres.
Of the remaining parks, Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite, and Sequoia
are the most important from the forest standpoint. Together they
contain more than three fourths of the forested land in the entire
national-park system.

Table 1 shows the names, locations, dates of establishment, areas,
and special superlative characteristics of the 22 national parks at
present in existence.

TABLE 1. — National parks as of January 1983

Name

Location

Date
estab-
lished

Area

Area for-
ested i

Superlative characteristics

Acadia

Maine

1919

Acres
11,994

Acres
9,368

Granite mountains rising almost

Bryce Canyon

Utah. . . .

1928

35, 240

12,500

straight out of ocean.
Canyon exhibiting fantastic ero-

Carlsbad Caverns

New Mexico

1930

719

sion and superlative coloration.
Largest and most magnificently

Crater Lake

Oregon

1902

160, 333

116,000

decorated caverns in United
States.
Lake in extinct volcano with re-

General Grant

California

1890

2,536

2,500

markable coloration and almost
sheer lava walls.
Fine grove of big trees including

Glacier

Montana

1910

981, 681

785, 280

second largest tree in world.
Rugged mountain region of un-

Grand Canyon

Colorado

1919

645,809

110,000

surpassed Alpine character,
with precipices thousands of
feet high.
The greatest example of erosion,

Grand Teton.

Wyoming ..- .

1929

96,000

24,000

and most sensational canyon
yet discovered.
Superlatively rugged granitic ex-

Great Smoky
Mountains.

TTawftii

North Carolina,
Tennessee.

Hawaii

1930
1916

297,720
156, 800

285,720
28,800

hibit, rising almost sheerly for
thousands of feet.
Most rugged eastern mountain
range; largest virgin timber
tract in East.
Active volcanoes, one of which is

Hot Springs..

Arkansas. -.

1921

945

800

considered by many as out-
standing volcanic exhibit of
world.
None.

Lassen Volcanic

California

1916

104, 527

60,000

Only active volcano in United

Mesa Verde

Colorado

1906

51, 333

33,600

States proper.
Most notable and best-preserved

Mount McKinley.

Alaska

1917

1, 939, 493

169, 280

prehistoric cliff dwellings in
United States.
Highest mountain in North

Mount Rainier
Platt

Washington
Oklahoma

1899
1902

241, 782
848

101,000

America.
Most famous volcanic peak and
largest accessible single-moun-
tain glacier system in the
United States.
None.

Rocky Mountain

Colorado

1915

259,411

123,000

Example of central Rocky Moun-

Sequoia

California

1890

386, 560

226 000

tains at their best.
Greatest collection of big trees,

Wind Cave~.

South Dakota. ..

1903

11.819

2.500

largest individual tree in world;
highest mountain in the United
States; remarkable mountains
and canyons.
None.

i There is a distinction between land forested and that classified as forest land. The total of those areas
of national parks classified as forest land is 4,420,000 acres.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 635

TABLE 1. — National parks as of January 1983 — Continued

Name

Location

Date
estab-
lished

Area

Area for-
ested

Superlative characteristics

Yellowstone

Wyoming

1872

Acres
2, 200, 240

Acres
1, 658, 850

More geysers than in remainder

Yosemite

California.

1890

752, 744

562,500

of world; remarkable water-
falls; deep and gorgeously
colored canyons.
Valley of world-famed beauty;

Zion

Utah

1919

94,888

41,600

highest waterfall in America;
remarkable cliffs and moun-
tains: 3 groves of big trees.
Magnificent gorge.

Total

8, 433, 422

i 4, 353, 298

i There is a distinction between land forested and that classified as forest land. The total of those areas
of national parks classified as forest land is 4,420,000 acres.

FIRE PROTECTION

The average national-park area burned over annually during the
past 5 years has been 19,072 acres. This represents 0.23 of 1 percent
of the present total area of 8,433,423 acres. Practically all of the
area burned was forested land.

The average annual expenditure on fire suppression for the 6 fiscal
years 1927-32 has been $95,324. The National Park Service esti-
mates the amount needed annually for the next 5 years at $175,180.
This includes $63,214 for the current fire-prevention service and
maintenance. The remaining $111,966 is required for permanent
protection improvements, including trails, lanes, firebreaks, motor-
ways, telephone lines, water developments, fire-equipment caches,
storehouses, lookout towers and houses, cabins, and barns. These
improvements, the National Park Service believes, would make it
possible to reduce materially the acreage burned over annually.

INSECT CONTROL

National Park Service insect-control activities are discussed in the
section of this report entitled " Protection Against Forest Insects."
In general the insect-control policy provides for very intensive pro-
tection from insect epidemics on areas of high scenic value, heavy
use, and unusual fire hazard, and where research is being conducted.
The policy appears to be adequate, but the funds now available are
insufficient to carry it out.

NATIONAL MONUMENTS

The National Park Service, in addition to its management of the
national parks, has 38 national monuments under its jurisdiction.
These vary in size from less than 10 acres to 2,697,590 acres. Their
total area is 4,408,931 acres, of which only a little over 1 million acres
is timbered. Practically all of this acreage is contained in the two
immense Alaskan monuments, the Katmai and the Glacier Bay. In
addition, 18,500 acres is included in the United States proper.

National monuments may be divided into five classes: (1) Remains
of prehistoric civilization, (2) historic relics, (3) geologic examples,

636

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

(4) botanic reservations, and (5) wild-animal reservations. At pres-
ent the last category is not represented in the system. The act of
June 8, 1906, which authorized the establishment of national monu-
ments specifies that they "shall be confined to the smallest area
compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to
be protected. "

The national monuments administered by the National Park
Service are listed in table 2.

TABLE 2. — National monuments as of January 1933

Name

State

Date
estab-
lished

Area

Area for-
ested

Arches

Utah

1929

Acres
4 520 00

Acres

Aztec Ruins .. .

New Mexico

1923

25 88

0 25

Bandelier .

do

1932

26 026 20

10 000 00

Canyon de Chelly

Arizona

1931

83 840 00

Capulin Mountain

New Mexico

1916

*680 37

200 00

Casa Grande

Arizona

1918

472 50

75 00

Chace Canyon .. -

New Mexico

1907

21,512 37

Colonial - ------ _ .

Virginia

1930

2 707 30

1 035 00

Colorado

Colorado

1911

13 749 47

Craters of the Moon . _

Idaho

1924

49,601 90

700 00

Devils Tower

Wyoming

1906

1 152 91

1 000 00

Dinosaur...

Utah

1915

80.00

El Mbrro .

New Mexico

1906

240 00

100 00

Fossil Cycad

South Dakota

1922

320 00

George Washington's birthplace

Virginia

1930

394 47

73 58

Glacier Bay

Alaska

1925

1 164 800 00

500 000 00

Gran Quivra

New Mexico

1909

610 94

423 77

Grand Canyon

Arizona

1932

46 034 00

Great Sand Dunes

Colorado

1932

46 034 00

Hovenweep ---

Utah-Colorado

1923

285 80

Katmai

Alaska

1918

2 697 590 00

500 000 00

Lewis and Clark Cavern . _ . ._ ...

Montana -.. -

1908

160.00

Montezuma Castle - -

Arizona

1906

160 00

40 00

Muir Woods

California. ..

1908

426. 43

426. 43

Natural Bridges .-.-.- . -.. -

Utah

1908

2, 740. 00

2 700 00

Navajo

Arizona

1909

360 00

15 00

Petrified Forest

do.. -.

1906

90, 302. 37

Pinnacles

California

1908

4 906 61

1 500 00

Pipe Spring

Arizona

1923

40 00

1 00

Rainbow Bridge

Utah

1910

160.00

Scotts Bluff

Nebraska

1919

3 240 09

200 00

Shoshone Cavern . ...

Wyoming

1909

210.00

Sitka

Alaska

1910

57 00

Tumacacori .-_--.

Arizona

1908

10.00

.25

Verendrye -

North Dakota

1917

250.04

2 00

White Sands

New Mexico

1933

142 987 00

Wupatki _

Arizona

1924

2, 234. 10

Yucca House.. ..

Colorado

1919

9 60

Total .

4, 408, 931. 35

1, 018, 492. 28

PUBLIC DOMAIN AND OTHER FEDERAL FOREST LAND

By LYLE F. WATTS, Director Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range

Experiment Station

CONTENTS

Page

History 637

The period of land disposal 637

The period of reservations 638

The present public domain 639

Timberland management 640

Range management 642

Watershed management 643

Disposal plan 644

Cost of administration 646

Probable receipts 647

Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road land grants. _ 647

Management 649

Recommendations 650

HISTORY
THE PERIOD OF LAND DISPOSAL

The first attempt by the United States to give legal status to a
comprehensive system of land disposal was predicated on a belief
that the public lands should all pass to private ownership and that
the sale of these lands would furnish a gigantic source of revenue,
adequate to finance the major part of the cost of government. The
public-revenue feature did not long survive as a major purpose, but
the policy of universal private ownership persisted until late in the
nineteenth century.

Universal private ownership of land, with the widest possible dis-
tribution, was the aim of most of the land laws enacted prior to 1891.
The following laws, among many, were passed in furtherance of this
policy: The ordinance of 1784, the military bounty (script) laws, the
homestead law of 1862, the timber culture law of 1873, the timber and
stone law of 1878, and the desert land law of 1890.

Not only was every encouragement given to the passage of land
title from the Federal Government direct to the private individual
but provisions were made for the passage of title through a third
party. The land grants so lavishly made for the purpose of encour-
aging colonization and development of the West were directed to
ultimate private ownership. Practically all grants included stipula-
tions so designed as to encourage sales to individuals in tracts of the
small size then thought to be suitable for separate home units. The
various public-land States in their statehood charters and in subse-
quent legislation were given an immense area for public education and
for various State institutions. Very large grants were made to indi-
viduals, corporations, and local governments as subsidies for the
construction of wagon roads, waterways, and railroads. Swamp lands
to the extent of 64 million acres were granted to States in the expecta-
tion that they would be reclaimed through drainage.

637

638 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE PERIOD OF RESERVATIONS

Late in the nineteenth century a few far-sighted men began to
realize that the natural resources of the Nation were being rapidly
dissipated and that immediate and decisive action was needed to stop
the processes of destructive exploitation. It became apparent that
private ownership could not be expected properly to protect those
national values which do not return to the individual a direct, tangible,
and relatively early profit. Under the policy in force, the future
timber supply was being jeopardized by wasteful and needless exploi-
tation, both on private land and by trespass cutting on the public
domain. Large and destructive forest fires were permitted to destroy
great quantities of timber each year, with no concerted effort at pre-
vention or control. No action was being directed toward retaining the
forest cover on watershed lands in the interest of regulating the flow
of navigable rivers or of streams intensively used for irrigation. Clearly,
private owners recognized no responsibility for proper management of
timberlands with a view to future national welfare. Public ownership
without adequate provision for the protection of the resource from
misuse, theft, and destruction by fire, insects, or disease was no better.

Appreciation of the need for conserving forest resources made rapid
headway under exceptionally strong leadership and found concrete
expression in a drive for the withdrawal from entry of lands having
high natural-resource value. An act of March 3, 1891, authorized
the President to set aside public timberlands as forest reserves. By
the end of Roosevelt's administration in 1909, national-forest status
had been given to a total gross area of 167,677,749 acres of land in
the continental United States. Some area has since been added, but
the elimination of tracts found by careful land classification to be
unsuited or unnecessary to the purpose contemplated had by June 30,
1932, reduced the gross area in the national forests to 164,752,300
acres. The net area as of that date was 140,003,966 acres.

The desirability of reserving public-domain areas of peculiar scenic
interest was recognized as early as 1872, when the Yellowstone Na-
tional Park was created. It may properly be said, however, that the
establishment of reservations on a large scale was inaugurated as a
means of conserving the forest resource. The reservation principle
was rapidly broadened to include other resources as well. The act
of 1897, which provided for practical administration of the national
forests, stated that the forests were maintained "for the purpose of
securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a con-
tinuous supply of lumber for the use and necessities of the citizens
of the United States." Reservations on a large scale have since been
made for other than national-forest purposes.

In all, approximately one fifth of the original public domain has
been reserved for the Nation's welfare. Some idea of the extent and
character of the reservations may be afforded by the following list,
although the list is incomplete and involves material overlapping:

Acres

National forests 140, 003, 966

National parks 6, 329, 753

National monuments 303, 880

Indian lands under Federal jurisdiction 71, 144, 214

Coal-land withdrawals 29, 825, 444

Potash-land withdrawals 9, 411, 939

Reclamation withdrawals 19, 034, 330

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 639

The various acts sanctioning public-land disposal encouraged pro-
gressive removal of the best of the timberland from the public domain.
The selection of land for private ownership naturally took the cream
of the timber, both as to accessibility and as to stand per acre. The
withdrawal of the national forests, likewise, was specifically directed
toward the selection of the best timberland then remaining in public
ownership. The working out of the various land grants with their
lieu selection privileges further tended to eliminate from public
ownership desirable forest land. Thus the timberlands now remain-
ing in the public domain are the residue from a century and a half of
culling for private ownership and the withdrawal of slightly more
than 140 million acres as national forests. The extent to which this
culling has gone will be appreciated from the fact that of the
1,441,436,160 acres originally in the public domain only 173,318,246
acres still remain, and of this remnant only a little more than 2%
percent is classified as commercial timberland.

THE PRESENT PUBLIC DOMAIN

Slightly more than 23 million acres of the public domain, the un-
reserved and unappropriated Federal land, are classified as forest
land; only 4,629,000 acres of it, however, supports a stand of com-
mercial timber. The remainder of this forested acreage is occupied
by timber too poor in quality or quantity or too inaccessible to jus-
tify exploitation. Large areas below the altitudinal range of com-
mercial timber support only a scattered scrubby tree growth ; included
among these are large areas of pinon or juniper in the Southwest.
Other areas once were covered with commercial timber but as a result
of fire and excessive cutting are now incapable of restocking naturally
within a reasonable period. A small part is alpine in character.
Substantially all the timberlands, both commercial and noncommer-
cial, have a high value for watershed protection.

Perhaps 50 million acres of land in addition to the 23 million acres
classified as forest land is of great importance, because of the character
of its cover, in controlling erosion and stream flow. This includes
such areas as the brush fields of California and the aspen-brush areas
in Utah and south Idaho.

The public domain is very largely confined to the 11 far- western
States. Table 1 shows that of the 173,318,246 acres remaining only
1,059,867 are located east of the one hundred and fourth meridian.
The fact that only 22,000 acres of the public-domain lands in the East
are classified as commercial timberlands, and that no comprehensive
examination of the remainder has been made to determine their true
influence on stream flow and erosion, precludes the possibility of
specific recommendations for their disposal.

640 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 1. — Timbered areas of the public domain

State

Commercial
timber
areas

Noncommer-
cial timber
areas

Total public
domain l

Arizona

Acres
None

Acres
1, 820, 000

Acres
13 581 760

Arkansas 2

None

None

175 924

California - -- -

None

745,000

15, 712, 567

Colorado

1, 937, 000

2,321 000

7 467 597

Florida2 - --

None

None

32, 303

Idaho

537,000

421,000

10 865 472

Minnesota2 -

None

190,000

269, 451

Montana

319,000

272,000

6 238 429

Nebraska 2 ..._- ...

None

None

20, 225

Nevada

54,000

8, 000 000

51 221 934

New Mexico --

None

3, 410, 000

13,615, 150

North Dakota 2

15,000

25,000

142 694

Oregon3

1,001,000

200,000

12, 920, 334

South Dakota 2

7,000

5,000

419 270

Utah -.

308,000

1,116,000

25, 197, 820

112,000

326 000

708 363

Wyoming

339,000

17,000

14, 728 953

Total -

3 4, 629, 000

18, 863, 000

173, 318, 246

1 Acreages as of June 30, 1932; report of U.S. Land Office.

2 States east of 104th meridian. Total area, 1,059,867 acres.

s Exclusive of O. & C. R.R. and Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands.

The volume of commercial timber on the public domain is small
in comparison with the Nation's total timber supply. Estimates
recently made by the Forest Service on the basis of the best available
data place the total stand at slightly more than 20 billion board feet.
As will be shown later, the primary value of the greater part of the
forested portion of the public domain is in its relation to erosion and
stream flow and its use as range for livestock.

"Prompt and effective action must be taken if the value of very
much of the remaining public domain is not totally to be lost."
This statement is quoted from the report of the Public Land Commis-
sion appointed by and reporting to President Roosevelt. In the
more than 20 years since this report was made, and in spite of con-
tinued pressure, no constructive policy for the proper management
of public-domain lands has yet been adopted. Until suitable legisla-
tion is passed, the lands will remain without any measure of
effective administration. Thus one tenth of the land area of the
Nation remains a "no-man's land" to be used or abused by anyone.

TIMBERLAND MANAGEMENT

The legal possibilities for the practice of effective silviculture on
the public domain are indeed limited. Acts of June 3, 1878, and
March 3, 1891, authorized the removal, under permit, of limited
quantities of timber without charge if they were removed strictly for
personal use. An act of March 4, 1913, provided for the sale of dead
and down timber without restriction as to intended use. No pro-
vision has yet been made for the orderly cutting of the mature timber
crop, and almost no provision is made for the administration of such
cutting as results from the acts referred to above. The nearest
approach to a provision for forestry practice is the interpretation
of the above laws which permits of pooling community needs. This
enables a mill owner to contract to cut in one operation the supply
of timber needed by several families. Reimbursement must be

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 641

limited to payment for services and proof must be submitted that
no charge is made for the timber as such. While this method of
handling cutting is of some community benefit it cannot be applied
except on a very small scale.

As might be expected, the volume of timber disposed of under these
various acts is too small to play any definite part in the timber situa-
tion of the Nation or to make any worth-while contribution to com-
munity business. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, there
was a total of 1 1 sales of timber the total value of which was $2,582.52.
During the same period 112 permits were issued for the free use of
timber.

Widespread trespass cutting has occurred on the public domain,
particularly during the period of colonization and initial development
of the West. Railroad construction, home building, mining develop-
ment, and other new business enterprises required a large quantity of
timber. There being no legal means of obtaining green timber from
the public domain and no sentiment adverse to the theft of public
timber, trespass cutting resulted. Unfortunately this cutting was
usually of the type most destructive to forest values and the devasta-
tion often was made complete by broadcast slash fires of either inten-
tional or accidental origin. No value was then attached locally to the
possibility of future crops of timber and therefore no effort was made
to insure regeneration of the stand. Large areas were so thoroughly
denuded that they have since reverted to grass or brush cover and
are not now considered forest land. This reversion is well illustrated
by conditions in the California foothills, where over large areas the
lower timber line has been pushed back more than 10 mSes.

The volume of timber cut in trespass has generally exceeded that
cut legally ; however, it has long since dropped to the point where it is
of little consequence. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931,
action was taken for the removal in trespass of timber, coal, gravel,
and turpentine in 1,664 cases for a total value of $23,164.32. The
portion of this amount chargeable to timber trespass is not known,
but the total from all sources is extremely small considering the num-
ber of actions involved. (It is safe to assume that only a small per-
centage of the cases of trespass on the public domain are discovered
and prosecuted, as the areas making up the public domain are widely
scattered and are not systematically supervised.)

Prior to 1919 the Federal Government recognized no obligation to
control public-domain fires. The limited field force of the Land Office
gave the question of fire control such attention as time would permit,
but effective action was precluded by the fact that no funds were
available for this purpose. In 1919 a series of large and disastrous
fires originating on the public domain in central Idaho threatened or
actually spread to near-by national-forest or private lands. The
situation became so acute that the Government made funds available
to meet the emergency, of which $160,000 was spent.

The 1919 situation established a precedent, and except in the fiscal
year 1921 the Government has made some financial provision every
year since then for fire control on the public domain. Beginning with
the fiscal year 1927 a portion of the appropriation has been made
available for fire prevention. The extent of Federal expenditures for
forest-fire control on the public domain is shown in table 2. The
funds, although they have increased more or less steadily, are entirely

642

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

too small to give the areas proper protection from fire. Whereas
$65,000 was appropriated for the purpose in 1932, adequate protection
as represented by that given to comparable areas on the national
forests would call for an annual expenditure of about $725,000.
This figure covers the protection needs of brush and woodland
watershed types as well as of the remaining timberlands.

TABLE 2. — Expenditures by the General Land

domain

ice for fire control on the public

Fiscal year

Preven-
tion

Suppres-
sion

Total

Fiscal year

Preven-
tion

Suppres-
sion

Total

1920

Dollars

Dollars
160, 000. 00

Dollars
160, 000. 00

1928

Dollars
19, 071. 86

Dollars
63. 10

Dollars
19, 134 96

1921

1929

41,318 94

69 62

41 388 56

1922

3, 781. 92

3, 781. 92

1930

36, 271. 34

11,027.51

47, 298. 85

1923

452. 45

452. 45

1931

56, 017. 35

3,841 14

59 858 49

1924

1, 664. 35

1, 664. 35

1932...

56, 962. 30

8, 370. 79

65, 333. 09

1925

9 686 58

9 686 58

1926

2, 683! 73

2, 683. 73

Total...

221, 917. 04

212, 187. 97

434, 105. 01

1927

12, 275. 25

10, 546. 78

22, 822. 03

The Government maintains no organization for the control of fire
on the public domain. The activities which it finances to protect
public-domain lands from fire are restricted to areas intermingled with
or adjacent to private lands the owners of which have organized
fire-protective associations. Such associations have been formed in
heavily timbered parts of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and
Montana. They are authorized by State laws and participate in
Federal aid through provisions of the Clarke-McNary law. They
employ fire-control forces and use them much as does the national-
forest administrative organization, prorating the costs to the various
timberland owners on an acreage basis. Where there is public domain
timberland within the association districts the Federal Government
cooperates on the same basis as any other owner, except that its
appropriations are insufficient to meet its obligation in full and that
it takes no active part in the affairs of the organization. Federal
funds made available for this use are assigned at the discretion of
Land Office officials. This arrangement is as logical and business-
like as need be so long as the appropriations are too small to provide
the needed degree of protection to all public-domain lands or even to
those for which payment for protection is made in part. The maxi-
mum returns in protection are thus being obtained from the money
available. It is a regrettable fact that the Federal Government does
not afford protection to the greater part of the public domain.

RANGE MANAGEMENT

In most of the public-land States livestock raising is one of the
largest business enterprises. The extent to which the range resource
contributes to local welfare and the degree to which the carrying
capacity of the range is maintained are vital to the stock grower.
In spite of pressure for regulation and control, the use of this immense
range pasture resource remains unregulated. Public-domain range is
a free grazing commons, subject to all the abuse that such a condition
encourages. No attempt is made to restrict the number of stock
grazed to that which the range can support without deterioration.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 643

No control is exercised to prevent use of the range during the early
period of forage growth when cropping by livestock is disastrous to
the vitality of the plants and when maximum damage results from
trampling. No distinction is made as to the kind of stock for which
the forage produced on a given area is suitable. Finally, absolutely
no consideration is given to the interdependence of range land and
valley ranches, a factor vitally influencing the stability of the livestock
industry in the West. The relation of the public domain to watershed
protection and its relation to crop agriculture in the irrigated valleys
are ignored.

Under present conditions, portions of public-domain range the use
of which is necessary for the maintenance of the financial security
of established nearby ranches are often used by transient herdsmen
at a time of year when maximum damage to the forage results and
for grazing classes of stock not suited to the available forage. Improper
use has depleted the cover to an alarming degree.

On many areas the more desirable forage species have been weak-
ened or have been entirely killed out, often to be replaced by unpala-
table weeds or even poisonous plants. Accelerated soil erosion, which
inevitably follows such abuse, has reduced the productivity of the
soil to such a degree that in many instances a long period of time will
be required to rebuild it. On the area draining into the Rio Grande
between the Elephant Butte Dam and the Texas State line, for
example, according to recent estimates the vegetative cover has been
depleted as much as 75 or 90 percent.

Practically the whole 23 million acres of forested land and also the
50 million acres of watershed brush lands in the public domain are
used as range for livestock. Owing to the low timber values involved,
in most instances greater returns can be expected from the use of the
forage than from the use of the timber as a commodity. It must be
kept in mind, however, that timber and range use can be practiced
simultaneously on the same area. Such range use as is now being
made of the public domain ignores the permanent value not only of
the forage but of the timber and watershed resources as well. It is
urgent that the proper steps be taken to correct this condition.

Two instances of range management on the public domain deserve
comment. The Pumpkin-Mizpah area in eastern Montana and the
Owen Valley area in California are being given a type of manage-
ment very similar to that practiced on similar lands on the national
forests. In these two instances owners of adjacent ranches have
leased, under special legislation, not only the public domain but all
the other lands within the boundaries of the topographical unit. An
advisory board of the users involved determines the number of stock
to be grazed, the season of use, and the method of livestock manage-
ment. While it is too early to reach a final conclusion, the system
seems to offer some promise where it can logically be applied.

WATERSHED MANAGEMENT

Although range forage is of the greatest immediate concern to the
local communities, conservation of the water resource is of greater
long-time importance. The area suitable for cultivation in the far-
western States is greatly disproportionate to the available supply of
water for irrigation, without which successful agriculture is generally
impossible. In most parts of the far West the degree to which a

644 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

permanent crop agriculture can be developed is immutably dependent
on complete conservation and utilization of the water resource.
Conservation and utilization of the water resource is limited by the
degree to which watershed conditions that will insure the greatest
flow of usable water are maintained and the extent to which engi-
neering works to impound and hold unseasonable water flows are
financed. Proper management of the public-domain watershed lands
is part of this problem.

Maintenance of the vegetative cover is of prime importance in
stream-flow regulation. Not only does the forest or other vegetative
cover exert a very direct influence on the timeliness and quantity of
the annual flow from the watershed, but it is the only practical means
of controlling at the source the silting of reservoirs and irrigation
works in general through the processes of erosion. On comparatively
level agricultural lands erosion can, of course, be held in check by
terracing, check dams, and proper crop rotations. Such measures
are, however, of limited application on the immense area of watershed
lands in the West. On these lands the stability of the soil depends
almost entirely on the effectiveness of the forest or other vegetative
cover.

The preceding discussion has pointed out that the forested public-
domain lands have not been placed under management. Obviously
the present condition of the lands is ill suited to the protection of
watershed values. Unregulated cutting of timber, lack of control of
forest fires, and excessive and untimely use of the forage resource
together contribute to the destruction of the vegetative cover and
correspondingly affect adversely its natural function of controlling
stream flow and erosion. Past use of these lands has been entirely
without regard for the watershed problem and has so impaired water-
shed values that only through years of wise, careful management can
this resource be rebuilt to something approaching its original useful-
ness.

DISPOSAL PLAN

President Hoover, recognizing the urgent need for a final solution
of the public-land problem, in 1929 appointed the Commission on the
Conservation and Administration of the Public Domain. At the re-
quest of this Commission the Forest Service prepared and on Novem-
ber 8, 1930, submitted detailed recommendations covering (1) por-
tions of the area that should be added to existing national forests or
included in new national-forest units, hereafter called class 1 ; (2) por-
tions that should be given national-forest status without intent of
immediate administration but for eventual use as nuclei around which
to build up logical administrative units, or be available for exchange
for private lands needed to consolidate permanent public properties,
hereafter called class 2; and (3) portions that should, in public in-
terest, be placed under some form of public control in units desig-
nated otherwise than as national forests, hereafter called class 3.
(Class 3 is included in the present report only because of the water-
shed-protective function of the 10,065,506 acres of timberland and
the large area of nonforested watershed lands which it includes.)
The recommendations of the Forest Service regarding disposal of the
public domain were stated in that report as follows:

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 645

There are certain very definite advantages to continued public control of the
open grazing [and public domain timber] lands of the Western States under
systematic management and in conformity with the best determination of re-
search and experimentation. First, it will guarantee adequate conservation of
the natural resources, tne best practicable protection of watersheds and irrigation
projects, the most effective utilization of the forage resources, the best protection
of such timber resources as may be involved, the application of the principles of
range [and timberland] use and management through which the greatest per-
manency and productivity may be derived, the equitable distribution of the
resources * to promote maximum community development and growth.

In general, the lands under discussion have inherent limitations of productivity.
Aside from their mineral values, they contain no great stored-up treasures of
natural wealth awaiting release through the agency of private initiative, which, as
a matter of fact, has pretty well exhausted the possibilities of exploitation. The
capacity of these lands to contribute to the support of county and State govern-
ments also is limited. No change in ownership will in the immediate future
markedly increase the contributions now made by these lands to local costs of
government. To a vast extent the lands present a problem of recreation of
actual or potential wealth creating power which will require long, patient, and
expensive regeneration, which only after many years and large outlays will lead
to a restoration of their capacity for broad social service. They are an economic
problem and responsibility rather than an economic opportunity.

In its major aspect, that of water-resource conservation, the
problem in large part is essentially an interstate problem.

Administration by whatever agency undertaken should be a constructive and
creative process employing and applying all of the facilities that science, research,
experimentation, executive action and direct supervision have to offer. It
should be instructive and educational rather than coercive, accomplishing its
objectives through direct field contacts and examples. It should be systematically
organized with clearly defined objectives and definite programs for their attain-
ment. It should not be passive and indifferent, or be based upon legalistic and
contractual control from central offices with only remote contact writh problems
and persons, or conducted along traditional lines without full realization of the
possibilities for progress.

Proper solution of the stupendous problems inherent in the public-domain
States requires a technical organization within which permanent membership
may be maintained only by the possession- and development of the technical
abilities required in the solution of technical problems. It should be a widely
decentralized organization with its personnel so distributed as to bring them into
direct personal contact with the problems demanding solution. Authority
should be so delegated as to permit of immediate local action and decision upon
local problems without reference to remote headquarters. The conduct of
financial and contractual activities should be arranged so that delay is reduced
to the absolute minimum. Through the development of many cooperative asso-
ciations of users and the establishment of advisory boards representative thereof,
the principle of local regulation should be definitely and widely established * * *.

The question of the proper type of administration reduces itself to one of
collective and cooperative action. The lands under consideration are a part of
the national estate and their preservation from destructive forms of use is there-
fore a general public responsibility. They constitute the watersheds of many
important reclamation projects, the maintenance of which under optimum
conditions is of vital community interest and of large concern to State and
Nation. Steps, therefore, are proposed to set up a machinery of public control
whereby the proper balance can be maintained.

The report from which the above was quoted designated by specific
areas those parts of the public domain which should be included in
each of the three classes described in the foregoing. Table 3 sum-
marizes by States the area included in each classification.

646

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 3. — Disposal plan for remaining public domain

TO BE ADDED TO NATIONAL FORESTS (CLASS 1) 1

State

Total

Commer-
cial-
timber
areas

Noncom-
mercial-
timber
areas

Nonfor-
ested
water
shed 2

Acres
2, 756, 321

Acres
None

Acres
1 820 000

Acres
936 321

California --

2, 438, 964

None

423 135

2 015 829

3, 205, 443

1 800 000

1 400 000

5 443

Idaho

2, 150, 447

186, 107

390 725

1 573 615

905, 100

231 900

102 800

570 400

Nevada

1, 684, 410

54,000

1 419 000

211 410

New Mexico - --

1, 826, 623

None

1 626,000

200 623

Oregon 3

584,297

110 394

110 394

363 509

Utah

2, 248, 960

278, 040

1 046 464

924 456

Washington -

89,403

21, 194

45, 424

22 785

Wyoming

1, 127, 242

320,000

17 000

790 242

Total

19, 017, 210

3,001 635

8 400 942

7 614 633

TO BE RESERVED IN NATIONAL-FOREST STATUS (CLASS 2)

Arizona

None

None

None

California

516, 646

None

52 465

464 181

Colorado - - -

194, 257

75,000

110,000

9 257

Idaho

295, 380

14 500

30 000

250 880

Montana

112,300

83,900

21 300

7 100

Nevada - -

15, 695

None

None

15 695

New Mexico

56,717

None

23 000

33 717

Oregon 3 - - - -

1, 412, 332

684, 495

93, 553

634 284

Utah

41,880

5,500

7,660

28 720

Washington

485, 756

87, 193

280 281

118 282

Wyoming

30,584

10,000

None

20 584

Total

3, 161, 547

960,588

618, 259

1 582 700

TO BE PLACED IN OTHER CONTROL AREAS (CLASS 3)

A rizona

10, 825, 439

None

None

California

12, 756, 957

None

269, 400

Colorado - - -

3, 548, 817

62,000

800,000

Idaho

8, 419, 645

336, 393

275

Montana

3, 956, 700

3,200

146,900

Nevada .. --

49, 521, 829

None

6, 581, 000

New Mexico

11,731,810

None

1, 761, 000

Oregon - - - . _

10, 923, 705

None

None

Utah.

22, 906, 980

24,460

61, 878

Washington

None

None

None

Wyoming.. . .

13, 571, 127

9,000

None

Total. .-

148, 163, 009

435, 053

9, 620, 453

i The location of class 1 land is shown graphically on a map included in the section of this report "The
National Forests."

J The area of brush-watershed land included in class 3 is large but undetermined,
s Exclusive of O. & C. R.R. and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands.

This plan would place all except 2,976,480 acres of the remaining
public domain under some form of satisfactory public management.
Of the area not included within the three classes only an insignificant
portion is timbered. Much of it is in small tracts intermingled with
private holdings and under proper legislation might pass to private
ownership. In any event the acreage unaccounted for is not of suffi-
cient importance to justify great concern over its ultimate disposal.

COST OF ADMINISTRATION

The following estimate of the cost of administering, protecting, and
improving the public-domain lands in a manner that will satisfy the
true requirements of each of the three classes is based on experience

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

647

in managing similar lands in the national forests. The cost of admin-
istration for each disposal class will vary considerably as between
States, depending on such factors as topography, fire hazard, probabil-
ity of erosion, and present range condition.

National forest additions (class I), 4.75 cents per acre: total cost, approximately
$900,000.

National-forest additions (class II), 4.24 cents per acre; total cost, approxi-
mately $138,000.

Public control areas (class III), 1.21 cents per acre; total cost, approximately
$1,812,000.

PROBABLE RECEIPTS

The immediate receipts which may reasonably be expected from
these lands are small. The present depleted condition of most of the
lands, resulting from abuses previously discussed, makes the present
problem one of rehabilitation. Efforts to obtain immediate receipts
should be subordinate to the task of rebuilding the property to its
original usefulness and productivity.

On the basis of charges now being made for timber, forage, and
special uses on the national forests and in view of the depleted condi-
tion of the property, it is believed that the revenue immediately ob-
tainable is substantially as follows:

Resource

Proposed
national-
forest ad-
ditions

Proposed
national-
forest res-
ervations

Other pro-
posed pub-
lic-control
areas

Timber

$68 540

$14 255

$2 325

Grazing

331 646

185 875

481 315

Special use

10 515

4 285

2 300

Total . .

410 701

204 415

485 940

OREGON & CALIFORNIA RAILROAD AND COOS BAY
WAGON ROAD LAND GRANTS

Two properties in western Oregon, aggregating nearly 2^ million
acres, are in somewhat unusual legal and financial status.

The Oregon & California Railroad land grant, known briefly as
"O. & C. lands", included the odd-numbered sections within a strip
extending 20 miles on each side of the right of way, and an indemnity
strip extending an additional 10 miles on each side. The Oregon &
California Railroad line, running from Portland, Oreg., to San Fran-
cisco, Calif., is now a part of the Southern Pacific Railway system.
The terms of the grant provided, among other things, that the lands
should be sold to any applicant for not more than $2.50 per acre and
in units not exceeding 160 acres. The grant to the Coos Bay Wagon
Road Co. was made on approximately the same terms, but involved a
much smaller area. Compliance with the terms of the grants was
poor. Applications for the purchase of small blocks were refused,
blocks above the stipulated size were sold, and prices were raised
above that stipulated. This defeated the intent of the act. For
these and other reasons, the Government brought suit against the
railroad and wagon road companies in Oregon, and the grants were
forfeited. An act of June 9, 1916 (39 Stat. 218), revested in the

168342°— 33— vol. 1 42

648 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

United States the title to approximately 2,354,000 acres of land pre-
viously constituting parts of the O. & C. grant. An act of February
26, 1919 (49 Stat. 1179), authorized acceptance from the Southern
Oregon Co. of a reconveyance to the United States of approximately
92,000 acres of land previously constituting parts of the Coos Bay
grant.

The acts of Congress under which these lands are administered
provide that they be classified as follows:

Class I. — Lands chiefly valuable for water-power development,
the timber upon which may be sold.

Class II. — Lands containing not less than 300,000 board feet of
timber on each 40-acre subdivision, upon which the timber may be
cut and the land subsequently opened to homestead entry.

Class III. — All land not falling within the other two classes, which
is open to homestead entry on payment of $2.50 per acre.

According to the report of the General Land Office for the fiscal
year 1931, the status of the O. & C. lands is as follows:

1. Power-site lands: 57,143.23 acres, containing 825,754 M board
feet of timber, are embraced in power projects or withdrawals for
power-site purposes. The Federal Power Commission has jurisdiction
over these projects and withdrawals under the Federal Water power
act of June 10, 1920.

2. Timberlands: 2,886,327 M board feet of timber on 95,963.29
acres has been sold to private individuals and corporations in the
manner provided by the revestment act and by acts amendatory or
supplemental thereto; 30,585,257 M board feet of timber on 1,132,-
062.61 acres remains unsold.

3. Agricultural lands: 1,069,279.72 acres of land has been classified
as agricultural in character. This total includes 13,343.60 acres of
lands which were originally in class 2 but which automatically reverted
to class 3 when the timber was removed.

The status of the agricultural lands is as follows: Acres

Patented _ 206, 829. 45

Embraced in pending entries 81, 946. 07

Vacant, but subject to entry 780, 504. 20

1, 069, 279. 72

An additional^ 2,758 acres has been withdrawn for recreational
purposes at the instance of counties and the State of Oregon.

It appears from this report that the United States still retains title
to 2,065,673.33 acres of land on which remains unsold 31,411,011 M
board feet of timber.

According to the same report, the status of the Coos Bay Wagon
Road Co. lands at the end of the fiscal year 1931 was as follows:

1. Power-site lands: 5,110.87 acres, containing 181,460 M board
feet of timber. The timber, however, is subject to sale under an act
of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat. 758).

2. Timberlands: 55,803.77 acres, containing 2,177,302 M board
feet of timber. Of this, 14,908.83 acres, containing 608,749 M board
feet of timber, have been sold to private individuals and corporations
under acts of February 26, 1919 (40 Stat. 1179), June 4, 1920 (41 Stat.
758), and May 17, 1928 (45 Stat. 597), leaving 40,894.94 acres with a
stand of 1,568,553 M board feet of timber unsold.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 649

3. Agricultural lands: 31,378.15 acres. Of this area 8,841.15 acres
have been patented, 5,927.48 acres are embraced in pending entries,
and 16,609.52 acres are vacant.

Of the revested Coos Bay Wagon Koad grant land the United
States still retains title to 62,615.33 acres supporting a stand of 1,750,-
013 M board feet of timber.

MANAGEMENT

The classification of the land reacquired from both grants, except
for water-power sites, takes no cognizance of the physical suitability
of the land for agricultural purposes or for permanent forest use.
Nor is there provision for holding any class II and III land in per-
manent public ownership. Sale of the timber is directed, but no pro-
vision for the permanent forest productivity of the land is required.
Over 33 billion feet of commercial timber remains unsold on the class
II lands ; most of this land is primarily suited only for timber produc-
tion.

Of the million and more acres in class III (agricultural), about
three quarters has not been taken up by homesteaders, being unsuit-
able for agricultural development on account of soil, topography, or
climate; this is however " ultimate forest land", for the most part of
high productivity. Much of the class III land which has been cov-
ered by homestead entry has been promptly abandoned once the
timber was removed.

The checkerboard distribution of these lands does not lend itself to
proper management. For the most part they are the odd-numbered
sections, alternating with private lands or with lands in national
forests or some other form of Federal ownership. A few townships
have been consolidated by exchange with private owners.

The United States Forest Service is authorized to provide fire
protection for these lands. Units protected directly by the Forest
Service receive the same treatment as national-forest lands; units
outside the national forests are protected through contractual agree-
ments with States or with the private association in whose areas they
fall, and receive the same treatment as the commingled State and
private lands.

No appropriations have been made to protect the timber on these
lands from insects or disease. In southern Oregon this situation has
been troublesome. A heavy infestation of bark beetles has killed
immense quantities of ponderosa pine. The loss from this cause is
es tuna ted to be about 10 times the loss from fire in the same region.
Oregon & California Railroad lands in the infested area cannot be
neglected without nullifying control work on the surrounding lands;
control measures which have been carried on for a number of years
by private landowners and by the Forest Service, the Indian Service,
and the National Park Service have of necessity been extended to
cover Oregon & California Railroad lands. The total expenditures
by all agencies since 1924 on the unit within which the Oregon &
California Railroad lands lie have been approximately $100,000.

Logging practice on these lands invites strong criticism. Only the
timber is sold; the land remains in Federal ownership. The operator
has no incentive for conservative logging or continued protection.

650 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

RECOMMENDATIONS

National public interest requires that this great and valuable
domain now in temporary Federal control be classified according to
highest permanent use, and that portions chiefly valuable for forest
purposes be placed, in stable public ownership for technical adminis-
tration on a sustained-yield basis. The problem is complicated by
the scattered distribution of the property and by the financial equities
of the States, counties, and Federal Government prescribed by exist-
ing legislation.

RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE, A STUDY

IN OBJECTIVES

By EARLE H. CLAPP, In Charge, Branch of Research

CONTENTS

Page

Consolidation and segregation 651

Development of organization and facilities 655

The most effective relationships between research and administration _ 655

Most effective field units 656

Most satisfactory working facilities 661

Adequate finances 663

Competent men 665

Effective supervision 668

Progress in research and that still required 669

Forest management 669

Forest range investigations 673

Forest and range influences 675

Forest products 676

Forest economics 681

Objectives, past, present, and future 682

CONSOLIDATION AND SEGREGATION

The Branch of Research was established in the Federal Forest
Service on June 1, 1915, by Henry S. Graves, who was then Chief
Forester. This action was a part of a more or less sweeping reor-
ganization of the work of the Department of Agriculture which began
a few months earlier. The general purpose of the departmental re-
organization was in the words of the order putting it into effect to
obtain " greater efficiency by definitely outlining or segregating within
each bureau" the three main departmental activities, regulatory,
research, and extension. While the Forest Service has little or no
regulatory work in the commonly accepted sense of the term, it has
instead a large administrative responsibility for the handling of the
national forests.

The establishment of the branch of research involved the recogni-
tion by the Forest Service, among other things, of the following:

1. The need for forest research, if the main responsibility and
objective of the Forest Service to bring; about the full use of all
forest lands of the United States and of its products and services is
to be met.

It was a recognition of the fact that only by means of research
would it be possible to obtain in the shortest possible time and at
the lowest possible cost the basic knowledge necessary: To bring
about the productive use of forest land for timber growing; to place
and keep forest products in a position to compete with other materials
in present-day industry — which is relying more and more upon
research — and thus to insure a demand for the products grown;
to insure the full recognition and use of forests and other vegetative
cover in the regulation of stream flow, the prevention of erosion, and

651

652 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

the production of water crops or the combination of water, timber,
and forage crops; to bring about the productive use of forest ranges
for the grazing of domestic livestock where consistent with timber
growing and watershed requirements; to put the forest in a position
to meet the growing needs for recreation; to obtain full recognition
of its function as a home for wild life; and in general to make forest
lands and forests render the largest possible economic and social
service.

2. The Federal obligation and hence that of the Forest Service for
the part of this research consisting primarily of national, interstate,
and regional problems regardless of land ownership, and also of
more local problems of the federally owned national forests.

The Federal obligation is based upon the need for making the
national forests, which constitute more than one sixth of our total
area of forest lands, of maximum public service. It is based upon
the possibility of insuring profitable use for the five sixths of the
forest land now largely in private ownership. It is based upon the
need for finding more profitable use in forests for an area of submar-
ginal agricultural land which may aggregate as much as 80,000,000
acres. It is based upon the fact that many forest problems have
important national, interstate, and regional aspects. It is based
upon a growing appreciation of the size and complexity of the entire
forestry enterprise, upon a critical time element, and upon the need
for national leadership which the Federal Government alone can
furnish. In short, the Federal obligation has many things in com-
mon with that in agriculture proper which is the justification for a
large amount of work in the Department of Agriculture. The con-
centration of much of the Federal forest research in the Forest Service
is the direct result of the concentration in the Forest Service in large
part of the responsibility for the forestry activities of the National
Government.

3. That, most satisfactorily to meet the need for forest research
and the Federal obligation for a part of it, as well as most satisfac-
torily to meet the needs of national-forest administration, research
activities in the Forest Service must be consolidated and adminis-
trative and research activities must be segregated; that research
work and personnel must be given a status equal to those of other
Forest Service activities; that the activities concerned "should be so
organized and related that each will reinforce and foster the other."

Research of a general or extensive character was one of the earliest
if not the first activity of the organization which, in 1905 with the
transfer of the national forests from the Department of the Interior
to the Department of Agriculture, became the Forest Service. Dur-
ing the 10 years following the transfer, the great task of placing the
national forests under administration so completely absorbed the
thought and activities of the Forest Service personnel that research
was very largely ignored. By 1915 it had become almost wholly
submerged in the effort to administer the national forests. It was
scattered in several branches, the primary responsibility of which was
national-forest administration. Research in silvics, for example, was
in the branch of forest management; range investigations were in
the branch of grazing; field stations except the Forest Products
Laboratory and the range stations reported to administrative officers
in charge of national-forest districts; separate stations were main-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 653

tained for each class of work even in the same region and consequently
correlation was extremely difficult. For forest-products research
alone there was a separate branch organization devoted exclusively
to research, but even in this case final responsibility rested in an
assistant forester in Washington whose main responsibility was
national-forest administration.

Research was so submerged, in fact, and so out of the thought of
the rank and file of Forest Service personnel that its development
was practically at a standstill. In organization, administration,
finances, the selection and recognition of personnel, and in practically
every other particular it was subordinated to the development and
administration of the national forests.

Progress made prior to 1915 in spite of the handicaps of organiza-
tion, has been invaluable in the subsequent development of research.
The Forest Products Laboratory, thanks mostly to much greater
administrative freedom, had been developed to essentially its present
form. Several small forest experiment stations had been established
in the West, local in their conception and designed primarily to serve
national forest needs, but still experiment stations. Most of them
were essentially the same as our present experimental forests. A
handful of men had been developed as a nucleus around which to
build a larger staff. A good deal of exploratory work had been done
and substantial progress had been made in working out specialized
technique adapted to the requirements of forest research. In many
respects seed had been germinated which needed only the right kind
of opportunity for growth and fruition. The development of research
prior to June 1, 1915, is, however, an interesting and important story
in itself, the telling of which will not be attempted here.

The reorganization of June 1, 1915, met the situation by recognizing
research as a major Forest Service activity on a par with other activ-
ities, and like them, one which must stand on its own feet. It met
the situation by segregating both administrative and research
activities. The basic purpose in the Forest Service, as in other
bureaus of the Department, was the greatest possible efficiency and
the largest possible public service in both activities in the broadest
and most far-reaching sense.

Under the plan for consolidating research activities and segregating
administration and research, the Forest Service organization, in
briefest terms, took the following form: The forest experiment
stations became responsible for the organized research in specified
regions, the Forest Products Laboratory for the work within its
particular field over the entire country, and all reported directly to
the Branch of Research, which in turn reported to the Forester. All
the national forests in each of the several large regions continued to
report to a district or regional office, which in turn was responsible
to the Forester. This means that there are two sets of field organiza-
tions which have been made responsible for research and administra-
tive work respectively in the same territory and which report
independently to Washington.

Experience has shown that the gains to research through consolida-
tion and segregation have far more than offset possible losses. One
of the greatest losses has been through the elimination of such
advantages as might accrue through the administrative handling of
the work by experienced executives, men of ability who have risen
to responsible positions.

654 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

One of the most important gains has actually been in supervision,
although in some cases temporary dependence has been necessary
upon much younger men or men with less supervisory experience.
Forest research even in a preliminary or extensive form is specialized,
and as the work increases in intensity becomes more and more highly
specialized and over a widely diversified field. Supervision to be
effective must be equally specialized. It must be highly sympathetic
in order to insure the right atmosphere and the best conditions for
work, and to obtain the most and best results. To give supervision
of this character calls for men with research training and experience
and background. It must have the major call upon their time and
interest. It must be the main job of men who are responsible for
research alone. Such supervision cannot be obtained as a side issue
or an incidental interest. In fact, thoroughly competent and fully
sympathetic supervision is one of the main essentials for effective
research. The Forest Service learned through experience that,
regardless of their ability, it could not and should not be expected
from men whose main job was the administration of the national
forests and whose experience, interest, and outlook were primarily or
exclusively that of national forest administration.

One of the incidental gains to research from segregation has been
to relieve investigative personnel of a large volume, in the aggregate,
of miscellaneous incidental jobs which formerly detracted materially
from their main effort, or research. They have been relieved from the
necessity of being " handy men."

The segregation of research has meant freedom from pressure to
jiistify the administrative practice, technical or otherwise, in use on
the national forests. In many instances it has already led to the
recognition of the investigative staff by the general public, and by
financially interested sections of the public, as a wholly impartial
organization. The importance of freedom in research to reach con-
clusions based on facts cannot be overestimated.

Probably the most important gain has been in the freedom to
formulate objectives and to develop the research organization and
policies to meet the specialized requirements of investigative work.
These necessarily differ from national forest administration in such
important respects as recruiting, financing, and many phases of
supervision. This may sometimes have led to the feeling in the larger
administrative group that such changes in policy or procedure,
which had been developed in the Forest Service purely and simply
from the administrative standpoint and regardless of how poorly
they applied in investigative work, were unjustified and wrong in
theory and practice. It has been at bottom, however, a recognition
of different fundamental requirements for the most efficient conduct
of two distinct classes of work having a single and very broad ulti-
mate objective.

Experience has also shown that the gains to administration from
segration have far more than offset possible losses. The greatest of
these gains has been from the far more rapid development of research
and from a far greater volume of information as a basis for a sounder
national forest administration. The existence of a strong research
group, critical by the very nature of its work and free and independent
of the administrative force, has been and cannot help but be a whole-
some influence on national forest administration. It is one of the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 655

best long-time safeguards which could be devised for preventing
national forest administration from getting into ruts. On the
other hand, the presence of an administrative group having no direct
responsibility for research but needing its results and certain to be
critical if it does not get them, is likewise a wholesome influence on
the investigative staff. It compels research men to keep in mind
that their function is service and that research is not an end in itself.

DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIZATION AND FACILITIES

One of the problems resulting from consolidation and segregation,
and one which has required a large amount of attention, has been the
development of a sound organization in the broad sense and of effec-
tive administration as a means for doing the work for which the
Branch of Research was established. This has involved such objec-
tives as the most effective relationships between research and the
administrative organization of the Forest Service, the most effective
field units, the most satisfactory working facilities, adequate financing,
a competent research staff, and effective supervision.

Organization and supervision are only necessary means to an end in
research, and all objectives formulated for them must have this in
mind. In general the more that organization and supervision can be
kept in the background the better, and early settlement and settle-
ment along sound lines of the questions involved is the best way to
accomplish this. Sound and clear-cut objectives in organization and
supervision help to insure a minimum of lost motion and the maximum
progress and accomplishment.

THE MOST EFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN RESEARCH
AND ADMINISTRATION

So that under the segregation plan administration and research
would foster and reinforce each other in fact as well as in theory, it
has been necessary to develop ways and means for maintaining the
most effective relationship between the organizations responsible for
the two activities.

One necessary means to this objective is that administration have
a voice in the determination of what research should be done. Admin-
istrative officers have, therefore, been given a substantial share in
formulating the programs on which the research is concentrated and
also an opportunity to read and criticize reports covering investi-
gative results. In other words, the segregation of research has been
complete for the determination of research technique and the current
administration of the research itself, but the work is on programs
jointly recommended by administrative officers and the investigative
staff.

A second means to this objective is provision for cooperation in
getting investigative results into practice on the national forests.
The administrative staff is responsible for application but can and
should be aided by the investigative staff. Among the many forms
which such aid takes are representation on boards which decide upon
the details of the silviculture to be used in the cutting of national
forest timber, on boards which review the handling of serious forest
fires, attendance at conferences called to work out policies and
technical management, assistance in special training camps for the
administrative staff, etc.

656 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

A third means to this objective is provision for cooperation in
getting investigative results applied on privately owned lands, or
still broader, of furthering the practice of forestry on privately owned
lands. Both the regional administrative organizations and the
regional forest experiment stations have a very definite responsibility
in these fields, although that of the former units is mainly to ad-
minister national forests and that of the latter is for research. In
short, there is an overlapping of responsibilities in the relationships
to the private owner and to the public in general which requires
correlation. It is difficult to draw any clear-cut line between these
responsibilities, although it has been clearly recognized that the
major responsibility rests on the administration organization. With
segregation of administration and research, as worked out by the
Forest Service, satisfactory public contacts, including extension,
must depend for success upon the good sense of the local Forest
Service representatives directly concerned and upon a reasonable
amount of give and take. The competitive element in the situation
rightly handled has been and should continue to be stimulating and
wholesome rather than injurious.

Still another means toward this objective is that both the admin-
istrative and research organizations contribute to major Forest
Service policies. To this end major policies, regional and national,
whether they involve administration of the national forests, relation-
ships with private owners, or the conduct of research, ordinarily
receive joint consideration.

Endless circumstances throw the administrative and research
groups together in Washington and the field. Joint committees
select on the national forests the areas for experimental forests and
ranges and natural areas. The handling of experimental forests and
ranges after selection is in some respects a cooperative undertaking.
The committees which recommend programs for future research
review the results of past research even before they are put into
report form. Both research and applied forestry go forward simul-
taneously on many national forests. Junior foresters and junior
range examiners are sometimes loaned from the administrative
organization to research units. There is some exchange of personnel
between the two classes of work, with the present trend mainly from
administration to research, and of younger men for whom some
administrative experience is a splendid background for a subsequent
investigative career.

A final means to the objective of having administration and research
foster and reinforce each other is afforded by the opportunity for
having the two groups join forces in the occasional large undertakings
that affect the whole forestry movement and that require for their
most effective handling the knowledge, background, and experience of
both groups. Congressional requests such as the Capper Senate
resolution of 1920 and the Copeland Senate resolution of 1932,
which require the broadest kind of consideration of the entire forestry
field and the formulation of programs to meet outstanding national
problems, illustrate undertakings of this character.

MOST EFFECTIVE FIELD UNITS

With the obligation for work on national and regional problems
requiring investigations in all or nearly all forest regions of a country

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 657

of continental size, concentration of all research of all classes in
Washington or any other one place is obviously out of the question.
Some decentralization and the establishment of some field units is
called for. One vital organization question involved in the formula-
tion of objectives has therefore been the determination of what kind
or kinds of field units and how many of each should be established,
and what their general organizations should be. The establishment
of such field units is so far-reaching in its commitments as to time,
costs, and the character and volume of results that it has been abso-
lutely necessary that it be based on sound fundamental principles.

One of the most important basic principles taken into account
has been the interrelationship and essential unity of all phases of
forestry and hence of the research upon which the forestry enterprise
must depend. For example, natural reproduction in ponderosa pine
stands on the Coconino Plateau in the Southwest depends partly
upon precipitation and other climatic factors. Abundant reproduc-
tion can be obtained only through the rare combination of an abundant
seed crop followed by a year favorable for survival of the seedlings.
Soil is another important and very complex factor, as is also competi-
tion of larger trees both above and below ground. In this particular
part of the range of ponderosa pine, damage to forest reproduction
from livestock grazing may be very severe and the conditions under
which it occurs and the grazing management necessary to prevent
it must be taken into account. Range use obviously depends upon
the character and amount of the forage or subordinate forest vege-
tion, and this in turn is frequently an important competitor of forest
tree seedlings.

Campaigns for the destruction of predatory animals are carried
out to reduce losses of livestock, and apparently result in increased
numbers of rodents, some of which consume large quantities of forest
tree seed, others destroy small seedlings, others, such as porcupines,
destroy large seedlings, saplings, and even larger trees, and still
others feed upon forage plants. Game animals are related to forest
perpetuation on the one hand and to range use on the other. Both
range use and forest reproduction are definitely tied in to the necessity
and the ease or difficulty of fire protection. Both entomological and
pathological problems are almost inevitably involved in very complex
and far-reaching ways. The conditions, such as density of stand,
etc., under which timber is grown, have a very direct influence on
both the quantity and the character or quality of the forest products
produced. Any form of forest or range or game management modifies
natural conditions, and sets up a chain of biological sequences which
is likely to carry through the entire forest complex. And all of these
things are reflected in the requirements and nature of research. All
phases of management have their economic aspects, which in them-
selves are interrelated and which must also be reflected in research.

Under the southern rim of the Coconino Plateau another group of
relationships and hence another class of forest research comes into
the picture — the influence of vegetative cover on erosion and stream-
flow. The vegetative cover may be virgin or cut-over forest, or it
may be that which follows the timber on devastated forest land. It
may consist of chaparral or brush, or of forage grasses and other
plants in the subordinate vegetation, or of different combinations
of these. The brush and forage cover may have been materially

658 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

changed through grazing. The water crop on which the Salt River
Valley now depends promises to become an important or even the
sole purpose of forest and range management in some parts of this
rim country. Where it is the main purpose, specialized silvicultural
measures may become necessary. The same thing may be true of
range management. Where either is true it will be reflected in the
research required.

The same kind of interrelationships and hence essential unity holds
true of practically every broad forest problem in every type or region
in the United States. Any plan for research units which ignores this
interrelationship and unity cannot be otherwise than unsound.

It is essential to recognize as a second principle that whereas for
some research, such as most forest products investigations, the ma-
terials to be investigated can be easily and cheaply transported to a
central laboratory from all parts of the United States and centraliza-
tion may be a distinct advantage by aiding correlation, for other
forms of research too great distances may result in lack of contact
with and knowledge of field conditions which should govern the
character of investigative programs. In silvical or forest range or
erosion-streamflow investigations, much of the work can be con-
ducted only in the woods. In such work, in a country like the United
States, distance becomes a factor which cannot be ignored.

The responsibility of the Federal Government for national and
regional problems requires the recognition of a third principle, the
establishment of units which will facilitate work on these problems
and tend to minimize or exclude work on local problems, for which,
elsewhere than on the national forests, State and other agencies are
responsible.

A fourth principle calls for units which will insure the most effective
administration at the lowest feasible cost. This necessitates a happy
medium between units so large as to be unwieldy and so small as to
be ineffective. It requires workable units in reasonable numbers
instead of too few large units or a multiplicity of small units. It
means units which will hold costs for overhead equipment, etc., to
a feasible minimum.

The application of these principles has resulted in two classes of
field units, and the formerly rather numerous units which did not
fit into either class have gradually been eliminated. One of these
classes is necessarily regional and the other is national.

The first class includes the regional forest or forest and range
experiment stations. The plan has been to locate one such station
in each of the important forest regions of the United States. Since
for much of the work the woods or the range must constitute the
laboratory, distance is one controlling factor. Even under the
regional plan it is often great. For example, the territory of the
Southern Forest Experiment Station is 1,100 miles long by 400 to 700
broad, and by the best rail connections it is a 36 hours' journey from
the New Orleans headquarters to the southern tip of Florida. The
Central Station territory is 800 miles long by 750 broad, and it is
24 hours by train from the Columbus headquarters to the western
boundary of the region. The California territory is 815 miles long.
In general the regions adopted are not so large but that all parts can
be reached in a reasonable time and cost.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 659

The principle of unity of all phases of forestry and hence of forest
research is being recognized in two ways in the regional forest experi-
ment station plan. The first is, so far as a rather complicated forest
distribution permits, to draw the boundaries of each territory to
include similar forest conditions. The second is to concentrate all
kinds of research in each region at one station. As a result of the
latter the work of the stations includes silvicultural or forest-manage-
ment investigations, range investigations, studies of erosion, streamflow
problems of both forest and range lands, studies dealing with forest
economics, and in a few instances investigations dealing with purely
regional forest-products problems. Recognition of the principle of
unity means the best opportunity for the coordination of interrelated
classes of research and the prevention of duplication. It means
many-sided, well-rounded-out group attacks.

For reasons which are so obvious as hardly to require explanation,
the regional stations also constitute the most effective units for the
recognition of the third principle of Federal responsibility for regional
and national problems. For the classes of work handled by the
stations they are finally the most logical units to insure effective
administration at the lowest feasible cost by avoiding both excessive
size and excessive numbers.

Since the creation of the Branch of Research in 1915, six such
regional stations have been established in the East, and five local
stations in the West have been reorganized on a regional basis. Plans
call for one or two additional stations in the United States proper and
one each in Alaska, Hawaii, and the West Indies.

The second class of field unit includes only one institution, the
Forest Products Laboratory, at Madison, Wis. The principle of
unity is recognized by the concentration at the laboratory of a very
large percentage of the entire Forest Service effort in products research,
thus insuring correlation and effective group attacks. It is recog-
nized further by a gradually increasing amount of work on borderline
problems between products and silvics. The future promises to
bring also a growing number of purely silvicultural problems which
can be handled most effectively at a central laboratory such as can
easily be developed and has long been planned at Madison as a part
of the Forest Products Laboratory. It is apparent also that the
economic problems closely related to the forest products field can be
handled most satisfactorily from the laboratory.

Distance in most forest products investigations is of far less impor-
tance than in silvicultural and range investigations, because most
forest products problems, such as timber testing and pulp and paper
investigations, are of a character in which the investigative material
can be brought to a single central laboratory without disadvantage
and with material gain in efficiency and correlation. Concentration
of the work at a single national unit tends to emphasize the principle
of Federal responsibility for national and regional problems and to
prevent work on purely local problems. The principJe of the most
effective administration at the lowest possible cost is also met most
fully in forest products investigations by a single national unit.

The establishment of a single National Forest Products Laboratory
in 1910 followed the trial over a period of years of regional or local
laboratories, of which there were about 12, the first dating from 1891.
Although such local laboratories have obvious advantages, such as

660 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

local interest and closer contact with local conditions, they were
finally abandoned because of excessive costs in equipment and per-
sonnel, including overhead, difficulties in the correlation of research,
etc.

Under the existing organization in the Department of Agriculture,
some classes of forest research are assigned to other bureaus than
the Forest Service, and the field units described have the further
advantage of permitting cooperative effort and a unified, well-rounded-
out or group attack on the entire forest problem. Under this plan
forest pathologists from the Bureau of Plant Industry, have been
assigned to the Forest Products Laboratory, and pathologists from
Plant Industry, forest entomologists from the Bureau of Entomology,
and biologists from the Biological Survey have been assigned to
several of the regional stations. The number is being gradually
increased. All work under the direction of their own bureaus.

Since the basic interrelationship and unity of all classes of forest
research is becoming increasingly apparent, more detailed illustration
of the manner in which it is being recognized is justified, although this
will involve some repetition of what has already been said. It has
been necessary to provide for forest products research at some of our
forest experiment stations, primarily on problems which have im-
portant local silvicultural aspects, such as the utilization phase of
selective logging or mill-scale studies. The work on silvicultural
problems at the Forest Products Laboratory, already mentioned, has
led to the establishment of a Section of Silvicultural Relations. One
of the important problems on which this section is working is the bio-
chemistry of naval stores, a borderline problem which might be
assigned either to the Southern Forest Experiment Station or to the
Forest Products Laboratory, depending upon exigencies of finances,
personnel, etc. Both the regional stations and the Section of Silvi-
cultural Relations are certain to work on physiological problems.
The laboratory and the stations are already in numerous instances
joining forces in working out the relationship between growing condi-
tions and the properties and quality of the final product, and in time
this will be true in practically every forest region. Research in forest
economics must inevitably be conducted at both the regional forest
experiment stations and the Forest Products Laboratory. The Forest
Survey is a large and important economic investigation which illu-
strates the interrelationship between silvicultural and products in-
vestigations and bridges in still another way any apparent gap be-
tween the forest experiment stations and the Forest Products Labora-
tory. In some of its aspects, such as the determination of actual and
potential growth, it is closely related to and in fact merges into, the
silvical research of the experiment stations, and in other of its aspects,
such as present and probable future requirements for timber, is
closely related to and merges into the work of the Forest Products
Laboratory.

The range and silvicultural investigations at the regional experiment
stations run together in such projects as the adaptations of range
management necessary to insure reproduction of species like pon-
derosa pine, and as the influence of the vegetative cover where forest
and forage plants occur in combination.

The growing realization of this unity and of the necessity of pro-
viding for it in investigative programs, in the administration of re-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 661

search, and in the organization of field units is one of the most striking
lessons which has come out of the development in forest research in
the Forest Service during the last 15 years.

The question is sometimes raised whether the regional forest experi-
ment stations do not constitute a new national system of experiment
stations with a different basic principle from that of the State agricul-
tural experiment stations. Federal contributions to both agricul-
tural and forest research take two forms — one of financial grants to
the States, and the other, of direct Federal effort. In the latter the
Department has over a long period of years been building up a
strong, Federally supported and controlled research organization of
which the regional forest experiment stations constitute a part.
These stations are designed to meet the Federal responsibility for
work on national and regional and national forest problems. If they
give any appearance of a new and different principle it is only because
the entire country has been covered in a plan-wise organization.
The steadily growing volume of cooperation between the Federal and
State stations is evidence of the fact that the two sets of stations
constitute complementary rather than rival systems.

MOST SATISFACTORY WORKING FACILITIES

An essential requirement for good research is satisfactory laboratory
and other working facilities, including headquarters. The de-
termination of what facilities will best meet requirements consti-
tuted, therefore, another important question which had to be an-
swered in the development of forest research. The answer constitutes
another set of objectives.

The Forest Products Laboratory is maintained at Madison, Wis.,
in cooperation with the State university. It has, therefore, all the
advantages from the standpoint of research of affiliation with a strong
educational institution with a well-developed graduate school and
an agricultural experiment station in both of which there is a large
amount of research. The advantages, in brief, grow out of the
stimulus which comes from the opportunity for formal consultation
and informal contact with a large group of specialists in widely
diversified fields and from the scholarly and research atmosphere of
educational institutions. They grow also out of the opportunities
for formal cooperation.

The university provided laboratory facilities for the Forest Products
Laboratory for many years, until the organization completely out-
grew the available space. Present needs have now been met and
future needs anticipated by a recently completed Federal laboratory
in the maintenance of which the university will cooperate. This,
with periodic enlargements, should meet the needs for years to come.

The headquarters for the forest experiment stations have consti-
tuted another problem.. Isolated headquarters were the rule in the
early stages of our forest and range experiment station development,
so that the men might live with their jobs in the woods or on the
range — an unquestionable advantage. It was found, however, that
small groups of men stagnated scientifically under such an environ-
ment, and the experience of other organizations has shown that even
relatively large groups have the same tendency. The plan of isolated
headquarters has therefore been abandoned, and headquarters have

662 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

been placed in cities and wherever possible in direct cooperation with
universities.

The headquarters of 6 of the 11 regional stations so far established
are maintained in cooperation with universities, namely, the Alle-
gheny Station in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania, at
Philadelphia; the California, with the University of California, at
Berkeley; the Central States, with Ohio State University, at Co-
lumbus; the Lake States, with the University of Minnesota, at St.
Paul; the Northeastern, with Yale University, at New Haven; and
the Southwestern, with the University of Arizona, at Tucson.

For forest and range experiment stations maintained at universities,
headquarters laboratory needs are being met in varying degree by the
cooperating institution. The situation at stations without university
affiliation is as yet far less satisfactory.

The major part of the silvicultural and range work must, however,
be conducted in the woods and on the ranges. This requirement is
now being met by a clear-cut departmental as well as Forest Service
policy and instructions for setting aside from the existing national
forests and dedicating to research both experimental forests and
experimental ranges. Where there are no national forests, provision
for acquisition or other arrangements are to be worked out.

Each experimental forest is to be as fully representative as possible
of the conditions in an important subregion. So far as can now be
foreseen, from 5 to 10 experimental forests will ultimately be required
hi each forest region in the continental United States and a smaller
number in outlying regions. The McSweeney-McNary Forest
Research Act specifies 13 such forest regions in the United States
proper and 3 in outlying possessions. The area of each of the experi-
mental forests will range from about 1,500 acres as a minimum to
about 5,000 as a maximum, exclusive of natural areas. Housing and
incidental laboratory facilities are needed and are gradually being
provided at the experimental forests.

The same general policy is to be followed in the establishment of
experimental ranges. Provision is also made for natural forest and
range areas to form a part of experimental forests and ranges wherever
possible, and for such other natural areas as may be necessary through-
out the country for research purposes.

To date 15 experimental forests and 2 experimental ranges have
been set aside by formal proclamation. Sixteen natural areas have
been set aside and are available for investigative purposes. About
an equal number of experimental forests and natural areas are in
advanced stages of selection and formal establishment. Conditions
in practically every forest region of the United States are represented.

The policy of formally setting experimental forests and ranges and
natural areas aside in perpetuity grew from years of experience in
which it was found that even on the national forests widely scattered
sample plots could not be satisfactorily protected, resulted in excessive
costs, did not in many instances lend themselves to the intensive
research which frequently becomes necessary before problems can be
satisfactorily answered, did not lead to satisfactory correlation of
findings, were most unsatisfactory for demonstration purposes, and
gave unsatisfactory results in many other respects. Experimental
forests and ranges, with the bulk of the field research of the forest
experiment stations concentrated on them, should within a relatively

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 663

few years become invaluable for demonstration purposes as well as
for the research for which they are primarily created.

From the somewhat scattered statements in the preceding pages
regarding the component parts of a forest experiment station a more
comprehensive picture may be drawn. A station consists for one
thing of a headquarters in a town which serves for the permanent
residence of the technical and clerical staff, which offers the oppor-
tunity for laboratory work, and which preferably permits affiliation
with a high-grade educational institution with a strong graduate
school. It consists also of a series of experimental forests each of
which is as representative as possible of the conditions of an important
sub region. Where range problems are involved, similar experimental
ranges are utilized. These experimental forests and ranges are in
fact branch stations at which the bulk of the field activities of the
station are concentrated. Each station works on the problems of an
entire region and covers silvicultural or forest management investiga-
tions, range investigations, those of forest and range influences, forest
economics, and to a minor extent investigations of forest products, or
all classes of forest research except those which can be handled best
in a national unit.

To the stations also, wherever satisfactory arrangements can be
worked out, representatives are detailed from the Bureau of Plant
Industry for investigations of forest pathology, from the Bureau of
Entomology for investigations of forest entomology, and from the
Biological Survey for investigations of forest wild life.

ADEQUATE FINANCES

When the Branch of Research was established in 1915 only a
relatively small amount of research was under way in the Forest
Service. As the National Forest administration became more
intensive and the forestry movement on lands in other ownerships
gained headway, the size and complexity of the research job and the
magnitude of the Federal obligation for even a part of it were grad-
ually realized. With the rapid exhaustion of virgin timber supplies
and relatively small effort toward their replacement, with the tech-
nique of timber growing largely unknown throughout the United
States, with forest products at a decided disadvantage in competition
with practically all other commodities because of lack of knowledge
of their properties and how to use them effectively, and with enormous
areas of land available for timber growing and apparently suitable for
no other purpose, there seemed to be little question about the urgency
of research. The conclusion was accordingly reached that the
national interest required expansion of the work as rapidly as increased
finances could be made available, provided, of course, that suitable
personnel could be obtained and the organization developed to handle
the work effectively. It had to be recognized that adequate finances
constituted one of the main essentials or objectives for doing forest
research. Before increased finances could be obtained, however, both
the public and Congress had to be convinced that the work contem-
plated was actually necessary and in the public interest.

The effort to meet financial needs finally led, among other things,
to the passage of the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act of
May 22, 1928. In its broader aspects this legislation is the organic

168342°— 33— vol. 1 43

664 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

act for forest research in the Department of Agriculture, with all that
this implies in recognition, standing, etc. A group of objectives,
including the scope of the research, the field units at which it is to be
done, and the 10-year financial program in accordance with which it
is to be carried out, are given the full authority of congressional enact-
ment. From the standpoint of the development of research in the
Forest Service this legislation ranks in importance second only to the
consolidation of the work in the Branch of Research and the segrega-
tion of administrative and research activities in the Forest Service.

The merit of the policy of adequate financing is not likely to be
questioned except during a serious economic depression when Federal
receipts are at a low level, the burden of taxation is severely felt, and
public opinion is striking out at expenditures in general without very
much consideration of their necessity or promise. The results of
the policy must be judged on the basis of whether a scientific founda-
tion for forest-land use or the lowest possible Federal appropriations
are more in the public interest, and of whether the required effort
could have been made by any other agencies. Finally, it should be
borne in mind that the increases in appropriations indicated below
were made during a period when adequate funds were available and
that the amounts are insignificant in comparison with expenditures
for other public purposes, or with the values at stake.

For the fiscal year 1915, $286,578 was available for all classes of
research, and for 1932, $1,793,300, not counting cooperative contribu-
tions which would add about $100,000, nor $900,000 for a Forest
Products Laboratory building, nor about $140,000 for emergency
contruction purposes at the forest experiment stations. The average
annual increase in appropriations for the 14 years preceding the
passage of the McSweeney Act was about $55,000, while that for the
3 years, not including tne depression year of 1933, following the
passage of the act has been $250,000. The rate of expansion may be
indicated still more specifically by classes of work.

The appropriation for forest management research in 1921 was
$50,000; that for 1932 was $562,000, an increase of approximately
11 times in as many years. The appropriation for forest economics
in 1925 was $25,800, while that for 1932 was $355,000, or an increase
of nearly 14 times in 7 years. During the 15 years from 1917 to 1932
forest products appropriations increased approximately 5 times from
$135,000 to $641,300. During the 5 years between 1927 and 1932
range research appropriations more than tripled, from $40,320 to
$130,000. The first appropriation of $30,000 for erosion-streamflow
research became available in 1930. That for 1932 was $100,000.

The expansion of the larger field units has been in proportion.
Funds available for the Forest Products Laboratory between 1915
and 1932 increased from $130,744 to $534,430. The Southern
Forest Experiment Station was established in 1922, with an initial
allotment of $14,860 and the funds available in 1932 were $180,800.
The Pacific Northwest station handled its work in 1922 with $7,040,
and in 1932 was allotted $167,300. In 1926 the California station
expended $7,085, and in 1932 was allotted $141,680. The Lake
States station was established in 1924 with an appropriation of
$23,555, and this had been increased to $103,390 in 1932. Field
stations other than the Forest Products Laboratory received in 1921
a total allotment of less than $50,000, while in 1932 they received
$1,048,580, a twentyfold increase.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 665

The character of expansion is indicated also by the establishment
of new units or the reorganization of small local units to a regional
basis, and by the initiation of Nation-wide investigative enterprises.
The Appalachian and Southern Forest Experiment Stations were
established and the Northern Rocky Mountain Station was placed
on a regional basis in the fiscal year 1922. The Lake States and
Northeastern stations date from 1924. The Pacific Northwest
station was reorganized on a regional basis in 1925. The forest taxa-
tion inquiry was organized in 1926. The California station was
founded in 1927. The Central States and Allegheny stations were
established in 1928. The forest survey was initiated in 1930 and the
Intermountain and Southwestern stations were established on a
regional basis in 1931.

The increase in finances has carried with it the initiation of lines
of work some of which had been recommended regularly over long
periods of years. The Forest Survey, for example, for which the
initial appropriation was obtained in 1930 under the authorization of
the McSweeney-McNary Act, was first recommended some 50 years
ago. Provision for intensive studies of forest taxation and forest
insurance, dates from 1926 and 1930, respectively, following the au-
thority granted in the Clarke-McNary Act. For other classes of
economic work repeated recommendations had been made over at
least a 10-year period, but it needed the authorization of the
McSweeney Act to make the first appropriations available in 1930.

With growth in appropriations there has been a corresponding
expansion in the Branch staff. It now totals approximately 500 of
whom 285 are technical. The increase is not in the same ratio as
that of appropriations because of changes in salary level.

Probably few foresters in the United States realize how even under
its present inadequate status the provision for forest research in the
Federal Forest Service alone compares with that in other countries.
Although full data from other countries is not available, a check of all
the sources at hand in 1930 indicated current expenditures in all other
countries of approximately $1,000,000. It is probable, therefore, that
the 1932 appropriation of about $1,800,000 for the Forest Service
equaled or exceeded expenditures in all other countries. This is a
situation which has developed almost entirely within the last 10 years,
and a substantial part of it since the passage of the McSweeney-
McNary Act. It is not an indication that requirements are being
met. As will be shown later in greater detail, in every region and in
every field of research the projects on which nothing is being done or
on which the attack is seriously inadequate far exceed those on which
it is now possible to work or on which attack can now be made on an
adequate scale.

As the result of the current economic depression, some of the finan-
cial ground gained has already been lost. The funds available for the
fiscal year 1933 are about 10 percent less than those for 1932. A

Erolonged depression may seriously threaten much that has so far
een gained .

COMPETENT MEN

Long years of experience have shown the hopelessness and the
futility of attempting to do satisfactory research with mediocre or
poor men, and hence one of the main essentials in building up a

666 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

research organization is to have a thoroughly competent, adequately
trained staff.

If the past few years prior to the depression can be taken as a
criterion in Federal forest research, the possibility of obtaining quali-
fied men, not the availability of money, has in fact been the con-
trolling or limiting factor in the rate at which the work could be
expanded. That the national requirements for forest research have
not been met during the last decade is primarily because sufficient
men with the necessary mental equipment and training have for one
reason or another been nonavailable. The current economic depres-
sion raises a question as to whether this will continue to be true in the
future — one which it is still too early to answer with assurance.

With men the limiting factor in the rate of expansion under normal
economic conditions, either one of two decidedly different plans could
be followed. Under one, appropriations could be sought and the
work developed only as fast as well-trained and competent men
became available in the natural course of events without special
stimulus. This plan is commonly followed in developing research
organizations. Most important among its adantages is probably
the assurance of a better conduct of the research attempted. Among
others, it is much less likely to lead to criticism, which is ordinarily
of the way research is done rather than of the failure to do it on a
scale commensurate with public needs.

The other plan was to make the requirements of the job, or in other
words the public interest, the compelling consideration. The size,
complexity, and urgency of the problem in the United States, or the
public need, as indicated in the discussion of adequate finances,
seemed to be sufficient justification under normal economic conditions
for the expansion of the work as rapidly as possible.

But the adoption of the latter plan of making the public need the
guiding principle in the development of research has created a difficult
recruiting problem. In meeting this problem the requirements as to
mentality for recruits to the investigative staff have been set very
high. When sufficient men with adequate training could not be
obtained, the balance of current needs have been met by the employ-
ment of men who have been only partially trained for investigative
work. In short, the jobs have been created and made as attractive
as the limitations of the Government service permitted in order to
interest good men and to stimulate the training of such men for
research.

The recruiting standards or objectives adopted call in every in-
stance for obtaining the ablest man available in the forestry profession.
Mentality, idealism, character, and all of the faculties and qualities
which are necessary for the highest grade of research are taken into
account. In training, the objective is a doctor's degree or an equiv-
alent, but this is not as yet attainable in many cases. Efforts in the
selection of every man even for the lowest junior positions go to great
lengths. All the evidence which can be obtained from every possible
source bearing upon qualifications is taken definitely into account.
Such evidence is collected and contributed systematically to a central
clearing house by every unit and every permanent employee in the
organization. An effort is made to keep a running record of every
young man in the profession whose work is outstanding. This goes
as far back as the undergraduate record.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 667

It has been found through systematic check that the civil-service
record for junior positions is in the great majority of cases an excellent
criterion of what may be expected in the subsequent career of indi-
vidual men. Men who show up best in the junior examination almost
invariably have a creditable subsequent career. Almost invariably
the men who have failed to develop, who have become personnel
problems, are those whose civil-service record is unsatisfactory.

Since it has been necessary, with inadequate numbers of fully
trained men available, to employ substantial numbers of men before
they are fully trained for research, training on the job has become an
essential part of the effort to build up a research organization. That
training on the job does not give some of the things that the schools
do is fully realized, but if experience is any guide, its possibilities
have been far too heavily discounted. Efforts for such training are
made as systematic as possible, and include such things as care and
diversity in research assignments, special supervision on them,
details to other regions, special training for particular classes of
work, etc.

Another move to stimulate the development of the investigative
staff has been the discontinuance of year-long isolated headquarters,
and location of the experiment station headquarters wherever the
circumstances permitted, in direct cooperation with universities.
Without doubt this has been a material factor in stimulating and
broadening our personnel.

In recognition of the benefits of advanced college training for
research, men who have not had such training have been encouraged
at temporary sacrifices to the organization to go back for further
training. Of the men in the research organization not yet fully
trained a large percentage plan to take advantage of this opportunity
at their earliest convenience.

Another phase of this effort is the temporary summer employment
of forest school undergraduates. The number so employed annually
already reaches from 75 to 100. The policy is to select only the best
men, to develop in these men an interest in research as a carrer, to
give them a background of research experience, and in general to
make temporary employment one additional means of building up the
ablest and best- trained staff available in the profession.

Practically no men were training for forest research in 1915 because
there was little or no promise of a career if they did. The policy of
placing public requirements ahead of other considerations in Forest
Service research involved the deliberate creation of relatively large
numbers of jobs. During each of the 3 years ending with 1932,
men for 30 to 50 new positions were sought. The possibility of a
career in research has been made as attractive as the limitations in
the Government service will permit, as to salary, personal recognition
for work done, desirable headquarters for permanent residence, etc.

As indicated above, the Forest Service demand for men has been
one of the factors which within the last decade has revolutionized the
situation in the forest schools of the United States equipped to give
advanced training. The revolution has gone furthest in silvicultural
work, but it has begun in forest economics, range, and other classes
of research. Whereas 15 years ago, or even at the close of the war,
there probably were not more than 2 or 3 men in the entire United

668 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

States who were studying for a doctor's degree in forestry, there
were 32 men at 6 of our forest schools in 1929-30.

Five or six of these were in the field of wood chemistry and wood
technology, several in the field of range ecology, and practically all
of the others in silviculture and various aspects of forest ecology.
Comparable data on the number of men working for master's degrees
in preparation for research as contrasted with other phases of forestry
are not available. Obviously the demand from other organizations
than the Forest Service has accentuated the burden on the forest
schools to supply in rapidly increasing numbers men thoroughly
trained for the various kinds of forest research.

EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION

Another question involving the philosophy of organization and
supervision which has had to be faced and settled, but which never-
theless keeps arising, is whether the work should be handled by individ-
ual or organized effort.

In many research organizations individual investigators under
general or no supervision and with little or no coordination decide
what they can and should do, follow out leads as they find them, and
proceed without very much regard to what their associates are doing.
Unquestionably this form of individual effort has many advantages,
chief among which is the incentive arising from lack of restraint. It
fails fully to take into account, however, such basic considerations as
the need for group attacks because of the interrelationship of all
phases of the forestry problem or its unity, and it fails to meet other
requirements and responsibilities of a publicly supported research
agency.

The plan of organized effort has accordingly been followed by the
Forest Service. The determination of the programs on which work
will be done is undertaken systematically once each year and programs
so determined ordinarily remain in effect during the ensuing year.
In reality the determination of such programs is an attempt to set
up clear-cut objectives for a year's work. The members of investiga-
tive staffs are then assigned to the projects agreed upon in which it is
believed, all things considered, they can render services of the greatest
value. In short, wherever the nature of the work requires, the staff
works as groups on those phases of the forest problem which, after
careful consideration, are determined to be most in the public interest.
This plan insures fully coordinated attacks on the most urgent
problems, continuity of purpose and effort, and results of greatest
value from the public standpoint, and, finally, makes it possible to
render a satisfactory accounting to the public which finances the work.

Accomplishments to date under this plan unquestionably far
exceed any conceivable progress under unrestricted individual effort.
Furthermore, it has been found that sufficient leeway can be given for
individual effort to satisfy nearly all investigators, individualistic
though they may be.

The Forest Service handling of research differs in still another
respect from that of many other research organizations in requiring
that a carefully thought-out plan be put into writing for all the specific
pieces of work or projects undertaken, at least after they have passed
a preliminary exploratory stage. This for one thing makes it neces-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 669

sary to think out plans as fully as possible in advance of beginning
work, with whatever advantage this may bring in avoiding mistakes.
It permits criticism from other men. The scheme as followed is per-
fectly flexible in allowing or requiring the revision of plans whenever
the development of the work calls for it. W^hout question this
requirement also helps to insure the fullest possible correlation of the
investigative work as a whole.

Dependence upon public funds has led among other things to the
adoption of the principle of accountability, and there cannot be
accountability without pressure on men who need it for the delivery
of reasonable results. That this principle is regarded by many
research organizations as inapplicable in investigative work or injuri-
ous to it is well known. Without any question accountability
introduces difficult problems of supervision. Zeal and interest can in
the great majority of cases be appealed to in men of the right sort
when important questions of public interest are involved. Men who
have the ability to render satisfactory services and who have the
public interest at heart are not the ones who object. Rightly handled,
periodic accounting need not interfere with individual initative and
can be made as wholesome an incentive to good work in research as in
any other human activity. In the last analysis the public that we
serve has a right to ask that for every dollar expended at least an
equivalent value in services be rendered and that appropriate means
to insure this return be taken.

Finally, effective supervision requires conscious and continued
effort to create and maintain the right atmosphere for research, the
interest, the zeal, and in general the intangibles which are so large a
factor in the character and quality as well as the quantity of work
and which are perhaps more needed in research than in any other
activity.

Organization, facilities for work, finances, men, and effective super-
vision are, however, merely a beginning. Taken alone they mean
nothing. Singly and collectively they only pave the way for research.
Research itself is only a means to an end. The end is human welfare.

PROGRESS IN RESEARCH AND THAT STILL REQUIRED

In the space available it is possible to discuss actual progress in
research only in the most general terms. A compensating advantage
should be a clearer picture of the broader aspects of the situation for
the entire country. Because the major portion of Forest Service
results have been obtained since the formation of the Branch of
Research in 1915, the statement covers all results to date. The
headings are by appropriation items and do not in all cases conform
exactly to accepted professional terminology. The field which
remains to be covered is discussed without reference to the obliga-
tion for it which rests on many agencies of which the Federal Govern-
ment is only one.

FOREST MANAGEMENT

Forest management, one of the most important classes of forest
research, determines how to establish, bring to maturity, measure,
and protect forests or, in the broadest sense of the term, how to grow
or manage forest properties. Research in forest entomology and

670 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

forest pathology, although essential parts of this subject, are not
discussed because they are administered in other bureaus of the
Department of Agriculture.

NATURAL REFORESTATION

Although planting has the greatest popular appeal, it is on natural
processes of regeneration that the forester must very largely depend
for the perpetuation of the forest. Accordingly the latter has re-
ceived by far the greater emphasis in research. For a rather large
percentage of the most important forest types in the United States,
research findings to date show in a fairly satisfactory way how natural
reproduction can be obtained or how to reestablish the forest by con-
trolling the method of cutting the mature forest. Or conversely,
they show for most of our more important forest types how to pre-
vent the forest devastation which has been such a widespread evil in
the United States; and also how to prevent forest deterioration, which
has been a less spectacular but probably an even greater evil. Some
of these findings, as for example in the ponderosa pine, Douglas fir,
and eastern spruce forests, involve significant adaptations of the
standard European silvicujtural methods to the requirements of
American species and American conditions.

The work done in this and other connections has in the aggregate
accumulated a rather impressive knowledge of the taxonomy and
distribution of our forest trees, of the life histories and requirements
of many of the most important species, and of the ecological relation-
ships of many important single species and forest types. The ground
to be covered is far greater than that which has been covered, but
much of our silviculture of natural forest regeneration is no longer
entirely blind and without fundamental foundation.

Looking at our needs in a broad national way, a very large field of
work in the reestablishment of forests or in obtaining natural repro-
duction still remains. Much of the information so far obtained is
empirical and too little progress has been made in breaking the prob-
lem down into its constituent factors, which is a necessary preliminary
to an intensive attack. Far too little, to illustrate, has been accom-
plished in breaking down problems of light, soil, moisture, competi-
tion, physiological responses to environment, etc., as a basis for the
evaluation of these factors through intensive research.

Much less progress can be shown on the problem of carrying estab-
lished forest lands through to maturity, although a good beginning
has been made. Large numbers of sample plots have been established,
but nearly all are still too recent to render their fullest value. Thin-
ning plots and those representing other cultural operations are fewer
in number. In general, the work along this line is in a preliminary
empirical stage.

As in the initial problem of establishing the young forest, practi-
cally everything is ahead in breaking down into its constituent factors
the problem of carrying established stands to maturity, as a prelimi-
nary to intensive attack. Large additional quantities of both
empirical and intensive work will be necessary before we shall be in
a position to say with assurance what are the best species and mix-
tures for various conolitions of soil, etc.; how we shall manage our
stands to insure quantity or quality production or the right combina-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 671

tion of both; the best relationship between silviculture and protection
against fire, insects, and forest diseases; the relation of silviculture to
erosion, stream flow, and other forest influences. In general, the
larger and more important question of bringing forest stands to
maturity has had much less attention than that of establishing young
forests and preventing forest devastation or deterioration.

ARTIFICIAL REFORESTATION

Research in artificial reforestation has made substantial progress in
laying the foundation for fairly satisfactory nursery- and field-planting
technique for our most common and valuable conifers. For these
species, in other words, we have made substantial progress in learning
how to grow forest tree seedlings and establish forest plantations.
The availability of this information means that planting with the
species in question has far greater assurance of success than it would
otherwise have.

On the other hand, the work has barely begun on what is perhaps the
larger and much more far-reaching problem of carrying plantations
to maturity, the ultimate measure of success. Still ahead is the re-
search necessary for growing forest crops of the best species and mix-
tures that will give highest yields, or the best quality for particular
purposes, or a desired combination of quantity and quality. An enor-
mous volume of work is required for practically all species, types, and
regions on such problems as the source of seed, planting sites, mix-
tures, density, etc. This is the information on which we shall in the
last analysis have to depend to avoid failures and to insure ultimate
success in growing timber.

The work thus far on artificial reforestation has been almost entirely
on conifers. The development of a satisfactory technique for estab-
lishing hardwood plantations lies ahead, as does also the work on
which we must rely to bring such plantations to maturity.

Time is a very important element in practically all aspects of silvi-
cultural research on either natural or artificial regeneration, or on
carrying established stands to maturity. The results cannot be has-
tened. The life span of trees is very long. Extreme climatic condi-
tions which may occur only periodically often have a decisive influence
on the forest. The oldest silvicultural plots have been in existence
from 20 to 30 years, many more from 10 to 15 years, and the largest
number from 5 to 10 years. Because of the relatively brief time since
the establishment of sample plots, the potential promise of results
probably outweighs the results already obtained; but in spite of this
there has been a great although as yet intangible gain in the passage
of time.

FOREST MENSURATION

The work in forest mensuration to date can claim the preparation
of volume tables for approximately 50 species, and of yield tables for
approximately 12 forest types which normally occur in even-aged
stands. American foresters need not apologize for their contribution
to a better technique in volume and yield table construction. Neither
do they need to apologize for progress in the use of statistical methods
as a tool in forest mensuration and other forest research. Practically
all of the work, however, has been done in natural as contrasted with

672 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

managed stands, although a small beginning has been made in the
latter field through the establishment of permanent sample plots.
Only a beginning has been made in the preparation of growth tables
for uneven-aged stands.

Undoubtedly a good many years ' work is ahead even within the
fields touched upon in the preceding paragraph. The more intensive
fundamental work on both volume and yields lies almost entirely
ahead. Only a little has been done on the fundamental laws governing
form or even on the first steps of breaking the problem down into its
factors. Only preliminary information is available on the influence
of such factors as wind, temperatures, soil mixtures, density of stands,
cutting, etc., on form. The same general situation holds regarding the
more complex yield problem. Even the conception of normal stands
which has been the basis for much of our work to date on normal yield
tables, is vague and poorly defined. Quality of the product, as con-
trasted with quantity, has as yet received practically no consideration
in either volume or yield work.

FOREST-FIRE PROTECTION

Forest-fire research apparently originated in the United States,
undoubtedly as the direct result of a forest-fire situation which is
more serious than in almost any other country. Research of this
character is gradually being taken up in other countries, and may now
be under way in half a dozen. The problem is complex, and accord-
ingly it is gratifying that progress has been made in breaking it down
into parts that can be studied effectively.

f Substantial progress has been made in the development of a tech-
nique for statistical studies of past fires and the efficiency of protective
organizations. These and other studies are giving invaluable leads
for improvement in fire control by pointing the way to better organ-
ization for the prevention of forest fires, for prompter detection, for
extinguishing fires while small, and for the organization necessary
to combat large fires. These studies are also paving the way to
greatly improved hour-control or speed-of-attack standards, which
is one of the essentials in the development of fire protection.

Studies of fire damage have proved invaluable as a means for
combating the light-burning theory in several parts of the country
where it has been a serious menace to forest management. Rela-
tively little progress has been made, however, in an exact determina-
tion of what damage is caused by fire in all forest types and forest
regions, which is one of the primary requisites for an intelligent
distribution of protective funds and protective organizations.

With existing organizations many fires become large, and with the
greatest possible gains in efficiency this may be expected to continue
with a certain proportion of fires for years to come. Some effort
has therefore been devoted to studies of the climatic and other con-
ditions which influence fire behavior and of going fires, and corre-
sponding progress has been made. A beginning has been made on
forest fire meteorology with particular reference to electrical storms
and to relative humidity. Progress has been made in a much more
exact determination of the factors which may indicate bad or serious
conditions. All of the work on fire behavior and on the factors
affecting it looks forward as one important objective to the improve-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 673

ment of suppression tactics and technique. To the same end scat-
tered effort has been devoted to the development of power equipment
to speed up work and to reduce costs by replacing hand labor, which
to date has been so largely used in fire suppression.

In a relatively few instances research has indicated the possibility
that it may be advantageous or even necessary to use fire as a bene-
ficial agent in silviculture. Research of this character, however, lies
almost entirely ahead.

The possibility that the menace of forest fires may be reduced
through silvicultural management, and that under some conditions
the maintenance of the forest cover by the elimination of clear cut-
ting may be the most effective means of fire prevention, has only
been touched upon. The work done, however, suggests rather far-
reaching modifications of silviculture, and in fact for some forest
types the probability that future silviculture may be dominated by
requirements for fire prevention.

Forest-fire research to date has, on the whole, been centered very
largely on man power, finances, organization, etc., to prevent and
minimize forest fires and to extinguish them. In general, forest-fire
research is still in its infancy, and its achievements lie mostly in the
future.

OTHER CLASSES OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Other phases of forest management in which research can make
important contributions but in which as yet far too little or prac-
tically nothing has been attempted include : Forest regulation, involv-
ing rotations, cutting cycles, and cutting budgets, which have both
silvicultural and economic aspects; forest engineering, including such
problems as permanent road or transportation systems for forest
utilization but having important silvicultural aspects, and as road
and trail systems for fire protection; and park forestry and city and
town or shade tree forestry, both of which have important root, physi-
ological, growth, and health problems in which there is a large amount
of public interest. Before forestry in the United States can be on
a wholly satisfactory scientific foundation much information must
be available for many species on the relative merits of geographical
strains. This, along with other information, is needed as a basis of
seed selection for planting. There is a distinct possibility also of
developing hybrids which will be superior to any existing species.

FOREST RANGE INVESTIGATIONS

If not the first, the United States was one of the first countries to
undertake range research. This work of the Forest Service grew out
of the widespread use of western national forest ranges by domestic
livestock and has since been extended by departmental or legal dis-
pensation to include other forest ranges as well as nontimbered west-
era ranges. The justification for the work is the possibility of using
the range as one of the important products of the forest.

The Forest Service has centered its work primarily on the range
resource and the relation of range used to timber growing and water-
shed protection, and has taken up the problem of handling livestock
on the range only incidentally. The use of native plants in most
instances as a secondary crop w^hich must be perpetuated and con-
trolled by natural processes and skillful use and, in the West, at least,

674 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the necessity for handling livestock on open ranges of great extent in
remote and" rugged country, constitute markedly different problems
from those of the ordinary cultivated pasture.

The work has resulted in the determination of the most important

Elants growing on the western mountain ranges as a whole, and has
id to some general observational records of the forage value of differ-
ent plants based upon the extent to which they are eaten by livestock.
Aside from this it has so far been confined largely to the intermoun-
tain and the southwestern regions.

For a considerably smaller number of the more valuable plants in
these two regions much more intensive information has been obtained
on the growth habits, with particular reference to grazing use.

The work has developed some important general principles govern-
ing grazing use which apply with local adaptations to conditions
throughout the entire West. Among these principles are the neces-
sity for a very conservative stocking of the range on account of the
striking decrease in growth of range plants during the periodical dry
years or cycles; of allowing vegetation to make vigorous growth
before being grazed; of giving bunch grasses periodic opportunities
to reseed ; of grazing sheep and goats openly and quietly and bedding
them down in new places every night; and of obtaining better dis-
tribution of cattle on the range through well-placed watering places
and better salting methods. A fair beginning has been made in a
few localities on such fundamental questions as succession. Progress
has also been made in determining the character and amount and also
the cause of damage by livestock to forest reproduction and in work-
ing out forms of regulation to minimize or prevent damage.

The need for range research is by no means confined to the regions
and types where it has so far been concentrated. Fortunately, in-
creased appropriations made it possible to begin work in California
and in the Northern Rocky Mountain regions during the fiscal
year 1932. Investigations should at the earliest possible date be
extended to other western types and regions and to eastern regions
where, as in the South, range use now accompanies or can possibly
accompany timber growing.

As contrasted with the long-time requirements of forest manage-
ment for the growth of timber and cutting at intervals of several or
many years, range management in the main involves the annual
growth and use of annual or perennial plants. It requires knowledge
which will permit the best species and mixtures of range plants to be
maintained under use up to specified standards which must be deter-
mined. For depleted ranges it must also determine ways and means
of restoration. Where timber production is the main objective, the
possibility of range use depends upon whether timber can be grown
successfully on the same area, and this must first be determined. The
next step is the proper coordination of the two forms of use.

The more intensive research lies almost entirely ahead, and this
among other things requires the breaking down of broader prob-
lems—plant succession, competitive relationships, soil productivity,
physiological response to use, etc. — into factors which can be studied
and evaluated in an exact way.

The large problem of range management will deal with native
plants and natural revegetation. There is the opportunity, however,
for artificial reseeding on which as yet only a few empirical tests have

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 675

been made, and for the development of improved strains, and per-
haps hybrids, etc., on which nothing has been done.

FOREST AND RANGE INFLUENCES

The limited number of attacks on the erosion-stream-flow problem
on forest and range lands in the United States, initiated prior to the
last decade, dealt with watersheds or duplicate watersheds as a
whole, whether forested or range covered. Valuable information
was obtained, but much that was necessary to a real understanding
of the role of vegetative cover, forest and otherwise, in erosion con-
trol and stream-flow regulation remained very obscure because of
offsetting factors.

The present attack is in a few regions breaking this complex prob-
lem down into its constituent factors, such as the influence of the
kind of cover (i.e., whether forest, chaparral, brush, or grass, or
combinations of them), of the density of cover, of litter, of the char-
acter and rate of precipitation, of the degree of slope, or the kind of
soil, or the requirements of transpiration, and is investigating each
factor separately. Despite the fact that the latter phase of the work
is only 2 or 3 years old, it is already giving extremely significant
results, some of which go far beyond what foresters have ever dared
to claim. The work on individual factors ought soon to lead to far
more productive attacks on small and later on large watersheds than
have heretofore been possible. Incidentally there is already specific
reason to believe that detailed, exact measurements giving concrete
results of the kind which the engineer is trained in and regularly
deals with, such as are now coming out of the erosion-stream-flow
work, may help materially to bridge the gap which has existed
between the points of view of engineers and foresters on the forest-
erosion-stream-flow relationship.

The Forest Service has done nothing on wind erosion and dune
movement; relatively little on the relationships between forests and
snow; has made some progress on purely local influences of shelter-
belts in the plains region; and is only beginning to study the pos-
sibility of a general amelioration of climatic conditions over large
areas.

Possibly one of the most valuable results of our erosion-stream-flow
research is that while details are obscure or unknown, it has helped
to give to us and to the profession a new and far better appreciation
of the probable role of forest and brush and grass, or of the natural
vegetative cover, on the whole erosion-stream-flow relationship. It
has given a better appreciation of what forest and range deteriora-
tion or destruction probably mean in destructive floods, silted stream-
beds and reservoirs, buried agricultural lands, water in the least
usable forms for irrigation, and in reduced productivity of forest and
range lands. It has helped to bring out the fact that water may in
many instances already, and in many more instances in the future
probably will be, the most valuable product of forest and range lands
and that every other form of use must be regulated to this end. It
has made us realize that this aspect of the forest and range problems
in the United States is one of the most important with which we
shall have to deal in future managment, and that it is even more
important in the formulation of land policies in the broadest sense
of the word.

676 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

Possibly no other single phase of forest research is at present fall-
ing so far short of meeting national needs or offers a greater oppor-
tunity for constructive service.

FOREST PRODUCTS

When the Branch of Research was established in 1915 forest prod-
ucts investigations were better organized and financed and are still,
receiving larger appropriations than any other class in the Forest
Service. Since 1910 the work had been centralized primarily in the
Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis., in cooperation with
the State University, a clear-cut recognition of the organization
which would ensure the best correlation of the work and render the
largest returns nationally with the resources available.

METHODS OF HARVESTING

The utilization of forest products for most purposes starts with
the cutting of the tree and here makes its direct contact with the
silviculture that grows the tree. Significant but limited results have
been obtained on methods of logging and the principles which under-
lie these methods, but logging and milling methods are now being
investigated directly only in a special study of the small sawmill.
The studies in this group have in general considered the use of stand-
ard logging and milling machinery and methods in determining the
comparative costs of handling different-sized logs and trees of dif-
ferent diameters.

For about 15 species and 10 forest types very complete figures have
been obtained on the cost and value of the lumber from trees and logs
of different sizes, so that lumbermen and foresters can tell the mini-
mum of tree and log sizes that will "pay their way." The purpose
is to encourage, for future growth and the perpetuation of the forest,
the leaving of the small trees that can be cut only at a loss.

In naval stores production, utilization begins with the wounding
rather than the cutting of the tree. The work to date, which has
involved both forest management and forest products investigations,
has revolutionized methods of chipping and has given preliminary
data on the yield from trees of different diameters, etc. Reference
will be made here also to substantial progress on the relation of cell
structure to the production of resin, and to the beginning of work on
the biochemistry of resin production, although these investigations
do not fall logically under the " harvesting" group.

Future work must provide for a considerable extension into other
conditions of the determination of the size of the trees and logs which
can be cut profitably and of the relationship between cutting for
lumber and of utilization for other products, such as naval stores. A
broad field, on which only a relatively small start has been made and
which should be extended into all of the major conditions throughout
the country, is the development of the fundamental principles on
which logging methods, including types of machinery, should be
based.

Logging methods up to the present time have been developed solely
with the idea of getting material out of the woods at the lowest cost
and with no reference to the silviculture which will grow new stands.
Work along this line will in many cases require the modification of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 677

commonly used methods, and in others require the adaptation of exist-
ing machinery, if not the development of entirely new machinery.

CONDITIONING FOR USE

The work so far done on the conditioning phase of utilization has
consisted largely of the various problems connected with the drying
of wood and particularly of lumber. That on kiln drying has pro-
gressed far beyond an initial studv of different species with standard
apparatus and methods. The principles of the kiln-drying process
have been developed and applied in improving commercial methods
and apparatus to the extent of practically revolutionizing such prac-
tices. The fundamental "how and why" of moisture movement in
wood during drying have also been studied. Air-seasoning methods
and results have been investigated. The work on methods of drying
has been supplemented by investigations on allied subjects, such as
the change in moisture content of dried lumber during storage and
handling, the normal variations of moisture content of wood in
houses, and rapid methods, including equipment, for determining
moisture content.

A complete understanding of the "how and why" of moisture
movement and of moisture relations in general is one of the most im-
portant and complex lines of research ahead in forest products and
once obtained will have outstanding value in many different ways
such, for example, as the further improvement of methods of kiln
drying and air seasoning, the development of methods for treating
wood which will prevent the absorption of or loss of moisture and
hence shrinking, swelling, checking, etc. Similar work will un-
doubtedly be necessary on modified materials such as pulp and paper,
and on some wood products other than lumber.

GRADING AND SELECTION

Lumber grading has been the first crude attempt to select or
classify lumber according to value, and obviously value has some
relation to properties. Grading has been based entirely on readily
visible differences in amount and kind of defects without reference to
properties other than those obviously affected by the defects. Ex-
cept in the rules for structural timbers, the grades have borne no
quantitative relationship to any specific property. Forest Service in-
vestigations on grading have been devoted partly to the relation be-
tween strength and grades in structural timbers, but mostly to the
standardization of grading rules for different species, which have
varied so widely and have been so complex that they have been very
difficult for the public to understand or use.

Selection among species to obtain the best wood for every use is a
much more important and complicated technological problem. In
fact, it consists of such a large number of separate problems that only
a few of them have been investigated directly. General information
on the requirements for various uses, together with that on the prop-
erties of the different species, must be correlated to obtain proper
selection. This subject will be brought up again under "Properties. "

It will be apparent that a sound scientific basis is available for
lumber grading only in part. The only product other than lumber

678 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

on which any work has been done by the Forest Service as a basis for
grading is on pulps and papers, and such efforts have been confined
to the last two or three years. Although lumber is one of the most
important forest products, there are others in which there is need for
a sound scientific basis for grading.

MODIFICATION OF PROPERTIES

Investigations of methods for the modification of the properties of
wood such as durability against decay, fire resistance, and shrinkage,
fall in this group. Perhaps, arbitrarily, such allied subjects as paint-
ing and gluing are also included. Modification of properties by dry-
ing has already been discussed. The logical order of attack is first
the application of standard treating materials by standard methods
to various species, and then the methods of application; but finally
the treating materials themselves, the preservatives, glues, paints,
etc., must be investigated and their properties correlated with prop-
erties of different wood species and the methods of treatment. The
gluing and durability investigations have been in the latter stage for
some time; the fire resistance and painting studies have recently
reached it. The modification of shrinkage properties has been at-
tacked in two distinct ways, the protection of the wood from moisture
by moisture-proof coatings, and the treatment of wood by chemicals
that reduce normal shrinkage. The first phase has been very thor-
oughly investigated; the study of the second is just beginning.

Since modification of properties may have to be so drastic that the
original character and form of the wood is lost, it introduces another
diversified group of products and hence of investigations. The most
important example of this group is pulp and paper. The pulp and
paper investigations, which began with tests of the pulp-making and
paper-making qualities of practically all important American species
under standard pulping processes, have now reached advanced stages
of development. Intensive technological studies of the standard
processes have now made it possible to increase their efficiency and
to modify the processes to fit new species. Entirely new processes
have also been developed. In reaching this advanced stage of re-
search, greater refinement of method has been required, more accurate
measurement and control, and attention to more details than in the
preliminary species studies.

On the possibility of developing other modified forms, such as plas-
tics, only work on a small scale and for a short period has been done.
On many more modified products, such as artificial leathers, rayon,
etc., nothing has been attempted.

A wide field for research still remains in modifications to prevent
the absorption of moisture and hence shrinking and swelling, to de-
velop satisfactory preservatives and treatments to prevent decay
under all conditions, to develop economical treatments which will
insure fire resistance, etc. In the pulp and paper field there is still
room for vast improvement. It should be possible eventually to
develop a number of the more common pulps and papers from many
common tree species. Possibly ways and means can be developed to
reduce excessive wastes in chemical pulping processes which are now
responsible for the loss of approximately half of the original volume
of the wood. Many agents, such as bacteria, fungi, etc., for the modi-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 679

fication of wood have as yet received little or no consideration.
Incidentally, it should be possible to work out methods for the pre-
vention of undesirable stream pollution in pulp making.

In modern industry the general tendency which is becoming more
and more rapid is to improve the properties of natural materials of
all kinds through modification. Materials in their natural state,
regardless of intrinsic merit, are facing more and more severe compe-
tition from other substances in which properties have been modified
and improved, and this in such a way as to meet relatively exacting
and varying requirements and specifications. For example, in an
article on Steel Takes Research into Partnership, by E. E. Free,
published in the December 1931 issue of the Review of Reviews, the
following statement is made :

Dr. John Johnston, director of research of the United States Steel Corporation,
recently listed 31 physical and chemical properties of steel which can be altered,
more or less at will, by changes in chemical composition, in heat treatment or
otherwise, to control the atomic structure of the metal.

Wood in order to hold its own in present-day and future competition
must be given the same strategic advantage, and the only reasonable
possibility of doing it successfully is by research.

DESIGN AND ADAPTATION

Design and adaptation cover investigations of those uses of wood
in which the strength properties are most important. Increase in
strength of unit pieces of wood by treatment has not been attempted,
but instead ^the purpose has been by proper design to use at their
highest efficiency the intricate normal strength properties of wood.
This work of necessity includes not only the wood itself but also the
various joints and fastenings by which the pieces of wood are held
together, and which are a common and serious source of weakness.
The most detailed and complete design work has been done on wooden
airplane parts and on boxes and crates; in the latter field the work
has already progressed to the final stage of determining the actual
strength requirements of wood packages in service. A beginning
has been made on house and other structures in the building and con-
struction field. A large amount of investigative work has been done
on such joint and fastening accessories as bolts, nails, and glues.

On the fundamental principles which must underlie improved
design in building and construction, the field for research is enormous.
Applications should be possible which will revolutionize construction
both in form and costs and bring back to wood a part at least of the
advantages which it has been losing during the last few years in
competition with other construction materials. Building and con-
struction, although the largest single consumer of lumber, is only
one field requiring work. The availability of moolified forms of wood,
such as fiber boards, plastics, etc., create additional problems in
design.

PROPERTIES

The foregoing groups of investigations consist largely of direct
attacks on the practical problems of wood utilization. Investigations
for obtaining the basic information required for proper furtherance

168342°— 33— vol. 1 14

680 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

of the direct attacks may be regarded as falling under the broad head-
ing of " Properties. " This group includes not only the determination
of the values for the physical and mechanical properties, but also
special studies of the chemical composition and structure of wood
and of the interrelationships of all these fields. Probably the most
complete investigations have been carried out in the field of physical
and mechanical properties. The strength properties, specific gravity,
and total shrinkage have now been determined for all the important
native species, and detailed studies have been made of various factors
affecting strength, such as specific gravity, moisture content, and
previous conditions of treatment or use. This basic information,
together with the technique and experience gained in obtaining it,
has been applied in the "Grading and Selection" and "Design and
Adaptation" groups of investigations previously mentioned.

The field of chemical composition is much less definite and clear
cut, both in its methods of research and in the use of the results. The
comparative chemical composition of a number of species has been
determined, and some work has been done on relationships between
chemical composition and certain physical properties. In the present
state of knowledge, however, chemical composition can be stated only
in terms of various empirical groups or " constituents" such as
cellulose and lignin that are in themselves variable and of only partly
known composition. Much of the investigative work on chemical
composition is therefore in the stage of developing methods for more
completely determining the composition.

The investigations of structure have progressed far beyond the
original stage in which the emphasis was placed on microscopic
structure as a means of identification of species. Not only have ad-
vances been made in the character and detail of microscopic and sub-
microscopic structure, but the field has been enlarged to include
measurements of structure of submicroscopic sizes. Beginnings have
also been made in determing the effect of these microscopic and
submicroscopic structures on the properites.

Out of a real understanding of the chemical and physical properties
of wood may well come some of the most revolutionary changes in
the form and character of its future use. What has happened in the
coal-tar field as a result of research is one example of the possibilities.

GROWTH CONDITIONS

The effect of growth conditions on wood quality involves both
silviculture and utilization. Growth conditions vary so widely and
there are so many lands of wood quality that this is a very broad
field of research. Only a few of the simpler and most readily con-
trolled conditions of growth have as yet been studied, and the determi-
nation of the effects has been confined largely to the specific gravity of
the wood.

The undoubted future trend toward a more and more intensive
silviculture, and the increasing intensity of competition between
wood and other materials which will tend to make the requirements
on wood more and more exacting, will enhance the value of a thorough
understanding of the relationship between growing conditions and the
character of the final product.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 681

FOREST ECONOMICS

One of the important classes of research in forest economics deals
with the forest resource, which consists of such things as the stand of
timber, the area of forest land, and the actual and potential growing
capacity of the land. Within this field it has been possible since the
World War to make three compilations of existing data for the entire
country. The results, although largely approximate, have given
a clearer conception of the extent of the resource nationally and
regionally, and also of some of the sweeping economic changes which
are affecting the forest problem with all others. Some data have been
collected on the recreation, range, and game aspects of the forest
resource, etc., but little on that of watershed protection.

A second important class of economic research deals with national
and regional production or consumption of forest products and with
requirements for these products. The collection of data on produc-
tion or consumption has been under way for many years, largely in
cooperation with the Bureau of the Census. The data are unequal
in character, those on lumber, for example, being much more accurate
and frequent than those on fuelwood, a product of importance second
only to lumber in drain on the forest. Also constituting a drain on
the forest are losses from forest fires on which approximate data
have been obtained annually for a number of years, and from forest
insects and diseases on which rough data have been compiled occasion-
ally. From time to time also statistics of use by States or other local
units have been obtained for most or all classes of forest products, but
much less frequently and completely than those on production.
Data have also been collected on recreational use, range use, and game
production.

A Nation-wide forest survey was inaugurated in the fiscal year 1930.
One purpose is to supply much more intensive and authoritative
data than have heretofore been available on the forest resource.
A second purpose is an intensive study of requirements. Since at the
present rate the survey will require at least 10 years more for comple-
tion, it is important for many reasons that the work be speeded up.
The desirability of keeping the data reasonably current after the
work is first completed will be recognized, and this will require
practically continuous but relatively small-scale work indefinitely
for the entire United States.

Some of the problems of the forest industries are of sufficient
public interest to justify investigation by publicly supported investiga-
tive organizations and constitute a third class of economic research.
Work of this character has included more or less intensive studies
of the lumber industry, including its economic status, the distribution
of lumber, and various other public aspects, and of the pulp and paper
industry, with particular reference to the possibility of obtaining
future supplies of pulp wood much more largely or entirely from the
United States.

A fourth general class of investigation deals with the economics of
forest management and forest land use. Work to date has included
a study, still in its early stages, of costs and returns from timber
growing, or, in a broader sense, the financial aspects of forestry, in
one important region, the South. This is an aspect of forestry
on which information is very sketchy and unsatisfactory. Work

682 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

has also been done on prices and particularly those of standing timber,
which are one measure of returns and hence of the incentive to grow
timber. Taxation to the timberland owner is a cost, but to the public
it is among other things an important source of revenue. Upon the
formulation of equitable methods of taxation may depend in con-
siderable degree the extent to which private owners embark upon
timber growing. Following some extensive efforts in former years an
intensive study of forest taxation for the entire United States has
recently been under way.

A closely related group of investigations deals with various other
aspects of private forestry — the progress which it has actually made,
the determination of the factors which have interfered with its pro-
gress, constructive measures for removing obstacles, etc. This work
has so far dealt primarily with conditions in the Pacific Northwest,
where constructive measures of first importance are being worked out.
If they materialize they will revolutionize methods of logging and
silviculture and greatly reduce the fire hazard. An intensive investi-
gation of forest insurance has also been started as an aid to timber
growing by the private owner. Various studies have been made or
started on land questions such as the economic effect of forest devas-
tation in a limited region, and the extent to which a new public domain
is being created through land abandonment, etc., together with
the formulation of constructive measures for meeting the resulting
situation.

The field for investigations which should supply the economic foun-
dation for forest management and forest land use policies is very
broad and of critical importance even under normal conditions, but
much more so during periods of economic stress. The results of in-
vestigations such as those previously indicated, supplemented by
other investigations as necessary, should in general determine the
proper place of forestry and of forest land use in our local regional
and national economic and social structure. The various kinds of
work necessary can merely be illustrated, but among others would
include: The economic basis for a classification of lands which should
be devoted to forestry in contrast with agriculture or other uses; the
basis for a classification of forest lands into those which should be
utilized for the production of timber for watershed protection, for
recreation, etc., or any combination of such uses; the basis for the best
distribution of forest land ownership, Federal, State, or other public,
and private; the manner and extent to which the public should con-
tribute to or regulate the handling of private forest lands; the best
combination of aid and regulation; the basis for sound policies of
national forest administration and of lands in other kinds of owner-
ship; and the economic aspects of rotations, cutting cycles, and cutting
budgets, or broadly forest regulation. In fact, the field is so broad
that practically no other line of investigative effort can be regarded
as complete or satisfactory until its economic relationships have been
covered.

OBJECTIVES, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Whatever progress has been made during recent years in the devel-
opment of an organization and the facilities for forest research in the
Forest Service as well as in actually doing research and obtaining
results, is largely due to two things. The first is the formulation of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 683

objectives; the second, more or less aggressive and persistent efforts
to reach them.

Outstanding among such objectives have been those connected with
the establishment of the Branch of Research and those with the
passage of the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act, both of
which are in reality groups of objectives. Underlying these and nearly
all other objectives is the recognition of the unity of the complex
forest problem and hence of the various classes of research which must
be used in its solution.

The most important aspect of the creation of the Branch of Re-
search in 1915 was that it brought the research activities of the
Forest Service together and definitely segregated them as a part of
a general departmental reorganization which segregated its three main
activities. It has been this more than any one thing that has given
the first great impetus to research in the Forest Service. It has
given to the investigative work and personnel a recognition and stand-
ing equal to that of other major Forest Service activities, something
which they had not had at least since the transfer of the national
forests to the Department of Agriculture in 1905. It has given for
the first time the freedom needed for the consideration and handling
of research requirements in the special ways necessary to meet in-
vestigative needs. It has meant for the first time a national concep-
tion of the need for forest research if all forest lands in the United
States are to be utilized, of the Federal obligation for a part of this
research, and of an aggressive, plan-wise effort to measure up to the
Federal obligation. Accordingly, it led almost inevitably among
other things to the passage of the Forest Research Act in 1928.

The McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act formulates objec-
tives in at least three particulars. First, it specifies what research
may be done and attempts to cover the entire scope of forest research.
Among other things this has made it possible to initiate the Forest
Survey and other investigations in forest economics for which it had
never before been possible to obtain appropriations. Second, it sets
up a program of field units based upon such fundamental considera-
tions as the interrelationship and unity of all phases of the forest
problem and hence the necessity for well-rounded-out group attacks.
This gives full legal sanction to the Forest Products Laboratory and
the forest experiment stations already established, sets up authoriza-
tions for other stations known to be needed, and incidentally prevents
the establishment of unneeded stations. Third, it outlines a 10-year
financial program with restrictions as to total appropriations, which
takes into account not only the national needs for research but the
rate at which an efficient organization can be built up. The restric-
tions lapse at the end of the 10-year period and whatever appropria-
tions may subsequently be necessary in the public interest are author-
ized. This act has been directly responsible for the first time in the
history of forestry in the United States for appropriation increases
even approximating national needs.

The background had been prepared by the work of the previous
years for many of the remaining objectives which have contributed
to the development and progress of research. But the clarification
of nearly all of these objectives has resulted directly or indirectly from
the two outstanding groups connected with the establishment of the
Branch of Research and the passage of the McSweeney-McNary Act.

684 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Among the remaining objectives are working facilities necessary for
the most efficient conduct of research, such as experimental forests and
ranges, the setting aside of which is now for the first time moving
forward satisfactorily; laboratories, of which the new Forest Products
Laboratory Building is outstanding; and the headquarters for field
units which will be most effective in stimulating the development of
the investigative staff, with 7 out of 12 such headquarters now main-
tained in close cooperation with educational institutions. Among
them are also the highest possible standards for recruiting, which
are bringing into the Research organization a group of the most prom-
ising men obtainable in the American forestry profession and which
also are playing an important part in stimulating the training of men
for research and the development of forest schools to give this training.

The annual programs required of all the Research units are nothing
more than objectives for a year's work consciously designed to con-
centrate attacks on the problems which are most important and urgent
from the public standpoint and to insure continuity of purpose.
The policy of organized rather than individual attack on the problems
selected is merely one means to the most effective carrying out of
objectives. Written plans on each phase of the work or project are
objectives for the investigative attack itself.

The unity of the complex forest problem and the interrelationship
of all of its phases which run through and underlie most if not all of
these objectives have been recognized by the establishment of the
Branch of Research, which brought scattered investigative activities
together; by the Forest Research Act, which treated these activities
as phases of a closely related whole ; in the fundamental principles of
organization of the forest experiment stations, which brought groups
of these activities together for specific forest regions; and in the prin-
ciples of organization of the Forest Products Laboratory which brought
together activities in its particular national field. They have been
recognized in special provisions for coordination of effort in the twi-
light zone between forest management, forest range, and erosion
streamflow; in forest products investigations; in the Forest Survey
and other investigations in forest economics; in the coordination of
effort in all classes of research by means of annual programs for each
field unit, and in well-rounded-out group attacks rather than individ-
ual effort. The ways in which this unity must be recognized grow
constantly. Recognition of it is one of the outstanding lessons of past
work and consequently an objective which must be taken into account
in all future plans.

The value of objectives should not be judged solely from progress
in developing an organization and facilities for research in the Forest
Service, because they are merely means to an end. A more important
objective than either is the research itself, and a still more important
objective is results which will aid and stimulate the development of
forestry. But research results themselves are only a means to a
end. The ultimate objective is the actual use of the results for human
benefit. While investigators have a real but incidental responsi-
bility for getting their results into use, the final responsibility rests
on others, on the owners and managers of forest lands, and on the
stockholders and executives in forest industries.

The investigative findings on practical methods of both natural and
artificial regeneration of forests, on the life histories and require-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 685

ments of trees and types, on volumes and yields, and on the control
of forest fires have added to the assurance and certainty of efforts
made to grow, protect, and manage timber. So far, the publicly
owned national forests are the chief beneficiaries from the application
of these results, but here and there also is a private owner. On the
national forests application is at its best in fire control, for example,
and follows research findings even before these have been recorded in
progress report form, and in some instances the same is true of silvi-
cultural methods.

The main contributions of forest range investigations, knowledge
of the range plants and of their growth habits and forage values, the
determination of a few important principles of range management,
and, finally, the relationships between range use and forest regenera-
tion, have also found their main application in national forest adminis-
tration. Improvements in herding and bedding methods for han-
dling sheep have, however, been rather generally adopted by the
livestock industry on other ranges.

By far the largest application of the rather meager but significant
findings to date on the indirect influences of forest and other forms
of wild vegetative cover has also been on the national forests and for
the use of forest or other cover as a means for controlling erosion or
regulating stream flow by many municipalities and here and there a
private corporation. The findings have to some extent been respon-
sible for efforts toward sounder policies for other forest and public
domain administration.

In the forest-products field, progress has been greater and more
diversified mainly because larger funds have been available. The
benefits from application in the forest industries, which have been
very large, soon reach the ultimate consumer at one extreme and the
owner of forest land at the other. And the public which owns the
National and State forests is by far the largest single owner. Kiln
drying of lumber has been revolutionized, as has also preservative
treatment of wood against decay, the technique of naval-stores
extraction, and wood-container design. Large numbers of pulp
and paper mills are using improved pulping processes, several new
mills have been built to utilize new processes, and the number of
species in common use is gradually being extended.

The data on strength properties for nearly all American species
and the factors, such as moisture, which govern them have been
determined and are being rather generally applied. A scientific
basis for the grading of structural timbers has been adopted for a
limited number of species, and worth-while contributions have been
made to the standardization and simplification of lumber grading.
Principles of design in houses and other forms of building construc-
tion and in joints and fastenings have been less fully worked out and
much less widely applied than those for containers.

Results which have not yet gone far enough for extensive applica-
tion include the breaking down of wood into component groups such
as cellulose; the microscopic and submicroscopic study of structure
and the relation of structure to properties, and studies of the relation
of growth conditions to specific gravity and hence to strength.

The economic data obtained in the three extensive forest surveys
of the entire United States and other economic studies are more or
less widely used as a background in the formulation of forest policies,

686 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

National, State, and otherwise, and also in attacks on them. The con-
clusions in extensive studies of forest taxation, which preceded by
several years the intensive study now in process, are reflected in many
State laws.

Since the major part of the development of research in the For-
est Service has come since the war and chiefly during 1930-32
much of the work has been under way too short a time to produce
results. For much of this uncompleted work the value of setting up
and working toward objectives can only be judged in the future.

The reader is perhaps in a better position than those who have been
engaged in the effort, to judge whether the progress made in the
development of an organization and facilities for forest research has
been worth while. He is also perhaps in a better position to judge
whether the progress in research itself has been worth while, but must
give full recognition to the fact that what has been done constitutes
only the barest kind of a beginning. Finally, he is in a better posi-
tion to judge whether the progress in the application of results has
been worth while, although it must be recognized that application
almost inevitably lags behind the knowledge available.

If the verdict is that worth-while progress has been made, the for-
mulation of objectives and efforts to reach these objectives have
justified themselves; and the most important of these objectives, the
plan of bringing together and of segregating investigative activities,
which was the essence of the creation of the Branch of Research, has
justified itself. So also have the efforts which led to the formulation
and passage of the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act, and
the recognition of the unity of the complex forest problem and hence
of the different classes of research which must be used for its solution.
If worth-while progress has been made, one of the chief lessons of the
past is, therefore, the value of objectives and of steadfast, persistent
efforts to reach them.

A severe economic depression is possibly sufficient justification for
caution in announcing if not in making far-reaching plans for formu-
lating additional objectives. If the use of all of our land in the
United States and the development of all of our industry had been
plan- wise, however, we might have escaped the present depression.
A possible means of minimizing if not eliminating future depressions
may lie in the right kind of planning. The making of plans or the
setting up of objectives for the future is in a real sense an expression
of faith in the future of the United States and of preparation for it.
The creed of the forester and the very nature of forestry require the
long look ahead and in themselves justify the setting up of far-reaching
objectives. All of these things apply in research as much as in any
other phase of forestry — and to research with particular force if the
progress of the last decade and a half and the reasons for it have
been correctly interpreted.

Five years ' experience has shown some deficiencies in the Mc-
Sweeney- cNary Forest Research Act. Forest influences now
demand a recognition which probably could not have been obtained
when the act was passed in 1928. A bill introduced in the Seventy-
second Congress adds a new section which rounds out the original
provisions by providing more specifically for erosion-streamflow
investigations on forest and range and other wild lands, and puts
this work on its own feet as to legislative authority and financial

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 687

plan. By providing for the work at the forest experiment stations
full correlation with related classes of forest research and lowest costs
are insured.

Justification for this legislation lies in part in the growing impor-
tance of flood control in the United States. Major flood catastrophes
are ordinarily taken into account only as detached occurrences and
are soon forgotten. Lesser floods are often ignored and never con-
sidered in the aggregate. The flood situation of the United States
is, therefore, far more serious and the necessity for control far more
important than is generally realized.

Justification lies also in part in erosion losses which threaten to
make man-made deserts of an enormous area of land and threaten
seriously to reduce the productivity of another enormous area. Much
of the process is so insidious and so inconspicuous that little realiza-
tion exists nationally or even locally of what is going on and what it
means.

Justification for this legislation lies in part in the fact that water
for agricultural, muncipal, power, and other uses is both the key to
and the limiting factor in the development of the West. Recognition
of the growing need for municipal supplies shows that water is also
one of the most important factors in maintaining the development
of the East.

Justification lies also in wide differences of opinion as to whether
forest and other cover is a decisive factor in erosion and the regulation
of stream flow. These differences range from flat rejection, through
theoretical but passive acceptance, to full acceptance handicapped in
detailed application to forest and range management by lack of
knowledge. These differences are reflected in public demands as
divergent as for the total destruction of the forest or chaparral or
range cover, or its full protection against fire, cutting, and grazing.
They are reflected in radically different policies or the entire lack of
policies in the administration of public and private lands with water-
shed values. They are reflected in expenditures of hundreds of
millions of dollars for flood control, the improvement of navigation,
dams, and for municipal water supplies in which the possibilities of
such influences are disregarded or variously recognized. In the last
analysis these differences in opinion, demands, and action reflect the
lack of knowledge which the proposed legislation is designed to supply
up to the limit of Federal obligations. The existing watershed
conditions in the United States which justify the enactment of this
legislation are described in detail in another section of the report on
Senate Resolution 175.

The provision for the Forest Survey in the McSweeney Act is
probably the best that could have been obtained in 1928. The
limitation of annual expenditures to $250,000 drastically limits the
rate of progress and inevitably extends the period required for com-
pletion. One unfortunate result will be the obsolescence of data for
one region before it can be obtained for others. Furthermore,
uncertainties and wide differences of opinion on forest policy con-
tinually emphasize the need for information which the Forest Survey
is obtaining. In nearly every important forest region of the United
States the depression has brought to light serious problems for the
lasting solution of which the Survey alone can furnish the necessary
information. A modification of the Research Act is therefore justified

688 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

In order to speed up the initial survey. Under the existing legislation
the work must be discontinued as soon as the initial survey is com-
pleted. But it is becoming more and more clear that provision should
be made for keeping the data current indefinitely. These considera-
tions will soon justify another amendment to the Forest Research Act.

Closely related to the Forest Survey is another problem, land
classification, the crucial importance of which as a great national
enterprise is beginning to be appreciated only during the last few
years largely as a result of the efforts of the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics. Various classification activities have been under way
for many years, such as the soil survey of the Bureau of Chemistry
and Soils, and the classification of forest and agricultural lands in
the national forests by the Forest Service.

Agricultural as well as and possibly more than forest land is involved
in the national classification enterprise. The need for classification
is indicated by maladjustments in land use which are particularly
apparent during periods of economic stress such as the present. The
evidences include widespread abandonment of agricultural lands,
particularly of the submarginal class, often with tragic consequences
to the owners; the breakdown of town and county governments which
is one extreme local result of the nonpayment of taxes and land
abandonment; an unregulated back-to-the-land movement growing
out of unemployment, which in some instances promises to repeat the
vicious cycle of attempts to use lands unsuitable for agriculture followed
by later abandonment; and excessive erosion and disastrous floods
following the cultivation of lands which should have been kept in
forest. The information obtained in the Forest Survey, that obtained
in other economic investigations, and also that obtained in forest
management investigations, will necessarily have to be supplemented
for the intelligent classification of forest lands. Integration of all
pertinent information on the character of the land itself, what it can
be expected to produce, and related economic and social questions
must be insured in order to furnish satisfactory results.

Provision for Forest Service participation in the forest-land aspects
of classification can be made either in an additional section to the
McSweeney-McNary Act or as a part of a general authorization for
all classes of lands. What funds will be needed is uncertain, because
no attempt has been made as yet to work out detailed plans. As an
approximation, however, it would be well to provide for annual in-
creases of some such amount as $50,000 or $75,000 over a period of
as many years as may prove necessary, which might reach five.

Substantial progress, particularly under the stimulus of the Mc-
Sweeney Act, has been made in financing new research. Even though
the depression does not force serious cuts in appropriations, and the
authorization limits are reached in the fiscal year 1938, it is becoming
more and more clear that by that time only a substantial beginning
can be made toward covering the field necessary to meet Federal
obligations.

In the Central Rocky Mountains, work is now confined to a small
part of the silvicultural field and the experiment station is little more
than a name. Outside of the United States proper no attempt has
been made to establish the stations authorized for Alaska, Hawaii,
or the West Indies. With present resources no silvicultural work can
be done on many of the important forest types in the forest regions

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 689

in which experiment stations nave already been established. On no
single forest type is the present attack adequate. In only three
regions is a sizeable attack on the forest-fire problem under way, and
even in these it falls far short of what would be desirable.

In the important field of forest regulation no investigative work is
now being done, as has already been indicated. There is a very
distinct possibility of worth-while research contributions to forest
engineering. Very little has as yet been attempted in the broad and
promising field of forest genetics. Shade tree and park forestry is
still another broad field which is hardly being touched, despite its
place in the public interest.

Forest range investigations are confined to four western regions, in
two of which work has been started only during the fiscal year 1932.
In all of the remaining western regions the field is practically un-
touched. The range problem is also important in at least two eastern
regions, the Middle West and the South. The southern problem,
particularly that in longleaf pine, is triangular, involving range use
and timber growing, and the relationship of fire to both. The possi-
bilities of artificial reseeding of ranges and of the development through
plant breeding of improved forage plants are being largely or alto-
gether neglected.

Many additional experimental forests and ranges must be estab-
lished to carry out the silvicultural, range, and erosion-stream flow
investigations indicated, and all will require funds. In fact, with the
funds now available it is not possible satisfactorily to handle the
experimental areas already selected.

Economic problems growing out of changing conditions in forest
and agricultural land use, in the possibilities of growing timber and
other forest crops, and in the forest industries are, particularly during
this period of financial stress, appearing far more rapidly than they
can be solved. Long-established foundations are being swept away
and what is to take their place is being left entirely to the play of
blind forces. Other groups of problems which have important eco-
nomic aspects arise out of the administration of large holdings of
forest lands such, for example, as the national forests, and include
forest regulation. The economic and sociological importance of
forests in recreation is increasing rapidly as a result of such things as
the automobile, good roads, and a large increase in leisure for practi-
cally all classes of people.

Forest products are falling behind in the competition with other
materials because for one thing less is known of their properties and
how to use them. It is conceivable that forest products research can
be made one of the chief competitive weapons to maintain and increase
consumption, and hence of an aggressive, constructive, plan-wise
effort to make certain the use of forest land, and to keep available for
public use a material of high intrinsic value. The indications are
many that the time has come when such aggressive efforts are abso-
lutely essential to insure full and satisfactory forest-land use. The
effort of the Federal Government to maintain and enlarge the con-
sumption of forest products is confined to forest products investiga-
tions. It is now and has always been seriously out of balance with the
effort to grow timber.

A greatly enlarged scale of work in practically the entire utilization
field is called for with particular emphasis on the chemical and

690 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

physical and other properties of wood on the most intelligent selection
or use of wood in the light of these properties, on how to modify and
adapt the properties for particular uses, and on the development of
better design and assembly methods in building and construction
which consumes over 60 percent of the lumber produced in the United
States.

With work ahead of the magnitude and scope indicated, it is neces-
sary upon the completion in 1938 of the 10-year period provided
under the research act to look forward either to taking advantage of
the lapse of the specified appropriation limitations, or to legislation
for an entirely new financial plan. In either case, economic conditions
permitting, regular increases should continue as fast as competent
personnel can be obtained, until public needs and Federal obligations
are met. Some classes of work can contribute so directly to the solu-
tion of acute depression problems that serious consideration of appro-
priation increases as emergency measures is justified. Among these
are the Forest Survey and some other forest economic investigations,
and various phases of the utilization problem. National losses from
excessive erosion and unnecessary floods are already so great and the
threat of still worse conditions so serious that special consideration
is also justified for investigations of the use of forest cover for control.
Belief that the amounts needed for emergency and for regular subse-
quent increases can and will be made available is merely an expression
of confidence in the future of the United States. It is quite possible
that experience may show the need for more additional sections of the
act than have been indicated in order to provide satisfactorily for the
work discussed.

Prospective financial needs for the decade beginning 1935 are fore-
cast in the following tabulation. The first column of figures indicates
the average annual increases needed for the various classes of forest
research to carry out the financial plan prescribed by the McSweeney
Act for its last four years, and also to provide for erosion-streamflow
and land classification investigations. If, as now seems practically
certain, economic conditions will prevent all but extreme emergency
increases in 1934, the average for the four remaining years of the act
will be correspondingly higher. The second column of figures indi-
cates the average annual increases needed for the last six years of the
decade :

Average annual appropriation increase

Appropriation item

Fiscal years
1935-38

Fiscal
years
1939-44

Forest management -- - ._

Dollars
115,000

Dollars
100,000

Range investigations

40,000

50,000

Forest products . ...

110,000

100,000

Forest Survey

(80, 000)

Forest economics .... ....

45,000

25,000

E rosion-streamfl o w

100,000

40,000

Forest land classification

50,000-75 000

The amount specified under the Forest Survey is that required to
raise the appropriation to the existing authorization of $250,000 in a
single year. The research act should be amended to increase the
maximum annual authorization to $500,000 for the initial forest

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 691

survey. The increase of the appropriation to the higher authoriza-
tion should not be extended over three years as a maximum. Pro-
vision should also be made for continuing the work necessary to keep
data current after the completion of the first survey, and this may
require a regular appropriation of approximately $200,000 per year
indefinitely, although the work might perhaps be done for less. The
amount specified in the second column for erosion-streamflow investi-
gation is that needed under the provisions of the proposed Leavitt
amendment to the McSweeney-McNary Act.

The future trend of the work is almost certain, judging from past
experience, to be from the extensive to the intensive, and from the
general or exploratory to the fundamental. The easier and more
obvious problems are gradually covered and a working basis of fairly
satisfactory results furnished for current use, releasing men and re-
sources for more intensive attack. The solution of the easier, more
superficial problems and the growing intensity of actual practice leads
inevitably to the fundamental how and why of biological phenomena,
on the answer to which must depend fully satisfactory practice.
Work over a period of years is bound to give a much clearer concep-
tion of what the underlying or key problem actually are and to
emphasize the need for work on them. Men with the requisite train-
ing and experience are gradually developed or become available.
Industrial concerns in such fields as forest products are gradually
stimulated to undertake for themselves some of the simpler or appli-
cation problems, thereby releasing the Federal investigative staff for
the more difficult time-consuming fundamental work. This also
promises to be true of the administrative force on the national forests
in such problems as timber growing and protection, range manage-
ment, etc.

Practically every consideration, therefore, emphasizes a gradual
trend to more and more intensive attacks in all phases of forest
research; and this makes adequate provision for working facilities,
such as experimental forests and ranges, all the more necessary.
The adoption of clear-cut objectives for such experimental forests
and ranges within the past two years has materially speeded up their
selection, which had previously been very slow. The number will
have to be gradually but substantially increased. Energetic efforts
will be necessary to insure the setting aside of some of the areas
needed before they are seriously injured or ruined for experimental
purposes bv the cutting of the timber or other forms of use. These
areas, particularly when they have a background of several or many
years' work on many phases of the forestry problem, will offer ideal
and in fact indispensable facilities for intensive work on fundamental
problems. At the same time their value as demonstration areas will
increase. Large numbers of investigations will be under way on
contiguous areas, and integrated with them will be intensive studies
to determine the why and wherefore of all that happens. Natural
areas must also be set aside in advance of the ax and the saw.

The corresponding problem for forest products investigations will
be simpler because of the recently completed laboratory at Madison,
which will meet major needs for working facilities for some time to
come.

Like all other publicly supported organizations, the Forest Service
is dependent upon publications as one of the chief means for making

692 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

its results known. One of the great needs, not as yet satisfactorily
met, is to publish results promptly so that the development of for-
estry will be stimulated as much as possible. What this calls for
perhaps most of all is a medium of publication which will handle
progress reports as they are completed. A progress report series, the
numbers of which can be issued periodically or whenever the amount
of material warrants, would go a long way in meeting the situation.
It would undoubtedly have important incidental results in helping to
maintain a high morale in the Research organization, particularly if
investigators can be placed largely on their own responsibility for the
material published.

Competent, well-trained men will probably continue to be the limit-
ing factor in the development of most classes of forest research for
some years to come, if economic conditions permit the expansion
indicated in the preceding discussion. Efforts to maintain the high-
est standards possible in recruiting should be continued. Standards
should in fact be raised as rapidly as this can be done. Every possible
effort must be continued to stimulate the training of men before they
are employed, and when it is necessary to take on men not fully
trained, every possible means for developing them on the job and for
allowing them ample opportunity to supplement their training at the
universities must be utilized. The character of work done and, with-
in limits, its amount will in the last analysis depend more upon the
qualifications of the staff than on any other one thing.

It has not been possible to keep the growth of the Washington
overhead of the Branch of Research in suitable ratio to that of the
field staff. The result is that in this particular respect the develop-
ment of forest research is probably more seriously handicapped than
any other research in the Department of Agriculture. This is true
both of number of men and their compensation. The fact that the
work is in an entirely new field and that the training of personnel and
the development of an organization are still in an early initial stage
makes the need all the more urgent. As soon as the economic
situation permits, this requirement should be met.

Many things on which a Federal forest research organization can
and should render a large public service lie outside of the ordinary
research projects and even outside of the ordinary research program.
Periodically, for example, the need arises for the synthesis of results
from many different lines of work in order to meet some exceptional
public requirement or even some public emergency. Such a need
now exists because of sweeping economic, industrial, and social
changes, the ultimate outcome of which no one can foresee, but the
importance of which no one denies. Because of these changes, much
that has been accepted in the past in forestry, along with everything
else, is now subject to uncertainty or attack. Some of the questions
which are being raised regarding the present status and the future of
forestry are unquestionably sincere. Others undoubtedly should be
raised and must be faced. Others are undoubtedly intended to relieve
private owners and industries of any and all responsibility for any
contribution to future timber supplies, and tend to undermine the
whole forestry movement. Some of these attacks are undoubtedly a
part of the sincere and perfectly legitimate effort of overburdened
taxpayers to eliminate unnecessary governmental functions or to
reduce their cost. The purpose of other attacks seems, however, to

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 693

be to restrict the scope of governmental activities, to weaken the
power and authority of government, and to relieve industry of
public control.

One of the results is the unsettling of old objectives and the grow-
ing of a defeatist attitude concerning the possibilities and even the
need for forestry. Another is that the attacks are beginning here and
there to affect the development of forestry by the Federal Govern-
ment, by States, and by private owners in such critical ways as
appropriations or financial support.

Such situations as this call for an exceptionally broad and com-
prehensive handling. They call for a searching analysis of all the
facts that can be obtained. They call for a ^examination of the
public advantages of productive as contrasted with idle forest land.
They call for a restatement of the whole forestry problem, of the
program necessary for its solution, and of the Federal, State, and
other public and private opportunities for the solution. All of this
should help to clarify the atmosphere and, so far as may be neces-
sary, to reorient the whole forestry movement. It should furnish the
basis for constructive action along particularly broad and aggressive
lines in order to insure the profitable use of forest land. It is nothing
more nor less that this report on Senate Resolution 175 attempts to
do, and for which the resolution affords the opportunity.

This is only one illustration of the big, far-reaching contributions
which are periodically needed in such an enterprise as forestry, if it
is to be kept an aggressively constructive and vital force in American
social and economic welfare, and if the Federal and State Forest
Services are to have the objectives which are absolutely essential to
keep them as fighting organizations for the public interest. Con-
tributions such as this must, however, be based on research tech-
nique, and the responsibility for them rests primarily upon forest
research organizations, Federal and otherwise.

THE PROGRESS OF FOREST PATHOLOGY

By CARL HARTLEY, J. S. BOYCE, and others 1 in the Division of Forest Pathol-
ogy, Bureau of Plant Industry

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 695

Forest deterioration by native diseases 695

Diseases affecting nurseries 695

Diseases affecting plantations 696

Diseases affecting immature forests 699

D iseases affecting merchantable forests 70 1

Relation of forest diseases to recreational use and watershed

protection 705

Deterioration of killed timber 706

Deterioration of forest products 707

Forest deterioration by introduced diseases 710

Present status of research and control 717

Agencies active 717

Control practices 719

INTRODUCTION

Among the diseases are included not only those caused by fungi,
bacteria, mistletoes, and other types of parasitic plants, but also the
unhealthy conditions resulting from such causes as frost, excessive
heat, and poisonous gases. Some of the effects of drought, wind,
fire, and mechanical injuries are sufficiently like those of parasites or
have such an influence on the course of the parasitic diseases that for
practical purposes they are also classed among the diseases. Insect
injury is considered elsewhere, though there are some cases in which
the insects and plant parasites work in such close partnership that
they cannot be entirely separated.

Diseases affect forest productiveness in three ways — by killing trees,
by slowing down tree growth, and by degrading or destroying the
wood after it is grown. Reliable loss figures are available for only a
single kind of damage, i.e., decay of wood that has already grown,
and even for decay they are available for only a few of our forest-tree
species. Diseases sometimes lower the value of the forest for recrea-
tional use by rendering it unsightly and occasionally hurt its effective-
ness in watershed protection. Direct control measures are being
applied on a considerable scale only in forest nurseries and against
blister rust in the white-pine forests.

FOREST DETERIORATION BY NATIVE DISEASES
DISEASES AFFECTING NURSERIES

There are a number of diseases that have caused serious loss in
nursery stock in the past. The obvious result has been unnecessarily
high cost of planting stock at the nurseries where disease has been
most prevalent. Even a very moderate increase in plantation cost

i Especially S. B. Detwiler, E. P. Meinecke, W. W. Wagener, E. K. Seattle, and Lake S. GUI.
168342°— 33— vol. 1 45 695

696 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

after interest charges have accumulated on it for half a century may
make the difference between profit and loss on the plantation. At
many nurseries there are occasional disease epidemics which prac-
tically destroy entire blocks of beds and introduce a troublesome
uncertainty into the raising of planting stock and in planting programs.
Because .this uncertainty feature is one of the most serious effects of
nursery diseases, and since its effect cannot be expressed in dollars
and cents, no quantitative estimate of the total loss due to disease
can be made. Another consequence of diseases in the nursery which
is hard to evaluate, but which may prove more important than all
others, is the introduction of disease into new plantations on the
planting stock.

Some of the heaviest losses have been due to nonparasitic diseases,
particularly drought, excessive heat of the soil surface, frost and
winterkilling, and from unwise use of mulches or fertilizers. All of
these are reasonably easy to prevent when recognized, and prove
troublesome chiefly because they are often confused with parasitic
diseases. Education and increasing experience of the nurserymen
have already resulted in reducing loss from these sources, and they
should not be serious in the future.

Diseases due to parasitic fungi include the "damping off " of very
young seedlings, root rot of older stock, needle diseases, molds that
work under snow cover, and the stem rusts of pines. Damping off
has been found to yield to inexpensive methods of soil disinfection or
acidification in most places, needle diseases and fungi under snow can
be prevented by spraying and supplementary practices, and rust in-
fections can be minimized by eliminating infection sources from the
vicinity. Root rots are the only major group of nursery diseases for
which no reasonably effective control methods are known. A number
of alternative treatments are available for trial on nursery diseases
which would be too expensive for use in field plantations or natural
reproduction. Some diseases will probably always be found too diffi-
cult or too expensive to control at all nurseries or on all tree species;
but the nursery industry requires relatively little ground, and at the
worst it can hunt for sites on which a susceptible species is found
least subject to infection. The development of a new treatment or
the finding of the best nursery site for raising a particular species
usually requires years of experimentation, but if adequate research is
maintained, reforestation plans need not be retarded for fear of
diseases of conifers in the nurseries, at least so far as native diseases
are concerned. With hardwoods there has been less experience, but
no disease is expected for which a few years of investigation would
not develop satisfactory control on the more favorable nursery sites.

DISEASES AFFECTING PLANTATIONS

Diseases in plantations have been less studied than in nurseries.
Plantations, if on properly chosen sites, ordinarily suffer less from
disease during their first few years than do nurseries. There are,
however, exceptions to this rule among the diseases already studied.
For example, the brown-spot needle disease in the longleaf pine of
the Gulf States becomes important very early, even in well-placed
plantations. In much of the longleaf region this disease attacks the
trees during the first few years after planting and so weakens them

A NATIONAL PLAN TOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 697

that they require several more years to start height growth than do
the uninfected trees, and many of them die. Spraying with fungi-
cides during the first two or three years, and in some cases the use
of fire in preparing planting sites, are expected on the basis of studies
now in progress to minimize the losses from this disease at a cost
that would be more than counterbalanced by the decreased length
of time required for the establishment of the plantation; but with
the best success than can be expected this disease will continue to
be something of a handicap in the reforestation of the large areas
of denuded longleaf land in the South. Another disease of young
plantations which can be only partially avoided by any methods at
present known is the Phacidium blight of spruce and fir in the North-
east, which destroys trees that are small enough to be buried in
snow.

Where sites are obviously not properly adapted to the species or
are chosen without reference to disease hazards, plantations may be
badly injured by disease in early life. For example, Douglas fir is
seriously damaged if planted where late spring frosts are frequent.
Conifer plantations should not be located on land where certain
parasites are present in quantity unless it first proves practicable to
destroy the sources of infection. This rule holds for the dwarf mistle-
toes of pine and Douglas fir in the West, and for stem rusts that easily
attack ponderosa pine, loblolly pine, and other species of both East
and West. In reforesting sites in parts of the industrial region of
the Northeast, species particularly susceptible to injury or growth
reduction by smoke or sulphur dioxide should not be employed.

In general plantations continue healthy till they reach the sapling
or pole stage, but some of them begin to deteriorate after that time.
Even trees that are not overcrowded may stagnate, or become de-
formed, or perhaps die. Such failures in plantations that had started
well are little understood. Part of them appear to be due to root
diseases, which are enabled to attack the trees as the result of too
deep planting, unfavorable soil, the use of pure stands of a single
species, or the use of stock grown from seed collected in habitats
different from that in which the planting is made. All types of
parasitic disease, but especially the root rots, are favored by growing
large numbers of the same species of plant in pure stand. Pure
stands are relatively rare in nature, and their use in plantations
undoubtedly accounts for some of the disease liability. No one
knows enough about soil factors to be certain what sites will grow
healthy plantations of any particular species, and most plantations
are of necessity placed on old fields where soil conditions are no longer
normal for forest growth. There is particular need to correlate soil
studies with studies of plantation diseases. While root troubles are
difficult and expensive subjects for investigation, it is highly desir-
able that unsatisfactory plantations should be subjected to intensive
root study by pathologists.

Most of our forest species have practically all of their finer absorb-
ing roots infected with mycorrhiza fungi, so that their absorption
of moisture and minerals from the soil must be through layers of
symbiotic fungi. Some students of the mycorrhiza have regarded
them as beneficial to the tree, while others consider them harmful.
There is every reason to believe that some of the species of mycorrhiza
fungi are harmful to particular tree species or under some kinds of

698 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

conditions, and that some of the plantation difficulties may be due
to them. The subject has been found by early investigators to be
one of extraordinary difficulty. Systematic studies have been under-
taken recently in this country, and it is hoped that some of the points
in question may be cleared up. There seems to be no hope of pre-
venting the development of mycorrhiza, even if it were proven desir-
able to do so. There is, however, a possibility that when our
knowledge of these fungus-root structures becomes more adequate
we can influence the success of a plantation by seeing that the right
species of mycorrhiza fungi get possession of its roots before the
trees leave the nursery.

In this connection special mention should be made of the disease
situation resulting from the use of exotic tree species in forest planta-
tions. A considerable number of foreign trees are being tried in a
small way by our forest planters, and Scotch pine and Norway spruce
are grown to a considerable extent in the Northeast. Exotics can be
advantageously planted for special local wants; for example, to pro-
duce hardwoods on the Pacific coast, to produce chemicals, as tannin
or heptane, or to supply timber that is more resistant to termites
and decay than the local species. As native species are eliminated
by introduced diseases or insects, we will have increased need for
trial of exotics. One case of introduction of exotics to replace a lost
species has already appeared in the Asiatic chestnut species which
are being introduced in quantity in the hope of getting a satisfactory
replacement of the American chestnut; these, although resistant to
chestnut blight, are already being attacked by several of our native
fungi. It is true that in migrating to a new home, a tree species
sometimes escapes from parasites which have reduced its usefulness
in its native range, and makes better growth in the new habitat than
it did in the country of origin; but most exotics are not so fortunate.
An introduced tree is very likely to find in our rich fungous flora at
least one parasite to which it will lack resistance. Such a fungus
may be rare or geographically limited at first, and cause no serious
trouble to isolated test plantings; but if the exotic tree becomes
widely used, the troublesome fungus can multiply and extend, slowly
at first and with gradually increasing speed, till at the end of one or
two generations of extensive use of the new tree its early promise
may entirely disappear. This is exactly what happened to our
American white pine when it was used in Europe. It was adopted
by British and Continental tree planters with great initial success.
Rapid growth and high quality in early trials resulted in extensive
planting. Now, after half a century of additional experience, white
pine is being abandoned over a large part of the countries in which
it was once popular. The ultimate failure is entirely due to a rust
fungus, previously rare in Europe, which found a congenial host in
the introduced species and gradually became more widespread and
abundant till it became a controlling factor. Scotch pine, the exotic
which we have most employed in the United States, and which seemed
for the first few decades to be quite free from enemies, is now being
attacked to an alarming extent in Pennsylvania, New York, and New
Jersey by at least three diseases, the sweetfern rust, the Woodgate
rust, and the other of yet undetermined cause.

As has been pointed out, much of the pathological condition of
plantings of native species in the past appears to be due to the use of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 699

seed from distant sources and different climates, rendering the native
tree species essentially an exotic in the locality where it is planted.
For example, Norway pine from northern Minnesota seed cannot be
expected to be normally resistant to parasites if it is planted in the
Middle Atlantic States. A native tree may even be planted entirely
outside of the natural range of the species; for example, northern
white pine is planted in Ohio and Indiana where despite good initial
growth plantations have suffered severe losses from an obscure wilt
disease. This practice of use of seed from a distance is always likely
to be followed to a certain extent, because of the difficulties in ob-
taining seed of some species just when and where it is wanted, but is
fortunately becoming less common as the foresters recognize its danger.
Another factor must, however, be considered in estimates of disease
susceptibility of future plantations. Forest geneticists are beginning
to select particularly desirable types from our timber species and even
to breed them. In poplars planted for pulp, vegetatively propagated
varieties will probably be in common use in the not distant future.
This means that strains of fungi very specially adapted to the par-
ticular strain of the tree species that is being used will have an un-
precedented opportunity to spread. In a promising attempt begun
some years ago by a paper company to utilize fertile overflow land
in Ohio by growing the so-called " Norway poplar", a uniform fast-
growing variety, the tree had to be abandoned because of a branch
canker disease which overran the plantings after they had been under
way for a period long enough to let the specialized parasite multiply.
While the forest- tree breeder will select his types from those that
appear resistant to the more important diseases, it will be very diffi-
cult to insure resistance to all the species and strains of fungi con-
cerned, and this will be particularly true for the soil-inhabiting fungi.
We have some reason to fear that progress in forest genetics, if or
where it goes far enough to give us planted forests of selected strains,
may conceivably put our forest plantations into somewhat the same
condition of disease susceptibility that we already see in our orchards.
This is particularly likely unless study of diseases and development
of methods for testing resistance proceed more rapidly for the species
to which the geneticists give their attention. On the whole, more
trouble is expected from disease in plantations than in nurseries or
in young stands arising by natural regeneration. Because of its cost,
there is little chance for direct control of diseases in field plantings.
This means that we must not only learn to distinguish the different
diseases, but particularly for the root diseases we must know their
means of spread and their relation to soil conditions, stand density,
species mixture, kind of mycorrhiza, and every other factor through
which the activity of the parasite or the resistance of the host may
be indirectly influenced either in choosing plantation sites or in making
and managing the plantations. Unless the present information on
these subjects is rapidly increased, it is to be expected that there will
continue to be disappointing results in some of the new plantations
due to injury by native disease organisms.

DISEASES AFFECTING IMMATURE FORESTS

Forest stands throughout their life are subject to unfavorable
influences which reduce their productive capacity, either by a reduc-
tion in the rate of growth or by adverse changes in the density of

700 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

stocking. Fully stocked stands are exceptions rather than the rule
in this country. For example, in the Pacific Northwest the average
stand of immature Douglas fir is stocked from only 82 to 83 percent
of board-foot capacity, while for other species in other regions the
percentage of understocking seems generally higher. Although the
character of this loss is apparent, its exact evaluation is difficult, and
it is particularly hard to accurately gage the effect of each of the
casual factors of this understocking when more than one is operative,
as is usually the case. However, parasitic fungi and dwarf mistletoes
of conifers play an important part in reducing yield, both by killing
trees, thus causing understocking, and by lessening growth rate, thus
requiring a longer time to produce a given quantity of timber. Dis-
eases of the foliage, while rarely causing the death of enough trees to
affect stocking, by killing many leaves do interfere with food produc-
tion to such an extent that rate of growth is reduced. A particularly
notable case is the brown-spot needle disease of longleaf pine already
mentioned in connection with plantations, which so weakens young
trees in natural reproduction in parts of the South that it not only
adds a number of years to the time required to grow merchantable
timber but on the poorer sites it may kill so many seedlings as to
entirely prevent the development of a properly stocked stand. Root
rots and stem-inhabiting fungi, particularly rusts, also kill many
young trees. These parasites rarely become suddenly epidemic in
such a way as to kill trees over extensive areas in a short time; they
more commonly take a steady annual toll from infected stands.
Here again if the productive capacity of the stand is not reduced, the
losses are of no consequence, but if enough trees are killed either to
cause understocking or in addition in a mixed stand partial elimina-
tion of the more valuable species, then significant damage results.

The most serious diseases reducing growth rate and also killing
trees outright are those caused by dwarf mistletoes of conifers. These
dwarf mistletoes are very different from the holiday mistletoe known
in the East ; they have no leaves and are without any sentimental or
esthetic value. In the West there are few conifers free from their
attack. The valuable stands of ponderosa pine in particular suffer
severely. Over extensive areas throughout the range of this pine
many trees are so deformed as to be worthless, some are killed, and
many more are infected sufficiently so that their rate of growth is
considerably lessened. A normally stocked stand of 40- to-50-y ear-old
ponderosa pine in northern California, moderately infected with
dwarf mistletoe, was found to have one third of the trees infected and
14 percent ruined by stem infections. On another area where the
attack was heavier every tree was infected and over 80 percent were
ruined by stem infections. In northern Arizona the average volume
increment over a 5-year period was found to be 4.53 cubic feet for
healthy trees and 2.23 cubic feet for heavily infected trees. Stands
of ponderosa pine over limited areas are so severely attacked that
they are worthless for lumber.

The aggregate loss from diseases in immature stands destined for
timber production is high and probably approaches or exceeds the
losses caused by decay in mature stands. In the future, as mature
stands are even more depleted, the damage caused by these diseases
in immature stands will increase greatly in relative importance.

Native diseases of immature stands must be largely controlled by
measures applied when the timber is cut. It is axiomatic that direct

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 701

eradication of these diseases by a special control operation is rarely
warranted, since they do not threaten the perpetuation of any com-
mercial species. When timber is finally cut all diseased trees should
be removed, leaving only healthy individuals for seed trees or for the
nucleus of the next cut. This will reduce the amount of disease in
the reproduction, and where early thinnings are practicable, diseased
trees can be removed while they are still small, leaving the final crop
composed of healthy individuals. In certain managed hardwood
stands in southern Connecticut, where there is an active demand for
fuel wood, it is now the practice to thin out the undesirable trees early
in the life of the stand, with particular emphasis placed on the removal
of oaks suffering from Strumella canker.

DISEASES AFFECTING MERCHANTABLE FORESTS

Native killing diseases affecting merchantable forests do not usually
cause spectacular damage, but in the aggregate these losses are of
consequence, since almost every tree killed results in a corresponding
reduction in volume of the stand. Furthermore, killed trees usually
occur as scattered individuals or groups so that it is economically
impossible to salvage them. Parasitic fungi and mistletoes take a
steady annual toll from mature stands, and occasionally unfavorable
weather conditions cause heavy losses. Following a drouth period
culminating in 1925, mature trees died so extensively in the bottom-
land hardwood region of parts of the South, that the loss was believed
to equal a normal year's cut by the mills of the region. Occasionally
groups of mature trees are killed by lightning. While little can be
done to prevent killing of mature trees by adverse climatic conditions,
it will ultimately be possible to reduce losses caused by fungi and
dwarf mistletoes, through the elimination of infected trees when the
stand is cut so that the new, immature stand will not be exposed to
infection from old, diseased individuals.

The great loss from fungus action in merchantable stands is in
the destruction of heartwopd of living trees by decay fungi. In
Douglas fir, the timber species on which the most extensive data are
available, this loss amounts to 17 percent. Since Douglas fir com-
prises nearly one third of the remaining saw timber of the entire
United States, the cull in this species alone means that more than 5
percent of our apparent timber supply is worthless. In other species
of which the remaining stand is much less, the percentage loss through
decay is even higher. In the mixed coniferous forests of northern
Idaho, western hemlock is so badly decayed as to be largely unmer-
chantable. Throughout much of the range of white fir, cull from
decay is so heavy as to amount to complete destruction of the mer-
chantable stand. In the Adirondack Region of New York, loss from
decay in beech is so high as to make this species of doubtful value.
The same species is so defective in the bottomland hardwoods of
Louisiana that it is frequent practice in logging operations to leave all
of the beech trees standing. It is figured in the northern Rocky
Mountain region that defect, largely decay, increases the unit cost of
timber production in nearly the same ratio as the occurrence of the
defect itself. In addition a much larger ratio of low-grade lumber is
produced from a defective stand than from a sound one of similar
growth rate. These lower grades are difficult to sell even during a high

702

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

market, and nearly impossible to dispose of when lumber prices are
low. Decay in the forest may thus result in over cutting in order to
meet the demand for high-grade stock; in too high cost of high-grade
stock; in the glutting of the market with low-grade stock; in financial
injury to both the producer and consumer interests.

A summary of the loss from decay in saw timber in the United
States is given in table 1. The figures on decay percentage, although
based primarily on estimates made in 1923 by lumbermen and by
State and Federal foresters for eastern species, with the same basis
supplemented by actual measurements for certain western species,
have proved reasonably reliable, for most of the species on which it
has been possible to check the original estimates by measurements
obtained since that time. For example, the original estimates placed
the loss in Douglas fir at 15-20 percent and the lower figure was
adopted to be conservative. Later, exact measurements on a large
number of plots of felled timber of various ages placed the average
loss in board foot volume at 17 percent. For a number of other
species similar checks have been obtained, but based on fewer data.
The figures in the present table are lower than the 1923 estimates by
1 percent each for oak and southern pine, 2 percent for gum, white and
Norway pine, and lodgepole pine, 3 percent for cottonwood and
aspen, 8 percent for western hemlock, and 17 percent for redwood.
The percentage for cypress has been raised by 4, and for western
red cedar by 5. The general trend is toward less cull, because a
decreasing proportion of our merchantable timber is in old-growth
stands.

TABLE 1. — Estimated cull due to decay in the standing saw timber of the United

States

Species

Esti-
mated
cull

Species

Esti-
mated
cull

Eastern hardwoods:
Oak

Percent
19

Eastern softwoods — Continued
White and Norway pine

Percent
g

Birch, beech, and maple

21

Others

11

Red gum . -_--...

13

Western softwoods:

Chestnut

17

Douglas fir. ._. .._ - .. -.. ._ ..

17

Hickory

13

Ponderosa pine and Jeffrey pine

6

Cottonwood and aspen

19

Western hemlock . . .-.

20

Ash

8

True firs

18

Yellow poplar

14

Redwood ._--. ... __

13

Others

18

Western white pine and sugar pine

7

Eastern softwoods:

Western red cedar . -

20

Southern yellow pine

5

Lodgepole pine

8

Hemlock

18

Spruce

15

Spruce and fir _

9

Others

20

Cypress

17

This table does not include the loss in cordwood stands nor in
timber too small to be merchantable in which decay has already
commenced. Hardwoods, largely concentrated in the East, have a
higher loss than softwoods, while in the softwoods the eastern species
are considerably less decayed than the western. This is because the
eastern softwoods are largely cut over, and the saw timber is much
younger on the average than that in the West.

Young timber is relatively free from decay, but as the age of a
stand increases, loss from decay increases steadily. This loss is
offset somewhat by volume growth of the trees which is rapid in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

703

youth but slows down at about the same time as decay is accelerating.
Finally, a point is reached in highly defective stands at which volume
of decayed wood increases more rapidly than volume of sound wood,
and the stand suffers an increasing net loss year by year. This
condition is shown in figure 1 for white fir in California where between
the ages of 280 and 300 years, loss from decay offsets the amount of
new wood added to the tree. For Douglas fir in western Oregon and
Washington on good sites, loss from decay at 100 years on the average
is 1 percent, at 200 years 8 percent, at 300 years 18 percent and at
400 years 36 percent; at 300 years the volume increase in decay
equals the volume increase in sound wood, and from that age on
stands suffer an increasing net loss. These two examples serve to
illustrate the general principle, but so far investigations have made
this information available wholly or in part for only a few species,

GROWTH OF NEW WOOD
DEVELOPMENT OF DECAY

80

100 120 140 160 ISO 2OO 220 24O 26O 280 30O 320 340
AGE CLASS (YEARS)

FIGURE 1.— Rate of increment of decay in white fir (California) . Through youth and middle age the growth
of new wood is much more rapid than the development of decay. Above the age of 280 years the
increase in decayed wood exceeds the total increase in tree volume for the same period.

notably western white pine in northern Idaho, quaking aspen in
Utah and Minnesota, and incense cedar in California, in addition to
white fir and Douglas fir previously discussed.

The fact that decay increases with age of stands makes the method
for prevention of serious losses obvious ; that is, determine the age for
each species at which decav becomes of economic importance, and
cut the trees before this age is reached. In addition, in order to intel-
ligently handle the overmature, highly defective stands now existing
with the minimum loss, it is necessary to know the rate of decay at
different ages for the component species, so that those stands in which
the most rapid loss is occurring can be first harvested where possible.
Then, too, it is necessary to understand the outward indications of
decay in standing timber, so that timber estimating may be placed
on a more exact basis, since logging operations are based on the amount

704 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

of timber that can be obtained from a given unit of area as determined
by estimate. If decay is underestimated in a highly defective stand,
the amount of timber obtained may be so much less than expected
that it is not possible to make a profit on the operation, since more
milling and logging equipment would be set up than the volume of
timber warrants. Again a knowledge of the outward indications of
decay makes possible more intelligent utilization of standing timber.
For example, in the Douglas fir region, it is now possible to judge the
amount of decay in individual trees with considerable accuracy, so
that felling and bucking charges on them are avoided.

In forecasting losses from decay in timber stands of the future it is
reasonable to presume that utilization will not only be at earlier ages
than at present but that it will be closer. At current levels of value
and with lumber as the chief product a considerable amount of sound
wood adjacent to decay has to be sacrificed because its salvage can-
not be made to pay. There is reason to believe that in the future not
only will wood values increase to some extent but that a larger pro-
portion of the cut may go into cellulose, alcohol, or other derived
products in which closer utilization is possible. The loss in cull due
to decay may therefore be expected to be lower.

In many species, decay commonly enters the tree through open
wounds, and the most common wounds are fire scars. Decay then
first destroys the wood in the basal part of the trunk, which is com-
monly the most valuable portion of the tree. In small trees the only
saw timber of satisfactory grade is often in the first 16-foot log. In
eastern hardwoods most decay, which frequently begins at an early
age, is directly connected with fire scars. Consequently in most
forest regions adequate fire protection is a valuable method of reducing
losses from decay.

From the foregoing, it might be concluded that by sanitation in
connection with thinning and logging operations, by utilizing the
trees at younger ages and by improved methods, and by better con-
trol of fire, the disease losses in the forests of the future should be less
than in the virgin stands which have been our principal source of
forest products in the past. For two reasons it is impossible to take
this expectation at its face value. In the first place, the desirable
practices just mentioned are not being applied to most of our stands.
Only a small part of our forest area is really under management, and
under present economic conditions most of it cannot profitably be put
under any but the most superficial management. Much of our second
growth has been more fire scarred than was the virgin forest, and in
addition has been subjected to undue mechanical wounding during
the logging process. Instead of aiding in sanitation of forests, the
bulk of our logging operations have removed the best timber and left
the worst infected trees in the woods. In the second place, though
we call them natural forests the stands that are coming back on old
fields and cut-over land are developing under conditions that are in
many ways abnormal. While their health prospects are better than
for plantations, the soil conditions, stand density, and species mixture
may be quite different in young natural forests from those developed
under truly natural conditions. Whatever the reason, there appears
in some cases to be more disease damage in second growth than is
found in trees of the same age in virgin forest. It is probable that
future timber crops as a whole will suffer less cull because of heart

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 705

rots than did the original stands. For other types of disease it would
be altogether unsafe to predict any diminution in damage and it is
entirely possible that our new forests will be considerably less healthy
in some respects than the old ones.

RELATION OF FOREST DISEASES TO RECREATIONAL USE AND
WATERSHED PROTECTION

The foregoing discussion of diseases has been limited to forests as
sources of wood. Two other uses of forest land of increasing impor-
tance are for recreation and for watershed protection. The patholog-
ical problems connected with these uses differ in a number of respects
from the problems connected with the growing of timber. High
elevation forests and forested areas near cities, often low in timber-
producing capacity and growing under quite different conditions
from those in the best timber stands, are among the most valuable
for these other purposes. There is an increasing number of forest
areas that are set aside for municipal water supply, or as national,
State or local parks entirely for recreation, in which the standards for
judging diseases and the practices that influence them are very
different from those previously considered.

The effect of native diseases on watershed protection is apparently
slight. So far as our present knowledge goes, native diseases do not
materially lower the efficiency of forest cover either in delaying run-
off of water or in preventing erosion. It is altogether probable that
in some places, particularly in the drier parts of the country, diseases
do reduce the production of litter sufficiently to lessen the water-
absorbing capacity of the forest floor ; or that they operate to keep the
finer roots from occupying and holding the surface soil to the normal
extent. Such effects are not conspicuous and careful experiments
continued through a period of years, too expensive to be justified
under present conditions, would be needed to determine their im-
portance.

The relation of forest pathology to recreational use is not so simple.
It is true that there is no obvious way in which ordinary diseases
impair the value of the forest for game purposes. In areas used
primarily for recreation, tree diseases, generally speaking, are of
importance only when they detract from the beauty of the landscape
or upset the natural balance of plant associations which should be
maintained so far as possible. Heart rots and growth-reducing
diseases that might make the difference between profit and loss in a
timber-growing project have much less effect on aesthetic values; in
fact to some people, hollow trunks and gnarly or irregular crowns
make trees more picturesque. However, killing diseases often
materially hurt the appearance of the forest. Trunk and butt rots
predispose to windbreak and windthrow and such trees are dangerous
in the immediate vicinity of roads, trails, and camps. Diseases
which cause a conspicuous amount of unsightly yellow and brown
dying foliage are sometimes very objectionable.

Incongruous though it may seem, the genus Homo, for whose
pleasure these tracts have been set aside, continues to be the chief
menace to their beauty and permanence, and many areas, especially
in the vicinity of hotels, camp and picnic grounds, have already been
damaged to such an extent as to impair their value for decades, if
not for all time. Continual trampling of feet and frequent building

706 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

of camp fires completely remove the surface humus which provides
organic matter for the underlying soil and causes pronounced com-
pacting, thus creating such unfavorable conditions for plant growth
that many fine big trees, often several centuries old, are killed directly
or by root fungi or other parasites that take advantage of these ad-
verse conditions. Constant and indiscriminate use of automobiles
in such areas leads to mechanical wounding of many trees and to soil
poisoning by dripping of oil and gasoline. More must be known
particularly as to the way in which campers and tourists affect dis-
eases by changing soil conditions. The loss of two or three dominat-
ing trees on a camp ground may cause more real reduction in value
than the killing of as many acres of remote timberland. Intelligent
location and planning of sites for this intensive use and more ade-
quate supervision of their occupancy will be essential to prevent
damage.

DETERIORATION OF KILLED TIMBER

Occasionally there are extensive stands of mature timber that have
been killed by such agents as fire, insects, windthrow, and more rarely
introduced parasitic fungi. Killed timber rapidly deteriorates from
checking, staining, wood-boring insects, and decay, the rate of
deterioration varying with the tree species involved. Prompt removal
and utilization of such timber is the only effective method of salvage.
This is not always possible either because of economic conditions or
because the aggregate volume killed while large is so scattered that
it cannot possibly be salvaged at a profit. Where bark beetles have
done the killing, stain fungi that entered with the beetles are already
established in parts of the sap wood by the time the trees died.

In 1921 more than 3.5 billion board feet of very large merchantable
timber of high quality was windthrown on the Olympic Peninsula in
Washington. At the end of the first season of exposure the loss in
Douglas fir amounted to 1 percent, in Sitka spruce to 3 percent, and in
western hemlock to 13 percent. By the end of the sixth season the
losses were 19, 36, and 78 percent, respectively. From the fourth
season on, most of the loss was caused by decay, and during the first
three seasons by blue-staining fungi and wood-boring insects.

Balsam fir killed by the spruce bud worm in northern Minnesota
and Wisconsin is so quickly decayed that stands are not worth
salvaging after the third year of exposure.

Chestnut presents the most important problem in timber salvage
which has ever faced the United States. The chestnut blight is
responsible for the death of millions of acres of chestnut timber from
Maine to Alabama. In New England and the Middle Atlantic
States where the disease first struck, fair prices simplified the market-
ing problem. In the southern Appalachians, where the menace was
not appreciated by timber owners until after the World War, a glutted
lumber market accompanied by ridiculously low prices has made
utilization difficult.

Fortunately chestnut heartwood is unusually durable; investiga-
tions have shown that the tannin content is not materially less in
trees dead 20 to 30 years than in living trees. For the first 10 years
after a tree is killed by the blight, the loss in wood volume from decay
is not important. After that time, windthrow increases markedly
and the down trees deteriorate at a much more rapid rate than those
left standing.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 707

While in time the extract industry can very likely utilize a con-
siderable part of the killed southern chestnut, every effort should be
made to promote its immediate use for other purposes for which it is
suited.

Reports from some New England pole-using companies indicate
that the average service life of untreated chestnut poles set in recent
years from local cuttings is materially shorter than that formerly
secured. Whether this is due to the use of blight-killed poles which
have been standing dead in the woods for some years before use, the
increased prevalence of chestnut heartwood decaying fungi or some
other factor is unknown.

DETERIORATION OF FOREST PRODUCTS

Fungi, microscopic plants which include in their number the
principal causes of disease in forest trees, are also the most important
causes of deterioration of forest products.2 The fungi attacking
forest products belong to two distinct groups. The stain and mold
organisms consume the contents of the wood cells with relatively little
damage to their structure or strength, the losses they cause being due
to the discolorations that result. The decay fungi by attacking the
cell-wall material weaken and ultimately soften the wood, or may
even completely destroy it. Both groups are able to grow only in
wood that is moist but not water-logged. The less important
discoloring fungi will be considered first.

STAIN AND MOLD

The fungi that cause both of these defects are practically limited
to the sap wood. The slender filaments of the stain fungi that pene-
trate the wood give it a permanently darker color, commonly bluish
in cast, and therefore often referred to as blue stain. The mold
fungi are related organisms that happen to have colorless filaments
so that only their surface growth is visible, and all signs of their
presence disappear if the wood is planed. Therefore, while molds
interfere with sales of certain kinds of material, they are less important
than stain. Stain decreases the marketability of wood for most
purposes and in pine it throws lumber down into the lower grades
which bring a price less than the cost of production. Sap stain thus
aggravates the glut in the market for the very lowest grades of
lumber. It affects the drain on timber resources by increasing the
tendency to overcut the forest in meeting the demand for the higher
grades of lumber. This in turn results in a still further oversupply
of the lower grades, and a still greater difference in prices between
upper and lower grades. Pine and gum are most susceptible to
damage, and wood from second-growth stands is more affected
because of the higher proportion of sap wood. For both of these
reasons the sap-stain damage is greater in the East than in the
West. In pulpwood it is also something of a. factor, making neces-
sary stronger bleaching treatment in paper manufacture. The over-
cut to replace high-grade material that has been reduced in grade by
the staining fungi has never been estimated on a quantitative basis;

3 Insects as agents in the deterioration of forest products are considered in the section entitled, " Progress
of Forest Entomology."

708 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

it is much less than the overcut due to decay, but since it is in material
that can be derived only from saw timber, it is a considerable element
in forest depletion.

Most loss from sap stain occurs in saw logs that are delayed in
getting to the mill, and in lumber during the first few days after
seasoning. Log stain has proven very difficult to avoid when con-
ditions prevent prompt milling. Surface spraying treatments have
proven experimentally successful for protection during the ordinary
log-banking season in the South, and are about to be tried on a large
scale. For lumber that has not been stained in the log, kiln-drying
is an excellent preventive, but is in use only in the higher grades and
at the larger mills. A promising recent development obtained by the
Department with the cooperation and financial assistance of southern
lumbermen is the discovery of inexpensive antiseptic dips more
efficient than any previously known, effective on hardwoods as well
as on pine, and practicable for use by small as well as large mills.
These are already in extensive use, but further experiments are needed
to firmly establish the procedure. With perfection of the details of
the treatment, and adequate educational work among the small
operators, both on the antiseptic treatment and the general handling
practices that decrease stain hazard, it is believed that the financial
loss and excessive drain due to sap slain will be very materially
decreased. Foreign customers are particularly insistent on wood that
is free from stain, and exports of southern lumber have already been
favorably affected as a result of the improved appearance of the
treated wood.

LOSS FROM DECAY

The principal loss in wood volume due to decay of forest products
is in logs banked in the woods or at the sawmill, lumber and sawn
timbers in seasoning or storage piles or in exposed construction, fuel
wood and pulpwood in storage, and ties, fence posts, and mine timbers
in storage and use. The proportion of lumber and fuel wood lost by
decay is not high, but because of the very large volume of these items,
they supply an important part of the total decay loss. The losses in
ties, posts, and mine timber are large because of the moist conditions
under which they are used. Poles and piling are also used under
conditions that favor decay, but because of the relatively small
volume of use for these purposes their effect on the total loss is much
less. Decay losses necessitate the cutting of additional timber for
replacement purposes. It is estimated that the overcut necessary to
replace decay losses in all classes of forest products amounts to more
than 10 percent of the total cut. For, products derived from saw
timber, the estimated overcut required for decay replacements is
approximately 9 percent of the saw timber cut, which is a smaller
figure but more significant not only because of the greater value of
saw timber but because of the slow rate at wluch losses of saw timber
are replaced by growth. On the basis of 1925-29 production, the
decay replacement estimate for saw timber is found to equal half of
the estimated current growth for this class of material.

The consequences of decay to both producer and consumer of wood
and wood products are out of proportion to the value of the material
destroyed. Production costs are increased by storage and transit
losses. The higher costs hamper the lumberman in competition with

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 709

producers of wood substitutes and impose a hardship on the consumer.
The replacement of wood that is damaged by fungi after it is put in
service entails labor and other incidental costs that total much more
than the price of the wood used for the replacement. Costs of
replacement material cannot be exactly determined, because the
losses occur at different stages between felling in the woods and use
in buildings, fence lines, etc. Making rough allowances for this fact,
as well as for the labor costs of making replacements, it appears that
on the basis of the production and prices of the years 1925-29 annual
costs of replacements because of decay averaged more than a quarter
of a billion dollars, and were thus more than half as great as the
annual fire losses reported by the Board of Underwriters for the same
period. Furthermore, particularly in the case of house construction,
the uncertainty element due to sporadic and spectacular cases of
destruction by dry rot causes builders to turn to the use of wood
substitutes to an extent greater than the average damage would
warrant, with unnecessary losses in economy and often in utility.
Decay in forest products, therefore, causes immediate loss to industry
and to the public, as w~ell as ultimate loss to the country from the
resultant overcutting of the forest and depletion of an important
natural resource.

In comparing the losses due to fungous deterioration of forest
products with the losses due to diseases of the living forest, it is
probable that the products losses are less serious as a cause of depletion
of timber resources. When, however, the immediate financial effect
is considered, it appears that the damage to forest products exceeds
forest diseases in importance. This is due to two factors: The wood
in the form of forest products is worth several times as much as the
stumpage of the timber from which it came; and the heavy costs in
other items incidental to replacements further raise the total damage
figure.

PREVENTION OF DECAY

A large wood-preservation industry has arisen within the last 40
years, and particularly by its accomplishments in tie preservation it
has made a notable contribution to the conservation of timber
resources. There is still need for improvement in methods of preser-
vation and for its extension to a larger proportion of the material used.
Too little progress has been made in the preservation of wood that is
to be painted or stained, or used in dwellings. In most parts of the
country it is difficult or even impossible for the small consumer to
get treated lumber. Current treating methods are expensive, and some
of them are suspected of making the treated wood dangerous to the
users. Particularly in the South and on the Pacific coast, the destruc-
tive dry-rot fungi establish themselves in new buildings and cause
extensive damage which, in some cases, proves very difficult to stop
unless treated wood is available for critical parts of the structure.

There is also room for material improvement in other practices as
well as in wood preservation. Prompt utilization or the seasoning of
green material, subsequent protection from the moisture that decay
fungi must have in order to attack the wood, and sanitation in lumber
yards are practices which help to prevent decay, but they are often
ignored and in many cases it is impracticable to follow them. Re-
search needs to be extended both in the direction of field trials for the

710 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN -FORESTRY

simplification of protection methods based on principles already dis-
covered in the laboratory and in the direction of further fundamental
research without which entirely satisfactory field methods can never
be developed. Both the present information and that later developed
need to be made more readily available to the smaller wood producers
and wood users by service and demonstration work.

OUTLOOK

Among the factors tending to increase damage by fungi to forest
products are the increasing volume of small-mill lumbering, use of
less durable species and of a higher proportion of sapwood, and the
architectural trend toward low foundations. However, practicable
improvements in seasoning and preservative processes and in build-
ing practices, and the increased use of treated wood or of wood sub-
stitutes in situations of high-decay hazard, should more than count-
eract the unfavorable factors and result in some net decrease in decay
damage, as well as in decided decrease in the losses from sap stain.
The possibilities in the way of preventing fungous damage are much
greater in forest products than in forest trees. The products losses
have already been reduced far below those that would occur without
active control procedure. It would be technically possible to develop
practices that would prevent practically all loss; it is doubtful, how-
ever, if the reduction in fungous damage in the next 20 years will be
any more rapid than the reduction that is expected in forest growth.
Increased protection against fungous attack will take place concur-
rently with advance in three processes : Kesearch aimed at the cheap-
ening and simplification of protective methods, education of wood
users as to improved practice, and increase in lumber prices which
will increase the number of types of use in which protection is cheaper
than replacement.

Further consideration of the pathology and protection of forest
products will be found in the section entitled "Enlarging the Con-
sumption of Forest Products."

FOREST DETERIORATION BY INTRODUCED DISEASES

In the foregoing nothing has been said of the dangers of serious and
widespread epidemics. Native fungi, or fungi that have been intro-
duced in the remote past and to which our forests have already
become adjusted are not likely to cause catastrophic epidemics in
native tree species or threaten the extermination of any commercial
forest tree. The introduced disease, on the other hand, is a potential
danger to the commercial existence of every one of our commercially
important timber species.

The history of agriculture and horticulture in this country prior to
the passage of the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 and to the issue of
the general nursery stock importation restrictions in 1919 was a
procession of invasions by both plant diseases and insect pests from
abroad. Wheat, potato, cotton, corn, asparagus, and peach are
among the important crop plants that have suffered from foreign
attack at one time or another in our history. Most of the attacks
have been met by the quick substitution of resistant varieties, by a
shift of the center of cultivation from one part of the country to

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 711

another, by changes in methods of cultivation, or by expensive
methods of direct control, such as spraying the plants. None of
these procedures are possible in forests. The ultimate result in
agriculture has been more complicated methods of production and
increased cost to the consumer. In forests similar invasions of
virulent pests are likely to mean the loss of valuable tree species and
permanent reduction in forest values.

As the result of the unfortunate experiences which we have already
had, the impression has developed in certain quarters that any for-
eign fungus will do more damage than a native fungus of the same
type. This impression is incorrect. Most foreign fungi when
transferred to a new habitat find that the climate or the lack of the
food materials to which they are accustomed makes it difficult for
them to exist in competition with the better adapted native organisms.
However, a foreign fungus which does find among our tree species
one which is a congenial host may do to it exactly what the blight
has done to our chestnut, or at least may injure it more than any
native fungus could possibly do, because to the foreign fungus the
tree lacks the specific resistance which in past ages it has acquired to
the native parasites.

A foreign fungus may attack in a less conspicuous manner than
the Chestnut blight and develop more slowly but nevertheless to a
sufficient degree to ultimately take most of the profit from the man-
agement of the host species. It often happens that the introduced
disease is not at first recognized as such. A number of the diseases
that are now causing concern in the United States are under the
suspicion of having been introduced, but if they have been intro-
duced it was so long ago that their history cannot be determined
with certainty. Among those that are known or suspected to have
been originally introduced are enough different types to illustrate
most of the kinds of damage that we have to fear from diseases from
other countries.

The one that first occurs to the minds of everyone familiar with
eastern forests is chestnut blight, an importation from Asia. In a
period of approximately 40 years since its probable time of entrance
is has destroyed one of our half dozen most important hardwood
species through the northern two thirds of its range. There is still
available a large volume of chestnut saw timber in the southern
Appalachians and more widespread utilization of this chestnut lum-
ber would assist in conserving our limited stands of other eastern
hardwoods. But this southern Appalachian chestnut region is now
infected with the blight, which is rapidly advancing and will in time
eliminate the American chestnut as a commercial tree. Chestnut,
because of its excellent growth even on the poorer soils, its ease of
management, the value of its nuts, the high durability of its wood,
and consequent usefulness for a number of purposes, was perhaps the
most valuable single species of all our hardwoods. It still furnishes
over half of our domestic tanning materials, and has the unique fea-
ture that the tannic acid is taken from wood which is not wasted
but can then be converted into paper. No satisfactory domestic
substitute for chestnut tannin has been found. Fortunately chest-
nut can be used for tannin production for 20 or more years after the
trees are dead. Other species have promptly replaced the chestnut

168342°— 33— vol. 1 46

712 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

on the better sites; we therefore have not extended our idle land or
had any serious watershed problems as a result of this unprecedented
epidemic, but much of the land on which the chestnut formerly pre-
dominated is permanently reduced in commercial value as a result
of the change to less profitable species. This loss of productiveness
of the former chestnut land is an even more serious matter than the
immediate loss of the merchantable chestnut stands.

Where the disease has run its course and killed practically all the
trees, the causal fungus has decreased in abundance locally for lack
of food material, in some places to an extent sufficient to permit the
new sprouts to attain a considerable size and even to bear nuts
before becoming infected. In the cases that have been kept under
observation for a sufficient length of time the evidence is that these
new trees are susceptible. Despite much search by both govern-
mental and private agencies, no native trees that have been tested
so far have shown enough resistance to enable them to produce mer-
chantable stands in the presence of the disease. During the past
20 years large numbers of promising trees and sprouts which con-
tinued for a while to develop in the presence of the blight have finally
succumbed. Trees and sprouts in 200 different localities in 18 States
are still under observation by the owners in cooperation with the
Department to determine if they really are resistant. While it is to
be hoped that some individual native trees may yet be found so
nearly immune that they can be used as propagating stock for the
replanting of the American chestnut, the statements recently given
prominence in the public press that the chestnut is coming back, are,
to say the least, premature. Strenuous efforts are being made to
find Asiatic chestnuts that will be resistant both to blight and to
American parasites, or to produce hybrids with the American chest-
nut that will serve the same purpose. These efforts may ultimately
give us as good a tree as the one we have lost; but any such result
must require many years of work, and if actual reestablishment of
all the chestnut forests prove practicable, it will require generations
to accomplish it.

The white pine blister rust, perhaps as well known as the chestnut
blight, stands in quite a different category from the chestnut disease.
It was introduced to this country from Europe, though it may have
come originally to that continent from Asia. In the eastern United
States it works more slowly than the chestnut blight, but is neverthe-
less an unusually conspicuous disease and was recognized at a rela-
tively early stage in its American development. One weak point
in its life history, namely, its need for a currant or gooseberry bush
as an alternate host, has made it possible to evolve a method of pro-
tecting our most valuable northern white pine stands before it had
time to cause great injury. Reproduction has been considerably
reduced in some places in the Northeast and in the Lake States, but
the control campaign has in general safeguarded us against heavy
losses in merchantable stands and promises to make it possible to con-
tinue the growth of white pine in most of its original commercial
range. The only places in the main commercial range where the
northern white pine may be forced out as a commercial species are
some in which the cost of eradication of the currants and gooseberries
is excessively high or where attack by other diseases and insects makes
the species too difficult to maintain when the added costs of blister-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 713

rust control are considered. A dying out of the species is to be ex-
pected in the marginal portions of the range, where its representation
in the stand is not heavy enough to justify control measures. On the
other hand, in some of the outlying sections where the alternate hosts
can be cheaply eradicated and growth rate and markets are favorable
to the pine, it is probable that white pine production in the future
will be greatly increased through planting. In the major portions
of the range in which protection is practicable, the cost per acre of
the protection ranges from 5 cents to $2 per acre, with an average
of 44 cents. This figure covers all charges — Government, State, and
local, as well as the actual cost of removing the bushes. In most
places eradication of alternate hosts is advisable at about 5-year
intervals, but the cost of these later eradications is less than that of
the initial one.

The status of the blister rust in the West is less hopeful. Western
white pine and sugar pine are still more susceptible than the northern
white pine, and the currants and gooseberries that act as alternate
hosts in the West are more numerous, more congenial to the rust,
and more difficult to eradicate. Both the infection and the control
campaign in the West are relatively recent, and the proportion of the
stand of these two important western timber species which can be
protected from rust at a practicable cost in the present profitless
state of the local lumber industry remains to be determined. It is
feared that most of the privately owned white pine stands of Idaho
will be destroyed because of the inability of the owners to finance
control.

Both the chestnut blight and the blister rust, where allowed to run
unchecked, affect the aesthetic and thus the recreational value of the
forest to an extent not encountered with most native diseases. So
many trees are killed at once that it takes many years to replace the
skeletons of the killed trees with enough trees of other species to
restore the beauty of the forest. To a great many people the species
which replace them are decidedly inferior in beauty to the chestnut
with its remarkable spreading branches or to the white pine with its
dark masses of foliage.

In the case of chestnut blight, the wholesale killing of the trees
on thin soils on upper slopes in places in Pennsylvania has in some
cases resulted in soil deterioration through opening up of the stand
to such an extent that the humus layer has disappeared and centuries
may be required to restore the original value of the watershed.

Even where a lost timber species is replaced promptly and com-
pletely by others of equal commercial and aesthetic value, there is
chance for indirect and deferred damage to the forest. Most of our
forests are balanced associations of a number of species of trees and
shrubs, and the soil organic matter is largely controlled by the species
mixture. There are numerous ways in which these species can affect
each other, and the complete removal of any of the commoner species
may result in soil changes unfavorable for the entire association, or in
otherwise so unbalancing the forest-tree community as to seriously
reduce its productiveness.

The other introduced diseases of our time appear thus far to be less
serious because they are less active, because they are attacking trees
of less economic importance, or because they have been introduced in
localities where the most susceptible native tree species are not com-

714 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

mon. One which appears particularly virulent is the willow blight,
caused by a leaf and a twig fungus working in partnership, both of
them introduced. This disease in the willows of the Northeast has
made a record for quick killing. It is destructive in this region
on several native willow species. If in its spread over the country
it is found to be equally virulent in regions farther south and west,
or if forestry developes further in the direction of cellulose production
so that willow can become important for wood production in bottom
lands, this disease may yet prove very serious. The willow is the
one tree best adapted to the holding of the soil on the banks of
streams in some parts of the country, particularly in the Middle
West. It is impossible to predict to what extent flood-control
problems might be aggravated by the loss of the willows. There is
no prospect of direct control for this willow disease, but there is an
unusual chance for the substitution of resistant willow species or of
resistant varieties of susceptible species for the willows that are
destroyed. The short generations and easy vegetative propagation
of the willow greatly facilitate breeding of resistant varieties.

The larch canker illustrates a very different type of a recent im-
portation. This larch disease has long been troublesome in European
forests. It was brought to this country on imported stock from
Scotland a score of years ago. Because of the small amount of larch
in the locality where it was introduced, it spread slowly, and since its
discovery the entire eradication of the known cases has apparently
been successful. So far as known it no longer exists in this country,
but some years of follow-up work and more extensive reconnaissance
are necessary before it will be safe to say that the fungus has not suc-
ceeded in establishing itself anywhere in our native larch. Had the
disease been introduced originally into a region containing much
larch, the story of this introduced disease would have less chance of
having a happy ending.

The so-called Dutch elm disease which was apparently introduced
into Europe has done tremendous damage in the elms of the low
countries and has now extended into the British Isles and through
Middle Europe. It has been found recently in Ohio; but in spite of
the most energetic search, in which the cooperation of the public and
the commercial tree surgeons has been enlisted, it has been discovered
to date on but eight trees. Wherever found it has been eradicated.
While the American elm is known to be highly susceptible, we have
reason to hope that the disease is not yet present elsewhere in the
country or that conditions in this country, as for example the absence
of one of the insects which appears to aid in its spread, will prevent
its active operation in our elm species. The loss of the elm would,
of course, reduce our timber resources in certain locations and for
certain purposes, and make a tremendous inroad on our tree resources
from the aesthetic standpoint in the North and East; in New England
it is more important as a street tree than all other species together.

One of the most recent attacks of a possibly introduced disease is
affecting the two most important pines of the northeastern States.
Both northern white and Norway pine are being killed by a resinosis
at the base of the trunk in three New York plantations. If not dis-
tributed on nursery stock, this disease will probably be unable to
spread rapidly. However, in forests it is obvious that a slow but
sure spread can ultimately be quite as serious as a more rapid spread.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 715

This new disease has been under study by the New York authorities
for three seasons, but because of the complications entering into root-
disease investigation it may be several more seasons before we can
be certain of its antecedents or just what may be expected of it in
the country as a whole. This illustrates one of the weaknesses in our
preparedness against introduced diseases. We are yet so little
acquainted with the native diseases of our 180 commercial timber
species that when a previously unobserved diseased condition is found
it is often difficult to decide whether it is native or introduced.

The newest threat is to the beech. A bark fungus of unknown
source has joined with a scale insect to destroy 40 percent of the
beech of Nova Scotia. Infection has now appeared in Maine, where
it is still very limited but is spreading with alarming speed.

Serious as some of the foregoing cases are, there is some reason to
think that we have scarcely begun to suffer from introduced diseases.
To lose a single species from among our numerous forest trees is not
a complete disaster but to lose several from the same region might
very seriously cripple forestry both from the timber production and
the recreational standpoint. It is very probable that we already
have a large proportion of the dangerous fungi that were native to
Europe. Up to 1912 the United States Government had no legal
authority to exclude diseased propagating stock, and it was only
after the quarantine regulations of 1919 that the policy of free trade
in plant diseases really came to an end. However, considering the
great number of forest species related to ours which are found in
Asia, and the relatively small amount of commerce which we have
had with Asia, Africa, and South America until recent years, it is
probable that we have thus far been exposed to relatively few of the
potential tree-disease organisms of those continents.

Diseases brought in before 1919 may yet remain to be discovered.
A single importation of a disease, even if it be a virulent one, seldom
spreads far enough to be discovered or brought to the attention of
our small staff of forest pathologists. until it has been in the country
at least 10 or 15 years. While the quarantine regulations now in
force have undoubtedly prevented or greatly delayed the introduction
of pests since 1919, no system of quarantine which it is possible to
enforce at present can guarantee absolute exclusion of new diseases
indefinitely. Yet every delay in introduction is vastly important,
not only because it avoids damage or costly readjustment to the in-
truder but also because we are likely to be able to meet the newcomer
in the future with a more organized and efficient effort than can now
be directed against it. Complete enforcement is impossible, and
quarantines cannot be applied to some kinds of imports without
excessive interference with commerce. For example, it appears
impracticable to limit the importation of wood in the form of logs,
pulpwood, or packing cases, though there is considerable possibility
that these imports may bring with them tree diseases of the vascular-
wilt type exemplified by the maple wilt and the so-called Dutch elm
disease, as well as fungi that will add to our deterioration problems in
forest products. Few introduced organisms would be as easy to
control as the blister rust. From the nature of the case, any predic-
tion is highly speculative, but the probabilities favor trouble from
now unknown foreign diseases for others of our important tree species.

716 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The introduction of dangerous organisms is not limited to the
bringing in of new species. It is now well known that our most
important fungous species consist of numerous strains, some of which
differ from others very clearly in their virulence. For example, the
well known root-rot fungus Fpmes annosus is common throughout
both Europe and North America. In the Douglas fir in the Pacific
Northwest it is very frequently found, but appears to be unimportant
so far as parasitic activity is concerned. In Europe, on the other
hand, it is an extremely serious parasite in planted forests and causes
heavy damage to European plantations of our own Douglas fir.
There is reason to believe that some of the European strains of this
root-rot fungus are more dangerous than any of those which we now
have; their importation might prove serious, particularly for our
reforestation projects.

Introduced diseases must be found, studied, and if possible eradi-
cated while they are new in this country. Delay may mean their
escape beyond control. To permit infectious material to remain
undisturbed for study in our forests or among shade trees is mani-
festly unsafe. The knowledge of the disease, its methods of spread,
and the vulnerable points in the life history of the casual organism,
essential for effective eradication, can be acquired safely only by
studies abroad in the countries where the disease is already established
and these studies need to be carried on at the earliest possible moment
after the discovery of a disease in America. In the cases of virulent
diseases known to exist abroad and to be able to attack trees related
to our forest species, but which have not yet gained entry into
America, it is the part of wisdom to conduct preliminary studies in
the foreign countries to get information that will enable us to prevent
or at least to delay as long as possible their introduction here. The
Dutch elm disease is an example of a case in which studies abroad
are needed. At the present moment no one can answer the question,
How did the elm fungus reach America? We cannot know just how
to quarantine or where to expect additional outbreaks and combat
them intelligently and effectively till this question is answered.

Troublesome diseases may be introduced from other parts of our
own country as well as from abroad. While it is possible that most
of the dangerous fungi native .to this country are already present in
every part of the continental United States in which there is any
common native host that is particularly susceptible to them, this is
by no means certain. A fungus living harmlessly on the outer bark
of eastern hard pines has been proven able to cause severe damage to
Douglas fir in the East. This tree in its natural range would probably
be more resistant to the fungus; but if the fungus should reach the
western forests and should there prove able to attack this most im-
portant species as it does in the East, we would have a forest calamity.
An example of danger from the movement of native diseases in the
opposite direction is afforded by the dwarf mistletoes of pine. Prob-
ably the most important of the growth-reducing parasites, they are
now limited to the West, and are separated from the eastern pine
stands by a belt of prairie hundreds of miles wide along the hundredth
meridian. These mistletoes are not spread by the wind as are the
fungi and can establish themselves in a new place only if both sexes
are introduced. It is probable that the eastern conifers have never
been exposed to them. Artificial inoculation experiments in neutral

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 7l7

territory have shown that some of these mistletoes can attack eastern
species and it is possible that if introduced to the East they would be
found to be serious enemies of certain of our eastern pines. One
fungus of uncertain origin which was perhaps brought from the West
to the East is the so-called "Woodgate rust" occurring on Scotch pine
in New York State. Injury by this disease to our valuable southern
slash pine is feared if it spreads to the South.

To summarize: Introduced diseases now in this country cause less
damage than is done collectively by our many native diseases, but
there is reason to fear that unless quarantine is fully supported and
proves highly successful, we have only seen the beginning of the
introduction of acute diseases of foreign origin. Our forests may be
exposed at any time to new epidemics, with consequent commercial
loss of additional native timber species. While even the most serious
of the native diseases limit their effect mainly to reducing the yield of
forest products, the introduced epidemic disease may also cause
serious loss in aesthetic and recreational value of the forest, and in
some cases may diminish its value in watershed or stream-bank pro-
tection. The agencies engaged in protection against foreign diseases
are handicapped by the lack of knowledge of the tree diseases in for-
eign countries, and their methods of dissemination which makes it
difficult to establish fully efficient quarantine regulations; this same
ignorance together with the insufficient knowledge of native diseases
makes it difficult to recognize a new disease promptly after it gets into
the country. When all things are considered, it is by no means im-
possible that by the end of the present century our forestry program
may be more hampered by new diseases from abroad than by all of
our native diseases. Movement across the country of native diseases
now limited either to the East or to the West, though less dangerous
than the introduction of foreign diseases, is also a basis for some
concern.

PRESENT STATUS OF RESEARCH AND CONTROL
AGENCIES ACTIVE

Considering the immense area of land in this country suitable only
for tree growing and the part that timber produced on this land has
played and must continue to play in the economy of the Nation, the
agencies engaged in developing principles for the control of forest-tree
diseases are inadequate.

Federal work on forest-tree diseases is carried on in the Bureau of
Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, by the Division of Forest
Pathology and the Division of Blister Rust Control. The Division
of Forest Pathology is purely an investigative organization to develop
principles for the control of tree diseases. In addition to the central
organization in Washington, this Division maintains one or more
pathologists in 3 of the 9 regional offices and 3 of the 1 1 Forest Experi-
ment Stations of the Forest Service. After principles of control have
been determined, their actual application on national forests is carried
out by the administrative officers of the Forest Service supplemented
by whatever assistance in instruction or supervision is needed from
the Division of Forest Pathology to make the work effective. The
same assistance is given on other Federal forest land, on State forests,

718 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

and to a lesser extent on private forests when needed. As the result
of a small appropriation for that purpose, the Division is now aiding
the National Park Service by making a special reconnaissance study
of tree diseases in the national parks and advising methods of control.
The Division also maintains pathplogists with the forest products
laboratory for special work on diseases affecting forest products.
A limited amount of study of dangerous foreign or introduced diseases
has been made in the countries of origin, to secure information of value
in planning quarantines and eradication work.

The Division of Blister Rust Control applies and extends measures
for the control of white pine blister rust, based on principles estab-
lished for it by previous research by the Division of Forest Pathology.
Through cooperative agreements, the Division of Blister Rust Control
maintains an organization in all States which have commercially
valuable stands of white pine. This organization supervises the
control of blister rust on State and private lands. The same assistance
is extended to Federal land.

Aside from control of blister rust, there is relatively little work
done by individual States on forest-tree diseases. New York conducts
some pathological work in its conservation commission for this
purpose, and the Natural History Survey of Illinois is giving attention
to diseases of elm in that State. In Ohio, Idaho, Pennsylvania,
Minnesota, Michigan, New York, and Connecticut and a few other
States there has been investigative work carried on incidentally to
teaching in the State educational institutions or to research in general
plant pathology in the agricultural experiment stations. The small
amount of attention to forest pathology in State institutions is
probably due as much or more to the inclination and training of indi-
vidual pathologists and lack of available funds than to any definite
policy or lack of interest of the institutions concerned. Forest
diseases cannot be investigated with the ease or speed with which
results can be obtained on the diseases of smaller and shorter-lived
plants ; and the damage and control phases of such investigations can
be adequately handled only by men who have a knowledge of forestry
as well as of plant pathology. These facts have induced general
plant pathologists to study forest diseases only incidentally and
without the continuity of effort that is absolutely essential in the
study of diseases of long-lived host plants. Many States whose
forests are a primary resource do no work in forest pathology.

There are no private organizations for investigation or control of
forest diseases. Three endowed universities with forest pathologists
on their teaching staffs do some research. The Oxford Paper Co. in
cooperation with the New York Botanical Garden is studying the
diseases of poplars with a view to developing resistant varieties for
the use of the company. On a few private forests there is a steady
and well directed effort to reduce- diseases to the minimum. In the
main, the private timberland owner does not realize the presence or
importance of disease unless numbers of trees are killed simultane-
ously. Control of white-pine blister rust has been applied over exten-
sive areas of private forest land in the Eastern States through a co-
operative service organization which has proved to be unusually
effective in securing general application of the results of investigative
work.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 719

CONTROL PRACTICES

Although the basic principles of control of forest-tree diseases are
fundamentally the same for all stands, the application of these prin-
ciples is strongly modified by the character and location of the stand
and the purpose which each stand serves. The necessity and eco-
nomic feasibility for control measures vary considerably on forest
lands for timber production, for recreational use, and for watershed pro-
tection. In any case intelligent control must be based on investiga-
tion of individual diseases in their relation to the stand as a whole,
and the many problems demanding attention are far beyond present
available resources for this purpose.

Direct control of native diseases is being practiced to a considerable
extent in forest nurseries. In nurseries, trees are grown so closely
crowded and under such artificial conditions that they are extremely
susceptible to disease, but this same occupancy of a limited area by
a large amount of valuable stock makes it possible to spend relatively
large sums of money for direct-control measures, such as special meth-
ods of cultivation, soil treatment with chemicals or with steam,
spraying with fungicides or iron solutions and eradication of diseased
plants in the immediate vicinity of the nursery. Moderately satis-
factory control methods have been developed for the more conspicu-
ous nursery diseases, and new or obscure diseases should also prove
susceptible to control when sufficiently studied.

Native diseases in the forest must be largely controlled by indirect
methods, such as the removal during cutting or thinning operations
of diseased trees or those in a condition to be especially susceptible
to disease. The expense is mainly in hand labor, so that such oper-
ations could be carried on very cheaply at the present time. So far
such efforts are largely confined to certain national forests, although
a few private owners are also eliminating diseased trees in thinnings
and final cuttings. A clause in national-forest timber sale contracts,
first introduced in 1911, calls for cutting diseased trees even though
they may be mainly or entirely unmerchantable. In California
where there has been the longest experience with its operation, this
sanitation cutting has been found to have a number of other advan-
tages as well as the removal of infection sources, and if any cost must
be charged to the disease-prevention feature it is very slight. It has
been found that most butt rot, which is an important item in decay
in conifers and the principal cause of cull in hardwood saw timber,
enters mainly at fire scars, with logging scars also of some importance.
This means that fire control and care in logging can be regarded as
factors in disease prevention. In plantations and managed forests,
disease prevalence can undoubtedly be controlled to some extent by
cpntroUing stand density. Unfortunately, information on the rela-
tion of density to disease has been determined for only a few diseases,
so that wide application of this principle will have to wait for addi-
tional knowledge. The relation is sometimes indirect; for example,
a high stand density can be made to help protect certain tree species
from rust fungi, because it tends to kill out other species of plants
that the rusts require as alternate hosts.

Investigations by the Federal Government of wood-destroying
fungi that cause heavy losses by decaying the wood of trees of mer-
chantable size, have shown for the few species studied that young
stands are practically free from decay but with increasing age, losses

720 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

become heavy. Consequently losses in present young stands are
largely avoided if they are cut before they attain the age at which
decay becomes economically serious. In addition, determination of
outward indications of decay in living trees have enabled volume
estimates of standing timber of certain species to be made more
exactly, thus reducing one element of uncertainty in the lumber
industry, since the investment in all logging operations is based on
the amount of available timber determined by ocular estimates.
Some operators on private land in the Douglas fir region of western
Oregon and Washington have also used this information to leave
unmerchantable decayed Douglas fir trees standing and thus save
felling costs. There this practice will not cause increased decay in
the future, because the new Douglas fir forests will be cut before reach-
ing the age at which significant loss from decay begins. However,
under usual conditions decayed trees should be cut along with the
others to protect future stands. So far only a few important species
have been studied and many more remain for future work.

When practicable, direct control measures must be applied to
virulent, introduced killing diseases, since it is these diseases that
may eliminate a native species as a factor in commercial timber
production. The commercial extinction of chestnut, now in progress
of accomplishment by the Asiatic blight fungus, cannot be stopped
by any economically feasible measure ; it had become too thoroughly
established for successful eradication long before the systematic
study of forest pathology was begun in the United States. The
equally dangerous white-pine blister rust which reached this country
some years later has been more successfully met. Investigation has
shown that the fungus causing the disease must have two kinds of
hosts for its existence — the pines, and currant or gooseberry bushes.
While the disease can spread over 100 miles from pines to the alter-
nate hosts, its effective spread from currants and gooseberries back
to pines is only a few hundred yards ; so that effective control is now
obtained by eradicating currants and gooseberries in and around
valuable pine stands. This control is being extensively applied on
Federal, State, and private forest land in the East where about 9
million acres have been initially cleared of currants and goose-
berries, and a beginning is being made in the West; but because of
the greater difficulty and consequent increased cost of eradicating
wild-currant and gooseberry bushes there and the rapidity with
which the disease is spreading, the extent of stands of sugar pine
and western white pine that it will be feasible to protect is still
problematical.

Valuable protection against the introduction of diseases from
foreign countries is given by quarantine. All forest trees and nursery
plants are now excluded from the United States except for importa-
tion under special permit with provision for periodic inspection for
the first few years after introduction. If a dangerous disease is known
to exist on a foreign tree, it cannot be imported at all except in limited
numbers by the Department of Agriculture and must then be held
in a Federal quarantine house a sufficient time for any disease to
develop. There is no restriction on the importation of seed, unless
it is known to carry a specific disease, and no safeguards are con-
sidered practicable on the entrance of wood, either in the form of
Jogs or in the less dangerous forms of packing cases, paper pulp, etc..

A NATIONAL PLAtf FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 721

though hoth seeds and wood may sometime bring in destructive
foreign diseases or decay organisms. No provision exists for pre-
venting the spread of native forest diseases from East to West or
vice versa.

One of the most useful methods in meeting diseases of crop plants
is the development of resistant or immune varieties. In a plant
with a reproductive period as long as that of a typical forest tree,
ordinary plant-breeding procedure is extremely slow. Nevertheless,
there is an excellent chance to get results in a reasonable length of
time in species which produce seed at an early age or in those in
which vegetative propagation can be done readily and cheaply. The
introduced willow scab mentioned earlier is a disease which perhaps
can be met best in this way. A beginning has been made along this
line with poplars for pulp production. Constructive activity against
the chestnut blight is also under way in an attempt to develop
resistant lines by selecting and hybridizing among the native chest-
nuts and a large number of Asiatic chestnut types which have been
assembled for the purpose. It is obvious that even when resistant
strains have been developed, they can be established only in situa-
tions where planting is economically practicable.

The constantly increasing use of forests for recreational purposes
leads to new concepts of disease and its control. The difference
between recreational forest areas and timber-producing areas as to
standards for evaluating disease damage has already been discussed.
The two types of forest differ quite as much in the needs and possi-
bilities of control. Investigation of the needs and possibilities in
the recreational areas has been barely begun, and many of the state-
ments following are to be regarded as tentative. Virulent killing
diseases need control in such areas, and protection of the 5-needled
pines against the white-pine blister rust is going forward in much
the same way as in the commercial forests. For most other types of
disease, less attention need be paid to control in extensive stands
set aside purely for recreation than in commercial stands. The fact
that little or no cutting is done in recreational stands furthermore
removes one of the best opportunities for forest sanitation. However,
because of the unnatural conditions created by tourist use in the
neighborhood of camps, hotels, and scenic attractions, and the im-
portance of the trees in such places, there are unusual local needs for
protection, and over small areas methods of prevention or control
are justifiable that would be entirely too expensive to employ where
timber production is the only consideration. Despite the opinion of
some that the dwarf mistletoes add to the picturesqueness of the
trees, the owners of recreational areas in several places in the West
have undertaken special cutting-out campaigns against them. The
spraying or dusting methods developed in orchard work could be
employed against unsightly leaf diseases in such places.

The greatest need is for measures that will protect the forest for the
campers and sightseers, against the injury that they themselves do
to it. Regulations against the careless use of fire and the concentra-
tion of trampling and automobile traffic that have partially devas-
tated some of the camping grounds and places of interest are not
enough. On the basis of preliminary study of the habits and needs
of the tourist, plans have been developed for the laying out of camp
sites and other areas where visitors concentrate, in such a wav that

722 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the tourist will find it most convenient to park his car, build his fire,
and do his walking where any damage that may result will be at a
minimum. In such special cases as the giant sequoia parks of Cali-
fornia, special measures are taken to protect the soil from the com-
pacting that would otherwise ultimately result in the death of the
absorbing roots and kill the trees. The fundamentals of tree physi-
ology and root parasitism need further study before the best procedure
can be outlined for the different situations that are encountered. In
forests in which both timber production and recreation are important,
a balanced program of preventive practices needs to be worked out
with consideration of both kinds of use.

No disease-control measures are known to have been applied in
forests maintained purely for watershed protection, except in the
course of the white pine blister rust work in the Northeast, and no
other disease is known at the present time to justify direct control
activity in such forests.

THE PROGRESS IN FOREST ENTOMOLOGY

By the Division of Forest Insects, Bureau of Entomology

CONTENTS

Importance of forest insects 723

Development in forest-insect control 726

Cooperation between the Bureau of Entomology and other Federal agencies

in insect control 728

Forest insects and forest management 729

Forest insects and forest products 730

Beneficial forest insects 731

Insects and fungi 731

Conclusion 732

The progress of forest entomology in this country has been inti-
mately associated with the broader problem of forest protection and
to some extent with forest management. The control of bisect
outbreaks or the prevention of losses from insect attack has been the
stimulus for research aimed at accomplishing these ends. Investi-
gation of forest insects and the development of control methods are
a function of the Bureau of Entomology; the application of control
methods that of the Forest Service and of other land-administering
agencies.

IMPORTANCE OF FOREST INSECTS

There is a continuous attrition in our forests from the activities of
many different kinds of insects. All stages in the development of
the stand, from the seedling to the mature plant, are liable to insect
attack at one time or another and in some years even the developing
seed crops are destroyed. In virgin timber stands, particularly those
which are overmature, a normal loss is going on steadily as the result
of insect activity and decay, but such loss for the most part is offset
or, in some cases, exceeded by growth. Counterbalancing of growth
against loss obviously results in no marked change in the forest
capital. On the other hand, epidemic insect outbreaks occurring
from time to time definitely deplete the forest capital to such an
extent that long periods are required for eventual replacement.
For instance the western pine beetle in southern and central Oregon,
during the past 10 years, has caused a net depletion of the ponderosa
pine stand amounting to 2,240 million board feet. One typical
section on the Klamath Indian Reservation carrying a stand of
11,074,000 board feet in 1921, lost 3,875,000 board feet through
barkbeetle attack during the period 1921-32. The growth, which
was only 48 percent of normal due to drought and a defoliation by
the Pandora moth amounted to 294,000 board feet leaving a net
loss for the 11 years of 32.2 percent of the stand.

The total losses in the United States from all sources have been
variously estimated at $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 a year. This
includes depredations by such insects as the mountain pine beetle,
the Black Hills beetle, the western pine beetle, the pine butterfly,

723

724 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR. AMERICAN FORESTRY

the spruce budworm, the hemlock looper, the gipsy moth, and losses
to the felled log, sawn lumber, and finished wood products in use. A
considerable portion of this loss is unavoidable, just as losses from
lightning or windstorms are unavoidable. On the other hand, much
of it can be prevented and will be so in the future through silvicultural
practices, proper management, and direct control.

With mature timber one of the largest single items of loss results
from activities of bark beetles. Actual surveys in our western forests
indicate that 5 billion to 6 billion feet are destroyed annually by these
insects. In lodgepole forests in and surrounding the Yellowstone
National Park tremendous losses have occurred. It has been con-
servatively estimated that during the past 10 years these have
amounted to 2,620 million board feet. In one year over 12 million
trees were killed. During the last 20 years most of the mature lodge-
pole forests in regions 1,4, and 6 have been completely destroyed or
are in the process of destruction by the mountain pine beetle. If
this is an exmple of what is to be expected in the future, we can as-
sume that lodgepole stands, once they have reached maturity, must
be so managed as to be harvested before the beetles play the part of
lumbermen.

A recent survey indicates that the forest losses in the State of
California due to bark beetles were at least 2^ times as great in 1931
as they were on an average for the past 10-year period. This aver-
age figure has been placed at 500,000,000 board feet. This would
indicate a state-wide loss of 1,125,000,000 board feet of merchantable
timber. At a purely commercial stumpage rate this represents a loss
of nearly $6,000,000, not taking into account the manufacturing value
of the lumber, which is an asset going to the region where it is pro-
duced. Where these losses deplete the fine old forests that are being
preserved as exhibits in the national parks and around recreational
areas, they take on a value that is less tangible but undoubtedly
much higher than in purely commercial timber.

Defoliating insects likewise destroy considerable bodies of mature
timber. These outbreaks, however, usually appear at rather long
intervals and are of short duration. An exceptional instance such as
that of the spruce bud worm in northeastern United States and
Canada ravaged the spruce and fir forests for a period of 10 years
(from 1910 to 1920) and it has been estimated that in spruce-fir types
of Maine, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick from 40-70 percent
of the timber was destroyed and that the equivalent of more than 25
years' pulpwood supply for current annual American paper require-
ments was lost. Or certain species, even if they do not kill the
timber, cause a cessation or reduction of growth which may increase
the rotation period of the stand from 5 to 10 years or more. Such
defoliations may be local and confined to only a single species of tree
or they may spread over enormous areas involving several species.
The most recent outbreak of the Pandora moth in the ponderosa-
pine stands of southern Oregon occurred between 1918-1925 and
covered approximately 400,000 acres. Growth measurements from
plots in this area showed that for a period of 11 years the normal
forest growth on this area was reduced an average of 32 percent or a
loss of increment of approximately 100 million board feet.

The northern white pine is subject to severe insect depredations
during the early stages of its growth. The Pales weevil frequently

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 725

kills a high percentage of the natural reproduction and of the young
trees set out in plantations, making it an unsafe practice to do any
planting in the vicinity of cutting. After the seedling white pines
become well established and until they are 25 years old the planta-
tions and natural stands are subject to severe damage by the white-
pine weevil, unless proper precautionary measures are taken. The
commercial value of thousands of acres of northern white-pine plan-
tations has been destroyed by this insect, definitely indicating that it
is unprofitable to attempt to grow this pine on unsuitable soil or under
conditions where some measure of protection is not assured.

It must be clearly understood that these figures for losses include
normal as well as unusual drain in the forests. For example, surveys
in the ponderosa pine type of California and Oregon tabulate all trees
killed by bark beetles. Normally on the best sites but few trees die
each year from this cause, say, 30-40 M feet board measure per
section, while on poorer sites 50-100 M feet board measure may not
be an unusual loss. In lodgepole stands normal losses are practically
negligible so that any marked losses indicate abnormal conditions.
The same applies to outbreaks of defoliators. They either cause
little loss or widespread destruction.

The financial success of certain forest industries such as turpen-
tining of the southern pines may hinge on the attack of insects.
Improper methods of chipping result in the attack of a flatheaded
wood borer which completely honeycombs the heartwood, lessening
the tree's life as a turpentine producer and causing it to break off.
Enormous losses have occurred from this source.

Forest plantations are particularly subject to the destructive
activities of insects, chiefly because plantations usually consist of
large blocks of a single species of tree. Then again many plantations
are set put on soils that are not suitable for the species of trees used.
Losses in northern white pine plantations in the Northeast and de-
struction of black-locust stands by the locust borer have, in a great
measure, discouraged the planting of these valuable trees. There
is a need for more knowledge and forethought in the setting out of
forest plantations.

Insect-killed forests are a potential danger because of the existing
fire menace. When extensive outbreaks of insects develop in forest
types composed chiefly of one species of tree a high percentage of the
stand may be destroyed. These standing dead trees go down in the
course of a few years making an almost impenetrable tangle of logs
and tops. Under proper conditions a flash of lightning may set off
the mass resulting in a widespread conflagration almost impossible to
fight. Past experience has shown that epidemics of the mountain
pine beetle in lodgepole pine have been followed by fires more often
than not.

The old snags of insect-killed trees scattered throughout our
mature forests, which average for some areas as many as 10 per acre,
stand for many years and greatly increase the cost, difficulty, and
danger in fire control. Snag felling is required in many sales of
national-forest timber, and many private operators have already
adopted this regulation. The increased cost of control of fires which
have spread from burning snags within fire lines would alone justify
insect control even at a high cost.

726 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

Such a picture as that presented does not attempt to appraise
insect losses in areas of great scenic value. The importance of the
forest cover in national parks, game preserves, and recreational areas
cannot be estimated in monetary values. Here the esthetic and
protective values far exceed that of the commercial timber. Al-
though not so directly appreciated by the visitor one of the greatest
attractions in these areas is the forest, as much of the natural beauty
of parks, camp sites, etc., is in reality dependent upon a green forest
cover. Trees also give protection to the birds and other animals.
For these reasons insect depredations which mar the scenic beauty
or destroy the protective value of the forest cover must be controlled
regardless of cost.

There is another less appreciated aspect of the insect activities in
our forests which each year is becoming increasingly important. In
some forest types insects often are one of the chief limiting factors in
successful management. Insects frequently "throw the monkey
wrench", so to speak, into our well organized plans aimed at the
production of continuous forest crops. In the western white and
lodgepole pine types of the northern Rockies, bark beetles so affect
the proportion of species in these stands as to convert the resulting
forest into one of entirely different composition, often of inferior
species, necessitating an entire reorganization of management plans.

All kinds of forest products from the moment the tree is felled and
for many years after the wood is in use are subject to destruction by
insects. Insects cause injuries in the living tree which show up as
defects in the lumber, thus greatly reducing its value. Green saw-
logs and storm-felled timber, green sawn and seasoned lumber, rustic
construction, poles, posts, crossties and all manner of finished products
from flooring to furniture are attacked. The losses in finished prod-
ucts are particularly heavy ^ in that the cost of manufacture and
replacement must be taken into consideration. However, with this
type of damage it is much more practical to prevent losses. The
most recent attempt to evaluate the losses from this source places the
damage at from % to 5 percent of the total value of various classes
of products.1

DEVELOPMENT IN FOREST INSECT CONTROL

Control work against tree-killing bark beetles conducted by three
Federal agencies — the Forest Service, the National Park Service, and
the Bureau of Indian Affairs — and by private owners as well, has
been an important part of the forest protection program in the
Western States and incidentally illustrates marked progress in
research and administration.

The first project was conducted by the Forest Service in the Black
Hills National Forest, S.Dak., in 1906, when $2,700 was expended in
an effort to check an epidemic of the Black Hills beetle. Since then
many projects have been carried out, some of them covering exten-
sive areas. A total of something over $1,000,000 has been expended
through 1931. The annual expenditures from 1906 to 1921 were
small — rarely over $20,000 and usually much less. Since 1922, with
the fuller appreciation of the importance of the losses brought about
through the activities of these insects, increasing amounts have been

i Statistical Bulletin. No. 21, U.S.D.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 727

spent each year for the protection of valuable timber stands. For
the past three years the Forest Service has spent from $100,000 to
nearly $200,000 annually, the Park Service from $40,000 to $50,000,
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs from $10,000 to $20,000.

A candid appraisal of the results secured from the $1,000,000 spent
in the control of tree-killing bark beetles has been made by the Bureau
of Entomology.2 In general it can be said that the value of timber
saved through this work has been a great deal more than the total
expenditures put into control.

Control work has been directed against seven species of bark beetles.
Each of these beetles presents an entirely different problem in each
forest region and in each forest type. Consequently every project
must be considered separately, as attention must be given both to
the administrative and to the entomological features. Control
methods necessarily must be based upon information regarding the
seasonal history and habits of the insects, and also upon certain con-
ceptions and theories, the validity of which can be proven or dis-
proven only by trying out in practice. Early biological studies of
these tree-killing bark beetles resulted in the adoption of certain
control practices. These methods, although theoretically effective,
were admittedly too expensive to adopt under all circumstances and
it was recognized that much improvement was desirable. Even now
and for some time in the future this type of work will be largely
experimental in that uniformly good results cannot be guaranteed
until a background of experience is developed. The increasing
annual expenditures for control made it possible to experiment with
new technique with the result that the present average cost per tree
has been reduced by nearly half that of the average cost of a few
years earlier.

The so-called ' 'sun-curing method" is used in the control of the
mountain-pine beetle in lodgepole pine in the vicinity of Crater Lake,
Oreg. This was first tested in 1925 and 1926 and has been applied
on an increasing scale up to the present time. It consists of simply
felling and limbing the tree, allowing it to lie exposed to the sun for
a few days and then turning the other side of the log to the sun's
exposure. The cost of treatment per tree in this park was reduced
from $1.75-$2 to 40-50 cents, depending on accessibility and seasonal
conditions.

Again, with the same beetle in the enormous lodgepole pine infesta-
tions in Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding national
forests, a method was devised for burning the bark from the trees
while standing. This effectively killed the beetles and cost in the
neighborhood of 50 cents per tree when it was possible to get fuel
oil into the forest by road. The former type of control cost in the
same locality averaged $1.50-$2 per tree.

The possibilities of tree medication for the control of bark beetles
have been experimentally tested for the past few years. This calls
for the injection of chemicals into the sap stream of the tree which
in turn will prevent the development of the bark beetle broods and
do away with the costly operations of felling and barking or burning
the tree. There appears to be much promise in this field but it is
yet too early to be confident of results.

» Journal of Forestry, vol. 29, no. 7, November 1931.
168342°— 33— vpl, X 47

728 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

A series of tests are under way with certain oils and chemicals which
will penetrate the outer bark of infested pines and kill the bark beetle
broods. If a cheap material can be developed it will do away with
the labor of peeling infested trees and subsequent burning of the
bark — two phases of the methods now in use which add considerable
to the expense and fire hazard of control projects. Several materials
have been tried which promise to be quite effective in producing a
kill if applied during the earlier stages of brood development. If the
technique of application can be satisfactorily worked out and the cost
of materials kept within reason, these experiments should represent a
real contribution toward more effective methods and lower control
costs.

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE BUREAU OF ENTOMOL-
OGY AND OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES IN INSECT
CONTROL

It has already been pointed out that forest insect control involves
many technicalities based on an intimate knowledge of the habits of
the specific insect causing the damage. It likewise involves a detailed
knowledge of the topography of the lands under control as well as
close contacts with local labor and transportation facilities, which
information is only available to the administrative officers on the
ground. Due to this combined requirement for technical, entomolog-
ical, and administrative knowledge, cooperation has been a necessary
essential in all past control work.

The responsibility for the investigation of insects affecting forests
or, in other words, the discovery of the biological facts on which
control rests has been invested by law in the Bureau of Entomology.
This law further provides for the cooperation of the Bureau of Ento-
mology with other Federal agencies charged with the protection of
Government lands and with private timberland owners. Briefly,
the instructions state that the Bureau of Entomology shall be respon-
sible for conducting surveys and for giving specific recommendations
for control at the request of other Federal agencies and for the assign-
ment of an entomologist to the project during the period of control
when conditions warrant. In actual practice the spirit of coopera-
tion has exceeded the letter of the law. The Forest Service and
National Park Service, as well as private owners, have aided the
Bureau of Entomology by supplying field expenses or part of the
salaries of entomologists engaged in control and the Bureau of Ento-
mology has, from time to time, particularly in the case of the National
Park Service, assumed more than its share of administrative duties.
The chief handicap to the more successful conduct of such coopera-
tion has been the lack of trained personnel in the Bureau of
Entomology.

Another form of cooperation is that involving the joint treatment of
intermingled or adjacent lands under different ownership or adminis-
trative agency. Insects are no more restricted by ownership boun-
daries than is fire, hence the necessity for coordinated suppression
efforts. This need has been adequately and harmoniously met in
the past by all Federal agencies. There is need of greatly strength-
ening this present effort, particularly by making available funds for
coordinated attack when emergencies develop and for more adequate
entomological supervision,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 729

FOREST INSECTS AND FOREST MANAGEMENT

Forest entomology is not only a science of protection as emphasized
in the foregoing discussion but one of prevention as well. It is ob-
viously better to prevent outbreaks of insects from becoming destruc-
tive than to wait until they have gained such momentum as to make
direct control necessary. This objective will be attained more fully
in the future through proper silvicultural practices applied to the
growing stands whereby unfavorable conditions for the development
of the insects are maintained or greater resistance of the stand to
insect attack is developed. To determine the necessary practices
for this form of protection close cooperation between the personnel
engaged in other phases of forest research and entomologists of the
Bureau of Entomology has been developed at six of the Forest Service
experiment stations and certain results have already been obtained.

The reforestation of abandoned farm lands and other waste lands
in the Middle Atlantic and New England States has been materially
retarded through the activities of the white-pine weevil as already
mentioned. Northern white pine, a most desirable and fast-growing
tree, has been more extensively used for this purpose than any other
species. With the enormous increase in the acreage of susceptible
material, the white-pine weevil has increased to such an extent that
it has become a serious menace. A thorough study of the problem
has indicated that if these plantations are confined to the better sites
and the trees spaced not greater than 6 by 6 a profitable crop can be
obtained regardless of weevil attack. More recently it has been
found that, even in those stands which have been very severely
injured, it is possible to carry out certain reclamation practices which
will at least give a fair yield from stands which otherwise would be a
total loss.

The production of spruce and fir pulpwood in the New England
region is intimately associated with the activities of the spruce bud-
worm. Recent investigations have shown that the mortality in vari-
ous stands following attack of this insect is directly correlated with
the vigor and the composition of the stand. In other words, if rapid
growth and a low percentage of fir is maintained, the forest will be
practically immune.

The woods practices of a decade ago in the naval-stores industry
in the South resulted in extravagant losses from dry facing and
windthrow. The latter frequently affected such a high percentage
of the stand that the crop was abandoned. This windthrow was in
a large measure the result of the weakening of the trees by an bisect
boring in the heart wood of the tree. It gained entrance to the tree
through the faces in the turpentined timber. Investigation showed
that this loss was preventable through the adoption of conservative
practices which at the same time increased the yield of gum and
greatly prolonged the period of operation on a given area.

Black locust, a fast-growing tree which has been extensively planted
in recent years, particularly on poorer soils, for the purpose of
checking erosion, suffers extensively from the attack of the locust
borer. In many sections of the country it has been found impossible
to secure satisfactory artificial stands. Often the value of the mate-
rial may be reduced to a point where it is practically useless except
for purposes of fuel. On the other hand, natural stands are rarely

730 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

injured. Recent investigations of this problem, although not yet
completed, indicate that the vigor of the individual tree is the most
important factor in regulating locust borer damage. Damage occurs
in inverse relation to vigor — that is, the more vigorous the tree the
jess the damage and, furthermore, the borer itself cannot develop
in vigorous trees. At present the application of these findings indi-
cates that the solution lies in management through coppice and
development of more vigorous strains for planting on waste lands.

For a number of years prior to the conclusion of recent studies
the bronze birch borer was by some foresters regarded as a serious
forest problem in the management of mixed hardwood stands in
northern New England and the Lake States. It is of practically no
importance in an uncut forest, except in one which is overmature
and where general decadence has set in, but appears in great num-
bers coincident with the death of the trees left after partial cutting
of the original stand. It has been shown that the changes in the
physical factors of the environment brought about through the me-
dium of logging are often such that trees left will succumb without
the attack of either insects or fungi, and the borer plays only the
role of a secondary factor in hastening post-logging decadence.

The application of these studies has indicated that selective logging
in any forest which contains a large percentage of birch is a danger-
pus practice where more than 25 percent of the basal area of a stand
is removed. Where cutting is heavier than this, factors of decadence,
of which the bronze birch borer constitutes only a minor one, are
such that losses will more than offset growth in the period following
cutting.

Much progress has been made in recent years toward establishing
sustained yield on both Federal and private timberlands in the
ponderosa-pine type of California and Oregon. The management of
these stands is based on an initial partial cutting, leaving a sufficient
reserve of timber for future growth so as to enable a second cutting
in from 30 to 40 years. Bark-beetle losses in these stands reserved
for future growth have in certain areas not only offset all increment,
but have reduced the original forest capital from 1 to 15 percent.
Recent experiments have indicated the possibility of avoiding this
loss by removing insect-susceptible trees in the initial cutting. These
susceptible trees are those of slower growths which can be detected
at the time of marking the timber for sale. Recent sales have been
marked on this plan.

FOREST INSECTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS

Federal research into the damage and methods of prevention of
insect losses to crude and finished products has resulted in great
savings to the industry. Losses in this character of material can
frequently be prevented by very simple means, such as prompt move-
ment of the felled logs from the woods so as to avoid exposure during
the period of insect activity, storing the freshly felled logs in water, or
exposing them to direct sunlight during the summer months. At the
mill of storehouse prevention can be accomplished by proper inspec-
tion, by segregation and classification of the stock of material on hand
so as to insure that such material as the sapwood of a hickory, walnut,
or oak is not held under conditions subject to attack by powder-post

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 731

beetles. In the case of materials used in rustic construction, cutting
at certain seasons of the year or treating with repellent sprays affords
ample protection. Such information has been disseminated through
letters and bulletins and personal contacts to such an extent that many
mills and operators are fully aware of the possibilities of insect losses
and many are adequately guarding against it.

BENEFICIAL FOREST INSECTS

All forest insects are not destructive. There are many species of
beneficial insects known as predators or parasites — the former devour
the host bodily, the latter usually feed within the body of the host.
Occasionally these predators or parasites are the controlling factor in
the decline of an outbreak of forest insects. A great deal has been
learned about the handling and practical use of certain forms of these
beneficial insects, particularly those preying on the gipsy moth.
The predators and parasites of this species were introduced from
Europe and Japan and established in this country with marked con-
trolling effect on this destructive pest. The pine tip moth was
accidentally introduced into the pine plantations of the Nebraska
National Forest and for a number of years so retarded the growth of
these trees that the abandonment of the use of pines as planting stock
was seriously considered. In 1925 a few parasites of this tip moth
were collected in Virginia and liberated at Halsey, Nebr. These took
hold with remarkable rapidity, and by 1930 had destroyed practically
90 percent of their hosts, effecting satisfactory control of the tip moth.
For the past 2 years the effect of this control has been clearly shown
in the increased vigor and height growth of the trees. At the present
time parasites of several destructive foreign pests such as the larch
sawfly, the European pine-shoot moth, and the birch sawfly are being
studied in Europe, with the idea of eventually controlling these pests
in this country through the establishment of their enemies. There
are great possibilities in this field which have hardly been touched.

INSECTS AND FUNGI

The interrelation of insects and fungi presents many interesting
technical problems, the solution of which may have a very practical
bearing on insect control. For several years the entomologists and
pathologists have been cooperating in this field. It has been demon-
strated that some of the most destructive species of bark beetles
introduce fungi — so-called "blue stains" — into the tree when they
attack it, and that these fungi play an important role in hastening the
death of the tree and possibly in furnishing conditions necessary for
the development of the beetle broods. In at least one case this blue
stain alone is capable of killing the tree. It is not going too far to
say that a more complete knowledge of the intricate relationships of
insects, fungi, and the tree may lead to an entirely different conception
of this whole problem and to better control — much as the determina-
tion of the interrelation of the mosquito and malaria parasite led to
modern prophylactic methods in the control of malaria. There are
many such complex interrelations between fungi and insects. For
example, the sporadic dying of oaks in the southern Appalachians
presents a complex of insects and diseases which we know little about

732 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

at this time. The same thing has recently been found to exist in the
case of dying western white pine in Idaho and Montana, and in
California a bark beetle and a fungus are instru mental in the wide-
spread death of Monterey cypress planted for windbreaks, while
throughout the Sierras another bark beetle and fungus are causing
wholesale destruction of firs. These examples merely emphasize
the complexity of the whole problem of forest research and the need
of intensive and thoroughly coordinated investigational effort.

CONCLUSION

This brief general picture is intended to illustrate the more impor-
tant activities of insects in our forests, the development of control
methods and preventive silvicultural practices, as well as the depend-
ence on research for continued improvements.

More adequate protection of Government-owned timberlands is
desirable: (1) to reduce the losses in merchantable timber; (2) to
insure protection of areas of scenic value; (3) under certain cir-
cumstances to curtail the development of a fire menace; and (4) to
provide better insurance for timber-growing enterprises.

It might be said that fair progress has been made in the past 20
years in the field of forest entomology. For the most part the pre-
liminary work having to do with the discovery, identification, and
classification of the important forest insects has been completed.
In fact, for many of the important species the life histories and habits
have been pretty well worked out as well. However, there is need
for a great deal more study into the fundamentals of insect ecology
and physiology. We must know more of the interaction of the
insects, the tree and the forest, and man's activities in the forest.
It is altogether possible that such studies may lead to the prediction
of outbreaks and consequent better control or prevention far beyond
any possibilities we can see at present.

STATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND PLANS

By HERBERT A. SMITH, Assistant Forester, C. R. TILLOTSON, District Forest
Inspector, and Catherine M. O'DONNELL, Law Compiler

CONTENTS

Page

The diversity of State policies of forestry 733

Diversities within regions 734

Diversities between regions 737

The origin and development of State policies of forestry 742

How State forestry started 742

Why the early movement accomplished little 745

Early Federal forestry movement 746

The first stages of forestry administration by the States 749

The New York problem of objectives 756

New York's decision for the Adirondacks 759

Further development of forest administration in New York, to 191 5_ 760

The origin of the "conservation department" idea 762

The development of State forests in Pennsylvania 763

The first steps in organized fire protection " 764

Summary of progress in State forestry activities down to the passage

of the Weeks law 766

The effect of the Weeks law on State forestry 776

The present status of State forestry activities 778

State organizations 778

The promotion of private forestry 783

State forest land administration 823

THE DIVERSITY OF STATE POLICIES OF FORESTRY

The forest policies of the several States are conspicuously diverse.
They differ not only (as would naturally be expected) regionally, in
consequence of having to face unlike problems, or because of dif-
ferences in wealth and resulting capacity to undertake public enter-
prises for the general welfare, or on account of different traditions and
conceptions regarding the proper field of government; they differ
also in States of substantially identical problems, comparable capacity
to meet them, and generally similar traditions and practices in the
matter of government. Yet State forestry has not been evolved by
each State independently. The development of these varied policies
and programs has taken place in integral connection with the general
forestry movement, which has been national in character.

The clue to many of the dissimilarities in the approach of different
States to essentially similar problems, and in the degree of progress
made, can be found only by tracing out the history of the forestry
movement in each State. Much has been due to accident, and much
to the personality and aggressiveness of individual leaders or oppon-
ents. The state of public sentiment and the attitude of the press have
of course been important. The essential point to bear in mind is
that, if the future is to be judged by the past, uniformity of action
should not be looked for, even where substantially identical situations
have to be dealt with.

733

734 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

Unquestionably, however, the present diversity of State forest
policies would be enormously greater had it not been for the effect
upon the States of Federal activities and policies. Indirectly,
Federal forestry has had a pronounced influence by force of example
and suggestion. Directly, it has done much both to stimulate action
and to determine the line of action, through cooperative and other
aid.

DIVERSITIES WITHIN REGIONS

The individuality of State forest policies comes out when States in
the same general region are compared with one another. Some of
the more striking contrasts which are revealed in the northeastern
States will serve for illustration.

The three northern New England States are predominantly rural
and have a high percentage of their area in forest. In Maine, forests
occupy 76 percent of the land area; in New Hampshire, 77 percent;
and in Vermont, 55 percent. State forestry in Maine is almost
entirely limited to protection. Most of the forest area of Maine is
in the so-called unorganized towns — that is, the wilderness part of
the State. From 70 to 75 percent of the total cost of maintaining the
fire-protective system is provided by a special tax levied on property
most of which lies in these unorganized towns; virtually, therefore,
Maine goes on the principle that the property protected should bear
most of the burden. The State does not do much to aid private
forestry through investigation and advice except that it is outstanding
in its investigations of forest insects and advice for their control.
Its forestry activities head up in a commissioner of forestry, who is
also in charge of the handling of all the State's lands. The commis-
sioner is appointed directly by the governor, for a 4-year term, and
need not be a technically trained forester. Nor, in point of fact, is
there any strong reason why he should be, with the field of activity
what it is in Maine. It is nevertheless noticeable that of his year-
long force 13 are technical men and only 4 nontechnical. The total
1931-32 appropriation of the department for all purposes is at the
rate of 1.34 cents per acre for all the forest land (other than Federal)
in the State, and more than 91 percent of the total is for protection
against fire, disease, and insects.

In New Hampshire and Vermont, while the law in neither case
requires that the head of the forestry department shall be a trained
forester, the positions are filled by trained foresters, and it is pretty
safe to say that they always will be, for the scope of the job recog-
nizedly calls for a technical forester. In Vermont the commissioner
of forestry is appointed for a 2-year period by the governor, with the
advice and consent of the senate. In New Hampshire the State
forester is responsible to a commission consisting of three members,
appointed by the governor, with the advice of the council, for over-
lapping 3-year terms. New Hampshire has nearly 33,000 acres in
State forests under administration, and Vermont nearly 41,000 acres.
In New Hampshire the acquisition of further land for State forests is
at present in abeyance, and there is no definite program for building
up a larger State forest system. In Vermont the continuation of
purchases is intended, subject of course to the condition of the State's
finances, up to 100,000 acres. In both New Hampshire and Vermont
the maintenance of the fire-protective system is regarded primarily

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 735

as a public function. The New Hampshire laws, however, provide
for patrol by private owners of 1,000 acres or more of forest land in
any one town or unorganized place, and the Vermont laws provide
for assessing a part of heavy suppression costs against owners of
unoccupied or unenclosed lands unless these lands had been given
protection by their owners. Out of a 1931-32 annual forestry appro-
priation of $77,250, New Hampshire made available for fire protection
36 percent, equivalent to a per acre protection expenditure of 0.65
cent, not including a Federal allotment of $18,012. Vermont's
funds for fire protection are 29 percent of its total appropriation of
$54,117, equivalent to 0.46 cent per acre of forest land protected.
Including funds for protection against insects and tree diseases, 58
percent of the New Hampshire total appropriation was for protection,
as against 33 percent in Vermont. The functions of the State forest-
ers in both New Hampshire and Vermont embrace research, exten-
sion, and general education. By " extension " is meant services of
practical assistance and advice to private forest owners to extend the
practice of forestry.

In contrast with northern New England, southern New England
is highly industrialized and much more densely populated. But while
there are no extensive areas of wild lands in large ownerships, as is the
case in Maine and to a less degree in New Hampshire, there are por-
tions of all three States in which there is relatively little industraliza-
tion and in which, also, the major part of the land is unsuitable for
agriculture and is in forest. The most extensive area of this kind is
in western Massachusetts, which is broadly comparable to the Ver-
mont Green Mountain country northward of it. The land-purchase
program of the Massachusetts Forestry Department has been largely
concentrated in this section of the State. Of the total area of Massa-
chusetts, forest lands make up 63 percent; of Connecticut, 51 percent;
and of Rhode Island, 41 percent. Were the western part of Massa-
chusetts to be considered separately, it would show a percentage of
forest land to all land more nearly approaching that of New Hamp-
shire. While somewhat different forest policies might be expected
in southern New England from those in northern New England
because of differences in their forest conditions, the major considera-
tion is the greater wealth of these States and their ability, conse-
quently, to engage in public undertakings of a larger scope, if they
are held to be important for the State's welfare.

Certainly Massachusetts presents a strong contrast to New Hamp-
shire and Vermont. With a forest area about equal to that of
Vermont and about 25 percent less than that of New Hampshire,
Massachusetts appropriates for its forestry work more than five
times as much as New Hampshire and nearly eight times as much as
Vermont. More than one half this total is for the maintenance and
improvement of the system of State forests, which at present have a
total area of 120,000 acres, with the prospect of an increase under the
present policy of the State to 150,000 acres. The present State
forests form 3.7 percent of the total forest area, and the contemplated
eventual 150,000 acres will form 4.6 percent. Connecticut, however,
with 3.9 percent of the total forest area now in State forests, con-
templates their increase to 15.8 percent. On the other hand, Rhode
Island has made the merest beginning toward a State forest system,
if it can be called a beginning, with 410 acres now so classed, and no

736 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

definite program of further acquisition. Rhode Island's total
expenditures on her forestry work from State appropriations is equiv-
alent to 8.7 cents per acre of forested land; Connecticut's, 11.6 cents;
Massachusetts', 13.1 cents. While Rhode Island has had a commis-
sioner of forestry or similar officer since 1907, the position has never
been filled by a technically trained forester. With substantially the
same basic reasons for a policy of forestry as exists in Connecticut, the
interest in Rhode Island has been slight relatively, and progress until
recently exceedingly lagging.

The commissioner of conservation in Massachusetts is ex-officio
State forester. He is appointed by the Governor, with the consent
of the council, for a 3-year period. He appoints his subordinates from
a civil-service register. Fire suppression is a function of town
wardens, who are nominated by the selectmen of each town and, if
satisfactory, are appointed by the State forester. The towns shoulder
the entire cost of forest-fire suppression.

In Connecticut the State forester is chosen by a commission of seven
members, six of whom are appointed by the Governor, with the for-
ester of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station serving
ex officio. The State forester hires such assistants as the commission
judges necessary. He chooses his own fire wardens without reference
to the towns, pays all initial costs of fire suppression, and charges half
of it back to the counties in which the fires occurred.

Space forbids going into any such detail regarding the dissimilar-
ity of forest policies outside of New England, when States in the same
general region and with the same general problems are compared.
All that need be done is to point out swiftly a few striking examples.

For the first example, a comparison of New York, Pennsylvania,
and New Jersey may be made. In both New York and Pennsylvania
the acquisition and administration of forest lands has been the leading
State activity and the most outstanding part of the forest policy from
the time that these States began to have a forest policy — and in both
cases that goes back into the nineteenth century. New Jersey, on
the other hand, has had no acquisition policy at all comparable in
scope or purpose until within relatively recent years. The acquisition
policy of New York, however, has had chiefly in view the protection
of the scenic, recreational, and water resources embraced in the
Adirondack and Catskill Mountain regions; and to safeguard fully
the forests of the State-owned land in these regions, New York has
considered it wise to write into its constitution a provision specifying
that no timber on the State lands within the Adirondack and Catskill
Parks may be sold, removed, or destroyed. Pennsylvania embarked
on its acquisition policy to bring back to productiveness at least a
part of the great area formerly covered with fine forests which had
become worthless through forest devastation, and aims to grow
commercial timber on these lands, now amounting to about 1,600,000
acres. New York is unique, also, among all the States in the fact that
she has lately adopted a policy of acquisition to take over and reforest
abandoned and submarginal farm lands, at a total cost of $20,000,000.

Again, we may compare Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Maryland and Virginia have both for a long term of years maintained
State forestry departments headed by technical foresters, with fire
protection as their primary duty but with extension and general
informational and educational activities also included. In addition,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 737

Maryland entered on a policy of acquisition in 1906 and now has in
State forests under administration approximately 50,000 acres, as
against 588 acres in Virginia. Maryland, with a total forest area
of 2,200,000 acres, appropriates annually for its forestry work more
than $90,000; Virginia, with 15 million acres, a little more than
$39,000. West Virginia, with 10 million acres of forest land, places its
forestry work in a department presided over by the State fish, game,
and forestry commission, and finances it by making available 25
percent of the receipts from fish and game licenses. Public sentiment
throughout the State regarding a program of forestry beyond fire
protection appears to be rather apathetic, and not particularly
aggressive even in the matter of protection outside of a limited group
of large landowners. Until 1929 the State did not have its forestry
work handled by a technical forester, except that an extension forester
was and still is provided by the extension service of the State Agri-
cultural College. While 15,393 acres are classed as embraced in
State forests, the land was acquired primarily for game protection,
a few years ago, and there is no program contemplating further
acquisition. In comparison with either Maryland or Virginia, West
Virginia has not paid much attention to forestry.

DIVERSITIES BETWEEN REGIONS

There are broad distinctions of forest policy that mark off from one
another groups of States having unlike conditions, natural or eco-
nomic. They will come out in detail as the accomplishments and
present status of State forestry are outlined. The character of the
differences may be illustrated here by comparing briefly the situations
in the Northeast, the Lake States, the South, and the West.

In the Northeast, State forestry has long been firmly established.
Public opinion in its favor was created by the rapid cutting off of the
original forests as the nineteenth century advanced; the accompanying
and following devastation wrought by uncontrolled fires; the increasing
dependence of the region upon the Lake States and the South for
lumber and other forest products; the wood requirements of the many
and growing industries, and of an increasing industrial population;
and the scenic and recreational values in the Adirondack, Catskill,
White Mountain and other regions. This favorable sentiment was
strengthened by the unquestioned belief that deforestation would have
revolutionary effects upon the climate of the region as well as upon
streamflow and water supplies generally, that navigation and power
were already affected, and that the actual wiping out of the forests
was under way. Scientific thought played a large part in arousing
and shaping public opinion ; scientists were conspicuous leaders in the
early forestry movement, especially in the Northeast. While con-
siderations of sentiment were undeniably also an influence, economic
reasons furnished the chief impulse for public forestry.

Timber was plainly the only feasible crop for much of the land.
The acreage under cultivation was shrinking, the forest area gaining.
The richer States were financially able to undertake enterprises of
public forest ownership without difficulty. Even the safeguarding
of mountain scenery against the unsightly results of destructive
lumbering and fires had a strong economic motive. In New York
the perpetuation of the Adirondack forest was considered essential
for the water of the Erie Canal, and important for the navigation of

738 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the Hudson. In New England ^ many manufacturing enterprises
were dependent for power on the rivers fed from the White Mountain
region. Pennsylvania was deeply concerned over the fast increasing
amount of denuded land which was gaining for itself the name of
"the Pennsylvania desert."

So forestry in the Northeast got off to an early start. In New York
and Pennsylvania, policies of State forest ownership came to the fore
at once. As technical foresters became available and the forestry
movement grew stronger throughout the country, most of the other
vStates created forestry departments, which at first were set up prin-
cipally to inform and advise forest owners on forestry practices and
to gather information on the forest resources and forest needs of their
several States, but which soon began to take on administrative duties
of fire control, followed more or less shortly in a majority of cases by
the first steps toward building up State forests. While some of the
Northeastern States have relatively little to show in forestry, the
region as a whole is outstanding in the strength of its organizations,
the financial support given them, and the scope of their programs.
In recent years, provision for the outdoor recreational needs of a
highly industrialized and populous section of the country has come
to occupy a larger place in the plans and activities of the forestry
departments than was contemplated at first.

In short, the early exploitation of the virgin stands, the large
amounts of second growth, the extent of the forest lands unusable for
other purposes than timber growing, the importance of local timber
supplies to meet expanding industrial and construction requirements,
the recreational needs of a large and growing urban population, the
importance of water, the length of time during which public forestry
has been under way, and the wealth of most of the States, making
relatively liberal public expenditures for forest purposes easy, explain
why in the northeast forestry stands high and policies of State forest
ownership and administration are further developed than in any other
region, with a total of nearly 4,500,000 acres in State forests and
parks.

In the Lake States, also, forestry got off to an early start, but with
less success. The terrific forest fires of 1894 were followed the next
year in both Minnesota and Wisconsin by provision for a chief fire
warden, and in 1899 Minnesota set up a State board of forestry and
Michigan a forestry commission. Unlike the Northeastern States,
however, the Lake States at the turn of the century were still in the
hey-day of lumber production from the enormous virgin stands of the
region. While there was a considerable body of public sentiment in
favor of forestry, the era of timber exploitation and land development
gave rise to powerful antagonistic forces. Minnesota enacted legis-
lation in 1903 authorizing the forestry board to purchase lands for
forest reserves; but virtually nothing was done. Local sentiment in
the heavily forested counties preponderantly and strongly favored
cutting the timber off, in expectation that the stump lands would be
converted into farms and for the sake of the immediate returns from
lumbering. In Wisconsin, for a few years, a substantial and very
promising program of State forest acquisition and administration was
entered upon, only to be suspended. In all three States until within
the last decade, the building up and maintenance of systems of pro-
tection against forest fires has been the principal concern and accom-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 739

plishment of the forestry departments. Periodically recurring seas-
sons of exceptionally severe fire hazard and losses drove home the
necessity for protection and strengthened the public demand for it.
Protection was no less in the interest of the lumber industry and
timberland owners, so long as their manufacturing equipment and
stands of virgin timber remained exposed to destruction by fire, than
it was in the interest of future forests.

As the Lake region has been brought face to face with the stern
economic realities of the outcome of timber exploitation in sections
where extensive agricultural development is impossible, there has
been a great awakening. It has been realized that private ownership
of heavily timbered lands induced by the profitableness of cutting the
timber off must be only temporary if the stripped forest land cannot
be put to use. High-pressure efforts to sell stump land to would-be
farmers have demonstrated the unfavorable economic and social
results of trying to build up agriculture where it cannot in the long
run afford the farmer and his family a livelihood. Many millions of
acres of cut-over land no longer worth paying taxes on are returning
to public ownership in the Lake region through tax forfeiture. Thus
a gigantic problem of land utilization is the outstanding feature of the
present regional situation.

All three States are now grappling with it and have inaugurated
far-reaching policies of retention, acquisition, reforestation, and
permanent public administration of nonagricultural lands. Next to
the northeastern region, this is the region in which State adminis-
tration of forests has made greatest progress. The area embraced in
State forests (or in Wisconsin, for special reasons which will be
brought out later, partly in State and partly in county forests) in the
three Lake States is over 1,900,000 acres, but the development of their
administration is as yet, for the most part, far behind that in the
northeastern group of States and for much of the land is embryonic.
The Lake States are financially handicapped, in comparison with the
Northeastern States which have assumed large responsibilities of forest
land administration, by their much smaller tax base. For example,
the total assessed property values per square mile in the three Lake
States are only about one fourth those in New York and Pennsylvania,
or on the basis of forest area alone — that is, if the total assessed values
be divided by the number of square miles of forest — only about one
fifth.

In the South most of the growth of State activities in forestry has
taken place during the last 10 years. In 1920 only Virginia, North
Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas had forestry departments. Ten-
nessee was added in 1921, and Alabama in 1923. There is now a
forestry department in every Southern State but one (Arkansas).
The main objective in all cases is the control of forest fires. There
has not as yet been developed in any of these States a policy looking
to the creation of a system of State forests, and almost no State-owned
lands are under forestry administration. While nearly every State
now has a technically trained State forester, and while the duties of
the position include the promotion of forestry through advice to
private landowners and through general informational and educational
activities, there is little time or money available for other purposes
than maintaining the protective organization and arousing public
sentiment against fires.

740 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

This is not to be wondered at. While exploitation of the virgin
timber stands of the South is now far advanced, the region did not
become the major lumber producing region of the country until
shortly before 1900. Prior to 1890 the cut was too small to make a
material inroad on the standing timber. The harvesting of this
tremendous accumulation of potential wealth has been a mam contri-
bution to the economic development of the South since that time.
As in other regions, timber exploitation had to run most of its course
before the public became concerned over the fact that exploitation
could not go on forever and that where the merchantable stand had
disappeared and the great mills shut down for lack of logs, the com-
munities built up around them would melt away. There was no
fire menace of the kind that existed in the Lake States, and surface
fires to clean off the dead grass and forest litter and keep the forest
open were regarded as beneficial rather than harmful. The South
had neither the taxable property values nor the viewpoint with
respect to the functions and possibilities of the State government as an
agency for furthering the general welfare along new lines to be readily
inclined to set up forestry departments. All the habits and traditions
of a predominantly agricultural, rural, individualistic, and in some
respects still almost pioneer stage of economic and political develop-
ment tended in the direction of a "hands-off " attitude and a lack of
any great concern about conserving the sources of future wealth
through public action.

The offer of Federal cooperative funds to aid in fire protection has
proved a strong influence toward the inauguration of forestry work
by a majority of the Southern States since the enactment of the
Clarke-McNary law in 1924. The tasks requiring first attention were
to build up a protective organization and also a better informed public
sentiment on the value of the forest resource, the importance of taking
care of it, and the harmful consequences of fire in the woods. Thus
the educational — it might almost be termed the missionary — function
of the new State departments has loomed large, much as it did a
quarter of a century earlier in the North. It has been necessary to
convert the rural mind to a changed conception of what is good for
the forest, the forest owner, and the community. In default of
liberal State appropriations to maintain extensive systems of pro-
tection the State foresters have had to depend in major part upon
the willingness of private landowners to contribute funds that in turn
would bring Federal cooperative contributions. Thus the field,
organization, and objectives of the forestry work in the Southern
States are in many ways differentiated from those which are charac-
teristic of the work either in the Northeast or in the Lake States.
The South, however, faces the approach of a situation essentially
like that in the Lake States, through the abandonment of very large
amounts of cut-over land which the private owner does not consider
worth paying taxes on.

In the West, the development of State forestry has been very greatly
affected by the presence of the national forests, which embrace more
than one half of the commercial forest land of the region (though by
no means a corresponding amount of the merchantable timber, since
the private holdings as a rule have the better and more accessible

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 741

stands). Naturally, Federal administration of so large a part of the
western forest land makes State policies of forest ownership and ad-
ministration much less urgent than they would otherwise he. The
principal objective of the early State forestry movements in Colorado
and California was to provide an agency for safeguarding the inter-
ests of these States in the preservation of the public domain forests;
and after the Federal Government entered upon the task those who
had led in the State movements were more than satisfied to have the
State interests so taken care of. At the same time, national forest
administration has been a positive influence for the development of
State forestry policies, as well as a means of meeting many of the
needs which in the rest of the country have placed heavy responsibili-
ties upon the States.

Outside of Colorado and California, the inception of State forestry
activities in the West was an outgrowth ^of the need of timberland
owners to obtain organized protection against forest fires in regions of
high exposure and great investments in stumpage. First the timber-
land owners organized protective associations as a private activity,
on a voluntary membership basis; then, to make their protection more
effective, they sought the aid and authority of the States to extend the
system to intermingled and adjacent lands, State and private, which
needed to be covered along with the association lands. Under the
resulting set-up most of the cost of protecting the private timber hold-
ings is met by the owners, with the assistance of Federal cooperative
funds; and the protective organizations are built up and run mainly
by the associations. They work in close touch with the national
forest protective organizations and have taken over from the latter
the methods developed by the Federal Forest Service applicable to
their own undertaking. This general scheme of organization par-
ticularly characterizes the Northwestern and Pacific Coast States.
In certain of the other Western States, the Federal protective system
is directly utilized by the States under cooperative agreements with
the Forest Service to cover State and private lands along with national
forest lands, as a single undertaking.

There is also in the West an important development of State forest
land administration, due largely to the example of the national forests
combined with the fact that a few States still have in their possession
large acreages of forest lands received through Federal land grants.
Most of the granted lands were originally scattered, but by exchanges
of their school lands within the national forests for solid blocks of
timberlands made available for their selection under exchange agree-
ments, Montana, Idaho, and Washington have obtained nearly
800,000 acres suitable for permanent administration as State forests
and likely to be so administered. This situation will be further ex-
plained and discussed later; the point to be noted here is that, in the
West hitherto, granted lands in the possession of the States have been
the chief cause of the beginning of a system of State forests. The
necessity for State policies to meet the problem arising from an
extensive breakdown of private ownership following the cutting off
of the original timber is only beginning to present itself definitely,
but is likely to bring about results in several States similar to those
in the Lake States at the present time.

742 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF STATE POLICIES

OF FORESTRY

The history of State forestry throws much light on what can
reasonably be expected of it.

HOW STATE FORESTRY STARTED

A widespread interest in forestry and demand for some form of
public action on its behalf developed in the United States in the third
quarter of the nineteenth century. The extensive interest in forestry
which led to the inauguration of public effort for its promotion both
in many States and by the National Government is shown by the
following list of significant developments prior to 1885:

1819. Massachusetts law to encourage the growing of trees necessary for ship
building by means of premiums to be offered by the agricultural societies
receiving the bounty of the State.

1837. Massachusetts provided, in connection with a geological and botanical
survey of the State, for a special report on the native trees and shrubs,
keeping in view economic relations and particularly the agricultural
and general benefit of the commonwealth by leading landowners to
engage in forestry.

1846. Massachusetts report on the forest survey of the State published.

1861. Nebraska Territory law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.

1867. Wisconsin law for a commission of three to inquire into the rate of forest

destruction and its climatic effects, whether the State should regulate
private forest practices, and what the State should do to preserve the
forests and encourage their return.

1868. Iowa law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.
Kansas law to encourage forest planting through bounty.

Wisconsin law to encourage provision of natural or planted timber belts
through tax exemption and bounty.

1869. Dakota Territory law to encourage the artificial establishment of timber

growth through tax exemption.

Nebraska State law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.
Maine State Board of Agriculture appointed a committee to present to the

legislature suggestions regarding the expediency of a State policy for the

preservation and production of forest trees, and to call the attention of

Congress to the same subject.

1870. St. Paul & Pacific Railroad began forest planting.

Kansas Pacific Railroad began experimental forest planting.
Missouri law to encourage forest planting through bounty.

1871. Minnesota law to encourage forest planting through bounty.

1872. Nebraska began observance of Arbor Day to encourage fprestation.
Burlington & Missouri River Railroad began forest planting.
Maine law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.

New York created a commission to investigate the expediency of establish-
ing a forest preserve in the Adirondack region.

1873. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad began establishment of forest

nurseries with a view to timber growing.
Federal Government passed the "Timber Culture Act" to encourage

forest planting on the prairies through bounty in form of land.
Nevada law to encourage forest planting through bounty.
American Association for the Advancement of Science created a committee

"to memorialize Congress and the several State legislatures on the

importance of promoting the cultivation of timber and the preservation

of forests," and to recommend legislation.
New York State commission recommended the holding of tax-delinquent

lands in the Adirondack region to build up a State park.
Committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

memorialized Congress for the appointment of a Federal commissioner

of forestry, to prosecute investigations and inquiries.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 743

1874. Illinois law authorized counties to offer bounties for forest planting.

1875. Idaho Territory law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.

1876. Minnesota made an appropriation to promote the objects of the Minnesota

Forest Association, which offered premiums for tree planting. Reports
showed 10 million trees planted in 1876 and estimated 1877 planting of
another 10 million.

Colorado constitution provided that the legislature "shall enact laws to
prevent the destruction of, and to keep in good preservation, the forests
upon the lands of the State, or upon lands of the public domain the con-
trol of which shall be conferred by Congress upon the State."

Colorado constitutional convention memorialized Congress reciting the
calamitous consequences of forest destruction, the lack of Federal pro-
tection of, care for, or interest in the forests of the public domain in
Colorado, and the need for forest planting in the treeless parts of the State
if it were to be redeemed for agriculture and populated; and praying
that the State be given control not only of "all the Government forests
on our mountains but also at least one fourth of all the Government
lands on our plains."

Federal law passed inaugurating provision for forestry investigations in the
United States Department of Agriculture — the origin of the present
Forest Service.

1877. Southern Pacific Railroad undertook experiments in tree planting.
Washington Territory law to encourage forest planting in two counties

in the treeless portion of the State through tax exemption.
Wyoming Territory law to encourage the artificial establishment of timber

growth through tax exemption.
Recommendations by the Secretary of the Interior that all public domain

timberlands be permanently reserved and placed under administration

for forestry purposes.

Connecticut made provision for an inquiry and report upon forestry.
Connecticut law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.

1878. Massachusetts law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.
Rhode Island law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.

1879. Nebraska law to encourage forest planting through bounty.

1881. Colorado exempted from taxation increased value of irrigated lands due to

tree planting.
New Hampshire created a temporary commission of inquiry.

1882. Vermont created a temporary commission of inquiry.

Massachusetts authorized towns and cities to establish municipal forests.
New Mexico Territory law to encourage forest planting through tax exemp-
tion.

1883. New York law prohibited further sales of State lands. (Through acqui-

sition under tax sales the State holdings had risen from less than 40,000
acres in 1873 to more than 700,000 acres.)

1884. New York appointed committee of experts as a commission of inquiry.

This list shows —

(1) That shortly after the Civil War a very general belief prevailed
that public action was needed on behalf of forestry.

(2) That the major objective during this period was to promote
forest planting (then often called " timber culture", "tree culture",
"forest culture", and even "forest orcharding").

(3) That the interest in this was keenest in the prairie region, but
was by no means absent in the eastern part of the country where the
natural timber growth was originally everywhere abundant.

It is worth while to ask what were the impelling forces back of the
forestry movement in its formative period.

REASONS FOR WANTING PUBLIC FORESTRY

Sixty years and more ago fear of an impending timber shortage and
a supposition that the forests of the country were being very rapidly
swept away were widely prevalent. Local shortages had actually

168342°— 33— vol.

744 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

developed, at various times. About the beginning of the nineteenth
century, for example, a dearth or near dearth of wood supplies seems
to have been experienced in many communities.

Until the railroads had spread over the country and had pushed
their ramifying lines into the smaller towns and rural localities, the
question of wood supplies was likely to turn on the amount available
by team haul, over poor roads. Wood cannot stand costly transpor-
tation without formidable enhancement of its price. Until coal came
into general use, for both industrial and domestic purposes, the re-
quirements for fuel alone were enormous. Even in the very early
days of colonial settlement local inconveniences from the depletion of
supplies near at hand were sometimes felt. Throughout the nine-
teenth century the expressions of concern and alarm over the rate at
which the forests were being cut, the havoc that was being wrought
by forest fires, and the wastefulness with which timber was utilized
were recurrent and insistent. Relatively few people seem to have
disputed the popularly accepted belief that failure of timber supplies
was approaching rather rapidly.

It is often said that frontier life bred hostility to the forest and that
this soon became the dominating American attitude. It may never-
theless be questioned whether there was ever a time when many
people did not regret seeing the forests wiped out or devastated, on
grounds other than utilitarian. Certainly in the decade of the
seventies one of the motive forces behind the forestry movement was
the belief that a well-wooded country is more habitable and more
attractive than one without forests. Another and more powerful
impulse behind the forestry movement was the conviction that
forests not only made stream flow more equable and prevented erosion
and floods but also exercised a very important influence upon the
climate, ameliorating its extremes, increasing its salubriousness, and
adding to the rainfall. That forest denudation brought marked
changes in the behavior of springs and streams had long been a
popular belief based on common observation. Shortly after the
middle of the nineteenth century public solicitude for forest preser-
vation and forest extension as a means of controlling floods and
beneficially affecting climatic conditions was greatly increased by
influences from abroad.

In Europe the consequences of the destruction of forests following
the French Revolution were awakening alarm; and Americans who
had been brought into contact with foreign observations and con-
clusions on the subject began to make them known in this country.
Outstanding in its influence upon American thought in this field was
the publication in 1864 of George P. Marsh's "Man and Nature",
revised and republished 10 years later under its better-known title,
The Earth as Modified by Human Action. The agitation that was
going on in France and Italy over the serious effects of deforestation
upon stream flow in the Alps and Pyrenees and the conclusions of
contemporary European scientists and geographers on radical climatic
changes as a result of the destruction of tree growth in countries
bordering the Mediterranean became a powerful influence upon
American thought.

The westward march of the frontier across the prairies brought
another influence to bear. The settlers in the treeless country missed

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 745

the forest to which they had been accustomed. They eagerly took
up tree planting, to make the country more habitable and homelike.
Still farther west irrigation was important. Soon the idea became
generally accepted that the semiarid plains region, popularly included
in the " Great American Desert/' must be made habitable for civilized
man and reclaimed for agriculture, if it was to be reclaimed at all, by
means of tree planting on a gigantic scale. Thus, it was thought,
the climate might be changed and the rainfall so increased as to alter
the character of the whole region agriculturally.

WHY THE EARLY MOVEMENT ACCOMPLISHED LITTLE

The widespread interest in " timber culture" or "tree culture" and
the efforts to promote forest planting through public encouragement
and assistance did not turn into new channels the earlier current of
thought regarding what forestry should primarily be concerned with
in the United States. Even today, in the popular mind, the inaugu-
ration of forestry tends to be thought of as tree planting. That
forestry should as a rule concern itself with established forests and
that the application of silviculture is accomplished mainly through
skillful utilization, which controls and directs the later growth of the
forest, is a conception not readily grasped by the average man. In
the seventies of the last century even those best informed on forestry
and most active on its behalf gave surprisingly little attention to the
possibilities of forestry as a substitute for the current practices of
utilization. One reason for this was the fact that the chief early
agencies seeking to promote forestry were agricultural and horticul-
tural societies. Another was that the scientific knowledge necessary
for the application of silviculture to American forests was completely
nonexistent. A third was the tendency among early leaders of the
forestry movement to assume that the old forests were doomed and
if there were to be future forests they would have to be planted and
grown, like other crops.

The very considerable effort made on behalf of forestry prior to
1885 accomplished little of permanent importance, in spite of the
strong moving forces back of it, partly because of inadequate knowl-
edge and fallacious conceptions, partly because the forms of govern-
mental organization then established provided no suitable machinery
for the kind of undertakings required. That the climate of the semi-
arid regions could be profoundly altered by inducing settlers to engage
in "timber culture", and that if the desert were to be reclaimed for
agriculture it must be by means of extensive afforestation, were of
course complete misconceptions. But irrespective of whether the
objectives of the forestry movement in its early stages were right or
wrong, their achievement was impossible because the people of the
United States had not then gone far in developing the capacity of
government to meet the needs of a complex, highly organized eco-
nomic life. In the latter half of the nineteenth century the field of
government had to be broadened in many directions. To assume the
new duties, new machinery had to be set up. The creation of the
machinery necessary for the successful conduct of public activities in
forestry proved a slow process — indeed, it is even now unfinished.

746 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

EARLY FEDERAL FORESTRY MOVEMENT

Before taking up the development of State forestry from 1885 on,
it is necessary to bring within the field of vision what was beginning
to be done by the Federal Government; for this was to have a very
great influence upon the States.

The year 1876 saw the first provision made by Congress for the
inauguration of forestry work as a Federal activity. It was also the
year in which the first Western State asked Congress to turn over to
it the timberlands within its borders. In the following year the pro-
posal was first submitted to Congress that it should reserve and place
under administration the timberlands of the public domain.

It will be recalled that the legislation authorizing the Department
of Agriculture to conduct investigations in forestry and making an
appropriation for this work had been sponsored by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. The law brought into
being a small bureau of inquiry and information. No important de-
parture from past policy, no commitment of Government to a new
kind of activity, was involved in that. Nor was the request of
Colorado that the public timberlands within the State be made over
to her a proposal of an essentially new Federal policy. To dispose of
the public lands, in one way or another, had always been the basic
policy of the Federal Government, and for that matter of the States
too. But the idea of the Government's undertaking permanent
forest management was a bold and astonishing departure. It did not
originate with those who had been previously active on behalf of
forestry. Not only did it come from outside their number; it pro-
posed a kind of public activity which some if not all of them had
regarded as wholly out of the question.

There was every reason to hold it so. It flew in the face of accepted
ideas regarding the functions of the Federal Government. It in-
volved a reversal of the course which had been pursued with respect
to the public domain from the foundation of the Union, and conflicted
with the whole American tradition of individualism and preference
for private property ownership. And it proposed the assumption
by the Federal Government of a kind of public undertaking for which
it was not only manifestly unequipped but also manifestly at that
time unfitted. Moreover, it brought the proposal forward at a time
when the inherent weakness of the political system as then evolved
for taking on duties that called for integrity, long-range stability,
and expert administration stood shockingly revealed.

The scandalous frauds and open pillage which had been commonly
practiced under the public land laws were well known. They had
been freely set forth in the annual reports of the Interior Department.
The corruption which had invaded public life and besmirched public
officials of the highest rank, involving not only members of the
executive and legislative branches of the Federal Government but
also of the judiciary, had been freshly and startlingly exposed. It is
doubtful if there was ever a time in the history of the Republic when
the morale of government was at a lower ebb and public distrust of
the ability of government to serve the public welfare with fidelity,
consistency, intelligence, and disinterested enterprise was deeper or
better grounded. Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz originated
and brought forward what was eventually to become the national

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 747

forest policy at a singularly unpropitious time. Its immediate
adoption could only have been followed by disastrous failure. Gov-
ernment was unprepared to assume the responsibilities involved and
would have been incapable of discharging them acceptably. Nor
was the proposal of State ownership and administration of the forests
of the public domain much more promising. In the long run, the
Colorado plan would have failed had it been adopted; and as the
matter finally turned out, would have failed irretrievably. Inaction
for a time finally saved the day.

Some of the reasons why permanent public retention and adminis-
tration of the public-domain timber-lands could not be expected to
work were pointed out in the opening pages of the first Report upon
Forestry published by the Agricultural Department. Under the
spoils system of political appointments the civil service of the Federal
Government was made up of a changing body of officeholders selected
on other grounds than merit and special qualifications for the duties
to be assumed, and dependent for their term of office tenure, as for
their original appointment, upon their political backing. Each
change of administration brought into office a new horde of untrained,
inexperienced men to supplant those already filling the positions
regarded as the reward of victory and the plums of the political tree.
There were no trained foresters in the United States, and no educa-
tional institutions which could provide even the most elementary
training in the profession of forestry. There was no knowledge of
the technique and practice of forestry, and the beginning of the
necessary basis of scientific knowledge were not in sight.

We have no inducements —
the 1877 Report upon Forestry set forth —

to offer a young man who might aspire to a position for which he might have great
native ability, and for which he would be willing to undertake the most thorough
special education if he felt assured that employment would depend alone upon
the most thoroughly approved preparation, or the most rigid examination.
Hence it cannot, at least at present, be expected that pur governments can
undertake the practical management of forests, as is done in Europe, by officials
specially trained for this pursuit, with the view of deriving a benefit from the
cultivation. They can scarcely do more than prevent depredations upon the
timber already growing, if, indeed, they can succeed in this, * * *.

The Federal Department of Agriculture, which had been giving
more or less attention to the subject of forestry in its publications
prior to the time when Congress, in 1876, inaugurated the work as a
permanent activity of the Department, bad brought out a paper in
1866 which presented in strong terms the urgent necessity for prompt
action to conserve and renew the forests of the country, and advanced
a plan for systematic experiment and research to find out how to
manage forests and how to establish successful and paying planta-
tions. The author held that this —

should receive the immediate attention of our Government, and enjoy its fos-
tering care.

But—

the experiments, to be of any value, must be continued through several Presiden-
tial terms; and in the continual changes * * * no one person would be per-
mitted to control these experiments, to carry out to completeness thoroughly
digested theories and test them in actual practice, and to avail himself of his own
experiences. * * The liability would be a defeat, through incompetence or

lack of interest in the men appointed to the work, from the short periods with

748 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

which they would be connected with it, and the fact that they had no personal
interest at stake in it except their salaries.

His plan therefore proposed that, instead of the Government's at-
tempting to conduct the experiment directly, public aid should be
extended to a private corporation to be created as a research agency.

In "Man and Nature", published in 1864, Marsh had said:

It is much to be feared that [public ownership and management] would be
inadequate to save the forests of the American Union. There is little respect
for public property in America, and the Federal Government, certainly, would
not be the proper agent of the Nation for this purpose. It proved itself unable
to protect the liveoak woods of Florida, which were intended to be preserved for
the use of the Navy; and it more than once paid contractors a high price for
timber stolen from its own forests. The authorities of the individual States
might be more efficient.

If any evidence is needed of the debauched standard of political
life in the era of the seventies, a single citation from the proceedings
of Congress will provide it. A few weeks after the House of Rep-
resentatives received the Colorado memorial one of its members,
George F. Hoar of Massachusetts, stood before the Senate as one of
the House managers of the impeachment trial of the Secretary of War.
In addressing that body, then sitting as a court, he said :

My own public life has been a very brief and insignificant one, extending little
beyond the duration of a single term of senatorial office. But in that brief period
I have seen five judges of a high court of the United States driven from office by
threats of impeachment for corruption or maladministration. I have heard the
taunt, from friendliest lips, that when the United States presented herself in
the East to take part with the civilized world in generous competition in the arts
of life, the only product of her institutions in which she surpassed all others be-
yond question was her corruption. * * * When the greatest railroad of the
world, binding together the continent and uniting the two great seas which wash
our shores, was finished, I have seen our national triumph and exultation turned
to bitterness and shame by the unanimous reports of three committees of Con-
gress— two of the House and one here — that every step of that mighty enterprise
had been taken in fraud. I have heard in highest places the shameless doctrine
avowed by men grown old in public office that the true way by which power should
be gained in the Republic is to bribe the people with the offices created for their
service, and the true end for which it should be used when gained is the promo-
tion of personal ambition and the gratification of personal revenge.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, in
taking action to make known to Congress its recommendations that
a Federal agency should be set up to promote practices of timber
growing throughout the United States, did not contemplate an organ-
ization charged with duties of administration. The association acted
after, and presumably was induced to act by, the presentation of
a paper "On the Duty of Governments in the Preservation of For-
ests." Although this paper pointed out that the questions involved
"are not limited to a particular State, but interest the Nation gen-
erally," the action proposed for the association was that it should bring
the subject of protection of the forests, and their cultivation, regula-
tion, and encouragement, "to the notice of our several State govern-
ments, and Congress with respect to the Territories." The com-
mittee of the association which drafted a memorial to Congress
seems to have sought the creation of an independent commission of
forestry headed by a commissioner with a function paralleling that
of the Commissioner of Agriculture and the Commissioner of Fish-
eries. What was contemplated and shortly brought to pass, in other
words, was the setting up of a central clearing house of information

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 749

and bureau for conducting statistical and other inquiries and organ-
izing research. The number of States which already had begun to
move in the direction of State encouragement of forestry, the move-
ment under way in other States looking to similar action, and the
conception then generally held of the respective spheres of action of
the Federal Government and the States doubtless worked together
to inspire the belief that the actual organization of whatever admin-
istrative activities might be found necessary would and should be
provided for under State legislation and through State organization.

The provision actually made by Congress for the new activity
was at first most meager and for a quarter of a century too insignifi-
cant to permit of any great expansion. The clearing house and
bureau of information was at first a purely one-man affair. Never-
theless, as time went on the work began to get on its feet, and by the
close of its first decade had reached the point at which it was capable
of real usefulness as a central agency for promoting the forestry
movement throughout the country.

The bold advocacy by Secretary of the Interior Schurz of the
inauguration by the Federal Government of forestry administration
of the public-domain timberland had an instantaneous effect on the
conservationists of that period. The proposal was forthwith adopted
as a part of the forestry program for which the support of the coun-
try was being sought. Bills looking to the inauguration of Federal
administration were introduced into Congress in increasing number
and with increasing support from without Congress. On the other
hand, the opposition of antagonistic Western interests created obsta-
cles too great to be overcome down to 1891, when there crept through
unnoticed, in the crowded closing hours of the session, a briefly
worded amendment authorizing the President to establish forest
reserves.

It is now time to turn back to the development of State forest
administration.

THE FIRST STAGES OF FORESTRY ADMINISTRATION BY THE

STATES

Down to the year 1885 no governmental agency had been set up
in the United States to undertake duties of an administrative char-
acter with respect to forestry, and no State had inaugurated forestry
work as a continuing activity. After nearly 20 years of widening
agitation, which had borne fruit in legislation by nearly half the
States and by the Federal Government, almost nothing of real impor-
tance had been accomplished. The forestry movement had got off
on a false start. It had formulated and pursued ill-advised objec-
tives, and it had selected impractical means to attain them. The
only form of public action which it had been able to propose and
get adopted with a view to meeting public needs for future timber
supplies or providing the country with ample new forests was to
pass laws extending inducement and encouragement for tree planting
by private landowners; and while millions of trees had been planted,
little of permanent value had resulted, from the standpoint of finding
a practical answer to the country's forest problem.

This is not to say that tree planting in the naturally treeless prairie
and plains region of the West failed to produce substantial results.
Those who settled and built up the country felt the need of trees for

750 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

shade, protection, and wood; and as their homes and villages multi-
plied the bare aspect of the prairie was broken and gradually trans-
formed. Planted woodlots, shelterbelts, and shade trees marking the
farmsteads and the villages now so plentifully dot the landscape of
the eastern prairie region that it no longer appears to the passing
traveler like a naturally treeless country, and seems not greatly
different from the originally wooded East. Not only has the early
desire of those who sought to promote tree planting throughout this
region been largely realized; the planted timber growth is of appre-
ciable economic importance as a source of wood supply for local
requirements. But the afforestation movement in the West owes
very little to the laws in aid of timber culture through bounties, tax
exemptions, and land bestowal passed under the impulse of the early
forestry movement. In fact, the laws soon proved valueless and un-
satisfactory in their actual working, and most of them were eventually
repealed.

In 1885, however, the forestry problem began to be attacked from
a new angle. In that year four States — New York, Ohio, Colorado,
and California — created forestry organizations charged with the
conduct of specific functional activities on behalf of the States.
This was the beginning of State forestry administration.

Only in New York did the initial forestry organization prove per-
manent. In Ohio a promising start lost headway after a few years,
with the result that the work was discontinued in 1890. In Cali-
fornia an originally energetic organization got into political hot water
and, after an existence of 8 years, was abolished. In Colorado the new
venture in State government had a still more ignominous history.
Practically it was a still-born thing. Although for a few years it
functioned to some extent as an agency to promote interest in forest

E reservation, the administrative responsibilities contemplated by the
iw could not be discharged, partly because the law itself was unwork-
able, partly because of lack of appropriations to sustain the organi-
zation theoretically created.

The failures in Colorado and California are instructive. They are
the two Western States in which there existed at that time a definitely
crystallized and fairly vigorous State movement for forestry. In
both States the principal ground of interest was the value of water
for irrigation and fear of the results of forest destruction in the moun-
tains— though in both States also the question of permanent timber
supplies and the terrific wastefulness and destructiveness with which
the forests were being assailed entered in considerably. Further, in
both States the crux of the difficulty in trying to formulate a program
of public action to preserve the forests was the fact that they were
principally a part of the public domain.

The difficulty thus created was not merely the lack of authority
of the State over Federal holdings. It was the powerful antagonistic
interests adverse to forestry which stood to benefit from Federal in-
attention, indifference, liberality of the laws relating to the disposal
of public lands and the use of timber from them, and laxity in the
administration of these liberal laws.

Both the strength of the conservationists in Colorado and the
insuperable difficulties confronting them when they attempted to
bring about the actual adoption and application of constructive
measures are evidenced by the bare facts. That the deep solicitude

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 751

on behalf of forest preservation expressed in the memorial to Congress
adopted by the Colorado Constitutional Convention in 1876 was
genuine seems unquestionable. The mandate of the State constitu-
tion requiring that the legislature should enact laws both "to prevent
the destruction of, and to keep in good preservation, the forests upon
the lands of the State, or upon lands of the public domain the control of
which shall be conferred by Congress upon the State", was another
expression of the same solicitude. But the enactment by Congress
of laws working in the opposite direction was very actively aided by
men elected to that body from Colorado; the laxity of the admin-
istration of the public land laws under Secretary of the Interior
Teller — a Colorado man — between 1882 and 1885 was outstanding;
and not until the latter year did the legislature of Colorado give heed
to the constitutional mandate. The law then passed provided for the
appointment of a forest commissioner to have care of the woodlands
of the State, to protect them against trespass and fire, and to make
and publish reasonable rules and regulations for their protection and
for the conservation of forest growth; but this was principally a ges-
ture. A prominent citizen of the State who was for years among the
most active advocates and backers of forestry was appointed Forest
Commissioner, serving at first with no salary at all, but was unable to
accomplish anything of importance; and about 1891 the effort was
halted through discontinuance of the appropriation. Thus came to
an end the first effort to establish forest administration in Colorado.

Before leaving the subject it should be said that the law made
county commissioners and road overseers forest officers who should
guard against fire and depredation, with authority to arrest offenders;
the expenditures in any county for protection of the forests were
limited to $100 in any year.

California made a more impressive record. Its " State Board of
Forestry" was the first agency designed to be of permanent character
created by any State to have charge of its forestry interests. The
board comprised three unsalaried members, with authority to appoint
a salaried secretary and with an appropriation of $5,000 for the first
biennium. With the second biennium the appropriation was in-
creased to $29,500. The duties of the board were to collect and
disseminate information, to conduct investigations and experiments,
to encourage the preservation and planting of forests and the main-
tenance of water resources, and also to assist in enforcing and carry-
ing out all National and State forestry laws.

The board proceeded with much energy and ability to develop a
highly promising, comprehensive program, and to build up an organi-
zation. In 1887 its officers and employees were endowed with the
powers of peace officers for making arrests when laws applying to
forest or brush lands within the State were broken. A body of agents
was created to aid in law enforcement and protection against forest
fire.

In California, as in Colorado, the inertness of the Federal Govern-
ment in protecting the public domain timberlands from spoliation
and the great ravages of forest fires created sentiment for State
ownership and administration of the public domain timberland. An
expression of this sentiment took the form of a bill introduced into
Congress and reported favorably by the Public Lands Committee, in
1887, to withdraw from sale public domain forest lands in California

752 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

not suited to agriculture, and to place them temporarily under the
management of the State Board of Forestry.

For the biennium 1891-92 the appropriation of the California State
Board of Forestry was increased to $30,000. But the board was get-
ting into difficulties. In September 1890 a significant resolution was
adopted by the American Forestry Congress. It recited that the
board was both —

charged with the forestry interests of [the] State .n general, and with the protec-
tion of the timber-lands of said State against fire and depredation,

etc. But —

it has been suggested that political considerations may lead to a discontinuance
of said board, or to such a reduction of the appropriations provided for such
board as must necessarily hamper its work and curtail its usefulness.

The Congress viewed

with alarm the possible occurrence of such a contingency, rooting out, as it were,
the first germ of a rational forest policy, which the State of California had
wisely planted, and cannot without detriment to its agricultural interests afford
to discontinue —

and accordingly provision was made

that a copy of these expressions of interest in the forest policy of the State of
California be forwarded to the governor and legislature of the State of California.

In 1893 the board was abolished, and a most promising effort to
build up a State organization for the protection of the publicly
owned timberlands (mainly Federal, of course) in California was
brought to an end. There had been a collision with conflicting in-
terests. The principal effort of the board in protection was directed
at law enforcement. It sought to get the goods on timber thieves
and fraudulent entrymen. The State itself had its school lands,
which were being very rapidly acquired by private owners. The
rush of eastern lumbermen to build up great private holdings in the
West Coast States had set in. And there were the sheepmen.
Said the report of the executive officer of the board in 1892:

Sheep raising and timber cutting are legitimate pursuits and entitled to fair
treatment, but as conducted in California for many years they have not been
conducive to the general welfare. The millman has slashed the forests reck-
lessly, wasting more than he used, and not confining his operations to his own
property. The sheep herder, caring only for pasturage, has set fire to the brush
annually, burning off the young growth and killing the large trees. The seed-
lings and shoots that escaped the forest fires were destroyed by the sheep. And
so not only has the mature forest been greatly injured, but the total extinction
of the forest growth made inevitable unless the work of devastation be stopped.

Arrayed on the other side, and deeply convinced of the necessity of
forest preservation, were the agricultural interests of the State.
"California has been awakened", said the same report —

to at least a partial recognition of her danger by the necessity of organizing and
perfecting a system of irrigation for the development of her arid plains. She has
discovered that water will make gardens of her deserts, and that the key to future
prosperity and greatness is irrigation. Now she turns to the Sierra Nevada as
the storehouse of her wealth. The mountains that yielded the gold that made
California rich in the early days contain the sources of greater and more enduring
wealth^ The water flowing in California rivers is more precious than the gold
lying hidden in their sands. So long as the forests cover the mountain sides,
the streams will flow with some evenness throughout the year; but when the
forests disappear, the rivers will become rushing torrents in the spring and dry
arroyos all the rest of the year. The forests of the Sierra Nevada are the natural
reservoirs for irrigation of the San Joaquin Valley.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 753

The opiate administered to the State forestry organization in 1893
remained potent for 12 years. Its Rip Van Winkle slumber ended
with the act of March 18, 1905, creating anew a State board of
forestry, and under it the office of State forester. The first report of
the State forester contains this paragraph :

From 1893 to 1903 forestry in California was at a standstill, yet this period
was one of marked need and of rapid development along other lines. It was the
decade during which the lumbermen from the Lake States and southern pineries
flocked to California to invest in timberlands, and during which time California
disposed of the bulk of her sole forest possessions by the sale of school lands at
the ridiculously low price of $1.25 per acre. Similarly it was the period during
which land fraud flourished, whereby much of the public timberland in California
was lost to the National G overnment and the State.

The date of 1903 in the preceding paragraph calls for explanation.
The national forestry movement had not been dormant during the
previous decade. The feeble and ill-supported, though valiantly
struggling, little bureau of information officially known as the
Division of Forestry of the United States Department of Agriculture
had been transformed into the strong, rapidly growing, nationally
observed Bureau of Forestry, in the same Department. In 1903 the
California Legislature made provision for the undertaking of a
thorough investigation of the forest resources of the State by the
Federal Bureau of Forestry, under a cooperative agreement by the
terms of which the cost of the survey was borne equally by the
Federal Government and the States. As a result of this investiga-
tion, measures were formulated and recommended to the State
legislature in the form of a bill which led to the act of March 18, 1905.

For Ohio, the story of its short-lived first forestry bureau can be
much more briefly told. It was a case of good seed dropped on too
shallow soil. In the early eighties there wrere evidences of marked
forestry interest in the State, with enthusiastic leadership. The
legislature created in 1885 the Ohio State Forestry Bureau, as a
central office for the promotion of forestry, with headquarters at
the State university, and with a frugal appropriation of $1,000. It
was charged with the duties of inquiring into the extent and character
of the forest resources of Ohio and investigating the causes that are
operating to destroy the forest; of suggesting legislation; and, per-
missively, of establishing a forest station on the university grounds,
with the consent of the university trustees. Six successive annual
reports testify to the activity and diligence with which the secre-
tary— said to have studied forestry in Europe — endeavored to gather
and diffuse information. Presumably waning interest due to the
dropping off of the leaders in the State forestry movement was the
cause of the extinction of the bureau in 1890.

And, finally, New York.

The State forest policy of New York has been throughout sui
generis. In less degree than in any other State has it been subject
to external influences. Throughout it has been a policy developed by
the State to meet its own conditions and in response to its own felt
needs. And to a greater degree than in any other State it has
centered in and been mainly preoccupied with State forest-land
administration.

As early as 1868 public advocacy of a policy of reservation for lands
of the State in the Adirondacks began. Sale of these wilderness
lands had been going on from the latter part of the eighteenth century,

754 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

at low prices. The lands were bought for the sake of their standing
timber where and when lumbermen saw a chance for a profitable
operation. But after as much of the timber as was valuable at the
time had been cut off, the lands were often allowed to revert to the
State through nonpayment of taxes. When through added growth
or advancing lumber prices they become valuable again, they were
rebought to repeat the process. In his annual message of January
1, 1884, Governor Grover Cleveland pointed out how, under the
established procedure for dealing with tax-delinquent lands, owners
who from the first day of their ownership had refused payment of
all taxes had from 7 to 12 years in which to cut off and sell the timber
before the State foreclosed on the land. Twelve years before this
message the legislature had appointed a temporary commission of
inquiry; but its recommendations had languished until 1883. In
that year the legislature put a stop to the revolving system of alternate
public and private ownership; and in 1884 it authorized the comp-
troller to employ "such experts as he may deem necessary to investi-
gate and report a system of forest preservation/' The commission
was headed by Prof. Charles S. Sargent, of Harvard, and made its
report the following year. Opposition said to have come partly
from lumbering interests resulted in the passage of a compromise act,
the law of 1885, establishing a permanent forest commission to
"have the care, custody, control, and superintendence of the forest
preserve", and generally to promote forestry throughout the State
by means of various specified activities.

The law of 1885 also put into effect a system of organized fire
protection for both public and private forest lands within the State,
the provisions of which will be discussed later.

The task imposed upon the Commission at the outset with respect
to the State lands was of Herculean proportions. From time out of
mind these lands had been subject to depredations, often highly lucra-
tive to those engaged in them, and similar in many ways to those to
which the Federal public domain was exposed. It is improbable that
the members of the Commission, at the time of their appointment,
were under any illusions regarding the unpopularity with which any
whole-hearted attempt to enforce the laws against stealing timber
from the State lands would be received, and the hornet's nest that
honest performance of their duties was bound to stir up ; but if they
were, their minds must have been very promptly disabused, Local
custom confirmed by State complaisance had given the lands virtually
the status of public commons, in the eyes at least of those who lived
in their general neighborhood ; and the business interests which stood
to lose by a sudden drying up of the supply of bootlegged logs were
certain to be heard from by the Governor's appointees. That their
course had aroused both resentment and opposition the words of their
second annual report bore testimony to, in a passage which said :

The Commissioners, of course, could not have remained in ignorance of the
fact that in the performance of the official duties with which they were charged
they have incurred the suppressed ill-will in some cases, and in others the open
hostility of those with whom they have been compelled to deal. * * * They
are conscious that they have intentionally given offense or caused injury to no
man, and that in all instances they have pursued their work with none but the
kindliest feelings, exercising at the same time as much leniency and forbearance
as was compatible with the ends of justice. While, on the one hand, they have
shown no favoritism, so, on the other, they have shown no hostility and felt

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 755

none. * * * On the other hand, they cannot but feel gratified at the high
commendation which has been passed generally upon the course that they have
pursued and at the great interest that is everywhere felt in the work in which
they are engaged.

Of the varied kinds of "bold and knavish attempts to plunder the
State" which "the Commission is attempting to stop" a single
illustrative example may be cited.

It has been shown by figures that during the years 1871 to 1876 one individual
cut from State land 52,131.91 market logs, valued at the lowest estimate at
more than $52,000. He was only one of many who were engaged in this work
of plunder during the same period, and was by no means the largest operator.
What is true of the years before specified, is true of the succeeding years, and of
how many preceding years is and must remain unknown.

The Commissioners had their difficulties, too, in finding the right
men for the various local positions which they had to fill. The
Federal Government had, through the enactment of the civil service
law of 1883, taken a small first step toward the introduction of the
merit system, as a means of obtaining competent civil servants and
preventing the influence of politicians from getting or forcing on the
public pay roll incompetent or otherwise unfit men; but "snivel-serv-
ice reform" was anathema to all practical politicians and had many
ups and downs to go through before State authorities were even to
begin to take it seriously. Since —

the Commissioners could not possibly have such an extensive acquaintance
throughout the 14 counties of the forest preserve as to enable them to select men
from a personal knowledge of their qualification,

they had to —

rely largely upon the recommendations of known and trusted men throughout
the different localities from which the foresters were to be chosen. To say that
under these circumstances some mistakes in making selections were possible is
simply to utter a truism. * * * Many applicants were pressed upon the
Commission for appointment, with the best intentions doubtless, whom the
Commissioners felt compelled to reject as being, in their opinion, unfit for the
services required of them.

Multitudinous other difficulties incidental to defining the objec-
tives, laying out the plans, and building up the organization for a
public enterprise wholly new and undefined in character, with no
precedent to guide and very little information to enlighten them, had
also to be dealt with.

The science of forestry in America is yet in its swaddling clothes — it is, perhaps,
a risk to assume that its toilet is so far made as that. Even the practical business
matters that have been presented to the Commission for investigation and settle-
ment * * * involved substantially new questions, demanded much investiga-
tion, were beclouded with much loosely woven legislation, and were often
entangled in such contradictory enactments, opinions, discussions, and rulings
as to render it difficult to find a clue out of the labyrinth.1

Moreover, it was difficult to establish the location and extent of
the land owned by the State.

The forest preserve is made up of many disconnected plots, more in some
counties than in others; plots, ranging from a few acres up to many thousands,
surrounded usually by lands owned by individuals and in many cases inaccessi-
ble by roads. * * * There are large tracts in which the State owns but an
undivided interest, one half, one third, or one fourth, as the case may be, and
instances are on record where individuals thus owning with the State have not
waited for a partition, but have gone on and lumbered the whole.2

1 Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York for 1886, p. 7.

2 Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York for 1885, p. 17.

756 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The second annual report of the Commission quoted from one of its
inspectors :

The State in past years has expended large sums of money with the view of cor-
rectly locating its lands according to the original surveys and of furnishing a cor-
rect map, drawn to such a scale that individual plots are plainly shown. That
this has never been accomplished those best know wrho have had occasion to
investigate the matter. * * * Many examinations of State lots have been
made during the past season, but in every case it required an expert to locate the
corners or lines.

Experts were either old residents who themselves had worked out
the lines or persons familiar with the local condition, "handed down
with other matters of local importance", regarding property bound-
aries. Most of the surveys establishing the lines and corners had
been made in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part pf the
nineteenth century. Trees were marked for corners, with the true
corner marked by a stake ("the perished monument of an hundred
years ago"), supplemented by a corner marking on some tree near at
hand. In marking the lines between the corners, trees were blazed
both on the true line and on trees each side of the line. Through the
death and fall of many of the marked trees, the accurate reestablish-
ment of the original line, in many places almost entirely and some-
times purposely obliterated, became a very difficult task.

THE NEW YORK PROBLEM OF OBJECTIVES

The major problems with which the commission had to grapple
during its first several years, other than those relating to building
up a suitable form of organization, were problems having to do with
land acquisition and land retention, and the protection of the State
land and timber against spoliation and fire. That the State lands
badly needed blocking up has already been shown. At the time that
the policy of State retention of tax forfeited lands was inaugurated,
it was assumed that further tax forfeitures would continue to operate
as a means of extending and consolidating the State properties. In
point of fact, the adoption of the State policy came just at the time
when the tide turned. The Adirondack region was about to enter a
period of rising land and timber values. As a recreation region, it
was to change from an undeveloped wilderness paradise for hardy
sportsmen into a resort country of hotels, cottages, private estates of
wealthy men, extensive private club hunting grounds, and all that
goes with popularity as a summer playground and fashionable water-
ing place. Instead of getting more land through tax reversions, the
commissioners found themselves losing a good deal of the land already
obtained. Laws passed in the days when the main anxiety of the
State was to get rid of its land made it possible for many claimants
to attack the State's title, on the flimsiest kind of evidence.

There can be little doubt —

Said the commission in its report for 1888—

that many applications for both cancellations and redemptions of the State's title
have been based upon fraudulent affidavits and misrepresentation of facts, and
that many such fraudulent applications have been successful.

Defense of the State's property against the pillage of its timber
raised other difficult legal problems. Until the commission had its
hands less full in trying to hold the property of the State against

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 757

adverse claimants and prevent its spoliation, it could not do much to
develop constructive plans for its future use.

One thing, however, was obvious — that some way to block up the
scattered and broken holdings of the State must be found, if they
were to be effectively administered. A small first step in this direc-
tion was taken in 1887, by amendment of the provision of the 1885 law
under which none of the land of the forest preserve could be sold.
The amendment permitted sale to the highest bidder "of separate
small parcels or tracts wholly detached from the main portions of
the forest preserve and bounded on every side by lands not owned by
the State", the proceeds to be invested in the purchase of forest
land "adjoining great blocks of the forest preserve now owned by
the State"; or the isolated small tracts might be exchanged for land
adjoining the main holdings. The following year (1888) the com-
mission asked the legislature to make an appropriation annually for
land purchases, at a price not to exceed $1.50 per acre. This opened
up in earnest the question, What were to be the objectives of State
administration?

That the most important purpose was to conserve and regulate the
water supply was universally accepted. That the forests of the
Adirondack Plateau exercised other beneficial influences which made
their preservation essential for the general welfare was also fully
accepted. That their recreational and health values were further
reasons for preserving them also went without dispute. Beyond
these ends the law of 1885 had not definitely looked. In essence,
that law had simply said that the State should dispose of no more
forest land, and that the destruction of the forests on the State lands
should be stopped. This, the Forest Commission said in its 1888
report, "has been termed ' forestry', but that is a too wide and some-
times a misleading term." The "forest preservation" contemplated
by the act —

could then have implied little more than an attempt to secure the forests from
the ax of the lumberman, and from the torch of the careless or willful incendiary.

In this, however, the legislature had drawn back from the course
recommended by the Forestry Commission of 1884. For that com-
mission had had in view also the perpetuation of the industries de-
pendent upon the forests for wood, and the permanent production
of forest products through the practice of forestry.

"The Adirondack region", the report of the 1884 commission had
said —

if the experience of other countries in forest management teaches anything,
could be made to maintain and increase, under a wise and comprehensive'policy,
the annual output of lumber without serious injury to the forests as reservoirs
of moisture or as health resorts for the people; and it is clearly in the interest of
the owners of forest property as well as for the people of this State to encourage
the adoption of any system of management which will insure such results.

Accordingly, their recommended bill included express provision for
the disposal by the commission "of such timber, standing or cut, as
shall have grown to an age which renders it advantageous for the
general preservation of the forests that the said timber should be
removed" in accordance with such conditions as the commission
might fix.

It is true that the law of 1885 afforded some basis for construing
it as designed to permit, or at least as not entirely prohibiting, forest

758 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

management. While the lands of the forest preserve must "be
forever kept as wild lands", the commission was —

to maintain and protect the forests now on the forest preserve, and to promote
as far as practicable the further growth of forests thereon;

the commission was authorized to prescribe rules or regulations for
the use, care, and administration of the preserve; and a subsequent
section directed the commission to pay over to the treasury of the
State "all income that may hereafter be derived from State forest
lands." However, the ^ commission plainly felt that before it could
undertake to sell any timber from the preserve it must have further
legislative authorization. In its 1892 report a draft of recommended
legislation was incorporated authorizing the sale of spruce and tama-
rack having a diameter of 12 inches or more, and of poplar without
a diameter restriction. Two years earlier the commission had sug-
gested the possibility of acquiring land for purposes of blocking up
through exchanges of timber for land, with the cutting limited to the
softwoods and the same 12-inch diameter limitation. That this
suggestion would meet with opposition, however, was evidently
realized.

Your commission is fully appraised of the prejudice that exists in many quarters
against selling trees of any sort, and under any circumstances, in the Adirondack
forest.

The report of the commission continued —

Considering the manner in which trees have been heretofore cut, and the
devastation that has been wrought by crude and thoughtless methods, this prej-
udice is not surprising; nevertheless it is a prejudice. * * * No scheme of
forestry is complete that does not contemplate the preservation and cultivation
of timber for the sake of wood to be used for merchantable purposes * * *.
Forestry is not opposed to having trees cut down in the proper way. They must
be cut to supply the world with timber. * * * It is the unwise, improvident,
stupid method, or want of method, by which the cutting has heretofore too often
been done, that is deplored.

And so on.

The "prejudice" which it was thus sought to dissipate was not
confined to New York. It was to find expression not much later
in Congress, during the discussion of proposed legislation to permit
sales of timber from the Federal forest reserves. In 1891 Congress
authorized the President to establish forest reserves; but not until
8 years later was any provision made for their administration. In
the interval the friends of forest conservation directed their principal
efforts toward getting the necessary legislation through. Inasmuch
as water conservation held overwhelmingly the first place, in the
eyes of the West, as a reason for having forest reserves, to open them
to lumbering seemed to many not merely dangerous but a complete
abandonment of the reserve policy. As one Congressman put it —

You might as well turn a dozen wolves into a corral filled with sheep and expect
the wolves to protect the sheep as to expect your timber to be protected if you
permit the lumbermen to go upon the reservation at all.

While unfamiliarity with the practices of forestry doubtless in part
explained this attitude and fear, it is far from being the whole explana-
tion. In very large part the basis of the fear was the distrust, based
on long experience, of the ability of any body of public servants to
maintain against pressure and corrupting influences a high standard
of competence, vigilance, and integrity. Indeed, a good many of the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 759

forest conservationists, who were trying to get Congress to allow the
practice of forestry on the Federal forest reserves, had the same qualms.
They were much inclined to have the job of administration turned over
to the Army, on the ground that only so could a professional spirit
and a reasonable expectation of honesty be assured. That the
citizens of New York should feel less distruct concerning what might
happen if their own civil servants should be entrusted with the busi-
ness of selling the State's timber, or any part of it, was hardly to be
expected.

NEW YORK'S DECISION FOR THE ADIRONDACKS

But besides these negative reasons against opening the Adirondack
forest to timber cutting, there was a powerful positive one. The
State was making up its own mind on what it wanted done and not
done. Early in the year 1890 the Governor of New York had placed
before the legislature the need for consolidating the State's scattered
holdings and had suggested that steps be taken to work out a plan
for a compact State park in the Adirondacks, from 50 to 70 miles
square. Thereupon the legislature directed the Forest Commission
to take the whole matter under consideration and make a report on
it. Public opinion rallied strongly behind the proposal. It soon
became evident that what the people of the State of New York
chiefly wanted was to have the Adirondack wilderness, with its
mountains, lakes, and woods, kept and maintained as a great recrea-
tion area, and that the public was inclined to regard timber utilization
of any kind as conflicting with this purpose.

Governor Flower's term of office brought a showdown. He
advocated a policy designed to obtain from the State's holdings a
substantial revenue through sales of timber and through leasing
sites desirable for private residences and camps. The legislature, in
carrying out his recommendations, wiped out of existence the old
Forest Commission, set up a new commission of temporary character
with provision that after 5 years its powers and duties should pass to
the State department of agriculture, established the Adirondack
Park, authorized the sale of lands outside the park with use of the
proceeds for the purchase of lands within the park, and permitted the
Forest Commissioners to —

sell any spruce and tamarack timber which is not less than 12 inches in dia-
meter at a height of 3 feet above the ground, standing in any part of the
forest preserve, and poplar timber of such size as the Forest Commission may
determine

and to lease within the Adirondack Park tracts of 5 acres or less
for the erection of camps or cottages; these proceeds also to go into
the land purchase fund.

Governor Flower thought that in time the State should be able to
derive a large portion of its revenues from its forest properties. But
he had greatly mistaken the public temper. The criticism and pro-
test took organized form, and upon the convening, in 1894, of a con-
vention to revise the State constitution it brought about the incorpo-
ration in that instrument of an absolute prohibition of any cutting
of timber from the State lands, or of any leasing of these lands.

The plans for selling timber from the New York Forest Preserve
drew sharp fire not only from those who were against utilizing the

168342°— 33— vol. 1 49

760 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

timber in accordance with the methods of forestry but also from those
who wished it done. For, as foresters were quick to point out, the
plans for utilizing the timber ran quite contrary to sound principles
of forestry practice. The Forest Commission made the mistake of
trying to devise and put into effect plans for timber growing and
harvesting without technical experience or outside advice. The
State had not succeeded in creating an organization meriting public
confidence either in its competence to apply practices of forestry
wisely or in its ability to maintain high standards of integrity. Imme-
diately after the constitutional amendment was adopted Garden
and Forest (a publication conducted by Prof. Charles S. Sargent)
said in comment:

No doubt the adoption of this amendment was made easier by the revelation
of corruption in the administration of the forest lands which had been made during
the week by the comptroller of the State. These revelations show that there
has been fraud and bribery in the transfer of lands and much cutting of timber
in the State forests which was not only illegal but the result of conspiracy between
trespassers and public officers. The adoption of this amendment certainly
demonstrates an increased interest in the subject of forestry, and it may relieve
the forests from some danger. Nevertheless, we consider it a misfortune that
such a provision should be imbedded as a principle in the fundamental law of the
State. It assumes (1) that there is no such thing as rational and conservative
forestry, or (2) that a civilized American community cannot be trusted to
organize and develop any such a system of forest practice, either because our
people lack the intelligence to do this in a scientific way, or because they lack the
moral fiber to administer such a trust without official knavery and peculation.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST ADMINISTRATION IN NEW

YORK, TO 1915

But the people of the State of New York had still to learn that a
legislative decree, even when clothed with supreme authority through
its embodiment in a constitutional amendment, is not self -enforcing.
That public sentiment throughout the State was whole-heartedly in
favor of saving the Adirondack Forest and building up a great con-
solidated State park for public use is unquestionable. Practically
the entire press of the State backed the policy. It was not the
absence of public interest, but the presence of private interest, that
made the outcome uncertain.

Public property of any kind that is worth getting hold of inevitably
invites predatory attack, as honey draws bees. Because the people
of New York felt that they could not safely leave the destinies of the
State park within the power of the legislature to determine and
modify, they set up the powerful safeguard of the constitutional
amendment. To bring about its passage by the Constitutional
Convention of 1894, and subsequently to watch over its observance,
influential organizations had entered the field. Among these was
the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. The fifth
annual report of this association, covering the year 1905, set forth the
results of an investigation initiated by the governor in view of certain
findings which the association had laid before him. The report said :

As the official investigation progressed, the facts already gathered by the
association's assistant secretary in his personal visit to the woods were more than
confirmed. It was found that between 15 million and 16 million board feet of
timber had been removed unlawfully from State land during the preceding year
with the knowledge of the authorities whose duty it was to prevent it, and that
it was done under a well-understood system of friendly cooperation by which the
trespassers were permitted to go through a form of confessing judgment and

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 761

paying for the timber at a rate so low as to make the transaction profitable to the
trespassers. Not only was the mandatory legal penalty of $10 per tree not
exacted but the so-called confessions of judgment for the larger trespasses
were made before justices of the peace in a manner not allowed by law, and the
timber was removed from State land in direct contravention of the constitution
and the opinion of the attorney general given to the Forest, Fish, and Game
Commissioner.

It is unnecessary for the present purpose to follow much further
in detail the gradual evolution in New York of forest land adminis-
tration as a successful State activity. There were still many vicis-
situdes to be gone through before the administrative organization
emerged as an agency of State government accorded, and deserving
of, the full support and confidence of the people. Progress was made
more difficult for a time by the fusion which combined into one
department the forest commission and the fish and game commission.
Until within relatively recent years State fish and game departments
have practically everywhere, by common acceptance, been integrated
with the State political machines. Efficient management of great
public forest properties calls for their specialized administration by
men of suitable technical training and professional spirit and back-
ground. The discharge with competence, impartiality, and sole
allegiance to the public welfare of functions of trusteeship is involved.
To assure a proper continuity and stability of management, as well
as to have throughout the organization good discipline and diligence,
the selection, promotion, and retention of men must be governed by
their ability and performance within the organization, not by outside
considerations or influence. Political machines and business machines
do not admit of successful combination^ They should run separately.
The story of State forest administration in New York during the
20-year period which began with the adoption of the constitutional
amendment was epitomized by the author of A History of the
Adirondacks, Alfred L. Donaldson, in the following terms:

These were lean years for the forests. They were years of almost unceasing,
though unsuccessful, attacks upon the new amendment. They were years of
much lax administration, resulting in enormous lumber thefts and much ques-
tionable surrendering of the State's title to its lands; they were, worst of all, years
of the most extensive and destructive forest fires. The lesson of all these losses
was driven home, however, and the dawn of new era began.

The same author painted this dawning in a passage which, some-
what abbreviated, records the narrative thus:

The sensation of the year [1914] in forest circles was sprung in December, when
Governor Glynn appointed Patrick McCabe, of Albany, • * * * as one of the
three conservation commissioners. * * * Men high up in the councils of
the Democratic Party protested against the appointment, but in vain. * * *
The New York World said in part:

"McCabe is the boss of Albany. He has been one of Murphy's stanchest
supporters since the latter assumed the leadership of Tammany Hall. *
He is the most practical of practical politicians, a spoilsman and reactionary of the
most pronounced type, ready to stand for anything and everything that Murphy
decrees."

This indefensible appointment became a direct influence in bringing about
changes in the conservation law that legislated Mr. McCabe out of office the
following year.

*******

In his inaugural message [of January 1915] Governor Whitman urged certain
changes in the conservation law, the most important of which were summed up
as follows :

First. A single-headed commission.

762 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Second. A strict requirement in the law that the administrative head of each
department should be a trained expert.

Third. A strict requirement in the law that all of the important subordinates
shall be trained experts, appointed in accordance with the provisions of the civil
service law.

The resulting law, passed April 16 of the same year, provided for a
single conservation commissioner to be appointed by the governor
for a period of 6 years, at a salary of $8,000 a ^year. The commis-
sioner had power to appoint a deputy commissioner, also a superin-
tendent of forests, who would become chief of the division of lands
and forests; a chief game protector, who would become chief of the
division of fish and game; a division engineer, who would become chief
of the division of waters, and various other subordinates.

THE ORIGIN OF THE "CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT" IDEA

New York was not the first State to place its forestry work in a
"conservation department", nor did the law of 1915 provide the first
set-up in New York of a department designated by this title — the
conservation law of 1911 had combined the forest, fish, and game
commission, forest purchasing board, State water supply commission,
and the commissioner of water power on the Black River into a new
department, headed by a State conservation commission of three
members. During President Roosevelt's administration the con-
servation movement had swept the country, and one of its conse-
quences was a strong trend toward bringing together various more or
less related State activities in conservation departments of various
types. Two distinct and somewhat conflicting conceptions of the
field and objectives of conservation manifested themselves in the form
of set-up, and largely explained the divergence in their types.

The Roosevelt conservation movement had had to do with, pri-
marily, the great basic natural resources of the country. Its concern
was for the main foundations underlying and supporting the economic
life and material welfare of the Nation. To the end that the Nation
might long endure as a great power in the family of nations and as a
happy and prosperous people, the conservation movement sought to
assure the perpetuation, through wise and farsighted use, of the
natural resources capable of perpetuation, and the husbanding
through wise use of the wasting resources. In the White House
conference of 1908 and the work of the Roosevelt Conservation Com-
mission which grew out of it, a classification of natural resources was
made under the four heads of minerals, lands, waters, and forests.
Some of the State conservation departments tended to follow along
the line suggested by this general conception.

In a way this was a revival of a trend which had appeared in some
States in the very earliest stages of the forestry movement. It was
exemplified in North Carolina, New Jersey, and several other States
in which the Geological Survey was made the agency of the State to
undertake the gathering of information on the forest resources. De-

Sartments of " conservation and development" expressed this idea,
ut in the popular mind conservation rapidly drifted away from the
basic conception of the Roosevelt movement and associated itself
with such things as the protection of wild life, landscape, scenic and
natural wonders, and outdoor recreational opportunities ; not rational
and farsighted development of the best economic potentialities of ma-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 763

terial resources, but holding the despoiler in check and turning aside
the march of civilization in the interest of the nature lover and of
nature herself, or in the interest of sport and enjoyment of life in the
open. A form of organization based on the idea that this is what
conservation means has sometimes had an unfortunate effect upon
forestry work, by placing it in association with activities of a different
purpose and in charge of men whose background, interests, and train-
ing do not well fit them to understand the problems of forestry.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE FORESTS IN PENNSYLVANIA

In Pennsylvania, as in New York, a policy of State acquisition and
administration of forest land has from the outset held the most im-
portant place in its forest activities. Through the persistent mis-
sionary work on behalf of forestry which Dr. J. T. Rothrock had for
many years been doing all over the State, an excellent groundwork of
intelligent public interest had been laid before the forest policy was
inaugurated. Heartily supported by each successive Governor, Dr.
Rothrock as the first Commissioner of Forestry was able to bring
about rapid progress in the building up of a system of State forests,
the extension of which is still going on. The acquisition policy was
entered upon in 1897, through authorization of the purchase by a
commission of wild lands desirable for reservation by the State, if they
could be had without bidding above the amount of taxes due. Some-
what less than 2 years thereafter the State had acquired not quite
20,000 acres. Four years later the amount exceeded 500,000 acres.
Including lands in process of acquisition, it is now more than 1,600,000
acres.

From the outset the management of these lands under forestry
principles for timber production was one of the primary objectives.
Although the law has never required that the chief of the department
be a trained forester, and although not until 1920 was the incumbent
actually a trained forester, the department has had remarkable sta-
bility and continuity of policy. The incumbencies of Dr. Rothrock
and his immediate successor, Robert F. Conklin, who had been with
the department from the inauguration of its work, covered together
a period of 25 years.

Nevertheless, it would be unsafe to say that the Pennsylvania
Forestry Department (now the Pennsylvania Forest Service of the
Department of Forests and Waters) has been wholly divorced from
political influences, or that its stability can be regarded as too well
established to make the danger of an overthrow or disintegration of
the enterprise wholly negligible. There is only one State in the entire
country in which the head of the forestry work is given by law the
protection of a civil service standing, and only six in which the lower
officers are given this protection. Pennsylvania provides neither.
The successful management of valuable public resources requires
competent direction, continuity, loyalty, and all the other require-
ments for the successful conduct of a private business. Until the
States which have considerable forest properties recognize this and
set up adequate safeguards against political pressure upon or use of the
organization engaged in managing the properties, the forestry enter-
prises are exposed to unfortunate and unnecessary risks.

764 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

While in New York the chief impelling motive that gave shape to
its forest policy was the desire to save the Adirondack region from
despoliation and private appropriation in order to keep it as a great
public recreation area, in Pennsylvania the chief motive was to restore
to productivity a large aggregate area which had been so laid waste
by destructive lumbering and fire that it came to be spoken of as the
Pennsylvania desert. As a rule the lands were obtained at low prices
during the early years, even when they were not acquired through
tax sales, because they were regarded as practically worthless. To
bring back a valuable forest growth in a reasonable time forest
management under sound silvicultural practices was essential. In
1903 the State Forest Academy was established at Mont Alto to
train youths of the State for its forest service. It was made the
Pennsylvania State Forest School in 1923. Most of the adminis-
trative force are graduates of this school. Thus a competent body of
technically trained forest officers has been provided. The State
derived a gross income from the forests in 1931 of $42,268, of which
$4,933 came from the sale of forest products, harvested under sound
methods of utilization. In addition 9,000 cords of wood were taken
from the forests under free-use permits. Rentals and leases, mainly
of sites for summer homes and private camps, furnished the chief
source of revenue, bringing in $27,677. Given security against the
undermining effect on morale and the menace of instability and lowered
standards created by the possibility that the organization may be
utilized for political ends, the Pennsylvania Forest Service can be
confidently expected to make the State forests steadily more valuable
and of greater usefulness. Of all the States, Pennsylvania has
achieved most in putting into effect actual forest management and
reclaiming to economic productiveness through State acquisition and
administration extensive areas of depleted and degenerated forest and
idle cut-over land.

Yet after 35 years of continuous upbuilding of the State's forest
policy, aided by a remarkably strong public approval and by steady
support from virtually all the governors during the period, and
although in per capita wealth and consequent capacity to engage in
public undertakings for the general welfare the State ranks high, its
program is far from its goal. An adequate meeting of its forest
problem has not yet been provided for. How much longer it will
take for the State to add to its present holdings the additional acreage
which should be acquired and put under public management will
doubtless depend largely on the exigencies and accidents that in the
main govern the rate of progress in such matters.

THE FIRST STEPS IN ORGANIZED FIRE PROTECTION

The first step toward State systems of forest protection against
fire was taken in 1885. Laws to curb fires by establishing civil liabil-
ities and imposing penalties for malicious, willful, or negligent causing
of fires had begun in early colonial days, and had continued progres-
sively. In the main, the basic purpose of these laws was the protection
of property values, public or private, against destruction or damage,
by giving the owner right of redress through legal action or by pre-
scribing punishment for incendiaries and those failing to use due
care. To some extent, however, even these laws expressed recogni-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 765

tion of a public interest involved, beyond the mere protection of
property rights and prevention of property loss — the thought that
forests were affected with a public interest. It was also seen that,
merely from the standpoint of safeguarding property, something
more was needed than laws to restrain from injurious acts or to fix

property owner or the individual citizen migl

do of his own initiative. From this need sprang the beginnings of

the fire warden system.

It reaches back into the period when the functions of government
relating to the daily activities and community interests of the citizenry
were highly localized. Town and county officers, close to the people
by whom they were chosen to run the public business, performed
most of the executive and administrative duties which it fell to
government to take care of. It was quite in accord with the spirit
and method of the time that, when a public need was discovered for
some organized provision for fire control, State legislation assigned
this new duty to specified local officers and clothed them with the
necessary authority. Thus, in 1788, New York imposed upon
justices of the peace, town supervisors, highway commissioners, and
militia officers the duty of extinguishing forest fires, with power to
summon residents to assist under penalty of fine for failure to respond.
Under the colonial laws of New York anyone discovering fire might
summon assistance and anyone who failed or delayed to help was
subject to a fine. Another New York colonial law provided for the
election of firemen, similarly empowered, in certain towns.

An opening was cleared for a great advance when the Colorado
and New York laws of 1885 introduced the principle of a centralized
direction and supervision of the local warden force. In Colorado,
and in New York outside the counties in which lay the State lands,
the authority of the forestry commission was too shadowy under the
1885 laws to have any material effect. The most that the commission
could do was to make suggestions, endeavor to arouse interest and an
increased sense of responsibility, and ask for reports. If local officers
chose to ignore the commission (and many did), the matter ended
right there. The Colorado law merely said that the district and
county forest officers " shall be subordinate to the Forest Commis-
sioner of the State". That this law was very nearly a dead letter
from the outset has already been said. The New York law occupied
a much more important place in the history of forest-fire legislation
and administration — so important a place, indeed, that it calls for
consideration in some detail.

Dr. Bernhard E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry in the
United States Department of Agriculture, 1886-98, claimed author-
ship of the New York forest-fire law. At the time of its enactment
Dr. Fernow was secretary of the American Forestry Association.
Writing in 1898, he said:

The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minne-
sota followed, with some modifications, this example of New York.

Directly under the Commission was a chief fire warden. Terri-
torially, three forms of organization were set up. In counties which
contained no wild or forest lands belonging to the State, the town

766 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

supervisors were ex officio fire wardens, with authority to divide their
towns into districts and appoint district wardens and with the duty
of taking whatever measures might be necessary to extinguish fire.
But with respect to the Commission the only relationship imposed
upon them by law was a yearly report on all fires covering more than
1 acre, showing the size, damage, cause if ascertainable, and meas-
ures employed and found most effectual in stopping the fire. Super-
visors of towns in which were wild or forest lands of the State not
included within the 14 forest preserve counties were to be the protec-
tors of these lands, subject to instructions of the Commission; and
when so ordered by the Commission they were required to appoint
one or more forest guards, whose powers, duties, and pay were to be
determined by the Commission. On the other hand, in the 14 forest
preserve counties the fire wardens were to be appointed specifically
as such, by the Commission itself, and were to serve during the
pleasure of the Commission.

As an efficient agency for holding fires in check, a local warden
system without centralized authority of supervision and control
compares with an up-to-date, trained, disciplined, and properly
equipped protective organization very much as a sheriff's posse would
compare with a Regular Army detachment for resisting a military
raid. Fire control has become in the United States during the last
30 years a specialized branch of forestry in which, perhaps, greater
progress has been made from the standpoint of developing the best
technique than in any other branch. The fatal weakness, of course,
in the initial form of State organization for fire control was its extreme
decentralization, with its certainty of inefficiency, changing personnel,
varying degree of interest and capacity, and entire lack of cohesion
and discipline. And, of necessity, the town and county officers upon
whom these laws imposed, irrespective of their fitness or interest, the
duty of serving as fire wardens were either themselves local politicians
or indebted to local politicians for their offices. So poorly was the
first form of State protective organization contrived.

A great advance was made when, after a number of years, the
principle began to be established that the head of the State forestry
department must be a trained forester with adequate professional
qualifications, freedom from political control, and full power to select
and dismiss the local wardens. A half-way step toward this centrali-
zation of authority was the provision made in the fire laws of a number
of States whereby local wardens were appointed by town or county
officers, subject to the approval of the State Forester with power vested
in the latter to remove or obtain the removal of unsatisfactory men.
But the development of really efficient State systems of forest pro-
tection did not take place until the Federal Government had worked
out, on the national forests, practices and methods which the States
could take over and adapt to their needs ; and the period of real progress
in the development of efficient State administration of fire protection
was ushered in by the enactment of the Weeks law, in 1911, providing
for Federal cooperation and financial aid to the States.

SUMMARY OF PROGRESS IN STATE FORESTRY ACTIVITIES DOWN
TO PASSAGE OF THE WEEKS LAW

The progress made by the States between 1885 and the beginning of
1911 in organizing their forestry activities is partly indicated by the
legislation of the period, which is summarized below. The summary

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 767

is not complete, and in some details is probably inaccurate, since full
information on the subject has never been brought together; but it
serves to give a birdseye view of the general movement. After
1890, laws designed to encourage timber growing through bounties or
special taxation provisions are not included, since the subject of forest
taxation is somewhat apart from the present matter of concern —
namely, the development of State forestry activities as an organized
governmental administrative function.

1885. California State Board of Forestry created; to gather and diffuse informa-

tion, conduct experiments in tree planting, and aid in enforcing all
forestry laws.

Dakota Territory offered a bounty for the planting and cultivating of
forest trees.

New York State Forest Commission created; to administer the forest
preserve, administer and supervise fire protection, and promote forest
preservation and extension throughout the State.

Nebraska provided by law for the observance of Arbor Day.

Colorado created office of forest commissioner to have the care of the State's
woodlands and promote forestry; county commissioners and district
road overseers made forest officers subordinate to the forest commis-
sioner in matters pertaining to woodlands; counties might expend their
own funds locally up to $100.

Ohio State Forestry Bureau created, with investigative, advisory, and
educational duties.

1886. Utah Territory provided an exemption from taxation for lands planted to

forest trees for timber purposes.

1887. Kansas created office of commissioner of forestry; to set up two forest

experiment stations and promote interest in forestry.
Pennsylvania created a temporary commission of inquiry.

1889. New Hampshire created a temporary commission to inquire into the

feasibility of State purchases of mountain timberlands.

1890. Wyoming offered a bounty for the planting and cultivating of forest trees.
North Dakota law to encourage forest planting through tax exemption.
South Dakota law to encourage forest planting through bounty.

1891. North Dakota created office of State superintendent of irrigation and

forestry, to diffuse information and promote tree culture.

North Carolina law required State geological survey to undertake study
of timber resources.

Maine State land commissioner made ex-officio forest ^ commissioner;
charged with certain educational and informational duties, but princi-
pally with administration of forest-fire protection under warden system;
selectmen to act as wardens in organized towns, with appointive special
wardens for unorganized towns.

1893. New Hampshire created permanent unsalaried forestry commission with

paid secretary, mainly as an agency of inquiry and education but with
authority to purchase lands for park purposes with any donated funds.
Selectmen made fire wardens.

Pennsylvania created a second commission of inquiry, of two salaried
members.

1894. New Jersey required State geologist to gather information on forest lands

owned by the State and the desirability of holding them, and on water-
shed conditions, forest influences, and the forest laws of other States.
Minnesota required investigation of State's forest resources by its geological
survey.

1895. Wisconsin made chief clerk of State land office State fire warden ex-officio,

and town supervisors and road superintendents town wardens under
supervision of the State warden, with authority to the latter to make and
publish regulations for protection of the forests of the State. Costs of
fighting fires to be borne by the towns, with $100 limit.
Minnesota made State auditor forest commissioner with authority to
appoint a chief fire warden. Duties included fire prevention and sup-
pression, and forestry investigation and education. Town supervisors
wardens ex-officio; other wardens might be appointed where needed.
Wardens empowered to call out residents for fire fighting.

768 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

1895. Pennsylvania created a State department of agriculture with a com-

missioner of forestry included in it. Duties of department included the
promotion of forestry, through gathering and publishing forestry informa-
tion and giving practical advice; the making and carrying out of rules
and regulations for the enforcement of all laws designed to protect
forests; and administration of all State forest lands.

Utah State constitution included the same provision regarding the forests
upon State and public domain lands as that in Colorado. (See p. 23.)

1896. Utah law passed directing the State land commissioners to reserve from

sale such timberlands as they deemed necessary to preserve the forests,
maintain stream-flow, and aid irrigation, and prohibiting purchasers
of timber on State lands from using, injuring, or destroying trees less than
8 inches in diameter, except of certain species.

Alabama code required investigation of the State's forest resources by its
geological survey.

1897. Colorado abolished the office of forest commissioner and created a depart-

ment of forestry, game, and fish.

Wisconsin authorized the State fire warden to appoint a fire warden in each
organized town, with power to summon aid, created a temporary com-
mission to devise plans for administration, by a forestry department,
of lands of the State suitable for timber production, and required in-
vestigation of the State's forest resources by its geological survey.

Pennsylvania authorized purchases at tax sales, by the commissioner of
forestry, of wild lands desirable for forestry reservations; and also created
a commission to locate and acquire, with power of eminent domain, three
forestry reservations of 40,000 acres each, on the watersheds of the
Delaware, Susquehanna, and Ohio Rivers, respectively.

Pennsylvania made constables ex-officio fire wardens, and prescribed their
duties.

West Virginia law passed requiring investigation of the State's forest re-
sources by its geological survey.

North Dakota law established the North Dakota School of Forestry to give

instruction regarding forestry science.

1899. Minnesota provided for State forest reserves and created a forestry board
of nine, representing diversified interests, to manage reserves and publish
forestry information.

Pennsylvania authorized the purchase of wild lands directly from the own-
ers, at not more than $5 per acre.

Oregon provided for a State game and forest warden, with requirement
that all game officials should act as fire wardens.

Missouri law required investigation of the State's forest resources by its

geological survey.

1901. Connecticut law provided for a State forester, responsible to and appointed
by the State agricultural experiment station board of control. Duties
mainly investigative, informatory, and advisory; but limited land pur-
chases by the forester for State forests appropriated for and their ad-
ministration authorized.

Indiana created a State board of forestry, to be representative of various
interests, with investigative, informatory, and advisory duties, including
recommendations for State forest reserves.

Pennsylvania placed its forestry work in charge of a separate department of
forestry and made the commissioner of forestry the president and execu-
tive officer of a State forestry reservation commission, to which was given
authority to purchase lands for and to manage and control reservations.
1903. Indiana authorized the purchase of 2,000 acres by the State board of for-
estry for forest nursery and demonstration purposes.

Michigan made the State land commissioner forest commissioner ex-officio,
with supreme authority in all matters relating to the preservation of the
forests and the suppression of forest fires. Commissioner to appoint a
deputy, known as the chief fire warden, who was given general charge of
all forest fire activities in the State.

Wisconsin established a department of forestry headed by a board of five
commissioners, with authority to appoint a superintendent of State
forests, who should act as secretary of the board and also be ex-officio
forest warden, with the duty of enforcing the State law regarding the
prevention and extinguishment of forest and marsh fires.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 769

1903. Washington made land commissioner ex-officio State fire warden. County

commissioners to constitute boards of deputy fire wardens and appoint
local wardens as necessary. Other wardens and patrolmen included all
State land cruisers as patrolmen at large. County warden boards in
timber counties to establish closed seasons necessitating burning permits.
Costs of patrol and fire fighting to fall on counties. Deputy wardens
required to patrol their districts, post warnings, and enforce the law.

1904. Louisiana created a department of forestry under the commissioner of the

State land office as ex-officio commissioner of forestry, with additional
salary, and four unsalaried members. Department to make inquiries,
report on them, and recommend legislation. All State activities for
forest preservation placed under control of commissioner, with power to
appoint a chief fire warden. An officer in each jury ward of the State
required to act as local fire warden under direction of chief fire warden,

with duty of preventing and suppressing forest fires.
Massachusetts authorized the creation of

)f the office of State forester, ap-
pointee required to have a technical education, who was to establish and
maintain a forest-tree nursery at the Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Vermont required that the governor designate one member of the board of
agriculture as forestry commissioner, with special duties in the adminis-
tration of the provisions of the act and the protection of forests from fire.
1905. California created a board of forestry consisting of the governor, secretary
of state, attorney general, and State forester; the latter was charged
with the administration of the State parks, the fire protective work
throughout the State, and general forest publicity work. The State
forester to establish districts and appoint citizens as voluntary fire
wardens, who might be paid by counties or private persons or corpora-
tions. At dangerous periods the forester might maintain a patrol at the
expense of a county. Counties were required to clear inflammable
material from roads at the request of the State forester.

Connecticut reorganized the forest fire protection system of the State,
made the State forester ex officio State forest fire warden, and vested in
him the authority, with the cooperation of town selectmen, to select
district fire wardens. Each town was required to pay one half the cost
of fire fighting within its boundaries, and the county and State one
fourth each.

Idaho in an act regarding the sale of timber from State lands and the pre-
vention of forest fires charged the State board of land commissioners
with the duty of seeing that certain restrictions were complied with, and
that brush was properly cared for when timber was cut and sold.

Illinois authorized the organization of forest preserve districts, each
comprising a portion or all of one or more counties, and gave the board
of commissioners of such incorporated district very extensive powers of
taxation and general administration. Displaced by law of June 16,
1909, which was declared unconstitutional December 21, 1911.

Indiana law regarding the burning of the woods required each township
road supervisor to employ the assistance necessary to extinguish any
fire within his district, the wages of the persons thus employed to be paid
from the regular township funds.

New Jersey established a State board of forest park reservation commis-
sioners consisting of five members; given control of State forest reserves,
with authority to adopt measures of encouragement to the practice of
forestry by private owners.

North Carolina enacted a new and more comprehensive law authorizing
the State geologist to employ such experts and assistants as should be
deemed necessary by himself and a geological board; a State forester
was employed.

Oregon made provision for the appointment of a forest fire ranger in each
county of the State, to be paid by the property owners requesting such
appointment. Law repealed in 1907.

Tennessee created a department of game, fish, and forestry. Nonsalaried
State warden appointed by the governor, who might employ a secretary,
without expense to the State, said secretary appointing county wardens
and special wardens, who were given the rights, powers, and authority
of county sheriffs as to the enforcement of the State laws for the protec-
tion of the game, birds, fish, and forests of the State.

770 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

1905. Washington created a State board of forest commissioners and provided

for the appointment of a State fire warden and forester who should have
charge of all fire protection work. The law included exceptionally
detailed regulations as to fire patrol and control.

Wisconsin repealed much of the 1903 law and created a board of forestry,
authorized to appoint a technically trained man as State forester, who
would have supervision of all forest reserves and serve as State fire
warden, with authority to appoint and remove one or more fire wardens
in every town where he considered such appointment necessary.

1906. Iowa provided for an exemption of forest areas from taxation, and that

the secretary of the State horticultural society act as State forestry
commissioner, without additional salary, in promoting the objects of
the law and in obtaining general reports upon forestry from nonsalaried
county deputies, whom he was authorized to appoint.

Kentucky created a State board of agriculture, forestry, and immigration,
consisting of nine members, and authorized a small sum to be expended
either directly or through the United States Forest Service in advancing
the forest interests of the State. Repealed in 1912.

Maryland established a State board of forestry of 7 members, consisting
of the governor, 2 other State officials, 2 educators, a practical lumber-
man, and a citizen interested in forestry; to employ a technically trained
State forester who should have charge of all forestry interests in the
State, and head a State system of forest fire protection with the cost of
fire fighting to be borne by the counties. Board empowered to accept
gifts of land to the State for forestry purposes, and to purchase lands,
with limitation as to price.

New Jersey repealed previous forest-fire laws and authorized the State
forest park reservation commission to appoint a State fire warden, who
was given general supervision of all forest fire protection, and to require
the appointment of town fire wardens with appointment by the com-
missioner if the town failed to act. The entire cost of fire control on
State reservations and one-half of that on other lands of any town was
made payable by the State.

Ohio established a department of forestry at the State agricultural experi-
ment station and abolished the old State forestry bureau. Cooperation
with the United States was authorized, the State expenditure not to
exceed the Federal.

Rhode Island authorized the appointment of a commissioner of forestry.

Vermont appropriated money for the establishment and maintenance of a
forestry nursery.

1907. Alabama established an unsalaried commission of forestry comprising the

governor, three other State officials, a member of the Federal Forest
Service, a resident professor of forestry, and a practical lumberman, to
gather and publish information as to the forest interests of the State
and to recommend legislation. An optional system of county forest
wardens to control forest fires was provided for.

Idaho. The law of 1905 was superseded by one which required the State
board of land commissioners to divide the State into fire districts and
appoint wardens upon the request of timber owners.

Kansas provided for the appointment of two forestry commissioners to
reside at and have exclusive charge of the two State forestry experiment
stations at Dodge City and Ogallah, each charged with the duty of
disseminating knowledge about trees.

Massachusetts forest protection act required that the persons appointed
as town and city forest wardens be approved by and make reports to the
State forester, and authorized the payment from State funds for the
services rendered by such wardens under the direction of the forester.

Michigan abolished the office of chief fire warden; duties devolved upon
newly designated official, State game, fish, and forestry warden.

Oregon created an unsalaried State board of forestry, with seven members;
authorized to appoint fire wardens, who were to have the powers of
peace officers as to arrests. The board was given no administrative
duties other than those connected with forest fire protection, and a
very limited annual appropriation.

Pennsylvania enacted very strict provisions against the setting of fires on
forest land, and appropriated $500,000 for the purchase of State forest
reserves.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 771

1907. Tennessee provided for the protection of public and private lands from

timber trespass and from forest fires.

Texas provided for a game, fish, and oyster commissioner, the commissioner
and his deputies to act as fire commissioners and to prevent and extin-
guish forest, marsh, and prairie fires.

Wisconsin appropriated money for the acquisition of additional forest
lands at tax sales and from counties that had acquired land under tax
deeds. Another law authorized an exemption from taxation of lands
planted with forest trees. The State forester was charged with important
administrative duties.

1908. Louisiana created a commission for the conservation of natural resources,

with membership of seven.
Massachusetts authorized State forester, with consent of the governor

and council, to acquire lands by purchase for purposes of demonstration

in forest management; appropriation made.
Vermont State Board of Agriculture abolished and a board of agriculture

and forestry created, to consist of the governor, the director of the

State agricultural experiment station, and two appointive members.

Required to appoint a professionally trained forester, who was to act

as State fire warden, have charge of the State reserves and forest nurseries,

and conduct experimental and educational work.^

1909. Delaware created a State board of forestry, to consist of the governor and

four other unsalaried members. The forester of Delaware College made
ex officio a member of the board and also State forester, with
general supervision of all forest interests of the State, direction of the
activities of all forest wardens, and authority to prevent and extinguish
fires. Forest wardens to be appointed by the governor and receive
compensation for special services performed under the direction of the
State forester. Counties were authorized to raise money for forest
protection, improvement, and management, and were required to
pay the full cost of fire control. All fines and penalties were available
for general forestry purposes.

Idaho by amendments to the forest fire law imposed upon the State board
of land commissioners additional duties as to informing the public
regarding the fire laws, requiring a proper disposal of slash upon cutting
areas, and cooperating with private owners in fire protection. Also
provided that the State should pay its proportion of the cost of pro-
tecting timber in any district according to the extent of the timberland
owned by the State in such district, in the same manner as other owners.

Kansas repealed act of 1907, and a division of forestry established at the
Kansas State Agricultural College. Board of regents authorized to
appoint a State forester, to have direction of all forest experimental
and educational work, with the duty of assisting towns, counties, cor-
porations, and individuals in the planting, protection, and management
of timber tracts.

Maine forestry district was created as an administrative district for forest
protection purposes, the forest commissioner was charged with special
responsibility as to fire control therein, and a special tax was levied
on all property within the district, to be used solely for protection
expenses.

Michigan created public domain commission of six members. All jurisdic-
tion over State forest affairs formerly vested in the State forestry com-
mission and the State land commissioner transferred to the new com-
mission; State game, fish, and forest warden to perform his duties under
its direction.

Minnesota again revised the forest fire law so that the State auditor was to
appoint a forestry commissioner who should be a member of the forestry
board and have supervision of all fire wardens. Many amendments
affecting various phases of forest fire laws.

Montana made the register of State lands, the State land agent, and the
State foresters a forestry board with the duty of managing the forests
of the State on forestry principles, and provided for the appointment
of a trained forester who should have general control of the timberlands
of the State, including fire protection, under the direction of the State
board of land commissioners. County commissioners were authorized
to provide money for forest protection, improvement, and management.

772 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

1909. New Hampshire established a nonsalaried forestry commission of three
persons, and appointed a forester, who was also the chief fire warden,
with the duty of appointing as local fire wardens men nominated by
selectmen; forester was charged with the execution of all forest work
of the State, including the direction of all activities having in view the
prevention and control of forest fires. Forestry commission authorized
to buy land for forestry purposes whenever any person or persons should
furnish the funds therefor.

North Dakota created the office of forest fire warden. For unorganized
townships having at least 25 percent of woodland, the board of county
commissioners was required to appoint two or more wardens for each
township and to designate the district of each. In each civil township
in the State having at least 25 percent of its total area in woodland the
supervisor was to act as forest fire warden.

Pennsylvania authorized the department of forestry to grow and distribute
young trees to all persons who would plant and care for them, charge not
to exceed cost of production and transportation; repealed the act requir-
ing constables to act as fire wardens; and provided for a force of forest
fire wardens distinct from the peace officers. Commissioner and deputy
commissioner of forestry were made solely responsible for the forest fire
protection work of the State, and authorized to appoint a district fire
warden in each borough and township.

Rhode Island required the annual appointment of a forest fire warden
by each town council, and the appointment of two or more district
wardens if the town contained over 4,000 acres of woodland. Wardens
required to take active measures to prevent and suppress forest fires.

West Virginia provided for the appointment of a forest, fish, and game
warden, for a term of 4 years; to be ex officio fire warden for the State;
all deputy wardens made fire wardens for their respective counties.
Cost of extinguishing any fire made recoverable by the warden, in the
name of the county, from the person or corporation responsible for it;
such recovery not to act as a bar to the recovery of civil damages by
anyone injured.

Wisconsin enacted specific regulations concerning forest fires and their

causes.

1910. Louisiana authorized change of name of "Commission for the Conservation
of Natural Resources" to "Conservation Commission"; membership
increased to eight. Act of 1904 amended so as to designate the register
of the State land office as forester, and to provide for a deputy forester
who should have had technical training in silviculture. Among many
new duties imposed on the forester and his assistant were general duties
as to fire protection, cooperation with private parties, and authorization
of the acceptance of gifts of land to the State for administration as
forests by the State conservation commission. Commission authorized
to purchase forest land for the State. Forest fire laws strengthened, with
severe penalties.

Maryland law of 1906 regarding the appointment and duties of forest
wardens (appointed by the governor upon the request of the forester,
with irregular pay) was amended; one warden provided for each 15,000
acres of woodland in any county, and State to pay one half the cost of
fire fighting.

Massachusetts authorized the acceptance of bequests and gifts for the
advancement of the forestry interests of the State in the manner desig-
nated by the donor.

One of the striking things revealed by the legislative record is the
large number of States which inaugurated activities in forestry in
the years 1901-10. During the first decade of the twentieth century
there was greater activity in the formation of State forestry depart-
ments which proved more lasting than in any other equal period. At
the beginning of 1901, New York and Pennsylvania were the only States
which had actually embarked on policies of permanent forest land
ownership and administration. Not a single State had a technically
trained State forester, nor were there until 1900 any technically
trained foresters in the United States outside a very small number

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 773

who had obtained instruction in European schools. A number of
States had so-called forest commissions or forest commissioners, and
the beginnings of organized fire protection had come into existence
through the setting up of State fire wardens, with a greater or less
degree of authority; but these State officers, of varying designations,
were in the nature of makeshifts without pretense of any special
expertness qualifying them for then" positions. There was a very
considerable general interest hi forestry, but very little knowledge of
what it really meant, and almost no idea of how to proceed in order
to get it on its feet as a State activity.

In the decade preceding the close of the century the most important
forward impulse received by the forestry movement came from the
effect on men's minds of the terrific forest fires of the period, particu-
larly in the Lake States, where the losses both in property and human
life were appalling. In the first decade of the twentieth century, on
the other hand, there was developing a better public understanding
of forestry and a wider and keener interest in obtaining its applica-
tion. The oldest professional school of forestry in the country,
Cornell, turned out its first graduate (a single one) in 1900, and the
second oldest, the Yale School of Forestry, its first graduating class
of eight men in 1902. Practically simultaneously with the creation
of means of educating a supply of young foresters, the Federal activi-
ties in forestry began to expand and attract public attention. The
preliminary stirrings which presaged the oncoming of the conserva-
tion movement were beginning to be felt. With the accession of
Theodore Roosevelt to the Presidency came the real opportunity for
a great burst of progress. The States were looking to Washington
for ideas and guidance, and under the influence of what was happening
at Washington, State forestry began to take shape in enduring and
useful forms.

To this reliance upon outside leadership Pennsylvania was an
exception. Like New York, its forestry movement, while gaining
power from the stimulus of the general forestry movement, was
essentially indigenous. The principal credit for it belongs to one
man, Dr. J. T. Rothrock, who practically gave his life to it. Its
most outstanding accomplishment has already been pointed out.

The States which turned to Washington for advice regarding the
form of organization which they should set up to take care of their
forestry interests received recommendations which embodied two
principles as fundamental: (1) That their laws should provide for a
technically trained State forester in charge of the work, and (2) that
his position and entire organization must be nonpolitical. To assure
an administration of the State forestry interests not dominated by
political considerations, the States were advised to make their fores-
try departments independent of any existing department, such as
departments of agriculture, land departments, and fish and game
departments, and to make the State forester responsible to a directive
board made up of representatives of organizations and institutions
within the State of a kind to promise a capable and disinterested
governing agency concerned solely with serving the public as well as
possible.

An example is the board created by the Minnesota law of 1911.
Following disastrous forest fires in the previous year, Minnesota then
radically revised its forestry law. The chief executive officer was to

774 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

be "a State forester who shall be a trained forester. " He was to be
appointed and his work directed by a State forestry board of 9
members, of whom 1 was to be the director of the forestry school
and 1 the dean of the Agricultural College of the University of
Minnesota; 2 were to be appointed upon the recommendation of the
regents of the university and 2 more upon the recommendation of
the Minnesota Forestry Association; the other 3 were to be appointed
upon the recommendation, respectively, of the State agricultural
society, the State horticultural society, and the State game and fish
commission.

Generally speaking, the State forestry departments which were
created in the decade 1901-10 started off as principally agencies for
gathering and disseminating information and performing an educa-
tional function with respect to forestry and its possibilities, partly
through practical advice to landowners. State forestry had to feel
out its way and make its own place. The State foresters were
young men, their pay was small, and the interest of State legislatures
in their undertaking slight. To obtain authority for its expansion
and increased funds for its strengthening was slow and uphill work.
Most politicians found little account in giving it backing, unless
public demand made action expedient for them; and public opinion
unless organized and led by men of determination and good judgment
registered only spasmodically, if at all. There was little inclination
anywhere, except in New York and Pennsylvania, to inaugurate
policies looking to extensive undertakings of public forest ownership
and administration. Nor was there in most States any strong desire
to create a centralized, efficient system for the control of forest fires.
The function of protecting privately owned forest property against
fire, it was prevailingly thought, should fall to the owner rather than
be undertaken at public expense; and to the extent that some means
was needed for organizing and leading collective effort to control fires
which threatened to spread widely, local wardens not tied in or at
most only tenuously tied in to the State Forester's office were supposed
sufficient.

There was one striking exception to this. In the Northwest,
where yearly fires were doing great damage and enormous holdings of
private timber were being built up, the unprecedented fires of 1902
accelerated a movement to obtain organized protection. In Wash-
ington and Oregon this movement at first took shape along much the
same lines as in the East. The Oregon law of 1899, imposing on the
State's game officials the duty of acting as forest fire wardens, and the
Washington laws of 1903 and 1905 have been indicated above. In
1903 Governor Chamberlain vetoed, in Oregon, a law similar to that
passed in Washington during that year, on the ground "that it called
for a small appropriation." In 1905, however, Oregon passed a law
requiring the county courts to appoint as fire rangers the persons
named by one or more property owners desiring protection from fire.
The cost of the rangers was paid by these property owners. This
established the principle of fire protection maintained with the back-
ing of public authority but at the cost of those desiring it.

Protection of his property by each individual timberland owner
was both unnecessarily costly and of limited value, since fires paid
no regard whatever to the invisible boundary lines between holdings.
To provide for joint systems of protection, western timberland owners

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 775

devised the method of uniting for the maintenance of protective asso-
ciations. The first timberland owners' protective association was
formed in Idaho in 1906. The idea was quickly taken up in Wash-
ington and Oregon. These associations obtained funds for maintain-
ing their several protective organizations by assessing their members,
on an acreage basis. But there was no way to bring in owners who
did not wish to share in the expense, although to protect the property
of their members the associations were compelled also to protect
intermingled or adjoining lands.

To meet this situation, the four northwestern States of Montana,
Idaho, Washington, and Oregon eventually enacted laws which, while
varying considerably in detail, embodied as their fundamental prin-
ciple the requirement of contributions, in proportion to acreages, to
support the protective organizations, from all the owners whose
properties received the benefit. Where the State had land of its own
to be protected, the State paid its share just like any other owner.
Virtually, the associations became recognized agencies of the State for
performing the protective function. They selected and employed the
personnel of the organization, and managed it. Thus it came about
that in the Northwest most of the cost of fire protection was met by
the landowner, as such.

In developing their protective systems the associations were aided
greatly by the progress in building up efficient systems of protection
on the national forests dating from early in 1905, when the present
Forest Service took charge of them. In place of the idea of wardens
with the duty primarily of calling out forces of fire fighters and acting
as leaders to bring the fire under control, came the idea of the ranger,
with duties of patrol and functions of detection and prevention as well
as of suppression. In place of the primitive, catch-as-catch-can fire
fighting of the early days came the methodical development of pro-
cedure and organization that was to evolve into the modern highly
specialized technique of large-scale operations in suppression. Not
only were the protective associations assisted by being able to make
use of methods developed by the Forest Service; where association
lands were intermingled with or adjoined Government lands within
the national forests, direct cooperation became possible, and mutually
advantageous. Prior to 1911, the Northwest was the section of the
country in which real progress was made in providing organized
protection against fire as a State activity.

When the second decade of the century opened (that is, at the
beginning of 1911), 25 States had forestry organizations of some kind,
though in only a minor fraction of this number were trained foresters
in charge. As a rule, the function of the State forester, where there
was a trained man, was still mainly to give advice to forest owners,
gather information on the forest resources of the State, their utiliza-
tion, State timber requirements, and kindred matters, and carry on
a campaign of general education concerning forestry. Except in
New York and Pennsylvania, the financial provision for the work of
the State forestry department was everywhere very meager and the
organization for carrying on the work too small-scale to function in
a really important way, beyond laying the foundations for more
substantial activities as State forestry really found itself, in the next
decade.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 50

776

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE EFFECT OF THE WEEKS LAW ON STATE FORESTRY

On March 1, 1911, Congress passed the Weeks law. Section 2 of
this law appropriated $200,000 to enable the Secretary of Agriculture
to enter into cooperative agreements with the States in order to pro-
tect from fire the forested watersheds of navigable streams. The
cooperative agreements were to provide for the organization and
maintenance of a system of fire protection organized in accordance
with State laws, manned by State appointees, and supported finan-
cially by the State and the Federal Government jointly, on condition
that the State should contribute not less than half the total cost.

Table 1 shows the growth of State fire protection under the Weeks
law and the amendatory Clarke-McNary law of 1924, from 1911 down
to the present time:

TABLE 1. — The growth of Federal-State cooperative forest fire protection, calendar

years 1911-1931

Year

Number
of States
cooper-
ating

Funds expended

Area under
protection

Federal

State

Private l

1911 ..

11
12
17
17
20
20
21
23
24
24
25
26
26
28
29
33
34
38
38
38
338

$36, 692
51,069
67, 414
82, 193
69, 134
79, 702
82, 733
92, 515
85,706
92, 921
265, 522
387,008
325, 549
397, 357
414, 829
654,099
704, 748
1, 256, 225
1, 208, 988
1, 389, 121
1, 532, 944

$165, 975
168, 319
356, 144
427, 615
487, 795
400,742
537, 272
555, 587
718, 555
972, 379
, 494, 831
, 759, 718
, 759, 207
, 662, 532
, 815, 094
2, 009, 415
2, 005, 522
2, 062, 687
2, 804, 818
3, 899, 644
3, 839, 305

$54, 590
65, 439
246, 761
201, 999
329, 548
291, 651
659, 052
301, 308
1, 366, 749
1, 027, 087
876, 826
1, 971, 777
1, 454, 094
1, 8.50, 862
1, 204, 583
1, 936, 286
1, 368, 992
1, 272, 693
1, 982, 426
1, 705, 975
2, 056, 264

Acres
60, 779, 000
68, 279, 000
82, 678, 000
94, 678, 000
98, 388, 000
103, 562, 000
104, 062, 000
109, 562, 000
128,812,000
140, 204, 000
165, 801, 000
175, 000, 000
(2)
(2)
178, 200, 000
195, 200, 000
202, 100, 000
213, 106, 000
223, 973, 000
227, 551, 000
227, 611, 000

1912

1913

1914

1915.

1916

1917 . _ . .

1918

1919...

1920 .

1921...

1922 ...

1923

1924 .

1925

1926

1927

1928. ..

1929 ..

1930

1931 ...

1 Private expenditures previous to 1917 probably understated because complete data for earlier years are
lacking.

2 Data lacking.

3 Includes Territory of Hawaii.

The workings of the laws under which Federal cooperative aid
has been extended to the States will be fully discussed in the chapter
of this report entitled "Federal and State aid." For the purpose
of the present section, all that is called for is a brief indication of
the part that this law has played in shaping the development of
State forestry, determining its set-up, crystallizing its program, and
giving it its present capacity for further development and future
usefulness.

The immediate effect of the Weeks law was to make the adminis-
tration of fire protection a recognized field of activity for the State
forestry departments generally. It gave them something specific to
do, and the same thing to do everywhere. The whole trend of State
forestry was given thereby a new direction. The influence exerted
by the Weeks law was by no means due solely to the opportunity
that it held out to obtain Federal money and the resulting stimulus

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 777

to enlarged State appropriations for fire protection. The law embodied
a principle the validity of which many State legislatures had up to
that time been hesitant to accept. Always, of course, any proposal
for a State to enter upon a new form of public activity encounters
the resistance of inertia and conservatism. Reluctance to set up a
new form of demand upon the State treasury that will be bound to
grow greater is not only understandable, but a course of prudence,
unless the justification of the new undertaking is clearly seen. That
the cost of protecting forest properties in private ownership against
damage by fire should be borne in whole or in part by the public,
because public values and public interests were involved in addition
to the property interest of the private owner, was a principle which,
following the passage of the Weeks law, rapidly gained general
acceptance. Federal leadership in laying down the principle largely
brought the change. Not only did the law cause ^ the States which
had forestry departments to assign them the function of administer-
ing organized fire protection; the attention of other States was at-
tracted, and as the benefits and practicability of fire control became
clearer many new States set up systems and created forestry depart-
ments primarily for this purpose. In consequence, outside of New
York and Pennsylvania, where land administration had from the
outset held a leading place in the State's forestry work, the admin-
istration of fire protection has been the backbone of State forestry.

Federal cooperation influenced and strengthened the State forestry
departments, however, in other ways than by leading them into fire
protection and helping finance it. The Federal cooperative funds
were not in the nature of a subsidy to State enterprises of fire pro-
tection. They were made in recognition of definite national interests
and purposes to be served, in addition to purely State interests.
Therefore, the way in which the money was used was a matter of
direct Federal concern. Failure on the part of a State organization
to function efficiently would not only constitute a waste of funds
supplied in part by the Federal Government, but also would mean
a falling short in the attainment of the national objective of the law.
The duty therefore devolved upon the Forest Service, as the agency
charged with administration of the Weeks law on behalf of the Fed-
eral Government, to inspect the workings of the State systems and
do its best to help bring them to as high a standard of efficiency as
possible. The Forest Service was able to be of assistance to the
States in their effort to build up good systems of fire protection
principally in three ways.

As the agency charged with the duty of protecting the national
forests, the Forest Service had been compelled to study intensively
the whole fire problem and was making steady progress in the devel-
opment of the technique of fire control. Its ability to serve as adviser
was increased by the fact that, coming into contact with the work
in all the cooperating States, it was able to bring to bear on each
State the experience that was being gained elsewhere. It was also
a means of strengthening the hands of the State foresters against
political pressure to put or keep on the pay roll inefficient men.

778 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

THE PRESENT STATUS OF STATE FORESTRY ACTIVITIES
STATE ORGANIZATIONS

In 42 States there is now legal provision for carrying on forestry
activities, and in most of them a distinct forestry organization is set
up. In a few instances it is one of several divisions of the Conserva-
tion Department, in others it is subordinate to some other State
administrative board, commission, or commissioner, and in still others
it is independent of other State activities but subject to some control
by an appointed board or commission. Experience has demonstrated
that a set-up which involves the field force of the State forestry or-
ganization in such other activities as the enforcement of the game and
fish laws tends to react against its success in its own particular field
of forestry. This set-up is most likely to be attempted when the
State forestry department is one of the divisions of the Conservation
Department. Further than that, under this form of organization,
the development of the forestry work may be and sometimes has
been hampered by a lack of sufficient interest in it or understanding
of it on the part of the Conservation Department head or heads,
chosen primarily to administer other activities.

A forestry board or commission which serves in a directive capacity,
formulates policies, sets up a program, and strives for means to ac-
complish it, but does not concern itself with or interfere with the
choice of personnel other than that of State forester, is a very work-
able form of State forestry organization. It bears the same relation
to the State forestry enterprise that a board of directors does to a
successful business enterprise. A board of this type appointed by
the Governor with terms of office the same as his own, however, is
likely not to serve the best interests of forestry. A board whose
personnel is entirely or largely fixed by law may be good, but it is
not ideal; ex-officio members of boards may be too busy with other
affairs to take an active part, or may not be particularly interested
in forestry. But with conditions as they are in politics in some States
today, it is probably best, it not essential, to make the composition
of the board definite. Preferably, the board members should serve
for staggered terms so arranged that any one administration cannot
preponderantly alter its composition, and should choose their own
chairman. Some States have such boards today. This board struc-
ture conduces to the choice of strong and interested men, and assures
continuity of policy. While the board may have some political tinge,
this can be a source of strength to the forestry cause rather than a
weakness.

Table 2 indicates how State foresters are appointed. Only in New
York must the selection be in accordance with a State civil service law.
The State foresters however are as a rule selected on a basis of fit-
ness, and retained as long as they remain effective and their relations
with their boards of superiors continue harmonious. They are ordi-
narily subject to removal for administrative reasons, as would be true
in any efficient business organization. Nevertheless, the removal
from office of State foresters on political grounds has sometimes taken
place, and is a real danger to the maintenance of the work on a high
level of efficiency. State civil-service protection to the year-long
staff other than the State forester is provided in California, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMEEICAN FOEESTEY

779

Composition of organizations

i

Number
27, 296

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Number
327

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office

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i

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United States total...

New England:
Connecticut

Maine

M assachusetts
New Hampshire-
Rhode Island
Vermont

1

Middle Atlantic:
Delaware
Maryland

£

1 „

es *- C*^

9 c.2®

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iflll

780

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

§

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North Carolina...
Oklahoma
South Carolina. ..

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A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

781

"y

1

MS

S

CON

Is!

S

fice.
s the State forestry commissioner, inactive.

sctor of the conservation and survey division of the University of Nebraska,
nt of the School of Forestry, at Bottineau. Not counted in this tabulation,
lave civil-service standing.

s

1

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X

Ixx

X

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X

X

X

X

Arkansas has provided no funds to fill the ol
Secretary of the Department of Agriculture
No funds, 1932.
Forestry work under the direction of the dir
Office of State forester is filled by the preside
0 Chief and assistant chief of division do not

X

XXX

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

1

£
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f

i

Minnesota
North Dakota
Wisconsin

Total

North Rocky Mountain
Idaho .

1

Montana.
Total

South Rocky Mount
Colorado ..

South Dakota..

I

...2

f

C
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e

0

Washington

782 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Strength is given to the organization in 18 States by the legal pro-
vision that the State forester shall be a technical forester; in 24 States
there is no such requirement. The provision for a technical forester
is most striking in the southeastern group of States; it is noticeable
by its absence in five of the six New England States. Although the
laws of 24 States do not provide for technical foresters, the present
incumbents in 11 of those States, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Okla-
homa, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wisconsin, are technical men.

Salaries of State foresters and their staffs conform pretty much to
State standards. For State foresters they vary from $1,800 to
$8,000, with a majority running from $3,000 to $5,000. In lower
administrative positions the salaries range from $1,200 to $3,000;
some exceed the last figure. In many States they are inadequate to
hold men of the caliber needed to meet the higher responsibilities or
to attract technically trained men to the arduous but less responsible
positions and retain them until they can be advanced. In these
States the salary scales must be readjusted if the brains, experience,
and stability essential to successful functioning of the organization
are to be looked for.

That the State forestry departments are attempting to build up
their organizations with technical men is indicated by the number
employed, 327 in all. Pennsylvania leads, with 61, and is followed
by New York, with 57. The preponderance of such men in these two
States is to be expected, because they have acquired and are adminis-
tering large areas of forest lands; technical men are essential to the
successful development of forest lands.

The number of part-time men employed is of significance in one
respect. They are usually fire wardens who function only during
the forest fire season. The number of such wardens is partly indica-
tive of State-wide interest in the control of forest fires and partly of
large areas of forest land in need of protection. The outstanding
States in this respect are Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia.

Nearly all the State organizations begin with a mere skeleton force
in State employ. County or town officers have commonly been
previously charged with the duty of suppressing forest fires by State
law or local custom. At the outset, the State forester has in some cases
been expected to rely on these local officers with the skeleton force
under him engaged mainly in assisting or nominally supervising their
efforts. Such a form of organization is highly unsatisfactory. When
the State forester either appoints the county or town forest-fire
officers or has the authority to disapprove and reject such men if
unsatisfactory, the organization is strengthened* tremendously.
Even under this arrangement, however, elements of weakness are
likely to show up with serious if not tragic consequences in periods
of extreme forest-fire hazard and forest-fire occurrence. This leads
to a gradual assumption by the States of the entire responsibility
and often the entire burden of forest-fire protection. It is a normal
trend in the interest of efficiency, and will be accentuated as time
goes on.

The State organizations as a whole have able men at their heads;
their field force, when not subject to political control, is as com-
petent for its job as can be expected, sometimes more so, when the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 783

salaries paid and the meager number of men employed are con-
sidered. Fire protection has been the principal job, and with experi-
ence the men have become proficient in it.

Administration and development of State forests has been given
secondary consideration. It is the more difficult job of the two,
because it requires men with techncal training and a longer time to
learn. It demands more intensive study, careful observations, and
closer supervision than it has had in the past. It is going to necesssi-
tate greater emphasis on State effort in this direction, and even
realinement of personnel in some State organizations, if the job is to
be coped with successfully.

Due to lack of appropriations, some State organizations are, of
course, woefully undermanned. A limited number are just about
built up to the point in quantity and ability of personnel to handle
the State's forestry problems in a satisfactory manner, and it can be
expected they will do so. More will arrive at that situation in a few
years. For others, where favorable public sentiment toward forestry
is not as yet well developed, and where the State's wealth is dispro-
portionately small, the outlook is not so cheerful. A long period of
intensive educational effort is indicated, during which a careful and
thorough administration of the type of work that can be undertaken
must be the primary aim.

As a rule, the laws authorize the State forestry organization or its
administrative officers to carry on a wide range of forestry activities,
such as to maintain a system of fire protection, to assist the private
owners of woodland, to ascertain facts about and make reports on
the State's forest resources, to cooperate with the Federal Govern-
ment, to grow and distribute forest trees for planting, and to acquire
forest land through one means or another and administer it as State
forests. In a few instances, certain activities such as purchase of land
for State forests and the growing and distribution of trees to private
owners are not permitted. The extent to which the States engage in
these various activities and the degree of success attained is largely
determined by the State funds appropriated for the various purposes.

The general trend in State organization is to divide the States into
districts and to put a man in charge of each. With aid, supervision,
and inspection from headquarters, these men handle most of the
various State activities in their districts, especially protection, re-
forestation, and management of State lands. Some States have gone
further than others in decentralizing these activities and in delegating
authority to the district men. Educational activities and legal mat-
ters are ordinarily handled by or are under close supervision of the
central office, and of course policies and programs are decided there.
Extension activities are logically a function of the district men and
are handled by them when they are technically qualified for the task.
Otherwise, this field is covered by the headquarters organization.

THE PROMOTION OF PRIVATE FORESTRY

The chief purpose of most State policies of forestry is to bring about
private timber growing. Policies of extensive permanent forest
ownership and management by the States are still exceptional. While
forest protection, forest research, nursery production of planting
stock, and public education in forestry are all necessary for successful
public forest management, and while in the States that are engaging

784 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

in forest management these activities serve both purposes, it will not
do violence to the general situation to regard them as conducted
primarily to promote private forestry.

Initially, many of the State forestry organizations were created as
agencies for gathering and diffusing information that would acquaint
forest owners and the public generally with the methods of, the need
for, and the returns obtainable from forestry. This was particularly
true prior to the passage of the Weeks Law in 1911, which offered
Federal cooperation in maintaining organized protection against forest
fires. Following the pattern set up for them by the Bureau of Foresty
in Washington before it was placed in charge of the national forests,
the State foresters undertook to gather information on the forest
resources and forest industries of their several States, the requirements
and markets for the various classes of forest products, the damage
done by forest fires, rates of growth, desirable practices of forestry,
and the like.

Since the science and art of silviculture as applied to American con-
ditions had hardly begun to be built up, they had to learn as they
went along. Partly as a means of gaining experience, partly as a
means of diffusing knowledge of the principles of forestry, they com-
monly offered to give private owners advice on the care of their
woodlands. In this also they were influenced by the example of the
Federal Bureau of Forestry. Above all, they had to quicken public
sentiment into vigorous life against uncontrolled forest fires. Thus
functions of research (if the early unsystematized fact gathering may
be so termed), of public education, and of extension either preceded
or developed along with the assumption of administrative responsi-
bilities. This was true particularly in the East.

EDUCATION AND EXTENSION

Public education in forestry is still and will continue to be an
important function of a State forestry organization. An intelligent
public opinion based on widely diffused knowledge of the objectives
and methods of forestry is essential for the best use of the forest
resources. The story of what forestry is and of its aims and public
welfare aspects must be told over and over. The scope of the State
work, what and where its current activities are, what more it might
do, the problems confronting it, how the public can help, desirable
legislation, and regulatory provisions of the forestry laws are all
subjects of real public interest. In proportion to the degree that the
purposes served by a State forestry organization are of public benefit,
public support will be accorded if the facts are generally known.
The rate of progress in State forestry is largely dependent upon how
successfully the State forester can take on a function of leadership.
Educational activities are of vital importance in meeting the problems
of State forestry.

Numerous means are open. The State forester must use many
avenues of approach if all classes of the public are to be informed.
There are great differences in the amount of attention given to educa-
tional activities by State organizations. In part this is because some
have more resources to work with, either in money or in the form of
better speakers and writers in their organization. In part it is be-
cause of a better appreciation of the value of educational effort.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 785

The most important single means of popular education in forestry
matters is without doubt the press. The daily and weekly news-
papers reach people in all walks of life. In some States prepared
news bulletins are furnished for the newspapers of the State.

State foresters are often given an opportunity to speak over the
radio. Some radio stations also broadcast the so-called fire weather
reports, warning the public when the weather for the day will be very
dry and conducive to forest fires. Public addresses by State forestry
officers are among their duties, and are widely used as a means of
education. Frequently the speaker can use lantern slides or moving
pictures, of which some States own their own films. New York
State in 1931 had films covering 30 different titles. There is such a
wide call for addresses of this kind that it has been necessary in New
York to restrict addresses to audiences where there will be at least
200 people.

In their every-day personal contacts with the public, the State
forestry employees are constantly performing an educational function.
Observers on the fire lookout stations are often proivded with postal
cards and other printed matter, to hand interested visitors. Some
States require their field men to wear a uniform, which calls attention
to the work and the fact that the State is engaged in it.

In several States special efforts are made to reach boys and girls in
summer camps, children in the schools, and people not easily reached
through ordinary channels. Several of the Southern States in
cooperation with the American Forestry Association put on a special
3-year educational campaign among the country people who lived in
the wooded sections. Trucks which carried their own moving-picture
equipment and lecturers were employed for that purpose. Pennsyl-
vania as long ago as 1926 had enlisted in an organization known as
the Forest Guides of Pennsylvania 25,000 boys, who were pledged to
help protect the forests of the State and to urge others to do so.

Exhibits at fairs are a common means used to arouse interest, both
through the exhibit itself and through the man in attendance. These
exhibits take many and ingenious forms. The posting of signs and
the publication and distribution of bulletins afford means of reaching
large numbers of people. Pennsylvania in one 2-year period dis-
tributed more than 400,000 copies of publications, covering many
phases of forestry work.

Demonstration methods are beginning to be used, with good results.
Several States have set up roadside demonstration plots, conspicuously
signed. Pennsylvania and Connecticut lay out " blue-ribbon plots."
The trees most suitable for the final crop trees are selected and marked
with a band of blue paint. Trees which if left would interfere with
the growth of the final crop trees will be cut out as they can be mar-
keted. These plots have excited a great deal of curiosity; signs are
placed to indicate their purpose and they have thus become of educa-
tional value.

The laws of Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and
Tennessee require the teaching of forestry by the regular staff of
teachers in the primary or advanced public schools or in both. In
Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia provision is made by law
for the State board of education in each case to prepare a course of
study in fire prevention, which presumably includes protection of
forests from fire. This course is for use in public, private, and paro-

786 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

chial schools of the State. Tennessee led in requiring that forestry
must be included in the public-school curriculum. Its legislation on
this subject dates back to 1921. It was closely followed by Louisiana
in 1922.

State colleges or universities with courses leading to a degree in
forestry are found in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia,
Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mon-
tana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Penn-
sylvania, Utah, and Washington. In New York, Pennsylvania, and
Washington, State institutions provide courses of instruction for forest
rangers.

Elementary courses in forestry are provided by universities and
colleges in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mary-
land, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hamp-
shire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Penn-
sylvania, Khpde Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Ver-
mont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Forestry extension is another type of State activity. By forestry
extension is meant those activities directed toward assisting the pri-
vate owner in handling his forest land. Of necessity the State for-
ester is obliged to give time to this activity, even if it is only by
correspondence and the preparation and distribution of publications,
because he is certain to be called upon for this kind of service. There
is no measure of the time and effort which forestry extension entails,
but in the aggregate it is very considerable. It is a popular type of
service, and it is the means of inaugurating forest management in
wooded areas here and there throughout the State. If it could be
developed to the utmost of its possibilities, it would constitute per-
haps the greatest service that could be rendered to private timberland
owners. At the present time in most States dual organizations are
handling it, and for the most part too restrictedly. The first is the
State forestry organization; the second is the extension service of the
State agricultural colleges. The latter is limited to farm forestry
extension. The State forestry organizations for the most part have
not been built up to the point in number of men where they are able
to meet the demands for help. The State extension services are weak
also in the number of foresters employed (one forester ordinarily has
to cover the whole State) and too frequently the work is hampered
by a lack of training and experience in forestry on the part of the
county agents upon whose shoulders lies the major burden of agri-
cultural extension work. They are capable men, but extremely
busy with many other agricultural subjects. Hitherto, in their con-
ception of a county agent's job, attention to timber as a farm crop
has been likely not to find as much of a place as it merits.

In a number of States there has been a definite effort by the State
foresters to foster the extension work. In Maryland at least it is a
major State forestry activity. Maryland has long made a specialty
of assisting private woodland owners. General examinations and
recommendations for handling private forest tracts are made entirely
without cost to the landowner. If an estimate of the timber and its
value is requested, if a sample marking is made, or if a contract of
sale is prepared and the owner furnished with a list of probable
buyers for his product, a charge for the forester 's services is made of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 787

$3 a day plus his expenses up to three days; thereafter $8 a day is
is charged for his services. The $3 is about half of the actual cost to
the State, but the work is regarded as a forest demonstration in which
the State is glad to share the cost. During the year 1929 examina-
tions were made and recommendations formulated for 50 pieces of
woodland, comprising nearly 13,500 acres; these were scattered in 18
counties. During the same year more intensive service was given
on 6 operations covering 143 acres located in 4 counties.

The 1929 report of the State forester of Maryland speaks of this
work as follows:

Numerous examples are on record where individual owners have been benefited,
according to their own estimates, to the amount of thousands of dollars by the
service given at a nominal cost.

This statement can unquestionably be accepted at full value.
Twenty-four of the States make these field examinations. From 1920
through 1925 (later data are not available) the Pennsylvania State
forestry organization examined 1,939 tracts, aggregating . 386,749
acres. From Virginia comes the statement that the demand for this
type of work has been too great to meet with the present personnel.

Without doubt that is the situation in a great many States. It will
be remedied as State appropriations increase and State-wide organiza-
tions are completed. Pennsylvania today, through its wide-flung
State organization, is probably better equipped than any other State
to handle this activity effectively. The organization in New York
State is rapidly being built up to the point where it can do so. It
seems that it will be only a question of time until all States which are
actively engaging in forestry will have built up a State force under
which district foresters will have charge of all State activities, each
within a certain described region. When that situation comes about
forestry extension will undoubtedly be one of the important jobs of
each district forester.

Within their prescribed field, the State extension foresters, who are
supervised by the directors of extension at the State colleges of agri-
culture, are carrying on forestry extension as well as their small
numbers and funds permit. Some have shown exceptional ability.
Their activities are limited to the farm woodland owner. Under the
present set-up at least they are not expected to assist other timber-
land owners. The activity of these men is made possible by Federal
funds, and they are given some Federal supervision. This phase of
extension is described under the section Federal Financial and Other
Direct Aid to the States. The Federal aid to the States for exten-
sion work under the terms of the Smith-Lever, Capper-Ketcham,
and Clarke-McNary laws and direct Federal appropriations for
extension work amounts to over $10,000,000 annually. Of this
amount only $70,000 is allotted for farm forestry extension. State
funds for the same purpose total about $90,000.

Considering that the forest area in the United States is substantially
greater than the area in cultivated crops, and that the production of
forest crops is a matter about which most people know very little,
these appropriations are in striking contrast. There is a decided lack
of balance when, as in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, although
only 5 percent of the land is in cultivated farm crops, almost the entire
extension effort has to do with these crops. Forestry extension is
still operating on a shoestring, and is therefore entirely unable to take

788 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

its rightful place in the general scheme of agricultural extension.
There is a further weakness in the fact that forestry extension special-
ists receive most of their supervision, advice, and direction from men
not intimately familiar with forest practices and forestry aims. Being
attached to a service which has little primary contact with the forest
problem, the extension forester is often detached from the general
current of forest ideas. An additional difficulty is that most of his
work is done through county agricultural agents, 4-H Club leaders,
and to some extent home demonstration agents, whose time is too
fully occupied with other projects to leave room for much attention
to forestry unless their interest in it is rather exceptional. Few
county agents have had the kind of training necessary to give them a
balanced land use attitude or a practical understanding of the methods
of forestry. The State colleges might well give more care to seeing
to it that those preparing for county agent work in the naturally
forested regions receive specific preparation for farm forestry work.
In Louisiana this is now required.

The forestry extension specialist is supposed to work in cooperation
with the State forestry department and in many if not most cases he
does so freely and fully, but the contact is usually not close enough
to obviate the danger that two independent agencies will be engaged
on the same forestry problem, with insufficient coordination of effort
and advice. This danger should by all means be averted. It can be
if the work of the forestry extension specialist in each State and the
work of the State forestry department can be closely enough correlated.

The full field of forestry extension includes not only farm woodland
owners but other timberland owners. An adequate extension set-up
would require provision for reaching both effectively, under a unified
plan. With such a set-up, Federal funds for forestry extension could
well be increased in some proportion to the magnitude of the area and
the problems confronting the forest owner.

RESEARCH

When it began to appear, as the nineteenth century wore along,
that the country would be faced with a forest problem of large pro-
portions, the need for better knowledge of our forests, forest resources,
and forest requirements was borne in upon most of those who gave
the subject any attention at all. This was the more natural because
the forestry movement of the latter half of the nineteenth century
was greatly influenced by scientific thought, was largely led by
scientific men, and was promoted by scientific organizations.

DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONS OF FOREST RESEARCH

The most outstanding fact in the early situation was that no one
knew what ought to and could be done. That the forests of the
country were being destroyed, that the current practices of utiliza-
tion must somehow be altered, that timber growing must be brought
about to provide for future requirements, and that some form of
public action was needed were matters concerning which intelligent
opinion tended to coincide. But when it came to practical remedies,
everything was involved in uncertainties.

There was not even an approach to knowledge of the amount of
standing timber in the United States, the rate at which it was being

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 789

cut, the drain through fire and through natural causes such as dis-
ease and insect attacks, and the rate at which the supply was being
replenished through growth. There was no basis for a conclusion as
to what the future needs of the country for wood and other forest
products would be. The whole subject of forest influences upon
climate, water supplies, the regimen of streams, the navigability of
rivers and harbors, the rate and character of erosion, and the rela-
tionships between the forest and wild life of various kinds was prac-
tically unexplored. Popular opinion on some of these matters was
pretty well formulated, in a broad way, but was based wholly on
unverified generalizations derived from common observation or on
European thought.

Future forests and forest products supplies were supposed to depend
largely on tree planting, commonly called "forest culture" and con-
sidered to be akin to horticulture; but many and difficult technical
problems had to be worked out before artificial reforestation on a
large scale could be successfully undertaken. Regarding the art and
science of silviculture as applied to the management of established
forests ignorance was abysmal. Even the make-up of the American
forests — the relative representation of tree species, the complete list
of the native trees, the character of the undergrowth, and the rela-
tive representation of age classes — was very imperfectly known.
Similarly, what the wood of these species was good for and how to
use to best advantage the many kinds of wood at hand were matters
that had never been made a subject of careful inquiry; men were
satisfied to take the cream, wastefully, and to use it wastefully, gov-
erned chiefly by the ease and cheapness with which it could be
obtained, handled, and worked, and by its general high quality.

Hence the form of public action to which those solicitous over the
forest problem of the country naturally turned first was the building
up of better knowledge. One of the subjects of inquiry, it was seen,
should be the economic aspects of the problem — how much timber
there was in the country, and where; how fast it was being used up,
and for what purposes; whether a future shortage must be looked
for, and if so, how soon; timber exports and imports; and so on.
Another subject of inquiry was the forest itself as a biological and
geophysical entity; the natural laws governing its distribution and
behavior, and its influences. A third concerned methods of use and
the cultural practices necessary to perpetuate the forest as a resource
or to provide new forests. It was to serve these purposes that Con-
gress first made provision for the conduct of investigations by the
United States Department of Agriculture; and it was chiefly for these
purposes that the States inaugurated their early work in forestry. In
other words, public forestry at the outset was primarily in the field of
what, with some qualifications, may be called research.

Research is a term often loosely used nowadays to denote almost
any fact-gathering activity, however trivial and even mechanical its
character and however practical its object. Research is of course the
pursuit of new knowledge. Whether its ultimate object is utilitarian
or to obtain new knowledge as an end in itself, increase of knowledge
is its immediate goal. Man has been accumulating knowledge
through observation and experience during the whole period of human
history, as a by product, so to speak, of his struggle to live and better
his condition; but research builds up knowledge in a different way.

790 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Scientific research ordinarily implies a methodized procedure and
uses as its most effective tool rigorously controlled experiment.
Forest research is now organized and systematized; and some would
draw a line of demarcation between what is fully entitled to be called
forest research because it employs the method of controlled experi-
ment and what is merely the accumulation of knowledge through
observation of what goes on in the ordinary sequence of uncontrolled
natural events.

Historically, such a distinction does not fit. Forest research of
the present day has been built up from the early observational study
of the American forest — of its composition, behavior, relationships,
services, and possible products and of the effects upon it of cultural
methods or of lumbering, grazing, fire, and other forms of human or
natural interference — together with inquiries, chiefly of a statistical
character, relating to forest economics, and with the beginnings of
laboratory experimental work on wood as a material.

In the initiation of these investigations and the opening up of the
field for forest research the States took an active part. An example
is the work carried on in Ohio for a few years by the forestry depart-
ment created in 1885 and centering at the State university. Still
more striking is the investigative program formulated and pursued
for a time by the California Forestry Department dating from the
same year; this included the setting up of two forest experiment
stations — the first ever started in the United States. Kansas set up
two experimental tree-planting stations. A number of States as-
signed to their geological surveys investigations of their forest re-
sources. The work of botanists connected with State institutions
also calls for recognition. And when, after the turn of the century,
State foresters began to be appointed, their task was to a considerable
extent investigational. Indeed, in those days every cutting or plant-
ing operation carried out in accordance with a forester's prescription
partook of the nature of an experiment; and the chief means by which
a basis was created for American silviculture was woods observation
by the first generation of trained foresters.

While the investigational quality, and indeed purpose, of the first
applications of technical forestry by both Federal and State foresters
justify classing much of this early work as forest research in a broad
sense, time has wrought a great change. Silyicultural practices,
it must be admitted, still often lack a firm basis of certainty as to
what will be the outcome of this or that course, and management
policies must too much grope their way, with opportunism taking
the place of long-range planning; but the professional forester engaged
in managing a forest property is essentially a practitioner, not an
explorer of the unknown. On the other hand, forest research has
become organized and implemented for careful, systematic work;
its pioneer stage has been left behind. It is under the necessity of
covering a field of enormous range and complexity, demanding the
work of specialists in many different fields of scientific knowledge.
It has turned away in the main from broad, superficial investigations
yielding immediately serviceable approximations, to engage in much
narrower but deeper studies designed to obtain precise information
on details. This is true even though the advance in this direction
has been less than would be desirable. There remains too large an
unfilled need for approximate information, and the resources available

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 791

in trained men and money are still too small, to permit attention to
the more fundamental matters proportionate to their importance.

PRESENT SCOPE OF FOREST RESEARCH

The breadth and diversity of the whole field, as now covered with
very varying degress of intensiveness, may be briefly indicated. To
facilitate the growing of commercial timber crops, research seeks the
information basic to all silvicultural practices. This includes methods
of cutting the mature stands so as to insure satisfactory reproduction
of the kinds of trees wanted for the next crop; forest planting; deter-
mination of the rates of growth of stands ; and methods of weeding and
thinning immature stands to produce the most rapid growth and the
best products. The behavior, effects, and statistics of forest fires are
studied to obtain a better basis for devising protective measures.
For the same purpose investigations of forest insects and diseases are
carried on.

In the field of forest products utilization, research seeks new uses
for wood, extends present uses to other species, and by deep-going
study of the physical, chemical, and mechanical structure of wood
gains fundamental knowledge for application in all kinds of wood
processing, adaptation, and manufacture. The life and food habits
of forest animals and birds are studied to learn how the best balance
of game and other wild life in the forest may be maintained. The
knowledge necessary for the best use of forest ranges in proper coordi-
nation with the use of the timber and other resources is sought
through range investigations. Forest influences present an important
field of inquiry. In economics, information indispensable to the
progress of forestry in all fields is gained on such diverse matters as
the extent and character of the country's forest resources, the ratio
between forest depletion and rate of growth, our probable future
timber requirements, the trends in forest products utilization, the
taxation of timberlands, timber insurance, and the financial aspects
of timberland management. These are the major divisions of forest
research. They are commonly referred to as forest management,
range management, forest protection against fire, forest entomology,
forest pathology, forest biology, forest influences, forest products
utilization, and forest economics.

RESPECTIVE FIELDS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THE STATES

The organization of forest research along comprehensive lines,
permitting a methodical attack in force on the forest problem as a
whole, has taken place only in very recent years. This form of
attack makes desirable a coordination of all available research agencies.
The Federal Government is doing far more in forest research than any
other single agency — a natural result of the fact that it is much the
largest owner of forest land in the country and is applying forest
management more extensively than all other owners put together;
not to mention other reasons for Federal forest research. This
position carries with it at once an opportunity and an obligation to
plan for and endeavor to bring about coordination.

The Federal coordinating function is not new. To provide central-
ized leadership of the early forestry movement was the outstanding

168342° — 33 — vol. 1 51

792

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

function of the Federal Division of Forestry in its days of small
beginnings. In those days the share taken by the States was rela-
tively large, partly through the cooperation of botanists attached to
State institutions of learning. With the rapid growth of Federal
forestry after the turn of the century, however, the tendency was for a
time to leave to the Federal Forest Service the research necessary for
building up the practice of forestry. This trend was strengthend
by the demands made upon the State organizations and funds as
they entered upon administrative activities of organized fire protec-
tion and in some cases of forest land management. On the other hand,
as schools of forestry were established new potential agencies for
forest research in the States were created. In the aggregate, the
organizations and institutions which can participate in a correlated
program make up a rather imposing list. Obviously, the greater the
number of agencies the more desirable becomes coordination, with
each agency taking the kind of work that it is best fitted to engage in.
The following summary of forest research projects active in 1930
in New England and New York illustrates how State and Federal
agencies may coordinate their work with each other and with that of
private organizations. (Table 3.)

TABLE 3. — Distribution of research projects carried on in New England and New
York in 1932, among the several agencies conducting them

Number

of projec

;ts by ch

aracter c

f work

Forest

Forest-

ation

Agency responsible

age-
ment,
men-
sura-
tion,

(seed
stud-
ies,
nur-
sery,

Forest
protec-
tion

Forest
prod-
ucts
and

utili-

Forest
eco-
nomics

Fish
and
game

Recrea-
tion

Total

Per-
cent
by

agen-

drology,
and

and
plant-

zation

ecology

Forest schools

68

24

4

7

4

107

37

Agricultural colleges and ex-

periment stations

17

2

6

2

1

28

10

Other colleges and universities -

9

1

11

3

24

9

State forestry departments

5

5

5

4

2

21

7

U.S. Forest Service

17

1

3

4

25

9

U.S. Bureaus of Plant Indus-

try and Entomology .

12

12

4

Botanic gardens and scientific

institutions

2

2

3

7

2

Associations and committees

1

3

2

6

2

Companies

29

15

7

1

52

18

Individuals

6

6

2

Total

153

51

51

21

6

4

2

288

100

Percent by classes

53

18

18

7

2

1

1

100

Of the 288 investigative projects, 37 percent were being conducted
by the forest schools, 10 percent by agricultural colleges and experi-
ment stations, 9 percent by other colleges and universities, and 7
percent by State forestry departments. Many of the investigations
by the forest schools and presumably some also by other colleges and
universities are privately endowed, so that the amount of strictly
State-supported school research is obscured. Over 63 percent of the
work by the forest schools is in forest management or closely related

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 793

subjects. The greater part of the investigations of the State forestry
departments is nearly equally divided between forest management,
nursery and planting, forest protection, and forest-products utiliza-
tion. The research in forest economics, fish and game, and recreation
is far below that in the other subjects, but newly awakened interest
will probably demand increasing attention to these subjects in future.

The research activities of the State forestry departments at the
present time are in the main the outgrowth of the requirements of
their administrative work. The activities have been undertaken, as
a rule, because of the need to find answers to concrete practical and
localized problems. Most of the resulting projects have been small
scale, limited in scope, and very specific in purpose. In many States
these essentially ad hoc minor investigations have been about all that
the funds available for the entire work of the departments make
possible. Examples are investigations relating to forest-tree nursery
and planting practices, the development and improvement of forest
fire fighting equipment, fact-finding surveys of the wood-using indus-
tries, studies of forest growth, and studies of forest-tree insects and
diseases. These are all of direct and important value to the organiza-
tions. The only State forestry department in which research has
advanced far enough to attain what may be called a major status is
that of Pennsylvania, though Maine gives major status to the study
of forest insects.

As is pointed out in the section Kesearch in the United States Forest
Service, a Study in Objectives, a line of division of responsibility be-
tween State and Federal functions is recognized in the research objec-
tives of the Federal Government. Federal research deals with national
or regional problems, and with local problems only in so far as their
solution is necessary to the proper administration of the National
forests. The responsibility for research on forestry problems of
primary importance to individual States should rest in the main, it
is believed, with the States themselves, most of which by now have
forestry departments and many of which have State-supported schools
of forestry and other research agencies. On the other hand, it is
necessary to take into account also what the States are equipped to
do and likely to do.

Insofar as the State forestry departments are concerned, the scope
and character of their research activities are bound to be governed
by the nature of their jobs as well as by the extent of their resources.
Where State forestry departments are charged with important respon-
sibilities of forest land administration for timber growing, the need
for silvicultural research to provide a sound basis for forest manage-
ment must sooner or later come to the fore, as it has with the Federal
Forest Service in connection with the administration of the National
forests. Hitherto, however, only a few States have entered upon
policies of forest ownership and management on a substantial scale.
The effort has been mainly directed toward encouraging and aiding
private forestry. Most of the work of fire protection — the major
activity of the State organizations as a whole at the present time-
has this as its objective. Similarly, most of the States which main-
tain forest tree nurseries to produce planting stock do so primarily
to aid private owners in reforestation. Assistance to private owners
through information and advice on forestry practices and methods is
another duty of most of the State forestry departments, though in

794 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

considerably varying degree. Here, obviously, the results of silvicul-
tural research are needed, and will be more and more needed as
practices of forestry by private owners become intensive. The need
of forest research for this purpose is of the same general kind as the
need for agricultural research on behalf of agriculture.

Obviously, the outstanding immediate need of most States has
been for more light on matters directly affecting their operations in
connection with fire control and the production and planting of
nursery stock. Planting methods are important not only in connec-
tion with planting operations on State forests, in those States having
them, but also for guiding private owners to whom the State supplies
the stock grown in its nurseries — if the field planting is a failure the
work of the State in producing the stock has gone for naught. It has
been to meet immediate needs of these kinds that most of the ad hoc
minor investigative projects already referred to have been under-
taken. But whether or not the States are likely in the near future
to enlarge materially their administrative field through building up
State forests (which there is reason to expect), it will be necessary to
obtain in some way the basic knowledge required to advance the
practice of forestry. This raises the question of the research facili-
ties available, actually or potentially, for that part of the investiga-
tive work which will not be taken care of through the Federal agency.

STATE FOREST RESEARCH FACILITIES

Facilities for State forest research are afforded (1) by the State
forestry departments, (2) by the universities and colleges in which
technical forestry is taught, and (3) by State agricultural experiment
stations.

Facilities of the State forestry departments. — State forestry depart-
ments vary greatly in age, available funds, and range of activities.
Some are still in a preliminary stage of organization, struggling with
inadequate resources to meet difficult and critical problems, of which
the protection of the forests from the devastating effects of fire is
sufficient, alone, to absorb much more than the meager funds granted
them. Other States with older and more strongly developed depart-
ments have advanced further in research, the beneficial effects of
which are becoming apparent. Pennsylvania and Michigan have
gone so far as to establish forest research centers and experimental
stations, while others have developed forest nursery research and test
arboreta, or have made valuable contributions through the study of
tree species or forest types within their boundaries.

The Pennsylvania Forest Research Institute at Mont Alto is out-
standing as a forest research agency which is an integral part of the
State forestry department and is provided as a part of its equipment
for performing its practical duties. This institute was dedicated to
forest research on June 5, 1930, to bring about the betterment of forest
practices on all types of forest land in Pennsylvania. The studies to
be undertaken cover a wide field and embrace both those termed
fundamental and those classed as administrative. The staff of the
institute is made up of five to seven technical men.

Somewhat similar in its field of work is the Cloquet Forest Research
Station, located at Cloquet, Minn. ; but this station is not maintained
by the State forestry department but is a part of the Agricultural
Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota. It was estab-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 795

lished in 1909 and is devoted to a study of the problems of the
northern Minnesota woods.

Another station worth noting is the Michigan Forest Fire Experi-
ment Station at Roscommon, Mich. It was organized in 1930 and is
a cooperative enterprise of the Michigan Department of Conservation
and the Lake States Forest Experiment Station of the United States
Forest Service. Both the State and the Federal Government are
represented on the station staff, and the various investigations under
way are divided between them by mutual agreement. As its name
indicates, the station was established to make forest-fire investiga-
tions. This includes a variety of subjects such as fire weather studies,
firebreak construction, fire damage, slash disposal, and the develop-
ment of fire-fighting equipment.

The needs of the State forestry departments for more knowledge
will call for an increase of research facilities such as these stations
afford. The Pennsylvania Forest Research Institute is an example of
what might easily be done by a number of the more wealthy States,
at least, to enable their forestry departments to work out their more
fundamental problems. On the other hand, the Minnesota station
affords an example of an alternative course which a good many States
will doubtless prefer to take. Instead of setting up special provisions
for the conduct of major research projects, arrangements may be
made to have the work of this kind assumed by the forest schools and
agricultural experiment stations. Some States are now pursuing this
course.

Research facilities at State forest schools. — A considerable amount of
research in the aggregate is conducted by divisions, departments, and
schools of forestry attached to the State universities or colleges of 19
States. The amount varies greatly. Most of the forest schools have
faculties of from 2 to 4 professors only, who usually have little time
for research. Hence the larger part is done by relatively few schools
of forestry, at which special provision of one kind or another is made
for the purpose. In general, the research which is done by the schools
equipped for it is more intensive and less limited in point of applica-
bility than that performed by the State forestry departments.

Not all of the forest schools, of course, are connected with the
State-supported colleges and universities. Some of the privately
endowed universities, notably Harvard, Yale, and Duke, occupy
outstanding positions in the list of institutions equipped to share in
the general forest research program, and need to be included without
distinction from the State-supported institutions in appraising the
available facilities for the work in the States.

Limitations upon the resources of the forest schools affect the
amount rather than the kind of research. Their field is much broader
than that of most of the State forestry departments — so broad that
each school must select from it. The resulting diversity of programs
is brought out in the section, Privately Supported and Quasi-public
Forest Research. The schools have the opportunity, not generally
possessed by the State departments, for doing research of an advanced
and intensive character. Nor are they as limited as are the State
departments to work relating to their own State.

The character and scope of this work has been a result partly of the
recognized urgency for basic knowledge in forestry, partly of the
affiliation of the forestry courses with other university departments

796 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

having definite research responsibilities, and partly of the opportunity
and duty of the schools to turn out graduates especially trained for
research, to recruit the personnel of the schools themselves and of
other established forest research agencies. Accordingly various
schools have adopted definite policies of research. At the University
of California,3 for example, each member of the forest school staff is
required to devote half of each college year to research, and during
this period he is relieved of all teaching duties. Problems of the range,
forest mensuration, logging, milling, forest influences, and silviculture
have been the principal subjects of research. At the New York State
College of Forestry the faculty members have been allotted liberal
time for research, and especially significant work has been done in
wood technology, wood chemistry, wood utilization (particularly as
related to the problems of pulp and paper), forest entomology, and
forest pathology. The school maintains an institute of research in
wild life, the Roosevelt Wild Life Experiment Station. At a number
of other schools — for example, Cornell, Idaho, Michigan, and Minne-
sota Universities, and Pennsylvania State College — research is ex-
pected of all staff members. At Cornell, Idaho, Pennsylvania State,
and Purdue men are employed who give their full time to investigative
activities. At the Iowa and Michigan State Colleges and the univer-
sities of New Hampshire, Utah, Montana, and Washington one or
more instructors are devoting considerable time to research. Usually
the research is done within the confines of the State, and hence is
concerned to a considerable extent with problems important within
the individual States, or with local aspects of general problems.
Some of it, however, is on subjects broadly fundamental, the results
of which are of high regional or even national value. Thus while the
forest schools are a most effective research aid to the State forestry
departments in advancing the sound management and utilization of
the State forest resources, their efforts can be, and generally are,
effectively coordinated with the Federal forest research system through
the regional forest experiment stations and the Forest Products
Laboratory.

FOREST RESEARCH BY STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS

Forest research by the State agricultural experiment stations,
under the terms of the Hatch, Adams, and Purnell Acts, is interpreted
as relating only to agricultural aspects of forestry. Since farm woods
comprise about 25 percent of the entire forest area of the country
(from 30 to 50 percent in the Southern, Middle Atlantic, and Central
States) and since the value of products cut and sold from farm woods
ranks high among all farm products in a number of States, a large
field for forest research is presented for the agricultural experiment
stations, and for cooperation between these stations and the forest
schools, in the States having the latter. In the West the agricultural
experiment stations are conducting a very considerable amount of
research in the fields of range management, ecology, and economics
which coordinates with or is closely related to the forest-range investi-
gations of the Federal forest experiment stations. At least 26 States
are carrying on some work that has to do with forestry or with the
problems of range management.

3 Cf. Forest Education, by Henry S. Graves and Cedric H. Guise. Yale University Press. 1932. P.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 797

EXPENDITURES FOR STATE FOREST RESEARCH

Anything like an exact statement of the present expenditures for
State forest research is impossible. In the section State Aid to
Private Owners and Local Political Units an incomplete showing for
the fiscal year 1932 reached a total of not quite $176,000. This
showing was based partly on specific data and partly on estimates.
The latest statistics of annual expenditures by the State forestry
departments — variously reported for the years 1931 and 1932 — show
an aggregate expense of $97,855 for research. It seems not unreason-
able to estimate the forest research expenditures of the forestry and
other departments of State universities and agricultural colleges at
$165,000. This, of course, does not include the expenditures by
privately endowed institutions, discussed in the section Privately
Supported and Quasi-Public Forest Research.

The data presented in the section State Aid to Private Owners and
Local Political Units showed only one expenditure by an agricultural
experiment station, amounting to $8,000. The listed projects of the
stations, however, evidence a rather widespread activity in various
lines of forest research. Collectively, the agricultural experiment
stations appear to have spent on research projects in forestry about
$14,000 of Federal funds received under the provisions of the Hatch,
Adams, and Purnell Laws. Including this $14,000 the experiment
stations probably devoted to research projects that fall within the
field of forestry or correlate with Federal forestry investigations
about $55,000, exclusive of $75,000 for range research in the West.

In addition the States contribute to various activities that involve
research or relate closely to it. Expenditures totaling some $50,500
in 1932 by the Pacific Coast and Lake States for economic survey work
on forest land fall in this class. The amounts spent in the different
sections of the United States are given in the section on State aid
referred to above.

The aggregate expenditure by all State agencies is thus somewhere
in the neighborhood of $443,000, of which about $14,000 is supplied
by Federal grants.

Divided as these various classes of research expenditure are among
many States, the sums are inconsequential and entirely dispropor-
tionate to the size and importance of the forest problems confronted
in most cases. The funds allocated to research by the State forestry
or conservation departments, including those for economic forest
land surveys, amount to only about 2 percent of the aggregate appro-
priations to these departments.

CONCLUSIONS

State forest research should in the main complement that of the
Federal Government though dealing primarily with problems of
special importance to individual States. This is particularly true
for the State forestry departments, few of which are equipped to
engage in research on a major scale. Their investigations are at
present limited for the most part to the solution of exigency problems
arising in the course of other activities, but their needs will necessitate
the provision of increased facilities, either of their own or provided
by other State research agencies.

The forest schools of the State agricultural colleges and State
universities are in a position to meet both State and Federal needs for

798 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

information obtained through research. Their field is divided
between problems local to the States in which they are situated and
problems of basic value to all branches of forestry, outside of as well
as in the State.

In general, an opportunity for most effective cooperation in research
is provided by the Federal forest experiment stations and Forest
Products Laboratory, the State forestry departments, the State forest
schools, and the State agricultural experiment stations, each within
its own field coordinating systematically in the task of increasing the
knowledge needed for forest management.

The systematic cooperation of these agencies and the Federal
Government, coupled with the large amount of technical research
which cannot be escaped by private industries, is essential if the
expansive field presented to forest research is to be covered amply and
economically. The Federal Government carries the responsibility
for research on national and regional problems, and on local problems
affecting national-forest administration. Many of the agricultural
experiment stations have facilities for at least some classes of forest
research.

The State forest schools carry the dual responsibility of aiding both
the national and the State services. For the national service, in
addition to supplying the trained personnel needed, they are in a
position to increase very greatly, from local sources, the fund of
knowledge made available by other research agencies, and especially
to undertake research along lines not otherwise provided for. They
can assist the State departments materially by concrete research on
State problems for which the departments may not have time or
facilities. In both respects the research function of the schools is
unquestionable and outstanding. They should be a much stronger
link in the chain of forest research activities than they now are.

The funds at present expended by the States on forest research are
relatively meager. The proportion of their total allotments now
spent by the State forest departments on research and forest land
surveys (amounting to about 2 percent) should be greatly increased
through additional appropriations to permit of an expansion of re-
search activities. An average of 10 percent of the appropriations to
the forestry departments of State universities and colleges might rea-
sonably be expected to be devoted to research; and the increasing
importance of farm woods justifies far greater research effort by the
agricultural experiment stations than is now being given.

AID IN REFORESTATION

The outstanding facts with respect to State efforts in reforestation
are brought out under the discussion of Federal Financial and Other
Direct^ Aid to the States. Thirty-eight States, Puerto Kico, and
Hawaii are now growing forest trees in their own nurseries or con-
tracting to have them grown, selling a part of them to the public in
accordance with their own State laws, and planting the remainder on
their State forests. In these 38 States 76,63 1 ,000 forest trees, sufficient
to plant from 75,000 to 80,000 acres of land, were grown for these
purposes during the calendar year 1930.

The funds appropriated by the States for reforestation activities
for the year 1932 total over $1,000,000. The greatest development

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 799

in this activity occurs in the Middle Atlantic States, the Lake States,
the New England States, and some parts of the Central States. In
the regions where public interest in forestry is general private land-
owners have taken kindly to the idea of planting worn-out fields and
pastures. Forest planting was one conception of forestry that they
could readily grasp. Sentiment, more than economics, has been
responsible for a big part of the planting by individual land owners.
Water companies on the other hand have planted rather extensively
for the protection of watersheds, and States and towns have freely
planted on State forests and on town forests. A temporary peak in
planting operations by private owners seems to have been reached.
Stock from State nurseries is not moving to private owners quite so
freely as formerly. The water company lands are pretty well planted
up; farmers and other private landowners are affepted by the
depression.

Of all the States, New York has today the most ambitious reforesta-
tion program. It entails the buying over a period of years of 1 million
acres of land for State forests, and the planting of such portion of
that total as is not satisfactorily stocked with forest trees. Marginal
and submarginal farm lands will make up the bulk of the area to be
purchased under this program. Most of this will have to be refor-
ested. Approximately 1 billion trees will need to be grown in the
State nurseries during the next 10 or 11 years to meet the needs of the
State alone in this reforestation program.

The other States will doubtless continue to produce enough trees
in their nurseries to meet the public demand and to meet their own
needs for planting on State forests. Available figures indicate that
to the end of the year 1931, 271,811 acres of land had been planted by
the States on State forests.

Insofar as the State organizations are concerned, they have devel-
oped the personnel and forest nursery facilities sufficient to take care
of any probable demand for forest planting stock. They can easily
expand their nurseries if necessary. Their policies are pretty much
the same in respect to distribution of trees from State nurseries.
Trees are sold at cost of production to the landowner, for forest plant-
ing only. Under their laws some States furnish political units such
as towns, counties, and boroughs with free trees for planting in the
community-owned forests. The States do not raise ornamental stock
for distribution to the public.

Comprehensive efforts to stimulate State-wide programs of planting
all land that appears better suited to forest production than other
purposes have not been made. The nearest approach to it has been
in Pennsylvania and New York. Both of these States have devel-
oped nurseries that have turned out millions of trees each year, which
have either been sold to private landowners or planted on publicly
owned lands. Still there has been no definite goal set up, no actual
survey of the situation to find out how much land needed planting,
nor a policy, comprehensive program, and means provided to bring
these lands into forest productivity.

There is no exact knowledge of the amount of land that needs
planting. Many areas which appear to need planting today may re-
clothe themselves with trees in 10 years. Areas which do not need
it today may become hopelessly devastated by fire next year or the
year following. There are, however, in some States vast areas of

800 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

land that by no stretch of the imagination will come back into forest
growth without planting and which appear hopeless for any use in a
large way except the production of timber. It seems that if such
lands are to be made productive at all, if they are worth saving, the
State must boldly take the initiative in their reclamation. This may
be by liberally subsidizing the private owners or by acquiring and
planting the lands itself. Michigan has been acquiring and planting
such lands, but comparatively speaking only at a snail's pace; New
York has resolutely decided to acquire and is engaged in the program
of acquiring marginal and submarginal farm land, which is being
planted. There are vast areas in the Southern States of cut-over and
burned-over land that apparently will come back to productivity
only if planted, and large areas of the same type of land are developing
in some far western States. Will the States meet this problem — are
they financially able to do so? It appears very doubtful.

The question naturally arises as to whether all such land should be
planted, whether it will pay. No one can answer that question.
Viewed in the light of present timber values and the probable growth
of timber, it seems that planting cannot be justified on much of the
poorer and relatively inaccessible lands if the first crop of timber only
is considered. The mere clothing of these lands with trees, however,
might have tremendous significance in the future. A resource would
be there that if correctly managed could be made self-perpetuating
and the means of sustaining local industries and communities. To
pass up this undertaking on the ground that it is uneconomic is the
easy way out of a real problem; it may not prove to be the best way.

There are possibilities of developments in nursery practice, in plant-
ing machinery, and in field technique that may make the planting
job much cheaper than it has been. These would make the task
ahead of the States much more simple; for after all the extent to
which the States themselves are likely to engage in or subsidize forest
planting is going to be governed by its cost.

AID THROUGH SPECIAL TAXATION MEASURES

The subject of forest taxation is too intricate to be dealt with
comprehensively in the present section of this report. All that is
necessary here is to indicate very briefly its place in the development
and general scheme of State policies of forestry. While an appraisal
of the potentialities of changed methods of taxing forest properties
as a means of bringing about more private forestry is essential to a
size-up of the task which public agencies will have to assume, and
while taxation cannot be omitted from an outline of the stage of
progress which the States have attained in their forestry effort, it is
not possible to discuss in detail here the efficacy of tax laws as a
means of promoting forestry or the practical workings and com-
parative merits of the various laws hitherto passed.

The following historical summary of the legislation is taken from
Progress Report No. 16 of the Forest Taxation Inquiry of the Forest
Service, issued January 1, 1932.

Forest tax legislation in the course of its development in America has passed
through two fairly well-defined stages. At the outset tax relief was used as a
means of interesting landowners in tree culture, evidently without any very
clear program based on fundamental principles of forestry or of taxation. The
movement at this stage started with a law passed by the territory of Nebraska

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 801

in 1861 granting exemption to landowners who would plant and care for stands
of forest trees fulfilling certain conditions. Between then and 1886, similar laws
were passed by nine other Prairie and Western States, namely, Wisconsin and
Iowa (1868), Dakota, then a territory (1869), Idaho (1875), Washington and
Wyoming (1877), Colorado (1881), New Mexico (1882), and Utah (1886).
Before this wave of exemption laws had gotten well under way, Kansas started
another movement of similar import by a law enacted in 1868 offering bounties
for tree planting, which up to 1890 was followed by three of the States which had
already enacted exemption laws and four others, namely, Missouri (1870),
Minnesota (1871), Nevada (1873), Illinois (1874), Nebraska (1879), territory of
Dakota (1885), and Wyoming (1890). Upon being admitted to statehood (1890)
North Dakota and South Dakota reenacted the territorial law of 1885. and later
enacted bounty laws, in 1905 and 1909 respectively.

Almost simultaneously with this western movement, the report
goes on to point out, tax concessions to promote tree planting
appeared in the East, beginning with Maine's exemption law of 1872.

By 1878 three other New England States, namely, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and Rhode Island had passed similar laws. Vermont later (1904) passed such
a law, followed by Alabama (1907) and New York (1912). Pennsylvania (1887)
and New Hampshire (1903) adopted the rebate, * *. Massachusetts

(1908) and New Hampshire (1915) granted exemption to those who would leave
the entire management of their lands to the State for a period of years. Indiana
(1899) adopted the plan of reducing the taxable valuation to the sum of $1 an
acre which plan was also adopted by Iowa (1906) and Louisiana (1910). Hawaii
(1892 and 1903) enacted forest exemption laws which were designed to prevent
overgrazing and protect the watersheds, and which have been widely applied.

In general, the exemption, bounty, and rebate laws gradually demonstrated
their inability to accomplish any substantial results. At the same time knowl-
edge of the broader aspects of forestry and its economic implications was increas-
ing. Increasing attention was being given to the relation of taxation to the
practice of forestry. Out of these conditions arose the second stage of forest
tax legislation, in which the yield tax occupies the center of the picture. Begin-
ning with the Michigan farm wood lot act in 1911, 17 States have enacted tax
legislation based on the yield-tax principle, the others being New York (1912),
Vermont, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania (1913), Massachusetts (1914), Maine
(1921), Alabama (1923), Mississippi (1924) ,4 Ohio (1925), Louisiana and Ken-
tucky (1926), Minnesota and Wisconsin (1927), Idaho and Oregon (1929), and
Washington (1931). Michigan (in 1925) enacted a second yield tax law, which
was applicable to commercial forests.

During this same period also much legislation of the same type as that passed
in the earlier period was enacted. New York in the same year that it passed its
yield tax law (1912) enacted provisions granting several degrees of exemption of
land and timber value for 30 and 35 year periods. Idaho (1917) passed a tax-
exemption law for planted lands. Louisiana (1920, 1922, and 1924) enacted a
series of changes in its original exemption law culminating in a pronounced cur-
tailment of the exemption privilege in 1922, followed by moderate liberalization
in 1924. Indiana (1921) reenacted and amplified its exemption law of 1899,
which in the meantime had been declared unconstitutional. New Hampshire
(1923) copied the 1922 Massachusetts law almost verbatim, save that constitu-
tional restrictions prevented the adoption of the yield tax as such. So, as an
alternative, the timber when cut was made subject to the ordinary personal
property tax of that year based on its value after felling instead of its stumpage
value. This virtually converted the Massachusetts type of yield-tax law into a
growing timber exemption law, with full ad valorem taxation of the bare land
value. Vermont (1923), likewise dissatisfied with the way its yield-tax law was
working, without repealing the old law, enacted a new law which provided for
the exemption of growing timber and the full-value taxation of the land, thus
duplicating in part the New Hampshire law, save that the exemption was limited
to a period of 30 years. Puerto Rico (1925) enacted a law reducing the taxable
valuation on planted lands to $1 per acre for a limited period, but a later (1930)
law provided for complete exemption for both planted and natural-growth forests
for an unlimited period. California (1926) adopted a constitutional amendment
exempting all immature forest trees from the property tax. Connecticut enacted

4 This law was repealed in 1932, subsequent to the issue of the report from which the quotation is taken.

802

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

an exemption law with certain novel features in 1929. Delaware (1931) provided
exemption for a limited time for properties containing small trees.

In some of the more recent yield-tax laws, certain novel features have been
introduced. Thus the Michigan law of 1925, the Minnesota and Wisconsin laws
of 1927, and the Oregon law of 1929 give up entirely the ad valorem property tax
on land and trees and substitute a specific tax at a .flat rate per acre. Another
novelty is a provision requiring a contribution from the State to the local sub-
divisions, in consideration of the loss of local revenue occasioned by modification
of the property tax. Such provision is contained in the laws of Pennsylvania
(1913), Michigan (1925), and Wisconsin (1927).

The constitutional amendment of California (1926) and the laws of Oregon
(1929) and Washington (1931) represent an important innovation in forest-tax
legislation, in that the classification of lands receiving special treatment is not
dependent upon application by the owner. In Oregon and Washington the law
requires the State administrative officials to take the initiative in bringing about
classification. California goes still further toward universality by exempting
from the property tax all immature forest trees without requiring action by either
the owner or any public official to complete classification.

Recent legislation in Kentucky and Virginia (1930), which is designed to relieve
the tax burden on forest property, is of an entirely different type from that men-
tioned heretofore. Both States provide for the leasing of private forest land to
the State. In Kentucky the compensation to the owner is in the form of rental
not to exceed the amount of annual taxes, and in Virginia the compensation is
the deferment of the annual taxes for not longer than 40 years.

Many of the laws mentioned in the preceding paragraphs have been repealed
and replaced by other forest-tax legislation of similar or of dissimilar type. The
States of New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, and Nebraska have
repealed the forest-tax legislation which has been mentioned here, and now these
States have no special forest-tax laws on their statute books.

The progress report shows that up to July 1, 1931, a total of
1,370,791 acres was classified under the provisions of the laws dis-
cussed, distributed among 17 States, in the amounts which appear in
the acreage column below:

State: Acreage

Alabama 50,494

Connecticut 6, 846

Idaho 53,371

Indiana 60,000

Iowa 43, 105

Louisiana 375, 292

Maine 20,000

Massachusetts 25,000

Michigan 74, 285

New Hampshire 8, 456

State — Continued. Acreage

New York 2,902

Ohio 36,803

Oregon 256, 216

Pennsylvania 42, 186

Rhode Island 88

Vermont 37,472

Wisconsin 278, 275

Total 1,370,791

State laws have apparently been the means of affording tax relief
to about 1,400,000 acres of forest land, or less than three tenths of
1 percent of the total area of forest land in private ownership in the
United ^ States. How much land is now coming under these laws
yearly is unknown. Except in Louisiana, Oregon, Washington, and
Wisconsin the amount is probably small. In Oregon and Washing-
ton the law requires classification of lands of certain well-defined
character by the State officials, unless the owner interposes objection.
This will eventually bring a large acreage under the operation of the
law, provided the land remains in private ownership. In Wisconsin
a liberal interpretation of the law is inducing private owners to take
advantage of it rather extensively.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 803

AID THROUGH FOREST PROTECTION
PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE

Organized and successful protection of forests against fire is a sine
qua non of timber growing and forest perpetuation. It is often essen-
tial for maintaining a timber cover of any kind; it is always and doubly
essential to planned forest management. So long as the danger that
forest fires will sweep unchecked across wide stretches of country
looms large, permanent investments in timber production are almost
sure to come to grief, at least for large landowners. Lack of protec-
tion, rather than lumbering, has created out of former timber lands
most of our near hopelessly bankrupt no-man's land.

Lumbering may work havoc with the forest. It may leave the
cut-over area in a condition from which its restoration to satisfactory
productiveness will be too slow and costly a process to interest the
private owner. By and large, however, the logging operations them-
selves do not so impair or destroy the fertility of the soil that the
capacity to produce further crops of valuable timber is lost for many
years. Nor do logging operations of themselves ordinarily lay the
land bare of all forest growth.

Protection a means oj lessening land abandonment. — Even where land
seems to have been denuded, with protection some kind of a forest
cover will as a rule gradually creep back. The return may be very
slow, and the new stand may be of very inferior composition and qual-
ity, but from one source or another nature finds means to begin a
regenerating process. Conversely, where repeated fires are allowed
to run uncontrolled, a process of forest degeneration is at work even
though the forest itself is left in place. The soil is impoverished, the
vigor, rate of growth, and density of the stand are decreased, usually
its composition is changed for the worse, and the quality of the
timber is impaired. Adequate protection not only arrests the
enlargement of the denuded area and permits the establishment
on cutover lands of a new crop of timber but also gives many of
the old burns a chance to regenerate gradually and stops the decline
in quality and value of already established forests. This tends to
keep the land in private ownership.

Very few States wish to enter on policies of extensive forest owner-
ship and administration, if it can be avoided. Relatively few are
prepared to meet the immediate costs. Whether or not State-operated
enterprises of forest management will eventually become sources of net
income, most States are not easily able to make the outlay necessary
to acquire, block up, put under administration, and develop to an
income-producing stage large tracts of lands now in private owner-
ship ; nor are they desirous of going into the business of timber growing
unnecessarily. Outside of a small number of States in the Northeast,
and another small number of western States which are holding large
areas of granted forest lands, most policies of retention or acquisition
have had in view primarily what may be called park uses — that is,
provision of outdoor recreational opportunities, protection of wild
life, and the safeguarding of scenic resources — rather than enterprises
in growing and harvesting timber crops, except where the breakdown
of private ownership is forcing forest land upon the public on a large
scale.

804 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

It is at least highly probable that tax reversion would be still more
widespread had not organized State systems of protection operated
to hold in check forest deterioration and forest destruction, and thus
give the private owner more incentive to hold on. A continued
drift of forest land from private into compulsory public ownership
is likely to include not only great areas of land virtually denuded of
valuable timber growth but also much land on which the forest has
degenerated to a point which makes holding it unprofitable. The
more effectively forest fires are kept out, the smaller will be the di-
mensions of the problem of public forest management forced on the
States; the more generally fires are allowed to degrade or remove the
forest growth, the greater will be the amount of land abandoned and
the public expenditures necessary to build up again to a productive
condition the depleted resource.

Few people realize the magnitude of the scale on which forest
degradation has taken place. To the uncritical observer the great
amount of land still covered with tree growth is deceiving. The
numerous and often large wooded tracts throughout the East seem to
contradict the idea of waning forests. It is not the final disappear-
ance of the forest but its transformation into a state in which the
production of high-grade timber is no longer taking place, or is tak-
ing place only meagerly, that constitutes the major threat to the
future.

Stopping forest fires will not of itself bring the process of forest
degradation to an end — that can come only through skillful manage-
ment in place of a mere wild-land holding with removal from time to
time of what unaided nature happens to produce of economic value.
Private owners will voluntarily take up forest management when,
where, and if they find that it will afford them a greater profit than
letting the forest take care of itself. Through the advancing exploi-
tation of what is left of the virgin forests and the continuing depletion
of the second-growth stands, the prospects for profitable timber grow-
ing are being steadily improved. On the other hand, through forest
deterioration the possibilities are being markedly lessened. The
greater the deterioration, the heavier will be the cost and the longer
will be the wait before normal productivity can be built up again.
It is to the interest of the States to hold back, so far as possible, the
drift of unwanted forest land into public ownership through tax for-
feiture if there is a reasonable hope that the private owner will in
time put the land under management for timber growing. It is also
to the interest of the State that, to whatever extent reversion does
take place, the burden of restoring the land to a condition of pro-
ductivity shall be as light as possible. Maintaining adequate systems
of protection against forest fires serves both these ends.

In some regions adequate protection is of crucial importance as an
encouragement to selective logging in place of clean cutting. An
owner who would like to leave part of the merchantable stand for
further growth and for seeding in the openings must have reasonable
assurance that the residue of the crop will not be burned up before
he will be ready to return for it 10, 20, or 30 years hence. Adequate
protection also serves to stabilize recreational, wild life, and water
resource values. From the standpoint both of private and of public
values, its effect is tonic, with the benefit most pronounced where the

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 805

susceptibility of the forests to fire damage and the exposure to fires
are greatest.

Protection the major activity of State forestry departments. — In a con-
siderable number of States, forestry departments were first brought
into existence to provide for organized systems of protection against
forest fires. This is particularly true in the South and the far West.
In some other States great fire disasters that caused terrible losses of
property and life so aroused public sentiment as to cause very sub-
stantial increases of appropriations and authority. In nearly all
States the maintenance of the protective system is the most out-
standing form of forestry activity. The problems of protection are
still for most States urgent, and in many cases will probably con-
tinue for years to demand major attention. While protection is not
as yet generally adequate, it is the greatest accomplishment of State
forestry. More constructive effort has been put into it and more
money spent on it than on any other form of forest activity. It has
demanded the services of both administrators and investigators.
The development of its technique has been one of the most notable
achievements of forestry in the United States.

While State forest protection has been immensely stimulated by
the Federal aid offered under the Weeks law of 1911 and the Clarke-
McNary law of 1924, progress in efficiency has not come about merely
because there was more money to spend. It has been no less due to
the ability and determination of the State forestry officers. A number
have built up forest fire organizations that use practically all of the
most up-to-date methods; others have made substantial progress
even under very discouraging conditions.

Organization and methods. — Thirty years ago forest fires were rarely
fought at all except as they endangered other property. Then it was
a case of neighbor help neighbor when a fire became an obvious
menace; and the equipment and methods used were of the crudest.
A forked stick for clearing a line through the leaves, a piece of brush
or a wet gunny sack to beat down the blaze, and garden shovels, hoes,
and rakes were the common implements. There was no order, no
planned organization, no conception of the strategy and methods
necessary in fighting big fires, no knowledge of their behavior, no
system of detection and speedy alarm, no preparation beforehand for
swift attack, and only the most elementary beginnings of fire pre-
vention.

All of this has changed . State and Federal agencies working together
have evolved organizations, equipment, and methods that work with
precision and dispatch and are fairly well standardized throughout
the country. Observation stations of steel or wood placed high enough
to command an extensive view, often on towers rising more than
100 feet from the ground, now dot much of the wooded area of the
country. When the systems are completed these stations will afford
a coordinated and interlocking oversight of entire regions from stra-
tegic points 15 to 20 miles apart on an average — though the distances
vary greatly with the topography and other factors that determine the
range of visibility. Already the stations embraced in the State pro-
tective systems number more than 800. In some localities they dove-
tail with the detection systems maintained by the Federal Government
on the national forests, now equipped with nearly 1,400 lookout
stations.

806 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

From the glass-enclosed cupolas on top of the towers qualified men
maintain a watch for the first sign of rising smoke that betokens the
beinning of a fire. Equipped with binoculars, maps, and instruments,
they are able to place the fires reasonably closely. When one is dis-
covered the alarm is immediately transmitted by telephone to rangers
or wardens, who are expected to be in readiness to start at once for
the reported location of the fire. They are provided with up-to-date
fire-fighting equipment. It still includes shovels and hoes, but
increasing use is made of horse-drawn or motor-drawn plows and of
special implements and machinery of various kinds. Water-throw-
ing devices are very generally employed; they include not only
knapsack pumps that are operated by hand but also portable power
pumps that can be set down wherever water is obtainable and will
deliver a stream through a hose to a fire that may be a mile distant.
There are hundreds of these power pumps and thousands of the
knapsack pumps in use today.

This is only a glimpse at a single part of the entire organization
necessary for an efficient system of protection, but it will give some
idea of the care and thoroughness with which the work must be
planned beforehand and every eventuality made ready for. For fires
which reach a size too great for one man to handle crews must be
assembled and dispatched, in accordance with arrangements previ-
ously made for bringing them together and getting them off swiftly,
with the necessary equipment and competent leadership. Fire fight-
ing is an art which must be learned through special training and
experience, and the leaders must be given this training if the crews
are to function effectively. The greatest possible speed in discover-
ing, reporting, and moving against the fire is one of the fundamentals;
competence in handling it is another; not to leave until it is dead
out, another. Detection and suppression, however, are far from con-
stituting the full field of the activities of a modern protective organi-
zation. The State foresters lay nearly, if not fully, as much stress on
measures of prevention.

Regulatory laws make possible some control of the conditions which
tend to cause fires, and law enforcement through discovering the
persons who have set or caused fires, collecting the evidence neces-
sary to establish their guilt in a court of law, and bringing about their
prosecution, is an important deterrent of subsequent negligence or
incendiarism. Still more important is effective use of all possible
instrumentalities of public education. The press, the radio, publi-
cations, lectures, moving pictures, and even proclamations by the
governors are made use of.

There is pretty general agreement as to the best type of organi-
zation for a State protective system and the best methods to be used
in the protective work, and the States are gradually approaching a
common pattern. However, there is still a decided diversity in their
organization, their methods of financing the work, the progress they
have made, and the results they obtain. The State foresters are
circumscribed in what they can do by controlling legislation and by
their appropriations. The length of time that the Forestry Depart-
ment has been engaged in the work of protection also has a good
deal to do with the stage of progress reached and the results ob-
tained. For example, educational work is cumulative in its results
as the years pass.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 807

Reference has already been made to the laws governing the appoint-
ment of the State foresters. In a number of States the position is one
which may be subjected to political pressure. In a few cases this
untoward influence may carry down through the field force of fire
wardens or rangers.

The method provided for selecting the local field force differs rather
widely. In some States, for example, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Connecticut, the wardens are chosen by the State forester. In other
States, as in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, they are at least
suggested by town officers, and in some of the far Western States the
organization of the protective force is principally in the hands of
timberland owners' associations. There are also wide differences in
the method of financing the protection activity. In 18 States no part
of the expense is borne by the private owner. In Kentucky, West
Virginia, Montana, Idaho, California, Oregon, and Washington the
expense is divided between the public and the landowners, the public
share being derived partly from the Federal cooperative contributions
and partly from State funds. Three of these States (Montana, Idaho,
and Washington) confine the expenditures of their own funds to State-
owned lands.

In New Hampshire, all owners of 1,000 acres or more must furnish
protection up to a certain cost per acre. In Vermont, owners of
unoccupied or unenclosed forest land may be caUed upon to meet a
portion of the cost of suppression when it exceeds a fixed ratio of the
taxes to be raised in a town. In the so-called " forestry district" of
Maine, the fire protection funds are raised by a 2% mill tax on all
property. Most of this region is timbered, so that the tax practically
amounts to the timberland owners bearing the burden. In Connec-
ticut, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Oregon, and
Washington, a part of the expense is placed upon the counties; in
California, a part may be assumed by the counties; in Maine (outside
the forestry district), New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New York, and Wisconsin, a part is placed upon the
towns. Meager State appropriations rather than laws have laid a
large share of the cost of protection upon cooperating timberland
owners in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Okla-
homa, and South Carolina, and to a less degree in Texas.

Except for relatively small areas, protection effort is now State-
wide in most regions. In the central group of States, however, only
about 30 percent of the area and in the southern group only 24 percent
are under organized protection. Lack of sufficient money and the
short time since protection activities were initiated are largely re-
sponsible for incomplete coverage of the area in these two regions.
Dearth of funds is of course partly a reflection of lethargic public
sentiment.

Results obtained by the States. — The results of organized protection
by the States are more real than apparent. Along with the develop-
ment of protection methods there has been taking place the tremen-
dous development of automobile travel and road systems, which has
brought a vast increase in the fire danger. Streams of people now
pour year after year into and through the wooded country. Campers,
picnickers, hunters, fishermen, and mere travelers along the roads
make up a veritable host of potential fire causers. Rarely do they
purposely set fire to the woods ; ordinarily they doubtless never know

168342°— 33— vol. 1 52

808

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

it when they have been fire causers. The thoughtless discarding of
burning matches and tobacco is an example of the forms of careless-
ness that may easily originate a fire which does not become evident
until the person responsible for it is far on his way. On their face,
the statistics relating to the number and the size of fires fail to give a
fair picture of what has actually been accomplished in fire protection.
This is notably true in the South, where, as protection has been ex-
tended more widely, better data on fires have been obtained, with the
result that the count doubtless includes many fires about which, had
they occurred in earlier years, nothing would have been known.
Reports from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, in both of which
State- wide protection has been in effect long enough to make the data
reasonably comparable for a series of years, show in one case an
apparent trend in the direction of a smaller average size of fire and
in the other a trend in the direction of a smaller number of fires.
There are, however, too many variables that affect the record to per-
mit of drawing any definite conclusion, one way or the other, from
these figures. Table 4 shows the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
record.

TABLE 4. — Number and average size of forest fires in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania

by years, 1921-31

Year

Massachusetts

Pennsylvania

Number of
fires

Average size

Number of
fires

Average size

1921...

2,849
4,099
2,672
3,735
3,310
2,860
2,029
930
1,198
1,922
1,195

Acres
10
21
18
13
13
12
17
14
14
38
16

2,384
3,634
3,539
1,998
2,603
2,916
1,247
2,534
2, 461
i 6, 789
2 4, 014

Acres
78
91
106
48
49
47
30
44
17
46
37

1922

1923.- . . -

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928... .

1929

19301

1931

1930 was a very severe fire year.

1931 was a severe fire year in Pennsylvania.

A comparison of the results of protection in the several forest
regions will serve to throw light on what the States are doing. Vari-
ous indicators of the accomplishments will be successively considered.
It should be borne in mind that no one of these indicators by itself
affords a satisfactory basis for judging as to the results. In combi-
nation, they bring out a single composite picture.

The diversity of conditions in the several regions has to be taken
into account in interpreting the tabulated data. It is much easier
in some regions than in others to make a good showing. Climate,
terrain, the character of the vegetation, available roads, population
density, water supplies, and the like interact with the preparedness,
equipment, and general efficiency of the organization to affect 'the
result. Again, the importance of confining all fires to a small area
varies greatly. To attempt to give equally intensive protection
everywhere would be unjustifiable; costs must be balanced against
results. Where fires are likely to start at remote points in sparsely
settled country and run fast through open forests or over grasslands

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

809

without doing much damage, it would be extravagant to maintain
a protective system designed to insure keeping all the fires small,
and impossible to obtain a showing of results in this respect which
would compare favorably with those easily attainable and necessary
to seek under the opposite conditions.

In the section of this report entitled " Protection Against Fire"
the regional expenditures for the protection of State and private
lands are compared on the basis of the ratio between the annual
expenditures and the total acreage of these lands needing protection.
For the period 1927-30 the annual per acre expenditures averaged,
on this basis, as follows:

Cents

Central 0. 40

South . 43

South Rocky Mountain .89

New England 1. 94

Cents
Lake 2. 01

Middle Atlantic 2. 77

Pacific coast 3. 28

North Rockv Mountain __ _ 5. 90

Neither as an indicator of the varying cost of adequate protection
in the several regions nor as an indicator of the relative intensiveness
with which the States are actually applying protection does this
showing accurately reflect the situation. In the two regions in which
the lowest expenditures are shown only a minor fraction of the forest
area in need of protection is receiving it. The coverage in the cen-
tral region is only a little more than one third and in the South only
about one fourth complete. In all the other regions but one, how-
ever, it is close to complete, and in that one is more than 92 percent
complete. Further, some expenditures are included outside those
made in maintaining the State protective systems. With due allow-
ance for these facts, the figures serve to give an approximate idea of the
cost of the protection that is being given in these eight forest regions.
The costs shown do not at all indicate the absolute per acre needs
of the several regions and indicate only in a very rough and tentative
way their comparative needs, concerning which more will be said
later. It should be borne in mind also that the expenditures of the
individual States within a region often vary substantially.

Table 5 compares the results during the period 1926-30, by regions,
in terms of the total number of fires, the number per 100,000 acres
protected, their average size, and the ratio between area protected
and protected area burned.

TABLE 5. — Regional results of protection as shown by the number and average size
of fires and by the ratio between area protected and area burned over. Average for
years 1926-30

Region

Fires

Area
burned per
100,000
acres pro-
tected

Number

Average
size

Total

Per 100,000
acres pro-
tected

New England _

3,643
6,590
4,918
2,868
15,893
4,964
1,166
149

11.7
21.4
9.5
18.8
31.0
12.5
9.3
3.2

Acres
26.3
49.7
113. 3
96.0
106.7
192.4
93.2
33.3

Acres
308
1,081
1,081
1,803
3,301
2,415
871
109

Middle Atlantic

Lake --

Central

South . -

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain

South Rocky Mountain

810 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

There is a discrepancy between the showing made in table 5 of the
area burned per 100,000 acres protected and some apparently corre-
sponding data in the sections of this report entitled "Protection
Against Fire" and " Federal Financial and Other Direct Aid to the
States." The discrepancy is due to the fact that, for the purposes of
the present table, the area protected is reckoned on the basis of the
entire area covered by the protective set-up, irrespective of the
character of the cover. Brush and grass lands 'must often be pro-
tected along with forest lands if fire is to be kept out of the forest.

The last three columns in table 5 show the comparative standings
of the regions when rated on the basis, respectively, of the number of
fires for a uniform acreage under protection, the average size of the
fires, and the average yearly burn for a uniform acreage. On each
basis a different order is set up. Average expenditures per acre pro-
duced the order shown on page 809. None of these comparisons bring
definitely into the picture such essential parts of it as the varying
difficulty of the job and the degree of intensiveness of protection which
the varying values at stake and their varying susceptibility to fire
damage justify. Nor do they take into account what proportion of
the entire area needing protection is actually receiving it.

Disregarding for the moment the showing of the South Rocky
Mountain region, which is due to exceptional circumstances, not to
intensive State protection, New England is here shown as outstand-
ing in the low ratio of area burned to area protected. This reflects
in part favorable conditions for keeping fires small, in part the fact
that protection is strongly backed by public sentiment, well supported
financially, well organized, and strengthened through long seasoning —
a product of many years of continuous upbuilding. The North Rocky
Mountain region takes its place next to New England, and slightly
above the Lake region, in spite of the fact that it includes the part of
the country where climate, topography, and wilderness conditions
combine to make the problems of effective protection more difficult
than anywhere else in the United States. In the North Rocky Moun-
tain region the loss which may result from fires on the State and pri-
vate lands covered by the State protective system is so great that the
owners consider much heavier per acre expenditures than are made
anywhere else fully justified. The average of nearly 6 cents per acre
per year was shown on page 809 to be far above that of any other
region; and even so, the average partially disguises the situation from
the fact that it is held down by relatively low protective costs in
southern Idaho and in eastern and central Montana, as compared with
western Montana and northern Idaho, where the average expenditures
may run more than twice as high as the regional average. It should
be said, too, that the severest task of protection in this region falls
upon the Federal Forest Service, in taking care of the national forests,
which generally speaking are less accessible, higher lying, and of more
rugged terrain than the State and private lands.

The South rates lowest in the comparative showing based on the
ratio of burn to the entire protected area, partly because in the
"piney woods" country fires easily run over large areas, often without
doing much damage, partly because the custom of woods burning is
deeply ingrained, partly because the State protective work is too new
to have gained a very firm hold. In the central region also the work
is relatively new, and further is not well supported, either financially

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 811

or by public opinion; the per-acre expenditures in this region are the
least anywhere. The Pacific Coast region rates between the Southern
and the Central region, in spite of the fact that its average per-acre
expenditures is exceeded only by that of the North Rocky Mountain
region. This is chiefly due to the fact that in a large part of the
Pacific Coast region protection is made difficult by a very protracted
dry season, and brush and grass fires are likely to spread fast and run
widely.

Of the seven States comprising the south Rocky Mountain region
only three have entered into comparative agreements with the Federal
Government for the protection of any State or private lands against
forest fires, and of these three, two utilize in whole or in part the
organization maintained for protecting the national forests in lieu of
independent field organizations of their own. The total area of State
and private lands in the South Rocky Mountain region given protec-
tion in the years, 1926-30 exceeded 4,500,000 acres, but more than
96 percent of this area was protected by the national forest organiza-
tion. In New Mexico, which obtains an allotment of Federal cooper-
ative funds for protection, the actual doing of the work is made over
entirely to the Forest Service under a special arrangement in the
nature of a contract. This is because the State and private lands pro-
tected are either intermingled with national forest lands or so close
to them that a single protective system affords the most practical
and economical means of doing what is really aU one job. In Nevada
the Federal and State organizations, while mainly separate, partly
coalesce. In the rest of the States in this group, except South Dakota
(which has a field protective organization primarily to take care of the
Custer State Park), such protection of State and private lands as is
afforded by a public agency is given by the Forest Service in connec-
tion with national forest protection and in consequence of the fact
that to protect the national forests it is necessary to protect also inter-
mingled or adjacent lands not federally owned. To a small extent
the apparent relationships shown in table 5 for other western regions
may lack accuracy because of a similar inclusion of results of protec-
tion incidentally given by the national forest organization with the
results of protection given through State protective organizations.

The South Rocky Mountain reg-ion affords less of an opening for
State forestry than the other regions because the national forests
include the great bulk of the productive timberlands. Also, the task
of protection is lighter in this region than almost anywhere else. An
evidence is the relatively low expenditures of the region shown on
page 809; incomplete data indicate an expenditure of only 9 mills
annually. On the other hand, New England and the Lake States spend
about 2 cents an acre, the Middle Atlantic States about 2.75 cents, the
Pacific Coast States about 3.25 cents, and the North Rocky Mountain
region nearly 6 cents.

To obtain a means of setting up suitable standards of performance
or objectives in protection, and to provide a criterion for judging the
satisfactoriness of the actual performance measured against the ob-
jective, the Forest Service and a number of the States employ a
method of rating comparative protection requirements in terms of what
is known as " allowable burn." This is an arithmetically expressed
judgment of the maximum amount of injury by fire that a given type
of forest can be subjected to without serious impairment of the forest

812 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

values basic to the predominant purposes of management. While
the damage done to the forest by individual fires varies widely, even
in a given type of forest, depending upon the intensity of the fire and
the particular condition of the area, if a sufficiently large area is under
consideration it is possible to fix upon a protection objective based on
average consequences. Over a long term of years, if the annual burn
does not average above a certain small percentage of the total area
under protection, the aggregate injury done will not, from the stand-
point of the total area, generally defeat the purposes of management —
though it may in individual cases; just as a satisfactorily efficient city
fire department provides no guarantee that an individual business
with fire risk uncovered by insurance may not be bankrupted by a
bad fire on its premises, or that a conflagration may not deal the whole
city a severe blow. In other words, "allowable burn" does not mean
that if fires are held, over a term of years, to an area limitation of a
certain annual percentage of the entire area protected, damage will
be eliminated or ruinous losses will universally be put an end to ; but
it sets up an objective of public policy based on what appears to be
necessary in the interest of the general welfare. Beyond that, the
problems are individual and are left to the individual.

Whether protection that conforms with standards thus established
may appropriately be designated as " satisfactory " depends on the
meaning attached to this word. To assume that any standards now
set up will be permanently satisfactory would be unwise. Time brings
progress. Whether the passenger automobiles of today can be termed
satisfactory machines depends on the viewpoint. Certainly they are
not satisfactory to their manufacturers; each year sees changes in
the models. So it is with forest-fire protection. One or more States
are even now keeping their fires within limits that they set up as ob-
jectives a number of years ago. Most of them are not, but they are
striving for it. Some may not be making rapid progress, for reasons
beyond their control. Some may have set up goals beyond their
reach, beyond what the State and cooperating agencies can or will pay
for at present. In no case, however, is the organization resting on its
oars. Improvement of the personnel, of the equipment, of relations
with the public, and of methods are being sought even in the States
that are already accomplishing all that they set out to do.

In another section of this report, entitled Protection Against Fire,
the authors have set up standards by which to rate the adequacy of
the protection now being given the forests of the country regionally,
through a comparison between "allowable burn" and actual burn.
Table 6 shows the results obtained in the 5-year period 1926-30 and
the relationship between these results and the degree of intensiveness
of protection which would be necessary to make the average annual
burn equal to the "allowable burn" as estimated by the Forest Serv-
ice, on the basis of present knowledge. The 5-year period is too short
to afford an entirely dependable basis for a rating of the performances ;
but the progress that is steadily being made by the States in the effec-
tiveness of the protective work and in the extension of the area covered
would tend to make the showing less, rather than more representative
were the record prior to 1926 included. Because the figures for the
South Rocky Mountain region do not represent the results of organ-
ized protection administered by the States themselves, this region
is not brought into the showing.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FOEESIEY

813

TABLE 6. — Regional results of protection as shown by the ratio of the "allowable
burn" to the area burned over annually

Region

Allowable
burn

Protected area

Total area (including
unprotected)

Actually
burned
1926-30
average

Percent
adequate

Actually
burned
1926-30
average

Percent
adequate

New England

Percent
0. 16
.35
.36
.59
1.34
.49
1.05

Percent
0.31
1.08
1.08
1.80
3.30
2.41
.87

51.6
32.7
33.3
32.8
40.6
20.3
120.7

Percent
0.31
1.04
0)
3.16
19.01
2.43
1.04

51.6
33.7
0)
18.7
7.0
20.2
101.0

Middle Atlantic - -

Lake

Central

South . .

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain

1 Data not available.

Measured by this yardstick, the North Rocky Mountain region
makes the best showing, New England comes a long distance below,
and the other regions take their places still farther down.

Conditions necessary for efficiency. — Various reasons may account
for an unsatisfactory situation, where one exists — personnel, type of
organization, political interference, lack of suitable legislation, in-
ability to obtain law enforcement, lack of money, newness of the
work, and so on. The most important single requirement for success,
of course, is suitable financial support.

Most States have not as yet provided adequate financing of the
job. The total estimated cost of adequate protection as worked out
in 1930 for each State by the individual State forestry departments
in cooperation with the Forest Service was $13,386,000; while cal-
culated by regions on the basis of the standards set up in the section
of this report entitled, Protection Against Fire, the total estimated
cost of adequate protection is placed at approximately $20,000,000.
The State budgets for 1933 provide a total of $6,142,500; this includes
all State, Federal, and private funds that will be available for expen-
diture under State supervision. While these budgeted expenditures
will be considerably augmented by independent private protection
work, the gap left will still be of very formidable dimensions.

Of equal importance is stability of funds. To have an effective
organization there must be a substantial measure of permanency
in the field force, so as to build up and utilize experience. Wide
fluctuations in the financial provisions for the work disrupt its con-
tinuity. ^ Where dependence must be placed principally or largely
upon private cooperative funds, or game and fish license receipts,
or taxes upon timber or timber products, the revenue is likely to
fluctuate, making the organization unstable. Several of the Southern
States derive most of their financial support other than the Federal
contribution from the voluntary cooperation of private owners,
which in times of depression falls off materially. In a few of the far
Western States, where private participation in the expense of pro-
tection is required by law, participation can be avoided by allowing
the lands to revert for taxes. There is no assurance of continuous
protection of the lands after they have been logged and the valuable
merchantable material removed. Their owners may feel it economi-

814 A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

cally unsound to meet the cost of protecting cut-over lands. That
receipts from severance taxes or other special taxes form an uncertain
source of funds is exemplified by the case of one of the Southern
States, in which a fall in the proceeds of a special tax from about
$50,000 in 1928 to $20,000 in 1932 necessitated a reduction of 3K
million acres in the forest area protected and forced the dismissal of
several of the key men in the State organization.

Next to the amount of money available for the support of the work,
the most important factor in determining the degree of success is per-
sonnel. Everyone will concede that there are differences of ability in
the personnel of the many State organizations, both in the higher and
in the subordinate positions. It could not be otherwise. It is
reflected, naturally, in the accomplishments. Good men even in a
poor type of organization will accomplish a great deal.

Yet they cannot accomplish the impossible. They can only very
gradually reduce the number of fires and area burned. Bad years
will completely upset their record. They cannot change lifetime
woods-burning habits or woods-burning indifference amongst the great
mass of the population of a State without years of persistent and
patient effort. The fire record of the South suffers because of the
fact that protection is a comparatively recent undertaking in that
region. It will improve; it has already improved greatly, as a
result of organized effort, in much of the region. Protection cannot
be so good, other things being equal, in ja State that has only under-
taken the job within the last 5 years as in one that has been at it for
20 years. It takes time to build up public interest, methods, the
physical plant, and personnel.

Developments in State forest fire protection have come along
gradually. They will doubtless proceed gradually in the future,
with acceleration particularly in the Southern and Central States.
There will be no overnight changes. The principles underlying suc-
cess in this activity, however, are now well known in all States, the
technique applied to the job is improving, the suppression equipment
is vastly better than formerly and is constantly being added to and
improved (use of the airplane and the radio are recent developments),
and public sentiment is increasingly favorable.

The State organizations have directed their effort and thought upon
the forest fire problem to good effect. Given the funds, the legisla-
tion, and the time, they have demonstrated their capacity to cope with
it. Their understanding of local conditions, habits of the people, and
sentiment has been a big factor in their progress. It seems evident
that centering forest fire protection of State and privately owned
lands in the State organization is the key to its successful prosecution.
There is no good reason for other than steady progress in this field.
The work will, of course, be more capably administered in some
States than in others. Situations will doubtless arise that will call
for a change in personnel. Additional legislation is necessary here
and there ; more emphasis could well be placed on prevention measures;
but, in the by and large, sufficient funds and time are the two main
essentials.

Forest fire protection is now handled as a joint cooperative enter-
prise of the States and the Federal Government. Aside from the
Federal funds supplied, the newly organized State forestry depart-
ments, at least, are tremendously benefited by having thus made

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 815

available to them the fund of experience gained in the protection of
Federal forest lands and in the protective activities of other cooperat-
ing States. The history, progress, and results of this cooperative
enterprise are discussed fully in the section Federal Financial and
Other Direct Aid to the States.

It cannot be expected that the set-ups for protection in the various
States will all fit precisely the same pattern. At least there will be
differences in details. Nevertheless, from experience gained to date,
it seems possible to outline the general features best adapted to meet
the needs.

Forest protection against fire is a specialized activity. During the
last 30 years there has been built up a body of knowledge of the
behavior of fire under varying conditions, the causes of fire, and the
most effective methods of preventing and suppressing fires, which
warrants calling the protection job a technician's job. While forest
protection against fire is not by itself the practice of forestry, nor is a
technician in protection necessarily on that account a technical
forester, the art and the science of fire control pertain to the art and the
science of forestry, and other things being equal, a protective organiza-
tion in which well -trained and experienced technical foresters largely
fill the higher positions is much more likely to be effective than an
organization little influenced by professional education, contacts, and
attitudes.

This is the more important because as a public activity protection
should be directed from a forestry viewpoint. Its objectives are
forestry objectives. It should be planned along lines designed pri-
marily to safeguard the future welfare and productiveness of the
forest as a resource, not simply to safeguard private property in
standing timber. Consequently, while it would be erroneous to
hold that a good administrator of a State system of fire protection
cannot be developed from a capable woodsman qualified for executive
and managerial responsiblities but untrained in technical forestry, as
a rule and in the long run recognition of the job as one which should
be either performed or supervised by a trained forester will bring the
best results.

Were the protective work the only need of the State in forestry, the
advantage in having a technical forester in charge of it, as against a
competent nontechnical man with the right viewpoint, would not
always be very material. But the interests of the States call for a
work of all-around leadership toward better use of the forest resources.
Rarely is the undertaking of the State in forestry confined wholly to
protection. Even where the immediate reason for organizing a
forestry department has been to provide the machinery necessary in
order to qualify for Federal cooperation in the work of protection, the
basic law ordinarily contemplates other activities. The State for-
ester's function normally includes a broad leadership in forestry
generally through enlightening the public, assembling the informa-
tion necessary to guide the development of a sound State policy of
forestry, and giving expert advice in the fields both of public and of
private policies and practices. In addition the State forester may
and ordinarily does have technical duties either of forest land adminis-
tration or of forest-nursery management.

It has already been brought out that in an overwhelming majority
of cases State departments of forestry are now headed by technically

816 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

trained foresters, although only in a small minority of cases is this
required by law — plain evidence that the desirability of placing the
work in the hands of professional foresters has been generally recog-
nized. Some States make legislative provision for a chief fire warden
under the State forester. Where the position is not specifically
created by law, the typical organization of the work of his department
set up by the State forester usually places one man in general charge,
under him, of the protection activity. A functional staff organization
in the State forester's office with specialists in charge of the several
lines of work is customarily supplemented by a territorial organiza-
tion under which the State is divided into districts, each with a dis-
trict forester in immediate charge, in varying degree, of all the activi-
ties of the Department within his territory. This general form of
organization corresponds closely with that of the Forest Service for
the entire country, and has pretty well established itself as the most
effective type of set-up where the work has attained important
dimensions, with diversified activities. The local wardens or rangers,
lookout men, and other members of the field protective organization
are under the direct supervision of the district foresters, who should
generally so far as possible be men of professional training.

As in any private business, the efficiency and competence of a State
forestry organization is determined by the efficiency and competence
of its chief executive within the limits of the possibilities afforded by
the resources at his command and the conditions with which he is
confronted. Nothing is more important than a machinery of organi-
zation likely to obtain a State forester who, in addition to being a
technically trained man of good experience, has the initiative, energy,
sound judgment, ability to lead and to inspire confidence, and other
qualities essential for a successful executive. This is a matter, first,
of selection, and secondly, of oversight. There must, of course, be
oversight, to assure that the responsibilities of the position are fully
met, and means of bringing about a change where the best interests of
the work call for a change of leadership. How to obtain in the admin-
tration of public enterprises high-grade executive ability and how to
provide for a proper oversight of the way in which responsibilities
are discharged is one of the problems of government.

The greatest obstacle to more satisfactory conditions is the degree
to which divided purposes enter into the administration of the public
activities. In the struggle of contending parties, groups, and indi-
viduals for political power the use of offices, of the public payroll, and
of administrative courses and decisions as aids in gaining or holding
power is bound to take place unless there are restraining forces or
bars. Hence the development of devices designed to enable adminis-
tration to be carried on with as much separation as possible from politi-
cal considerations in the narrow meaning of the term. Essentially,
they are devices to protect the public against political racketeering.
Civil service laws to insure the filling of positions on a basis of merit,
the elimination of incompetent employees, and the protection of all
incumbents against dismissal, demotion, or failure to receive advance-
ment on other grounds than the efficiency of the work are one of the
devices to this end.

There use in State governments is, as a rule, rather limited.
Whether or not they are used, they do not obviate the need for some
means of obtaining accountability of the man at the head of an organ-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 817

ization for the quality of performance of his unit, or for means of
directing policies and tying them in with the general program and
purposes of the State government as a whole. To meet the latter
need, the device of directive boards or permanent commissions
intended to function essentially as do the boards of directors of corpo-
rations has been widely used.

There are some obvious drawbacks to this form of organization.
On the other hand, it has some outstanding merits, and in the main
appears to meet most closely the needs of State forestry work. This
is most true before the department has attained the stability and
prestige that come with time and widespread popular endorsement
of its activities.

Sound principles of administration may seem to be violated by a
plan which diminishes the control of the Governor of the State, as
its supreme executive, over all its departments. The multiplication
of semi-independent departments through the setting up of one
commission after another has undoubtedly tended to make State
governments unduly complex, cumbersome, decentralized, and
expensive. For one thing, this increases the difficulty of firm fiscal
control. On the other hand, oversight of the work of the State
forester by a nonpolitical board with staggered terms of several years
not only safeguards the work very substantially against being political-
ized but also pretty well guarantees stability of policies. With an
interested and capable board, it affords wise guidance of the depart-
ment, support of and assistance to the State forester in accordance
with his merits and the need of assistance from his directors to accom-
plish his purposes, and a suitable body for sizing up his efficiency and,
in case of need, replacing him by a stronger man. But to obtain
these results the board must be in fact nonpolitical as well as capable ;
must command enough public confidence in both respects so that
neither its motives nor the soundness of its judgment will be open to
reaonable suspicion; and must be sufficiently interested in the work
to be always in full touch with it. Such results are not assured merely
by setting up the board or commission form of organization.

It goes without saying that, whatever the method provided for
selecting the State forester, merit only should govern both his appoint-
ment and his retention in office. In public business, as in private,
nothing else plays so large a part in determining success as the quali-
fications for his job of the man in charge. Two dangers to be partic-
ularly guarded against in public administration are, on the one
hand, that mediocre men will be put in and, having once got in, will
become permanent fixtures, and, on the other hand, that good men
will not be given the support and the freedom from political inter-
ference necessary for large accomplishment. With conspicuously
competent State foresters in every State, properly backed up by
public opinion and given a fair chance by the State, the forest situa-
tion of the country would take on a different aspect.

The subordinate year-long personnel of the departments should be
subject to the same conditions of appointment and retention on a
merit basis solely as the State forester himself; their choice should
be in his hands. The field force of part-time men, ordinarily called
fire wardens and patrolmen, should be subject to supervision by the
State forester, should also be chosen and retained on the basis of
merit only, and preferably should be appointed by the State forester

818 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICA^ FORESTRY

without interference from other sources ; if they are appointed or sug-
gested for appointment by town or county officials, the State forester
should have absolute authority to approve or reject them and to
dismiss them for cause.

The organization should embody to a well-balanced degree the
features of prevention, detection, and prompt suppression of fires.

Well organized prevention must give an important place to vigorous
and sustained educational activities, conducted through varied means
of reaching the public, which should include suitable provision for
press contacts and publicity. Prevention should include also the
taking of special precautions during the dangerous fire season —
sending put fire warnings to the public, the use of patrolmen, close
cooperation with the State police, strict enforcement of laws, such
as the permit and the brush disposal laws, designed to hold in check
the originating and the spread of fires, and closing of the woods when
necessary by proclamation of the governor. Prevention of fires
should have a more prominent place in the picture, be given more
persistent attention, than is commonly the case now.

Detection of fires should be provided for by well constructed and
well distributed observation stations, each in charge of a man sup-
plied with equipment for locating fires and connected by good tele-
phone service with the fire suppression forces. His duty is to discover
and report promptly woods fires that come within his vision. He
should be closely supervised by his superior officer. Detection may
require the use of airplanes now and then, at times when the observa-
tion stations are not effective or in places where they do not suffici-
ently command a view of the entire terrain. The major uses of air-
planes in protection, however, are now in suppression activities, to
scout fires and to transport men and supplies rapidly. Detection
should be improved by inducing landowners, residents, and the
traveling public to report all fires promptly.

The State suppression force must be organized with two funda-
mental points in mind. The first is that of starting promptly to a
fire with equipment and men as soon as it is reported ; the second is
that of staying with it until it is dead out. Presuppression activities,
getting ready for fires, should be well looked after. Equipment should
be purchased, put in first-class shape, and made available for quick
use; needed roads and trails should be developed as rapidly as possi-
ble; sources of water should be located, marked, and improved; the
men in permanent employ should be schooled and trained in the best
known methods of fire suppression; they should be required to know
their territory intimately; crews of fire fighters should be organized
beforehand wherever that is possible; and arrangements should be
made in advance for transportation, food, and other supplies for fire
fighters in those relatively inaccessible regions where it is necessary
to provide camps for the men. Preparation for fires and training of
men to apply the most up-to-date suppression technique known are the
two main essentials of success.

The methods set up for protection are in a constant evolutionary
process. They are being improved all the time. The emphasis given
to various elements of the field organization will vary by States and
regions. Forces of men that can be quickly mobilized and trans-
ported to the fires are fundamental features. Up-to-date equipment
in good repair and in sufficient quantities is essential. Adequate and

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

819

competent supervision of the fire-fighting crews is tremendously
important. And last, determination and everlasting persistency until
a fire is completely extinguished are necessary.

State ownership and management of forest land may be the key
to successful forest fire protection in some States. The man in charge
of a State forest and the crew of men working there can very well be
the nucleus of the fire-fighting force that serves the surrounding
region. Where this plan is already in effect, it is proving very satis-
factory. It seems like the logical development in any State that is
building up a system of State forests.

Division of costs. — Table 7 shows, by regions, the present distribu-
tion of the costs of maintaining the State systems of cooperative
protection.

TABLE 7. — Distribution of cooperative fire protection costs among the participating
agencies by regions, fiscal year 1932

Region

Expenditures

Distribution of expenditures

Total

Federal

State,
county,
and
town

Private

Federal

State,
county,
and
town

Private

New England

$500, 771
1, 039, 271
1, 547, 323
217, 482
900, 633
1, 258, 231

459, 606
17, 796

$132, 047
173, 166
278, 746
90, 499
407, 989
386, 133

99,396
4,387

$354, 930
863, 743
1, 246, 361
107, 920
313,341
298, 098

86, 333
4,081

$13, 794
2,362
22, 216
19, 063
179, 303
574,000

273, 877
9,328

Percent
26.37
16.66
18.01
41.61
45.30
30.69

21.63
24.65

Percent
70.88
83.11
80.55
49.62
34.79
23.69

18.78
22.93

Percent
2.75
.23

1.44
8.77
19.91
45.62

59.59
52.42

Middle Atlantic

Lake States

Central

South

Pacific Coast—.

North Rocky Moun-
tain

South Rocky Moun-
tain

Total

5,941,113

1, 572, 363

3, 274, 807

1, 093, 943

26.47

55.12

18.41

A glance at the percentages in the last three columns of the table
shows great variations between regions in the relative share of the
Federal Government, the State and local governments, and the pri-
vate owners. Thus, in the Middle Atlantic region the private con-
tribution in 1932 was only a small fraction of 1 percent of the total,
in the Lake region it was less than 1.5 percent, and in New England
was 2.75 percent, but in the South it was nearly 20 percent and in
the 3 western regions ranged from a little less than 46 percent up to
nearly 60 percent. The Federal contribution was greatest in the
South, where it exceeded 45 percent, and least in the Middle Atlantic
region, where it was less than 17 percent; while the share carried by
the State and local governments was greatest in the Middle Atlantic
region (more than 83 percent) and least in the North Kocky Mountain
region (less than 19 percent).

Space does not permit going very far into the reasons, important
though they often are, for these regional variations; but it is nec-
essary to point out in a broad way what the variations signify.

The Weeks law, which inaugurated the policy of Federal coopera-
tion, merely required a State contribution at least equal to the Fed-
eral. The Clarke-McNary law of 1924 brought the private owners
into the picture. The law was based on a conception of the work
of protection as one in the benefits of which the Nation, the States,

820 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

and forest-land owners would all participate and towards the cost of
which all three of the parties in interest should contribute. In the
hearings on the bill prominence was given the idea that a reasonable
and fair apportionment of the cost would be obtained if the Federal
Government and the States should each pay one fourth of it and
the private owners one half. As a measure of the extent of the
Federal responsibility, this 1-1-2 ratio has ever since the passage of
the law been widely accepted. Table 7 shows that Federal expen-
ditures in 1932 made up 26.47 percent of the total.

The Clarke-McNary law, however, did not place any closer limi-
tation upon the Federal share of the cost than the old Weeks law
limit of 50 percent; and it broadened the earlier law by permitting
county, town, and private contributions toward maintaining the
protective system to count as part of the expenditures which the
Federal Government might match. It was not the purpose of the
law to lay down hard-and-fast requirements for the States with
respect to distributing the costs. What was sought was the enlist-
ment of all the agencies having interest, under such a form of arrange-
ment as might be held by each State most feasible and appropriate
to its own conditions. Consequently, the legislation has afforded a
highly flexible basis for building up Nation-wide protection adjusted
to local situations and regional needs and possibilities.

One of the objects sought in administering the Federal cooperative
work has been to extend as much encouragement as possible to the
States for its inauguration and to help get it on its feet after it has
been inaugurated. In some cases this leads to allotments ol Federal
funds substantially equal to one half the total expenditures. The
relatively high percentage oi the Federal contributions in the southern
and central regions shown in table 7 is thus explained.

The greatest divergence as between regions appears in the last
column of the table, with a spread in the private expenditures from
almost nothing in the Middle Atlantic region to nearly 60 percent
in the North Rocky Mountain region. Conversely, the State, county,
and town, contributions in the first-named region were 83 percent,
but in the second-named were only 19 percent. While some eastern
States require (as was previously pointed out) the payment by private
owners of a certain part of the protection costs, the general trend in
the East, except in the States embraced in the southern region, has
been toward recognizing protection as primarily a public obligation.
Nowhere has the conception of a Federal, State (or State, county,
and town) and private sharing in the cost on one-fourth and
one-half basis been accepted and applied as a working principle —
although the Pacific Coast group of States collectively happen to
show a fairly near approach to this distribution. In the West the
inclination has been to require the private owner to bear most of
the cost, beyond that met through Federal participation. The State
contribution in several of these States is largely because of State land
ownership, for the protection of which the State pays on the same
basis as would a private owner, in proportion to the acreage owned.
Were a deduction made of expenditures to protect State lands, the
relative participation of the Nation, the States, and private owners in
protecting private lands would show up in somewhat different ratios
from those presented in table 7.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 821

In the South, where the Federal Government bears for the region as
a whole 45 percent of the cost, the States and local governments 35
percent, and the private owners 20 percent, the newness of the work
in most of the region, the relatively small scale on which the States
are prepared to finance the protective effort from their own treasuries,
and on the other hand the desire of a good many landowners to obtain
protection of their lands, have made this the only part of the East in
which the private contribution makes up a substantial part of the
total. The percentage derived from this source in some of the
Southern States is considerably greater than for the region as a whole.

It should always be borne in mind that what is under discussion
in this section is the protection against fire provided by means of
organized State activities, as a public function. Private owners
may, and in many cases do, make individual expenditures for the
protection of their own property independently of the public protec-
tive system, just as the owners of factories, stores, and residential
properties in cities supplement the protection afforded by municipal
fire departments and regulatory ordinances, through private installa-
tions and precautionary measures of various kinds. Table 7 takes
no account of such supplementary forest protection outlays by
individuals.

The distribution of costs as between the State on the one hand
and the counties or towns on the other hand takes many forms.
Sometimes it is a matter of individual arrangement. Frequently
either one half or all the cost of suppression is borne by the local units
of government — sometimes as an initial outlay, sometimes through a
requirement of reimbursement of expenditures made by the State.
Oregon and Washington require the counties to meet one third of the
State protection expenditures for all purposes, and Rhode Island
requires the towns to meet the entire cost but reimburses them for
half the outlay; and there are other forms of division. The require-
ment of an assumption of part of the cost of suppression by the local
political units seems desirable. It brings closer home the feeling of
responsibility for conditions likely to lead to fires, is thus of educa-
tional value, and may have a preventive effect.

PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS AND DISEASES

There has been no development of State organizations to meet the
damage and destruction caused by forest insects and forest-tree
diseases comparable to that for combating forest fires. This is not
because the damage from the former sources may not be great, but
because it is less spectacular, more insidious, and does not endanger
human lives. Further, widespread infestations are more difficult
if not more expensive to combat successfully. Great areas of forests
are laid waste by insects, and disease takes a tremendous toll of forest
trees either by killing them outright or by causing decay. The white-
pine blister rust is being strenuously combated by the cooperative
efforts of the Federal, State, and town governments and private own-
ers. Large sums of money are being spent in this effort.

The gypsy and brown-tail moths (both insects introduced from
abroad) have been particularly destructive to forest trees in the
northeastern States; heroic efforts and tremendous sums of money
have been spent by the States, Massachusetts in particular, to combat

822 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

them. The States have not succeeded in controlling the gypsy
moth; they have kept down its numbers, but now it threatens to
extend its range westward and southward.

In Maine large areas of spruce and fir have been killed by the
spruce bud worm, and attacks of the birch leaf miner are reaching
alarming proportions. A well-balanced entomological staff in Maine
keeps in close touch with insect depredations through the forest fire
organization, conducts careful studies, and makes recommendations
for control.

New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Ohio have made notable
progress in investigations of forest- tree insects.

Laws of California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Ver-
mont make it possible to require owners of property infested with
insects to take measures necessary for their control; those of Maine
and New Hampshire permit enforcement of private control measures
for white-pine blister rust, while those of New York and Vermont
do the same for any injurious diseases of forest trees.

REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

The State laws which impose restrictions upon private owners in
the United States are discussed in the section of this report entitled
Public Regulation of Private Forests. As is there shown, except in
Louisiana and New Hampshire State regulatory laws have not had
in view the requirement of practices of utilization designed to assure
the establishment of a new forest crop on the land cut over, but
have been limited to requirements relating to the control of fire,
insects, and disease. Of these the requirements designed to lessen
the fire danger are the most extensive and important at the present
time.

It is true, of course, that protection from fire is essential to the
establishment of a satisfactory new growth, and that with adequate
protection after lumbering forest perpetuation will in many cases be
accomplished without the application of silvicultural practices in
cutting the old stand; but broadly speaking, the objective of State
requirements relating to compulsory patrol, slash disposal, snag
felling, and the like is to prevent the spread of fire to surrounding
property and to facilitate the task of fire suppression as a general
public undertaking, rather than to maintain in a productive condition
the particular piece of land in immediate question. Regarded from
this standpoint, regulatory requirements relating to fire control are
largely a form of State aid to enterprises of forestry, supplementing
and integrating with the aid extended through organized systems of
protection.

Legal restrictions or regulations are one thing; their observance
and enforcement are another. The regulatory restrictions imposed
by State laws upon private owners of timberfand are in some cases
well observed and enforced, in a few practically inoperative, and in
others feebly or unevenly operative. Lack of observance by private
owners may be due to unfamiliarity with the laws, or to a lack of
respect for or belief in them, or to desire to escape expense. Their
enforcement by the States is not all that could be wished. Among the
reasons are the small number of men available for the work, the
extent and difficult character of the terrain which has to be covered,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 823

the hostility and obstruction often encountered, the lack of coopera-
tiveness in some cases on the part of the State's legal officers, and the
political influence which some law violators have and can bring to
bear. It must be said, moreover, that very commonly the State
organizations are not disposed to insist upon complete compliance
with the law or regulations. This is apparently due to the belief
that too strict methods will react unfavorably to their organization
and to the accomplishment of their objectives.

It is not surprising that reports concerning some States indicate
that of the regulatory measures relating to fire protection, the laws
requiring slash disposal and snag felling are not so well observed or
enforced as they might be, that costs of compulsory patrol are not
assessed in full against individual land owners, and that individuals
responsible for forest fires are not always punished. Nor have the
regulatory laws which in two States provide for leaving seed trees,
under certain conditions, on land that is being logged been generally
observed or enforced. It is encouraging, however, that the enforce-
ment of regulatory protective measures is improving, and is now much
better than it formerly was. With increasing public interest and
support, the task will grow less and less difficult.

The prospect for State regulation of logging operations is much
more dubious. As a rule, there is little public demand for it, or
persuasion that the public interest is in fact materially involved. An
exception to this is found in some of the States in which water re-
sources are of highest importance, and in one or two of these proposals
of regulatory laws designed to assure the protection of watersheds are
not unlikely to be advanced at almost any time, with strong backing
of public sentiment. The regulation of logging operations by single
States is certain to be made difficult by the objection that the opera-
tors might, and in some cases probably would, be placed at a financial
disadvantage as against operators in other States; though intelligent
regulation might sometimes have the effect of increasing rather than
decreasing the operator's net returns. Legislation might easily be
too ambitious, unnecessarily restrictive, founded in fact upon too
little knowledge either of the art of woods management or of the
operating problems of the lumberman. If the regulatory laws pro-
posed were of the type in effect in Sweden, where local boards on which
lumbermen are represented prescribe the measures to be followed on
each particular piece of timberland cut over, opposition would doubt-
less be more readily overcome and in time something practically useful
might be worked out. Effort directed along this line would be a
forward step.

STATE FOREST LAND ADMINISTRATION
STATE FOREST LAND OWNERSHIP

In past years the Forest Service has at various times obtained from
the several State forestry departments data on State forest holdings,
classified under the three heads of State forests, State parks, and other
forest lands. The classification was made by each informant in
accordance with the local terminology or point of view; and this
introduced various inconsistencies. The most recent compilation of

168342°— 33— vol. 1 53

824 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the data thus obtained, made under date of July 1, 1932, showed a
total of 7,822,439 acres of State forests, 730,293 acres of forested or
chiefly forested State parks, and 5,336,460 acres of other State forest
lands. The present report, based on other data, makes a considerably
different showing. The difference is mainly due to a more systematic
procedure, designed to classify on a clear-cut, consistent basis through-
out.

To obtain a uniform classification a set of definitions was drawn up.
State forests were defined as individual land areas either specifically
set aside by legislative act or established under legislative authority
contemplating their permanent retention and administration by the
State for forest (as distinguished from essentially park) purposes, and
organized in definite units of administration; while State parks were
divided into two classes, those chieflv forest and those not in major
part forest land. State parks falling in the latter class are left out of
consideration in this subsection. The definition adopted for the
former class limited them to areas maintained to serve public recrea-
tional and inspirational (scenic) needs, with or without watershed
protection as a secondary objective, and with the utilization of com-
mercial products either prohibited or severely restricted. The
criteria thus set up afford, it is believed, a more accurate picture of the
situation with respect to State forests than has previously been drawn,
provided it is borne in mind that in several States the definition shuts
out a large area having a certain measure of qualification for the
name. The excluded lands are neither organized forest units estab-
lished with legislative sanction nor forest lands entirely unreserved
and awaiting disposal, but are intermediate between the two. Of
them more will be said presently.

In the section of this report entitled Forest Land the Basic
Resource the area of forest land in State, county, and municipal
forest ownership is given as 10,632,000 acres. In the present sub-
section an aggregate of more than 13,200,000 acres of forest land is
shown as in State ownership, and the folio whig subsection, Community
Forests, shows 1,000,000 acres in these forests. The above figure of
10,632,000 acres, however, embraces only commercial forest land,
suitable and available for the growing of timber of commercial
quantity and quality. It therefore excludes forest areas withheld
from use for timber production in order to safeguard higher public
values for such purposes as recreation and scenic or watershed pro-
tection. For example, forest lands within State parks are outside the
reckoning. While its showing of area in State, county, and municipal
ownership is based on other data than those more recently gathered
for the present and the following subsections, the amounts here shown
are in approximate accord with the earlier total; for omitting State
parks, they aggregate a little more than 11,500,000 acres, not all of
which could be classed as available for commodity production.

Tables 8, 9, and 10 present the results of the restudy of State
forest land ownership made for the present report.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

825

TABLE 8. — State-owned forest land under administration as State forests and parks
by regions and States, 1932 l

Region and State

State forests

State parks »

Total
net
area

Units

Net area

Land in
process of
acquisition

Ultimate
area under
present
State
policy

Units

Net area

United States total..

New England:
Connecticut

Numbe
405

Acres
4, 395, 549

Acres
2,231,636

Acres
12, 770, 000

Numbe
323

Acres
2, 682, 509

Acres
7, 078, 058

17

61,714

1,927

250,000

34
1

9,246
5,760

70,960
5,760
120,000
32,754
3,768
42,308

Maine

Massachusetts

48
24
2
20

120, 000
32, 754
410
40, 960

2,000

150,000

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

100

100,000

5

3,358
1,348

Vermont

Total

Middle Atlantic:
Delaware

1
10
8
168
20

207

51
50,310
48, 143
74, 450
1, 573, 754

1 746 708

19, 712

275,550

51
50,310
61,449
2, 448, 254
1, 579, 809

Maryland . .

1,124
7,555
72, 130
40,000

120 809

200,000
200,000
1,000,000
3,000,000

4 400 000

New Jersey. .

7
55
1

63

13,306
2, 373, 804
6,055

2 393 165

New York

Pennsylvania. ...
Total .

South:
Alabama

12
1

8,905
25

20,000

1
1
1
2
2

421
1,023
4,000
178
318

9,326
1,048
4,000
344
6,206
23,000
1,464
10,565
588

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

1
2
1

166
5,888
« 23, 000

Louisiana

Mississippi

North Carolina

2

42

1,464
4,131

Texas. .

4

1

6,434
588

100,000

Virginia

Total

22

45,006

120,000

51

11,535

56,541

Central:
Illinois

1
5

3,320

3
9
31

2,785
10,535
7,031
1,318
4,451
41, 133
2,661
5,229

6,105
34,035
7,031
1,318
8,075
41,133
2,661
57, 479
39
15,620

Indiana

23,500

3,000

100,000

Iowa

Kansas ...

Kentucky. .

1

3,624

7
9

Missouri ...

Nebraska _.

Ohio

8
1
2

52, 250
39
15, 393

400

150,000

12

Tennessee

West Virginia

227

Total

18

98,126

3,400

250,000

71

75, 370

173, 496

Lake:
Michigan

12
13
4

779, 773
1, 030, 195
111,100

83,400
1, 700, 000
320,000

2,500,000
4,000,000
1,000,000

49
8
12

29,277
38,900
11,552

809,050
1, 069, 095
122,652

Minnesota . . .

Wisconsin

Total

29

1, 921, 068

2, 103, 400

7,500,000

69

79,729

2, 000, 797

North Rocky Mountain:
Idaho

1

5,505

5,505
203, 000

Montana

7

203,000

Total

7

203,000

1

5,505

208,505

South Rocky Mountain:
South Dakota

1

61,000

61,000

Pacific Coast:
California

3
1

7

' 9, 933
70,113
» 45, 757

14

A

36, 493

46,426
70, 113
45, 757

Washington _.

Total

11

125, 803

14

36, 493

162,296

1 States which own neither State forests nor State parks are omitted. They include Oklahoma and South
Carolina in the South region, North Dakota in the Lake region, and Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New
Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming in the South Rocky Mountain region.

2 Only forested State parks included.
8 No further purchase.

4 Will accept gifts of land.

8 Land owned by State University; administered by State forester.

6 Survey now in progress which may yield recommended program.

7 Includes a land exchange nearing completion.

« Oregon has 122 State parks containing 6,823 acres, the forested portion of which is unknown; not included
in totals.

9 Mostly logged-off land.

10 Washington has 10 State parks containing 6,115 acres, the forested portion of which is unknown; not
included in totals.

826

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 9. — State-owned forest land not under administration as State forests and
parks, by regions and States, 1932 1

Kegion and State 2

Unreserved
Federal
grant
lands

Lands acquired by —

Total

Exchange

Purchase
and gift

Other
lands

United States total

Acres
4, 621, 778

Acres
453, 243

Acres
520, 156

Acres
544, 929

Acres
6, 140, 106

New England:

3 2, 428
4 400, 000
6 12, 500

2,428
400, 187
12,500
1,533
500
200

Maine - - -

187

New Hampshire

1,533
500
200

Rhode Island . -

Vermont

Total

187

417, 161

417, 348

Middle Atlantic:
Delaware

691

5, 246
4,291

91
5,246
4,291
43, 288
291, 240

Maryland

New Jersey - - - -

New York

43,288
? 291, 240

Pennsylvania

Total

334, 528

9,628

344, 156

South:
Alabama

270,000

270,000
5,940
26,000
300,000
70,460
21,000
3,500
50,000

Georgia - -

5,940

Louisiana

25,000
300,000

1,000

Mississippi

North Carolina

60, 460

10,000
21,000
83,500
50,000

Oklahoma

South Carolina

Texas

Total

595 000

61,460

90, 440

746, 900

Central:
Illinois

»7, 160

7,160
21, 979
16,700
40,000
10,400

Indiana

10 21, 979

Kentucky . -

» 16, 700

Missouri

12 40, 000

Ohio

i 10, 400

Total

40,000

39, 539

16,700

96, 239

Lake:
Michigan

12,000
1, 230, 000
192,000

50,000

62,000
1, 230, 000
257,000

Minnesota .._

Wisconsin

65,000

Total

1, 434, 000

50,000

65,000

1, 549, 000

North Rocky Mountain:
Idaho

is 958, 000
i< 236, 000

958,000
236,000

Montana

Total

1, 194, 000

1,194,000

1 Exclusive of an estimated area of about 1 1,700,000 acres of tax-reverted land, mostly in the South region,
the status of which is very unstable and uncertain, except for 1,250,000 acres in Michigan which is definitely
in State hands.

2 No lands reported for Arkansas, Florida, and Virginia in the South region; Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska,
Tennessee, and West Virginia in the Central region; North Dakota in the Lake region; and Nevada in the
South Rocky Mountain region.

3 State institution lands, Indian lands, etc.

4 These are lands in unorganized towns held in trust by the State for school purposes, until such time
as the towns may become organized.

5 Incomplete.

6 80 percent forested.

7 State game reserve lands.

8 State penal institutions.

6 In fish hatcheries, game farms, game refuges, only partly forested.

10 State institution lands, 3,500 acres; game preserves, 18,479 acres.

11 Game refuges, 1,700 acres, and forest property of the agricultural college, 15,000 acres.

12 State university land; possibly 10,000 to 20,000 acres of school land in counties.

13 Policy is to manage all forest land as permanent properties. Land alone is rarely worth statutory
minimum price of $10 per acre.

14 Forested State land is not subject to sale. Timber can be sold.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMEEICAN FORESTRY

827

TABLE 9. — State-owned forest land not under administration as Slate forests and
parks, by regions and States, 1932 — Continued

Region and State a

Unreserved
Federal
grant
lands

Lands acquired by —

Total

Exchange

Purchase
and gift

Other
lands

South Rocky Mountain:
Arizona .

Acres
is 32, 000
154,390
2,000
17 121,000

Acres

Acres

Acres

Acres
32,000
156,000
2,000
121,000
11,000
55,000
120,000

Colorado

(16)

1,610

Nevada

New Mexico . .

South Dakota

11,000

Utah

55,000
120,000

Wyoming13.. ._.,.. .„_„__„ -..

Total

484 390

1,610

11,000

497,000

Pacific coast:
California

14, 463
33,000

14,463
33,000
1, 248, 000

Oregon .. .. ..-.

Washington

826, 925

403, 243

17, 832

Total . ...

874, 388

403, 243

17,832

1, 295, 463

15 To be retained by State and managed by U.S. Forest Service. Includes acreage of commercial saw
timber only.

16 Prospect of exchange with Federal Government for a State forest of 75,000 acres.

17 Managed by U.S. Forest Service. Includes acreage of commercial saw timber only.
is State not interested in'State forests or forestry.

TABLE 10. — State-owned forest land compared with commercial forest land in all

ownerships

S

;ate-ownec

i

Ratio to
cial fores

commer-
; area of:

Region and State

Area of
commer-
cial forest
land in all
owner-
ships

Under ad-
ministra-
tion as
State for-
ests and
State
parks

Other

Total

Area
under
adminis-
tration
as State
forests
and
parks

Total
forest
area
owned
by State

United States total.

Acres
494,898,000

Acres
7, 078, 058

Acres
6, 140, 106

Acres
13, 218, 164

Percent
«1.42

Percent
32.66

New England:
Connecticut

1, 582, 000

70,960

2,428

73,388

4.49

4.64

Maine -

14, 490, 000

5,760

2 400, 187

405, 947

.04

2.80

Massachusetts - -

3, 255, 000

120,000

12,500

132,500

3.69

4.07

New Hampshire

4, 435, 000

32,754

1,533

34,287

.74

.77

Rhode Island . .

279,000

3,768

500

4,268

1.35

1.53

Vermont

3, 232, 000

42,308

200

42,508

1.31

1.32

Total --

27, 273, 000

275,550

417, 348

692, 898

1.01

2.54

Middle Atlantic:
Delaware - -

320,000

51

91

142

.02

.04

Maryland

2, 168, 000

50,310

5,246

55,556

2.32

2.56

1,973,000

61,449

4,291

65, 740

3.11

3.33

New York - -

9, 593, 000

2, 448, 254

43,288

2, 491, 542

25.52

25.97

Pennsylvania

13, 085, 000

1, 579, 809

291,240

1, 871, 049

12.07

14.30

Total

27, 139, 000

4, 139, 873

344, 156

4,484,029

15.25

16.52

1 Exclusive of an estimated area of about 11,700,000 acres of tax-reverted land, mostly in the South region
the status of which is very unstable and uncertain, except for 1,250,000 acres in Michigan which is definitely

2 Of this total, 400,000 acres are lands in unorganized towns held in trust by the State for school purposes,
until such time as the towns may become organized.

3 Forest Service estimates on the area of forest land in the United States do not include Kansas and
Nebraska. These percentages are based on an estimated area of a million acres of forest land m ea
these States.

828

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 10. — State-owned forest land compared with commercial forest land in all
ownerships 1932 — Continued

Region and State

Area of
commer-
cial forest
land in all
owner-
ships

State-owned

Ratio to commer-
cial forest area of:

Under ad-
ministra-
tion as
State for-
ests and
State
parks

Other

Total

Area
under
adminis-
tration
as State
forests
and
parks

Total
forest
area
owned
by State

South:
Alabama -

Acres
21, 680, 000
22, 000, 000
23, 600, 000
22, 872, 000
17, 922, 000
18, 293, 000
20, 216, 000
4, 279, 000
12, 415, 000
12, 624, 000
14, 857, 000

Acres
9,326
1,048
4,000
344
6,206
23,000
1,464

Acres
270,000

Acres
279, 326
1,048
4,000
6,284
32,206
323,000
71, 924
21,000
3,500
60,565
588

Percent
.04
.005
.02
.002
.03
.13
.007
.0
.0
.08
.004

Percent
1.29
.005
.02
.03
.18
1.77
.36
.49
.03
.48
.004

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia -

5,940
26,000
300,000
70,460
21,000
3,500
50,000

Mississippi ....._..—

North Carolina - -

Texas

10, 565

588

Total

190, 758, 000

56, 541

746,900

803,441

.03

.42

Central:
Illinois

3, 196, 000
3, 438, 000
2, 358, 000
(2)
10, 296, 000
16, 500, 000
(3)
4, 651, 000
14,041,000
9, 769, 000

6,105
34, 035
7,031
1,318
8,075
41, 133
2,661
57, 479
39
15,620

7,160
21, 979

13, 265
56,014
7,031
1,318
24, 775
81, 133
2,661
67, 879
39
15,620

.19
.99
.30

3.13

.08
.25
3.26
1.24
.0003
.16

.42
1.63
.30

3.13

.24
.49
3.27
1.46
.0003
.16

Indiana - -

Kentucky

16,700
40,000

Missouri -- -

Ohio

10,400

West Virginia

Total - -

64, 249, 000

173, 496

96,239

269, 735

3.26

3.41

Lake:
Michigan

19, 000, 000
20, 200. 000
495,000
16, 200, 000

809,050
1, 069, 095

62,000
1, 230, 000

871,050
2, 299, 095

4.26

5.29

4.58
11.38

North Dakota

Wisconsin

122, 652

257,000

379, 652

.76

2.34

Total -

55, 895, 000

2, 000, 797

1, 549, 000

3, 549, 797

3.58

6.35

North Rocky Mountain:
Idaho

17, 464, 000
14, 865, 000

5,505
203,000

958,000
236,000

963, 505
439,000

.03
1.37

5.52
2.95

Montana

Total

32, 329, 000

208,505

1, 194, 000

1, 402, 505

.64

4.34

South Rocky Mountain:
Arizona

3, 651, 000

32,000
156,000
2,000
121,000
11,000
55,000
120,000

32,000
156,000
2,000
121,000
72,000
55,000
120,000

.88
1.25
.53
3.18
5.61
1.64
2.15

12, 516, 000
377 000

New Mexico

3, 806, 000
1, 284, 000
3, 348, 000
5, 588, 000

South Dakota - .

61,000

4.75

Utah

Wyoming

Total

30, 570, 000

61,000

497,000

558,000

.20

1.83

Pacific coast:
California

17, 538, 000
28, 838, 000
20, 309, 000

46,426
70, 113
45, 757

14, 463
33,000
1, 248, 000

60,889
103, 113
1, 293, 757

.26
.24
.23

.35
.36
6.37

Oregon

Washington

Total

66, 685, 000

162, 296

1, 295, 463

1, 457, 759

.24

2.19

2 Of this total, 400,000 acres are lands in unorganized towns held in trust by the State for school
purposes, until such time as the towns may become organized.

3 Forest Service estimates on the area of forest land in the United States do not include Kansas and Ne-
braska. These percentages are based on an estimated area of a million acres of forest land in each of these
States.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 829

Table 8 shows that the State forest lands which have been set aside
for forest and park purposes and placed under some degree of organized
administration for these purposes aggregate 7,078,058 acres, out of a
total of 13,218,164 acres of forest lands owned by the States. The
latter total is equal to 2.66 percent of the entire commercial forest
area of the States. It must be said, however, that the amount of land
actually in State ownership is in many cases undetermined, and in
some States highly conjectural. State lands comprise in the main
granted lands, tax-reverted lands, and lands acquired through gift,
exchange, or purchase. Granted lands are seldom specifically located
by the law upon its enactment. The States must usually obtain them
through selection to satisfy quantity or indemnity grants, or through
identification when the public lands survey reaches them (as in the
case of school lands), or through establishment of their character, as
in the case of swamp lands. States which still hold title or unsatisfied
claims to substantial amounts of granted public lands are very likely
not to know just how much forest land they have or will have. Still
more is this true for tax-reverted lands. The law and procedure
relating to redemption and resale of delinquent tax lands, to the
forfeiture of title, and to the taking over of title by the State or county
vary greatly. Except in the relatively few States which have definitely
embarked upon a policy designed to discover, segregate, and place
under permanent public administration in suitable units tax-reverting
lands chiefly valuable for forest purposes, both the extent and the
status of these lands are frequently indeterminate. They form a
twilight zone between State or county ownership and private owner-
ship, of very large aggregate proportions. With the pronounced
present trend toward further abandonment of cut-over lands by
private owners, this zone is broadening.

The subject of the breakdown of private ownership is dealt with in
a separate section of this report. No attempt is there made to indicate
the acreage of tax-forfeited land in all the States, nor to estimate its
total amount. The whole field is one of uncertainties. In only a
relatively few of the States in which tax forfeiture is extensive is
precise knowledge of the situation available. In 29 States title reverts
to the counties or towns, with no central source of information on tax
delinquency. Not all of the remaining States know accurately the
acreage of lands which have reached the stage of title forfeiture, and
the provisions and administration of the State laws relating to for-
feiture are often so lenient that a clear title is not obtained by the
State for a long period, if at all.

In fact, recognition of the necessity for any other course than a
temporary taking over of title as a means of passing the land back
into private ownership has in most States not begun. The whole
procedure is nearly everywhere based on the assumption that either
through redemption by the former owner or through sale to a new
owner the land can be got back on the tax rolls, and that of course it
should be got back as the only way to provide for its productive use.
The result of all this is that land abandonment through nonpayment
of taxes has built up and is in process of further building up an aggre-
gate of many millions of acres of "no man's land." The former owner
has quit, and all efforts to keep the land in permanent private owner-
ship will probably be unavailing, yet the State either has not taken
over the title or, if it has, has done so only as a supposed means of

830 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

putting a new owner in secure possession. To afford some indication
of the dimensions of the forest-land problem with which State policies
must deal, one way or another, estimates were sought of the amounts
of forest land in the several States which have been tax delinquent
for the period fixed by law as involving the loss of title. The estimates
showed a total of 11,700,000 acres.

Obviously, these figures can be considered as at most only very
broadly indicative of the actual conditions. Much of the acreage may
be taken back by the former owners, or at least temporarily got rid
of through tax sales to new owners. On the other hand, wherever tax
delinquency is widespread a strong presumption is created that a
substantial increase in the amount of involuntary public ownership
is impending. As an index of the general situation, the figures cited
are probably overconservative ; but as an indication of the particular
situation at the present tune in each individual State they would be,
if distributed, very uneven and in some cases of very dubious value.
Consequently, in tabulating the areas of State-owned forest land,
tax-reverted lands which have not been incorporated in definite units
of administration as State forests or State parks are uniformly not
included. The fact remains that the States do actually own a very
much greater amount of forest land than is shown. In the case of
Michigan, where accurate data are a matter of record, a footnote
indicates that the State holds title to 1,250,000 acres of tax-reverted
lands in addition to the 871,050 acres shown in the body of the table
as the State's total ownership.

STATE GAME REFUGES AND PUBLIC HUNTING GROUNDS

The tables do not show to what extent State-owned forest lands
are under administration for other purposes than State forests and
State parks. Some millions of acres are included in reservations for
game refuges and public hunting grounds, but these largely embrace
lands also under reservation as State forests and State parks. Fur-
ther, the lands are by no means always forest lands. On the other
hand, this form of land use so overlaps and dovetails with forest and
park administration that it needs to be brought into the picture.

One of the purposes served by State forests is wild-life conservation
and the provision of public hunting grounds. Wild life is in part a
forest product. To prevent the extermination of valuable wild life
and maintain a good supply of game, fish, and fur-bearers, reliance was
at first placed on restrictive laws creating closed seasons, imposing
bag limits, and the like. Gradually it came to be seen that more was
needed than the enactment and enforcement of inflexible laws. Out
of this came the conception of wild-life management.

Wild life is a renewable resource, like forests. It is a usable resource,
in three principal ways. It may be enjoyed, without disturbance, as
one of the attractions of the open ; it may be utilized through hunting
and fishing, as a means for recreational sport; and it may furnish food
and fur. Its main importance as a source of food supply was in the
early days of settlement and for the still earlier period of pioneer
exploration, when the oncoming white men had to live off the country ;
in those days abundance of game sometimes determined where the
settlers preferred to locate, more than the character of the soil.
Under present conditions the food value of game is incidental. Its

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 831

quantity is subject to great fluctuation unless there is careful and
skillful control of the various factors on which depend the abundance
of any particular species of wild life within a particular area. Wild-
life administration is the exercise of this control.

Sufficient food, suitable cover, freedom from molestation or dis-
turbance, especially in the breeding season, and a check on losses
beyond the number that will be replaced by the natural increase are
the principal requirements for maintaining valuable wild life in rea-
sonable abundance. Good game management calls for seeing to it
that any given area is neither understocked nor overstocked. If
understocked, full use of the potentialities of the area is not made.
If overstocked, the wild-life population suffers in the same ways as
does an overcrowded human population. Starvation and disease
may then make terrible inroads upon the number, cutting it back to a
point far below the normal for the area. To permit the conditions
which produce overstocking is inhumane. Wise game administration
aims at main taming the right balance ; and this necessitates some means
of disposing of the surplus production as the optimum conditions are
reached.

State forests have proved of great value as a means of keeping up
the supply of game, fish, and fur-bearing animals. The maintenance
of the native wild-life resource has been in some States one of the
important objectives of the State forest policy. In furtherance of this
purpose, many States have made portions of their forests game refuges,
and some forest lands have been and are being acquired primarily
or solely as game refuges or public hunting grounds. Several States
use for this purpose receipts from game and fish licenses.

In short, State administration of forest lands includes the adminis-
tration of an undetermined but by no means negligible acreage as an
adjunct to game management. The desire of sportsmen for public
hunting grounds and game refuges will probably lead to more extensive
acquisitions by the States of lands with these ends in view. Where
the lands are suited to use for other forest purposes consistently with
the primary object of increasing the game supply or the area open to
the public for hunting, presumably their dual use will be provided for.
In any event, forest lands acquired or set aside for game production
deserve to be rated along with State forests and State parks, as lands
held under the same broad policy of permanent State ownership and
administration for the service of public needs.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN STATE FORESTS AND STATE PARKS

Federal policy and administrative organization establish a clear
line of demarcation between national forests and national parks.
The establishment of this distinction, however, has been a gradual
process. Many people still do not recognize it. The essence of the
Federal distinction is that national-forest administration aims at a
coordinated use of the various resources, material and immaterial,
which each area affords. The public values involved are appraised
and weighed one against another, to the end that through carefully
planned adjustments of one form of use to other forms the greatest
net total of public benefits may be realized. In application, this
principle may mean that limited areas are devoted to a single exclu-
sive use, because that use is the most important and in the particular

832 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

case involved cannot be dovetailed in with other forest uses satis-
factorily. National parks, however, are extensive areas where the
immaterial values are of such exceptional quality and supreme im-
portance that utilization of the land for the production of commodities,
such as lumber or livestock products, should not be considered.

Some States make a similar distinction between "parks" and
" forests." In other States the terminology is misleading. Where
the distinction is sharply drawn, the administration of the State
parks and State forests may be by the same organization, or by
separate units in the same department, or by entirely disassociated
units. Popular thought in the East tends to run to the conception
of all public forests as maintained primarily for park purposes, and
this adds to the confusion. Further, the objectives of the States
for the areas designed to serve the purpose of timber production
generally emphasize strongly what may be called the park conception
and frequently tend to relegate to a secondary place, for the time
being at least, provision for making use of and increasing the valuable
timber growth. Thus there are elements of artificiality in the division
set up between State parks and State forests. Functionally they
often tend to merge. Nevertheless, it is believed preferable in the
present discussion to distinguish them.

STATE FOREST LAND ADMINISTRATION IN THE NORTHWEST

Another line of demarcation which involves some uncertainty is
that between State forests and other lands in State ownership. A
twilight zone has been created by State action of different kinds,
that has given some State-owned forest lands an in-between status.
A striking example of this is in three States of the Northwest.

By legislative enactment Montana has placed 200,000 acres of
specifically designated land in definite administrative units not
subject to alienation, but to be held permanently by the State and
administered for purposes of timber production and watershed
protection. In addition, the law prescribes that all lands of the
State " principally valuable for the timber that is on them, or for the
growing of timber, or for watershed protection" are not to be dis-
posed of; and any timber cut from them must be taken in accordance
with prescriptions to assure continued timber production and water
conservation. The State system of fire protection covers all these
lands. The major difference, and indeed practically the only differ-
ence, between the lands included in the specifically designated State
forests and those not so included is that the latter are more scattered
and may require considerable blocking up to assemble areas of
sufficient solidity for reasonably economical permanent administra-
tion. In blocking up, a good many isolated and scattered areas may
eventually prove to be unsuitably located for permanent State
management. Yet it may be claimed, and with reason, that the
character of the oversight exercised by the State and the law prohi-
biting disposal of the lands give them better title to the name of State
forests than some areas so classed elsewhere. The area of these
"twilight zone" lands in Montana totals 236,000 acres.

Idaho has approximately 964,000 acres of State forest land, of
which somewhat more than one-half is customarily classified as in
State forests. These latter lands are well blocked up, having been

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 833

obtained by the State through an exchange of its school land sections
scattered in the national forests for a solid body of timberland
formerly a part of the national-forest area. The State is not selling
these lands, and when it sells timber from them it does so under
stipulations designed to assure future timber crops. The weakness is
that the whole system of administration has no other support than
the choice of the State land administrative agency. The officers
constituting the land board could upset the policy at any time,
should they think it in the best interest of the State to do so. For
this reason Idaho is counted in the present report as having no
State forests. Yet, if a guess may be hazarded, these lands, already
under forestry administration, will presumably continue to be so
administered and will sooner or later be given the status of State
forests established by law.

In Washington there are nearly 1,300,000 acres of State-owned
forest land, of which more than 1,000,000 acres is reserved and
usually classed as included in State forests. But this classification
is decidedly open to challenge. The State has a law somewhat like
that of Montana, up to a certain point. While it makes no mention
of watershed values and sets up no specifically designated areas, it
provides that lands acquired or designated by the State forest board
as State forest lands shall be forever reserved from sale. When
timber is cut from them, it must be in conformity with the require-
ments of that board to insure natural reforestation. The State has
about 403,000 acres of forest land in solid blocks obtained partly
through an exchange similar to that in Idaho, partly through the
exercise of rights of selection. In addition, various officials are
required to report yearly to the State forest board any State or
private logged-off or deforested lands coming to their notice, which
they regard as suitable for State forest lands or reforestation; and
the Commissioner of Public Lands may classify and reserve logged-off
State lands suitable for reforestation, whereupon it becomes the
duty of the Director of Conservation and Development to protect
and reforest them. Although, as said above, the State now has
under reservation more than 1,000,000 acres, up to the present time
the State forest board has designated as State forests only 45,757
acres. Yet with its more than 400,000 acres of blocked-up lands
obtained through Federal exchange, with its still greater area of
other forest lands that have been reserved for reforestation, and
with a definite State policy so clearly formulated legislatively,
Washington has gone much farther than would appear from the
bare statement of the acreage embraced in definite units of adminis-
tration. Nowhere else are the drawbacks of a sharp division between
"State forests" and "other State-owned forest lands" so well illus-
strated. Whatever the scheme of classification, if it does not bring
into view the extensive twilight zone of lands not actually under
administration as State forests but more or less definitely held with
a view to their future use for this purpose, its results carry misleading
implications.

In these three Northwestern States, each owning large acreages of
forest lands which occupy a kind of halfway status between organized,
permanent State forests and State lands awaiting a purchaser, the
forest holdings are made up principally of lands which have never
been in private ownership, but came into the possession of the States

g34 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

through Federal grants. The "twilight zone" condition is, however,
not confined to States which became forest owners through grants
from the old public domain. It is found in some of the Eastern
States which have become possessed of forest lands under the process
which is creating the "new public domain," made up of abandoned
private holdings. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are out-
standing examples.

STATE FOREST LAND ADMINISTRATION IN THE LAKE STATES

Except for the prairie portion of northwestern Minnesota, in all
three of these States a large fraction of the northern portions cannot
be successfully used for agriculture. Because of the magnificant
stands of virgin timber, the land became a rich prize for the lumber-
men, and for several decades the Lake States led the country in
lumber production. It was generally assumed that the cut-over
areas would soon be converted into prosperous farms; but the hope of a
flourishing general agricultural development in succession to the
great pineries proved delusive. Great portions of the stump lands,
in spite of vigorous efforts to dispose of them to settlers, either
remained unsold or were cleared only to be abandoned after years of
wasted effort, save where the soil proved to be of exceptional quality
or where the occupant, for lack of courage or initiative to try again
elsewhere, clung to his submarginal acres and eked out a scanty
livelihood as best he might. Now, belatedly, it is realized that the
best hope of prosperity for the country of the "Great North Woods"
is to restore the nonagricultural and submarginal agricultural lands
to forest production, and that this will necessitate extensive public
ownership and reforestation, at a heavy expense for years.

Some of the sparsely settled northern counties are bankrupt, and
many are a burden on their State, drawing much more from the
treasury in the form of contributions toward the cost of local govern-
ment than they return. At the same time the tax rate on such property
as remains to be taxed in the poorer counties is as a rule very high,
and tending to go higher. Tax delinquency has reached such pro-
portions that the problem of the "new public domain" cannot
possibly be ignored. Its magnitude is illustrated by the fact that
from 18 million to 20 million acres of forest land in the Lake States
is tax delinquent and at least in major part virtually abandoned by
its owners, with a rate of increase in the amount which bids fair in
another decade, if it continues undiminished, to place in public
ownership well on toward one half of the forest area of the region.

Already Michigan has, in addition to several hundred thousand
acres which have been included in her present State forests, 1,250,000
acres of tax-forfeited lands, with perhaps 4 million acres more that
is at some stage of tax-delinquency. In Wisconsin tax-forfeited
lands pass not to the State but to the county; the amount is uncer-
tain, but according to some estimates seems to approach 1,900,000
acres with more than 3 million acres addition estimated to be tax
delinquent. In Minnesota before the close of 1933 the tax-forfeited
lands will total 4 million acres. The reverting lands, naturally,
have been stripped of their salable timber and in large part are idle,
fire-devastated waste. State policies designed to work out the per-
manent retention of large aggregates of these lands for permanent

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 835

public forests have set up the Lake States twilight zone of lands which
are being more or less definitely held with a view to this form of
use, but which are not as yet under actual administration nor as
yet sufficiently blocked up, oftentimes, to provide practicable units
of administration.

The first of the three States to adopt a policy looking to the reser-
vation and administration for forest purposes of tax-reverted lands
was Michigan, with a law enacted in 1909. Some years previously
more than a million acres of tax-forfeited lands had been in the
hands of the State but had largely gone back, at least temporarily,
into private ownership through their purchase by speculators, who
had sold them off as farmlands to unwary victims. A public domain
commission was therefore created to segregate the lands really
suited to agriculture and set aside the rest for forestry purposes.
The reservation of not less than 200,000 acres was made mandatory
by the law. But locally, public sentiment was adverse to heavy
withdrawals from private acquisition, preferring that the land should
be open to homesteading in the hope of more settlers; and the com-
mission limited itself to reserving a total of 235,194 acres in small
bodies scattered through 54 counties. Gradually, however, the prin-
ciple of classification has come to be generally accepted in Michigan.
A law passed in 1929 requires that all tax-reverted lands shall be turned
over to the conservation commission, with a view to their consolida-
tion into State forests or other public reservations unless they are
found suitable for homesteading.

At the present time the State has 12 established State forest units,
with a gross area of approximately 1,400,000 acres. Within these
units the State owns or has in process of acquisition 863,113 acres,
and its ownership has been increased through exchanges, purchases,
and donations as well as through tax reversion. But the prospective
burden which will be imposed upon the State if it carries through the
policy of reforesting, protecting, and otherwise caring for the great
areas of virtually worthless lands that are in sight is so great that it
is a good deal of a question how far to pursue the course marked out.
Tax reversion has been adding new lands to the State's holdings at
the rate of a quarter of a million acres a year, and this rate will prob-
ably be greatly accelerated in the immediate future through the effects
of the business depression. In 1931, the last full year for which
figures are at hand, 32,040 acres of land within the State forests were
reforested through planting, while the nonrestocking land in these
forests is estimated to aggregate 220,000 acres and the poorly restock-
ing an additional 204,000 acres. The depression has halted expendi-
tures for further planting and land purchases. There is doubt in
some quarters as to whether the results of reforestation will justify
the cost, at least on the lands of poorest quality; there has been con-
siderable hesitancy about turning over to the conservation com-
mission, as the law requires, lands which might be got back on the
tax rolls through resale; and the commission itself has been hesitant
to carry through the policy of placing under forestry administration
to the fullest extent the lands over which it has jurisdiction, lest the
approriations necessary for the administration of more State forests
may not be forthcoming. The acreage of tax-reverted lands which
the commission is how holding, with its disposition not as yet definitely
determined, is much greater than the acreage of State-owned land
within the established forests.

836 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Some of the tax-reverted lands have been reserved and placed under
administration as State parks and State game refuges; but the aggre-
gate required for these purposes does not materially alter the situa-
tion. In the 1929-30 biennial report of the Michigan Department of
Conservation, the State forester, after pointing out that the total
area in forests, parks, and game refuges comprised only 39 percent of
the entire amount of land held by the State, went on to say:

Compared to the millions of acres of similar lands within our borders on which
the crop must be timber or nothing, it is but an insignificant part. Obviously
it is so nearly a negligible quantity with respect to the whole that unless enor-
mously expanded it can have no appreciable effect toward the solution of the
situation in general. This condition is neither local nor confined to present
State lands, but involves a vastly greater acreage, more or less State-wide. It is
variously estimated that there are between 10 million and 20 million acres of
just such land as has reverted to the State that are ill-adapted for anything but
tree growth. A conservative figure would be 15 million acres. Whatever the
area, it is of such magnitude that it constitutes the most important task in con-
servation confronting Michigan today. It is a big problem which must be met
in a big way sooner or later, and the sooner the better. Michigan must think
of State forests in terms of millions of acres instead of thousands.

This enormous twilight zone of artificially created near-desert,
which will not stay in private ownership, which the people of the
State have through their legislature authorized their administrative
officers to take charge of and place in State forests and similar reser-
vations, but which can be restored to productiveness only through
very considerable expenditures that must extend over many years
before substantial money returns can be looked for, creates the out-
standing problem of forestry and land utilization in the Lake States.
Only to a minor degree does the Federal policy of acquisition for the
building up of national forest lighten the prospective burden on the
States. In view of the complexity as well as the magnitude of the
unsolved problem of what the States should, can, and will do with
their new public domain as it enlarges, definite assumptions regarding
the extent to which the lands now tax-reverted are on the way to
being placed under administration would be premature.

In Wisconsin the problem presented by tax-reverting lands is given
a somewhat different form by the fact that title passes to the counties.
In consequence the State has adopted a policy of financial aid to
encourage county forests. Wisconsin's county forest system is dis-
cussed in the section of this report entitled "Community Forests."
The point to be noted here is that the development of county forests
is in Wisconsin a part of the program adopted by the State for placing
in public forests lands abandoned by private owners as not worth
paying taxes on. Wisconsin has in State forests 111,100 acres, with
320,000 acres more in process of acquisition, and in county forests
460,521 acres. The two must be considered together if the effort
that the State is making to meet its forest land situation is to be
fairly judged.

Of the area in county forests 292,981 acres, or 64 percent, is not
under actual management. In addition, the counties are said to
own 1,440,000 acres of forest land which has not been placed in
county forests. The law authorizing them is still new. Since for
every acre included in a county forest the county draws from the
State treasury 10 cents annually and the township 10 cents more, a
strong incentive to give the lands the designation is set up. But

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 837

unless they are to be handled in accordance with the practices of
technical forestry, designating them county forests does not convert
them into productive land. If the present legislation and present
trends in tax delinquency are continued for 10 years, the county
holdings are likely to be increased by possibly 6 million acres. Here
again, the economic burden which must be assumed by some agency
if all the lands are to be put into an actually productive condition
promises to be staggering. It remains to be seen just what plan of
administration will eventually be worked put in Wisconsin, and how
extensive will be its application; but it is possible to attach more
significance to the figures of area of the present combined State and
county forests than they perhaps deserve. That Wisconsin is now
very much alive to the formidable dimensions and serious character
of the land use and forest problem which has to be faced is quite
true, and that a great change in the situation will be worked out seems
unquestionable; but compared with the State forest systems of the
few States in which the enterprise has become firmly established in
public approval and put on a good working basis, the present show-
ing of Wisconsin in provision for public forest administration is mostly
a showing on paper.

Minnesota also has awakened to the necessity of meeting in a large
way the land use problem created by temporary private ownership of
forest lands for the sake of the accumulated timber values, with its
aftermath of land surrender when the merchantable stand has been
cut off. The situation in Minnesota is made different from that in
either Michigan or Wisconsin by the fact that Minnesota still holds
a large aggregate of timberlands received under the Federal land
grants. While Michigan has only about 12,000 acres of forest lands
left of the original granted lands, and Wisconsin about 190,000 acres,
Minnesota has more than 2 million acres. In addition, under the
provisions of a law enacted in 1927 to afford a clear title to lands on
which taxes have not been paid for 5 years, some 4 million acres are
expected from this source in 1933. Thus there is a combination in
Minnesota of the situation that exists in the other Lake States with
respect to reverting cut-over lands and of that which exists in Mon-
tana, Idaho, and Washington with respect to forest lands derived from
Federal grants. Like the three Western States, Minnesota has con-
stitutional restrictions upon the sale of the granted lands which have
operated to hold in her possession a very substantial part of her
originally more than 8 million acres of granted lands of all kinds.

Although Minnesota passed the first law looking to the establish-
ment of forest reservations in 1899 and shortly afterward received,
through a private donation and a special Federal grant, a few thousand
acres dedicated to this purpose, and although following a constitu-
tional amendment in 1914 400,000 acres were given the status of
State forests, the actual organization of a system of State forests as
going enterprises is still in the formative stage. Prior to 1931, 13
units with a gross area of more than 1 million acres but embracing a
little less than 500,000 acres of State-owned lands received designa-
tion as State forests. No development work has been undertaken on
these units, and no local organization created primarily to take charge
of and care for them has been set up. Instead, the State's holdings
within them are administered and protected, as an incident to other
duties, by the district fire wardens and rangers of the organization

838 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

provided for fire control on forest lands in all ownerships. This
course is necessitated by the fact that no specific financial provision
for the administration of State forests has yet been made. In 1931
the legislature designated as State forests certain other areas, embrac-
ing an additional half million acres of State land, but these are as yet
only paper forests.

From tax-reverting cut-over lands the Conservation Department's
program aims at blocking up an approximate total of 4 million acres
of State forests in the next 10 years. Comprehensive legislation has
been enacted looking to a determination of the form of use to which
are best adapted all the lands now in or which may come into State
ownership, with provision for placing in reservations for various pur-
poses those lands calling for permanent public ownership and ad-
ministration in order to give them their highest usefulness ; and there
is provision also for acquisition of private lands which should be
consolidated with the State's holdings. In line with this legislation,
a land classification survey is covering the areas within and adjoining
the State forest boundaries, and has already gone over nearly 2 mil-
lion acres to obtain a factual basis on which to rest acquisition and
management programs. Thus the forest and land use problem is
being aggressively and constructively attacked. On the other hand,
the situation presents some uncertainties.

A possible difficulty in carrying out the constructive policy upon
which the State has made so promising a start arises from the fact
that neither with respect to the lands received through Federal grant
nor with respect to those received through tax forfeiture is the State
free from restricting obligations. The granted lands are lands held
by the State in trust, for specific purposes. The tax-reverted lands
likewise carry an obligation of trusteeship for the various taxing
units in the proportion of the unpaid taxes, with the State's equity
in them usually less than 10 percent of the whole. There is a con-
siderable inclination among the local county and township officials
to feel that under these circumstances the county rather than the
State should have the determining voice regarding what disposition
shall be made of the land. It remains to be seen what kind of division
of responsibilities and what plan for satisfying claims and obligations
will be worked out. Most of all, it remains to be seen what the public
sentiment of the State will permanently sustain and demand and
how successful the State will be in obtaining the continuity and
stability of policy and the competent conduct of the enterprise
necessary for its success.

That a high standard of competence as well as integrity are funda-
mental to making the essentially business enterprise of forest manage-
ment anywhere a success, and that no business, public or private, can
be expected to succeed if it cannot be run solely with a view to the
most efficient conduct of the enterprise, are matters that have already
been repeatedly brought out. Nepotism in a private concern en-
dangers the invested capital; and public administration equally
requires freedom from the dry rot of political motive or control for
narrowly political ends. It is all a question of developing high stand-
ards of e ciency in the field of State government and providing the
necessary stability when the enterprise is in competent hands.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 839

Hitherto, State governments taken as a whole have not been con-
spicuous for their success in developing the function of public service
as applied to difficult, constructive tasks. The situation of the Lake
States in this respect is on all fours with that of every other State
in which public forest administration may be undertaken as a State
enterprise. It is the same situation as that which for a good while
made the success of the Federal forest reserve policy uncertain.
Success in that came through a happy combination of very unusual
circumstances, of which one was the establishment on a firm founda-
tion in the Federal establishment of the merit system for the Civil
Service.

REGIONAL CONCENTRATION OF STATE FORESTS

Of the 7,078,058 acres embraced in organized State forests and
parks 89 percent is in the North and Middle Atlantic States and the
Lake States. New England has 276,000 acres of forest in her State
forests and parks, New York has about 2,450,000 acres, Pennsylvania
about 1,600,000 acres, New Jersey 61,000 acres, Maryland, 50,000,
and the three Lake States 2 million acres not including Wisconsin's
460,000 acres of county forests, with large further increases in pros-
pect under legislation already enacted. In the far Northwest,
Montana, Idaho, and Washington make up another group of States
in which there are extensive holdings of forest lands under more or
less definite reservation (or in Idaho 's case under actual operation
though without any expressed legislative policy of management or
permanent ownership) for State forest purposes. ^ These three States
together own 2,700,000 acres of forest land, of which not quite three
fourths take their place in the "twilight zone" between State forests
and " other State-owned forest land. " Elsewhere than in these three
groups of States, one along the Atlantic coast, one about the Great
Lakes, and one in the Pacific Northwest, State forests have scarcely
begun to appear on the map. Within these three groups of States
is the ownership of 86 percent of all the State-owned forest land in the
country.

This high degree of concentration of State forests suggests at once
some important questions. Why have not States in other regions
embarked on programs of extensive forest ownership and administra-
tion? Are they likely to fall into line shortly, or must any large
increase in the area of public forests, if a large increase is necessary,
depend upon Federal action either through a greatly expanded
program of acquisition for national forests or through aid to the
States, to enable or induce them to acquire the lands themselves?

In attempting to get at the facts which may throw light on these
questions it is essential to bear in mind the very different situations in
the western half and in the eastern half of the country. One great
difference is that of the entire western commercial forest area 62
percent is federally owned, or is managed by the Federal Government
as trustee on behalf of Indians, and 53 percent is in national forests, as
against 2 percent in Federal ownership or trusteeship and 1.7 percent
in national forests in the East. Many of the public needs in response
to which eastern State forests are being built up, to the extent that

168342°— 33— vol. 1 54

840

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

they are being built up, are in large measure taken care of in the
western country by the national-forest system. It is true that in the
West land use problems of large proportions are beginning to appear
in several States, as the timberlands in private ownership are con-
verted into cut-over lands which the owners may no longer wish to
retain. Even in meeting this problem, however, the Western States
are appreciably aided by the possibility in many instances of adding
these cut-over lands to the national forests.

What has been done by the Western States hitherto toward building
up State forests has been due primarily not to a felt need for State
ownership leading to a policy of acquisition, but to the Federal land
grants. In most States the policy, practically from the time that the
State governments were set up, has been to dispose of the granted
lands as fast as there was a sufficient demand for them to permit
them to be sold off. In a majority of cases the States have disposed
of most of their granted forest lands. It should be remembered that
the grants of public domain lands were made for specific purposes and
that the States, in receiving them, were in the position of trustees.
School and institutional grants, for example, were in the nature of
endowments. As administrators of trusts the States were bound to
consider first of all the best interests of the beneficiaries of the trust.
The State educational institutions and public school systems were
the leading beneficiaries, and by the sale of the lands and investment
of the proceeds dependable sources of revenue for these institutions
were created. To hold the lands and put them under administration
for the sake of general public benefits which might thus be realized,
or to engage in enterprises of forest management of uncertain financial
outcome, would not have been in accord with the obligations of trus-
teeship for specific beneficiaries.

Several of the States, however, introduced into their constitutions
safeguards against the disposal of granted lands by the State land
authorities at too low prices. The effect of these restrictions has been
to keep relatively large areas in the hands of the States having the
limitations, for lack of purchasers willing to pay the necessary price.
Idaho and Washington are examples. North Dakota, New Mexico,
and Arizona are similarly restricted under the terms of their respective
enabling acts.

Where States had rights under their land grants to school sections
scattered through the national forests, or right of selection based on
the school sections, the Federal Government has if possible negotiated
exchanges with a view to enabling the States to obtain lands of equal
value outside the forests. Under the exchange agreements, the States
have been given an opportunity to obtain in lieu of their school lands
solid blocks of land eliminated from the forests to permit the States
to file on them. In this way the following States have received lands
suitable for administration by them as State forests or parks, in the
amounts shown :

State : Acres

California 8, 973

Idaho : 282,997

Montana 106, 607

Nebraska 8, 959

Acres

State — Contin ued

Oregon 68,666

South Dakota 60, 150

Washington 405,942

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 841

At the present time exchanges are under negotiation with Colorado
and New Mexico, by which the first State will receive approximately
100,000 acres of blocked up land and the second 286,757 acres.

The acts granting statehood to Arizona and New Mexico also
granted large areas of public lands for common-school purposes, but
provided that where the lands so granted were within national
forests the States would not acquire title thereto unless or until the
lands were eliminated from the national forests. But the acts
specified that pending that time there should be paid annually to each
State shares of the gross revenues from the national forests pro-
portionate to the ratio between the lands granted to the State and the
total net area of national-forest lands within the State. The States,
however, were privileged to use the granted lands as base for lieu
selections of unreserved public lands. New Mexico has exercised
this privilege so fully that only about 35,000 acres remain in the
national forests subject to the rule mentioned; but Arizona largely has
preferred to leave her granted lands under national-forest management
and has to her credit approximately 1,125,000 acres in that status.
Some 30,000 acres of university lands are also administered by the
Forest Service for Arizona under cooperative agreement. In New
Mexico the State secures technical advice in timber management
from the Forest Service, but the agreement does not cover the actual
protection and administration of State lands by the Federal agency.

In South Dakota, the State park of 61,000 acres and an additional
area included in a State game refuge were obtained through exchange,
and California's 9,900-acre State forest is likewise the result of an
exchange. In short, the explanation of most of the State forest land
administration that has been undertaken or is in prospect in the
West is to be found in the fact that because of the presence of the
national forests the States were able to convert their school lands into
blocked-up areas suitable for enterprises of forestry. They have
had the great advantage of being able usually to start with lands on
which the original timber was still in place. The few States which
remained in possession of more than small remnants of their granted
lands are now able to go ahead with undertakings of forest manage-
ment far different from those that must begin with stripped lands, as
in the East. Except in Washington there is nothing as yet to indicate
that there is any thought of building up State forests as they are
being built up in a few of the Eastern States, to take care of the land
use problem created by the breakdown of private ownership.

Neither is it to be expected that extensive enterprises of forest
administration are likely to be engaged in soon by many more Eastern
States than those which have already made substantial beginnings.
It is a very slow process to get such enterprises under way. New
York has reached her present position after nearly 50 years of up-
building; Pennsylvania after 35 years; Connecticut after 30 years;
and so on. The Lake States have been moving a long time, but
without much progress until they suddenly woke up to an economic
and social problem of the first magnitude for them, which could not
be ignored. Much depends on the accident of finding the right
leadership and a favorable combination of circumstances. Much of
the support for State forests in the East has come from those inter-
ested in outdoor recreational opportunities. In States of relatively

842 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

sparse population, rural conditions, and less wealth this form of
interest will be much less impelling. Given strong local leadership,
there may be seen a really important development of State forest
administration for the region of worn-out farms, eroded hillsides, and
poor soils that extends north of the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to the
Mississippi ; but outside of this region and the regions in which are so
highly concentrated the State forests at the present time, to expect
any really large local movement for the undertaking of land acquisition
on an extensive scale would seem to fly in the face of all prol
The necessary motive forces do not seem to be in sight.

COMMUNITY FORESTS

By C. R. TILLOTSON, District Forest Inspector

In preceding sections, national and State forests have been dis-
cussed. The Nation and the States are engaged in a big way in
ownership and administration of forest lands. To a much lesser
degree the same is true of the smaller political units. Several hundred
towns, counties, boroughs, and cities in the United States today own
forest land that is set aside for definite purposes and appears destined
to remain in public ownership. Ordinarily such lands are called
town or municipal forests, or county forests^

TOWN OR MUNICIPAL FORESTS

The town or municipal forests correspond after a fashion to the
communal forests of Europe, and in numerous cases owe their origin
partly at least to the enthusiasm aroused by glowing accounts of these
European forests, how they served as recreation centers and game
and bird sanctuaries, how they gave employment to many people,
and above all yielded so much revenue from the sale of forest products
that local taxes were unnecessary. There are such forests in Europe.
The outstanding examples are rather large in size, one or two thousand
acres or more, and the population of the fortunate proprietary com-
munity is small. That a comparatively large forest area which has
been skillfully managed over a long period of years in Europe can
support the governmental activities of a sparsely populated commune
or municipality is entirely possible. Unfortunately progress up to
the present time does not as yet hold much promise of similar develop-
ments in the United States in the immediate future at least.

The European commune corresponds closely to the New England
town. In the New England States, outside of cities, the town or
township is the important local political unit. It bears practically
the same relation to the State government that counties do in most
other States. The initiation of local public projects or activities,
the raising of funds by taxes and indicating how these funds shall be
spent are determined by a vote of the people in town meeting. Offi-
cials usually termed selectmen are elected to administer the affairs,
expenditures are closely watched, and any project undertaken is
usually carefully scrutinized. It is in this atmosphere that these
publicly owned forests called town forests in New England have
come into being in large numbers, where the idea is being actively
nourished, and where they are already of local importance in one or
more aspects.

Among the early, if not the earliest, States to authorize specifically
the acquisition of municipal forests were Massachusetts in 1882,
New Jersey in 1906, Pennsylvania in 1909, Minnesota, New Hamp-
shire, and Indiana in 1913, and Vermont in 1915. Prior to specific
legislation, however, there are records of town-owned forest land
which met the specific purposes for which town forests are created.

843

844 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

One of these is the town of Danville in New Hampshire. To quote
from the 1927-28 report of the New Hampshire Forestry Commission:

This town has one of the most unique town forest records of any in the State.
For 158 consecutive years or since 1790 this town has appointed a parsonage
committee which have had as part of their duty the management of 75 acres of
forest land — one a 55-acre piece and the other a 20-acre piece. This committee
cut and used the lumber for the building and maintenance of the first meeting
house and parsonage. During these years the receipts from the sale of wood
have been deposited in banks until the fund has now reached almost $10,000.
Every year at the March town meeting there is a warrant usually as follows:
"To see how much of the parsonage fund the town will vote to spend for preach-
ing for the year ensuing." Thus the town of Danville hires its own preacher and
decides how much money they will pay him. * * *

The two tracts were probably set aside at the time the town received its
charter and as was the custom in many towns were called the minister's lot. A
careful study of the old parsonage committee records shows receipts from the sale
of wood and timber up to about 1830. Many hundred dollars worth of timber is
recorded as sold and used for repair of the meeting house, the parsonage and the
fences about the two cemeteries. From 1830 until about 1880 the receipts came
from rentals of pasture, the sale of rye and hay, making over $1,000 from this use.
In 1865 another growth of timber had matured and $1,500 worth was sold at
that time. In 1895 the records show that $4,500 was received at auction for sale
of timber on the 55-acre piece and the money deposited in the bank. In 1903,
about $1,200 was received from the sale of wood and timber on the 20-acre piece.
With almost $10,000 in the bank as a result of this careful management, can any
one doubt the wisdom of these parsonage committees in holding on to their two
tracts of forest land?

In 1897 the town of Woodstock, in New Hampshire, acquired 25
acres of well-timbered land surrounding its water supply, and has
cut much timber for highway and bridge construction from it. The
town of Newington, N.H., lists as a town forest a tract of 122 acres
acquired as long ago as 1710. The city of Fitchburg, Mass., claims
the distinction of having been the first in the United States to estab-
lish a town forest under a State law. This forest was created on
December 29, 1914, with an area of 109 acres.

The town forest movement has received its greatest impetus in
the last 10 years. During the period from 1922 to 1930, the Mas-
sachusetts Forestry Association was very active in the State in urging
town boards of selectmen year after year to consider the desirability
and possibility of a town forest, offering to plant 5,000 trees free of
charge for any city or town which would legally establish a town
forest of 100 acres or more. The New England Box Co. for several
successive years duplicated this offer to the towns of Franklin County.
Similar offers were made for more limited periods by the Middlesex
Forestry Committee to towns in Middlesex County, and by the
Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the Hampden County Im-
provement League jointly to towns in Hampden County. The
Berkshire Forestry Association offered $150 to each town in Berkshire
County that would set up such a town forest. The result of these
efforts in Massachusetts was to increase the movement of munici-
palities that had definitely entered land under the Town Forest Act
from 4, at the beginning of 1923, to 90 aggregating 25,535 acres at
the end of 1930. Some of these lands were already in town ownership.
Some were acquired by purchase, by gift, and through tax reversion.
In fulfilling its part of the contract, the Massachusetts Forestry
Association planted 225,000 trees for 45 towns.

The State forestry departments of New Hampshire and Vermont
have also urged such forests upon the town authorities. There was
interest in this project in the highest circles. As late as 1 930, previous

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

845

to the town meetings held in March, Gov. John E. Weeks of Ver-
mont sent a letter to all town selectmen in respect to owning and
developing town forests. Following this particular letter 12 towns in
Vermont appointed committees to consider the matter and several
others appropriated funds to buy lands or to plant trees on land
already owned.

On December 7, 1928, a meeting was held in Boston and an organi-
zation perfected of the Massachusetts town-forest committees, the
only one of its kind in the United States so far as is known. It meets
yearly to discuss town-forest problems and to make a field examina-
tion of one or more town forests. It appears destined to keep the
subject of town forests in Massachusetts very much alive. The
Massachusetts State Forestry Department is cooperating closely and
has offered to map and make 5-year plans for any of the town forests
upon request from the town authorities.

In New York the town-forest movement has made even better
headway, in respect to number and total area of such forests. Fully
three fourths of the total number in that State consist of lands sur-
rounding the municipal water supplies. Some outstanding examples
are the areas owned and developed by New York City and by Glens
Falls. The movement in New York doubtless was given its" princi-
pal impetus by the State law providing that the conservation depart-
ment should furnish trees free of charge for reforesting such publicly
owned lands. The number, area, and distribution of town and
municipal forests, so far as these are known, are indicated in table 1.

TABLE 1. — Town and municipal forests in the United States 1

Region and State

Forests Area

New England: Number Acres

Connecticut 23 29,910

Maine 8 1,284

Massachusetts 90 25,635

New Hampshire . . 82 16,783

Vermont.. 42 9,000

Total 245 ~827512

Middle Atlantic:

Maryland 9 24,514

New Jersey 56,397

New York 390 170,500

Pennsylvania 33 30,728

Total 432 ~282, 139

Southern:

Alabama 1 600

Georgia 5 1,103

North Carolina 37 43,911

South Carolina. 1 10, 436

Total . ~ 44 ~~56,050

Central:

Indiana 6 6,150

Missouri 1 2,000

Ohio 23 22,000

Total 30 ~~30, 150

Lake:

Michigan 45 1,660

Minnesota 1 3,000

Total - 46 4, 660

South Rocky Mountain:

Arizona 3 14,254

Utah 1 4,000

Total , ~ 4 18, 254

Grand total . . . 80T 473, 765

1 Not including a number of forests owned by cities in the Northwestern States to protect water supplies,
about wiuch data are lacking.

846 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Thirty percent of the number of these forests and 17 percent of the
area are found in the New England States, and 54 percent of the
number and 60 percent of the area in the Middle Atlantic States.
New York State alone accounts for 49 percent of the number and
36 percent of the area. This concentration is due to the firm belief
in these regions in the benefits of a forest cover on the watersheds
that furnish municipal water supplies, to a widespread and favorable
public interest in public forests, and, in Massachusetts, to the active
campaign put on by the Massachusetts Forestry Association.

Probably 50 percent of these forests, embracing 80 percent of the
area, were acquired and developed primarily for the purpose of
protecting the sources of municipal water supplies. There is intensive
interest by their managers in protecting them from fire and even from
insects, and in planting forest trees. About 68,000 acres of the total
area have been planted. The communities in the New England and
Middle Atlantic States are primarily dependent for their potable
water supplies upon surface water that is collected in lakes and
ponds. Its quantity and quality are a matter of vital concern to
them. Efforts are not spared to keep this water pure and clean and
to maintain a forest cover on the watershed.

In no case, so far as is known, have town or municipal forests in the
United States been developed to the extent of those in Europe.
They are usually made up of lands that needed planting when first
acquired or of cut-over mixed second-growth timber that only years
of careful expert management can bring to a highly productive state.
The average size for the country as a whole is less than 600 acres;
individually many are less than 200 acres and some less than 100
acres. The areas are too small to justify the employment of a techni-
cal forester to manage them. Occasional advice from consulting
foresters is possible but so far as known has rarely been obtained.
While State supervision or advice from the State technical staff might
take care of that, it is true that at present town forests are legally
subject to State supervision and direction in only two instances.
The local man or men in charge of them may be perfectly capable of
planting and protecting the lands but cannot be expected, without at
least occasional technical advice, to go much beyond that stage in
developing them. Because of their small size, their present condition,
and the improbability of technical management, these forests are
not now and do not yet promise to become very material sources of
revenue to the political units that own them. Only the larger ones
have potential possibilities in that respect. All of them will supply
some timber and fuel wood — free fuel wood perhaps to the needy.
Unless there are drastic changes in conception and administration,
both of which are well within the realm of possibility, they are not
destined to be of any material importance for timber production in the
immediate future at least.

Town forests do create and hold local interest in the forest and in
measures taken to protect them. That alone is worth a great deal.
Most of them will continue to be given as good care as the men in
charge are able to give. They will increase in number. Those be-
longing to growing municipalities which are obliged to extend their
ownership of watershed lands, will increase in area. They could be
and in some instances probably will become forestry demonstration
centers of local interest and importance. Their chief value, and it is a

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 847

very important one, will lie in the protection that they afford munic-
ipal water supplies. That will give them a more important status
than if their purpose were the production of wood alone.

Following in the wake of the State park, which is rapidly assuming
an important role in State developments, the town forest will in
congested sections almost certainly play the role of a town forest
park, a recreation center where facilities will be provided for rest and
amusement. It may also serve as a game and bird refuge, or for
some similar purposes. The extent to which town forests may be
developed for such purposes is beyond any one's knowledge. Without
doubt the need for and appreciation ^ of such areas will be realized
more keenly year by year, and it is entirely likely that relatively small
areas will be set aside in increasing numbers by local communities
with a view mainly to their recreation value, rather than timber grow-
ing. There is no doubt that they will be heavily patronized, and will
render in this way one of the well-recognized services of the forest,
and will be well worth their cost.

Any estimate of the cost of these lands and the current expenditures
on them could only be the roughest sort of a guess. Some of the
land was acquired by gift, some by purchase, some through tax-
delinquency, some through converting the old, so-called town farms into
town forests and so on. Perhaps it averaged $4 to $5 an acre, which
would make the total original cost to the towns about $2,000,000.
The towns have been active in establishing forest plantations, which
statistics show to aggregate about 68,000 acres. Since the towns
ordinarily receive these trees free of charge from State nurseries,
their actual expenditures for planting were probably about $350,000.
There is no method of estimating what is spent yearly on these forests.
Some towns have given them very good care, especially if one of their
functions was to protect the water supply. Funds have been spent
not only for general oversight, but for taking care of insect infestations
such as the white pine weevil.

COUNTY FORESTS

The number and extent of county forests, as estimated from avail-
able records are summarized in table 2.

TABLE 2. — County forests of the United States

State

Forests

Area

Illinois

Num-
ber
7

Acres
36,000

1

320

500

New Jersey

5

10,203

New York - - ---

34

18,384

1

40

Wisconsin -

11

460, 521

Total

59

525,968

It can hardly be said, in view of their small number and relatively
small acreage, except in Wisconsin, that these forests are of great
significance at present. Only in the four States of Illinois, New Jersey,

848 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

New York, and Wisconsin, does there appear to be any real movement
looking to the ownership and development of such areas. In the
other States the small areas mentioned usually represent some tract
or tracts of land that are a part of the land owned by one or more of
the county institutions; The Illinois area of 36,000 acres is mostly
in Cook County and is in reality a forest park for the city of Chicago.

In New Jersey, county forests have been established largely for
the same purpose, that is, they are recreational areas set apart for
people living in the congested industrial centers.

In New York and Wisconsin, real impetus has been given to the
county-forest movement by special legislation which provides for
State participation in the expense. In New York State the legisla-
tion provides for State contributions up to $5,000 a year to any
county for the purchase of lands, for their reforestation, and for the
protection of plantations or other forest growth thereon. While title
to the lands is vested in the county, the State law provides that the
area must be forever devoted to the purposes of watershed protection,
of timber production, and other forest products, and for recreation
and kindred purposes. This law is a close concomitant of another
New York State law which provides for the purchase of lands for
State forests. All lands owned or acquired by the county for the
purposes mentioned are exempt from State and county taxes and for
the purposes of all other taxes can be assessed at not to exceed the
price paid for them, or, if acquired by gift, at the value thereof for
forestation purposes but not exceeding the valuation as fixed upon
the assessment roll 2 years prior to the gift. The board of supervisors
of each county may sell trees, timber, or other forest products from
these areas upon terms deemed for the best interests of the county
and under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the
conservation commissioner.

The three outstanding features of this law are (1) State participa-
tion in the purchase of land whose title is vested in the county;
(2) the provision that the land must be forever devoted to the pur-
poses for which it was acquired; and (3) the provision that sales of
timber from the areas are subject to rules and regulations prescribed
by the conservation commissioner.

In Wisconsin, tax-delinquent lands revert to the counties. From
these lands, some 460,000 acres of county forests have been blocked
out into forest units.

Wisconsin has definitely stimulated the creation of county forests.
The forest-crop law of 1927 was amended in 1929 to permit the
counties to list county-owned land as " forest-crop land." For every
acre of land listed the State pays 10 cents annually to the township
in which the land lies. The county pays nothing. As a further
encouragement, the 1931 legislature ordered the conservation depart-
ment to pay the counties an additional 10 cents to be used in the
development of the forest units. Thus, every acre of county forest
draws 20 cents of State money each y^ar, 10 cents to the county and
10 cents to the township. The State in return is to receive 75 percent
of the yield from the forests. County forests have been established
in eight counties; other counties are hastening to get in on the
arrangement.

In order to understand the alacrity with which the forested counties
of Wisconsin are creating forest units, as well as properly to appraise

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 849

the possibilities of future development, it is necessary to look into the
financial conditions of these counties. In Wisconsin, real-estate taxes
are collected by the townships which pass the county share on to the
county treasurers. Some of the county funds are then returned to
the townships as county aid for schools, etc. A special law permits the
townships to turn over the delinquent tax lists to the county in lieu
of cash. Thus, from many heavily delinquent townships the county
receives little or no cash or may even be in debt to the township.
In one county in 1931 the county levy was $140,000. Of this, $41,500
was received in cash, the balance of $98,500 in the form of delinquent
tax lists. The county returned $40,000 to the townships for school
districts, which left a balance of only $1,500 in cash for county
purposes. The banks have refused further loans; the county is in
distress.

When the county takes deed to the delinquent lands, as it is able
to do after three years, the townships are no longer able to enter
taxes against the lands and pass the charge on to the county. Thus,
it is distinctly to the counties' advantage to take deed to the lands
as rapidly as possible. If the land is then entered under the forest-
crop law, both the county and the townships are further rewarded
by the grant of State money. During the past year, counties have
been taking deed to tax-delinquent land as rapidly as possible and
are entering large blocks under the forest-crop law.

The purpose of the county forest law is good. The conservation
commission is authorized to examine the areas offered for listing and
determine that they are suitable for forestry purposes. It is empow-
ered to supervise the expenditures of 10 cents per acre granted to the
county for forestry purposes. The State is to receive three fourths
of the yield from the forests. The disquieting phase of the arrange-
ment is that most of the counties concerned are not financially able to
enter into a forestry undertaking in any sort of an adequate way.
They are not prepared to spend the funds necessary to make the land
productive. There is little question but that the counties are taking
up the plan primarily as a means of getting State aid.

The creation of county forests is a step in advance in that it
involves a certain amount of rough zoning. It blocks up land which
is unsuited to private development into forestry units and prevents
further settlement in them. It stimulates local interest in forestry
and it is probable that some progress will be made in developing
some of the areas.

To men familiar with the forestry counties' financial situation in
Wisconsin, however, and to those who have had contact with forestry
undertakings of such local nature in other States, the county-forest
plan seems to be but a transition toward State forests. It is possible
that the units may remain nominally county forests for a long period
of time, but the cost and responsibility for development must be
largely assumed by the State.

The counties may become a more important factor in the Minnesota
situation. Title to tax-delinquent land passes to the State in Minne-
sota after 5 years. In 1933, 4,000,000 acres will be involved. The
State is to hold the land as trustee for the various taxing units in the
proportion of the unpaid taxes. The State's equity in these taxes is
usually less than 10 percent. There is a considerable disposition
among the local county and township officials to feel that under

850 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

these circumstances the county should have the determining voice
in regard to what is done with the land rather than the State. It
remains to be seen what kind of division of responsibilites will be
worked out in Minnestoa.

As matters now stand there does not seem to be a well-defined
national movement for the acquisition, retention, and development
of county forests as productive pieces of forest property under county
administration. The New York situation seems most clearly defined
because of the rather generous financial participation by the State
provided for by the law. The Wisconsin situation is clearly a social
and economic movement designed to assist counties whose idle and
delinquent tax land is simply overwhelming them. To assure success
of the movement, additional funds and effort must be put into it.

Ownership and development of forest units by counties would have
some advantages over ownership by the smaller town unit. Funds for
the purpose could presumably be raised in greater amounts and larger
areas could be acquired and maintained. Areas large enough to
justify the employment of a technically trained forester might con-
ceivably be set up in a great many counties. The possibility of de-
veloping public forests through setting aside tax-reverted land for
that purpose is more pronounced in the case of counties than for any
other political unit. In about half of our States, tax-delinquent lands
revert to the county rather than to the State or town. Where State
laws permit it, such lands of suitable character could be set aside as
county forests. To be most effective, legislation should provide not
only for designating some of such land as county forests, but make it
easy and inexpensive for the county to take title to the land, and should
provide for exchange of one parcel of land for another. This would
facilitate blocking up a comparatively solid area of land as the county
forest. Precise information is lacking as to the amount of land that
has reverted to the counties for taxes but apparently it amounts to
several millions of acres. Developing part of it for county forest pur-
poses would be one means of putting it to a use that would make it a
social and economic asset. It would serve largely the same purposes
as the town forest already discussed, tiimber production in time, and
meanwhile watershed protection and an area for public hunting and
fishing and other forms of recreation. To be sure, all counties could
not do this. Some could not finance such a project, even though com-
pared to some other county activities, its cost would be insignificant.
It would be necessary for the States to provide financial aid. To assure
continuity of and ability in management, supervision by the State
forester should be provided in these cases.

CURRENT FOREST DEVASTATION AND DETERIORATION

By R. M. EVANS, Assistant Regional Forester, Eastern Region

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction and definitions 851

Current forest devastation 851

Current forest deterioration 857

Effects of fire 857

Effects of cutting 86 1

Conclusion _ 867

INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITIONS

The depletion of timber in the United States has not resulted primarily from
the use of our forests, but from their devastation. The kernel of the problem lies
in the enormous areas of forest land which are not producing the timber crops
that they should.

This statement from A Summary of the Report on Timber Deple-
tion and Related Subjects Prepared in Response to Senate Resolution
311, in 1920, is typical of many which have been made during the 12
years since it was written. It expresses the widespread belief that
cutting, which removes the timber from at least 10 million acres,
and fires, which burn over more than 41}£ million acres each year,
are depleting the forest growing stock and rapidly reducing much of
the country's forest lands to unproductive wastes. Upon this belief
the demand for public regulation of private forest land is largely
based.

Before intelligent consideration can be given these problems, the
two terms, forest devastation and forest deterioration, need to be
defined. The difference between the two conditions is one of degree
rather than of kind. For the purposes of this statement —

Devastated forest land is land that without artificial restocking will
not produce a commercially valuable crop of timber within a tree
generation.

A deteriorated forest or stand is one which, because of the treatment
to which it has been subjected, has had its capacity to produce desir-
able wood or other forest products greatly reduced when measured
in terms of value, either of quality or quantity.

Deterioration, unless stopped, progresses ultimately to devastation.
Land classified as devastated is not necessarily bare of all vegetative
cover, the criterion being the production of a commercially valuable
crop of timber within a tree generation. They are elements of the
same problem, but they can best be examined separately.

CURRENT FOREST DEVASTATION

The present total area of commercial forest land in the United
States is considered to be about 495 million acres. Of this, about
20 percent is old growth; about 67 percent is second growth, cordwood
areas, and areas with some degree of restocking; the remainder, about
13 percent, or more than 60 million acres, will not produce a com-

851

852 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

mercially valuable timber crop within a tree generation without arti-
ficial reforestation. The extent to which planting is justified is dis-
cussed in the section entitled "The Reforestation of Barren and Un-
productive Lands" of the chapter on national programs required and
the responsibility for them.

This vast area of unproductive land is increasing at the rate of about
850 thousand acres annually; but at the same time a certain area of
land long ago devasted is gradually becoming forested, partly, at
least, compensating for the current devastation. However, there is
such a lapse of time in the reforestation of the long devastated areas
that millions of acres lie unproductive for decades.

The chief causes of devastation, now as in the past, are cutting and
fire. Either one can cause devastation, but the bulk of the damage is
the result of fire after cutting. The conditions set up by logging
invite fires and increase their damage. About three quarters of the
area devastated currently is in pine and other softwood stands, in
which cutting produces large accumulations of highly inflammable
slash and debris. A single fire in such slash may, and frequently
does, destroy all young growth and trees of seed-bearing size, leaving
the area incapable of restocking by natural means. The partial de-
vastation of a less severe fire is likely to be completed by later burns.
Among other causes of devastation is overgrazing, especially in the
farm woodlands of the Corn Belt. Insects and disease may complete
the destruction of trees weakened by fire, as often happens in second-
growth stands of the southern pines. All causes sometimes combine
on a single area. Table 1 shows the area of forest land being devas-
tated annually in the several broad forest regions.

TABLE 1. — Estimated area of forest land devastated annually

Acres

New England __ 11, 000

Middle Atlantic 6, 000

Lake 90,000

Central 1 140, 000

South 415, 000

Pacific coast 1 1 5, 000

North Rocky Mountain 76, 000

South Rocky Mountain 0

Total 853, 000

ON HARDWOOD AREAS

The great hardwood producing region lies east of the Great Plains.
It includes the beech and maple stands of New England, New York,
Pennsylvania, and the northern Lake States, the oak-chestnut-yellow
poplar stands of the southern Allegheny and Appalachian Mountains,
the oak-pine stands of the piedmont, the river-bottom hardwoods of
the lower Mississippi Valley, and other southern alluvial valleys, and
the oak-hickory stands of the Central States and southern Lake
States. For many years this vast area has been cut severely and
burned frequently. These processes still continue, but the hardwood
forest, through its ability to perpetuate itself by sprouting, exhibits
a remarkable resistance to complete devastation. Deterioration, on
the other hand, is widespread and serious.

In the Middle Atlantic region, mine-prop operations, fuel wood and
chemical wood cuttings in second-growth stands or following logging,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 853

take trees down to 2 to 3 inches in diameter, often stripping an area
clean. Fires in the heavy accumulations of slash which result from
such severe cutting have frequently destroyed the sprouting capacity of
stumps and resulted in devastation. Upwards of 50 thousand acres
of land in this condition are included in the areas purchased for inclu-
sion in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania.
In the same State, upwards of 2 million acres have been so wrecked
that they now support only a cover of bracken, huckleberries, and
weeds or scrub oak, fire cherry, and aspen. Similar areas are found
in neighboring States. The processes leading to devastation are still
going on in these States, but less rapidly.

In the central region, fires in heavy slash following logging devastate
considerable areas in the manner just described. In areas of heavy
concentration of livestock, such as the Corn Belt, the custom of pastur-
ing the farm woods is the biggest obstacle to the natural regeneration
of timber.

When the livestock are numerous and are concentrated in woods
of relatively small area, as in most of the farm woodlands, the result
is always the same. The young growth is eaten, broken, stripped of
bark, bent, or trampled out and new growth does not take its place.
Grasses work into the woods from the edges and in the small open-
ings. The older trees gradually die in the tops and are then usually
cut out by the owner. The result is a gradual transition from a
rather dense woods to a wooded pasture in which the trees continue
to die off and decrease in number from year to year. This means
the gradual elimination of the farm woods.

Over 70 percent of all farm woods in the Corn Belt is used for
pasture. According to census reports from 1910 to 1930, the area of
farm woods in this section is decreasing about 2 percent annually.

ON EASTERN SOFTWOOD AREAS

Devastation in softwood forests is more widespread and serious
than in hardwoods, since softwoods are, in general, less able to resist
fire and destructive logging.

In New England, devastated areas to the extent of nearly half a
million acres have accumulated during the past 30 years or more.

In the spruce-northern hardwood region, existing devastated areas
are confined largely to steep and rocky slopes which have been
severely burned following logging. A severe fire in this region may
leave the rocky surface almost bare of soil. This exposure of rocky
slopes is accentuated by erosion following the fires. It is a matter
of written record that some of the mountain tops now entirely bare
rock were, within the memory of man, covered with dense growth of
spruce forests; destruction of the forest soil by fire has resulted in
making new growth impossible. However, with the passing of large-
scale logging operations and the inauguration of systematic fire pro-
tection, the area of such land now subject to devastation is much
reduced.

In the pine region of New England, devastated areas include the
sandy plains which have been subjected to repeated fires following
removal of the original timber. These areas have been reduced to
worthless growth of scrub oak and pitch pine. The fire hazard on
these plains is extreme, and past efforts at reforestation, as well as

854 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

natural reproduction, have been largely wiped out by subsequent
fires. Most of the present annual increase in devastation is in the
pine types.

In the Lake States, forest devastation began with the rise of com-
mercial logging about 1850 and reached its peak about 1910. As the
area of cut-over land increased, slash accumulated and fires became
more and more common, in bad years reaching catastrophic propor-
tions. With the decline of destructive logging and its vast accumu-
lation of slashings, standing snags, and other inflammable material,
the conditions essential for severe conflagrations resulting in extensive
forest devastation have also declined. Of the 560,000 acres burned
annually, some 90,000 acres are left in a devastated condition.

In the South, no devastation of consequence, within the meaning
of the definition, is going on in hardwood types, although deterioration
is serious. Of the possibly 415,000 acres estimated as being devas-
tated annually in the pine types, nearly 90 percent is longleaf and
slash-pine land. The major causes of this devastation are cutting,
fire, turpentining, and hogs. Turpentining, however, seldom causes
devastation unless followed by cutting and fire, but may be a potent
cause of deterioration.

Good stands of longleaf in the western Gulf States, frequently run-
ning from 10,000 to 15,000 board feet to the acre over large areas,
have invited the use of skidders, which, as ordinarily operated, break
down or cripple many of the trees left standing by the fallers. An
example of practically complete denudation is a tract of longleaf pine
land in southwest Louisiana cut over between 1914 and 1919. It
originally bore a stand of about 15,000 board feet to the acre of prime
timber. A tally was made in 1925 of the standing trees and seedlings
on a strip two chains wide run at random for 4 miles through the
tract. This showed, on each 5 acres, less than one living pine 4 inches
diameter breast high or larger, and generally this occasional tree was
so small or crippled as to be incapable of seed production. Longleaf
seedlings averaged only 28 to the acre. In this example, fire played
a part, as it does elsewhere. Similar logging methods are still em-
ployed on other tracts in the South, although less extensively now,
because of the rapid disappearance of the heavy old growth stands.
In some localities, trees left in logging are cut for piling, poles, and
posts, and devastation is made complete by the removal of even the
stumps for distillation.

Longleaf pine seedlings have remarkable fire resistance except
during the first two or three months following germination and again
during the 2 or 3 years following the beginning of height growth.
During these periods, fires at any season of the year may destroy a
considerable proportion of the young trees. Fires occurring during
the growing season are the most destructive.

Hogs are serious enemies of longleaf pine seedlings. These animals,
either of the razorback or more domesticated variety, can wipe out
in a few months a stand of young longleaf pines as much as 5 or 10
years old. Damage is particularly serious around settlements.

The wet areas in which slash pine commonly occurs do not burn
often, but wrhen dry enough to burn make very hot fires because of
the abundant vegetation. When such fires occur, especially in young
stands, devastation is very likely to result.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 855

Pure stands of virgin shortleaf pine on poorer sites are occasionally
denuded by close cutting and fire. In general, however, this pine,
producing seed more abundantly and at shorter intervals than long-
leaf and growing in lighter stands which are less well adapted to the
profitable use of steam skidders, suffers little devastation.

ON WESTERN SOFTWOOD AREAS

In the great softwood-producing regions west of the Great Plains
in the Kocky Mountains and on the Pacific coast, it is estimated that
forest lands are being devastated at the rate of 191,000 acres annually.
The bulk of this acreage, more than 95 percent in fact, is in Idaho and
Montana, and in the Douglas fir forests west of the Cascades in Oregon
and Washington. Here as elsewhere in the country this condition is
brought about by fire and logging as the prime causes. While the
logging operation itself is seldom so destructive or complete as to
cause forest devastation, and tree stands of seed-bearing age are
seldom so destroyed by fire that a loggable crop cannot be produced
within a tree generation, fires in slash following logging, and in stands
of seedling and sapling age are particularly damaging. These fires,
and fires that burn the same area the second or third time, are re-
sponsible for most of the current devastation of forest lands.

The cumulative effects of logging and fire in the Douglas fir region
are illustrated by the results of a study of areas cut over from 1920 to
1923. To determine the condition of the reproduction on these areas,
105 miles of transects were run in seven counties. Analysis of the
data indicates that about 40 percent of the area is nonstocked, 30 per-
cent poorly stocked, 15 percent medium stocked, and 15 percent well
stocked. It may be assumed that land being logged now and sub-
jected to the same combination of influences for an equal period will
be reduced to a similar condition.

Much of the private land logged over for white pine in Idaho and
Montana has been burned after cutting. Unmerchantable species
and defective trees or trees below merchantable size left uncut are
prey to the first slash fire, w^hich kills much of this material. In a
few years these dead trees begin to fall and often create a fire hazard
comparable with the original slash. As a result, much cut-over white
pine land has burned a second time. The tangle of dead and down
trees, the snags still standing, the undergrowth of thistle, dry grass,
and fireweed altogether form so combustible a combination that it is
difficult, within reasonable limits of cost, to protect it from fire or to
stop a fire that has started in it. Probably 25 percent of the cut-over
land in the white-pine type in north Idaho is in nonproductive con-
dition because of fire.

In the past few years, more strict enforcement of State fire and
slash disposal laws in Idaho and Montana, together with a growing
desire on the part of private operators to comply with these laws, have
greatly reduced the forest acreage devastated as a result of slash fires.

The ponderosa pine types east of the ^ Cascades in Oregon and
Washington and the related types in California are less subject to
complete devastation by fire than the Douglas fir forests and the white
pine forests of Idaho and Montana. This is due to the uneven age
of these stands and their open character which permit the logging of

168342°— 33— vol. 1 55

856 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the larger merchantable trees without harm to the seedlings, saplings,
and immature trees that are usually present. However, these types
are not immune to destruction. Fires in slash following logging can
and do destroy all tree growth.

An outstanding example of the effect of man on the forest is found
in Eldorado County, Calif., where the ponderosa pine belt is being
pushed back and up the Sierra slopes. Because of man and his
occupation of the land, there has 'been a retreat of nearly 10 miles
from the 1,000-foot to the 2,500-foot level on a 30-mile front, leaving
a deforested area of about 160,000 acres. In addition, there is an
area of second growth nearly as large, three fourths of which is less
than half stocked. And this condition is typical not only of the
entire western front of the pine belt in the Sierra Nevada but of the
Douglas fir belt of the California coast ranges. The change from
forest to deforested land has come about very gradually. Some of the
deforestation may be attributed to the Indian, but undoubtedly the
larger part has occurred since the advent of the white man, whose first
inroad probably began with the establishment by Capt. John Sutter
of a sawmill at Coloma. By 1870 the lower ponderosa pine belt had
been largely logged off. Successive fires have completed the change.

In the redwood type, high-speed power logging and severe fires,
as a part of the logging operation for slash disposal and subsequent
fires resulting largely from carelessness, leave cut-over areas in bad
condition, but the sprouting capacity of redwood is insurance against
complete devastation in all but the exceptional cases.

Insects are a contributing factor in rendering softwood lands non-
productive. When extensive outbreaks of insects develop in forest
types composed chiefly of one species of tree or several species that
are subject to attack by the same insect, a high percentage of the
stand may be destroyed. The standing dead trees go down in the
course of a few years, making an impenetrable tangle of tree trunks
and tops through which reproduction is struggling. Fire starting at
this stage is difficult to control. Outbreaks of the mountain pine
beetle in lodgepole pine have been followed by fires which left great
areas destitute of timber for many years. Outbreaks of defoliating
insects in the spruce-fir type of the Rocky Mountains frequently
destroy every tree, even down to an understory of reproduction.
Fire that starts under these conditions likewise leaves barren land
in its wake. Many bald ridge tops and barren scars in the mountains
of Arizona and New^ Mexico are unquestionably the result of out-
breaks of defoliating insects followed by fires.

Available data indicate that new areas are being devastated at the
rate of about 850,000 acres each year; but against this annual increase
should be credited an allowance for the new forests that are growing
up slowing on areas long ago devastated. It may, indeed, be doubted
whether there is any net annual increase in the total area of devas-
tated forest land. Protection from fire, abundant seed crops, and
moisture conditions favorable for the establishment of seedlings fol-
lowing the period of germination are among the influences tending to
reestablish tree growth on areas long unproductive. In the Lake
States, for example, with better protection from fire in effect in
recent years, much of the cut-over forest land is being restocked
naturally with tree growth of some kind, usually jack pine, maple,
and aspen. In the South and in other regions, there is a similar

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 857

tendency for long-denuded forest land to become restocked, often,
however, with a stand inferior in quality or quantity. A period of
several decades may elapse before the favorable influences become
effective, and during that period devastated lands are adding nothing
to the forest capital of the country. Until the devastation of new
areas is stopped, material reduction in the total unproductive forest
area of the country is not to be expected.

CURRENT FOREST DETERIORATION

An adequate growing stock is essential to a continuous cut of wood
products sufficient to supply the needs of the country. The defi-
ciency in existing growing stock (discussed in the section entitled,
" Present and Potential Timber Resources") is due chiefly to
the deteriorated condition of cut-over and second-growth areas
brought about by fire and cutting methods based for the most part
on the realization of present values without regard for the perpetua-
tion of a productive forest. In the aggregate, considerable areas are
in satisfactory growing condition and are producing a reasonable
amount of wood fiber, but this condition exists more by chance than
by design.

Fire and cutting are the most important and universal causes of
forest deterioration; they also are subject in a large measure to
human control. Frequently they operate together and the effecis
of each are difficult to separate. Insects and disease also destroy
vast quantities of tree growth, thus lowering the productive capacity
of the forest, but they are more or less inevitable in nature. The
degree to which they may be controlled is discussed elsewhere in this
report. Their net effect is to contribute to and to extend the dete-
rioration resulting from cutting and fire.

EFFECTS OF FIRE
IN HARDWOOD STANDS

In many of the hardwood stands of the East it is the custom to
burn the woods annually to keep down the brush and undergrowth, to
improve grazing, to make hunting easier, and for numerous other
reasons. Such fires have been so widespread and of such common
occurrence for so many years that their importance from the stand-
point of maintaining a productive forest is often overlooked or mini-
mized. Because they 0:0 not devastate hardwood stands to the same
extent that they do softwoods, the fact has been overlooked that
fires are among the most deteriorating of all influences in the hard-
wood forest. On reproducing areas the proportion of hardwood
sprouts is increased and the composition of the stand may be radi-
cally changed. In young stands, more small trees than large ones
are killed or injured. Fire, therefore, affects the future of the forest
more than it does its present condition. Stands are destructively
thinned, leaving the land occupied by the older, often overmature
trees and by young trees crippled by wounds and subsequent decay.
The treatment of second-growth stands in which many of the trees
have been injured is one of the most difficult problems of the forest
landowner.

858

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Fires are more often fatal to small than to large timber, but per-
haps the greatest loss is in trees that are wounded but not killed.
Trees injured at the base usually do not die but continue to grow
and occupy space. Many of them become infected, through the
fire scars, with wood-rotting fungi. The decay may sometimes be
arrested, but it may also spread in the wood of the trunk, greatly
reducing the quantity and value of the final product. The trees
thus crippled continue to spread their crowns and thus prevent the
successful development of reproduction. In a study by the Forest
Products Laboratory of small sawmill utilization in Appalachian
hardwoods, it was found that three fifths of the total defect was
attributed to fire injury. The total defect in this instance amounted
to 25 percent of the volume.

The effect of repeated fires on a hardwood forest is well brought out
by the results of a study made by the Central States Forest Experi-
ment Station in a mixed oak stand in northern Arkansas, the results
of which are summarized in table 2. Here will be seen that defective
trees comprise from 22 to 65 percent of the total number by species
and size class, and that the smaller size classes contain the most
defective trees. This means that the young growth upon which
dependence for the future stand must be placed, is already 50 percent
or more defective. A fact worth recording is that only three trees on
the 105 plots were surely of seedling origin.

TABLE 2. — Composition of stand and percentage of defective trees following repeated
fires in a mixed oak stand, Arkansas l

Diameter breast
high group (inches)

White oak

Black oak

Red oak

Other species

Trees per
acre

Defective

Trees per
acre

Defective

Trees per
acre

Defective

Desirable

Undesir-
able

2.6 to 11

Number
7.62
4.62
4.52

Percent
42.5
52.3
22.5

Number
9.52
4.71
2.28

Percent
65.1
54.7
30.6

Number
4.37
1.52
1.39

Percent
27.4
39.1
22.7

Number
4.00
.57
.15

Percent
26.87
4.91
.97

11.1 to 17

17.1+

1 Based on 105 plots of 0.2 acre.

In the same study, 435 sprouts, ranging in size up to 2.5 inches,
were cut and the condition of the stem recorded. (Table 3.) One-
third of the white and black oak reproduction (the most desirable
components of this stand) show decay in the stems. Obviously the
future of this stand is not promising.

TABLE 3. — Defect in sprout reproduction

Species

Sprouts cut

Sprouts showing rot

White oak

Number
149
127
20
120
2
4
13

Number
52
41
7
24
0
0
2

Percent
34.9
32.3
35.0
20.0
0
0
15.4

Black oak _

Other oaks

Hickory .--.-. . ....

Chinquapin

Ash

Red maple

Total

435

126

Average

29.0

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 859

The two illustrations given are more or less representative of what
has happened over much of the eastern hardwood region.

In addition to the killing and wounding of trees, fires cause a heavy
loss in soil fertility by destroying the leaf litter. The effect is to
reduce the growth capacity of the soil. A marked change in growth
conditions can often be noticed, as when a poor, slow-growing young
stand develops, after fire, among better trees of a previous generation.

The effects of fire in hardwoods are quickly obscured by the ability
of the young growth to sprout, but even a single fire sets the stand
back several years on the road to merchantable size and a profitable
return to .the owner.

IN EASTERN SOFTWOOD STANDS

It has been estimated that at least 99 percent of the pine lands of
the South are today producing less than a full crop of wood and naval
stores. This deplorable condition has been brought about by uncon-
trolled fire, cutting, destructive turpentining, and, locally, by hog
damage. Successful fire control alone would in tune bring probably
90 percent of the southern pinelands to a higher degree of productivity
than they have known in the white man's day. Uncontrolled fires
have been, and still are, the greatest cause of failure of the southern
pines to reproduce naturally and fully throughout their range, and
they are still a main obstacle to timber growing in the South.

Much loss of second-growth slash and longleaf pines in the eastern
part of the pine region, particularly in Georgia and Florida, follows
the destructive turpentine methods commonly used. Many trees
are chipped when too small and are given too many faces. Gutters
are often driven unnecessarily deep into trees, chipping is often as
deep as \% or 1% inches, and front and back faces are commonly
run into each other. Fires ravage abandoned orchards, and trees
which do not burn down are often so weakened as to be snapped off
by high winds or to fall easy prey to insects. Composite figures for
three representative stands, cupped for an average of 5 years, and
abandoned, on an average, 1 year, show that 29 percent and 15
percent, respectively of the turpentined slash pine and longleaf pine
trees, 6 inches to 16 inches diameter breast high sre dead.

All destructive agencies have combined to convert large areas of
longleaf land to stands of scrub oak and palmetto. Probably 3
million acres of this kind of land are in Florida alone. This worth-
less cover is worse than none since it forms an effective bar to regenera-
tion either by planting or by natural seeding from the occasional tree
of seed-bearing size that still persists.

In the Lake States where commercial logging was at its height from
1850 to about 1910, some 5 million acres out of a total of nearly 56
million acres of forest land now support a stand of merchantable saw
timber. Seven million acres are unstocked, and the remainder sup-
ports cordwood or unmerchantable second growth. Owing to under-
stocking and poor silvicultural condition, timber production on the
area as a whole today is estimated to be but a third of what it should
be. In addition, inferior species have for the most part replaced the
more valuable pines and hardwoods which made up the original
stand. Vast areas have been converted to jack pine and aspen.
Much of the aspen, due to small size and defect, has no commercial

860 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

value, but hinders regeneration of other species, either natural or
artificial. Often it is worse than no cover at all. The magnitude of
the problem is indicated by the fact that aspen occupies some 21
million acres in this region.

IN WESTERN SOFTWOOD STANDS

In the California pine region repeated fires have resulted in thou-
sands of acres of waste land or unproductive brush fields, of areas on
which the type is changing to less valuable species, and of cut-over
lands that fail to reproduce. Each fire accelerates the progress and
effects of the next. Where logging has been in progress, the
broadcast slash fire has been permitted to sweep over with perhaps
little apparent damage; but in its path reproduction, the basis of the
new forest, is gone and will return only after many decades. Under
such conditions, the few seed trees left are weakened and are often
prey to the first strong wind. Brush gradually takes over the area.

As an example of what happens on private land, the cumulative
results on one large operation over a period of 20 years show that on
16.7 percent of the total area the stocking was 60 percent or better;
on 52.4 percent of the area the stocking was 10 to 20 percent com-
plete; and on 30.9 percent the stocking was 0 percent. The deficiency
is largely due to slash fires. The result of neglect of cut-over lands
is quite as likely to be a forest partly stocked, patchy, and damaged
by fire and disease as it is to be complete denudation. Hundreds
of thousands of acres of cut-over lands are similarly producing wood
at only a fraction of their potential rate.

During recent years there has been a tendency for private cut-over
lands to be left in better condition. The quite general substitition of
tractors for the destructive large donkey has resulted in leaving more
trees of small sizes, and fire protection has been more effective.

In the redwood region, high-speed power logging and severe fires
(including both escaping slash fires and those resulting from care-
lessness) are the causes of severe deterioration and even devastation.
Whipping of lines and the deliberate pulling over of "leave" trees
effectively remove any trees that might form the basis for a seed
supply. The ability of redwood to sprout from the stump when cut
at any season of the year results in stands 25 to 35 per cent stocked
with this species, except when the areas are repeatedly burned; but
the Douglas fir that is the principal associate of redwood is practi-
cally eliminated from the stand by slash fires which kill the trees
surviving the logging operation. A system of logging and slash dis-
posal which saves seed trees would make all the difference between
such a sparse stand of redwood alone and a mixed stand 80 percent
or more complete.

In the heavy, dense stands of the Douglas fir region in Oregon and
Washington, logging methods and the use of fire to dispose of slash
do not differ materially from those described for redwood stands.
Studies have indicated that the customary repeated fires over a
period of years will result in poor stocking on about 30 percent of the
area cut over annually, or about 65,000 acres.

It is clear that forest land dedicated to timber production must be
assured protection against fires throughout its timber rotation. Fires
damage forest values and in many regions ultimately convert valuable

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

861

types into low-grade, poorly stocked forests. Even the lightest
surface fires, if repeated frequently enough, seriously reduce the
growth capacity of the forest. In many regions, tree-killing insects
and wood-destroying fungus diseases invariably increase as a result
of fires. Kegardless of the extent of damage, fires have the effect of
depreciating the forest. The extent to which this process has been
going on in the United States is indicated in table 4.

TABLE 4. — Average area of forest lands burned annually in the United States, 1926-30

Region

Area
burned
over

Region

Area
burned
over

Pacific

Acres
I, 283, 598

South

Acres
37 571 504

North Rocky

283, 882

Middle Atlantic

338 304

South Rocky. ..

23, 111

New England

95,884

Lake

563 536

Central

1 379 076

Total

41 538 895

About 41% million acres annually burned over must be considered
as a major contributing cause to the problem of deterioration and
devastation, regardless of whether these fires cover cut-over lands,
second-growth stands or virgin forests. While the damage as a result
of fire may vary from region to region, the ultimate effect is reduced
forest values on practically every acre burned over. The process
of repeated burning, which is particularly common in the South,
demands intensified protection effort against fires if the forests are
to be built up to somewhere near their growth capacity.

EFFECTS OF CUTTING
IN EASTERN HARDWOOD STANDS

Destructive methods of cutting have resulted in decreased value
of remaining stands by repeated cullings for the more valuable species,
change in composition, and poor stocking of cut-over areas through
failure to make provision for reproduction.

These conditions may be illustrated by the results of private
cuttings in the Appalachian hardwood region. The forests of this
region are exceedingly complex. About 140 species of trees are
native, of which about 60 are important commercially. The kind
and quality of products that could be profitably exploited have under-
gone a marked change during the comparatively short period since
large scale operations began. Forty-five years ago only the walnut,
cherry, and the finest of the yellow poplar, northern white pine,
basswood, cucumber magnolia, and white oak were worth taking.
Commonly only a light culHng of the forest was made. Very few
trees were logged that were under 30 inches on the stump, and no
logs were taken at the mills that were less than 20 inches in diameter
at the small end. Ten years later, the usual cutting limit was 24
inches on the stump, and logs 18 inches in diameter could be handled
in the mills. By about 1900, the average cutting limit in the woods
had dropped to 21 inches on the stump and the average small-end
diameter of logs at the mill to 17 inches. By 1905, oak and chestnut
trees 15 inches oh the stump and poplar 14 inches or even less were

862

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

being taken. More recently, in seasons of active movement of lumber,
trees 9 to 10 inches on the stump have been cut for lumber by large
mills, while portable mills have cut to even smaller diameters, in
spite of the fact that trees of such small diameters can rarely, if ever,
be handled except at a loss.

Meanwhile, markets developed for species and products which had
no value in the early days of logging. The changes in market con-
ditions resulted in constantly heavier cuttings of the forest and less
timber left standing. Until comparatively recent years, however,
enough was left to justify the reworking of areas already cut over.
As a consequence, a large part of the timberlands has been cut over
again and again, sometimes six or eight times. It is estimated that
90 per cent of the mountain timberland in the Southern Appalachians
is more or less depleted of merchantable timber. The natural re-
placement with thrifty second growth is handicapped by defective
and unmerchantable trees left standing after logging.

In studies made by the Applachian Forest Experiment Station to
determine the existing conditions of remaining trees and reproduction
on the usual type of repeatedly cut-over, but not clean cut, hardwood
lands that have escaped recent fires, it was found that good trees of
desirable species in five different forest types averaged as few as 14
percent and in no case more than 26 percent of the total number of
trees 3.1 to 9 inches diameter breast high on the average acre examined
and from 29 to 48 percent of trees over 9 inches diameter breast
high on the same acres. The remainder of the trees consisted of
poor specimens of desirable species and less desirable species, both
good and poor.

The deficiency in stocking is emphasized further by the data in
table 5 from the same study. The indicated deficiency in wood
volume ranges from 41 to 58 percent. The wood volume alone, how-
ever, does not tell the whole story of the cut-over stand, for a part of
it is made up of defective trees and of trees of the less desirable
species.

TABLE 5. — Estimated deficiency in stocking in stands on uriburned cut-over lands
when compared with well-stocked second-growth of corresponding site quality and
similar average diameter breast high, by forest types

Average cut-over stand 3
inches or more diameter
breast high

Well-stocked second-
growth stand

Estimated vol-

Forest type

ume deficiency

-

Trees
per

Average
diameter
breast

Volume
per

Trees
per

Average
diameter
breast

Volume
per

in cut-over stands

acre

high

acre

acre

high

acre

Dry slope and ridge:

Black oak-scarlet oak

Number

Inches

Cords

Number

Inches

Cords

Cords

Percent

type

120

9 7

22

241

9 7

44

22

50

Chestnut oak type

159

7.6

16

326

7.4

31

15

48

Moist slope and cove:

Cove hardwood type
Northern hardwood type-

149
95

9.2
11.2

26

28

318
285

8.8
10.0

53
67

27
39

51
58

Chestnut type

192

8.0

24

352

7.8

41

17

41

The proportion of straight, sound trees of desirable species in the
cut-over stand is shown in table 6, and brings out well the evidence of
overcutting. In not one of the forest types represented are as many

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

863

as one half of the trees straight and sound and of desirable species.
Among the small trees, the inferiority is the more pronounced. Three
quarters or more of the trees in this size class are of the less desirable
species or defective; and these stands, not having been burned severely
or recently, are presumably in better condition than the large areas
of cut-over forest that have been fire swept.

TABLE 6. — Proportion of good trees (i. e., straight, sound trees) of desirable species
in typical unburned cut-over stands, by forest type

Trees 3. 1-9 inches

Trees 9.1 or more

Forest type

diameter breast

inches diameter

Total of good trees

high

breast high

Dry slope and ridge:

Number

Percent

Number

Percent

Number

Percent

Black oak-scarlet oak type

20

26

16

37

36

30

Chestnut oak type

29

24

17

47

46

29

Moist slope and cove:

Cove hardwood type

28
10

25
17

18
17

46
49

46
27

31
28

Northern hardwood type ..

Chestnut type .

23

15

10

29

33

17

Reproduction of desirable species, inadequate at best, is hindered
in its development by shade and competition. This condition is
illustrated in table 7, which summarizes the results of an examina-
tion of a typical cut-over area on a better than average site in the
mountains of North Carolina. Here the reproduction of desirable
species is dominant on 24 percent of the area, but the development
of a third of it is being retarded by overhead shade. Only 16 per-
cent of the area is stocked with dominant reproduction of desirable
species free to grow.

TABLE 7. — Stocking of desirable, dominant reproduction, shaded and unshaded, on
a typical cut-over area of better than average site, North Carolina

Species

Shaded

Unshaded

Total

Yellow poplar

Percent
3

Percent
7

Percent
10

Chestnut oak

1

3

4

Black locust

1

2

3

White ash, white oak, bas

swood, black cherry, cucumber

3

4

7

Total

8

16

24

The effects of repeated culling of the southern Appalachian forest
at short intervals may be summed up briefly. The best species were
logged earliest and most persistently; this reduced their seed supply
and decreased their abundance in the reproduction as compared with
the poorer species. Valuable species have been cut heavily to very
small sizes. This has reduced the quality of the second growth by
increasing the proportion of the poorer species. The effect of cutting
always the best species, large and small, is that of a constant attri-
tion, perhaps not marked at any one time, but cumulative and tend-
ing toward the elimination not only of the trees themselves but also
of means for their natural reproduction in future stands. Moreover,
not only the best species but the best trees of all merchantable species
have been cut, increasing the proportion of the poorest. Defective

864 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

trees left standing in the southern Appalachian forest occupy thousands
of acres in the aggregate and interfere with the continuity and success
of second growth.

Chestnut blight is among the factors contributing to deterioration
of stands in the southern Appalachians. As a result of this disease,
chestnut has practically disappeared from the forests of southern
New England and the Middle Atlantic States. Although chestnut
is still the most abundant timber tree in the southern Appalachian
Mountains, the disease is now established throughout the com-
mercial range of chestnut in the South.

Satisfactory replacement with other species is generally to be
expected, but the loss of chestnut will nevertheless have a deteriorat-
ing effect in many ways. It will greatly change the composition of
the forest, and will also substantially reduce its productivity, since
chestnut grows faster than most of its associates. Successive, short-
lived generations of sprouts from blight-killed chestnut, with their
tendency to spread out and monopolize growing space, endanger the
development of other hardwood reproduction. This danger is aug-
mented in mixed stands by the growth of shrubs and the shade from
living trees. The tendency of the crowns of undesirable " hold-
overs" to expand and fill openings left by the death of the chestnut
increases the shade still further. In the southern Appalachians this
problem is rendered acute by the fact that some of the most desirable
tree species are not able to endure prolonged shading.

The present actual growth rate on southern Appalachian forest
land is obscured by lack of specific data. Examination of many
tracts scattered through the region indicate that a large part of such
growth as is taking place is distributed among trees of little or no
commercial promise. Such trees fall chiefly into the classes of large
unmerchantable rejects from past logging, and smaller trees rendered
defective by fire, decay, insects, or other causes. Although many
excellent small stands are scattered throughout the region, it is safe
to say that southern Appalachian timberlands as a whole are not
making one third of the growth which the soils are capable of main-
taining.

Deterioration of southern Appalachian hardwood stands has been
described in considerable detail since the processes which are at work
here are the same as those which affect other hardwood regions of the
eastern half of the United States.

In New England, deterioration of forest land has been widespread.
It has resulted from clear cutting, or repeated culling, and fire. In
the spruce region, deterioration has been especially marked as a
result of culling first for pirie, then for spruce lumber, and finally
for spruce and fir pulp, without any attention to the hardwoods.
The residual hardwoods are very defective and have spread out to
occupy the space to the detriment of new growth which might be on
the ground. A serious problem of future utilization has been created
over thousands of acres in this way, and in addition, large areas which
formerly bore mixed stands of softwood and hardwoods have now
become almost entirely hardwood.

Hardwood stands in all sections which have been repeatedly clear
cut on a short rotation for fuel wood or other products have shown a
deterioration in composition — red maple, gray birch, aspen, fire

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 865

cherry, and smaller weed species increasing at the expense of the more
valuable commercial species.

^ Perhaps the most serious phase of forest deterioration in New
England has been the steady reduction of growing stock and a conse-
quent loss of many of the more important forest industries. In the
past history of the region, exploitation has proceeded in stages, each
stage utilizing trees and stands of smaller size then the preceding,
and each making a return of the former type of utilization more and
more difficult. The quality of the products has been steadily declin-
ing in this process.

In the Middle Atlantic region, it is estimated that deterioration is
following cutting on 90 percent of the forest land currently cut over.
That is, the stands which follow cutting on some 330,000 acres will
mature a smaller volume of valuable material than that just cut, or
will take longer to mature it. On the other hand, some areas cut
clean for chemical wood or other products have restocked with an
excellent young stand in which desirable species such as cherry, ash,
and hard maple are well represented. Where deterioration is present,
it is due very largely to failure to make any provision for seedling
reproduction. The forest on private land is often cut before it has
reached an age to produce seed in appreciable quantities, and regen-
eration is overwhelmingly of sprout origin on hardwood lands. Rate
of growth is known to be less over a tree rotation for sprouts than for
trees of seedling origin, and some species (the oaks, for example) are
subject to serious heartwood decay entirely independent of fire injury.
The total effect of dependence on coppicing is in general a widely
spaced, slow-growing, defective stand, and this effect is increased by
repeated cuttings.

In the South, 10,000 acres of second-growth river-bottom hard-
woods and cypress lands in south central Louisiana present an example
of " high-grading " a stand by removal of the best trees. An exami-
nation of these lands some time after the original stand was removed
showed the composition of the present stand to be as follows :

Number of trees
per acre

Potentially valuable trees 166. 58

Trees ready to be cut 2. 91

Cull trees __ 75.52

Total 245. 01

The "potentially valuable trees" are the trees which will be present
in the stand after 20 years, but in larger diameter classes. The " trees
ready to be cut" are the merchantable trees that will be removed
when economic conditions permit. The "cull trees" are trees which
because of poor form, decay, or quality are unmerchantable. Culls
make up 31 percent of the total residual stand. In other words,
through past cutting this stand now includes a volume of defective
material sufficient to displace more than one third of the production
which could be secured if the growing stock were all of vigorous and
well-formed trees.

This 10,000-acre sample is reported to be more or less typical of 25
percent of the total area of cut-over river-bottom hardwood and
cypress lands, or some six million acres.

866

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

IN CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHERN SOFTWOOD STANDS

In the California pine region, logging methods destroy an unneces-
sary amount of advance reproduction and immature trees; failure in
many instances to leave sufficient seed trees, results in understocked
stands of young growth; and in other cases the removal of the pines
from mixed stands leaves a growing stock consisting chiefly of defective
and unmerchantable white fir and other low value species. The last
condition is brought out strikingly in table 8 compiled from an
inventory of an area tractor-logged in 1930, which shows how the
removal of the pines has converted a mixed stand into a stand in which
white fir, chiefly unmerchantable, predominates and in which the
quality growth capacity of the stand has been materially lowered.

In the redwood region of California and in the Douglas fir region of
Oregon and Washington, the effects of fire and logging are so closely
associated that no attempt is made to separate them. Deterioration
in these stands has been discussed under Effects of Fire.

TABLE 8. — Comparison of original stand with residual stand on an area tractor-
logged in 1930 — California pine region

ORIGINAL STAND

White fir

Incense
cedar

Douglas fir

Sugar pine

Ponderosa
pine

All species

Diameter class

Trees
per
acre

Vol-
ume

Trees
per
acre

Vol-
ume

Trees
per
acre

Vol-
ume

Trees
per
acre

Vol-
ume

Trees
per
acre

Vol-
ume

Trees
per
acre

Vol-
ume

Num-

Board

Num-

Board

Num-

Board

Num-

Board

Num-

Board

Num-

Board

0 to 4 inches

ber
12. Q

feet

ber
3.5

feet

ber
8.5

feet

ber
1.0

feet

ber
1.0

feet

ber
26.0

feet

6 to 14 inches

29 5

431

4 0

33

13 5

243

3 5

152

5 0

159

55 5

1 018

16 to 20 inches

7.0

1,910

2.0

222

3 5

978

1 0

205

1 0

232

14 5

3 547

22 inches and over

11.5

15, 492

0.5

213

9.0

16, 013

3.0

5,191

2.0

5,130

26.0

42,049

RESIDUAL MERCHANTABLE STAND

0 to 4 inches.. ...
6 to 14 inches..

5.0

13.5

305

1.5
1.5

......

3.0
9 0

"243

20

123

0.5
1 0

80

10.0
27 0

" 762

16 to 20 inches

4.0

1,098

0 5

34

2 5

718

1 0

205

8 0

2 055

22 inches and over...

1.5

817

1 5

817

RESIDUAL UNMERCHANTABLE STAND

0 to 4 inches

7.0

2.0

5.5

1 0

0 5

16 0

6 to 14 inches

15.0

126

2 5

22

4 5

1 5

30

4 o

80

27 5

258

16 to 20 inches __

3.0

812

0.5

55

1.0

259

1 0

232

5 5

1 358

22 inches and over

8.5

13, 586

0.5

213

2.5

4,890

0. 5

539

12.0

19,228

In the ponderosa pine forests east of the Cascades in Oregon and
Washington, logging methods on private lands have the same tendency
as in the California pine region to increase the representation of the
less desirable species (fir and larch in this instance) at the expense of
pine and to leave an insufficient residual stand to produce full crops.
^ In Idaho and Montana, the present practice of removing all the
pine sawtimber and cedar poles from the old growth saw-log stands
in the western white pine type leaves a residual stand much depreci-
ated in quality, char-acier, and value. In many cases the land will

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 867

be left in possession of nonproductive, defective western hemlock
and white fir. It is estimated that one third to one half of the
private timber lands cut over annually is so logged as to impair the
quality, character, and value of the coming crop.

In the South, many thousands of acres of pinelands are deficient
in stocking because of failure to leave sufficient seed trees. Skidder
logging of old growth longleaf stands leaves few trees either good or
poor. Slash fires complete the destruction, and seedlings surviving
are often destroyed by hogs.

The mixed shortleaf, loblolly, and hardwood stands of the upper
coastal plain and lower piedmont, particularly in Alabama, Mississippi
Louisiana, and Arkansas, have been subjected to a series of cuttings
which in many stands removed first the pine sawtimber, later the
pine poles, and finally the pine pulpwood. The remaining stand
consists of poor and defective hardwoods, chiefly low grade oak, gum,
etc., and is of little value. Reproduction of the pine is hindered by
hardwoods which rapidly .occupy the Aground following cutting.
Over many thousand acres the productive capacity of the land is
reduced to a fraction of its possibilities.

The pulp industry, although of relatively recent origin in the South,
is already responsible for the premature cutting of considerable areas
of young growth. Such stands are destroyed at the beginning of the
period of greatest production of values, leaving the forest owner
practically no return for the use of his property. ^ If, on the other
hand, material suitable for pulp were removed in thinnings, the
stand would be greatly benefited and the owner would be compensated
by the production of higher priced material to be cut later.

CONCLUSION

As a result of present cutting methods and fire, the growing stock
on more than 850,000 acres is destroyed completely each year, and
at least 36 million acres are subject to deterioration in quantity and
quality of yield. Out of a total of 495 million acres of commercial
forest land, not less than 275 million acres which have been cut over
one or more times are producing only a fraction of their normal capac-
ity. Indications are that current devastation may be offset by the
establishment of new forests on areas long ago devastated, but the
loss from deterioration can only be compensated as silvicultural prac-
tice and fire protection are extended and intensified on forest areas in
all regions.

Deterioration is far more important than devastation. ^ The almost
universal abandonment of cut-over land to harmful influences, or
further mistreatment, is resulting in lowered or complete loss of
recoverable values over a much larger area than is devastated out-
right. Heavy cutting on critical sites, culling out of the valuable
species, ignoring sanitation, no regard for reproduction or for uncut
trees, no attention to growth, neglect of slash, inadequate protection
against fires — these are handicaps no land can overcome unaided and
produce good timber in paying quantities in reasonable time. The
losses from reduced yields and long-deferred yields over very large
areas will far exceed the loss over much smaller areas from complete
devastation. Forests of partial stands, forests of inferior and defec-
tive species, can never be depended on to supply the demands for

868 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

raw woods material in the important forest regions where these pro-
cesses of deterioration are going on.

It is not enough to "keep the forests green." The scrub oak areas
of the southern pinelands, the millions of acres of worthless aspen in
the Lake States are "green", but this cover on large areas is worse
than none since it prevents regeneration of more valuable species by
natural means and increases, sometimes makes prohibitive the cost of
planting.

The extension of organized fire protection and the tendency to
leave trees of sizes unprofitable to log offer encouragement that the
rate of forest deterioration may have reached its maximum. There is
also a tendency, particularly on the Pacific coast, to abandon high-
speed power-logging machinery in favor of less destructive and more
economical types. These tendencies need to be accelerated.

Devastation and deterioration are essentially problems of private
forest land ownership. Of the 10 million acres estimated to be cut
over annually, not more than 175,000 are publicly owned or managed
lands. Nearly 90 percent of all cordwood and restocking areas
(including nonrestocking areas) are privately owned. Furthermore,
public lands are for the most part, and to a continually increasing
degree, cut with careful regard to the growth of a new timber crop.
The investigation of the present management of private forest land
holdings more than 1,000 acres in extent, made in 1930 by the Society
of American Foresters and others, developed the outstanding fact
that the remaining saw timber and cordwood commercial holdings on
which an effort is being made to grow timber commercially compose
less than one fifth of the total area of such holdings. The effects of
a depleted growing stock on the opportunities of private forestry
practice in this country are discussed in considerable detail in the
section entitled, "Status and Opportunities of Private Forestry".
It is sufficient to record here that the present growth on private
forests is only a fraction of possible growth. This condition has been
brought about by the management of private forest lands according
to the tradition of realizing the maximum immediate return. This is
not only inimical to permanent public welfare, but often contrary to
the best long-time interests of the owner.

THE BREAKDOWN OF PRIVATE FOREST LAND OWNERSHIP1

By THORNTON T. MUNGER, Director, Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station

CONTENTS

Page

The situation 869

Evidences of the breakdown of private ownership 870

Extent of tax reversion and delinquency 872

The causes of forest land abandonment 880

The reasons why some land is not going delinquent 883

Factors that deter the conversion from private to public ownership 884

Present provisions for the disposition of tax-title lands 885

Possible future trends in tax reversion of forest land 887

Conclusions 888

This section shows that private forest land ownership in the
United States is very unstable, that in certain parts of the country
there is a breaking down of private ownership and the creation of a
"new public domain"; it gives the evidences of this situation — tax
delinquency and reversion, gifts and sales of land to the public at
nominal prices; it describes the character of land involved, the causes
for land abandonment, the trends and the problems created by this
instability of ownership.

THE SITUATION

Of the 270 million acres of privately owned forest lands other
than farm woodlands in the United States, a majority have no present
or prospective commercial value except for timber growing or for the
timber upon them. Most of the lands were acquired by their present
owners for lumber, pulp, or naval stores operation or for speculation.
Only 90 million of these 270 million acres (exclusive of farm wood-
lands) carry commercial saw-timber trees. Very little of the re-
mainder— 180 million acres — has been cut with any thought for the
continued productivity of the land. On the contrary much of the
land has been left without the nucleus either of a second crop or of
seed trees, and has been burned and reburned. As a result, its value
as a productive property has greatly depreciated and its return to
satisfactory productivity is delayed and made more expensive. In
some cases, the lumbering process has destroyed its potentialities
for profitable timber production. In other cases, where the land
might ultimately come into profitable production, the owner is
just not interested in the long-time financing for future forest crops,
and accordingly such land is considered by the owner as a liability.

Some cut-over land has been logged selectively, so that it retains
its productivity and the prospect of yielding a reasonably early rev-
enue; when this is the case there is much more interest on the part
of the owner in retaining his title to the land. Some cut-over land

1 In the compilation of this section an unpublished manuscript by the Forest Taxation Inquiry of the
Forest Service, Fred R. Fairchild, Director, has been drawn upon freely and phrases quoted verbatim.
Acknowledgment is made to this agency for this valuable material.

869

870 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

has value for grazing, for game ranges, for minerals, for prospective
agricultural colonization, for recreation, or for rights of way. These
values create a different attitude on the part of the owner from that
toward land that has no prospective value other than for forest
production.

In addition to the cut-over land which has been stripped of its
commercial timber, some detached areas of uncut virgin timber or
second-growth timber are considered by their owners as a liability
which they would be glad to drop. Such lands were bought or taken
under the public-land laws in the heyday of timberland speculation
without due estimate of the cost of carrying them until they could be
profitably exploited. Often they are inaccessibly located or carry
an inferior quality of timber. Now their owners are land poor.
Seeing no prospect of liquidating at a profit, they choose to abandon
such lands, through the process of tax delinquency.

As a result of these conditions there are many millions of acres of
private forest land in the United States to which the owners are no
longer asserting title. Taxes have been allowed to go delinquent to
the point of foreclosure and the lands have either come back definitely
into the hands of the public or have such a fugitive form of proprietor-
ship as to defeat any hope of timber growing. For example, in the
three Lake States there is in the neighborhood of 10 million acres of
such land; in the three Northwestern States of Idaho, Washington,
and Oregon, upwards of 3 million acres; and for the eight Southern
States the estimate is nearly 10 million acres; other regions add more
millions of acres to this category.

The stability of private ownership is not uniform the country over.
It differs in the several forest regions according to the condition in
which the land is left after logging, the productive capacity of the land,
its accessibility, the possibility of an early yield, the prevailing taxes,
other carrying charges, and the local attitude of the owners.

This section Is concerned with forest land, whether timbered or cut
over, used primarily for forest purposes. There is in addition a great
acreage of submarginal agricultural land in the forest regions on
which agriculture has been attempted and failed; millions of acres
have been abandoned in the last decade and much of it is reverting
gradually to forest growth. This type of land is discussed in the
section of this report, " The Agricultural Land Available for Forestry ".

EVIDENCES OF THE BREAKDOWN OF PRIVATE OWNER-
SHIP

Evidences of the disintegration of private ownership of forest land,
particularly of cut-over land, are very apparent in a number of the
forest regions. The situation is not new. The abandonment of
forest land by its owners has been going on for years. During the
present economic depression the burden of carrying land has been
very much aggravated, with the result that tax delinquency has
greatly increased since 1929.

The breakdown of private forest land ownership is evident in
various ways :

Tax delinquency. — For the purpose of this report land is considered
delinquent when taxes are not paid when due. There is an enormous
amount of tax delinquency the country over at the present time on
all classes of property. It is rather important to distinguish between

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 871

short-term and long-term delinquency. The former applies to cases
where the owner is not in danger of losing his land; it may or may
not be a premonition of ultimate tax reversion. Long-term tax
delinquency, i.e., delinquency extending to near the legal time for
tax sale, is obviously a symptom that the owner may not be able to,
or does not wish to, continue to hold his land. When the delinquency
accumulates to the time when the local law requires tax sale or fore-
closure, it is an absolute evidence of the breakdown of private owner-
ship, the first step toward conversion to public ownership. The
appalling extent of tax delinquency for forest lands will be given
later in detail for certain regions.

Tax reversion. — Is defined as the forfeiture of land to the State or
county for nonpayment of taxes. This happens when the owner
fails to sustain the burdens of ownership and no other private party
is willing to assume them. Tax reversion may come in various ways
and at various periods after initial delinquency, for the laws of the
several States are very divergent on this point. In some, tax sale
may take place immediately after the first delinquency, in others,
after as long as four years. In some States foreclosure procedure
follows three to five years after first delinquency, and either the town,
county, or State takes title when there is no private purchaser of the
tax certificate. The period during which the owner may redeem the
land is likewise widely variable and in some of the States extends so
long and is so liberally administered that actual forfeiture of the land
is almost indefinitely postponed. Some tax delinquent land is ac-
quired directly by individuals by buying tax certificates, and some is
subsequently sold by the State or county after title has been obtained
through foreclosure. The status of tax abandoned land therefore is
in a constant state of upheaval; it may be technically forefeited to
the State and yet actually be in private care, or it may pass from one
private owner to another, or to the public, and then perhaps back to
a private owner and later back to the public again. It may be bought
at tax sale, merely to cut some remnants of standing timber, with no
thought of permanent ownership, and again revert.

Donations. — In various parts of the country there has been some
voluntary deeding of private forest land — mostly cut over — to the
States. This has been done not so much from philanthropy, as from
a desire to get rid of land which the owner thought uneconomic to
hold. There have been furthermore many overtures by private
owners to give to the States or the Federal Government forest land
that could not be accepted because of poor title, legal restrictions,
or other qualifications which the public could not accept. Recently
there have been instances where tracts as large as 100,000 acres were
offered in good faith as a gift to the Government. Certainly these
donations and offers are a very eloquent indication of a breakdown
in private land ownership.

Land exchanges and sales of private Jorest land to the public are
frequently made when legislative provision for such transactions
affords the opportunity. The Federal Government is authorized to
exchange national-forest timber or land, or both, for private land
inside — and in some cases outside — the national forests. Private
owners have shown readiness, almost eagerness, to dispose of their
cut-over lands, being more interested in having opera table timber
than in holding cut-over or immature timber for a future cutting.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 56

872 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

By such exchange 1,205,100 acres (gross) have been added to the
national forests. The amount might have been much larger had it
not been deemed inadvisable for the national-forest organization to
make exchanges of stumpage for land to the extent of materially
affecting the amount of national-forest timber-sale receipts that go
to the counties.

Likewise there is a small Federal appropriation for purchase of
forest lands for additions to national forests. In the last 20 years
some 4,727,680 acres have been so purchased. The acreage of such
lands offered far exceeds the area that can be purchased, and it is
significant that the price at which sales are consummated is progres-
sively diminishing. In the East, millions of acres are available for
purchase at half the price of a few years back, making them very
favorable buys for public ownership. In recent years there has been
a gradual falling off in the price asked, which has latterly become
precipitous. In one western region well-stocked cut-over forest land
is being offered for sale in increasing quantities at 25 to 50 cents an
acre. In another western region tracts of 100,000 acres and more are
being offered at prices half of what they were held for a few years
back.

In addition to the activities of the Federal Government in taking
private land by purchase or exchange, some of the States, notably
New York and Pennsylvania, have been active on a large scale in
acquiring private forest land for State forests.

This willingness of owners to dispose of their forest land on a
"buyer's" or " distress" market, so to speak, is another very definite
evidence of the breakdown of private ownership. It is especially
significant because some of these lands are well stocked and have
genuine promise of being profitable properties under public owner-
ship. It is much in the interest of the public to have them protected
and kept productive for the many benefits they will give, even if the
owner sees no benefit to himself in retaining title.

Mortgage foreclosure and bankruptcy are responsible for a consider-
able shifting of rural ownership, and a good deal of land has gone into
the possession of the Federal land banksand private banks in this
way. In the years 1926 to 1929, inclusive, in the whole United States
17 farms per thousand changed ownership through foreclosure of
mortgages, bankruptcy, etc. There was no tendency toward increase
in that period, but since then the depression has accounted for some
acceleration. No data are available on the foreclosure of forest land
per se, but in the forest regions a very material part of the mortgaged
farms are woodland. This large amount of mortgage foreclosure is
due principally to deflation of land values accompanied by inability
of the crop returns to pay fixed charges, but it is also a sympton of
the instability of land ownership and applies to forest as well as farm
property.

EXTENT OF TAX REVERSION AND DELINQUENCY

It is impossible to present complete statistics of the extent of tax-
delinquent or tax-reverted forest lands in the United States. To do
so would necessitate compiling the ever-changing delinquency lists
for thousands upon thousands of different taxing units. Furthermore,
in the few summaries that are available it is quite often impossible to
separate forest land from other classes of realty.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

873

Rather it becomes necessary to picture the tax delinquency situa-
tion for a few important forest regions that have been studied inten-
sively. These examples of tax reversion and delinquency speak
eloquently of the very real breakdown of private ownership in these
several regions.

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

OREGON

In Oregon lands may be foreclosed by the county when three
years delinquent if there is no tax certificate purchaser, and there-
after they become the property of the county, either to be sold or
held. An act of the 1931 State Legislature makes it possible for
forest lands to be deeded by the counties to the State for State forests.

Table 1 illustrates foreclosure and delinquency conditions in five
counties that have recently been studied intensively. They are all in
rather rough topography in the heart of the heavily timbered Douglas
fir type of the northwestern part of the State, and have been and are
now the seat of active logging operations characterized by absolute
clean cutting and subsequent broadcast slash burning. A very little
of the cut-over land is salable to settlers, and most of it is considered
to have no prospective value for agriculture or any purpose other than
timber production. In these five counties, out of 2,228,445 acres in
the forest zone, 181,928 have already been foreclosed for taxes and
are held by the counties. Nearly 200 thousand acres more were
two or more years delinquent on January 1, 1931.

TABLE 1. — Tax delinquency of lands in five typical northwestern Oregon counties

in 1932

County

Area under
considera-
tion i

Fore-
closed
for taxes 2

Delinquent for taxes levied in »—

Total *

1927 and
earlier

1928

1929

1930

Benton

Acres
322, 287
512, 629
389, 951
451, 946
551, 632

Acres
5,493
34,067
19,833
48,911
73, 624

Acres
15, 474
41,312
16,385
33,127
17, 919

Acres
5,384
16,156
15,529
22, 257
11,784

Acres
14,048
30,853
33, 693
51,764
17, 755

Acres
47, 987
244, 592
98,150
57, 777
125. 579

Acres
88,386
366,980
183,590
213,836
246,661

Clatsop

Columbia

Lincoln

Tillamook

Total

2, 228, 445

181, 928

124, 217

71,110

148,113

574, 085

1, 099, 453

1 Mostly forest land, as studied; not the total area of the county.
1 County owned.

s Amounts are not cumulative, but each represents delinquency commencing in the year indicated,
acreages shown were still delinquent in 1932; those paid up are omitted.

All

To indicate the progressive increase in both short- and long-term
delinquency since 1921, the percentages of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 year
delinquency within the forest zone of two of the northwestern Oregon
counties are presented in table 2.

874

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 2. — Tax delinquencies from 1 to 5 years in Columbia and Clatsop Counties

Oregon, 1921-30

COLUMBIA COUNTY

Year of levy

First
year
delin-
quency

Second
year
delin-
quency

Third
year
delin-
quency

Fourth
year
delin-
quency

Fifth
year
delin-
quency

1921

Percent
10.3

Percent
7.3

Percent
4.9

Percent
3.6

Percent
1.7

1922

10.6

6.2

4.4

1.7

1.4

1923

12.8

7.9

5.8

2.0

1 8

1924

12.4

8.6

3.5

2.4

2.0

1925

14.2

6. 1

4. 1

3.3

2.6

1926 --

11.6

7.3

5.8

4. 1

3."

1927

11.9

7.7

5.5

4.9

1928

13 9

8 2

6.2

1929

20. 1

15.0

1930

35.9

CLATSOP COUNTY

1921 .

15.4

1922

16.9

1923

15.7

1924 ... ...

21. 1

1925

19 2

1926

22.3

17.5

15.7

15.2

14.5

1927

23.2

17.2

17 0

15.8

1928

25.8

21.6

20.3

1929

30.3

25.2

1930

43.7

i No data for years 1921-1925 beyond first-year delinquency.

First-year delinquency in Columbia County has progressively in-
creased during the past decade, from 10.3 percent of the 1921 rolls to
35.9 percent of the 1930 rolls. Likewise 2- to 5-year delinquency
shows a trend upward, and a notable increase in the delinquency in
tax payments due the past year.

Tax delinquency and reversion in Oregon is not limited to the low
value cut-over lands but extends even to merchantable timber, as will
be seen in table 3, which gives the delinquency by land classes for
the forested portions (i.e., excluding the urban and main agricultural
zone) of two important timber counties of northern Oregon.

TABLE 3. — Delinquency in 1932 by land classes l in Clatsop and Tillamook Counties,

Oregon

CLATSOP COUNTY

Year of levy

Tillable
land

Nontill-
able
land 2

Timber
lands

Reforest-
ation
land*

All classes

1927 and earlier. .

Acres

488

Acres
14, 196

Acres
23, 036

Acres
3,592

Acres
41,312

1928

480

10 103

3 413

2 160

16 156

1929

601

9,807

13,252

7, 193

30, 853

1930

2,626

63, 340

104, 738

73, 888

244, 592

Total

4, 195

97, 446

144, 439

86, 833

332 913

TILLAMOOK COUNTY

1927 and earlier. _.

123

10. 469

7,327

17, 919

1928

165

4 801

6 818

11, 784

1929

524

9,129

8,102

17, 755

1930

976

35, 562

86, 914

2,127

125, 579

TotaL...

1,788

59, 961

109, 161

2, 127

173, 037

1 As classified for purposes of assessment.

2 Cut-over land not classified as reforestation: stump pastures and other wild land not assessed for its
timber.

3 Land with commercial timber which is assessed in addition to the land.

* Classified as chiefly valuable for forest crops without mature timber in merchantable quantities.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

875

No class of rural land, as shown by table 3, is exempt from delin-
quency and all classes show a sharp increase for the 1930 rolls. The
amount of commercial timberland delinquent more than 1 year is
small in comparison to that delinquent only 1 year.

Land delinquent 2 and 3 years has a high prospect of passing from
private to public ownership. The very large amount of the 1930 levy
delinquent for 1 year is due to three causes — the lowering in 1931 of
the interest on delinquent taxes to 8 percent, the current shortage of
cash in owners' pockets, and a "tax strike" or remonstrance against
the port district taxes which are in litigation in Clatsop County.

The indications are, as a result of uncompleted local studies, that if
present trends continue for the next 15 years private forest land
abandonment will grow to the amount of 1,000,000 acres in 5 north-
western Oregon counties (Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Lincoln, and
Tillamook). This is 43.5 percent of the forested part of these counties,
the urban and major agricultural belt not being studied.

IDAHO

Northern Idaho was an almost continuous forest 35 years ago.
Lumbering operations have now stripped off much of the commercial
timber and large areas of cleanly cut-over land have been burned
over. Some 300,000 acres, more or less, have gone into agriculture;
but little more is destined to this use inasmuch as the rougher lands
which typify the cut-over area have no such prospective use. Tax
delinquency and reversion have been increasing at an alarming rate,
a striking, clear illustration of the breakdown in private forest-land
ownership, despite tax relief legislation for immature stands enacted
nearly 4 years ago. A statistical picture of the situation in the five
North Idaho counties (Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai, and
Shoshone) is presented in table 4.

TABLE 4. — Tax foreclosure and delinquency in five North Idaho counties 1927 ',

1930, and 1932

[In thousands of acres]

Year

Total area '

Fore-
closed »

Delinquent
3-4 years

Delinquent
1-2 years

1927

2,164

3

46

1930

2,156

55

101

1932

2,136

123

131

292

Other than urban and national forest.

8 County-owned.

Here in 5 years the tax-foreclosed, county-owned area has increased
from 3,000 to 123,000 acres, out of a little more than 2,000,000 acres
of rural land. The 3- and 4-year delinquent acreage has likewise grown
from 46,000 to 131,000 acres.

WASHINGTON

A study of Pend Oreille County in northeastern Washington, con-
tiguous to the North Idaho counties just described, gives a striking
illustration of the process that is taking place in the once heavily
timbered regions of private ownership, now largely cut over and for

876 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

the most part burned after cutting, where but little of the land has
potential uses other than timber growing. The area of public owner-
ship is already large and clearly is growing larger.

TABLE 5. — Ownership and delinquency of land in Pend Oreille County, Wash., 1932

Ar

ea

Acres

Percent

Area of county in forest outside national forest . _ •

287, 389

100

43, 498

15

State-owned --

14, 575

5

County-owned (through tax foreclosure)

52, 335

19

39,400

14

Delinquent 1-2 years - - -

29,560

10

Small-owner acreage tax delinquent

49

Large-owner acreage tax delinquent ,

21

Of the total delinquent area not foreclosed (68,960 acres) 35 per-
cent is 5 years delinquent, 11 percent 4 years, 12 percent 3 years, 18
percent 2 years, and 25 percent 1 year, showing that the serious
delinquency situation is of long standing and not the result of the
current business depression.

LAKE STATES

The northern portion of the Lake States was at one time an almost
continuous forest of conifers. Extensive lumbering operations fol-
lowed by repeated fires have wiped it almost clean of merchantable
timber and left much of it in a wholly unproductive condition.

Although the bulk of the forest land in the Lake States is now in
private ownership, a revolutionary change in the situation seems to
be imminent. This is evident in the extensive tax delinquency in the
cut-over counties and by the failure of any considerable number of
owners to take advantage of the reforestation tax laws aimed to keep
land in private hands for timber growing. From 18 to 20 million
acres of forest land is delinquent and virtually abandoned, a "new
public domain" embracing 35 percent of the forest area of the three
States. It is predicted that if the present trend continues for another
10 years practically 50 percent of the forest area will be in public
ownership.

The widespread tax delinquency in the northern portion of the
Lake States is largely due to using the natural resources without
thought of continuous production, resulting in the closing down of
industries dependent upon wood and a consequent enormous shrink-
age in taxable values. It is due also to a considerable extent to a
wrong appraisal of future trends in agriculture which has resulted in
the colonization of land unsuited to agriculture and the expenditure
of large sums of public money for roads, schools, ditches, etc., in the
belief that most of the land would soon be taken up in farms.

In Wisconsin are some 16 million acres of commercial forest land,
or close to one half the total area of the State. Except for possibly a
half million acres of virgin forest in the northern part and another
half million in the south, all are cut over and badly burned. The half
million acres in the south are in farm woodlands. In the 16 northern
forest counties of Wisconsin it is estimated that there is now 5 million

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 877

acres involved in delinquency, of which 4 million acres is forest land.
By the end of 1931 about 685,000 acres of forest land had been tax
forfeited, which is about three times that forfeited up to 1927.
Under present legislation, and with present trends in tax delinquency,
possibly 6 million acres may revert to county ownership in the next
10 years.

Michigan as a whole had 9,114,000 acres tax delinquent in 1929, of
which over two thirds was in the forest and mineral counties. The
area grew in the forest counties between 1910 and 1928 from 3,271,000
acres to 6,211,000 acres and likewise the acreage advertised for sale
in the forest ounties increased from 1,308,000 acres in 1910 to
2,962,000 acres in 1927. In Michigan about 250,000 acres of tax title
land are being deeded to the State each year for State forests; how-
ever, delinquency is increasing to even a larger extent than this,
attaining some 400,000 acres per year. But the State, for various
reasons, is not asserting title as rapidly as the land becomes tech-
nically available. Up to the present time title to about 1,250,000
acres of forest land has passed from private to State ownership — a
very considerable proportion of Michigan's 19 million acres of com-
mercial forest land.

In 15 forest counties of northern Minnesota, 18 percent of the total
taxable unplatted (i. e., nonurban) area was delinquent 1-3 years in
1928, and 13.9 percent was delinquent more than 3 years. This
means more than 1,500,000 acres delinquent more than 3 years and
more than 2,000,000 acres for a shorter period. Land that has been
delinquent for only 3 years has a chance of being redeemed by the
owner. Land that has been delinquent more than 3 years may be
considered permanently delinquent and only needing the official act
of the State to transfer it to public ownership. More than one
fourth of the taxable area of two counties has reached this latter stage.

Since the above figures were compiled, delinquency has continued
unabated, but the State has not yet taken title to any of these lands.
It is understood that it will take title to over 4,000,000 acres in 1933
when a recent legislative provision becomes effective. This is a
fifth of the State's commercial forest area. In 16 northern Minnesota
counties in 1931 there were 6,830,840 acres involved in some degree
of delinquency or 46 percent of the total taxable area of these forest
counties; of this 4,039,280 acres is delinquent for taxes levied since
1926 or prior thereto, and is deedable to the State.

SOUTHERN STATES

The southern pineries have been the scene of very active and exten-
sive lumbering for the last three decades or more. The forest has
usually been heavily cut and fires have run rampant thereafter.
The forest values left on the land as the result of this destructive
logging are, from the point of view of the "cut and get out" lumber
owner, very little. However, some timber owners, both large and
small, are very definitely holding their lands for continuous production
of timber or, in the longleaf- slash pine type, for naval stores in con-
junction with timber. This is in addition to the large acreage of
farm woodlands where the forest is used with the arable land.

It is o-bvious that land ownership is in a very unstable status in
the forested territory of the South, but it is difficult to appraise the

878 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

present stage of the breakdown in private ownership or predict its
trends. Laws are so designed, or so loosely administered, as to keep
land from coming into public ownership, even though there may be
a rapid turnover of private ownership at tax sales. The problem is
complicated by the fact that the climate and topography create an
exaggerated hope of colonization by settlers on cut-over land. This
and prospects of oil or minerals give a speculative value that encour-
ages private retention of the lands, temporarily at least.

In 8 southern States (Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Georgia) there has now fallen into
the possession of the State or county some 9,430,000 acres of com-
mercial forest land, or 7 percent of the total forest area of the region.
The area delinquent for 1930 and 1931 taxes, which has not yet
reverted, is estimated at 4,220,000 acres, or 3 percent, of the total com-
mercial forest area. The 8 States rank in amount of delinquency in
the order given above. Whether or not these areas will remain in
public control cannot be predicted; in some of the States, notably
Florida, landowners do not consider these lands reverted to the State,
but expect to recover title. Furthermore, some, if not most, of the
States have no policy or legislative authority for holding this land in
public ownership if it can possibly be restored to the tax rolls.

In Florida, prior to 1925, tax delinquency was rare; since then it
has grown by leaps and bounds and in 1929 and 1930 tax sales
amounted to about 7 million acres each year. This means that less
than 80 percent of the property taxes levied were collected without
resort to sale, an extreme situation resulting from the collapse of the
land boom and dissatisfaction with tax levies. This is for all land,
but most of the acreage is forest land, chiefly in large blocks and more
than half in corporate ownership. In 1928 it was reported that
5,900,000 acres had reverted to the State, and the Florida Land
Owners' Association estimated on October 30, 1930, that over
7 million acres, or one fifth of the land area of the State, had re-
verted for chronic nonpayment of taxes. How much of this will be
redeemed by the original owners, or sold, or held in public ownership,
is problematical.

Mississippi, in 1931, had matured title to approximately 275,000
acres of tax-title land. In April, 1932, 7,000,000 acres, mostly forest
land, were sold for unpaid 1931 taxes, one quarter of the total land
area of the State. It is estimated that 1,000,000 acres of this was
struck off to the State, the rest bid in by private parties. Of this
1,000,000 acres, much may be redeemed and probably a minority
amount remain in public ownership.

Louisiana, in the period 1925 to 1930, inclusive, 535,379 acres in
rural Louisiana (forest and farm property) were certified to State
ownership — a net area, after allowing for all redemption, cancelation,
and duplications. From 1925 to 1927 there was a decrease in the
reverted acreage, but it rose thereafter and in 1930 took an enormous
jump in spite of the average assessed valuation being less than in
any year since 1925. However, the prospect of oil has apparently
been a check on reversion in this and some of the other Gulf States.

Alabama is reputed to have very little delinquency or at least very
little that advances beyond the point of advertising. The explanation
is probably a comparatively low rate of taxation and a prospect of
oil or mineral wealth beneath the soil.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 879

In Arkansas as a whole, in 1927, 5.3 percent of the total locally
assessed realty valuation was delinquent. In 1931 this was more than
tripled, reaching 16.6 percent. The forest area that is estimated as
reverted to public ownership as of 1932 is 1,120,000 acres; in addition
there are 800,000 acres of forest land delinquent but not yet reverted
to the State.

Texas reports no long-term delinquency, for the reason that most
owners prefer to keep their taxes paid up to protect their equity in oil
or mineral rights.

OTHER REGIONS AND STATES

The above account gives a picture of the situation in several of the
major forest regions of the country for which information on delin-
quency and tax reversion is available. The regions with great areas
of cut-over land, much of which is useful for nothing but forest
production, like the Lake States, the South, and the Northwest, or
with areas of inaccessible or unmarketable private timber, like the
Northwest, face the problem whether private or public ownership will
prevail on a gigantic scale, a problem not encountered in those States
where the forest lands have other uses after the virgin timber is
removed, where conservative cutting has been practiced, or where the
forest is associated with agricultural use.

In the Central States (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri)
the breakdown of private forest land ownership concerns largely farm
woodlands and waste lands, since it is in this class of ownership that
most delinquency occurs. The area actually reverted to public agen-
cies in the Central States, as in the South, does not present a true
picture of the marginal-land problem, largely because of the delin-
quency procedure, and the association of these submarginal lands with
more valuable lands. The practice of purchasing tax titles before
their forfeiture occurs is common practice. Thus, lands which are
submarginal for farming are acquired by successive owners for the
period provided by the State laws. In this way lands do not revert to
county or State, but pass from one owner to another as they fail to
make returns sufficient to meet tax assessments. In many instances,
where tax-delinquent land has no sale, the county allows the title to
remain with the original owner, rather than take it over to county
ownership. In some sections there is so much submarginal land
becoming tax delinquent that local government is entirely incapable
of handling the situation.

In Virginia a rough estimate places the area of delinquent lands
which could be put into forest use at 2,220,000 acres, counting
1,200,000 acres of waste land which formerly bore timber and is
capable of doing so again, and 1,000,000 that are described as idle
crop land. Much of the latter class has been so eroded by attempt to
farm hilly land by tenant farmers that it is unfitted for further farm
cropping, a situation common throughout the piedmont.

In North Carolina an estimate of the permanently delinquent land
for the eastern piedmont and coastal plains region is 8 percent of the
total forest-land area and 5 percent of the total cleared-land area.
These percentages applied to the rest of the State indicate more than a
million and a half acres of forest land and nearly a half million acres
of cleared land as ready for reversion. Tax delinquency is increasing,
and this year more than a quarter of all property in North Carolina

880 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

will be advertised for taxes; but most of this will be redeemed before
sale. So far there has been no reversion of delinquent land to the
counties, but the fact that tax-sale certificates have in the past nearly
always been redeemed is no proof that they will continue to be.

In New England nowhere is the tax-delinquency problem acute,
and there has been practically no reversion of land. A type of forest
and a method of cutting which have left the land with some prospects
of future forest productivity, favorable taxes, accessible markets for
forest products, and a disposition on the part of both the owners
and public agencies to keep the lands in private hands, have all
contributed to this situation.

It is roughly estimated that in Pennsylvania a little more than a
million acres of forest land is delinquent out of a total of 1 1 million
acres of commercial forest privately owned; possibly a half million
acres will be unredeemed and be added to the "new public domain."
In some instances the county has taken title to as much as 5 percent
of the area outside farms. One reason why there is not more forest
land abandonment is the fact that about 60 percent of the State's
private forests are held for subsurface rights and some are also valued
for hunting preserves as well as for forest production. A further
reason is the fact that the cutting practices, particularly in the sprout-
hardwoods forests, have not altogether destroyed forest productivity ;
some potential forest value is left which encourages the owner to
retain title.

In New Jersey the township may sell for accrued taxes or give to
the State Department of Conservation tax-title lands, and 10
thousand acres were so sold in 1930 and 1931 for State forests. In
the "pine barrens" of southern New Jersey it was found in 1917 that
40 percent of the land area of some townships was not on the tax
roll — truly a "no man's land."

In Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, the Virginias, and the Caro-
linas, no reversion of land appears to have occurred up to the present
time ; but the volume of delinquency is increasing and some reversion
seems imminent.

In California timberland tax delinquency is not large up to the
present time, but has increased during the depression. In the pro-
ductive redwood region on both timberland and cut-over land there
is very little delinquency. There is more in the pine region, where
for five selected counties about a fifth of the private forest land is
delinquent. This is mostly made up of small areas in the Sierra
foothills, formerly forested, but now with but a mere remnant of
forest growth upon them; it is now repeatedly burned in the hope of
improving stock grazing, for which it is principally used. With
millions of acres of low-value land in private ownership, and aban-
donment in its incipient stages, there is the threat of a breakdown
of private ownership on a large scale in California.

THE CAUSES OF FOREST LAND ABANDONMENT

In considering the causes for tax delinquency and tax reversion of
forest land a distinction must again be made between short-term and
long-term delinquency. Short-term delinquency may or may not
lead to longer delinquency and ultimately to forfeiture of the land.
Short-term delinquency may be due to procrastination of the tax-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 881

payer, faulty collection methods, or temporary financial embarrass-
ment of the owner.

It is with long-term delinquency that this discussion is concerned,
the delinquency that results in abandonment by the owner, and
indicates a breakdown from private to public ownership. Such long-
term delinquency in the case of forest land can be said to be mainly
purposeful — that is, the owner deliberately ceases to pay his taxes
because he would rather forfeit the property than pay the annual
carrying charges. This is, of course, true in varying degrees; if the
taxes are very low (in proportion to the true value of the land for
any purpose) he may be more inclined to hold on even to the most
unpromising land than if the taxes were high. There are many
gradations between the type of land which the owner decides he has
no desire to retain and that which he would like to keep for its pro-
spective value but on which he is unwilling or unable to pay the tax.

CUT-OVER LAND

The most fundamental and underlying cause for the delinquency
and abandonment of much cut-over land is that it was acquired by
lumberman owner not as property to be cropped in perpetuity, but
rather merely for its virgin timber values. After these were taken
off, the naked land by itself was of no interest to him. The tradi-
tion of the American lumber industry has been "to cut out and get
out"- — an outgrowth of the once prevalent impression that the virgin
timber supplies of the country were inexhaustible and of the very
low prices at which virgin stumpage could be bought. The public
land laws and the early policies of the States and Nation made easy
this practice of stripping off the virgin timber in one region and moving
on to another. The unwisdom of this, not only from the point of
view of the public but from that of the private owner who might
have benefited in the long run by a sustained-yield policy of manage-
ment, is becoming more and more apparent. A question raised very
sharply by this breakdown in private ownership is whether the whole
conception of transferring to private ownership so much forest land
was not in error. In the public-land States there was acquired for
private ownership in a comparatively few years an area of virgin
timberland which the owners were wholly unprepared to hold and
manage conservatively. This is discussed further in the section,
'The Probable Future Distribution of Forest Land Ownership".

A contributing cause for the delinquency and abandonment of
much cut-over land is that its forest productivity has been wrecked
in the process of logging. Land left in unproductive condition and
subject to repeated fires is very unattractive for private ownership.
There is an enormous acreage in this category. Had this land been
logged with thought of the future under sustained-yield principles, had
seed trees been left and slashings carefully disposed of, this situation
of land abandonment would not be so acute. Forest productivity
would be unimpaired and permanent private ownership might have
been attractive. The situation is analogous to that on agricultural
lands on which farming methods in use have depleted the fertility
of the soil or allowed it to erode to the extent that the land has become
unproductive and is abandoned by the owner.

882 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

t There is delinquency also in land left in productive condition,
simply because the owner sees no profit in holding the land for another
crop or takes no interest in permanent forest-land management.
Here there is apparently a correlation between the extent of delin-
quency and the amount of the taxes, other things being equal. The
higher the taxes the greater the extent of the delinquency. Taxes
that are out of proportion to the earning power of the property,
present or prospective, portend delinquency and foreclosure. A
deflation in property values, due to the disappearance of supposed
speculative values, or to an economic depression like the present,
and not accompanied by commensurate tax reduction, stimulates the
abandonment of land. Forest land that is exposed to colonization
development, with accompanying mounting costs of Government for
roads and schools, becomes subject to a growing tax burden from
special levies of one kind and another. When a certain limit is
reached, the owner of cut-over land decides he can not afford to hold
on longer and abandons his property, which may fall to public owner-
ship or may be taken up by another class of owner for other purposes.

It is not only the actual present taxes that deter an owner from
holding his cut-over lands but the apprehension that his taxes will
be raised to the breaking point before he can get any return from
subsequent forest crops.

It is quite significant that in the forest district of northern Maine,
where there is a disposition to hold lands and keep them productive,
where town Government is not organized, governmental facilities are
few, and taxes are correspondingly low, there is practically no tax
delinquency, even though there are great areas of logged lands. The
fact that much of these lands are logged selectively, fires are held
down, and forest productivity is preserved gives the owner a perma-
nent interest in the land that impels him to be willing to pay a rea-
sonable annual tax.

It was found in Minnesota, and the same condition probably
prevails elsewhere, that long-term delinquency was higher in cut-over
forest counties where attempt had been made at agricultural develop-
ment and found to be unsuccessful, than in counties where agricul-
tural settlement was not attempted. Apparently, in regions where
settlement takes place, tax levies and assessments rise on account
of roads, schools, etc., on even the unoccupied interfarm areas.
This discourages the owner of idle cut-over land from further tax
paying. As these latter lands go delinquent the tax burden is then
shifted to the owner of the submarginal agricultural land, who in
turn becomes desirous of abandoning his land because its production
does not justify its growing tax burden. The process of tax delin-
quency is thus self-accelerating and the breakdown of private owner-
ship pyramided as the process continues.

UNCUT TIMBERLAND

The amount of mature timber, not considering farm woodland,
which is reverting from private to public ownership is apparently not
large at present; it is greater in the Northwest than elsewhere.
Where there is tax foreclosure on mature timberland that has an
intrinsic value to justify its carrying charges, the cause must be
sought in the inability of the present owner to pay his taxes even

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 883

though he wants to hold the land. In this case it is to be expected
that there will be a private purchaser for this land and that it will
not go into public ownership before the timber is removed.

However, there is some private timber in the Northwest so inaces-
sible for immediate exploitation that to carry it until it becomes
" economically ripe" may be unjustified for a private owner in the
light of present stumpage price forecasts. Appreciating this fact,
certain owners, mostly small and financially weak, are recognizing
that a poor speculation was made and are abandoning their invest-
ments. Land of this category is likely to revert to public ownership,
unless there be much greater optimism in timber speculation than
at present, or unless the counties or the States make extraordinary
provision to get the land back on the tax rolls.

In California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and some other States, a
compulsory fire patrol law requires the owner of forest property to
protect his land, otherwise the State does so at his expense. When
an owner abandons his land, he escapes not only the taxes, but also
the burden of protecting it; this must be considered in explaining the
reasons for permanent tax delinquency. In the above-mentioned
States the current liability for fire patrol may amount to as much as
the taxes on cut-over land or more.

THE REASONS WHY SOME LAND IS NOT GOING DE-
LINQUENT

There is a considerable cut-over forest acreage which, by compari-
son with land of similar physical conditions and tax burdens, should
be tax-abandoned but is not. Its actual value for forest production
in the condition in which it has been left does not apparently justify
its carrying charges, yet its owner continues to pay the taxes. It
may be said to be in the balance between private ownership and
reversion to the public. Some of this is now in private ownership
purely because of temporary considerations and will almost surely go
delinquent; other areas may or may not stay in private ownership
depending upon the trend of tax laws, economic developments, etc.
Some of the considerations postponing or preventing abandonment
of land which could be expected to be delinquent are as follows :

1. The value which cut-over land contiguous to active logging
operations may have to the operator for rights of way and for control
of his property as a unit.

2. The fact that failure to pay taxes on cut-over land may have the
effect of increasing taxes on adjoining standing timber, with no net
gain to the owner and a possible danger of incurring disfavor with the
taxing authorities.

3. Hope that land hunger may make a market for the stump land,
if it has any agricultural or any form of recreational possibilities.

4. Speculative possibilities that oil or minerals may be found
beneath the stump land.

5. The chance that the Federal or local government, as a part of a
program of expanding public forests to safeguard the future timber
needs of the people for watershed protection, etc., may desire to
acquire these lands either by exchange or purchase.

6. A faith in the future that, where the land has been left reason-
ably productive, the ultimate value of stumpage will justify holding

884 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

it, even though the young growth has practically no market value
at the present time.

7. The requirements of mortgage notes that may preclude aban-
doning parcels of an entire tract.

8. Use of the land for grazing.

The first two considerations are transitory. It may be expected
in some of the major forest regions that when a logging operation is
concluded in a county the entire tract of logged land will be aban-
doned. This seems to be borne out by the history of some of the
logging centers. As a higher percentage of the country becomes
logged, delinquency is greatly accelerated.

The third reason — hope of sale for agriculture or recreation — will
vary with the region and with the pendulum of human tastes and
business trends. Colonization has already been carried so far and
so unsuccessfully on stump lands decidedly submarginal for agricul-
ture that the trend in the Northern States seems to be away from
further hope of profit from such use of forest land. In the Lake
States extraordinary recreational uses, and in the Southeast hunting
facilities, furnish a prospective additional return from certain classes
of forest land that might otherwise go delinquent, but whether these
uses, supplemental to forest uses, will be sufficient to hold in private
ownership any great amount of land, otherwise tax-forfeited is
problematical.

The speculative possibility that minerals or oil may be found, or
that the public will acquire the land by exchange or purchase, is
undoubtedly holding some land, temporarily at least, in private hands.
These reasons prevail more or less in all parts of the country, but
certainly the oil prospects are a material reason why there is not more
delinquency in such States as Louisiana and Texas.

Faith in the future of reasonably productive land may often cause
one owner to hold his land even though his neighbor with identically
the same kind of land under the same economic conditions, adopts the
policy of abandoning his. So long as his land is in productive condi-
tion, the former owner has hope of the ultimate profitableness of
holding his property.

Grazing rental of cut-over land, particularly as found in the Rocky
Mountain States, helps to carry the land and forestall delinquency.
Such land is often sold by the timberman for grazing use, and so
remains in private ownership primarily for range purposes, not
timber growing, though the two purposes may both be served in the
long run.

FACTORS THAT DETER THE CONVERSION FROM PRI-
VATE TO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

Much of the low-grade and cut-over forest land of the country, as
well as much submarginal agricultural land, is in a very unstable
status, lying suspended, so to speak, between the private owner and
the public. The private owner does not want it. The public has
not the policy or the legislative program to hold and manage it. For
this reason the statistics of the acreage of tax-reverted land give but
a partial picture of the seriousness of the breakdown of private owner-
ship. They dp not include the great acreage which is in reality
abandoned by its owners but to which the public is not asserting title.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 885

This is land which in last analysis is in the mind of the owner not
thought to be sufficiently promising of yields in the present condition
to be economic to hold. It presents a very serious legislative and
economic problem, because, although it is counted upon in the budgets
to yield a tax revenue, it pays taxes only intermittently if at all.
Either there is no provision or only inadequate provision for its man-
agement and protection from fire and it is therefore not only a liability
but a menace to the community.

The reasons why such lands are held in this unsatisfactory and
unsafe condition and do not immediately pass to public ownership
may be chiefly summarized as follows:

1 . It usually being the desire of local poli tical units to keep land on
the tax rolls, the laws are commonly framed with that end in view.
Penalties for delinquency are not so severe as to be a real detriment;
there is liberal provision for redemption by the original owner;
delinquency, before the county can foreclose, is sometimes as long as
5 years (Washington). By sale of tax certificates, the land can go
back into private ownership at much less than its assessed value. In
many States an effort to resell the land after foreclosure is compulsory,
and therefore so long as there are buyers at almost any price the lands
cannot stay in public ownership. The now amended tax homestead
law of 1893 in Michigan is an instance of the strenuous attempt to
keep land on the tax rolls, even though it be not the kind of land that
is economically sound for homesteading and could not permanently
remain in private ownership.

2. Furthermore, the laws which in themselves favor retention in
private ownership are commonly enforced with such laxity as to
further favor private possession. Land is often not foreclosed until
long after the statutory period and occupancy continues after legal
rights of the owner have lapsed. The costly procedure of foreclosure
is a further detriment to prompt execution of the tax-delinquency
statutes.

3. In the absence of any definite policy and machinery on the part
of the State or county for the management of public forest land, there
is no incentive for the public to hold tax- title land. The tradition in
most States has been to keep the land in private hands on the tax
rolls. Where this is not the case, it becomes a "no man 's land." It
is little wonder therefore that tax-forfeited lands become a battledore
to be batted back and forth between private owners and public
agencies, often falling down between them and being picked up and
used by neither.

In a few States definite provision has been made for the manage-
ment of tax-reverted lands as State or county forests. This seems to
be a remedy for the evils of the laissez-faire tax-reversion practices.
Instances of such provisions are given in a later paragraph.

PRESENT PROVISIONS FOR THE DISPOSITION OF TAX-
TITLE LANDS

The laws of the several States vary greatly as to the processes by
which tax-delinquent land becomes forfeited and may ultimately
become public property. The tax lien may be enforced in various
ways and at various periods after delinquency. The most common
ways (without going into the details of legal procedure) are the sale to

886 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

anyone of tax certificates, automatic purchase by the State or county
of the tax lien, foreclosure proceedings without sale of certificates, or
some combination of these methods. After sale, a period is usually
allowed during which the original owner may redeem his land, varying
in the different States from a few months to three years — in New
Jersey, 20 years if right of redemption is not foreclosed. After fore-
closure and judgment there is usually no opportunity for redemption.
To exercise redemption, the fees or penalties vary from rather moder-
ate to quite large. Where the land is purchased at tax sale or through
foreclosure by a private party and not redeemed before the redemption
period has passed, a tax deed (or sheriff's or treasurer's deed) is issued,
giving the new owner a title to the property. Where land is not sold
to a private party or redeemed the title passes to the public. Of 34 of
the principal forest States for which data is at hand, it appears that
the title to the reverted land goes to the State in 15 States, to the
county in 13 States, and to the town in 5 States. Other political
units have equities in some States.

What is done with this "new public domain" after it has come into
the possession of the State, county, or town? As previously stated,
it is the policy in most parts of the country to get the land back into
private ownership. Michigan attempted to do it by the tax home-
stead law of 1893, other States have sales, others lease the lands — even
at rates less than the taxes would be. Where failure to find a buyer
can be taken as prima-facie evidence that the land is not suitable for
private ownership in its present condition and under the present
economic set-up and tax policy, insistance on trying to get it back into
private hands is most unfortunate. Instead, there should be some
provision for putting such land under permanent public management.
In a very few States such legislative provisions exist, with machinery
for managing the land as State or county forests or parks. Some of
these laws are here described briefly, by States, as examples of progres-
sive steps to overcome the evils of this breakdown of private forest
land ownership :

Michigan. — Tax-title lands go to the State and if suitable for State
forests may be so dedicated, the State paying something to the
counties in lieu of taxes. In this way Michigan has some 1,250,000
acres of State land, some of which is managed as State forests by the
Department of Conservation, and this area is being added to at the
rate of about 250,000 acres each year.

Wisconsin. — Here tax-reverted lands go to the county. Wisconsin
has encouraged the development of county forests by permitting
county lands to be listed under the forest-crop law and by providing
State aid to the extent of 20 cents per acre. About 460,000 acres
have been set aside during the past two years. Wisconsin also has
State forests, acquired in part through tax delinquency.

Minnesota. — The conservation department has set as its aim the
blocking out of about 4 million acres of State forests from tax delin-
quent lands in the next 10 years. Only a beginning has been made
so far.

Oregon.— By provision of the 1931 legislature, tax-reverted land
may be deeded by the county to the State to be managed as State
forests in perpetuity, and the State will pay the county the forest
fee and yield tax provided under the reforestation tax law. So far
no lands have been so deeded for State forests. In at least one

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FOEESTRY 887

county tax-reyerted lands are being held by the county with the
purposeful policy of forest production.

Provisions for acquiring and managing State forests are found in
many other States as well, but the above are the outstanding exam-
ples of legislation to put tax-forfeited lands under permanent forest
management.

POSSIBLE FUTURE TRENDS IN TAX REVERSION OF
FOREST LAND

The statistics of tax reversion are too incomplete to warrant mak-
ing a mathematical prediction of the trend. Irrespective, however,
of the acceleration of delinquency during the depression, the facts
all point to an increase in land abandonment in the regions where
the ownership is now unstable. Many of the factors which have
in the past, and are now, creating tax delinquency and reversion are
as potent as ever and in some regions certainly more so. Very prompt
and radical action would have to be taken to nullify these factors.

In some regions there is an overburden of forest lands in private
ownership; private capital took upon itself the ownership of an enor-
mous amount of timberland merely to exploit the commercial stump-
age with no contemplation of holding the lands permanently or
managing them for continuous production; many people believe that
there is much forest land that never should have gone into private
hands. This basic factor of improper distribution of forest ownership
is a continuing cause for the breakdown of private ownership.

It has already been shown that another basic cause for the abroga-
tion of ownership is the destruction of forest productivity in the process
of logging without thought for reforestation. Great areas in this
condition have already gone delinquent, but even greater areas are
still on the tax roll. In certain regions there is every reason to believe
that an increasing acreage in this category will become "new public
domain'* unless very drastic steps are taken to stem the tide of tax
reversion. So long as devastating logging continues, there will in-
evitably be lack of interest in permanent land ownership.

Delinquency of the lands which are in reasonably productive condi-
tion is affected by many conditions. With a diminishing timber sup-
ply, and with research, education, and extension teaching in forestry
there is an increasing realization that timber growing will pay. In re-
gions where the conditions favor early marketable yields, growth is
good, and protection and other carrying costs are low, there will
probably be a trend toward stabilized private ownership, but the out-
look is that it will be slow in coming under the present regime.

There is a growing interest in timber growing by private owners.
The very conception of sustained-yield forestry, which a few owners
are adopting, presupposes permanent ownership. Selective logging
will undoubtedly be practiced more widely in the future. This in
itself insures land values that encourage permanent ownership.

There is much that the public might do to affect the stability or
instability of ownership. What the public in the several States will
do is problematical. A strict enforcement of the delinquency laws
would throw an immense acreage into the new public domain that is
now in uncertain status. A policy of allowing tne public to take title,

108342°— 33— vol. 1 57

888 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

where now it is the policy to try to keep on the tax roll land unfit for
private ownership, would also automatically put much land in State
and county hands. A legislative program for the expansion of na-
tional, State, and other public forests would reveal how shaky private
ownership is in some regions and would accelerate the transition from
private to public ownership.

Whereas an increase in property taxes would tend to increase rever-
sion, lowering taxes or fixing of taxes on growing timber, as has been
done in some States, tends on the other hand to stabilize private
ownership for at least the better lands.

Public assistance in forest protection or other measures of cooper-
ation or subsidy that make forest growing more attractive to the
owner are factors that would militate against the present high rate of
reversion. On the other hand the withdrawal of such public aids to
private timber growing as are now given would have the effect of ac-
celerating land abandonment.

A general healthier economic condition in the forest industries
would give timberland owners a confidence in the future, now lack-
ing, that would increase interest in timber growing; this is to be
expected in the long swing, but is apparently not an imminent factor
in tax delinquency trends.

All in all it appears that tax delinquency and reversion can be
expected to continue unabated for some years in the regions where
they are now prevalent. An aroused public consciousness of the
evils of the situation will hasten action to stem the tide of reversion
or to correct its evils by properly taking care of the " no-man's land".
With improvement in economic conditions for timber growing and
acceptance of forestry principles, one of the basic causes for delin-
quency will gradually disappear, and in the rather distant future,
with a wider distribution of public ownership, a more stable holding
of private forest lands may be expected. Some States and regions
will naturally work the problem out sooner than others, but if all
regions begin at once, the solution of the serious problem of stabilizing
ownership will be reached none too soon.

CONCLUSIONS

The great instability of forest ownership in the United States,
which in some regions can be properly characterized as a breakdown
of private ownership, points to the conclusion that there is a malad-
justment of forest ownership — an unwise division between public and
private property. In the western regions ^ this has been the out-
growth of the public-land laws which put in private hands, within
the space of a very few years, a great acreage that was not ready for
economic use. The problem is basically one of correcting the defects
in the distribution of forest ownership.

The situation has been intensified by the policies of the forest
industries — under the duress of economic conditions — which have
resulted in cutting the commercial forests without thought for the
future and leaving a large part of their original area' in an unpro-
ductive or deteriorated condition. Unfavorable tax systems and a
mistaken idea of the future value of the land for agriculture have in
some regions contributed to the situation. An acute risk of fire and
the burning over by unchecked fires of great areas have made the
land still more unattractive for permanent private ownership. The

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 889

breakdown of private ownership is centered largely in clean-cut land,
but some commercial timber and well-stocked immature timber is
involved as well.

Present local political policy is generally wholly inadequate to
solve this economic problem, though in a few States steps are being
taken. There is a wide-spread policy to try to keep the land in
private ownership by laws framed to that end or administered with
a laxity that prevents delinquent areas from definitely becoming
public property. This results in a great acreage of "no man's land"
which private owners do not want and to which the public does not
claim title, creating a serious problem of land idleness and of neglect
and deterioration, as well as acute social and financial problems in
the community.

In the process of abandonment, forest lands become more and
more deteriorated, and more difficult and expensive to put back
into production by whoever ultimately undertakes the job. This
is one of the most serious consequences of instability of ownership.

The problems created by the breakdown of private ownership
are many and complex, as are also the remedies, which are further-
more associated with other phases of the forestry enterprise. The
solutions of the problem are discussed, along with those of inter-
related problems, in other sections of this report and will therefore
here be merely suggested by a brief formulation of the problem.

It is perhaps needless to mention the very obvious problem in
public finance that is created by tax delinquency. Whenever taxes
are not paid on a tract, the county, the school district, and the other
taxing bodies must either trim their budgets or increase taxes on
the land that remains on the rolls. Neither of these things are
easy to do without causing distress, especially in the "backwoods'7
counties. Not only does land abandonment cut into county receipts,
but it creates an expense for the care of these lands. The result
in many instances has been county bankruptcy.

In a word, the crux of the problem is to get into stable ownership
of some sort the forest lands of the country and to keep them there,
so that they may be cared for and made productive. The approach
to this end must be from two directions:

First. To stem the tide of land abandonment, so that land which is
so physically and economically situated that it is proper for per-
manent private ownership will be protected and managed for con-
tinuous production. This will be primarily brought about on lands
yet to be logged by encouraging the employment of such methods of
forest management as will leave the land in good condition. Accept-
ance of the principles of sustained yield and of selective logging,
backed up by more intensive forest protection, will automatically
bring this about. To stem the tide of land abandonment on cut-over
lands and immature timber a modification of present tax systems or
proper application of present laws, where such land is now unjustly
or illegally taxed, is indicated as one of the solutions. Zoning of areas
predominantly suited for forest production by a broad land-use classi-
fication will help to stabilize ownershp, both of forest areas and of
agricultural colonies, by concentrating schools, roads, and other
services in areas where they are needed and lightening this expense
and tax burden where they are not appropriate. Coincident with this
it appears that further public assistance in fire protection would

890 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

ameliorate the problem in some regions where the owner is not able
to cope with the fires for which not he, but the general public, is
responsible.

Second. To remedy the evils of tax abandonment by aggressive
action on the part of the public to take care of the lands already
reverted and those which will not stay inprivate ownership even if
reasonable steps are taken to stem the tide of land abandonment.

For the lands which have already reverted or are in the unsettled
status of "no-man's land" the public should make definite provision.
This may mean revising the laws and procedure for foreclosures and
public acquisition. It means that the public must squarely face the
situation that a certain amount of land is not going to be on the tax
roll and must adjust its local and State finances accordingly. It
involves setting up the machinery to put these lands under manage-
ment in State, county, or Federal forests, so that they can be pro-
tected, rehabilitated if necessary, and kept productive in perpetuity.
This requires money which the public must be prepared to provide;
this is sometimes difficult, for it comes on top of the loss of tax reve-
nues, and where tax delinquency is worst the public finances are apt
to be the lowest, but in many instances it is justified by the necessity
for preventing greater deterioration and a chronic bankruptcy of the
community.

For lands which have not reverted, but which are likely to, the

Eublic should anticipate the situation. A classification of forest areas
y zones, differentiating between what should logically go into public
control and what should remain in private hands, will give a plan-
wise program for building a new public domain, instead of allowing
a hit or miss breakdown of private ownership to continue.

The problem is not merely one of taking care of tax delinquent
lands. This must be supplemented by a program of public acquisi-
tion, by purchase or exchange, for county, State, or Federal forest
purposes. It should not overlook the desirability of acquiring lands
before they have deteriorated in the process of abandonment or
under terms which will prevent their devastation. Thus the public
may be saved the delay and expense of rehabilitation, and the
destructive and wasteful process of land abandonment may be
forestalled.

STATUS AND OPPORTUNITIES OF PRIVATE FORESTRY

By BURT P. KIRKLAND, Principal Forest Economist

CONTENTS

Page

Present condition of private forest lands 891

Present and potential extent 892

Production and investment conditions 893

Effect of liquidation policy on the forest resource 895

Present extent of sustained-yield practice on private forest lands 896

Conditions in commercial forests 896

Conditions in farm woodlands 897

Adverse conditions and practices accompanying the liquidation of private

forest land investments 898

Unwise location of manufacturing plants and construction of excess

plants 898

Failure to coordinate different wood uses 898

Other factors affecting private forestry conditions and policies 899

Demand for forest products 899

Stabilization of ownership and blocking up of areas for permanent

management 900

Economic size for forest properties. 900

Organizing forest properties 901

Potential productivity 902

Ad j usting growing stock to produce maximum returns 904

Regional conditions and management practices 911

Pacific coast forests 911

Forests of the Rocky Mountain region 931

Forests of the South 939

Hardwood forests of the Central States 957

Forests of the Lake States region 961

Forests of the New England and Middle Atlantic States 966

Measures necessary to speed up adoption of improved forest-management

practices 979

Summary 983

Literature cited 984

PRESENT CONDITION OF PRIVATE FOREST LANDS

Forest productivity is governed by natural forces in much greater
degree than by man's efforts. The better a region's climatic and soil
conditions are adapted to the forest as a vegetative type, the greater
the region's forest productivity. It is for this reason that even in the
regions of the United States where settlement took place earliest and
where, consequently, the forests have undergone exploitation for the
longest period, private forest lands still yield considerable volumes of
forest products. Data readily available show, unfortunately, that
neglect and actual abuse of the forest resource under private control
have reduced the productivity of this resource to a small fraction of
what it might be. From the standpoint of national supplies of forest
products the economic results of this reduction are not yet fully
apparent, owing to the continued availability of considerable volumes
of virgin timber. Locally and regionally, however, adverse economic
results are apparent on every hand.

891

892

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PRESENT AND POTENTIAL EXTENT

Probably the most enlightening way to approach the problems of
private forest ownership is to consider the actual productive status of
privately owned forest land in comparison with its reasonable possi-
bilities. As a basis for such consideration the total area of privately
owned forest lands of different classes and in different regions is shown
in table 1. Privately owned forest lands are shown to have a total
extent of 396,239,000 acres, and to be widely distributed, the greater
part of the total area occurring in the eastern and southern regions.
Table 2, showing the character of the forest growth on these lands
discloses a distribution of forest supplies that contrasts with the dis-
tribution of the land itself; for example, the Pacific coast region,
which as table 1 shows contains only about 8.4 percent of the private
forest area, has about 60 percent of the privately owned standing
timber.

TABLE 1. — Amount and character of privately owned commercial forest areas of the

United States »'

Region

Aggregate

Total

Farm
wood-
land

Indus-
trial

Saw-timber areas

Total

Farm
wood-
land

Indus-
trial

Cordwood areas

Total

Farm
wood-
land

Indus-
trial

New England

Middle Atlantic...

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountain-
South Rocky Mountain-
Total, __

Thou-
sand
acres
25, 978
24, 931
49, 073
63, 477
187, 264
33, 037
7,338
5,141

Thou-
sand
acres
6,402
9,461
14, 281
32, 158
57, 866
5,099
1,413
43

Thou-
sand
acres
19, 576
15, 470
34, 792
31,319
129, 398
27, 938
5,925
5,098

Thou-
sand
acres
13, 261
7,200
4,424
20,921
55, 220
18, 907
3,554
2,778

Thou-
sand
acres
2,427
3,468
1,793
12, 158
13, 729
1,740
364
34

Thou-
sand
acres

10, 834
3,732
2,631
8,763

41,491

17, 167
3,190
2,744

Thou-
sand
acres
4,541
9,698
7,833
25, 368
52, 013
3,098
1,025
1,686

Thou-
sand
acres
1,700
3,613
4,607
12, 432
19, 789
928
309
3

Thou-
sand
acres
2,841
6,085
3,226
12, 936
32, 224
2,170
716
1,683

5,239

126, 723

J.516

126, 265

35, 713

90, 552

105, 262

43, 381

61, 881

Region

Fair to satisfactory restock-
ing areas

Total

Farm
wood-
land

Indus-
trial

Poor to nonrestocking areas

Total

Farm
wood-
land

Indus-
trial

New England

Middle Atlantic—.

Lake

Central

South

Pacific Coast

North Rocky Mountains-
South Rocky Mountains.

Thousand
acres
5,851
5,072
24, 683
12, 078
36, 802
4,324
1,540

Thousand

acres

1,572

1,724

5,399

5,193

12, 084

1,119

407

5

Thousand

acres
4,279
3,348

19, 284
6,885

24, 718

3,205

1,133

11

Thousand

acres

2,325

2,961

12, 133

5,110

43, 229

6,708

1,219

661

Thousand

acres

703

656

2,482

2,375

12, 264

1,312

333

1

Thousand

acres

1,622

2,305

9,651

2,735

30, 965

5,396

886

660

Total.

90, 366

27, 503

62, 863

74, 346

20, 126

54, 220

From table 3 of section of this report entitled " Forest Land the Basic Resource'

In the section of this report entitled, "The Agricultural Land Avail-
able for Forestry," the Bureau of Agricultural Economics reports that
in eastern forest regions there are now 50 million acres of nonforested
farm land either abandoned or no longer required for agricultural use.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

893

It also estimates that 30 million acres will be added to this area by
1950. In general, such of this land as is not selected for public forests
will be available for private forestry. Planting will usually be neces-
sary, but is entirely feasible where the area is merely part of a
managed forest property or other enterprise yielding regular net
income. This is specially true of farm enterprises.

PRODUCTION AND INVESTMENT CONDITIONS

Continuity of forest productivity depends on the economic factors
common to all industry, viz, natural resources, labor (including man-
agement), and capital. Since natural resources that can be used to
produce business profits have now in general been capitalized, the
business enterpriser usually considers these in the category of capital.

TABLE 2. — Amount of saw timber and cordwood on privately owned forest land in the

United States

S

aw timber

'

(

Cordwood

I

Region

Total

Farm
woodland

Indus-
trial

Total

Farm
woodland

Indus-
trial

New England

Million
feet board
measure
55, 393

Million
feet board
measure
7,972

Million
feet board
measure
47, 421

Thousand
cords
53,450

Thousand
cords
19,605

Thousand
cords
33,845

Middle Atlantic .

25,831

12,000

13, 831

116, 129

42,904

73,225

Lake

32, 733

10,962

21, 771

115,475

45,505

69, 970

Central

34,066

17, 453

16, 613

155, 242

61,310

93, 932

South _----

195, 117

48,267

146, 850

423, 613

171, 947

251,666

Pacific Coast

593, 902

25,206

568, 696

37,011

9,429

27,582

North Rocky Mountain .. ..

41, 731

1,508

40, 223

19, 050

6,025

13,025

South Rocky Mountain

9,516

64

9,452

6,749

17

6,732

Total

988, 289

123, 432

864, 857

926, 719

356, 742

569, 977

1 From table 7 of section entitled " The Present and Potential Timber Resources " of this report.

2 From table 9 of section entitled " The Present and Potential Timber Resources " of this report.

Using the term capital in this inclusive sense, it is readily possible
to examine the situation of the privately owned forests from the
standpoint of the presence or absence of the capital necessary to
maintain a continuous output of forest products. Understanding
of the situation is materially assisted by dividing the capital invest-
ment, thus interpreted, into its main elements and estimating what
percentage of the whole is represented by each. The main elements of
fixed capital investment are the soil, the forest improvements, and
the forest growing stock or standing trees. The proportions of the
capital investment which these elements represent differ to some
extent in different regions of the United States; in any region, how-
ever, for a forest property maintained in good producing condition
they will usually fall within the following limits :

Producing element:
Soil.

Percentage

of capital

investment

0- 5

Forest improvements

Forest growing stock - 80-95

The low percentage represented by the soil is in considerable degree
due to neglect of the productivity of forest soils in the United States.
In those European countries where intensive forestry is practiced

894 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

forest soils are valued as high as $75 per acre, independent of the
growing stock they carry. In such cases they constitute a higher
percentage of capital investment than indicated above in the continu-
ous yield forest.

The forest owner who extracts the raw material himself needs a
moderate amount of additional capital for equipment and operating
purposes. This is mobile capital, not necessarily tied up to any one
property, and need not enter into the present discussion. Where a
forest property is very intensively developed the proportion of invest-
ment in forest improvements, consisting mainly of transportation
facilities but including some buildings, may be greater than 15 percent.

Where the forest growing stock has been removed, forest improve-
ments usually become valueless. The same is more or less true of
the forest soil. Attention from the standpoint of remaining capital
values in privately owned forests should be directed to the classes of
forest land shown in table 1 under the following headings :

Poor to nonrestocking . — Table 1 shows 74,346,000 acres in this
class of privately owned forest land.1 From this the growing stock
has been entirely removed. The prospect of future income is so long
deferred that soil value, also, has largely disappeared. It is doubtful
that this area as a whole has 1 percent of the capital values necessary
for continuous forest productivity.

Fair to satisfactory restocking. — Table 1 shows 90,366,000 acres in
this class. Utilization of the young trees present by chance in so far
in the future that here, also, forest capital is virtually lacking. The
soil and trees together make up perhaps 5 percent of the capital
necessary for reasonably continuous productivity. Capital invest-
ment alone will not immediately restore them, since the time
requirement is inescapable.

Cordwood areas. — Table 1 shows 105,262,000 acres in this class.
Privately owned cordwood areas include chiefly areas that have been
depleted of saw- timber sized trees. They bear considerable stands of
young trees which, if protected and developed, will grow into valuable
timber. It is improbable, however, that their present capital value
exceeds 20 percent of what it would be if they were built up to fully
stocked producing forests.

Saw-timber areas. — Table 1 shows 126,265,000 acres of saw timber
in private ownership. Even in this class more than one half of the
privately owned area is occupied by second-growth stands that have
suffered seriously from fire, insects, disease, and general lack of care.
In regions of low precipitation, on extensive saw-timber areas the
rate of tree growth is too slow for profitable management unless other
resources are present. If private enterprise is to continue to func-
tion in the field of forest ownership, organized management of the
remaining privately owned saw- timber area is immediately essential.
If depletion of the forest capital (chiefly growing stock) in these
forests is at once positively discontinued the problem of restoring the
growing stock and productivity of associated depleted areas will be
vastly simplified. Very little outside capital will then need to be
brought in.

Since current or at least little-deferred income is a necessity in
virtually all private business, timber that can profitably be cut in

1 This total does not include the abandoned nonforested farm land mentioned in a preceding paragraph as
potential forest land.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 895

regular annual or periodic allotments is indispensable to private
forest enterprise. On by far the greater portion of our forest area
saw-timber stands must serve as a nucleus to every forest property
expected to yield continuous annual income. The exceptions occur
where pulpwood and other products which can be taken from small
timber have a high value. The income possibilities of well-stocked
saw-timber stands, such as exist plentifully on the Pacific coast and
in portions of the north Rocky Mountain region and the South, are
ample to permit including in private forest properties made up princi-
pally of such stands considerable portions of cordwood, restocking,
and even nonrestocking forest area.

Possibly as much as 275 million acres, of which 125 million is in
farm woodlands, is still adapted to carrying on private forest business
operations on a sound and permanent basis. Should the opportuni-
ties in the field of private forestry prove widely attractive as the
fundamental principles of forest management become better under-
stood, it is possible that private enterprise will extend further into
areas where the growing stock must be reestablished.

The section of this report entitled, " Present and Potential Timber
Resources," subsection "Timber Growth" gives (in table 17) the
results of a Forest Service investigation of growth of the forests of
the United States as a whole, the most careful that could be made
with the time and resources available. This shows a current annual
growth, on both public and private forests, of 8,912 million cubic feet
feet of usable material, including the equivalent of 11,731 million
board feet of material of saw-timber size. It is safe to say that
present growth on private forests does not exceed one fourth of what
it might be even under crude forestry.

EFFECT OF LIQUIDATION POLICY ON THE FOREST RESOURCE

The foregoing brief summary of conditions on the private forest
lands of the United States shows the effects to date of the application
of the policy of "laissez faire" to the American forest resource.
According to prevailing economic theory, if each private enterpriser
pursues his own best interests the result of the aggregate of these
efforts will be for the public welfare. The history of forest exploita-
tion in the United States to date creates doubt as to whether this
theory has justified itself as applied to the handling of natural re-
sources. There is doubt as to whether this economic procedure has
even operated to the advantage of the average private forest owner.
Each time a forest region has been cut out to the point that lumber
must be imported the freight charges per thousand feet of imported
lumber have been far greater than what it cost to produce a thousand
feet of stumpage in the region, if a sufficient growing stock had been
reserved from the virgin forest. The regional result, then, has always
been higher lumber prices plus a loss of local industry. For the great
majority of individual owners the result has been termination of the
enterprise without conversion of any considerable portion of the forest
resource value to permanent forms of private wealth. The capital has
been consumed currently instead of continuing to support industry and
provide human sustenance. As in most other industries, it has been
found impossible to make money while wasting capital assets on a
huge scale.

896 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

PRESENT EXTENT OF SUSTAINED- YIELD PRACTICE ON
PRIVATE FOREST LANDS

The formation of constructive forest policies for the future requires
information as to how the remaining forest stands are being handled.
Liquidation can be discontinued only through giving forest lands such
care as will enable them to produce growth approximately equal in
volume and value to the annual cut.

CONDITIONS IN COMMERCIAL FORESTS

During the year 1930 the Society of American Foresters, assisted
by the Forest Service and by State foresters and others, made a
Nation-wide investigation of the present management of private
forest-land holdings more than 1,000 acres in extent. The investiga-
tion naturally centered on saw-timber and cordwood areas where cut-
ting operations are still possible. There are perhaps 125 million acres
of these areas, the size of the individual area averaging 1,000 acres or
more. The results of this survey are shown in the following tabula-
tion. All totals must be considered separately, because they overlap.

1. Companies or individuals making conscious effort to grow tim-

ber commercially 288

Acres under industrial forestry management 20, 951, 635

2. Companies giving their lands good care without timber-growing

purpose, whose chance to inaugurate forestry practice is still

good 42

Acres represented by these 42 companies 2, 243, 500

3. Companies using careful cutting methods designed to promote

natural regeneration. 178

Acres represented by these 178 companies 10, 568, 076

4. Companies attempting to put their holdings on sustained-yield

basis 40

Acres represented by these 40 companies 3, 496, 631

5. Companies providing effective fire control independently of pub-

lic cooperation, in addition to other forestry activities 253

Acres represented by these 253 companies 16, 884, 897

6. Companies practicing close utilization in the woods 75

Acres represented by these 75 companies 5, 896, 736

7. Companies making growth studies 8

8. Companies employing foresters in timber-production activities- _ 79

Foresters so employed 146

9. Companies using consulting foresters 77

10. Companies using regional association foresters' services 7

(There is a general tendency to use Federal and State
advice, and a few companies cooperate with forest schools.)

11. Companies planting beyond apparently experimental scale 76

Acres represented (approximately) 100, 000

1 2 . Companies producing nursery stock for planting 14

Trees produced annually by these 14 companies 30, 000, 000

13. Companies spending money to control insects or diseases 60

14. Companies using improved practices in turpentine operations

(estimated) 48

Acres represented (estimated) 1, 500, 000

During the present year data of similar nature have been procured
by the Forest Service. No very material change has been noted in
the extent of private forestry effort; in some regions, however, a
tendency to abandon forestry practices is indicated. This tendency
is rather more marked in the West than in the East. It was found
impossible to segregate private owners' efforts in the field of forest
fire protection from the efforts of public agencies cooperating with
them. (Cooperative fire protection is discussed in other sections of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

897

this report.) Data as to measures to prolong productivity, and as to
organized sustained-yield practice, are given in the following tabula-
tion (as of 1931):

Region

Measures
to prolong
produc-
tivity

Organized
sustained-
yield man-
agement

Pacific coast

Acres
1 224 050

Acres
209 400

Rocky Mountain

890 334

South

2 755 000

1 354 000

Central States

1 560 000

92 500

Lake States

100 000

New England and Middle Atlantic States

9 080 300

648 592

Total

15 609 684

2 304 592

Both tabulations show that forestry effort other than fire protec-
tion has been extended to less than 21 million acres. This is about
7 percent of the private forest area outside of farm woodlands.
Sustained-yield management has been applied to slightly more than
2,300,000 acres, which is less than 1 percent of the privately owned
forest area. These percentages would be larger if they were com-
puted on the basis of the area which still bears sufficient growing
stock for private operation.

Apparently private forest owners have not yet given adequate
consideration to the advanced stage of liquidation of the private
forests and to the savings realizable through conserving productive
capital values. Further details in regard to the present status of
private forestry in each forest region will be given later in this section.

CONDITIONS IN FARM WOODLANDS

Detailed information is lacking on the condition of farm woodlands.
Numerous reports from observers show conclusively that as a rule the
woodlands are producing to only a small fraction of their capacity.
In nearly all regions fires continue to limit productivity ; in some, the
chief source of injury is unrestricted grazing. In all regions the
woodlands suffer from cutting of trees that have not yet grown to a
size to produce high- value material.

Notwithstanding these defects in management, farm woodlands
are producing a large annual volume of forest products and are among
the principal sources of farm income. The following data from the
United States census of 1930 (I)2 show the character and value of
forest products cut from farm woodlands in 1929. (The quantities
and values refer to products cut and ready for use or for marketing
as raw material.)

Product

Number of
farms re-
porting

Quantity
cut

Saw logs and veneer logs

178, 539

0 5, 042, 926

Firewood

2, 431, 921

634,110,529

43, 824

«> 1, 485, 759

566.233

e 98, 664, 249'

Railroad ties --

65, 745

* 15, 338, 786

Poles and piling - -

21,802

« 3, 298, 415

Total value forest products from farms

$242, 042, 245

Thousand board feet.

Cords.

Pieces.

3 For list of list literature and authorities cited see page at the end of this section.

898 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In general, the annual cut of material from farm woodlands repre-
sents a sustained yield. In some regions, however, it is in consider-
able part made up of virgin or second-growth timber not being re-
placed in full measure by growth. Farm woodlands should be devel-
oped to sustain a larger output and larger local manufacturing indus-
tries. It is obvious from the above statistics that the proportion of
high-grade material cut is lower than it should be. Diversion of
considerable productive effort from other crops to forest crops would
aid in relieving agricultural crop surpluses. The regional conditions
will be discussed later.

ADVERSE CONDITIONS AND PRACTICES ACCOMPANY-
ING THE LIQUIDATION OF PRIVATE FOREST LAND
INVESTMENTS

UNWISE LOCATION OF MANUFACTURING PLANTS AND
CONSTRUCTION OF EXCESS PLANTS

Economical utilization of forest products demands carefully con-
sidered location of the major manufacturing plants at points where
forest raw materials can be concentrated at low cost and the manu-
factured product economically distributed to market. It also demands
that no more plants be built than are necessary to utilize the produc-
tion. Sometimes, of course, there are reasons for building temporary
plants and for building plants disproportionate to the continuous
productivity of the forest. Gross overbuilding and consequent
wastage of capital both in building and in subsequent competitive
marketing have occurred in every forest region. Such losses have
been accentuated in late years, owing to the ease with which modern
industrial methods produce large output.

Accompanying these losses, the taxation problem usually becomes
acute. Stimulated development entails the presence of more people
and hence necessitates more schools, roads, and public services than
will be needed permanently. This requires the levy of taxes beyond
the amounts necessary under sound development. Moreover, as
liquidation progresses the tax base becomes narrower, so that near
the end of the liquidating period it is difficult to raise the revenues
needed for the population which remains until plant operations cease.

Poor location of plants, lack of integration, and excessive number
of plants requiring the same kind of raw material in one locality
contribute to losses discussed in the following.

FAILURE TO COORDINATE DIFFERENT WOOD USES

Wood uses in the United States cover a wide range of products.
Table 13 of the section of this report entitled "The Present and
Potential Timber Resource" shows 20 major items of wood use
requiring the cutting of 14,495,308,000 cubic feet of timber from our
forests annually. Of this quantity slightly more than one half is
cut for lumber purposes. As shown in the same table, additional
uses requiring saw timber sized trees bring the cut of saw timber
to about 70 percent of the average cut of the years 1925 to 1929.

Of the cordwood material used annually, 35 million cords are taken
from trees under saw-timber size. There is no doubt that this
cordwood could be supplied entirely from the remnants of saw-timber

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 899

trees and from thinning operations. Unfortunately, because of the
somewhat localized use of fuel wood and the haphazard location of
manufacturing plants which use such material, in many cases no
market for material of this class exists within reach of the localities
where the material is available. In many cases, however, coordina-
tion between saw timber and other uses is feasible but has not been
effected, owing to indifference of forest owners, careless buying
policies of manufacturers, and other causes. This has led and still is
leading to the unnecessary sacrifice of young stands over large areas
at the same time that prodigious waste is occurring in the utilization
of saw-timber stands in the same localities. Millions of acres of
young stands could be improved by thinning operations that would
meet these cordwood requirements.

The outstanding example of woods waste resulting from lack of
coordination of saw-timber with other operations is to be found in the
Pacific Northwest. In an exhaustive study of logging waste in the
Douglas fir region in 1926 and 1927 Hodgson (2) found that the waste
averaged 42 cords per acre and totaled 6,448,000 cords annually.
Virtually all this waste was of species suitable for one or another of
the pulp processes. The volume of waste exceeded the entire quan-
tity of pulpwood used in the United States. There is no immediate
possibility of developing the pulp industry in that region to the point
at which it could use all the waste. The waste could, however, be
reduced by properly selecting trees for cutting, by adopting less
destructive logging machinery, and by better balanced utilization.
These measures are discussed later under the description of the
Douglas fir region. Hodgson estimated that with a slight improve-
ment in the economic conditions in the lumber industry at the time
of his study, one third of the waste in the form of logs could be used
for lumber.

OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING PRIVATE FORESTRY
CONDITIONS AND POLICIES

DEMAND FOR FOREST PRODUCTS

The demand for forest products is treated fully in the section of this
report entitled "Our National Timber Requirements." Here it
suffices to point out that careful investigation of market require-
ments, while showing changes in the varieties of forest products
marketed and shrinkage in the use of some forest products, indicates
large continuing requirements. Landowners undertaking to manage
forest land for continuous production are unquestionably entering a
unique field of endeavor, in which the production of surpluses resulting
from new growth is wholly improbable for at least a generation to
come. Competition with timber properties that are being liquidated
will apparently be the most serious limiting factor for the next few
years.

Many communities in the forest regions of the eastern half of the
United States are suffering from a lack of industrial balance resulting
from decline in the forest resource. Where agriculture is the chief
remaining resource, usually the local market for agricultural products
has virtually disappeared and agricultural products must be marketed
at a distance in direct competition with products from other agricul-
tural areas. Restoration of forest productivity in these regions

900 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

would gradually restore the local market and the direct exchange of
farm and forest products, and would make the community largely
self-supporting from the standpoint of the great essentials of food
and shelter. Data from many countries show conclusively that
wherever these conditions of local production exist the per capita
use of forest products far exceeds the per capita use in regions where
these products have to be brought in from a distance at greatly
increased costs.

STABILIZATION OF OWNERSHIP AND BLOCKING UP OF AREAS FOR
PERMANENT MANAGEMENT

Institution of a private forestry enterprise requires a property
the parts of which are at least adjacent and are so situated as a
whole and with relation to each other that economical transportation
facilities either exist or can be established, that existing markets can
be economically reached or new markets created, and that all other
factors of management can be properly coordinated. It is evident
that the 127 million acres of farm woodland are already blocked up
and represent ownership stability of the same order as exists for
farms. The division of this section dealing with the extent of private
forestry shows that possibly as much as 21 million acres of private
commercial forest lands have been placed under some type of improved
care in addition to fire protection. It is knov/n that other com-
mercial forest areas have been consolidated for exploitation purposes
in a manner that would meet the requirements of permanent manage-
ment. Enormous areas in unstable ownership remain to be redis-
tributed among various forms of public and private ownership.
The sooner this is done, with adequate precautions against mistakes,
the more quickly the process of deterioration on these areas can be
arrested.

ECONOMIC SIZE FOR FOREST PROPERTIES

Farm-woodland properties vary in size from 5 acres or less to 1,000
acres or more. The farm woodland is in a separate category in that it
forms part of a unit managed chiefly for the production of crops other
than forest crops. Certain industries other than agriculture, of which
mining is a prominent example, may be linked in a similar manner
with forestry operations on a small or large scale. Kecreational use
of land, particularly by country clubs or hunting clubs, is sometimes
joined with forest production. Even for areas devoted more exclu-
sively to timber production no general rule as to operating size can
be laid down, because production of all types of forest raw material
can be carried on either on one-man units of a few hundred acres or on
very much larger units. Very seldom, however, will any economic
advantage accrue from the assemblage of operating units of more than
100,000 acres. From the administrative standpoint it is extremely
advantageous that the typical forest property remain of small size,
subject to the detailed attention of the owner or operator; but this
places the industry at some disadvantage from the standpoint of
employing technical advisors and carrying on necessary research
activities. For this reason it has proved necessary that research,
and to a certain degree technical advice, be provided at Federal and
State expense in the case of forestry as in that of agriculture.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 901

ORGANIZING FOREST PROPERTIES

As in the case of any other property to be operated over a long
period of time, carefully planned development and operation will add
largely to the value of forest property and will increase the returns.
Definite plans should therefore be made covering development and
the main phases of operation for a period of five or ten years. These
plans must consider engineering phases together with production and
economic problems. Once the owner has decided to place the property
under permanent management, it is natural that he will exercise more
care in developing it. This does not always mean spending more
money on transportation and like facilities than is spent on the ex-
ploitation forest; transportation facilities costing untold millions of
dollars have had to be abandoned and written off the books as a result
of the liquidation policy of cutting forests. It has been calculated
that in a normal year as much as 1,400 miles of logging railroad,
equivalent to half a transcontinental line, has been built in the Douglas
fir region alone. Under an exploitation policy all this is abandoned and
the investment written off in a few years. Under a continuous-pro-
duction policy very few temporary facilities are built. Construction
is not extended so rapidly, but the structures are permanent.

Since methods of handling forest stands for continuous production
vary for different types, they will be discussed separately for each
region, later in this section. The subject is raised here only to point
out that all operations in the timber should be planned systematically
for a reasonable period of years. The plans should provide both for
obtaining current income from cuttings and for conserving permanent
productivity.

Obviously, when such planning is to be performed, the measures
prescribed must be attached to specific portions of the property.
This necessitates mapping, and laying out permanent subdivisions
with roads or topographic features as boundaries, so that extraction
of forest raw materials can be carried on in the most economical man-
ner when and where prescribed.

The planning just discussed will include budgeting the annual
financial operations. The following headings suggest the main items
usually included in such a budget:
A. Operating account :
Expense :

1. Administration

2. Taxation

3. Protection

4. Engineering and construction maintenance

5. Insurance

6. Capital charges (annual)

(a) Interest

(b) Depreciation

7. Silvicultural costs

8. Other costs
Income :

1 . From sale saw logs or timber

2. From sale pulp wood

3. From sale posts and poles, etc.

4. From grazing

5. From recreation, etc.

902 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

B. Capital account:

1. Road construction

2. Building construction

3. Other improvements

4. Purchase and sale of property

5. Etc.

Special attention is called to the fact that all items of expense
except the silvicultural occur under any intelligent policy of respon-
sible and permanent land management. Silvicultural expense is
often a minor item and may not be present at all. As the operation
becomes established it will usually be found profitable to set up at
least a small budget item under that head. At this point it is desired
to lay all possible emphasis on the fact that the outstanding financial
and physical function of forestry is saving, not cost. Forestry saves
productivity, saves forest land investments, saves forest improve-
ment investments, prevents depletion, and saves all sorts of com-
munity investments dependent on continued productivity of the
forest resource.

POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY

As in the case of agricultural production, rapid rates of growth
and high yields are important favorable factors to be considered in
carrying on forestry as a business. During the past few years studies
of yield have been completed for many importantAmerican forest
tree species, especially among the conifers. Species of rapid growth
and high value are to be found in every important forest region.

Table 3, adapted from a table compiled by I. T. Haig (3), shows
rates of growth and yield in terms of cubic feet and board feet for
many different conifers of the United States. It should be noted
that the average production over entire forest properties cannot be
expected to amount to more than 60 to 75 percent of the growth rates
shown in the table, which are those of fully stocked stands. Such
species as redwood, sugar pine, and Douglas fir on the Pacific coast,
white pines in Idaho and the Northeastern States, and loblolly, short-
leaf, and slash pines in the Southern States, equal or exceed the growth
rates of coniferous trees to be found anywhere else in the world. The
same is true of our hardwood species as compared with hardwoods
elsewhere in the north temperate zone.

The mere fact that a given species in an even-aged stand may grow
rapidly from the time of origin of the stand to the time of harvest
60 or more years hence does not necessarily mean that the business of
growing such stands from origin to maturity will yield a profit. Even
if proved profitable in the long run it may not promote a business
set-up that is within the field of private capital unless the forest
property includes stands of many ages. For these reasons this dis-
cussion must be concerned chiefly with the current growth rates of
trees approaching maturity in selection forests, or forests where a
wide range of age classes are present in groups. Growth figures in
connection with consideration of growing-stock conditions in various
forest types will be presented under regional discussions.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

903

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904

A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

ADJUSTING GROWING STOCK TO PRODUCE MAXIMUM RETURNS

It has already been pointed out that on forest properties expected
to pay their way under private forest management the growing stock
usually represents 80 to 95 percent of the total investment. Two
factors dictate that a growing stock of varying ages be carried at all
times : first, valuable merchantable material is produced only by many
years' growth of a tree or stand ; second, annual income can be obtained
only by maintaining a succession of size classes, so that as the larger
trees are cut others grow up to take their place.

CUTTING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The many silvicultural systems recognized (4) form two major
systems of handling cuttings in saw-timber forests as regards treat-
ment of trees of different ages or sizes. The clear-cutting system
(fig. 1) removes the complete stand at once over considerable areas,

mt

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AGE CLASSES

FIGURE 1.— Forest with series of even-aged stands.

with the result that if another stand follows it grows up even aged.
The chief defects of this system are that natural regeneration often
does not follow and that a large portion of the trees cut are removed at
a loss when they might have been left to add valuable growth and
reach maturity at an early date. The American forest regions in
which this system has generally been followed have the most seriously
depleted forests.

The selection or partial-cutting system (fig. 2) removes trees of
merchantable size either individually or in groups with the minimum
interference to the growing trees left. Young stock develops on the
same ground occupied by the larger trees or in small openings, with
little or no assistance or cost. The proper arrangement of cuttings
among the larger trees aims to maintain on every division of the forest
a growing stock of trees from 6 to 40 inches or more in diameter which
are capable of earning currently through their continued growth the
income necessary to pay all the operating costs and a net income be-
sides. This income is not taken annually on every acre; the cut is
rotated over the area once every 5 to 20 years. At each return to a
given area 5 to 20 years' growth is harvested. The range of diameter
classes in the stand varies with the species.

In considering the present condition of the growing stock in various
forest types, its progressive modification in the course of cuttings to
obtain current income, and the reservation of trees of proper sizes
and characteristics to provide the best possible continued growth and

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

905

earnings, discussion is based on the assumption that this system of
selection or partial cuttings will be followed in virtually all private
forestry. It is recognized, however, that certain species such as
Douglas fir, most of the pines, yellow poplar, white ash, and many
oaks will not regenerate except in full or nearly full light. Therefore,
the selection system as here contemplated includes "group selection"
meaning that when regeneration of light-demanding species becomes
necessary openings will be made in the stand, varying according to
the species, the locality, the site, and the stand conditions from
about one sixty-fourth of an acre to 5 acres in extent. In a few regions
such as the Douglas fir region where regeneration comes easily and
early growth is rapid, openings may occasionally be as large as 25
acres or in exceptional cases even larger. Data on growing-stock
conditions in representative types and regions are presented with the
understanding that the average acre given represents conditions in
stands now on a selective basis or, where the stands are even aged,
that the suggestions for treatment contemplate conversion to that

FIGURE 2.— Selection forest.

basis. The data and suggested treatment can be most readily visual-
ized if thought of as applying to a forest area division of 25 to 200
acres, usually termed " compartment." The treatment recommended
contemplates that every such compartment in a forest property shall
at all times be stocked to the best advantage^ with trees of a certain
diameter range, for most species from 6 to 40 inches or more, capable
of laying on annual growth .of high value.

The selection system has certain subsidiary advantages. It is
safer from fire. Intensive research in various regions, notably the
Northeastern, the North Rocky Mountain, and the Pacific coast,
have proved that forest litter is inflammable a much larger portion of
the time in the open than in the shade. In effect, in the forest the fire
season is shorter. Also, larger trees are not so easily damaged by
fire and can maintain a considerable rate of growth for the stand
even if some smaller trees are occasionally killed by fire. Wind
velocities are diminished by the larger trees, and fire is more easily
controlled owing to this factor and to the fact that the low crowns of
the young trees do not occur over large continuous areas.

Another advantage is that it is not necessary to cut trees of all
sizes simultaneously; cuttings can be regulated according to market
demands. The forest well organized on this basis is like a well-ordered
warehouse in which the owner can take any goods he desires off the

906

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

shelves and thus meet varying demands for different classes of ma-
terials. At one time saw timber may be in heavy demand ; at another,
pulpwood from thinning the groups of smaller trees.

Since American examples of intensive forestry practice with ade-
quate record keeping over long periods of time are lacking, the desir-
able growing-stock conditions in a forest developed according to the
principles discussed above are best shown by citing a European ex-
ample. The communal forest of Couvet in the Canton of Neuchatel,
Switzerland, is appropriate owing to careful direction of its manage-
ment for many years by the eminent Swiss forester Dr. H. C. Biolley
and owing also to the careful, detailed records (5). This forest, under
continuous-yield management for many years, has been subjected
since 1890 to a careful procedure of building up the growing stock in
order to improve the volume and quality of production. To a

VOLUME
CU.FT.

GROWING STOCK 1890

VOLUME
CU.FT.

SMALL
TIMBER

LARGE
TIMBER

6 6 10 I Z 14 16 18 20 22 24- 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
GROWING STOCK 1927

3000

.6 8 10 12 14- 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34- 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54- 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (.NCHES) TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 3.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, communal forest of Couvet,

Switzerland.

remarkable degree, this has been accomplished without any impair-
ment of the periodic cut at any time and with a material increase in the
later periods.

Figure 3 shows graphically the condition of the stand in 1890 and
its condition in 1927. The figures have been converted as accurately
as possible from metrical units to English measurements and are in
terms of the average acre in one division of the forest. The volume
of the growing stock has been built up from about 1,246 cubic feet
per acre to about 4,840 cubic feet per acre.

The annual cut per acre has been increased from 74 cubic feet to
128 cubic feet, and the average size of the trees cut more than doubled.
The latter point is of extreme importance in increasing financial
returns, owing to the higher unit value of large trees. The annual
net returns did in fact increase during this period from $8.41 to $25.03
per acre. In America the closest resemblance to this Swiss example
in species and growth conditions is to be found in the forests of the
north Pacific coast, but a study of these diagrams will be instructive
for forest managers in other regions as well. Some of our hardwood
types can not be expected to bear any clos^ resemblance to this
example.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 907

Within the past decade the application of production engineering
technic to the study of logging and sawmilling practice has revealed
that cutting operations in this country have been removing vast
numbers of small trees, not alone to the severe impairment of the
future productivity of the forest but also at a very heavy present loss.
Table 4 shows results of such studies in six widely separated localities
and in stands of different species. These studies were carried on
entirely independently by different investigators, but all the results
agree in principle. For each species cut for the general lumber
industry there is a diameter limit below which cutting results in definite
loss. Since stumpage is not charged as a cost in these studies, the
data in the table mean that the trees below this diameter limit not
only yielded no stumpage return from cutting but also caused a
definite cash operating loss. All tree diameters above the upper
heavy line drawn horizontally through the table are in this losing
category. It is a mistake to cut trees even to this limit, for the rea-
son that most of the sound growing trees capable of yielding only
low returns from cutting now are more valuable for holding. It can
be recommended then that as a general rule only trees of the sizes
shown below the lower heavy line should be cut. The exceptions
to this rule are trees of all sizes that are not of form and condition to
grow further in value but on which something can be realized if they
are cut at once. The trees of the sizes shown above the lower heavy
line constitute the forest capital left after each cutting, which is
responsible for the future earnings of the forest.

APPLICATION OF THE SELECTIVE CUTTING SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES

For more than a century European foresters have carried on cut-
tings on the principle of so selecting the trees to be cut that the
residual stand will consist of trees capable of further growth in volume
and value. In other words, they have managed cuttings in a manner
to improve the stands. American foresters have advised a similar
practice, but this procedure has seldom been followed on private lands
in the United States.

908

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

n hard
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Loblolly pin
ginia)

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Arkansas)

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A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

909

The movement of the value of the individual tree as the tree grows
from one diameter class to another is due not only to the fact that
the larger tree contains more wood but to the fact that the larger
tree is more cheaply logged and milled, proportionately, and that its
lumber is of higher average value. Under normal conditions the
practice of holding sound, thrifty trees until they reach the stumpage
realization values of from $5 to $10 per M board feet (shown below the
lower heavy line in table 4) is likely to result in very satisfactory earnings.
The probability of its doing so depends on the length of time it takes
trees of a given diameter class to grow to the next higher diameter class.

Table 5 shows how gross compound interest earnings vary according
to the number of years required to grow from one diameter class to
the next higher, when realization values change as in the loblolly
pine stands on which data in table 4 are based. The top line of
compound interest earnings opposite 4 years shows the gross interest
gained when any diameter class changes to the next higher, if the
change takes place in four years. The rates earned if the change
takes six years are shown on the second line, etc. The faster growing
of the 12- to 18-inch loblolly pine trees grow 2 inches in 4 years in
some localities and do so commonly in 6 to 8 years. The heavy line
drawn downward through the table separates the diameters and
growth rates which earn 6 percent or more gross compound interest
from those that earn less than 6 percent. Taxes and other costs
usually amount to from 1% to 2% percent of capital value, so that
trees that earn 6 percent gross earn about 4 percent net. In general it
is believed good business to hold trees as long as they earn 4 percent net.
For loblolly and short! eaf pines this indicates a guiding diameter limit
of about 17 or 18 inches. Well-formed, sound, rapid-growing trees
above that limit continue to earn 4 percent or more net, while smaller
trees of poor growth earn less than 4 percent net. Thus finance as
well as silviculture indicates a flexible diameter limit to guide cutting.
In regions of exceptionally rapid growth the lower limit of earnings
that justify holding a tree may perhaps be set higher than 4 percent

TABLE 5. — Gross earnings on timber investment due to tree growth

Time required by tree to
to grow from one diameter
class into next higher

Diameter classes (inches)

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

4 years ..

Average net realization value per tree in each diameter class (dollars)1

-0.41

-0.33

0.05

0.85

1.99

3.42

5.29

8.05

11.51

13.95

16.25

Gross earnings when tree enters next higher diameter
class (compound-interest percentage) *

103.1
60.3
43.1
32.8
26.6
22.4
19.4
17.1
15.2

23.6
15.2
11.2
8.9
7.3
6.3
5.5

"TT

4.3

14.4
9.4
7.0
5.6

rar

3.9
3.4
3.1
2.7

11.5
7.6
5.6

prr

3/7
3.2
2.8
2.5
2.2

11.1
7.2

"TT

4.3
3.6
3.1
2.7
2.4
2.1

9.4
6.2

"TT

3.6
3.0
2.6
2.3
2.0
1.8

14.9
3.3
2.4
1.9
.6
.4
.2
.1
.0

3.9
2.6
1.9
1.5
1.3
1.1
0.9
0.8
0.7

.

6 years

8 years

10 years

; \

12 years

14 years

16 years

18 years

20 years

- --

1 Values are those given for loblolly pine in Virginia in table IV. They are based on a logging and milling
study made in 1929 (9).

2 Percentages shown in the 12-inch diameter column represent earnings due to growth from the 12-inch
into the 14-inch diameter class. The percentages of course apply only to the trees that remain alive through
the period required in each case to make the 2-inch increase in diameter. No deduction has been made for
the expense of holding the trees during the respective periods. This item usually amounts to 1)4 to 2)6
percent of the capital value.

910 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The sum of the values tied up in diameter classes at the left of and
above the heavy line constitutes the investment in growing stock in
terms of immediate realization value. All smaller tree sizes that show
no immediate realization value can be valued, if at all, only by dis-
counting the value they will have when merchantable.

The rate of earnings made by the trees in the residual stand is the
principal guide in choosing trees for cutting. Where the forest is
very deficient in growing stock it may be desirable to raise the guiding
limit. If, on the other hand, there is a surplus-of growing stock, more
small trees should be taken, to increase the growth and earnings of
those left. At all times, trees of less than the chosen size but defective
or indicated for removal to thin the stand should be taken if they can
be marketed without loss. Selecting high-value saw timber and other
valuable trees to produce the main income, and surplus, and ill-formed
trees for cordwood uses, not only provides the forest owner with the
maximum income from his property but also provides cord wood-
using industries with cheaper products than can be produced inde-
pendently of saw timber.

Conditions in typical stands in most of our important forest types
are shown in 15 figures and 12 tables in conjunction with descriptive
text distributed throughout the following regional discussions. In
most of these figures heavy curved lines indicate the suggested limits
of the permanent growing stock. ^ It should be emphasized that while
the suggested growing stock will without doubt provide for satis-
factory rates of production in practically every case, these conclusions
are only tentative. Careful investigation is needed to fix growing
stock limits in any given case, and even then adjustments will con-
stantly be necessary. These adjustments should be based on the
fundamental principle of retaining a growing-stock investment
sufficient to make the earnings of a forest property approximate the
maximum possibilities. In the final analysis maintaining a sufficient
growing stock is a matter of thrift — saving sufficient of the forest
capital to provide for a high rate of continued forest productivity.

f The reasons for the distribution of cubic volume among the different
diameter classes and timber groups are as follows : The small timber
(8- to 12-inch diameter classes) should be maintained only in sufficient
numbers and volume to replace losses by mortality in all groups and
recruit the medium timber as trees are removed from it by cutting
or growth into the large timber group. The medium timber group
(14- to 20-inch diameter classes), since it is generally the source of the
highest investment earnings, should usually be maintained at a
maximum of volume. Exceptions to this occur in the Pacific coast
region where the production of large timber should be a constant aim.
In other regions the proportion of the stand composed by the large
timber group (22 inches diameter and over) may be expected to fall
off rather rapidly with increase in size of the trees, because the trees
have passed the point of large investment earnings. In these regions
only a few exceptionally well-formed and vigorous trees should be
held until they grow into the large-diameter classes.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 911

REGIONAL CONDITIONS AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

PACIFIC COAST FORESTS

(Washington, Oregon, and California)
PRIVATELY OWNED TIMBER ACREAGES

Large-scale lumber production originated comparatively recently
in the Pacific coast region. Cutting and other causes has already,
however, removed the larger growing stock, suitable for continuous
operation under a group or tree selective system, from one third of
the privately owned area. Out of 33,037,000 acres privately owned,
6,708,000 acres are rated as nonrestocking and 4,324,000 acres as
fairly well restocked with young growth. Farm woodlands include
5,099,000 acres; other areas in private ownership total 27,938,000
acres. The total regional privately owned stand is estimated at 594
billion board feet.

MANAGEMENT POLICIES

Until very recently, wherever the heavy stands of the Pacific coast
region were operated, clear cutting was considered necessary, for
mechanical and other reasons. (It was not considered necessary in
the ponderosa pine stands.) Recent changes in logging machinery,
including improvement of crawler tractors and development of asso-
ciated log-tractor devices, make selective cuttings, either by single
trees or by groups, entirely feasible. Selective cuttings are already
freely practiced in some forest types, while in others only a beginning
has been made. Most forest owners still hold to a policy of liquidat-
ing timber holdings. A few, realizing that present methods are
undesirable, are considering or initiating changes in operating policy.
Present management policies will be considered under three headings.

PROTECTION FROM FIRE

For most forest types in the Pacific coast region fire protection is
recognized as prerequisite to sustained forest productivity. The
standards of protection necessary under various conditions, and other
aspects of the forest-fire problem, are discussed in detail in other
sections of this report. Here it is sufficient to note that while some
fire-protective effort is being made as a result of compulsory State
patrol laws on virtually all the better-class timberlands, the burning
rate has not been reduced to a low enough level to permit full pro-
ductivity. Fire-protective efforts have made great progress and are
unquestionably sufficient to permit a large volume of growth to take
place, especially in the moist Douglas fir region.

MEASURES TO PROLONG PRODUCTIVITY

These include selective cuttings and intensive protection of young
growth from logging damage. Nine Pacific coast concerns are prac-
ticing such measures on 1,224,050 acres. On considerable additional
areas, without special intent on the part of the owners, conditions
obtain that, as compared with the prevailing practices, will in some
degree prolong the cut or productivity.

OPERATION ON A SUSTAINED-YIELD BASIS

Full utilization of productive values of the soil and full returns from
investments in log-transportation systems, manufacturing plants,

912 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

dependent communities, etc., are possible only under a complete
sustained-yield policy. Such a policy has been initiated by four
Pacific coast operators owning about 209,400 acres of land and appears
to be permanently established on these holdings. A number of the
concerns mentioned in the previous paragraph have adopted manage-
ment policies that could easily be altered to provide for sustained
yield. In addition to this the redwood region, which with associated
types comprises 1,400,000 acres, was formerly considered to be almost
entirely on a sustained-yield basis. The redwood and associated
forests are estimated to be capable of producing a sustained annual
yield of one billion board feet. During the depression period, unfortu-
nately, forestry practices have been discontinued on many redwood
areas and even fire protection is now in a very unsatisfactory status.
In this region the values that are subject to preservation through
effective forestry measures are so large that resumption of these prac-
tices may reasonably be expected. Since virtually all the timber is
in large ownerships, generally strongly financed, it is to be hoped that
the owners will eventually adopt the policy that promises the greatest
profits in the long run.

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF FOREST MATERIALS

The annual lumber cut of the Pacific coast region is about one third
of the national cut. There is little prospect in the near future of
increased markets for the grades of lumber which make up the bulk
of the present shipments out of the region. Especially as regards
shipments to eastern markets for domestic consumption, other regions
offer very keen competition in the lower grades. The competing
eastern and southern forests, although now low in productivity per
acre, are so vast in extent that they will inevitably continue to pro-
duce at lower cost to the consumer much of the forest material of
ordinary grades required in the eastern United States. On the other
hand the forests of the Pacific coast provide certain products, such
as large timbers, wide clear boards, and veneers, that are hard to pro-
cure in quantity from any other coniferous forest region of the world.
There are good possibilities of world-wide market extension for these
products. If such extension is to be attempted it seems obvious that
forest-management methods should be adapted to the continuous pro-
duction of these classes of materials. Disastrous competition between
the Pacific coast and eastern regions is likely to continue if excessive
production of low-grade lumber is persisted in. The continued supply
of high-quality products from the Pacific coast, however, will assist
in effective utilization of local materials in eastern regions, through
maintaining the position of wood as an acceptable building and indus-
trial material. High-quality trees contain a large proportion of low-
grade material, and the production of such trees is accompanied by
the production of many small trees which will yield low grades if cut
into lumber. West coast consumption can be counted on to absorb
much of the lower-grade lumber produced in the region. Railroad
ties and other products not of the highest value will continue to find a
market in world trade. Table 6 shows the production and consump-
tion of lumber for each State and for the region in 1928 (12).

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 913

TABLE 6. — Production and consumption of lumber in the Pacific Coast Region in 1928
[In thousand feet board measure]

Production »

Total »
con-
sump-
tion

Softwood

Hard-
wood

Total

California and Nevada

1, 952, 458
4, 361, 904
7, 291, 924

201

10,020
13,353

1, 952, 659
4, 371, 924
7, 305, 277

3,158,011
1, 044, 709
1, 703, 867

Oregon. . ....

Washington

Total..

13, 606, 286

23, 574

13, 629, 860

5, 906, 587

1 Data from Forest Products, 1928: Lumber, Lath and Shingles. Bureau of the Census, 1930.

2 Figures based on compiled data in the files of the Forest Service.

The surplus in production over regional requirements in 1928 was
7,723,273 M board feet.

The exceptionally favorable location of many mills at ocean ship-
ping points, and the high quality of the products, facilitate distri-
bution to domestic markets and permit distribution throughout the
world. The market possibilities shown by these statistics are slight
in contrast with the huge volume of the timber in private ownership,
if this is conceived of as available for immediate market. Every
thousand feet of timber unprofitably marketed displaces a like quan-
tity that ought to be marketed.

Pulp and paper products, veneers, creosoted piling, and other
products are shipped out of the region in large quantities. A large
volume of these and other forest products is consumed, also, within
the region.

FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF PRIVATE FOREST OWNERSHIP

Col. W. B. Greeley, secretary-manager of the West Coast Lumber-
man's Association, estimates (13) that the 347 billion feet of timber
in the Douglas fir region of Washington and Oregon has an invest-
ment value of $502,674,500. If the 247 billion board feet of privately
owned timber in the pine and redwood types (including also all minor
types) of the Pacific Coast States has similar average value, the
investment value of all the privately owned timber in the three States
approximates $860,000,000. Only in part does this represent actual
investment. All the land passed from public into private ownership
free or for a few cents per acre with the exception of that disposed
of under the Timber and Stone Act, most of which wras sold at the
rate of $2.50 per acre. The transfer occurred principally during the
last quarter of the nineteenth century, through railroad land grants,
homesteading, and the Timber and Stone Act. The investment of
actual money since acquisition consists in payment of local taxes
and of fire-protection and administrative costs. If these costs have
amounted to as much as 50 cents per M board feet, the actual money
investment may still be less than $300,000,000. These costs have
been met largely through proceeds from the sale of timber. The
amounts that have been paid to local governments in taxes are in
most cases many times the price originally paid to the Federal
Government.

Many late comers in the region bought land from the original
holders, and these have an actual money investment comparable to

914 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the present capitalization rate of the whole. All this capitalization
now enters into the balance sheets of individual and corporate
owners, and cannot be eliminated or reduced except as a present loss.
The maintenance of these values therefore represents a vital problem
to thousands of individuals. Maintenance and even increase, if
soundly based, is socially valuable, since where there is value care
will be exercised. From the standpoint of the public and of the pri-
vate owners, sound measures will be those that maintain values.

The policy of hasty liquidation of this investment has proved a
costly failure, owing to the impossibility of placing this huge volume
of timber on the market, in a short time, at a price that would recover
all operating costs plus a sufficient depletion charge to return the
investment. Large areas in the region are too inaccessible for profit-
able operation under any combination of price and operating-cost
conditions that has yet occurred. Further than this, within the past
few years studies of costs and returns from logging and milling oper-
ations, of the type described later in this chapter, have proved con-
clusively that in virtually every type of forest in the region cutting
the small trees usually results only in loss. These studies have
indicated that in accessible stands not more than 60 percent of the
volume is suitable for cutting under cost and price conditions as of
1926 to 1929, and that in all probability less than 50 per cent of the
total volume of all stands is operable under conditions of those rela-
tively good years. If this estimate approximates the facts there
remains 20 to 25 years' cut, under present economic conditions, of
accessible financially mature timber. Under a selective cutting
policy it may be necessary to slow down the cut to avoid overburden-
ing the market with high-grade products.

The selective removal of this timber within that period would
leave ample time for the remaining trees to grow into such sizes and
values as to provide a like cut for the ensuing 20 years. This pro-
cedure would constitute a complete reversal of the policies in effect
to the present date. It would make unnecessary the recovery, from
operations of normal annual volume, of depletion charges which now
amount to more than $30,000,000 annually (12&). Depletion would
remain in some properties. In others, including areas cut over in
the past but restocking with new growth and areas on which stands
left after selective cuttings are developing, value increases would be
accumulating. The history of forest values in other countries war-
rants the belief that this constructive policy might, if adopted,
preserve unimpaired the larger part of the capital values of privately
owned forests in the Pacific Coast States.

SAWMILL AND LOGGING INVESTMENTS

Colonel Greeley (13\ estimates sawmill and logging investments
in the Douglas fir region at about $300,000,000. If this ratio of
timber investment to operating investments hold throughout the pine
and redwood regions as well as the Douglas fir region, the whole
investment must be in the neighborhood of $500,000,000. Here
again the source of the original capital is of interest. Some of the
capital was brought in from other regions. A considerable amount
was raised by bonding timber tracts or by borrowing from banks.
Past cutting of timber was the source of a large amount. This last
is especially true of investment in logging railroads, which can often
be paid for currently as they are gradually extended into the timber.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 915

There can be little doubt that one half the existing facilities
would supply all requirements of the market, provided a labor
supply could be found for operating two or more shifts during the
rare periods when lumber markets are very active. Again consider-
able numbers of low-grade logs are being transported long distances
and cut in elaborate mills at high cost although they would yield
just as valuable material if cut in low-cost local plants at a great
saving of transportation and manufacturing expense and with a
lesser capital investment. It is plain that large sums have been
expended on manufacturing facilities in such a way as to compel
unprofitable timber operations. Furthermore, there is grave danger
that such expenditure has not come to an end. Not only have
opera ting facilities been developed in excess of the need, but these
facilities are poorly distributed with respect to the Pacific coast
forests as a whole. In California and southwest Oregon large bodies
of timber in private ownership are not served by any operating
facilities.

The sums lost in overdevelopment of operating facilities would
unquestionably have been ample to perfect fire protection and other
measures of forest perpetuation, and thus to have placed the forests
of the region on a sustained-yield basis. This would have meant
permanence to the facilities developed, subject of course to ordinary
wear and obsolescence.

PULP MILLS, VENEER PLANTS, ETC.

Large sums are invested in pulp and paper mills, veneer plants,
etc., particularly in western Washington and in Oregon. Data on
the amount of these investments are not at hand. Apparently
there is little if any excess investment in these fields on the basis
of normal conditions. The veneer plants are able to create from
the highest grades of logs a product valued at as much as three
times the value of the lumber that could be made from the same
logs. Pulp mills usually operate 24 hours per day and make very
intensive use of the capital investment. Plants of this type are
able to create a high-value product from sawmill waste and from
species which heretofore have been nearly worthless. Therefore
they contribute to the earnings of the forest investment without
increase in capital requirements and are a vital part in the economic
welfare of the whole region.

A decrease in utilization of saw timber and a further increase
in use of smaller-sized material are needed to eliminate the large
waste still occurring. Selective cutting may bring about this balance
without the necessity of further development of forms of utilization,
providing definite coordination is established among the different
forms of utilization.

AVERTING FURTHER OVERDEVELOPMENT OF MILL CAPACITY

Although manufacturing facilities are already overdeveloped
there is grave danger that the first active lumber market will bring
about establishment of mills to serve the nonoperated timber men-
tioned above. Two possible methods of deferring such develop-
ment seem particularly feasible. The first and perhaps the simplest
would be to return these areas to public ownership under conditions

916 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

that would protect the communities concerned. Payment in such
case might be in special bonds bearing from 2 to 4 percent interest.
A method of handling such purchases has been outlined by L. F.
Kneipp (14).

The second method is to rely on private initiative to proceed on
a basis of planned action that will take into full consideration the
economic situation of the forest industries as a whole and of the
West in particular. This would involve consolidating these areas
into sustained-yield units of 20,000 to 100,000 acres each, well planned
from the standpoint of topography and transportation outlets.
These units, it must be recognized, would not be ready for im-
mediate operation at their full capacity. They would be made up
of cheap stumpage that should be held until market pressure is
relieved by the discontinuance of numerous operations owing to
exhaustion of their raw material. Future operating plans would
contemplate a rate of cutting only equal to the sustained yield of
the properites. Above all, the overdevelopment and consequent
waste of capital which have characterized most of the localities
opened up in the past should be avoided. Where possible, the
safe and conservative business of forest ownership and management
should be kept distinct from the entirely different and rather risky
business of manufacturing and selling. The two lines require very
different managerial abilities and have rarely been combined
successfully.

These suggestions contemplate an ordered management, starting
with virgin forest, in which capital is not wasted by overdevelopment
of plant facilities nor productivity destroyed by removal of the growing
stock. Under this policy it can be expected that in nearly every case
some cutting will be necessary to meet local needs and that in a very
few years demand will grow to larger proportions. Where income
cannot be obtained immediately to meet current expenses it will be
necessary to have access to financial reserves or credit facilities, as
discussed elsewhere in this report.

MANAGING PACIFIC COAST TYPES TO MAINTAIN PRODUCTIVITY
DOUGLAS FIR FORESTS OF WESTERN OREGON AND WASHINGTON

The specific measures desirable in Douglas fir forests can be better
understood by considering the distribution of size classes in typical
stands. Figure 4 shows for an old-growth Douglas fir stand of meduim
quality in Oregon the cubic volume, by diameter classes, on an average
acre (15). The stand is about 80 percent Douglas fir, which includes
the larger tree sizes, and 20 percent western hemlock.

Figure 4 also indicates approximately the quantity of timber of each
diameter class that should be removed in the first cutting. The
guiding diameter limit of 40 inches is based on the knowledge that
from about 40 to 60 percent of the volume of the older virgin stands
in the region is in diameter classes above that size; that these trees can
be logged and manufactured the most cheaply; and that they will yield
the highest-value lumber and therefore by far the highest net stump-
age. They are the most subject to deterioration if not logged, and are
in general decaying at a rate equal to or exceeding the gross volume
growth of the stand. Some trees in thrifty condition over 40 inches
may well be left standing, and trees under that limit but not of a

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

917

character to make net growth should be removed wherever that can be
done at a moderate profit.

In these stands the larger trees are generally found in groups, and
such selection will result in clear cutting on from 5 to 15 percent of the
area in each cutting cycle. The resultant open spots will provide
suitable conditions for regeneration of Douglas fir which, except in the
fog belt and at high altitudes, is usually the most desired species.
Complete slash disposal by the methods common in the region will
usually be practiced on these spots. Either sufficient Douglas fir seed
trees must be left to seed in an adequate proportion of fir on these spots
or wide-spaced planting may be necessary as discussed under the
spruce-hemlock type. The total number of trees removed will
hardly exceed 6 to 8 per average acre. About 40 to 60 trees from 6 to

VOLU

cu.n

Ij600
1,400
1,300
1,000
800
600
400
200
0

ME

VOLUME
CD. FT.

STING GROWING STOCK

IRABLE LIMITS OF
JMANENT GROWING STOCK

kg-g;g] E^<l

— — DE«
PEF

opuo

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5 - 4000

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
TIMBER TIMBER TIMBER

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6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 4.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, old growth Douglas fir with

hemlock, western Oregon.

40 inches in diameter will remain; except for the open spots noted, the
forest cover will be very slightly disturbed.

The residual stand will be in shape to accelerate its growth,
especially in the lower diameter classes, which will be mainly hemlock.
Although no precise data are available from such cuttings, it is known
that hemlock accelerates its growth rapidly when released from crown
and root competition. A net current annual growth of 400 to 800
board feet per acre can reasonably be counted on when the growth of
the smaller tree classes increases. If the first cut passes over the
whole forest property in 20 years, the second cut can begin immedi-
ately afterward in stands rebuilt to about 30,000 board feet per acre.
The second cut should not greatly exceed the rate of growth during the
cutting cycle, or about 10,000 feet per acre. The decision as to the
quantity of timber to be removed in that cut should, however, be
deferred until the time for the cut has come. It may then be desirable
either to remove more of the growing stock or to rebuild it to some
extent.

Under this procedure the returns from about 20,000 feet per acre
of the first cut might be applied to the construction of permanent

918 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

improvements required by an operating forest property and to partial
liquidation of the capital investment. At the end of the first 20
years' cutting period the liquidation phase would be practically
completed and the remaining stand would constitute approximately
the growing stock necessary for a continuously operated sustained-
yield property producing at an average rate of 500 board feet or
more per acre. Such a property will produce stumpage at a current
cost for taxes, administration, and protection not far from $1 per M
board feet.

The cost of production per 1,000 board feet in Douglas fir proper-
ties is, therefore, less than the accumulated investment per 1,000
board feet in many tracts of virgin stumpage, even exclusive of the
values written into such stumpage. The cost differential against
virgin stumpage as compared with currently produced stumpage will
increase. The possibility of earnings on the investment depends, as
in any other business, on the margin between the cost of producing
the stumpage and the returns that can be realized on it.

The application of these methods presupposes organized operations
on tracts sufficiently large to permit annual cutting operations on an
efficient scale. Tracts of 20,000 to 100,000 acres present optimum
conditions for such enterprises, being large enough for efficient opera-
tion but not so large that the managers will be likely to overlook
details of management. In assembling such tracts it should be
remembered that over 4 million acres in the Douglas fir region have
been clear cut to date. Each operating property can carry a cut-over
area equal to the timbered area, especially if regeneration has already
taken place on the cut-over area. Even if a little planting is required
the cost will not be burdensome to the project as a whole.

Frequently the growth of young stands will justify more rapid cut-
ting of mature stands and will thus increase the current net returns
from the property. A proportion of cut-over area such as that sug-
gested represents a very small proportion of the investment. It can
be relied on under good management to earn a low rate of compound
interest in the form of an increase in capital value throughout the
period of rebuilding the stands. Mixed stands of Douglas fir and
hemlock coming up in the open spots left by early cuttings will at 30
to 40 years of age be ready for the first of the thinnings that will
provide pulpwood, which is expected to be in permanent demand in
the region. These stands as they approach maturity should be man-
aged in a way to prolong the rotation, some of the trees being left to
grow to large sizes. Early cuttings in these stands will produce as large
quantities of poles, posts, tie timber, and similar materials as the
market is likely to require. Later cuttings will yield high-grade saw
timber. The presence of extensive young stands which even if con-
servatively managed will contribue a large quantity of low-grade
material to the market, greatly facilitates maintenance of supplies of
larger timber in the old stands suitable for the special market demands
on the Pacific coast forests.

Although economic and other factors brought out in this discussion
warrant placing great stress on selective-cutting practices, it is recog-
nized that Douglas fir stands can be regenerated even if clear cutting
is practiced on larger areas than suggested above. On a few tracts the
timber is of such uniformly high value that selective cutting is not
economically feasible. Certain topographic conditions, also, neces-

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 919

sitate clear cutting over considerable areas. Where larger continuous
areas are cut within a short time fire protection is much more difficult.
Fire once started is apt to sweep through the crowns of young stands
at any ages under 30 or 40 years. Even surface fires are difficult to
control on large areas of young stands. In the section of this report
entited, "How to Stop Forest Devastation", methods followed in
clear cutting on larger areas are described. The subject is discussed
in detail also by Mr. Thornton T. Munger in a bulletin contributed
from the Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station (16).

168342°— 33— vol. 1 59

920

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

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A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

921

Average annual growth of saw timber !

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922

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

In addition to the old-growth stands and the young stands that
have developed following lumbering operations, there are in the Doug-
las fir region considerable stands of timber 40 to 150 years old which
originated after fires. Stands that^have reached an age of about 100
years can be cut in a manner similar to that recommended for old
stands with about the same results except for two factors : The material
removed will not yield much clear lumber, but will be uniformly sound,
and will be excellent for structural timber; and, the residual stand
will consist very largely of Douglas fir and will be in better condition
to make rapid growth. Figure 5 and table 7 represent the conditions
in a stand varying from 80 to 120 years of age (17). A few old veterans
and a few groups of young trees are present in this stand, and cutting
will be to a slightly lower diameter limit. About 30,000 board feet
per acre will be removed and about 30,000 board feet left. Some
groups will be cut clear to permit Douglas fir reproduction ; the remain-

8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGER

DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES) v

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 5. — Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, 80- to 120- year-old Douglas
fir with a few old veterans (48- and 50-inch classes) and a subordinate stand of western hemlock and
western red cedar.

ing stand will be managed for from 40 to 60 years longer, with cuttings
about every 20 years.

Spruce-hemlock forests occur in a limited area known as the "fog
belt " along the Oregon and Washington coasts. As Douglas fir, also,
occurs to some extent in this belt, the area is considered part of the
Douglas fir region. These particular forests present a remarkable
example of two forest stands, of widely separated age classes, growing
on the same area. The first constituent is the old spruce, ranging to
110 inches in diameter and probably 600 to 800 years old. This
undoubtedly had a high percentage of even-aged hemlock associated
with it at the start. As hemlock usually does not live to more than
300 years of age the hemlock stand has gradually changed to all-aged
form, and now exists and develops almost independently of the pres-
ence of the few remaining spruce trees. The spruce stand includes
most of the immediate realization values.

Figure 6 shows cubic-volume distribution by diameter classes on
average acres for two closely adjacent areas in the lower Columbia

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

923

River region (18). On such areas it is recommended that the first
cutting take the diameter classes to the right of the broken lines on the
diagrams, which include all diameters above an average of about 44
inches. The reasons for this limit on cutting, brought out by an
intensive investigation during 1932 of results of logging on these areas,
are as follows :

1. If logging is confined to these limits the net stumpage realized
in the Columbia River log market, even in the depression year of 1932,

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 ZA 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 7^ 74 76 78

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 4E 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

EXISTING GROWING STOCK - HEMLOCK

EXISTING GROWING STOCK — SPRUCE
— — — SUGGESTED LIMITS OF IMMEDIATE CUTTING
— — SUGGESTED LIMITS OF PERMANENT GROWING STOCK

Timber groups totals omitted on graphs A and B in order to show distributio
of volume in higher diameter classes

FIGURE 6.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre in two typical spruce-hemlock
stands, lower Columbia River region. A, Some spruce occurs in lower diameter classes: 5,550 cubic
feet of spruce, 5,120 cubic feet of hemlock per acre; B, All spruce is 56 inches or more in diameter:
2,970 cubic feet of spruce, 7,820 cubic feet of hemlock per acre.

exceeds $6 per M board feet. The remaining diameter classes, con-
sisting mostly of hemlock, will net considerably less than $2 per M
board feet. Figure 7 shows the margin between log prices and logging
costs for the spruce and hemlock, respectively.

2. In these old trees the otherwise merchantable portion of the bole
already averages 35 percent defective. The trees are losing much
more volume than the hemlock stand can grow ; in fact, the growth of
the hemlock is offset by the constant dropping out of hemlock trees
reaching the age limit.

3. Cutting the spruce and some of the largest hemlock will give
the smaller-sized hemlock a chance to develop. This will prepare the

924

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

way for the second cut, which will eliminate the remaining defective
hemlock and leave a stand of adequate volume.

If only trees of the diameter classes to the right in the diagram for
stand A are removed in the first cutting, as recommended, there will
remain spruce seed trees to help seed the small areas cut clean in the
first cutting. In stand B there is no spruce less than 56 inches in
diameter and no seed will be available for the openings left by cutting.
Wide-spaced planting (15 by 15 feet) with strong stock can be carried
on at low cost and should assure spruce in the future stand. (Or fir
and cedar can be used in the same manner.) The intervening space
will fill with a dense stand of hemlock, which will insure natural prun-
ing of the stand but will be sufficiently behind the spruce in develop-
ment to permit survival of most of the latter. Hemlock reproduction
will also come up abundantly within all small openings where single
tree cuttings take place. Since hemlock is a valuable pulp species it

DOLLARS
PER M FT. B. M.

A - VALUES OF SPRUCE LOOS AS RELATED TO TREE SIZE

. B - VALUES OF HEMLOCK LOOS AS RELATED TO TREE SIZE

C - STEAM LOGGING COSTS WHEN ENTIRE STAND IS CUT - 1932

D — TRACTOR LOGGING COSTS, SELECTIVE CUTTING DIAMETERS 4O+ INCHES

SO 60 70

DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

FIGURE 7. — Comparison of log prices (1932 log market) and logging costs, spruce and hemlock, Columbia

River region, 1932.

can readily be removed in periodic thinnings from the time the young
groups reach an age of 30 to 40 years. By these thinnings a constant
increase can be brought about in the proportion of spruce in the stand.

In studies of the present year, two alternative methods have been
worked out for logging an 80,000-acre tract in this type which bears
about 3 billion feet of timber.

The first method assumes using the liquidation method ordinarily
applied in the region and the ordinary machinery, cutting at the rate of
100 million board feet per year, and destroying everything as opera-
tions proceed. Under this method the Columbia River market (1932)
value of the average log produced on this operation is $9.71 per M
board feet. With logging costs deducted the net stumpage realization
value is $3 per 1,000 board feet, giving a gross stumpage return of
$300,000 per year.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 925

Assuming a $3,000,000 debt against the tract, bearing 6 percent
interest, will make it representative of the region. With the $300,000
a year applied to taxes (2 cents per M board feet on the timber stand-
ing, which equals $60,000 the first year and diminishes as timber is
cut) and to interest ($180,000 the first year and diminishing as principal
of debt is paid), and to principal ($60,000 the first year) it will take
till 1956 to liquidate the debt. The income from a little more than 6
years' cut belongs to the operator. Discounted to present value at 6
percent interest, it yields an equity in the tract worth $454,130.

The second method involves liquidating high-value stumpage at
the rate of 100 million board feet a year for 15 years. After that the
cut is to be dropped to 50 million board feet a year on a sustained-
yield basis. The average log value from trees over 40 inches such as
will be cut the first 15 years is $11.34 per M board feet and the net
stumpage realization, with tractor instead of steam logging, is $6.08
per M board feet (1932 depression prices and costs). For the first
15 years $608,000 a year is available to pay taxes and retire debt.
After 15 years the income will be reduced both because of reduction
in cut and because of lower value of material. Taxes are as under
the other method except that they are cut down faster by removing
high values, and the debt is entirely retired by 1938. The income
from 1938 to 1962 belongs to the operator (except for tax deduction).
Discounting these values at 6 percent to present value gives the
result $2,821,924. In addition there will remain after 1962 a sus-
tained-yield forest yielding 50,000,000 board feet per year.

It must be admitted that the tract on which these calculations are
based is unusually well situated, close to deep water, but the prin-
ciples involved apply in like manner to most of the remaining large
tracts of virgin timber in the Douglas fir region. The returns will
vary, but in virtually every case liquidation is the surest method
devised for destroying values.

Although it seems self-evident that an operating method which in a
few years destroys the current productivity of a tract capable, as in
this case, of producing a sustained yield of 50,000,000 board feet per
year must destroy large financial values, definite and reliable figures
showing the real extent of such losses have hitherto been lacking.
The figures presented here, since they are based on depression condi-
tions, are undoubtedly ultra conservative both for liquidation values
and for sustained-yield values.

COAST REDWOOD FORESTS

The coast redwood forests present problems similar to those of the
Douglas fir forests. Lower-value species are associated with the red-
wood, so that the value of individual trees, varying both with size
and with species, has a very wide range. These forests contain such a
great proportion of large fine-quality trees that a selective logging
practice partly on a group and partly on a single-tree basis is indicated
which will permanently liquidate perhaps one half the capital value.
The remaining growing stock would support at least the major portion
of the investments in logging railroads, mills, and towns. Any com-
plete liquidation policy would lead to proportionately greater capital
losses in this region that in the Douglas fir region. No stand table is
available for this type.

926 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

SUGAR PINE AND PONDEROSA PINE FORESTS (WITH OTHER CONIFERS)

The sugar pine and ponderosa pine forests (with other conifers in
mixture) also present problems similar to those of the Douglas fir
forests, except that logging operations are frequently more expensive
and that the range of values is greater owing to the high values of
high-grade sugar pine and ponderosa pine lumber. Logging practice
has already been modified in some cases to provide for leaving a
residual stand, but the present practice seriously decreases the per-
centage of pine in the stand and in some instances removes no white
fir or incense cedar. Recent studies indicate that a much greater
volume of pine should be left in the stand, for two reasons: First, the

VOL
CU. F

Z600

awo

E200
2000
1300
1*00
1.400
IZOO
1000
800
600
400
200
0

UME VOLUME
T CU. FT.

18888883 EXISTING SOUND GROWING STOCK

fc^S^ DEFECTIVE LIVE TIMBER
[II j TIMBER CUT FROM ORIGINAL STAND
PREFERRED LIMITS FOR FIRST CUTTING

— — DESIRABLE LIMITS OF PERMANENT
GROWING STOCK ,

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
TIMBER TIMBER TIMBER

r

- 10.000
- 9,000
- 8,000
- 7,000
- 6,000

L
1-

- 5,000
- 4,000
- 3,000
2,000
1,000

-

-

-

"1 r-i

•

-

1

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raH^ii

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fc^v^

6 8 10 \2 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 68 50 52 54 56 58 60
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES) AND
OVER

SMALL MEDIUM

LARGE

-lo

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGUKE 8.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre before and after cutting in
virgin stand of sugar pine and other conifers in California.

pine of smaller diameters is unprofitable to log ; second, a larger growing
stock will provide for greater production per acre. The guiding diam-
eter limit indicated for selecting trees to be cut is from 36 to 44 inches.
Figure 8 and table 8 represent a typical stand on private lands as it
existed before lumbering operations, and the sound and defective
growing stock left after lumbering (19). The broken line shows the
approximate point to which it seems the first cut should have been
made, and the solid line shows an approximation to the stand that
eventually might be accepted as satisfactory permanent growing
stock. If the stand is cut in this way, a high stumpage rate will be
realized on the current cut and the lower-value diameter classes will
be preserved for further growth in volume, quality, and value,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

927

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928

A NATIONAL

FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

'

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If

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

929

Handling the white fir in these stands is a difficult problem. Un-
doubtedly this cutting method will leave more white fir on the ground
than the silviculturist would advise. It is worth bearing in mind
that the operating methods here contemplated involve construction
of a minimum of railroad line, of which as much as possible will be
permanent. The tractor roads over which the first cut is skidded out
will be usable at any later time. It is suggested that under these
conditions, when an active market occasionally occurs the operator
can readily go back and at very low cost remove more of the white fir.
Where this measure does not sufficiently favor the pine, removal of the

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 3Z 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 49 50 52 54 56 50 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
D.AMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES) TIMBER GROUP TOTALS '

FIGURE 9.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, virgin stand of Ponderosa

pine in eastern Oregon.

fir has to be accomplished by logging sizes below the profitable cutting
limit.

PONDEROSA PINE FORESTS IN OREGON, EAST OF CASCADE MOUNTAINS

The ponderosa pine type of eastern Oregon, extending northward
into Washington and southward into California, exists in a region
of lighter rainfall than the types just described. The stands are
therefore lighter and the growth much slower than in the stands
shown in figures 4 to 8. As in those forests, cutting has usually been
too heavy. Figure 9 and table 9 show the distribution of diameter
classes and volume in a typical stand. Management problems in
forests of this type are somewhat different from those in the Pacific
coast localities of adequate rainfall. The growth is slow, and some
observers believe it may prove necessary eventually to carry in public
ownership much of the forest area in this type on which combinations
of forest production with grazing or other land uses are not worked
out. The measure immediately needed is to discontinue the cutting
of small, unprofitable trees and through saving these for further
growth to prolong the cut and hence the utility of the dependent mills.

930

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 9. — Number of trees, volume and growth in average stocked virgin stand oj
ponderosa pine in eastern Oregon

Tree diameters at breast height (inches)

Trees per
average
acre

Time re-
quired to
grow to
next diam-
eter class

Cubic
volume

Saw timber
volume

Average
annual
growth of
saw tim-
ber i

Small timber:
10

Number
2 39

Years
28

Cubic feet
21 6

Board feet
95

Board feet

12

1.91

28

21.4

94

1

Total

• 4 30

43 0

189

1

Medium timber:
14

2.01

25

40.0

176

2

16

1.62

25

52 0

232

3

18

1.88

25

96.0

423

1

20

1.47

25

104.0

465

5

Total. --

6.98

292.0

1,296

11

Large timber:
22

1.64

25

131.6

735

3

24

1 53

33

168 4

940

5

26

1.20

40

172.9

965

3

28

1.23

33

220 3

1,230

4

30

.92

40

212.3

1,185

8

32

.90

50

248. 1

1,385

4

34

.59

50

197 0

1,100

4

36

.48

50

184.5

1,030

4

38

.37

50

118.2

660

5

40

34

50

121 8

680

5

42

.23

50

94.0

525

8

44

.06

50

39 3

220

6

46- -.

.05

50

25.0

140

6

48

.02

50

21. 1

118

6

50

.02

50

15.5

87

7

Total

9 58

1,970 0

11,000

78

Total for average acre

20 86

2,305 0

12, 485

90

1 No deduction has been made for tree mortality or losses from wood rotting fungi, etc. Net growth per
acre may be as great as 85 percent of amount shown or insect and other losses may entirely wipe out the
current growth in mature stands.

Studies of the growth of ponderosa pine by Dr. Walter N. Meyer,
of the Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station (20\ have shown
that where sufficient growing stock is preserved after each cut the rate
of growth is fairly satisfactory. Where a stocking of 2,000 cubic feet
per acre is preserved 690 cubic feet is added to the volume in the next
30 years. Where a growing stock of only 200 cubic feet is preserved
only 220 cubic feet of growth is obtained in that period. These
results are from all-aged stands.

In terms of saw timber 11.6 inches or more in diameter, a stocking of
10,000 board feet produces 4,000 board feet of added growth in 30
years, whereas a stocking of 1,000 board feet produces only 1,300
board feet in the same time. Owing to greater risk of insect attack
on older trees it may be undesirable to leave fully stocked stands after
the first cutting in virgin timber. If understocked stands are left the
growing stock should be built up with younger trees during further
management operations.

It should be noted that while Meyer shows only 15 board feet per
year mortality loss in selectively cut stands, he cites Bureau of
Entomology studies made under the direction of F. P. Keen in virgin
stands in southern Oregon and northern California showing insect
losses amounting to from 103 to 1,082 board feet per acre per year in
1927, the year of heaviest recorded loss. On the 17,400 acres covered

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 931

by these studies the loss averaged 417 board feet per acre. By 1930
this had shrunk to 226 board feet per acre. It is possible, but has
not been definitely determined, that insect injury would be reduced
by passing over all the stands as rapidly as possible with a light cut-
ting in order to eliminate the most susceptible trees.

FUTURE OWNERSHIP DISTRIBUTION OF THE PACIFIC COAST FORESTS

Competent local observers believe private ownership of forests on
the Pacific coast will shrink within the next generation to 8 million
acres, or less than one fourth the present figure. This appears to be a
matter on which a dependable prediction cannot be made. If there
is not a sufficient body of enterprisers to take advantage of the oppor-
tunities for operating these highly productive forests contin-
uously, in the course of tune the areas will automatically revert to
some type of public ownership. This will take place through the
tax-delinquency route if not otherwise. It is intolerable that these
last magnificient forest areas should become waste lands stripped of
their stands and degraded by ruthless cutting and fire. This would
be too great a price for the preservation of individual initiative. It
would in fact constitute the irrevocable extinction of individual initia-
tive as applying to this resource.

On the other hand it has been abundantly proved that public owner-
ship is capable of permanently preserving -the productivity of these
forests. If private ownership cannot preserve their productivity, it is
possible to perpetuate the opportunity for individual initiative in the
manifold activities connected with harvesting forest raw materials on
public lands and with the diversified manufacturing enterprises using
such materials.

In order to bring to an end the numerous losses incident to the log-
ging methods of the past 20 years these practices should be stopped
forthwith, by whatever means necessary. Various methods of stop-
ping them are discussed elsewhere in this report. Private, State, and
Federal agencies concerned should then enter into a thoroughgoing
cooperative study of the whole region, unit by unit. The study should
lead to conclusions as to which of the several agencies, private, State,
and Federal, should handle each productive unit. No agency should
undertake to handle any unit unless it is prepared to keep the unit in
permanent producing condition and thus can accept the full responsi-
bility that from now on should be irrevocably associated with the
privilege of ownership of our remaining natural resources.

FORESTS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION

(Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah,
Colorado, and Arizona)

STATUS AND MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATE FORESTS

The privately owned forest area in the Rocky Mountain region is
estimated at 12,479,000 acres, of which 1,880,000 is poor to nonre-
stocking, 1,556,000 fair to satisfactory restocking, 2,711,000 cord-
wood, and 6,332,000 saw timber. (See table 1.) Roughly, one half
the privately owned forest land is occupied by saw timber and bears
an estimated stand of approximately 51 billion board feet. Farm
woodlands total 1,456,000 acres. Of the remaining 11,023,000 acres

932 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

in private ownership a large part, undoubtedly, is held for other pur-
poses than utilization of the commercial timber. This is an impor-
tant grazing region, and most of the forest types yield considerable
crops of forage.

The Rocky Mountain region as a whole has an interior continental
climate with low precipitation. For this reason the forest growth is
too slow, in the opinion of many authorities, to make permanent
management attractive to private owners. This depends to a con-
siderable extent on how successfully private owners coordinate the
use of range and other resources. In a few localities, such as northern
Idaho and portions of western Montana, topographic conditions cause
precipitation adequate for rapid forest growth. Unfortunately the
very valuable western white pine, which is the chief source of value in
this section of adequate rainf all is threatened by the white pine blister
rust. It is estimated that an immediate investment of about $2.50
per acre is necessary to protect the pine from injury from this source.
Many private owners are unable to make this expenditure. Fire

Erotection, also, is a source of heavy expense. If these expenses can
e met permanent private management for commercial forest produc-
tion is feasible in these localities. The returns forest owners will
realize from these and other areas can in most cases be greatly in-
creased by prolonging the cut of the existing stands, as will be
discussed later.

Because of the climatic and other conditions just mentioned, main-
tenance of forest cover and continued forest production in the Rocky
Mountain region depend very largely upon public ownership and
management of the bulk of the forest resource. In most localities
there is a marked tendency toward returning to public ownership of
one form or another the scant area now in private ownership. Never-
theless it is desirable that private ownership continue, where it is
feasible.

EXTENT TO WHICH PRIVATE OPERATORS ARE PRACTICING FORESTRY

The measure of effectiveness in fire protection necessary to con-
tinued forest productivity has been reached on very few private
forest properties in this region. Until the period of severe curtail-
ment of lumber production, starting in 1930, fire-protective efforts
were constantly increasing. Ten large companies and a much greater
number of small owners in the region are reported to the United
States Forest Service as having 5,618,489 acres under organized pro-
tection in 1931. The reports, it is believed, do not cover the entire
private protective effort. The methods used include cooperation
with Federal and State forestry organizations, cooperative action
among owners through associations, and, to a lesser extent, organiza-
tion for protection of individual properties.

Reports received show that six operators, owning 890,334 acres,
are practicing selective cutting, planting, and other measures (in
addition to fire protection) calculated to prolong forest productivity.
The practice of selective cutting is based generally on the knowledge
that cutting the smaller trees leads to current losses. It is probable
that owners of a considerable area not included in these reports,
largely in small holdings, are cutting selectively. No cases of definite

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

933

committal to sustained-yield practice are reported in the Rocky
Mountain region. The measures taken on certain properties in north
Idaho are adequate preliminary steps in this direction providing sus-
tained yield is decided on without too much delay and mill capacity
is adjusted to the producing capacity of the forests.

Aside from fire-protective effort, which is of great importance and
in the northern section is very costly, it is readily observable that pri-
vate forestry effort is limited to a very small proportion of the areas
in private ownership in this region.

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF FOREST PRODUCTS

Because population is rather sparse in the Rocky Mountain region,
the regional market for forest products does not require large volumes.
The United States Forest Products Census of 1928 yielded the
following statistics on lumber production and consumption in the
region :

TABLE 10. — Production and consumption of lumber in the Rocky Mountain region

State

Produc-
tion i

Consump-
tion 2

State

Produc-
tion i

Consump-
tion 2

Idaho

M board feet
977 468

M board feet
211 698

Arizona

M board feet
158 047

M board feet
84 523

Montana

387, 879

266, 641

New Mexico

162 030

110 034

24 402

134 669

South Dakota

53, 967

174, 378

Rocky Mountain

Utah

7 623

128 066

region

1 843 673

1 338 191

Colorado

72,257

228, 112

1 Data from Forest Products, 1928: Lumber, lath, and shingles. Bureau of the Census, 1930.

2 Figures based on compiled data in the files of the Forest Service.

This shows production of only 505,552 thousand board feet in
excess of consumption. Much lumber is shipped in from the Pacific
coast region and some from the southern pine region, while lumber of
other species is shipped out. In the long run the prospects are that
production will not exceed consumption. In addition to lumber
consumption, large quantities of timbers, poles, and posts are required
by industries including mines, public utilities, railroads, grazing, and
agriculture. In many localities wood is used as fuel. This creates a
possibility of balanced use of forest raw material within the region,
whereby large-sized trees are used for saw logs while the tops of such
trees and smaller trees from thinnings, of small-size species, and from
areas where timber does not develop to saw-log size are available for
the uses which require only small sizes.

. RELATION OF FOREST USE TO REGIONAL ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Current economic history has brought sharply to our attention the

freat advantages held by localities having diversified industries,
uch localities, being able to carry on local exchanges of their varied
products, suffer far less from dislocation of prices and of other eco-
nomic factors than do single-industry regions dependent on exchanging
products with distant regions or in foreign trade. The question of
diversification has special significance in a region subject, as is the

934

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Rocky Mountain region, to high transportation costs on both its
imports and its exports.

Thus it is of first-rate importance to the region, both as producer
and as consumer of forest products, that the productivity of its forests

EXISTING GROWING STOCK -WESTERN WHITE PINE
EXISTING GROWING STOCK- CEDAR, HEMLOCK AND LARCH

6 8 1012 14 16 18 20 £324 26 Z8 30 32 34 36 3840 *<Z 44 46 48 50 K 54 565860 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
D.AMETCR BREAST HIGH (.NCHE5)

.MBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 10.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on heavily stocked acre, site 1, western
white pine with cedar, hemlock, and larch, Kaniksu National Forest, Idaho. Future management
aims at converting stand more largely to white pine without eliminating subordinate species entirely.
In the gradual adjustment of the stand to the limits suggested, inferior species should share cuttings
with the white pine.

and the vitality of its forest industries be maintained. The question
of the type of ownership necessary to give stability to forest produc-
tivity and use should, therefore, be settled as speedily as possible.
Permanent division between public and private ownership cannot
well be made until the risks that surround private forest ownership
are definitely limited.

A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 935

CONDITION OF TYPICAL TIMBER STANDS AND MANAGEMENT METHODS

SUGGESTED

The private-forestry possibilities of the region fall almost entirely
within two forest types — the western white pine mixed with other
conifers, occurring principally in northern Idaho, western Montana,
and northeastern Washington ; and the ponderosa pine type, which is
distributed in numerous localities throughout the region.

WESTERN WHITE PINE

No data are available for an average example of the western white
pine type. The stand shown in figure 10 and table 11 is unusually
heavy, having 12,332 cubic feet of western white pine and 11,608
cubic feet of western red cedar, western hemlock, and western larch,
or 23,940 cubic feet in all (21). It is a very interesting example of an
association of species having complementary characteristics such as
the shallow rooting and shade endurance of hemlock and cedar and
the somewhat deeper rooting habit and need for full light of the pine
and larch. On areas occupied by such associations the fullest possible
use is made of the site, and vegetative activity is confined almost
entirely to the growth of the tree species. For these reasons the
stands pile up a very heavy wood volume per acre ; the volume in this
case exceeds that in most of the examples given for the heavy Pacific
Coast forests. If the forest is broken up into the selective form it is
necessary to provide for a permanently heavy stocking. Unless
stocking is maintained, the productivity of the site will be diverted
to shrubs and to seedlings and saplings of the inferior species.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 60

936

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

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A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 937

In view of the silvicultural desirability of this mixture it is unfortu-
nate that some of the species are of inferior value. This is especially
true of the hemlock and white fir, which are not only intrinsically of
low value in the region but very defective as well. The growth of
the subordinate species, however, is probably in considerable measure
a surplus over what can be produced by pine alone. It seems neces-
sary, therefore, to perpetuate the mixture, striving to increase the
pine with cedar as a preferred understory.

By what method this type should be managed is a somewhat con-
troversial question. The selection system is here suggested. Although
the type is very productive there are a number of difficult management
problems to be solved. The growing stock cannot be brought by one
cutting to the volume suggested in figure 10 as permanently desirable.
A series of cuttings, preferably at intervals of not more than 10
years, is indicated, though present practice contemplates intervals
of 20 years or more. Where permanent main transportation systems
can be maintained combined with the prevailing combinations of
tractor and horselogging no very serious additional costs are created
by short cutting cycles. The utilized yield is almost invariably
increased through cutting, at each return to the area, trees that would
die and decay in the interval of a long cutting cycle. If white pine is
to be maintained in the stand it will be necessary to make small
openings at each cutting so that pine can seed in. The white pine
areas of the Rocky Mountain region lack balance in their wood-using
industries and it is therefore difficult to dispose of the inferior mate-
rial. Owing to this difficulty, in the early cuttings the openings to
encourage pine reproduction must necessarily be located where pine
makes up most of the stand. It is reasonable to expect the market
for inferior species to improve with time. Defective trees constitute
an additional silvicultural problem. Where they occur in groups to
be cut they should be felled and destroyed with the slash. When
the new stand on cut-over spots has developed to seed-bearing age the
remainder of the old stand can be removed more freely than in
the early cuttings, if in the meanwhile a market has developed for
the remaining subordinate species.

Owing to the heavy costs of blister-rust control, effective fire con-
trol, the elimination of defective inferior species, etc., forestry in the
western white pine type is somewhat expensive. The high value of
white pine together with its high rate of productivity justify these
costs, at least on the better sites. Intensive methods are indicated as
the cheapest means of production.

PONDEROSA PINE

Conditions in the ponderosa pine type are somewhat as shown in
figure 9 for eastern Oregon. Large areas where rainfall is especially
deficient have much smaller stands per acre than those shown and
very slow rates of growth. Successful management of these areas
depends on keeping capitalization low, utilizing conservatively both
the grazing and the timber returns, and through a policy of very
light cuttings insuring natural regeneration and development of trees
to merchantable size with very little direct money outlay.

938

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

DESIRABLE CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT POLICY

As in other regions, the policy of hasty liquidation is causing heavy
losses hi lumbering operations. In the application of this policy there
has been much overbuilding of manufactuirng plants, so that further
heavy losses will undoubtedly result from inability to recover plant
investments through operation. The full extent of such losses does
not appear until the end of the operating period. These losses may be
much reduced through prolonging the timber cut and consequently
the useful life of the dependent manufacturing plants.

Intensive logging and milling studies have shown that in the Rocky
Mountain region, as in others, a large proportion of the trees cut in
current practice are logged and milled at a loss. Figure 11 (22) shows

DOLLARS
PER M FT B.M
34

20 22 24 26 28 30 32

DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

36

FIGURE 11.— Production costs versus selling value of Ponderosa pine, 1931.

that in a typical ponderosa pine operation in 1931, all trees less than
20 inches in diameter cost more to log and manufacture than sales
of lumber returned. In practice it is unwise to cut under 24 inches
except to remove smaller trees undesirable for the future stand. If
that limit is observed the stand remaining will contain sufficient
growing stock to add a considerable volume before the next cut, 15
to 30 years later. Deferred cutting of the trees that can yield no
profit now would result in more orderly delivery of the timber from
these forests to the market, give more time for local consumers to
absorb a large portion (especially of the cheaper grades), allow the
national market to be cleared of the surpluses now arising from
liquidating privately owned forests, and permit the residual stands
to gam in volume and quality and thus in stumpage price. It is
readily understandable that in some cases financial and other factors
place considerable difficulties in the way of the adoption of these
changes in policy.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 939

FORESTS OF THE SOUTH

(Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis-
sippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas)

PRESENT CONDITIONS AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES

The estimated area of privately owned forest land in the South is
187,264,000 acres, of which 57,866,000 acres is in farm woodlands.
The forest area in public ownership is small. Commercially valuable
species of pines are found throughout the South, making it the most
extensive pine region in the world. In river bottom lands and swamps
and at the higher altitudes occur considerable areas of hardwoods.
Most of the land in the region is level or only gently sloping, which
makes extraction of timber from the forests very simple.

Cutting has been carried on entirely without regulation, and as a
rule with little regard to the future effect on the forest. As might
have been expected, under this practice the forest productivity has
suffered severely. According to the best estimates (see table 1),
43,229,000 acres are in poor to nonrestocking condition and 33,802,000
acres contain a fair amount of young growth but lack larger growing
stock. Of the areas having immediately effective growing stock,
52,013,000 acres bear timber of cordwood size and only 55,220,000
bear saw timber, much of which is second growth. On the saw-
timber areas the growing stock is very seriously depleted.

As in other regions, three grades of forest-management effort are
considered.

1. Fire protection: Elsewhere in this report detailed data on fire
protection are presented. In proportion to the areas involved, fire-
protective effort is less widespread in the South than in other regions.
Undoubtedly the southern pines, on account of greater resistance to
injury from fire, are more productive in the absence of fire protection
than most commercial species of other regions. They vary among
themselves in this respect, and some types suffer from fire more than
others. Hardwoods, whether mixed with the pines or in pure stands,
are severely damaged by fire.

The areas of 1,000 acres or more reported to be under private pro-
tection in this region are as follows: Virginia, North Carolina, and
South Carolina, 1,441,748 acres; remainder of the region, 7,760,000
acres ; total, 9,201 ,748 acres. In addition there are large areas of farm
woodlands which because of their isolated situation or the efforts of
the owners are protected from fires. Public efforts are extending pro-
tection to much larger areas.

2. Conservative cutting, planting, leaving seed trees, and other
practical measures for improving production, without definite plans
for sustained yield, are reported to be practiced on the following areas:
Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, 662,500 acres; re-
mainder of the region, 2,092,500 acres; total, 2,755,000 acres.

3. Permanent forest land management and organized plans for sus-
tained yield (by a somewhat liberal construction) may be said to be
in effect on the following aggregate areas: Virginia, North Carolina,
and South Carolina, 5,000 acres; remainder of the region, 1,349,000
acres; total, 1,354,000 acres. Large additional acreages are in con-
dition to warrant putting them on a definite sustained-yield basis.
To do this would necessitate systematizing the operations already

940

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

more or less commonly carried on to improve future production and
placing a close control on expenditure, income, and maintenance of
capital values.

The Southern Forest Experiment Station estimates (23) that the
following areas in the several types should be under intensive manage-
ment within 20 years :

Acres

Longleaf-slash-pine type 6, 340, 000

Shortleaf-loblolly-hardwood type 9, 715, 000

Riverbottom hardwood and cypress type 2, 710, 000

Total 18,765,000

The sustained yield area noted above is included in these areas.

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF FOREST PRODUCTS

Settlement of the South occurred early in the history of the Nation.
In consequence of the fact that other regions of the United States were
well supplied with forests until nearly the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury, a large timber industry beyond the needs of the region and of
some coastwise and export trade did not develop until about 1880.
Annual production then increased rapidly to a maximum in 1909 of
nearly 20 billion board feet. The region now supplies more than one
third of the Nation's softwood lumber, and more than one half of its
hardwoods. The relation between production and consumption is
shown for each State and for the region as a whole in table 12.

TABLE 12. — Lumber production and consumption in the South in 1928
[In thousand board feet]

Production '

Consump-

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

tion 2

Virginia

352, 049

195, 657

547, 706

451, 685

North. Carolina

787, 616

233, 277

1, 020, 893

620, 130

South Carolina . _

660, 025

161,875

821, 900

126, 755

Georgia

888,437

151, 038

1, 039, 475

364, 740

Florida ...

933, 514

61, 558

995, 072

416, 106

Alabama

1,731,783

248, 299

1,980,082

526, 092

Mississippi . __

2, 085, 097

439, 222

2, 524, 319

436, 316

Louisiana

1, 550, 414

728, 008

2, 278, 422

707. 880

Arkansas -

659, 149

470, 582

1, 129, 731

400, 725

Oklahoma

174,957

18, 836

193, 793

456, 288

Texas

1,217,361

229, 325

1, 446, 686

1, 588, 051

Total

11,040,402

2, 937, 677

13, 978, 079

6, 094, 768

1 Data from Forest Products, 1928: Lumber, lath, and shingles. Bureau of the Census, 1930.
3 Figures based on compiled data in the files of the Forest Service.

The South's surplus in 1928 of 7,883,311,000 board feet over its
own consumption slightly exceeded that of the Pacific coast region.

Although lumber is the outstanding forest product of the South,
many others are of great importance. The longleaf- and slash-pine
belt is the sole source of naval stores in the United States and produces
greater quantities of naval stores than any other region in the world.
In recent years a large pulp and paper industry has developed. Poles ,
posts, and piling are produced on a considerable scale for local use
and for shipment to other regions.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 941

As against the surplus over regional requirements of nearly 8 billion
feet of lumber and large volumes of other forest products should be
considered the requirements of a great belt of States stretching from
the prairies of the upper Mississippi Valley through the Lake and Cen-
tral States to the coast of New England and the Middle Atlantic
States. The forests of these States lack nearly 15 billion feet of pro-
ducing sufficient lumber for local use, not to mention other forest-
products requirements. Moreover, the forests of these States now
consist mostly of hardwoods, while the South produces great quantities
of conifers. Numerous railroad lines, together with water routes,
provide adequate transportation between the regions.

This situation has been so favorable for the southern forest indus-
tries that production has gone on as a matter of course without much
thought of the continuity of the supply. The certain evidences of
decline in production justify a change in policy by all agencies con-
cerned. The need is for organized forest management, which in com-
parison with chance or hit-and-miss methods produces just as superior
results as organized effort does in other fields of business.

FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF FOREST USE

Because of its vast land area, the South has a potential productivity
for its characteristic agricultural crops that far exceeds market possi-
bilities. Diversification of industry into other fields is thus peculiarly
necessary. The wide distribution of forest stands has made the forest
industries the outstanding supplement of agricultural activity. For-
est industries have supplied employment, and an oulet for timber from
farm woodlands, the loss of which would be calamitous to the region .
The region's naval-stores industry, its recently developed pulp indus-
try, and its outlets for posts, poles, and piling make for balance hi
demand for forest raw material; it cannot be said, however, that the
possibilities of such balance have been worked out with much refine-
ment. The naval-stores industry is destroying timber unnecessarily
in its operations. The pulp industry, though using considerable mill
and forest waste, is responsible for the premature cutting of consider-
able areas of young growth, destroying the stands as they enter the
period of greatest increase in value. At present the pulp industry is
obtaining material at very low cost, the forest owner receiving prac-
tically no return for the use of his property. If pulpwood material
were taken in thinnings the landowner, though receiving only labor
costs or slightly more, as at present, would be compensated by the
production of higher-priced material to be cut later. Under this
procedure the pulp industry would perpetuate its command of low-cost
raw material.

Information accumulated by the Forest Taxation Inquiry indicates
that the value of the forest land and stumpage in the South totals
about $1 ,595,477,000 (24). Accurate data on mill and logging invest-
ments are not available. Much of the cut is now being made by small
mills. In recent years investments in larger mills have declined in
value. The future of both types of investments depends directly on
the foresight and skill with which forest owners, managers, and tech-
nicians handle the forests. Beyond these factors public attitudes are
of great importance in establishing a favorable setting for forward-
looking policies. The forest as a resource is so exposed to public

942

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

action through taxation, through the uncontrolled use of fire, and in
other ways that the management efforts of the forest owner are likely
to be in vain when the public attitude is adverse or even indifferent.
In the South the huge forest area and the ease of forest regeneration
create a situation in which cutting alone would create no immediate
danger of an excessively low rate of yield. Owing to the largely
unrestricted use of fire, however, the loss of productivity is consider-
able. Soil conditions over large areas are such as to permit alternative
use for forestry or agriculutre. Much land formerly used for agri-
culture has been taken over by timber. A survey of Union Parish,
La. (25), showed that 18 percent of the forests were old-field stands.
In the future there will probably be further changes from agricultural

DOLLARS PER M FT. B.M

I88O

I89O

I9OO

1910

I92O

1930

FIGURE 12.— Stumpage price of southern yellow pine, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida-
Georgia, 1880-1931 (compiled by U.S. Forest Service from sales of 86 billion feet of privately owned tim
ber) . The broken line 1923-31 represents the trend during the deflation period subsequent to the World
War. The inclusion of data for future years may materially change this portion of the general trend.
In fact the slight increase of 1931 over 1930 may indicate that the upturn has commenced. Includes since
1900 sales of approximately 3 billion feet of second-growth pine.

to forest use and from forest to agricultural use. It is conceivable
that on soils where the fertility has been impaired forest crops will be
grown for the definite purpose of restoring fertility needed for future
agricultural use.

STUMPAGE PRICES (26)

Based on averages for all the species and grades of southern pine
that were being cut commercially in the years since 1880, figure 12
shows graphically the price changes since 1880. It is based on
answers to questionnaires of the United States Forest Service since
1921 and on such data as were available prior to that date.

It is interesting to observe the parallel course of price movements in
pine stumpage and cotton, two great southern staples. Figure 13
shows by price indexes based on prices of the year 1926 as 100 that
since 1929 second-growth pine stumpage has held up in prices better
than cotton.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

943

STANDS AND INCREMENTS IN A TYPICAL COUNTY

Data obtained from surveys of counties distributed through the
South show that in general the lumber cut must be expected to decline
in the next few years. The following statement of the Southern
Forest Experiment Station, with table 13, shows the present status in
a county where conditions are better than average (25):

A county-wide study in the shortleaf- loblolly-pine hardwoods in northern
Louisiana yielded the data set out in the following tabulation of second-growth

60

1913 '15 '17 '19 '21

SECOND GROWTH SOUTHERN
YELLOW PINE. BASIS'.
3 BILLION FEET

•23 -25 '27 '29 1931

("COTTON MIDDLINGS PER POUND
---•j WHOLESALE. NEW ORLEANS
(U.S. DEPT. OF LABOR)

FIGURE 13.— Comparison of price indexes of cotton and second-growth southern yellow pine stumpage.

stands and current annual increment. These data show actual conditions as
they exist on certain areas of better forest lands, except that the percentage of
old-field stands, and hence the rate of growth, in this county is considerably above
the average. In the average county the percentage of old-field stands probably
does not exceed 5. The better stands of this county show conditions favorable
for private commercial forestry operations. The trees making up each old-field
stand are fairly even aged, but the stands vary widely in age. However, a mer-
chantable old-field stand with trees practically even aged has a considerable range
of diameter classes. Most of the second-growth stands have been cut two or
more times, and the trees vary considerably as to age and usually have a good
distribution of diameters,

944

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 13. — Timber stands and current annual increments, by classes of stands, in

Union Parish, La.1

Class of stand

Area

Propor-
tion of
forest
area in
county

Pine volume per
acre 2

Current annual in-
crement of pine
per acre 2

Trees 9
inches or
more in
diameter
breast
high

Trees 13
inches or
more in
diameter
breast
high

Trees 9
inches or
more in
diameter
breast
high

Trees 13
inches or
more in
diameter
breast
high

Merchantable second-growth pine:
Well-stocked

Acres
28, 900
83,200
65,100
25,300

61,500
25,300
14,500
57,800

Percent
8
23
18

7

17
7
4
16

Board feet
10, 468
2,472
6,528
1,904

275
323
0
0

Board feet
5,618
1,207
3,121
1,246

49
23
0
0

Board feet
607
216
626
186

55
58
0
0

Board feet
'569
201
425
186

18
19
0
0

Poorly-stocked . ..

Old-field

Pine-hardwood bottomr .

Cut-over unmerchantable pine:
Restocking

Nonrestocking .

Denuded

Hardwood bottom .

Total

361, 600

100

1 Data from the Southern Forest Experiment Station.
3 Volumes by International one-eighth inch log rule.

The excellent growth in well-stocked stands is worthy of special
attention. It is very plain that the owner of poorly stocked stands

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

3,000

2POO

1,000

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 26 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES) * »

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

EXISTING GROWING STOCK, SHORTLEAf AND LOBLOLLY PINE
EXISTING GROWING STOCK, HARDWOODS

EXISTING GROWING SUPPRESSED OR DErECTIVE PINE AND HARDWOOD
SUGGESTED LIMITS FOR PERMANENT GROWING STOCK

FIGURE 14.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre of shortleaf-loblolly pine
and hardwood stands. A, Poorly stocked stands said to represent average conditions on 7,000,000 acres
in southern Arkansas, northern Louisiana, and eastern Texas; B, well-stocked stands average from an
inventory of 28,900 acres said to be representative of 600,000 acres in southern Arkansas, northern Loui-
siana, and eastern Texas. There are sufficient trees in the stand but it should be managed toward a
larger proportion of larger size classes.

has to pay taxes and the expenses of fire protection and administration
on more than 2 acres to obtain production equal to that of 1 acre of
well-stocked stands.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 945

CONDITION OF TYPICAL STANDS, AND MEASURES THAT WILL BUILD UP

THEIR PRODUCTIVITY

Investigations of timber growth, surveys of forest conditions in
individual counties, and the general forest survey now under way
under the direction of the Southern Forest Experiment Station are
beginning to yield definite detailed information as to the condition of
individual stands. Four cases will be cited.

(1) Average-stocked shortleaf and loblolly pine with hardwoods. — It is
believed that the problem of building up the stands is simpler with
shortleaf and loblolly pine than with longleaf pine, which will be
discussed later. It is probable, also, that the total volume per acre of
selection forests of these species would normally exceed that of long-
leaf. Figure 14, diagram A, and table 14 show conditions in certain
stands of this type in southern Arkansas. The acre averages are
based on an inventory of 345,000 acres of average-stocked stands in
the shortleaf-loblolly-hardwood type and are estimated (25) to be
typical of conditions on 7 million acres of this type. This area com-
prises some of the most productive forests of this type and cannot be
taken as typical of larger areas of the type.

946

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

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A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

947

(2) Better-stocked shortleaj -loblolly-hardwood stands. — Figure 14
(diagram B) and table 15 show stands that are in better condition to
yield current returns when organized into forest properties than the
average-stocked stands.

The cutting practice necessary to build up stands such as that shown
in table 14 to take advantage of their earning possibilities consists in
very light cuttings, returning to a given stand about once every 10
years. Not only will an effort be made to increase the number of
smaller trees ^un til the ground is as fully occupied as warranted by
the characteristics of the species, but at each cut some of the thrifty
larger trees will be held for further growth. Younger trees will
gradually come up into the small timber class if seed trees of requisite
number and age are present and fire does not destroy the seedlings.
When the density of the stand has been fully built up cuttings will
usually take the form of clean cutting groups and removing single
trees as required throughout the intervening stand. Some of these
scattered trees will be removed because fully matured in size and
value, others will be thinned put of dense groups to give remaining
trees more space. Each addition to the growing stock, up to a fairly
high density, will add to the growth per acre and reduce the cost of
production per 1,000 board feet. Small additions to the growing
stock left at each cut insure an accumulation of volume far beyond the
additions themselves. In other words, the rebuilding of the growing
stock is more a matter of skillful handling than of financial sacrifice.

TABLE 15. — Number of trees, volume, and growth, exceptionally well stocked shorlleaf
and loblolly pine with some hardwood stands in southern Arkansas

Tree diameters at breast height

Trees per average acre

Average time required to
grow to next diameter
class

Short-
leaf

Lob-
lolly

Hard-
woods

Total
stand i

Defec-
tive, all
species

Short-
leaf

Lob-
lolly

Hard-
woods

Young stock:
2 inches

Number
3.86
7.17

Number
13.31
11.72

Number
13.03
7.03

Number
30.20
25.92

Number
19.31
8.07

Years
14
12

Years
16
14

Years
23
23

4 inches

Total

11.03

25.03

20.06

56.12

27.38

Small timber:
6 inches

9.10
10.14
12.21
9.52

13.38
14.90
14.28
10.34

9.10
5.31
4.69
2.83

31.58
30.35
31.18
22.69

5.93
1.79
1.32
.76

12
12
12
13

12
11
10
9

18
17
17
17

8 inches

10 inches

12 inches

Total..

40.97

52.90

21.93

115.80

9.80

Medium timber:
14 inches -

3.17
1.24
.34
.14

4.69
4.34
1.66
1.17

.96
.62
.83
.41

8.82
6.20
2.83
1.72

.76
.69
.35
.14

15
17
19
20

9

8
8
8

17
17
17
17

16 inches

18 inches - ..

20 inches

Total,... -

4.89

11.86

2.82

19.57

1.94

Large timber:

.07

.62
.14
.07

.07
.07

.76
.21
.07

.14
.07

20

—

8
8
8

=

18
18
18

28 inches

.07

Total

.07
56.96

.83

.14

1.04
192.53

.28
39.40

90.62

44.95

==

948

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 15. — Number of trees, volume, and growth, exceptionally well stocked shortleaf
and loblolly pine with some hardwood stands in southern Arkansas — Continued

Tree diameters at breast height

Cubic volume 1

Saw timber volume 1

Short-
leaf

Loblolly

Hard-
woods

Total

Short-
leaf

Loblolly

Young stock:
2 inches

Cu. ft.
0.50
8.89

Cu. ft.
2.00
14.06

Cu. ft.
1.63
6.12

Cu. ft.
4.13
29.07

Ft. b.m.

Ft. b.m.

4 inches. -

Total

•9.39

16.06

7.75

33.20

Small timber:
6 inches

38.95
96.74
208. 79
255. 14

54.59
132. 01
223. 20
264.70

22.20
29.20
49.81
50.66

115. 74
257. 95
481. 80
570.50

109
365
1,062
1,476

201
477
957
1,355

8 inches. ._ ..-

10 inches

12 inches

Total

599.62

674.50

151. 87

1, 425. 99

3,012

2,990

Medium timber:
14 inches

122.04
64.73
22.61
11.59

175.88
223.94
113.21
98.40

26.25
24.14
43.77
28.18

324.17
312. 81
179. 59
138. 17

723

386
136
71

985
1,341
706
638

16 inches

18 inches

20 inches

Total

220.97

611.43

122. 34

954. 74

1,316
43

3,670

Large timber:
22 inches

6.90

62.00
16.10
9.19

6.11
7.79

75.01
23.89
9.19

412
109
64

24inches. - --

26 inches

Total...

6.90

87.29

13.90

108. 09

43

585

Total for average acre

836.88

1, 389. 28

295. 86

2, 522. 02

4,371

7,245

Tree diameters at breast height

Saw timber volume1

Average annual growth of
saw timber 2

Hard-
woods

Total

Shortleaf

Loblolly

Total

Young stock:
4 inches

Ft. b.m.

Ft. b.m.

Ft. b.m.
3.1

Ft. b.m.
3.5

Ft. b.m.
6.6

Small timber:
6 inches

310
874
2,216
3,083

15.8
37.3
60.0
46.4

16.4
41.0
79.2

78.7

32.2
78.3
139.2
125.1

8 inches

32

197
252

10 inches..

12 inches

Total

481

6,483

159.5

15.2
5.6

1.6

.7

215.3

374.8

Medium timber:
14inches

141
136
257
174

1,849
1,863
1,099
883

44.7
54.5
21.5
15.3

59.9
60.1
23.1
16.0

16 inches ..

18 inches

20inches

Total

708

5,694

23.1

136.0

159.1

Large timber:
22 inches

40
53

495

162
64

.3

8.3
1.9
1.0

8.6
1.9
1.0

24 inches

26 inches

Total

93

•'-" -•--— — -

1,282

721

.3

11.2

11.5

Total for average acre

12, 898

186.0

366.0

552.0

1 Defective trees not included.

2 Defective trees and hardwoods not included. Hardwood is growing at the rate of about 50 board feet
per acre per annum but defects caused chiefly by fire render most of hardwoods unmerchantable.

(3) Longleaf pine (23).- — Average and better stocked stands of
longleaf and slash pines are graphically represented in figure 15.
Diagram A and table 16 are representative of an average stocked
stand in Hamilton County, Fla. Diagram B shows a better stocked
stand found in Bradford County, Fla. The average stand has about

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

949

one third the number of trees present in the better stocked stand.
In both cases there is a moderate representation in the small timber
group (6 to 12 inches diameter), very little in the medium timber

VOL
CU. 1
600

400
200

0
600

-TME VOLUME:

CU.FT

- SMALL MEDIUM A LARGE
TIMBER TIMBER TIMBER

2,000
1,000
0
2.000

1,000
0

-

!^^

i \j__

-

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 SO 5Z 54 56 58 60

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

4-00
200
0

SMALL MEDIUM R LARGE
TIMBER TIMBER D TIMBER

I

ra £ x.

-

}$ -4 ^V^

"JMiHi. ^Vrr^

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

Eg-SiSi-l EXISTING GROWING STOCK- LONGLEAr PINE
BSSSa EXISTING GROWING STOCK -SLASH PINE
SUGGESTED LIMITS OF PERMANENT GROW

Jail ram, t

v SMALL MEDIUM LARGE ,

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS
ING STOCK

FIGURE 15. — Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre longleaf and slash pine
stands in naval-stores region. A, Average stocked stand based on sampling of 150,000 acres in Florida,
said to be representative of 20,000,000 acres; B, better stocked stand based on inventory of 200 acres and
said to be representative of 1,000,000 acres. Only a moderate permanent growing stock is recommended,
owing to naval stores yields being higher from well-spaced trees.

group (14 to 20 inches diameter), and no large timber (22 inches
diameter and larger).

Authorities hold that considerable areas of longleaf pine sites are
too poor and the stands on them too badly depleted to warrant

VOLU

CU.F-

1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
4.00
200
0

ME: VOLUME
r- CU.FT.

Egggg EXISTING SOUND GROWING STOCK
?ZZ% DEFECTIVE GROWING STOCK

i DESIRABLE FUTURE. LIMITS OF
SOUND GROWING STOCK

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
TIMBER T MBER TIMBER

5,000
4,000
3X500
2,000
1,000
0

-

-

•

-

; ./^X

"P 1 1 1 1 1 1 il RaEatTia. ,, -r

6 8 10 12 14 6 18 20 ^2 24 26 28 30 3Z 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 46 50 5Z 54 56 58 60

DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 16.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre in river-bottom hardwoods,
based on strip tally of 10,000 acres, considered to be typical of about 25 percent of the 23,070,000 acres in
this type.

operation by private capital. On good sites, with inadequate seed
trees, planting is the proper procedure. This involves waiting a long
time for returns except where plantations are a part of otherwise
timbered properties.

950

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

(4) Bottomland hardwoods (28).' — The bottomland hardwood stands
include a great variety of hardwood species together with cypress.
In table 17 these have necessarily been grouped into the principal
genera. Figure 16 shows graphically the cubic-volume distribution
of the same stand. These data are based on an inventory of 10,000
acres in south-central Louisiana and are believed to be typical of
about 6 million acres in the type.

TABLE 16. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in average stocked stand of longleaf
and slash pine in Florida *

Tree diameters at breast height

Number trees per aver-
age acre

Time required
to grow to next
diameter class

Cubic volume

Long-
leaf

Slash

Total

Long-
leaf

Slash

Long-
leaf

Slash

Total

Young stock:
Under 2 inches

Number
9.28
18.02
13.06

Numbei
1.90
8.99
8.99

Number
11.18
27.01
22.05

Years

Years

Cubic
feet

Cubic
feet

Cubic
feet

2 inches

6

7

6

7

1.80
10.45

0.90
7.19

2.70
17.64

4 inches

Total

40.36

19.88

60.24

12.25

8.09

20.34

Small timber:
6 inches -

12.14
4.71
3.31
1.18

13.13
8.23
4.62
2.08

25.27
12.94
7.93
3.26

8
9
11
12

7
8
8
9

36.42
22.18
45.68
25.96

36.76
55. 14
60.06
41.60

73.18
77.32
105. 74
67.56

8 inches

lOinches -

12 inches

Total

21.34

28.06

49.40

130.24

193. 56

323. 80

Medium timber:
14 inches

.63
.16
.04

.62
.24

1.25
.40
.04
.08

14
17
18
22

9
10
10
10

19.53
7.20
2.32
1.40

18.60
10.08

38.13

17.28
2.32
5.60

16 inches

18 inches

20 inches

.02

.06

4.20

Total

.85

.92

1.77

30.45

32.88

63.33

Total for average acre ._

62. 55

48.86

111.41

172. 94

234. 53

407.47

Tree diameters at breast height

Saw timber volume

Average annual growth
of saw timber 2

Long-
leaf

Slash

Toial

Long-
leaf

Slash

Total

Small timber:
6 inches

Board feet
73
104
209
138

Board feet
53
189
282
218

Board feet
126
293
491
356

Board feet
18.2
16.1
12.2
4.9

Board feet
26.7
29.3
19.0
9.9

Board feet
44.9
45.4
31.2

14.8

8 inches

lOinches

12 inches

Total

524

742

1,266

51.4

84.9

136.3

7.5
2.3
.1
.4

Medium timber:
14 inches -

115
45
15
9

100
59

215
104
15
34

3.3
.6
.1
.1

4.2

1.7

16 inches

ISinches... .

20 inches

25

.3

Total

184

184

368

4.1

6.2

10.3

Total for average acre

708

926

1,634

55.5

91.1

146.6

1 Said to be typical of 20,000,000 acres in naval stores region. Much of the growth is never utilized for saw
timber, owing to use of trees for turpentining.

2 The growth indicated is an approximation. The mortality was assumed to reduce gross volume growth
by 25 percent.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

951

TABLE 17. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in typical stand second-growth
river bottom hardwoods in lower Mississippi Valley

Tree diameters at breast
height

Trees per average acre

Time required to grow to
next diameter class

All
oaks

Hick-
ories

Gums

All
others

Culls 2

Total
stand

All
oaks

Hick-
ories

Gums

All
others

Young stock:
2 inches

Num-
ber
30.0
20.0

Num-
ber
3.0
2.2

Num-
ber
9.0
7.0

Num-
ber
12.6
10.8

Num-
ber
33.4
14.5

Num-
ber
54.6
40.0

Years
9
9

Years
17
17

Years
12
12

Years
13
13

4 inches

Total_

50.0

5.2

16.0

3.7
1.5

.7
.7

23.4

1

9.9
8.7
7.6
4.9

47.9

94.6

— -

22.4
15.9
12.0
8.0

Small timber:
6inches

7.5
5.3
3.5
2.2

1.3
.4
.2
.2

6.7
5.5
3.7
3.6

7
7
7
7

—

12
12
12
12

9
9
9

9

11
11
11
11

8 inches

10 inches

12 inches

Total

18.5

2.1

6.6

31.1

19.5

58.3

Medium timber:
14 inches

2.3
2.3
1.80

.1
.1

.7
.4
.30
.10

3.3
1.5
.45
.35

3.5
2.1
1.10
.45

6.4
4.3
2.55
1.15

8
8
8
8

13
13
13
13

11
11
11
11

12
12
12
12

16inches.

18 inches .

20 inches

.65

.05

Total

7.05

.25

1.50

5.60

7.15

14.40

1.30
.35
.30
.09

Large timber:
22 inches

.55
. 10

.10

.35

.30
.25

.35
.35
.20
.02

8
9
9
9
9
9

13

17
17
17
17
17

11
12
12
12
12
12

12
13
13
13
13
13

24inches

26 inches. .. .

.15
04

. 15

28 inches

.03

.02

30 inches. .

32 inches

.06

.06

.03

.05

.15

Total

.90

.10

.59

.60

.97

2.19

Total for average acre

76. 45

7.65

24.69

60.70

75.52

169. 49

Tree diameters at breast height

All
oaks

Cubic volume

Saw timber
volume

Hick-
ories

Gums

All
others

Culls 2

Total

All
oaks

Hick-
ories

Foung stock:
2 inches

Cu.fr.
6.0
36.0

Cu.fr.
0.6
3.96

Cu.fr.
1.12
6.09

Cu.fr.
1.26
4.32

Cu. ft.
4.74
14.79

Cu. ft.
8.98
50.37

Bd.ft.

Bd.ft.

4 inches

Total

42.0

4.56

7.21

5.58

19.53

59.35

Small timber:
6 inches

30.00
40.81
42.70
31.68

5.20
3.08
2.44
2.88

9.0
8.25
7.43
12.60

16.83
34.80
56.24
52.92

18.16
31.52
37.26
51.84

61.03
86.94
108.81
100.08

8 inches

10 inches

12 inches -

88

8

Total

145. 19

13.60

37.28

160.79

138.78

356.86

88

8

Medium timber:
14 inches

62.10
74.75
74.16
34.90

2.70
3.25

18.90
15.60
15.90
6.90

50.92
34.12
14.58
13.42

80.99
65.98
46.42
24.16

134. 62
127. 72
104.64
57.90

161
230
252
LM

7
10

""io

16 inches

18 inches

20 inches

2.68

Total

245. 91

8.63

57.30

113.04

' — —

14.11
14.16

217. 55

22.76
28.54
20.76
2.56
8.80

424.88

77<»

27

Large timber:
22 inches

33.60
7.70
15.21
4.91
10.00

6.11

30.45

84.27
21.86
36.21
11.87
28.33

143
34
63
19
36

26

24 i nches

26 inches

21.00

28 inches

5.22
15.00

1.74
3.33

32 inches

Total

71.42
504.52

6.11
32.90

71.67

33.34

83.42
459.28

182.54
1,023.63

295
1,162

26

Total for average acre

173. 46

312. 75

61

168342° — 33 — vol. 1-

952

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

TABLE 17. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in typical stand second-growth,
river bottom hardwoods in lower Mississippi Valley — Continued

Tree diameters at breast height

Saw timber vol-
ume — Continued

Average annual growth of saw
timber 1

Gums

All
oth-
ers

Total

All
oaks

Hick-
ories

Gums

All

others

Total

Small timber:
12 inches

Bd.ft.
35

Bd.ft.
147

Bd.ft.

278

Bd. ft.
9.43

Bd.ft.
0.50

Bd.ft.
1.56

Bd.ft.
4.46

8.25
5.00
1.50
1.46

Bd.ft.
15.95

20.30

18.98
19.70
6.61

Medium timber:
14 inches

49
48
64
27

132
105
50

52

349
393
356

225

8.62
11.50

15.75
4.06

.25
.31

3.18
2.17
2.45
.90

16 inches _

18 inches

20 inches

.19

Total

178

339

1,323

359
96
150
46
102

39.93

5.50
.89
1.00
.27
.40

.75

8.70

16.21

65.59

Large timber:
22 inches

130

60

62

.62

3.82

1.25

.77

11.19

1.66
2.25
.60
1.02

24inches-._ . ... .

26 inches . .

87

1 25

28 inches

20
54

7
12

.28
.55

.05
.07

32 inches

Total

291

141

753

8.06

.62

5.90

2.14

16.72

Total for average acre

504

627

2,354

57.42

1.87

16.16

22.81

98.26

1 Only growth on sound trees has been calculated, but loss from mortality has not been deducted.

2 Defective and suppressed trees not included in total effective growing stock.

Because of past cutting and considerable burning these stands in-
clude a volume of defective material sufficient to displace at least one
third of the production that could be obtained if the growing stock
were all of vigorous and well-formed trees. The problem of removing
this material is difficult. Some of it, although unadapted to lumber
use, can be cut into small-dimension material for furniture manu-
facture, stave bolts, railroad ties, or other uses. It may prove possible
to remove from the stand by girdling large defective trees having no
prospective value.

DETERMINATION OF GUIDING DIAMETER LIMITS FOR CUTTING

In the division of this section entitled, " Application of the Selective
Cutting System," general principles on which trees should be selected
for cutting were discussed in some detail. Some of the data used were
drawn from the South. Figure 17, which bears on this subject as re-
lated to southern pines, is inserted here to show the relationship
between cubic volume and board measure for trees of different sizes.
It shows that trees 15 inches or more in diameter at breast height
average about 185 cubic feet per 1,000 board feet. Trees from 8 to 14
inches in diameter contain about 250 cubic feet per 1,000 board feet.
Disadvantages of producing lumber from southern pines less than 16
inches in diameter are as follows :

1. As much as 60 percent more volume must be grown to produce
1,000 board feet.

2. All this extra weight is expensive to handle. Partly for this
reason, logging and milling costs are higher for these sizes.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

953

3. To cut trees when they are small is to destroy them at just the
time when they are beginning to yield their highest returns from
growth, in volume and in quality. (See also pages 33-41.)

4. The lumber produced from the small sizes is much lower in grade
and brings a lower price.

APPLYING SELECTION PRINCIPLIES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF
SOUTHERN FOREST PROPERTIES

Since in the South extraction of timber is so simple and is carried
on with such modest equipment, in that region it is wholly feasible to

CU. VOLUME
PER M FT. BM.
300

275

250

225

200

ISO

10

12 14- 16 IS 20

DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

FIGURE 17.— Number of cubic feet tree volume (to 5-inch top) per thousand board feet— mill tally , southern

pines.

operate forest properties of very small size as well as those up to 100,-
000 acres or more.

In the case of farm woodlands, experience has shown that selling
the output on the stump seldom results in satisfactory prices. The
best practice is for the farmer to sell his forest products in harvested
form, as he sells his agricultural products. The same equipment, such
as motor truck and teams, that is used in handling field crops can be
devoted outside the ' op season to getting out logs, pulpwood, etc.
A well-stocked 100-aLe farm woodland may yield as much as 50,000

954 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

board feet of logs annually. This can be gotten out in a month's
time or less, and if sold as logs may bring as much as $500.

The Bureau of the Census now recognizes " forest-products farms"
statistically. Ordinarily such a farm produces vegetables, milk, and
other food supplies for the owner, but the owner's cash income derives
chiefly from the sale of forest products. If the owner is to make good
use of his time throughout the year on his own property and on a basis
of permanence he must assemble an area of 1 ,000 acres or somewhat
more, of which he can cut over about 100 acres annually for logs and
cord wood. This is assuming that trees over 17 inches in diameter are
cut for saw logs and the tops cleaned up for pulpwood or other cord-
wood material. In addition* smaller trees of poor form for further
growth, or needing to be removed from too dense stands, will go into
cord wood. If the enterprise is to have permanence and constantly
improving income the owner must strive to leave each unit of the
forest in better condition for growth after each cutting period.

The same principle holds with larger properties. The Southern
Forest Experiment Station (27), in studying selective cutting in
second-growth stands, has found that in mixed short-leaf-loblolly pine
with hardwoods cut to a 17-inch diameter limit 4,836 board feet per
acre of logs from trees over 17 inches can be produced in the 10 years
following cutting. In this case study taxes, fire protection, and ad-
ministrative costs involved in producing stumpage on this basis
amounted to 18 cents per acre per year or $1.80 for 10 years, or 37
cents per 1 ,000 board feet. On the basis of 1929 selling prices the gross
returns from stumpage utilized were $5.26 and net earnings were
$5.08 per acre per year. From this is derived the profits on milling
and logging operations as well as on the forest investment. The in-
vestment was $25 per acre, so that the investment earnings averaged
20.3 per cent net. The area studied is, no doubt, exceptionally favor-
able.

If the diameter limit on the same area is reduced to 13 inches the
growing stock left will produce only 3,508 board feet per acre in 10
years. Cutting to a 13-inch limit also will yield less stumpage value
than in the above case. The returns will be reduced to $2.35 per acre
gross and $1.64 per acre net with a 10 year cutting cycle. Unfortu-
nately the common practice is to cut far under 13 inches and prac-
tically destroy the productivity of the average forest for some time
after cutting.

By surveying a tract of virgin timber by the same procedure the
station found that if a 21 -inch diameter limit were established an
average of 4,000 board feet per acre could be produced in 10 years.
The current cost of producing stumpage, returning for a cut every
10 years, would be 82 cents per 1,000 board feet. This larger stump-
age is much more valuable and the net returns, on the basis of 1929
costs and sales prices, become $5.67 per acre. From this must be
derived all profits on the entire operation. The investment in this
case is $35 per acre.

The low production costs in these three examples are the result
of moderate taxes and low costs of fire protection and administra-
tion, combined with rapid growth, in stands that have not been
seriously depleted or overcapitalized. These low costs are immedi-
ately attainable only in stands already reasonably well stocked, a
description that unfortunately fits only a rather low percentage of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 955

the southern forests. Other stands must go through a period of
rebuilding the growing stock before they will give equal results.
There are large areas in condition to yield a smaller net return during
the rebuilding process.

It is clear that in the South, now that cutting operations in old-
growth forests are approaching their end, owners of second-growth
stands are fully justified in applying conservative management
methods, particularly in observing cutting diameter limits not under
16 inches and building up the growing stock. Stumpage can be

E reduced under these methods at a cost less than the accumulated
olding charges that have now piled up against virgin timber. To
build up the growing stock requires a reasonable degree of fire
protection.

Costs of production have not been thoroughly studied in most
other regions, but from general information now available it is safe
to conclude that very few can equal the low costs shown in these
examples.

The following quotation from a file report of the Southern Forest
Experiment Station describes effective methods of managing longleaf-
slash pine stands primarily for naval stores production (23):

By far the most prevalent forest condition is that involving a group-selection
stand, that is to say, several ages and sizes of trees intermingled on every acre.
In some places large areas of second growth are found that are approximately
even aged and more or less of the same size. In the future these areas will
become more important. In general, the owner setting out to get full produc-
tion will assemble as nearly as possible approximately equal stocking of the
different age classes, and will constantly endeavor as operations proceed, by
planting, by purchases, and by management itself, to improve the normality
of his forest. His operations will involve (1) thinning his overstocked stands
of young growth, possibly in two operations, the first when the trees are about
2 inches in diameter breast high and the second after the part of the stand to
be removed has been turpentined; (2) turpentining the stand under conservative
methods as long as profitable; (3) cutting the worked-out trees and obtaining a
new stand, either naturally or by planting. The average rotation on the sites
that will be handled under full-production management will be from 45 to 60
years.

Absolute control of fire is an essential to full production. This involves
complete protection of areas being restocked, and may or may not involve the
use of fire as a protective measure in stands that are established. Fire control
will be more expensive than for other types in the South, and complete immunity
from fire damage is not to be expected.

In the following example the measures proposed and their sequence are set
out, together with the cost and returns per acre.

The basic forest data were obtained from surveys made in Bradford County,
Fla. The stand table and rate of growth are both based upon the better classes
of forest land, such as would be chosen for intensive management. The forest
portrayed is an all-aged, group-selection stand of longleaf and slash pine in
which, at the beginning, 59 percent of the stems are longleaf and 41 percent
are slash pine. The ages run from 1 year to 50 years. The diameters at breast
height range from less than 1 inch to 16 inches. The stand per acre, at the
beginning of management, is 283 stems, distributed as follows:

Number

Percent

145

51.3

Saplings 4 to 8 inches inclusive in diameter

96

33.9

Turpentined trees 10 to 14 inches inclusive, in diameter

40

14.1

2

.7

283

100.0

956 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The rate of diameter growth assumed is .31 inch per annum, which \vas the
rate found generally on the better sites throughout Bradford County. This is
conservative, as no increase is made on account of the improved growth conditions
to be expected under management.

The forest is managed on a 48-year rotation, with a turpentine cycle of 8 years.
The forest stand is thinned at the beginning of each 8-year period; the young
stuff, 3 inches and under in diameter, standing as it does in thick clumps scattered
over the area in the openings left by the removal, in previous operations, of the
larger worked-out saw-timber trees, is thinned to an average stand of 80 trees
per acre. At the beginning of management and in the eighth year this is the
only thinning necessary, but in the sixteenth year and every eighth year thereafter
the 8- and 9-inch trees, in addition, are thinned to 25 trees per acre. Before the
trees to be removed are cut, they are worked for turpentine for 8 years. At the
beginning of each 8-year cycle, the trees that have reached 9 inches diameter
breast high are worked for turpentine under a conservative long-time method by
which only one face is worked at a time. The first face is worked 7 years at the
rate of 12 inches in height per season, after a rest period of a year the second face
is started and carried for 7 years, there is another rest of one year, and the final
face is placed and worked for 7 years. Then the tree is felled for saw timber.
The opening resulting from the felling will restock naturally to slash pine seedlings.
The first thinning, when the trees are between 6 and 12 years of age, costs 50 cents
per acre, with no income; the thinning after turpentining in the 8-inch class pays
for itself through the production of one cord of pulpwood per acre. The final
cut is expressed in board feet, Doyle scale, with full deduction for cull caused by
turpentining.

Fire protection is intensive, involving lookout towers, firebreaks, and organized
personnel with equipment. It is assumed to be adequate to the extent of keeping
at least 97 percent of the area free from uncontrolled fires, except for one serious
conflagration such as may be expected in the pine belt on an average of once in
50 years. Losses due to this fire are included in the calculations of yield as run-
ning on from the middle of the rotation. Normal mortality throughout the
rotation has been taken into account, in addition. Costs and returns for a 100,000
acre unit are shown below:
Average costs per acre per year :

Protection and supervision $0. 1 4

Taxes . 20

Thinnings (every 8 years, at 50 cents) .06

Total . 40

Average returns per acre per year:

Naval stores rental from trees cut in thinning — 2 cents per cup .41

Naval stores rental from trees of place, 4 cents per cup until trees

become uniformly well spaced, then 5 cents per cup 2. 54

Saw-timber stumpage . 48

Total . 3. 43

Net annual returns per acre (average over a period of 48 years) 3. 03

The management outline given here is applicable to perhaps as much as 2 million
acres of the better forest lands in the longleaf-slash pine type in north Florida and
southeast Georgia, and elsewhere in the belt where forest conditions are similar

In bottom-land hardwoods the chief management problem, due in
considerable degree to careless management in the past, is how to
eliminate the large percentage of defective growing stock. There is
an opportunity also to improve the composition of the stand. These
measures can be put into effect only gradually, as outlets are found
for the lower-grade material.

It is believed that even this partial consideration of facts bearing
on private forestry in the South fully warrants the conclusion that
the time has arrived to apply organized management to the forests
still in condition to provide adequate yields. These facts definitely
show that without aid nature cannot continue to provide the great
volumes of forest raw material which have supported much southern
labor and provided an investment field for much capital during the
past half century.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 957

HARDWOOD FORESTS OF THE CENTRAL STATES

(Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia)

PRESENT CONDITIONS AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES

The Central States are primarily a hardwood region, although at
the higher altitudes certain conifers appear in mixture with hardwood
species. The States of the Ohio Valley in particular were originally
clothed with magnificent forests of valuable hardwoods such as oak,
black walnut, yellow poplar, and ash. As a large part of the land
that was occupied by these forests is valuable for agriculture, much
of the area was cleared by early settlers for that purpose.

At the present time it is estimated that the region has 63,477,000
acres of privately owned forest including 5,110,000 acres rated as
poor to nonrestocking, 12,078,000 acres rated as fair to satisfactory
stocking, 25,368,000 acres of cordwood areas, and only 20,921,000
acres of saw-timber areas. There are 32,158,000 acres of farm wood-
land and 31,319,000 acres in other types of private ownership. (See
table 1.)

EXTENT TO WHICH FORESTRY IS BEING PRACTICED

In the Central States there are three classes of private owners having
somewhat different interests in their forest properties, with the con-
sequence that their reasons for practicing forestry differ to a con-
siderable degree. First, there is the farm-woodland owner, whose
forest holdings are so intimately associated with farm operations
that they can not readily be segregated from farm areas. This
class of holding will be discussed later. Second, there is a large
class of owners who are not farmers but who have other reasons for
holding land than timber production. In this region mining (princi-
pally coal) is an important industry. Areas owned as mining property
within the region are estimated as follows (28) :

Acres Acres

Ohio 500,000

Indiana 450, 000

Illinois 700,000

Missouri 650, 000

Total 2,300,000

Iowa 0)

A small number of owners of mining property have realized that
their surface areas may as well be producing returns and have con-
sequently initiated improved forestry practices. An added reason
for the practice of forestry by these owners is that large quantities
of mining timbers and other forest products are required in their
own operations. Unfortunately the area on which improved forestry
practice has been put into effect as a result of these considerations is
not large.

The third class of forest owners are those holding timberland for
the major purpose of obtaining saw logs or other forest products
from the land. This category includes a number of pulp companies
and sawmill owners as well as owners of a large acreage not connected
with manufacturing enterprises. A small portion of the land owned
by this class is being placed under continuous-yield management.
Prevailingly, however, when any of this land is cut over it is cut so

i No data,

958 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

closely that no production of any importance can be obtained again
within 60 to 75 years. A large proportion of this class of forest
owners are paying very little attention to the permanent productivity
of their holdings. As a class they have failed to grasp the principle
that through a practice of light cuttings at any one time far higher-
grade logs or other products can be obtained and that the trees
remaining will lay on rapid growth and within 10 to 20 years provide
another cut of equal amount.

The following statement summarizes reports by the Central States
Forest Experiment Station as to the extent to which owners of the
second and third classes are placing forest lands under management

1. Independent or cooperative fire protection. Reports on this
phase, somewhat incomplete, show 4,671,000 acres on which private
owners participate in protective effort. State efforts add materially
to this total.

2. Conservative cutting, planting, and other practices aimed at
prolonging productivity of the forest. Reports show 1,560,000 acres
on which some of these practices, principally selective cutting, are
carried on.

3. Permanent ownership and organized sustained yield. Reports
show 92,600 acres under this type of management. Some additional
areas fall very little short of this classification.

It is apparent that only a relatively small proportion of the 31,319,-
000 acres of privately owned forest lands other than farm woodlands
is under any definite mangement looking to permanent productivity.
The reason assigned by local observers for this condition is that past
cutting operatings have reduced growing stock to such a point that
further yields will be too long deferred to interest private owners.

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF FOREST PRODUCTS

Industrial and domestic use of timber began in the Central States
at the same time when early settlers began destroying large quantites
of timber in order to clear the land for agriculture. In the course of
time an important manufacturing industry developed, devoted
especially to manufacturing lumber, furniture, and other products
from the hardwoods. In the agricultural portions of the region there
has been a large decline in the number of mills and the volume of
output. Many of the remaining mills have had to ship in raw materi-
als from the rougher portions of this region and from the bottom-land
hardwood lands of the Mississippi Valley. Mills throughout the
region continue to draw to a considerable extent, however, on local
sources of log supply, especially farm woodlands. Ninety percent of
the log supply of mills in the Corn Belt is said to come from farm
woodlands.

Table 18, based on census figures and Forest Service data, shows
the production and consumption of lumber in these States. These
statistics indicate a deficit of 6,568,987 thousand board feet in
regional lumber production as compared with use of lumber. The
greater part of the deficit is in softwoods, which do not grow in much
of the region.

Large quantities of other forest products are produced and consumed
in the region, including posts, poles, fuel wood, pulp wood, etc., but

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

959

parallel statistics of production and consumption of these products
are not easily available. This diversity of use has been pointed out
as one of the leading elements facilitating complete utilization of
saw-timber trees and the making of thinnings to improve younger
stands. In the farm-woodland areas utilization is usually complete,
owing to the diversity of wood uses on farms. More thought should
be given to balanced use of the raw materials from the forests on other
private lands.

TABLE 18. — Lumber production and consumption in the Central States in 1928

State

Lumber production l

Lumber
consump-
tion 2

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Ohio

Mft.b.m.
120
21
484

Mft.b-m.
112, 109
126, 769
29,139
13,908

Mft.b.m.
112,229
126, 790
29,623
13,908

Mft.b.m.
1, 522, 208
837,294
2, 343, 258
980,807
310, 690
762, 399
451, 826
802,133
235,381

Indiana - . . .

Illinois

Iowa3 ... _-...__

Nebraska. ..

Missouri. --______

35, 272
17,050
85, 592
110,383

106, 718
157, 290
444, 714
437, 440

141, 990
174, 340
530,306
547,823

Kentucky

Tennessee

West Virginia-

Total

248, 922

1, 428, 087

1, 677, 009

8, 245, 996

1 Data from Forest Products, 1928: lumber, lath, and shingles. Bureau of the Census, 1930.

2 Figures based on compiled data in the files of the Forest Service.

3 Includes Kansas.

GROWING STOCK CONDITIONS

No stand tables are available for any of the hardwood forests
which constitute the principal type of this region. The general
condition of the stocking has been adequately described by State
foresters and by members of the staff of the Central States Forest
Experiment Station. These observers agree that the growing stock
has seriously deteriorated in virtually all the hardwood forests.
Conditions are considered especially serious in the farm woodlands,
owing to grazing in addition to careless cutting. Farm-woodland
deterioration is said to be more serious through the Corn Belt, where
livestock is a very important factor in farm operation and where in
consequence grazing use of woodlands is widespread.

MANAGEMENT OF FARM WOODLANDS

Authorities agree that if any woodland is to be preserved on the
farm it should be segregated from the grazing areas. It is said that
in the more hilly or mountainous parts of the Central States Region,
including large portions of Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia,
increasing attention is being given to the management of farm wood-
lands as a major source of farm income.

Some excellent examples of management occur even on areas of
less rough topography. A number of instances of this sort are cited
in Farmers' Bulletin No. 1680 (29). Results obtained in certain
Ohio communities which offer about the best examples of good farm-
woodland management to be found in the region are described as

960 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

follows by Mr. Ralph K. Day, of the Central States Forest Experi-
ment Station

Probably the outstanding examples of what can be done in the way of profitable
woodland management are to be found among the Mennonite and Amish com-
munities of Ohio and Indiana. These thrifty people have for generations utilized
the otherwise slack winter months for woods work. In this manner they keep
themselves and their teams profitably employed the year round. One owner
who has kept an accurate record of all cash sales from his woodland, has per-
mitted an analysis of his timber operations since the war. During the 13 years
from 1919 to 1931, inclusive, he has received in cash a total of $10,457.73 for
the forest products cut from 75 acres of farm woodland. This represents a gross
return of $10.73 per acre per year. The entire area is classified under the Indiana
forest tax law, and the annual taxes probably do not exceed 10 cents per acre.
Since no outside labor was employed and the work was done at times when the
men and teams would otherwise have been idle, the per acre return compares
very favorably with the gross return of less than $19 per acre for all cereals
grown in Indiana in 1929. During the 13 years for which records are available
this owner has cut, sold, and delivered 266 thousand board feet of hardwood
logs at an average price of $35 per thousand board feet. In addition, he has
sold and delivered 643 cords of fuel wood at an average price of $3.10 per cord
and supplied his own 'needs for fuel wood to the extent of approximately 25 cords
per year. This does not include an unestimated amount of fence post material
and other timbers cut and used on the farm. Although over 700 board feet per
acre have been cut during the last 2 years, the farm woods appeared to be at
least 90 percent stocked at the time of examination. An analysis of the annual
returns of 10 other Indiana classified woodlands has been made by T. E. Shaw,
extension forester of Indiana. This analysis reveals net profits ranging from
$1.10 to $6.25 per acre per year and disregards the intangible values in fuel,
fence posts, and rough timbers cut and used on the farms.

Current depression conditions emphasize the fact that farmers are
generally overlooking their woodlands as a source of annual income.
The foregoing quotation also emphasizes the desirability of farmers
marketing timber in the form of logs or other material ready for
manufacture. It is a general experience that farm-woodland timber
sold on the stump brings only a small fraction of its actual value.
Even more serious is the destruction wrought by portable mills on
such tracts. The timber is invariably cut below merchantable size
and future returns thereby deferred for a generation or more.

MEASURES NECESSARY TO IMPROVE FORESTRY PRACTICES

It is obvious that private ownership will continue to be of great
importance in this region. One measure that can help in improving
forest productivity is equitable assessment and collection of taxes,
which is discussed elsewhere in this report. Another such measure is
promotion of the public attitude which favors precautions against
forest fire, trespass, and other public injuries. In addition it is
necessary, where large continuous areas of woodland are involved, to
build up definite organizations for the purpose of fire protection.
These subjects are discussed elsewhere in this report.

A third measure, which is indispensable in promoting better use of
the forest area, consists in putting into the hands of forest owners the
necessary information regarding the proper care of their properties.
This involves three steps : First, research, which is discussed elsewhere
in this report; second, the establishment of demonstration areas and
community projects; and third, extension work. By extension work
throughout the region State foresters and extension foresters have
already brought about considerable improvement in management
practices. These efforts need further support. In order to obtain

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 961

more information and to set up definite demonstrations extra activity
is justified in localities where manufacturing plants provide a balanced
demand for forest products. Effort should be directed toward still
further improvement of manufactured products through production
engineering, and toward modification of raw-material purchasing
methods to permit the best use of forest productivity. Cooperation
of manufacturers with forest owners would enable the latter to build
up growing stock and forest productivity through marketing forest
raw material of the kinds that it is most desirable to remove.

FORESTS OF THE LAKE STATES REGION

(Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota)

PRESENT CONDITIONS AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES

The Lake States were formerly a very important conifer region, of
which the most characteristic type was the northern white pine forest.
(North Dakota, which is here thrown in this group for statistical pur-
poses, has very little forest area). Early settlement did not lag far
behind that in the Central States, and the same practice of destroying
timber to clear land was in effect for some time. The use of timber in
industry was soon under way. Commercial production of forest
materials started first in the agricultural settlements in the southern
part of the region and was later extended into the forest areas to the
north. The white pine forests, as the most valuable, were the scene
of the earliest operations on a large scale. Commercial production of
northern white pine had begun to expand by the end of the Civil War,
and approached a maximum by 1882. At one time the annual
regional cut of northern white pine rose to nearly 9 billion feet.
Decline in production of white pine had set in by 1895 and has been
more or less continuous down to the present day. The northern white
pine type has now been almost entirely destroyed, and with the
exception of some spruce and Norway pine the remaining conifers are
of relatively inferior character. The coniferous forest has to a very
large extent been superseded by inferior broad-leafed species, of which
scrub oak and aspen are the most plentiful. In addition to the area
now or formerly occupied by coniferous forests there is a considerable
area of northern hardwoods (yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech)
with hemlock. These northern hardwood and hemlock forests are the
location of the principal remaining forest industry.

By the time the white pine industry had begun to decline the pulp
and paper industry had begun to attain importance in the region.
Large plants are located in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan.
These plants are able to use trees of species and sizes that as a rule
are of small value in the lumber industry. This provides conditions
for balanced production in continuously operated forest properties;
revenue from the sale of cordwood material to the pulp and paper
mills helps the landowners to meet production expenses and lowers
the cost of producing the more valuable saw-log material. Unfor-
tunately the stands have already deteriorated too far to provide the
saw-timber constituents of the cut on a current basis. It appears,
therefore, that the pulp and paper industry will have to rely largely
on forests operated, for the present at least, mostly for the production
of pulp wood. This means special capital investments in forests for

962

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

this purpose, which is a rather severe handicap in comparison with
the conditions in regions where saw timber furnishes sufficient re-
turns to support forest investments and pulpwood is more or less of a
by-product furnishing an added return. By saying portions of the
stand at each cutting for further development, it is possible to rebuild
stands to saw- timber production.

Table 1 credits the region with 49,073,000 acres of privately owned
forests, of which 14,281,000 acres is farm woodland. As to general
condition the forest land is classified as follows : Poor and nonrestock-
ing, 12,133,000 acres; fair to satisfactory restocking, 24,683,000;
cordwood, 7,833,000 acres; and saw timber, only 4,424,000 acres. It
is clear that liquidation of the forest capital has proceeded farther
than in any other major forest region. Local observers do not report
very much evidence that this process has discontinued, and it seems
probable that it will continue until the original forest area is reduced
to a minimum. The final steps in this process will leave a huge area
of very low-grade stands. Table 19 shows in some detail the present
situation in forests other than farm woodlands.

TABLE 19. — Commercial forest in private ownership in the Lake States in 1982 l

State

Areas 2
(thou-
sand
acres)

Ratio to
total
commer-
cial for-
est area
(percent)

Condition classes

Merchantable

Nonmerchantable

Saw timber

Cordwood

Restock-
ing

Not re-
stocking

Thou-
sand
acres

Million
board
feet

Thou-
sand
acres

Thou-
sand
cords

Thou-
sand
acres

Thou-
sand
acres

Michigan

12, 947
12, 178
9,617

68
60
59

1,209
487
932

12,928
3,096
6,343

1,363
548
1,267

61, 179
17,354
38, 010

8,329
8,895
6,170

2.046
2,248
1,248

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Total

34, 742

63

2,628

22, 367

3,178

116, 543

23, 394

5,542

1 Data from Forest Statistics for the Lake States, 1931, compiled by the Lake States Forest Experiment
Station. Revised Mar. 30, 1932.

2 Exclusive of farm woodlands.

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF FOREST MATERIALS, AND STATUS
OF LUMBER AND PAPER INDUSTRIES

Lumber production in the Lake States region is now relatively
unimportant as compared with the great production of former years.
The deficit in lumber production as compared with consumption in
1928 was 1,808,871,000 board feet. Table 20, based on census data,
shows the production and consumption of lumber in these States in
1928, the latest year for which both production and consumption
figures are available.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 963

TABLE 20. — Lumber production and consumption in the Lake States in 1928

State

Lumber production l

Lumber con-
sumption J

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Michigan

Mfeet board
measure
141, 787
352, 548
359, 618

Mfeet board
measure
430, 272
466, 302
52, 725

Mfeet board
measure
572, 059
818, 850
412,343

Mfeet board
measure
1, 714, 462
1, 030, 501
725, 825
141,335

Wisconsin

Minnesota

North Dakota

Total

853, 953

949,299

1,803,252

3, 612, 123

1 Data from Forest Products, 1928: Lumber, Lath and Shingles. Bureau of the Census, 1930.

2 Figures based on compiled data in the files of the Forest Service.

Table 21 (30) shows the statistical position of the lumber and paper
industries in the region in 1929. The value of the paper-industry
products was rated as more than twice that of the products of the
lumber industry.

TABLE 21. — Statistical position of lumber, pulpwood, and paper industries, Lake

States, 1929 l

State

Lumber industries

Number of
establish-
ments

Salaried
men and
average
number of
wage
earners

Salaries
and wages

Value of
products

Quantity of
lumber
produced

Michigan

294
191

346

17, 554
8,066
24, 514

Thousands
of dollars
23,701
10, 174
28,604

Thousands
of dollars
68,885
30.839
82, 369

M board feet
571, 017
357, 180
842, 814

Wisconsin

Total

831

50, 134

62, 479

182, 093

1,771,011

State

Pulp and papex industries

Number of
establish-
ments

Salaried
men and
average
number of
wage
earners

Salaries
and wages

Value of
products

Quantity o*
pulpwood
produced

53
13
79

13, 572
2,811
14, 513

Thousands
of dollars
21,717
4,146
20, 765

Thousands
of dollars
106,004
28,317
129, 459

Cords
313, 477
266,320
1, 233, 962

Wisconsin - -

Total

145

30,896

46,628

263,780

1, 813, 759

Census of Manufactures, 1929, Industry Series.

EXTENT TO WHICH PRIVATE FORESTRY IS BEING PRACTICED

In the Lake States, as in the Central States, three classes of owners
are to be considered. The first class, the farm-woodland owners,
have problems very similar to those in the Central

964 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

second class, those who are not farmers but nevertheless have other
reasons for holding forest land than the production of timber, are
probably less numerous than in the Central States since the mineral
area is less in this region. This class is augmented to some extent
by those holding land for recreational purposes.

The third class, those holding timberland primarily for the pur-
pose of producing forest products, hold nearly all the commercial
forest lands in the region other than farm woodlands. This class
is generally characterized by uniting manufacturing enterprises
with timber holding. The union of these two types of enterprises
seems to encourage hasty liquidation of the forests rather than to
retard it. The large capital investment in the manufacturing
enterprise generally results in a desire to operate continuously to
keep the capital from being idle. Where these two distinct forms of
capital investment are kept separate, there is not nearly so much
pressure toward operating. The mill owner, not having so many
taxes and other fixed overhead charges to meet, is in a position to
restrict his operations to periods when some profit can be obtained;
and the forest owner soon learns by experience that it is good busi-
ness to dispose of sufficient timber in times of active demand to
create financial reserves sufficient to carry him through periods
of low demand. The forest owner of necessity takes constant
note of the movement of stumpage prices. This is greatest during
periods of change from depression to prosperity; at those periods,
therefore, accumulation of profit from holding stumpage is most
rapid. Obviously, disposal of stumpage or saw logs at the low point
of depression periods represents a large loss to be guarded against
where possible by preparing in advance for these contingencies.

The following summary of reports by the Lake States Forest
Experiment Station indicates the extent to which forest owners
other than farmers are placing forest land under management.

1. Fire protection, independent or in cooperation with States.
State-wide fire protection is furnished by public agencies in all
these States. Lumber companies provide special fire protection
for their logging operations and cooperate with the States in protect-
ing their lands. The region has one forest-protective association.
This association, in northern Minnesota, with State cooperation
maintains organized protection on 125,000 acres of timberland.

2. Conservative cutting and other practices aimed at prolonging
productivity of the present stand. It is estimated that all but 4
of the 34 remaining large mills will be cut out in the next 12 to 15
years. This means that a sustained-yield policy was not considered
early enough. Selective logging, planting, and similar measures
are practiced to some extent. The exact acreage is not reported,
but 100,000 acres is mentioned as having been purchased by com-
panies to build up production of pulp wood. One company is pro-
viding sufficient acreage to yield a second cut. Plantations totaling
28,000 acres had been established by 1930. No definite plans for
sustained yield are reported.

From this summary it is clear that of the huge area of privately
owned forest land very little is under any management looking to
continued productivity.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 965

GROWING-STOCK CONDITIONS

No detailed stand tables are at hand for any of the stands in
this region. The general condition of the growing stock can be
inferred from what has already been stated in describing the history
of cutting operations. The areas formerly occupied by coniferous
forests now have very poor stands of aspen and other inferior species.
The growing stock in the remaining northern hardwood forests
possesses considerable similarity to the growing stock in hardwood
forests in the Middle Atlantic and New England States (see fig.
18), except that in the latter regions more or less cutting has been
going on in most stands. In the Lake States the hardwood forests
are in general being cut over for the first time, except that on some
areas white pine intermingled with other species was removed long
ago. Most observers agree that for this reason larger tree sizes
are to be found and the product is perhaps somewhat higher in
quality than that taken from the forests of the same species in the
northeastern region.

FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR PRIVATE FORESTRY

Mr. Raphael Zon, who has given a great deal of thought to present
and future forest conditions in the Lake States, predicts (30) that
about 6 million acres in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota will
eventually be put under rather intensive private forestry manage-
ment. Mr. Zon estimates that only 14,200,000 acres of additional
forest will be placed under intensive management in Federal, State,
and county ownership within the near future. This will leave
39,600,000 acres in all classes of ownership under nonin tensive
management. According to this estimate, prospects for the re-
establishment of large forest production in the region in the im-
mediate future are not particularly good. It appears that the region,
having a large resident population and being close to other great
centers of population, will for some time constitute a large market
for the forest products of other regions.

Most of the forest area in this region represents, from the forest-
productive standpoint, an example of conditions discussed earlier in
this section, wherein practically all the capital required for forest
production has been removed. On huge areas not more than 1 to 5
percent of the necessary capital (inclusive of the value of the land)
is present. To restore production on these areas will require not only
heavy money investments but a considerable period of time. The
region is confronted with a forest-reclamation project of great mag-
nitude.

The forests of aspen and other inferior species are an example of
impoverished resources such as Americans have not yet had to deal
with on many areas. Where a resource has been brought into such
a condition but a population remains to live from it, both labor and
capital must operate on a reduced scale of income if at all until the
resource is restored. On the other hand, owing to the near exhaustion
of the forests in the Lake States, local forest industries are relieved of
competition to the approximate extent of freight rates from the
Pacific Northwest or to the South. It is essential both to the eco-
nomic and to the social well-being of the region that large forest areas

966 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

within easy reach of transportation facilities of the Great Lakes or
of centers of population be restored to productivity. This job will
require public assistance through many if not all of the channels dis-
cussed elsewhere in this report. No single method will solve the
problems involved.

FORESTS OF THE NEW ENGLAND AND MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES

(Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland)

PRESENT CONDITIONS AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES

The New England and Middle Atlantic States include most of the
centers of early settlement by British and Dutch colonists in North
America. Since virtually all the land surface was covered with
forests, it was necessary to destroy considerable forest growth in
order to clear agricultural land. As in the case of other eastern
forest regions, industrial use of the forest began at the tune of settle-
ment by whites and has continued down to the present day. Partly
because of the mixed character of the stands, which included species
of high, medium, and low value, the forest in much of these regions
has never been devastated to the degree that has occu red in regions
having forests of a few high-value species. The fact that the pre-
cipitation is well distributed is another large factor in preserving the
forest growth. Owing to the early development of the industry, the
devastation that did occur in such types as the white pine and hem-
lock culminated in the latter part of the nineteenth century. On
the whole, the value of the forest stands shows considerable recovery
from its extreme low point. The types in which cutting has been in
progress for centuries, and the types that were clean cut and now have
young stands reestablished, are to a considerable extent still in a
deteriorated condition from the standpoint of the character of the
growing stock present. This condition, together with the steps
necessary to correct it, will be discussed later.

According to the best available estimates (table 1) these regions
have 50,909,000 acres of privately owned forests, including 15,863,000
acres of farm woodlands. Of this total, 5,286,000 acres is rated as
poor to nonrestocking, 10,923,000 acres as fair to satisfactory re-
stocking, 14,239,000 acres as bearing cordwood stands, and 20,461,000
acres as bearing saw-timber stands. In addition to these areas now
in forest, there are large areas of abandoned nonf ores ted farm lands
available for afforestation.

More detailed information is available for Pennsylvania than for
the other States of these regions. Here large areas were cut over on
a nonselective basis. This occurred principally in two types — the
northern white pine-hemlock, which yielded sufficient values to
encourage clear cutting, and the hardwood types, clear cut because
of the demand for mine timbers and distillation wood, both of which
can be obtained from small-sized trees. These clear-cutting opera-
tions, followed by repeated fires for many years, have resulted in
considerable devastation. With the establishment of State fire pro-
tection in recent years the devastated area has diminished materially.
The Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters within the last
few years made a rather careful survey of the condition of the forest

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 967

areas of that State, which revealed 11,489,225 acres of large forest
areas and 1,716,775 acres of areas not exceeding 50 acres completely
or partially surrounded by cleared land. These small areas may be
considered as composed entirely of farm woodlands. Considerable
woodland owned by farmers is included within the large forest areas,
also. The total forest area was classified as follows:

1. Lands burned until practically no forest growing stock remains
(now occupied by bracken, huckleberries, briars, fire weeds, etc.),
300,668 acres.

2. Brush lands (now occupied by scrub oak, fire cherry, and aspen,
occasionally with low sprouts of valuable tree species), 1,565,508
acres.

3. Young forest growth (valuable growth, up to a diameter of 6
inches, taking the lead over brush), 7,594,418 acres.

4. Merchantable timber (stands in which more than 50 percent
of the trees are 6 inches or over in diameter), 3,745,407 acres.

Comparison of these data with reports of 15 to 20 years ago (31)
seems to show that conditions have materially improved in recent
years. It is reasonable to attribute this improvement to the sub-
stantial realization of objectives set up by foresters and public
officials about 30 years ago, which, with support from the public,
began to be realized during the last 20 years. These objectives
centered largely around fire protection.

EXTENT TO WHICH PRIVATE FORESTRY IS BEING PRACTICED

These regions, also, have three classes of private forest owners.
Ownership of forest land incidental to the holding of other resources is
widespread; recreational use of land and control of water resources
are more or less joined with forest ownership, and in Pennsylvania it
is reported that 6,600,000 acres of forest land is owned in connection
with mineral resources. To a considerable degree ownership of
commercial timberlands is tied up with manufacturing enterprises,
especially pulp and paper mills.

Many privately owned areas have been yielding forest crops at
short intervals from the time of the earliest settlement. Until
within the last quarter century this continuous yield, generally
speaking, took place without much intent on the part of the forest
owner. Originally it came about through the practice of first cutting
from the forest only the high-grade species such as northern white
pine. After a few years cutting would be undertaken on the same
area for some other species that had become valuable. The openings
made in the forest by this type of cutting became restocked with
young trees. Some of the species, such as the northern hardwoods,
spruce, and hemlock, were uneven aged to begin with. The natural
form of the forest together with the system of partial cuttings resulted,
over large areas, in forests of a rough selection form. Unfortunately,
because of lack of effort to remove inferior trees and a general practice
of taking the best species and best-formed trees the productive
capacity is far below what it would be under a well-planned applica-
tion of the selection system, which systematically eliminates poor
and ineffective growing stock and builds up effective growing stock.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 62

968 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Owing to the prevalence of public fire-protection activities, con-
siderable growth is being produced on a great deal of forest land
which without such public fire protection would continue in a very low
state of productivity. Reports (32) as to areas being managed under
one or another of three grades of forestry practice are summarized
as follows:

1. Fire protection by States, independently or with the cooperation
of landowners. On the basis of long experience in attempting to
control forest fires, landowners in these regions have generally come
to rely almost entirely upon public fire protection, to which the
Federal Government contributes as provided by the Clarke-McNary
law. Practically the entire forest area is protected. The basis of
fire protection in these States is fully covered elsewhere in this
report. Private owners assist in fire prevention and fire suppression
with their own forces. In the Maine forest district a millage tax is
levied for fire-protective purposes.

2. Conservative cutting, planting, thinnings (including insect-
control thinnings), etc., aimed at prolonging the productivity of the
present stands but not definitely organized for sustained yield.
Forest areas to the extent of 5,497,300 acres, including farm wood-
lands, are reported to be held by owners consciously making efforts
to prolong or build up the productivity of their holdings. There is no
doubt that relative safety from fire, due to nearly adequate public
fire protection, has made it possible for private owners to improve
their forest practices and to feel financially secure in so doing. In
addition to the area consciously subjected to improved management
practices 3,583,000 acres of land is reported to be handled under
partial-cutting systems.

3. Sustained-yield management. Reports (32) show 648,592 acres,
not including farm woodlands, now organized under definite sustained-
yield programs. As a whole, therefore, the progress in these regions is
encouraging. Vast areas remain, however, to be brought under
organized sustained-yield management.

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF FOREST PRODUCTS

Since these regions contain the largest centers of population in the
United States, they are very heavy consumers of forest products.
Throughout a long period of their history they produced sufficient
forest products for their own needs, with the exception of a few kinds
of material not producible in the region. For more than half a
century, however, they have been importing increasing quantities of
forest products of all kinds, chiefly from other portions of the United
States and from Canada. The shortage in local production has
created a favorable market situation for most of the local forest raw
material. The wood-manufacturing industries have in many cases
suffered severely, however, from the inadequacy of supplies of suitable
material. Over a long period of time the raw material of better species
and grades has been approaching depletion. Consequently local
industries have had either to make use of poorer raw material or
import from a distance. The measures necessary to correct this
situation are discussed later. Table 22 shows the production and
consumption of lumber in each of these States and in the regions as a
whole in 1928.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

969

TABLE 22. — Lumber production and consumption in the New England and Middle

Atlantic States in 1928

State

Lumber production 1

Lumber
consump-
tion*

Softwood

Hardwood

Total

Maine

Mft.b.m.
240, 569
211, 190
53,527
78,585
9,878
1,815
32, 166
84,185
102
10, 926

Mft.b.m.
25, 954
28,071
53,831
33, 714
25, 478
2,807
97, 940
154, 430
3,118
2,235

Mft.b.m.
266, 523
239, 261
107, 358
112,299
35, 356
4,622
130, 106
238,615
3,220
13, 161

Mft.b.m.
262, 259
225,873
116,725
908,057
300,083
160,299
3,088,022
1, 760, 030
834,643
48, 137
47, 471
511,946

New Hampshire

Vermont ..

M assachusetts

Connecticut

Rhode Island. ..

New York

Pennsylvania

New Jersey.. . .._.. . .. - .

Delaware

District of Columbia . - .- . _. . .

Maryland.. . .. -- .-. .-

29,533

30, 196

59,729

Total

752, 476

457, 774

1, 210, 250

8, 263, 545

1 Data from Forest Products, 1928: Lumber, Lath, and Shingles. Bureau of the Census, 1930.

2 Figures based on compiled data in the files of the Forest Service.

The deficit of lumber production shown is 7,053,295,000 board feet.
In these regions the consumption of virtually every kind of forest
product is very heavy. Pulp and paper are probably next in impor-
tance to lumber. For most forest products that can be produced
in the regions, a market is available at no great distance.

GROWING-STOCK CONDITIONS

Stand tables are available for stands of five of the types which occur
in these regions. It is not known over how much area these tables
actually apply. Stand conditions are shown for four different locali-
ties as discussed in the following.

NORTHERN HARDWOODS IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS AND IN THE ALLEGHENY

MOUNTAINS (32)

These stands are made up of similar species, with sugar maple,
yellow birch, and beech as the most common. Growth rates are
available only for the White Mountain stand. It is probable that the
growth rates in the Allegheny Mountains differ to some extent owing
to climatic factors. Stands of this type are common in the northern
parts &nd at the higher altitudes farther south throughout the regions.
Figure 18 shows the distribution of cubic volume in each stand and
table 23 shows the details of conditions in the White Mountain stand.
The stands are in need of management to remove inferior species and
trees and build up a growing stock with a reasonable representation of
larger diameter classes. The principal difficulty in the way of tliis
procedure is the lack of market for the kind of materials such a cutting
practice would yield. In many localities where a market for fuel or
other small-size products exists, however, it is possible to carry out
operations of this kind.

970

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

VOLU

can
800

600
400
ZOO
0
600
400
ZOO
0

ME

A

VOLUME
CU.FT.

3,000
E.OOO
1,000
0

2.000

TIMBER T MBER TIMBER

i

\

3 •'<!

i

If 111®- ^ — — -

|

.!!•:•

11

KK&&&

6 8 10 H 14 16 18 30 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 SZ 54 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

B

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

TIMBER T M^BER TIMBER

| inj :

MBH

$$IJfHrP Pxl 5 E3 Ba\.

•'/

:'•
g

1

1

I iH

0

lillli llisJfcfcB

6 8 10 12 14 16 16 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

B888883 EXISTING GROWING STOCK

SUGGESTED LIMITS OF PERMANENT GROWING S

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS
TOCK

FIGTJRK 18.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, northern hardwood second-
growth stands, with some timber left from previous stands. A, Stand in White Mountains. Thinnings
from inferior species among the small timber would remove surplus from that group and hasten growth
of released trees into larger groups; B, represents average of considerable areas in Pennsylvania. Distri-
bution of size classes is better, but larger classes need building up.

TABLE 23. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in all-aged northern hardwood
stand in northern White Mountains, New Hampshire

Tree diameters at
breast height

Trees per average acre

Time required to
grow to next di-
ameter class

Red
spruce
and
hemlock

Beech

Sugar
maple

Yellow
birch

Other
hard-
woods

Total
stand

Conifers

Hard-
woods

Young stock:
2 inches

Number
37.50
12.50

Number
90.75
62.50

Number
22.50
13.75

Number
10.75
8.75

Number
9.75
13.00

Number
171. 25
110.50

Years
71
62

Years
59
38

4 inches

Total

50.00

153. 25

36.25

19.50

22.75

281.75

Small timber:
6 inches ...

1.50

23.25
17.75
15.50
1.25

10.00
7.00
5.50
2.50

10.50
9.25
4.75
1.50

8.75
6.25
8.50
1.25

54.00
40.25
34.75
7.00

62
59
55
53

28
22
20
20

8 inches

10 inches

50
50

12 inches

Total

2.50

57.75

25.00

26.00

24.75

136.00

Medium timber:
14 inches

.25
.25

1.50
.25
.25

.75
.50

.25
.25

2.75
1.75
25

50

48

21
22
25
29

16 inches

.50

20 inches

Total

.50

2.00

1.25

.50

.50

4.75

Large timber:

.25
.25

.25
.25

36
50

Total

.50

.50

Total for aver-
age acre

53.00

213.00

62.50

46.00

48.50

423.00

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

971

TABLE 23 — Number of trees, volume, and growth in all-aged northern hardwood
stand in northern White Mountains, New Hampshire — Continued

Tree diameters at breast
height

Cubic volume

Saw-timber volume

Red
spruce
and
hem-
lock

Beech

Sugar
maple

Yellow
birch

Other
hard-
woods

Total

Red
spruce
and
hem-
lock

Beech

Sugar
maple

Young stock:
2inches

Cubic
feet
3.75
7.50

Cubic
feet
27.22
112. 50

Cubic
feet
2.25
6.88

Cubic
feet
2.15
5.25

Cubic
feet
2.34
20.80

Cubic
feet
37.71
152. 93

Board
feet

Board
feet

Board
feet

4 inches .
Total

Small timber:
6 inches _ . _ _ .

5.25

120.90
193. 48
288.30
34.75

"-• —

19.00
56.00
82.50
57.75

22.05
76.78
70.30
33.45

-

37.62
53.75
124. 95
27.25

190.64

204.82
380. 01
572. 75
162. 85

8 inches . .

302
775
110

168
270
192

10 inches

6.70
9.65

25
35

12 inches

Total

Medium timber:
14 inches

21.60

637. 43

215. 25

202.58

243. 57

1,320.43

99.16
76.37
18.58

60

1, 187

195
46
62

630

6.50
9.70

61.20
14.22

18.58

24.08
21.30

7.38
9.75

25
40

87
78

16 inches _..

21.40

18 inches

Total

Large timber:
22 inches

16.20

94.00

45.38

21.40

17.13

194. 11

65

303

165

17.90
21.08

17.90
21.08

24 inches

Total

38.98

38.98

Total for average acre-

49.05

871. 15

269. 76

231. 38

322. 82

1,744.16

125

1,490

795

Tree diameters at breast
height

Saw-timber volume —
Continued

Average annual growth of saw timber l

Yellow
birch

Other
hard-
woods

Total

Red

spruce
and
hem-
lock

Beech

Sugar
maple

Yellow
birch

Other
hard-
woods

Total

Small timber:
8 inches. _.

Board
feet
194
247
123

Board
feet
150
408
89

Board
feet
814
1,725
549

Board
feet

Board
feet
26.6
29.4
2.6

Board
feet
8.0

7.7
4.9

Board
feet
13.0
7.1
2.5

Board
feet
6.8
9.8
1.9

Board
feet
54.4
54.2
12.2

10 inches

0.2
0.3

12 inches

Total

564

647

3,088

0.5

58.6

20.6

- -- • ^-~

1.4
1.0

22.6

18.5

-T"~

0.4
0.4

120.8

1 — —

6.0
3.4
0.8

Medium timber:
14 inches

26
34

333

280
62

0.3
0.3

3.9
0.7
0.8

16 inches . .

82

1.0

ISinches

Total

82

60

— -

64
75

675

64
75

0.6

5.4

2.4

1.0

0.8

10.2

Large timber:
22 inches ._

0.3
0.2

0.3
0.2

24 inches

Total

139

-
846

139

0.5

0.5

Total for average acre..

646

3,902

- " ~

1.1

64.0

23.0

23.6

19.8

131.5

1 No information available on tree mortality and no deduction has been made for this factor. Net growth
may not exceed 75 percent of the total growth shown. Growth on smaller trees cannot be computed in
board feet.

SPRUCE FLAT TYPE

This is representative of spruce stands which occur on rather
limited areas in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern
New York. For the past quarter century or more there has been a
very active demand for spruce pulp wood throughout the spruce
region. The tendency, therefore, has been to keep the spruce cut out

972

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

of the forest, to rather low diameter classes. There is some question
at the present time as to whether a cutting procedure that will build
up stock of higher diameter classes may not be desirable on account
of the slackening in the demand for pulp sizes and on account of the

VOLUME v
CU.FT.

3LUME
CU.FT
7,000

6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2;000
1,000
0

1600
1400
1200

B22S3 EXISTING GROWING STOCK - RED SPRUCE

B^S^a EXISTING GROWING STOCK - HARDWOODS

GROWING STOCK
SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

TIMBER TIMBER TIMBER

600
400
200

53

Ira

u

§1*1

II \

LX:

11!

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 4Z 44 46 43 50 5Z 54 56 58 60
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGUKE 19.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, red spruce flat, White
Mountains. Although most of the timber falls in the small timber group, it is probably not feasible to
build up the larger diameter classes materially excepting the white pine and some of the associated
hardwoods.

possibility of getting a better price for at least a portion of the ma-
terial. Figure 19 and table 24 show details of growing-stock condi-
tions in an example of this type.

TABLE 24. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in red spruce flat type in White

Mountains, N.H.

Tree diameters at breast
height

Trees per average acre

Number years
required to grow
to next diame-
ter class

Cubic volume

Red

spruce

Hard-
woods

Total
stand

Red

spruce

Hard-
woods

Red

spruce

Hard-
woods

Total

Young stock:
2 inches

Number
141. 26
145.37

Number
111.18
105. 49

Number
252. 44
250.86

Years
71

62

Years
59
38

Cubicfeet
14.13
87.22

Cubicfeet
22.23
63.29

Cubicfeet
36.36
150.51

4 inches

Total

286. 63

216. 67

503.30

101. 35

85.52

186. 87

Small timber:
6 inches

82.23
27.43
6.97
1.54

73.65

48.38
22.26

5.28

155.88
75.81
29.23
6.82

62
59
55
53

28
22
20
20

287.80
192. 01
93.40
29.72

154.66
401. 55
329. 45
117. 74

442. 46
593. 56
422. 85
147. 46

8 inches

10 inches

12 inches

Total

118. 17

149. 57

267. 74

602. 93

1,003.40

1, 606. 33

Medium timber:
14 inches

.11
.17
.06

.63
.17

.74
.34
.06

50
48
45
43

21
22

2.86
6.60
29

20.16
72.76

23.02
79.36
.29

16 inches

18 inches .

20 inches

Total

.34

.80

1. 14

9.75

92.92

102. 67

Total for average
acre

405. 14

367.04

772. 18

714. 03

1, 181. 84

1, 895. 87

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

973

TABLE 24. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in red spruce flat type in White
Mountains, N.H. — Continued

Tree diameters at breast height

Saw-timber volume

A verage annual growth of saw
timber '

Red

spruce

Hard-
woods

Total

Red
spruce

Hard-
woods

Total

Small timber:
8 inches..

Board feet
549
348
108

Board feet
1,016
1,158
433

Board feet
1,565
1,506
541

Board feet
13.9
2.5
.9

Board feet
68.2
33.4
8.7

Board feet
82.1
35.9
9.6

10 inches

12inches-- _

Total

1,005

2,607

3,612

17.3

110.3

127.6

Medium timber:
14 inches..

11
27
13

72
28

83
55
13

.1
.2
.1

1.5
.4

1.6
.6

16 inches

18 inches

Total

51

100

151

.4

1.9

2.3

Total for average acre. . .

1,056

2,707

0,763

17.7

112.2

129.9

1 No deduction has been made for tree mortality, losses from wood-rotting fungi, etc. Net growth may
not exceed 75 percent of the total growth shown. Growth on smaller trees not computed in board feet.

OAK-HARDWOOD TYPES IN CONNECTICUT

The two stands represented in figures 20 and 21 have been under
good management for over 25 years. Two or three cuttings have

MINIMUM LIMITS TO WHICH GROWING STOCK
SHOULD BE BUILT UP

1,000

0 I K-3 Cvt K-i M C-a l-M Bfl E3 »ra ,. TTTf , . . ' nwrffti lOJoooooa —....., I Q

6 8 10 IE 14 16 18 EO 22 24 36 Z8 30 32 34 36 38 40 43 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 .SM.NLL MEDIUM LARGE,
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES) TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 20.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, southern New England

hardwoods, light stand.

been made during that period and have considerably improved the
stands. There still appears to be a need of building up the growing
stock, especially in the higher-diameter classes. Small trees that are
not producing current growth of as high value as larger trees would
produce tend to occupy too great a part of the area.

974

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

VOLL
CU.F

1,200
1,000
800
600

MC

T

VOL
C

UME
U.FT.
5000

3000
2POO
1,000
0

- SMALL
TIMBER

Eggggg EXISTING GROWING STOCK

— — MINIMUM LIMITS TO WHICH GROWING
STOCK SHOULD BE BUILT UP

MEDIUM LARGE
TIMBER TIMBER

-

-

-

400
200
0

;•: jj

\.\

R3

1

a

P\[

* -

1

ltajJ^^===

! wm .

6 6 0 12 1

<• 16 18 20 ^^ 34 26 a8 30 32 34 36 38 40 -»2 44- 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

T MBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 21.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, southern New England

hardwoods, heavy stand.

TABLE 25. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in well stocked many-aged stand
oak with other hardwoods on Mont Alto State Forest, Pa.

Tree diameters at breast
height

Trees per average acre

Time re-
quired to
grow to
next
diameter
class —
oak,
tupelo,
white ash
and other
hard-
woods

Cubic volume

Oak

Tupelo
and
white
ash

Other
hard-
woods

Total
stand

Oak

Tupelo
and
white
ash

Young stock:
1 inch

Number

Number
2
8

Number
118
132
36
20

Number
120
144
36
22

Years

Cubic feet

Cubic feet
0.4
2.0

2 inches

4

17
10
10

1.7

3 inches -

4 inches . .

2

3.4

Total

6

10

306

322

5.1

2.4

Small timber:
5 inches

2
2

14
8
6
6
4
2

16
10
6
12
10
4
4
10

14
14
6
18
12
20
17
16

4.8
6.6

6 inches

7 inches .. ........

8 inches

4
2
2
4
4

2
4

34.6
28.4
37.2
78.8
98.6

16.2
26.0

9 inches - .'.. - -

10 inches

11 inches

12 inches

2

4

47.4

Total

20

8

44

72

289.0

89.6

Medium timber:
13 inches

2
2
2
2
2

6
2
2
4
2

8
4
4
10
8
2
6
2

9
11
5

7
9
6
6
18

40.4
62.0
68.0
84.0
96.8

14 inches

15 inches

16 inches . ........

4

4
2
6
2

183.6
207.0
119.8
404.2
145.0

17 inches

18 inches

19 inches

20 inches

Total

18

10

16

44

1, 059. 6

351.2

Large timber:
21 inches

8
2
2
2

8
4
2
2
2
2

7
6
10
7
6
5

699.4
211.0
217.4
217.4

24 inches

2

194.2

25 inches

26 inches ___ .

27 inches

2

219.4

28 inches

2

222.6

Total

16

4

20

1, 567. 8

413.6

Total for average acre

60

32

366

458

2,921.5

856.8

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

975

TABLE 25. — Number of trees, volume, and growth in well stocked many-aged stand
oak with other hardwoods on Mont Alto State Forest, Pa. — Continued

Tree diameters at breast
height

Cubic volume —
Continued

Saw -timber volume

Average
annual
growth
of saw
timber-
oak,
tupelo,
white
ash and
other
hard-
woods

Other
hard-
woods

Total

Oak

Tupelo
and

white
ash

Other
hard-
woods

Total

Young stock :
1 inch

Cubic feet
9.6
30.0
27.0
28.0

Cubic feet
10.0
33.7
27.0
31.4

Board feet

Board feet

Boardfeet

Boardfeet

Board feet

2 inches

3 inches ._.. -

4inches

Total

94.6

102.1

Small timber:
5 inches

33.0

32.8
30.6
61.6
49.8
31.0

37.8
39.4
30.6
112.4
104.2
68.2
78.8
239.0

6 inches ... . . ..

7 inches

8 inches

84
76
110
268
352

40
130

140
170
110

264
376
220
268
932

2.9
4.2
2.4
3.0
10.4

9 inches _ ..- . .. .

10 inches

11 inches-..

12 inches

93.0

200

380

Total

Medium timber:
13 inches

331.8

710.4

890

370

800

2,060

22.9

150.0
70.8
70.0
173.2
83.8

190.4
132.8
138.0
440.8
387.6
119.8
404.2
145.0

190
270
350
400
460

640
330
290
780
330

830
600
640
2,060
1,910
620
2,360
870

9.2
6.7
7.1
22.9
21.2
6.9
26.2
9.7

14 inches -

15 inches

16 inches

880
1,120
620
2,360
870

17 inches

18 inches

19 inches

20 inches

Total

547.8

1,958.6

5,850

1,670

2,370

9,890

109.9

Large timber
21 inches . -

699.4
405.2
217.4
217.4
219.4

4,780
1,260
1,500
1,490

4,780
2,360
1,500
1,490
1,560
1,600

53.1
26.2
16.7
16.5
17.3
17.7

24 inches

1,100

25 inches

26 inches - .- ._ _.

27 inches

1,560

28 inches

222.6

1,600

Total

1,981.4

10, 630

2,660

13,290

147.5

Total for average acre

974.2

4, 752. 5

17, 370

4,700

3,170

25,240

280.3

OAK-CHESTNUT TYPE ON THE MONT ALTO STATE FOREST, PA. (33)

In the stand represented by figure 22 and table 25 chestnut has
been killed out by the chestnut blight and' has been almost completely
replaced by other hardwood species. The stand has had excellent
care for a quarter century or more, with cuttings which removed
inferior trees and species. In this way its growing stock has been
built up far beyond what will ordinarily be found within privately
owned forests. During this building-up process large volumes of
timber have been harvested and efficient fire protection has been
provided at all times. Only through such procedure can private
owners obtain profitable returns from their holdings. The growing
stock limits suggested are averages applying to an entire compart-
ment where cuttings are made periodically.

WHITE PINE-HEMLOCK TYPE IN PENNSYLVANIA (Si)

The stand represented by figure 23 and table 26 is an example of
a very small remnant of forests which formerly occupied large areas

976

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

in Pennsylvania. Not enough of such forests is left to be of any
immediate importance from the standpoint of management. The

EXISTING GROWING STOCK-OAK

EXISTING GROWING STOCK— OTHER HARDWOODS

PROBABLE AVERAGE GROWING STOCK, I F WORKED
ON SELECTION BASIS OVER CONSIDERABLE AREAS

SMALL MEDIUM
TIMBER TIMBER

6 8 10 IZ 14 16 18 20 2Z 24 a& 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 K 54 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES) v v- '

TIMBER GROUP TOTALS

FIGURE 22.— Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, well-stocked oak-hardwood
forest, from H-acre plot, Mont Alto State Forest, Pa. Very few stands in the region outside the State
forest have such excellent stocking.

stand is of interest, however, as showing that the virgin forests of the
region formerly contained a very heavy growing stock. Good man-

VOLUME
CU.FT.

3,000
1,800
1.600

EXISTING GROWING STOCK -WHITE PINE
EXISTING GROWING STOCK - HARDWOODS
EXISTING GROWING STOCK - EASTERN HEMLOCK

SMALL
TIMBER

6 8 10 \Z 14 16 18 ZO Zi Z4 Z6 28 30 33 34 36 38 40 UZ 44 46 48 50 5Z 54 56 58 60 SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
DIAMETER BREAST HIGH (INCHES)' V.MBER GROUP TOTALs'

FIGURE 23. — Distribution of cubic volume by diameter classes on average acre, virgin white pine,

Pennsylvania.

agement necessitates building up stands toward that condition, but.
of course, not to the full degree shown by the virgin forests,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

977

US

mil

>g

IS

8SS

00 CO M

cs r- »o

CO ^H <M to

t-:

OOCXNO^COOOO

•^ 00 td td CO CO Ci ' r-i

•^r^cOCO<N -r-!

in i 111!! i !

f '

I iiiiiiiiiillii i i

978 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

FURTHER MEASURES NECESSARY TO IMPROVE FORESTRY PRACTICE

While it is probable that considerable additional forest areas will be
taken into public ownership in these regions, all observers agree that
great areas of forest land will remain in private ownership. The
relation of forest taxation to the problems of private forestry is
handled elsewhere in this report. Public fire protection is generally
effective and only needs strengthening in certain localities. These
foundations for private forestry having been laid, the time has
arrived when it is possible to press forward to other necessary mea-
sures of improvement.

Of the remaining measures needed to improve the quality and
increase the volume of forest production throughout the two regions,
the most important is to revise cutting methods, with greater attention
to saving the right kind of growing stock. This would mean as com-
plete displacement of defective and inferior growing stock as could
gradually be brought about. The demand for fuelwood should be met
y this material together with otherwise unmerchantable parts of
saw-timber trees. There is also need of the development of manu-
facturing practices through which inferior trees that should be thinned
from the stands could be utilized for many of the products commonly
used locally. It has already been mentioned that the older manu-
facturing plants are more or less handicapped owing for one thing to
lack of local supplies of raw material of the quality they were designed
to use. There is good reason to believe that methods can be
developed which will obviate this handicap.

In order to accomplish this, close cooperation between forest
owners, manufacturers, and technicians is needed. Any improvement
in manufacturing practice which permits the use of small-sized
material will damage rather than improve the forest conditions
unless the cuttings are rigidly held to the kind of material that should
be removed from the stands. The realization of some returns by
labor or even some small return from stumpage in premature cuttings
can never take the place of the far greater return to all participants in
the industry when a reasonable proportion of the stand is left to reach
full development before cutting. Once the growing stock is built
up it will be a fairly simple matter to maintain it by silvicultural
methods.

The coordinating influence of public agencies will be needed to
bring to bear the vast fund of existing technical information applicable
to such projects.

The first attempts at such improvements in manufacturing prac-
tice should be centered in communities where the cooperative spirit
exists between forest owners and manufacturers and where the
manufacturing enterprises are well adapted or can be adapted to
utilization of the forest raw material that is available. Further
investigation should be carried on in these places at the same time the
existing knowledge is put into use.

The woodworking plants in the regions are widely diversified as to
the products they manufacture; in this aspect the situation is excellent.
Since many of these plants are old, it is evident that some new plants
will be needed as time goes on. These should be located very care-
fully with respect to transportation of raw materials to the plants and
finished goods to market. Earnest attention should be given to

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 979

modern design in accord with the best principles of production engi-
neering and to adaptation of technical processes. Finally, the folly
of locating in a single community plants in excess of the productive
capacity should be scrupulously avoided. Efforts to rebuild the
forest capital cannot be expected to succeed if the wastage that
accompanied early exploitation of the forest is allowed to continue.

MEASURES NECESSARY TO SPEED UP ADOPTION OF
IMPROVED FOREST-MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

In handling the relatively small areas of well-stocked forest that
now remain, together with such areas as have partially restocked and
have promise for the future, the time element is of great importance.
Neither the forest owners, the forest regions, nor the Nation can
afford to allow the forest productivity to go into further decline. In
many localities a relatively few years' prolongation of a liquidation
policy would set back for a generation the opportuuity for private
forestry to yield any immediate profit. In order to present a well-
rounded picture of the measures involved in placing private forestry
on a firm foundation, it is necessary to touch briefly on certain
matters which have been discussed more fully earlier in this section,
and also to touch on certain items which have not been treated in this
section but have been treated fully elsewhere in this report.

CONSOLIDATING AND STABILIZING FOREST-LAND OWNERSHIP

As was noted earlier in this discussion, operating economy can be
very materially advanced, both as to utilization of the present stand
and as to permanent sustained-yield operation, by carefully assem-
bling areas into natural economic units. The savings from proper
size, shape, topographical form, and timber-transport facilities are, of
course, most apparent in regions of rough topography such as is
common in the West. Even on flat areas, location with regard to
rivers, highways, railroads, manufacturing centers, and local markets
is of great importance.

In order to take advantage of these savings all classes of owners in a
given territory may well join in breaking the area into effective
operating units. Each unit can then be transferred to a single owner-
ship or the various owners can cooperate formally or informally in
locating manufacturing plants and transportation routes, allocating
the annual cut among various properties, etc. In working out these
transfers and plans the aim should be to promote stability of owner-
ship.

If the private owner is not interested in permanent ownership and
care of this area, it is in his interest to maintain it in the best condition
possible until it can be transferred to some stable form of ownership.
Irresponsible ownership of forest areas is no longer justifiable.

ORGANIZING AND ADMINISTERING THE FOREST BUSINESS

Poor planning is as costly in forest business operations as in other
lines of business. One of the first steps to be taken by the forest
owner who has sensed the continuous-production possibilities of his
holdings is systematic organization of the business. This means care-
fully eliminating many losing practices such as cutting stands and

980 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

trees prematurely and constructing unnecessary improvements of only
temporary value. It will provide for going over the property in an
orderly manner within 5 or 10 years to harvest timber that is finan-
cially mature and salvaging where possible fungus-infected, insect-
killed, windfall, and fire-scarred timber. It will also provide for a
systematic gradual development of permanent transportation facilities
and other forest improvements and for fire protection. Even on the
property with impaired growing stock this systematic procedure
accompanied by limitation of the cut will gradually rebuild the grow-
ing stock and productivity of the area. The systematic operation
and the permanent improvements will also widen the margin of profit
on stumpage cut. Above all it is necessary to remember that, as
shown in the discussion of management of shortleaf loblolly pine
stands in the South, well-stocked stands produce from two to three
times as much per acre as poorly stocked stands, although taxes and
the costs of fire protection and administration usually amount to no
more per acre in the well-stocked stands. The cost of producing
stumpage is, therefore, two to three times as great in poorly stocked
forests.

ELIMINATING FROM COMMERCIAL FOREST AREAS PUBLIC SERV-
ICES UNNECESSARY TO FOREST USE

Scattered settlement throughout forest areas creates, according to
American standards, the need for schools, roads, and other services
scattered through the areas. Such services cannot be supplied
economically under these conditions and the result may be tax rates
which, in themselves, tend to make forest use unprofitable. Nor-
mally, all but a small percentage of the labor required by forest indus-
tries is concentrated at manufacturing plants or elsewhere rather than
scattered through the forest area. It is only in this manner that
permanent living accommodations of the better class can be provided.
This concentration is to the advantage of both employer and employee.
Such communities can be supplied with public services economically
and without imposition of an undue tax.

RESEARCH AND DEMONSTRATION

The general subject of forest research is discussed in another section
of this report. Since forest ownership and also the manufacture of
forest products is mostly in small units, forest research for the most
part is carried on by public agencies. Such research has had very
marked results in the past few years, but existing facilities for bringing
these results to bear on the management of private forests have not
proved altogether adequate. To meet this situation there is need to
single out in each region a number of enterprises and a number of
communities in which research workers, forest owners, and forest
industries can cooperatively demonstrate the application of existing
knowledge to some of the many problems remaining to be solved.
These include :

1. Forest-growing problems, particularly that of removing the
proper trees from the stand to obtain current income and at the same
time prepare the stand to increase more rapidly both in volume and
in volume.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMEIUCAN FORESTRY 981

2. Wood-utilization problems, particularly that of developing
methods of getting out the numerous classes of forest raw materials
most economically and without damage to the remaining stand.
Closely connected with this problem is that of preparing and grading
forest raw materials in a manner to adapt them as closely as possible
to the requirements of manufacturers. At the present time large
losses occur because various products are manufactured from logs of
wholly unsuitable size and quality.

3. Manufacturing problems: The largest such problem, one which
must rapidly grow more accure, is that of utilizing logs or bolts from
inferior trees or species. Closely related to this is the division of
manufacturing processes among different plants. At the present
time large quantities of lumber having numerous defects are shipped
to furniture manufacturers and other users of small clear pieces of
wood. Since this involves waste of from 30 to 50 percent of the
volume, important savings in transportation and often in manufacture
can be effected by performing the initial manufacturing operations
nearer the source of the timber. This procedure may result also in
saving much timber too low in grade to be manufactured into lumber.

4. Marketing problems: Much remains to be done in this field,
including educating the public to put each species to its proper use.
Because liberal supplies of " all-purpose " woods have been available
until within rather recent years, the growing need to discriminate in
using lumber and other forests products of different species has been
little realized.

5. The problem of correlating and coordinating all activities that
touch the forest : This is the only means of stopping the present wide-
spread waste both of forest products and of forest productivity and
of preserving and building up forest productivity. It is entirely
reasonable to expect that if this problem is solved in numerous com-
munities and enterprises scattered throughout the forest regions, the
example will be followed by other communities and enterprises. It
is here proposed that investigation, demonstration, and extension be
carried on jointly in selected communities and that increase of know-
ledge and practical application be pushed forward together.

SEPARATION OF FOREST HOLDINGS FROM MANUFACTURING

There are no doubt numerous cases of pulp and paper and other
wood-manufacturing enterprises of such assured permanence that the
owners are justified in engaging in forest management operations in
order to provide themselves with a permanent supply of raw material.
The assumption that this is universally necessary or desirable is of
much the same order as assuming that a meat-packing plant should
engage in the stock business. As a matter of fact the business of
continuous forest management and the business of manufacturing
and selling forest products are very distinct fields requiring wholly
different abilities. The great need of a forest business is an outlet
for many sorts and sizes of forest material. No one type of manufac-
turing plant can use all these sorts of material. Therefore to provide
every forest property or even the very large properties with complete
outlets would multiply plant investments beyond all possibility of
their yielding satisfactory earnings. Economical use of capital as
well as adequate attention to management details generally limits

982 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the forest owner to following his products through the preparation of
raw material properly graded for the use of the manufacturers. Under
these conditions the forest owner having no absolute demand for a
certain annual cut can keep his cuttings to a minimum during periods
of low prices and cut more heavily when demand is heavy. Close
attention to movement of stumpage prices on each tree size and
portion of the stand is one of the chief elements in obtaining the
maximum return from a forest property.

PERFECTING STATISTICAL INFORMATION, ETC.

It is generally recognized by economists and business authorities
that reliable current information on production, sales orders, in-
ventory, etc., in his industry is an absolute necessity to the modern
business manager. The Bureau of the Census and the Forest Service
have for many years collected national statistics at 1-year, 5-year, or
10-year intervals. It is hardly to be expected that such statistics
can be collected at Government expense more frequently than once a
year. For this reason several trade associations collect weekly
statistics in their territory. These are not always complete in any
given territory, and some territory is not covered. It is essential that
the system of collection be perfected and that a liason be arranged
between Government and trade-association work in order that com-
plete statistics may be available on a weekly basis, for the country as
a whole. By the cooperative application of modern statistical
methods relying on properly selected samples this work could be
perfected at little increase in expense. This is in the interest of
owners, managers, employees, consumers, and all other persons having
to do with forest industry or forest products.

OTHER TRADE-ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES

Forest industries are as a general rule well organized into trade
associations. It appears that any steps toward better production
control or a better planned and less wasteful operation of the indus-
try must make important use of these associations. The frequent
collection of statistics has already been mentioned as one important
function of the trade association. Standardization, inspection of
products, and sales promotion have long been recognized as im-
portant trade-association fields of activity. The associations have
also encouraged better business ethics. Additional activities such
as regional sales or organization and establishment of production
quotas have not been studied sufficiently to warrant any conclusions.
Some of these cannot be engaged in without modification of existing
laws. It is in accord with American tradition that any such practices
should be on the basis of voluntary cooperation.

ORGANIZATION OF FOREST CREDIT FACILITIES

The organization of forest credit facilities is discussed in another
section of this report. It is believed that such organization properly
worked out under the supervision of the Federal Government can be of
considerable assistance in stabilizing the underlying finance of forest
ownership and relieving pressure for liquidation. The ultimate aim
of such organization should be to bring about a flow of credit capital

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 983

sufficient, in conjunction with owners' capital, to enable forest owners,
forest workers, and forest-products consumers to take full advantage
of the great industrial opportunity offered by our forest resources.

REVISION OF FOREST TAXATION

Revised methods of forest taxation are discussed in detail in a report
now being prepared by the Forest Taxation Inquiry.

FINAL MEANS TO INSURE CONTINUED PRODUCTIVITY

The measures mentioned in the foregoing virtually exhaust the
means by which private forestry can be encouraged and facilitated.
Failure of these measures would necessitate resort to more drastic
measures. One of these is governmental regulation of the manage-
ment of forest property. The methods utilized in such governmental
regulation in various countries and the limited measures so far adopted
in this country are discussed elsewhere in this report. The other and
final measure is public ownership and management of the resource to
the end that a continuous supply of raw material may be available
to the forest industries. It is probable that stability will eventually
be obtained by a judicious distribution of private and public manage-
ment according to the economic and physical conditions present in
each locality.

SUMMARY

1 . Owing to the almost complete removal of the forest capital from
about 40 percent of the privately owned forest land and to very
material reduction on an additional 30 percent, less than 280 million
acres out of the 396 million acres of privately owned forest land in the
United States is capable of being organized into sustained-yield forest
properties from which annual returns can be expected immediately.

2. Of this area 127 million acres is in farm woodlands and is man-
aged as part of the farm business. Improved practices are needed on
this acreage.

3. Of the remainder about 2,300,000 acres has actually been
organized for sustained yield and an additional 15,600,000 acres is
being subjected to various measures designed to prolong productivity
in some measure. Beyond this, large areas are being partially pro-
tected from fire.

4. The liquidation policy applied to private forest lands has resulted
in a costly waste of industrial assets. Wherever practicable, this
policy should be abandoned in favor of a sustained-yield policy, to
save the heavy costs of depletion and other losses.

5. The selection system with short cutting cycles provides in most
forests an effective means of preserving and building up growing stock.
At the same time in most cases it increases current returns from forest
properties.

5. The extent to which forest properties have been liquidated, and
the consequent critical state of the growing stock in most regions, call
for prompt action placing suitable forest properties under responsible
organized permanent management.

168342° — 33 — vol. 1 63

984 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

LITEKATURE CITED

1. United States Census, 1930. Fifteenth Census of the United States, Agricul-
cure. vol. II, part 1. Table 77, p. 1385.

2. Hodgson, Allen H., 1930. Logging Waste in the Douglas Fir Region. Pub-
lished serially by the Pacific Pulp and Paper Industry and the West Coast
Lumberman, Seattle, Wash.

3. Haig, I. T., 1932. Comparative Yields. Journal Forestry, 30 : 575-578.

4. Troup, R. S., 1928. Silvicultural Systems. The University Press, Oxford,
England, 199 p.

5. Biolley, H. C., 1929. Penser d'abord, agir ensuite et la methode du controle.
Journal Forestier Suisse, May 1929, p. 113-124.

6. Brundage, M. R., Krueger, M. F., and Dunning, D., 1933. The Economic
Significance of Tree Size in Western Sierra Lumbering. Bui. 549, Univ. of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley, Calif., 61 p.

7. Data from I. V. Anderson, Northern Rocky Mountain Forest Experiment
Station.

8. Garver, R. D., and Miller, R., 1928. Utilization of Shortleaf Pine at Small
Mills, Ouachita National Forest, Ark. Multigraphed report, p. 117.

9. Garver, R. D., Cuno, J. B., Korstian, C. F., and MacKinney, A. L., 1931.
Selective Logging in the Loblolly-Pine-Hardwood Forests of the Middle
Atlantic Coastal Plain, p. 59.

10. Garver, R. D., and Miller, R., 1929. Small Sawmill Utilization in Appa-
lachian Hardwoods. Multigraphed report, p. 103.

11. Zon, R., and Garver, R. D., 1930. Selective Logging in the Northern
Hardwoods in the Lake States. U.S.D.A. Technical Bulletin 164, p. 47.

12. Bureau of the Census Report on Lumber, Lath, and Shingles.

12a. Rates of depletion reported by Forest Taxation Inquiry, Report No. 14.

13. Greeley. W. B., 1931. The Northwest Lumber Crisis. American Forests,
September 1931, p. 529-533.

14. Kneipp, L. F., 1927. One Way Out. Journal of Forestry, vol. 25, no. 7,
p. 885-888.

15. Data from W. H. Meyer, Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station.

16. Munger, T. T., 1927. Timber Growing and Logging Practice in the
Douglas Fir Region. U.S.D.A. Bulletin 1493, p. 42.

17. Data from Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, University of
Washington, Department of Forestry.

18. Data from A. J. F. Brandstrom, Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment
Station.

19. Data from California Forest Experiment Station.

20. Meyer, W. H., 1932. Growth in Selectively Cut Forests of Ponderosa
Pine in the Pacific Northwest. Unpublished manuscript. 176 p.

21. Data from R. H. Weidman, Northern Rocky Mountain Forest Experiment
Station.

22. Chart from study by I. V. Anderson, Northern Rocky Mountain Forest
and Range Experiment Station.

23. Data from I. F. Eldredge, Southern Forest Experiment Station.

24. Data compiled by the Forest Taxation Inquiry.

25. Data from W. E. Bond, Southern Forest Experiment Station.

26. Data from Henry B. Steer, Branch of Research, United States Forest
Service.

27. Data from A. E. Wackerman, Southern Forest Experiment Station.

28. Data from R. K. Day. Central States Forest Experiment Station.

29. Williams, W. K., 1931. Lumbermen in Northern States Grow Timber as a
Money Crop. U.S.D.A. Farmers' Bulletin 1680.

30. Zon, R., 1932. Mss. report on prospects for private forestry in the Lake
States.

31. J. T. Rothrock. 1915. Areas of Desolation in Pennsylvania.

32. Data from R. D. Forbes, Allegheny Forest Experiment Station, and C.
Edward Behre, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station.

33. Data from E. A. Ziegler and J. E. Aughanbaugh. Pennsylvania Forest
Research Institute, Mont Alto, Pa.

PRIVATELY SUPPORTED AND QUASI-PUBLIC FOREST RESEARCH

By E. H. FROTHINGHAM, Director, Appalachian Forest Experiment Station

CONTENTS

Page

Endowed research at forest schools 985

Endowed forest research in other departments of universities 986

Forest research by endowed research institutions 987

Forest research at arboreta and botanical gardens 989

Forest research by the industries 990

Summary 992

In addition to Federal and State research in timber production,
utilization, forest entomology, pathology, and other subjects, a
considerable amount of forest research is being conducted by privately
supported and quasi-public institutions of various kinds. Among
these are endowed schools of forestry, university departments of
botany, economics, and other sciences, the large research foundations
and one or two smaller biological research stations, arboreta and
botanical gardens, trade associations, and corporations engaged in the
manufacture or treatment of forest products.

While several of these agencies already have, or are preparing,
systematic, long-time programs of forest research, others make no
pretense of continuity but undertake investigations to meet some
special need, or because a forestry subject happens to appeal to the
interest and aptitudes of a particular investigator. Hence the
investigative subjects are of great variety, some broadly compre-
hensive or superficial to meet emergency needs, others specific and
fundamental within narrow fields to obtain exact knowledge of cause
and effect relations.

ENDOWED RESEARCH AT FOREST SCHOOLS

State-supported research at forest schools was discussed in the
section " State Accomplishments and Plans." The research here con-
sidered includes that at forest schools entirely under private support
as well as some endowed work at State institutions. Many endowed
universities, including those which have schools of forestry, are
carrying on work in botany, zoology, economics, and other subjects,
some of which is really forestry or so closely allied or fundamental to
it that it can be properly classed as forest research. This is discussed
under the next topic, Endowed Forest Research in Other Depart-
ments of Universities.

Research in almost all phases of forest management is carried on
in connection with instruction and the operation of the Harvard
Forest of 2,100 acres, at Petersham, Mass. The staff consists of a
director, assistant director, and an instructor, in addition to whom
there are usually several graduate students. The part of the investi-
gative program centering around the management of the experi-
mental demonstration forest includes methods of cutting in several
forest types, the improvement of inferior or deteriorated stands,
thinnings, growth and yield, and artificial forestation. The program

985

986 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

also includes some work on forest entomology, studies of light and
soils and forest fires, and an investigation of factors influencing the
marketing of local timber. The estimated total expenditure for
research is between $10,000 and $15,000 a year.

One of the most comprehensive forest research programs at en-
dowed universitites is that of the Yale School of Forestry, and this
is supplemented by some work in other departments of the university
on closely related subjects. The combined program includes inves-
tigations in dendrology, genetics, nursery practice and planting,
silviculture, forest management, volume, growth, yield, wood tech-
nology, and a group of projects on lumbering. The income from an
endowment for forest research is used chiefly for the employment of
graduate students. Two or three members of the staff are able to
devote large parts of their time to research subjects; one such subject
is the investigation of tropical woods. The school plans to relieve
the older members of the faculty for further research by the employ-
ment of instructors and additional graduate assistants as rapidly
as additional endowments become available. The school owns
several experimental and demonstration forests in New Hampshire,
Vermont, and Connecticut, totaling about 9,000 acres, and utilizes
additional areas of several thousand acres. Its research results
appear in a series of bulletins, of which 35 have so far been issued.
The total estimated present cost of forest research at Yale is between
$20,000 and $25,000 a year.

The recently organized department of forestry at Duke University,
Durham, N.C., is a graduate institution devoted very largely to
forest research, most of which is conducted by the director, assistant
director and, at present, two assistants, on the Duke Forest of about
5,000 acres. Six studies of a fundamental nature are now in progress
incidental to teaching or administrative work, at a cost for the current
year of approximately $3,000.

At the School of Forestry and Conservation, University of Michi-
gan, about $4,000 from an endowment for the promotion of private
forestry is annually devoted to the research phases of the subject.
There is also a private fellowship in tree physiology amounting to
about $500. The $4,500 thus provided for research is in addition to
State funds of $5,000 expended on research by the School of Forestry
and Conservation.

Two projects supported by industrial fellowships are under way in
the Division of Forestry, University of Minnesota. One of these deals
with the movement of liquids through wood, the other with pulping
problems of aspen. A third project, in forest pathology, is also sup-
ported by private funds. The annual cost is about $4,800.

The total expenditure for privately supported forest research at
forest schools, allowing for possible incompleteness of the citations,
is probably in the neighborhood of $60,000.

ENDOWED FOKEST RESEARCH IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS
OF UNIVERSITIES

Research in sciences basic to foresty is conducted at many colleges
and universities, usually in the departments of botany, zoology, geog-
raphy, engineering, or economics. At a few universities such work
relating closely to forestry is quite continuous; at others it is more or
less interrupted and incidental.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 987

At Harvard, the Bussey Institution is doing research in wood
anatomy, in its bearing on physiology, pathology, identification,
properties, and uses, and is making studies of the cambium in relation
to growth and of the bordered pits in relation to the ascent of sap
and wood preservation.

Duke University at Durham, N.C., is beginning an active program
of research in botany and zoology, on subjects related to forestry.
At present 10 projects, 6 botanical and 4 zoological, are under way at
a cost of about $4,500.

Cornell University has received an endowment of $10,000 to pro-
vide a chair of forest soils. A comprehensive program of forest soil
investigations, under direction of a full-time professor of soils, is in
progress.

At Yale, Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Stanford, Cincinnati, and other
endowed universities research in general plant ecology and physiology
frequently includes studies of forest invasion or succession, or of the
physiological functions of trees. Lawrence College, Appleton, Wis.,
maintains an Institute of Paper Chemistry at which research in the
chemistry of paper is conducted. At the University of Wisconsin a
private fellowship in forest economics, dealing with the forestry as-
pects of land utilization, has been carried for two years with an
expenditure of $1,200 annually. This has now been discontinued, but
during the current year about $600 was expended on the project.

Clark University, Worcester, Mass., while not at present engaged
in research dealing with forestry, has in the past directed the work of
graduate students in studies of the relation of forests to industry in
Maine, the geographical factors affecting present forest distribution in
Nearctic North America, the invasion and succession of forest types
upon the soils of the Massachusetts upland, and a series of localized
investigations on the land utilization of a number of upland New
England towns, in which the forest played an incidental part.

It is difficult to estimate the expenditures for research relating
specifically to forestry and forest products at these institutions, since
it forms only a part of the investigative work conducted. A conserv-
ative estimate would place the aggregate annual cost of the studies
directly pertaining to forestry at $60,000.

FOREST RESEARCH BY ENDOWED RESEARCH
INSTITUTIONS

The Carnegie Institute of Washington, chiefly through its division
of plant biology, is conducting numerous investigations basic or
closely related to forestry. At the Alpine Laboratory, Manitou, Colo.,
the Coastal Laboratory, Carmel, Calif., and the Desert Laboratory,
Tucson, Ariz., studies in plant ecology, activity of woody tissues
relative to physiological functions, diurnal and seasonal changes in
tree diameters, relation of precipitation to run-off and soil moisture,
and various relations and responses of physiological functions to
environmental conditions are being made as part of comprehensive
investigations relating to the ecology of forest, range, chaparral, and
subordinate forest vegetation. Studies of climatic cycles and tree
growth, of root development and root functions of the redwood, of
photosynthesis and carbohydrate chemistry, and of the cambium and
its derivative tissues have also been made. The total expense for

988 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

research basic or related to timber or range land management, con-
ducted by the Carnegie Institution in 1932, was informally estimated
at $75,000.

The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Inc., Yonkers,
N.Y., is engaged in fundamental research in botany. Problems relat-
ing to timber trees form a part of the work, and many of the results
obtained in other fields of botany will be of indirect value to forestry
by contributing to the understanding of tree functions and growth.
The institute has apparatus for the control of all conditions of plant
growth on a rather large scale. It is developing a 305-acre arboretum
which is being used as an experimental field for problems in forestry
and horticulture. Its Southwestern Arboretum, at Superior, Ariz.,
has been established for the local study of plant problems including
tests of native and exotic species. The endowment of the institute
is about $8,000,000.

The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, Pa.,
undertakes some work on forest products as a part of its industrial
investigations. For example, it has made studies of box container
construction, pulp and paper manufacture, uses for naval stores, etc.
Its policy is to undertake investigations, not suggested by industry,
but planned within the Institute and directed toward the study of
more fundamental scientific problems than those usually investi-
gated for industrial purposes. It is primarily an industrial experi-
ment station, operated in accordance with the Industrial Fellowship
System of Dr. Robert Kennedy Duncan.

The Institute of Forest Genetics, Placerville, Calif., established in
1925 as the Eddy Tree Breeding Station, is working on the develop-
ment, by cross-breeding and selection, of better and more rapidly
growing strains of forest trees. Annual expenditures are estimated to
be in the neighborhood of $15,000. An endowment to yield an annual
income of $50,000 is sought.

The Rocky Mountain Biological Station at Gothic, Colo., conducts
6-week summer courses in zoology, botany, ecology, parasitology,
genetics, and other subjects dealing generally with the relationship of
plants and animals to their environment and including the forest as an
essential factor. Cooperation with the Forest Service by means of a
Federal experimental forest is proposed. At Highlands, N.C., a
biological research station has recently been established at which
much the same character of investigations will doubtless be conducted.

The Tropical Plant Research Foundation, Washington, D.C., which
operates on funds for research received from organizations interested
in tropical plant products, has conducted some investigations in tropi-
cal forestry. Among these is a 4-year survey of tropical American
timber resources, including studies of the composition and extent of
the important tropical forests, local uses of the more abundant species,
and conditions bearing on the possibilities and need for forest culture.
The work has included tests made at the University of Michigan to
determine the fitness of tropical species for use by wood-working
industries in the United States. The institute has also cooperated
with the Boyce Thompson Institute and the Department of Botany
at Columbia University.

In the field of economics, a number of institutions have done or are
doing research bearing, to a greater or less degree, upon forestry.
Among these are the National Institute of Public Administration,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 989

New York City, which a few years ago made a partial study of forest
taxation in New York; the National Industrial Conference Board,
New York City, which made a similar investigation in Wisconsin; and
the Institute for Economic Research at Chicago, 111.

The aggregate annual expenditures for research relating to forestry
by the institutions in the group above considered is probably in the
neighborhood of $180,000.

FOREST RESEARCH AT ARBORETA AND BOTANICAL

GARDENS

Arboreta form an important link in the chain of forest research as
the means by which trees from widely separate parts of the world may
be brought together, tested, and compared to determine their relative
merits for timber production, ornamental and other purposes. This
comparative study of different tree species and varieties, or of the
same species from different climatic regions, brings out in striking
contrast important differences which might otherwise easily escape
observation — difference in frost hardiness, drought resistance, sus-
ceptibility to insect attacks and disease, growth rate, form and quality
of the timber, and other characteristics that bear upon the success of
forestry. Such studies give a better understanding of the conditions
under which the different species can be grown, and often lead to ex-
tensions of the geographic range within which they may be safely
planted.

Within recent years, other lines of research have further extended
the usefulness of arboreta. One such field of great promise is that of
genetics, which seeks to develop, through crossbreeding, trees of better
quality, straighter grain, more rapid growth, greater resistance to
climatic extremes, insects, and disease, or of more certainty and ease of
reproduction than the present strains. Other fields in which some
arboreta are already carrying on investigations of value to forestry
are those of plant physiology and related botanical sciences. The
laws of tree growth, reproduction, water conduction, nutrition, etc.,
and their relation to soil and other environmental conditions, can be
studied to excellent advantage in arboreta. Success in timber pro-
duction and in the use of trees for other purposes requires a full under-
standing of these laws.

Since many of the results to be obtained in arboreta are applicable
only in the climatic regions within which the arboreta are located,
there should be arboreta in all such regions. According to figures
compiled in 193 11 there are now 72 active arboreta and botanical
gardens in the United States, with five more in prospect. The
distribution is very uneven; 12 are in New York, 10 in Pennsylvania,
7 in Ohio, 6 in Massachusetts, and 8 in California. The remaining
29 which are active are scattered among 17 States, the District of
Columbia, and Hawaii. These gardens vary a great deal in degree
of usefulness for scientific research, and only a few are regularly used
for this purpose. Among these few may be mentioned the Arnold
Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Mass.; the New York Botanical Garden,
the Bronx, New York City ; the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn,
N.Y. ; the Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis, Mo. ; the arboreta of

i Report of the Committee on Botanical Gardens and Arboretums, American Association of Nurserymen,
July, 1931.

990 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Boyce Thompson Institute of Plant Research, Yonkers, N.Y., and
Superior, Ariz. ; and the gardens of the Carnegie Institution at Tucson,
Ariz., and Carmel, Calif.

The Arnold Arboretum and the Missouri Botanical Gardens may
be cited as illustrations of the capacities of arboreta for forest research.
The Arnold Arboretum was established in 1872 for the study and
cultivation of all woody plants capable of withstanding the climate of
Massachusetts. Until about a few years ago the work was mainly
the assembling of trees and other woody plants from all parts of the
world, identifying, classifying, and propagating them, exchanging
them with other arboreta and nurseries, and building up a library
and herbarium. Recently, two research departments have been
established, one in pathology, the other in genetics, and special work
in dendrology is to be offered to graduate students. The present
area of the arboretum is 260 acres, and the site is assured for 1,000
years. There are now about 6,500 species and varieties of trees,
shrubs, and vines in the arboretum.

The Missouri Botanical Gardens (Shaw Gardens) were established
at St. Louis about 1860. A 1,600-acre extension has been made at
Gray Summit, Mo., and a tropical station is maintained in the Panama
Canal Zone, on Federal land. Collectors and correspondents are
maintained in many parts of the world. Many kinds of research are
under way, much of it in taxonomy.

The expenditures of arboreta on research relating to forestry prob-
ably amount to about $50,000 a year.

"The establishment of an arboretum", says the report of the
Botanic Garden and Arboretum Committee, Robert Pyle, chairman,
"is long, slow, and expensive." The report continues:

Land and ample funds are essential. Capable administration is obviously
important. The selection, assembling, and wise arrangement of plant material
or tree groups, the laying down of drives, walks, and buildings is but one step.
There follows the study of problems of adaptability to climate, the observation and
control of plant enemies. Hybridizing and experimental work offer great oppor-
tunities. There is, too, the problem of developing the arboretum for the use
of the general public, as a living library may be used for information both useful
and enjoyable.

The services which an arboretum may render are more important, more varied,
and perhaps more intimate in the life of a community than may at first appear.
Can this important function in our civilization be cared for better by the agri-
cultural departments of our Federal of State or city governments, by the State
agricultural or experimental colleges, as in Texas, or by private and liberally
endowed foundations, such as Morton Arboretum or Boyce Thompson Institute?

FOREST RESEARCH BY THE INDUSTRIES

Industrial research in the manufacture and processing of lumber and
other forest products was under way at about 200 laboratories in 1931,
according to statistics compiled by the National Research Council,2
and these do not include research by lumber companies and lumber man-
ufacturers associations. Relatively few of these laboratories are con-
cerned exclusively with wood problems. The normal employment on
wood-products research is probably in excess of 350 technical workers.

The largest amount of industrial research in forest products is
overwhelmingly in pulp and paper. The number of pulp and paper
laboratories is listed as 166, of which 58 are owned and operated by

2 Bulletin 81 of the National Research Council, "Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States."
J931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY QQ1

pulp and paper companies — 35 in the Northeast, 10 in the Lake States,
8 in the Central States, 3 in the South, and 2 in California. Fourteen
are credited with 8 or more technical workers apiece, and the total
number of technical men normally employed by all these laboratories
is probably about 285. Even at present the collective research ex-
penditures throughout the industry are more than $2,000,000 a
year, according to the research committee of the American Pulp
and Paper Association.

From replies to a questionnaire sent out in 1928 to the larger manu-
facturing concerns in the United States by the National Research
Council, the trend of major emphasis on research by pulp and paper
manufacturers is as follows:

Percent

To reduce production costs 31

To improve quality of product and service 35

To develop new fields of application 23

To develop byproducts or new materials 11

These objectives are those of pulp and paper manufacture rather
than timber production. Among them are the standardization of
processes in order to obtain the uniform products so important from
the commercial point of view, and the development of special kinds
of paper. Another is the improvement of the commonly used proc-
esses of pulp making. Still another concerns the methods used for
recovering the liquors used in the pulping processes and thus avoiding
stream pollution. Investigations aimed to make hitherto unused
woods available for paper manufacture, or to extend the adaptability
of certain species to new uses, are often of far-reaching importance, as
in the case of experiments recently started by Georgia in cooperation
with the Chemical Foundations, Inc., of New York, to develop the use
of southern pines for newsprint.

In the manufacture of wood and fiber-board containers, 17 firms
and one association of firms maintain research organizations of one or
more technical men, and 18 other firms have box-testing equipment
but probably do not devote as much as one half time of one man to
research. The research on containers may be considered largely as
the application to special problems of principles and methods previ-
ously developed by Federal research. Of the 18 larger laboratories,
7 are in the Northeast, 9 in the Central States, and one each in
Minnesota and California.

Nine large companies, including the Bell Telephone, du Pont de
Nemours, Western Union Telegraph, and American Creosoting com-
panies, have laboratories in which more or less research in wood
preservation is under way, but no estimate can be given of the
number of men so engaged. Wood-preservation research is confined
largely to the manufacturers of preservatives and to users of pre-
served materials, including telephone and telegraph companies and
railroads. Seven companies conduct research on the fireproofing of
wood. The du Pont and the Dow Chemical companies are doing
some research on sap stain.

Eight organizations are listed as engaged in paint and varnish
research related to the use of wood. These include, among others,
the Aluminum Co. of America, the Bell Telephone Laboratories, E. I.
du Pont de Nemours and Co., and the Institute of Paint and Varnish
Research. An equivalent of the time of 10 technical workers is
normally engaged in this research. In the glue industry it is difficult
to estimate the proportion of the listed research that is directed toward

992 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

improved quality of wood glues or improved methods of wood gluing.
Probably five firms with an average of one technical man each would
cover the wood-gluing branch of the industry.

An informal estimate by the National Lumber Manufacturers'
Association places the normal collective expenditures for research
by this and federated associations at $500,000 a year, under 1929
conditions. Most of this was for forest products research. At the
present time the research expenditures by these organizations are
undoubtedly much less. The expenditures prior to the depression
were partly in the form of small contributions to Federal and State
forest products laboratories for investigation of specific problems,
but they covered also research at laboratories maintained by some
of the associations themselves, notably those of the West Coast
Lumbermen's Association and the National Lumber Manufacturers'
Association. Subjects studied by the latter in 1930 included heat
transmission of wood, air infiltration through frame walls, wood in
oil-derrick construction, structural and other tests of wood floors,
fire retardant treatment of wood, and fire tests of air-plane hangars,
timber columns, partitions, and wood floors.

Not all the research of lumber companies, however, is devoted to
forest products. One large company, for example, has made an
extensive inventory of its cut-over lands to determine the amount and
condition of reproduction that was coming in, and the value of the
lands for agriculture and other purposes. Another has made an
extensive investigation of selective logging, and has classified the
climatic conditions in the localities in which it is collecting seed, for the
information and protection of seed purchasers. Various companies
have cooperated with the Forest Products Laboratory and with
certain States in detailed studies of logging costs and returns designed
to determine the sizes of trees that can be economically logged, as well
as the advantages of leaving small saw-log trees for further growth.
The aggregate of such investigations is not large but is increasing.

Wood enters directly or indirectly into the manufacture of so many
additional commodities — automobiles, matches, linoleum, etc. — in
connection with which research establishments are maintained by the
large producers that it is impossible to determine with any accuracy
the amount of research devoted by these industries to wood products.

A conservative estimate of the present aggregate expenditure on
forest product research by the industries is $2,500,000.

A few organizations are supporting research relating to game, but
relatively little is 'spent on forestry aspects of this research.

SUMMARY

From the incomplete estimates that have been brought together
in the preceding discussion, it would appear that expenditures for
endowed, industrial, and other privately supported forest research of
all descriptions are about as follows :

Forest schools. $60, 000

Other university departments 60, 000

Foundations 180, 000

Arboreta and botanical gardens 50, 000

Industries 2, 500, OOP

Total 2,850,000

Nearly 90 percent of the total is for industrial research concerned
with forest products, and 70 percent is for pulp and paper research.

PUBLIC REGULATION OF PRIVATE FORESTS

By W. N. SPARHAWK, Senior Forest Economist

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction _ 993

Public regulation of private property is not unusual. _ 995

Existing restrictions on forest owners in the United States I ~_ 997

Public control over private forests in other countries 1005

Is further public regulation desirable in the United States? —I. II 1038

INTRODUCTION

The numerous ways in which our forests contribute to the well-
being of communities, States, and Nation have been described in pre-
ceding sections of this report. They are the source of indispensable
raw materials which support great industries and afford means of live-
lihood to millions of people. They help to conserve water supplies
without which our cities and villages, many of our industries, and an
important portion of our agriculture could not exist. They help to
maintain the navigability of our streams and harbors. They protect
our soild from washing away. They ameliorate the climate. They
are the home of many kinds of wild life which are useful or afford
pleasure to man. In many ways, they promote the health and hap-
piness of our people.

WITH UNRESTRICTED FOREST EXPLOITATION, THE PUBLIC HAS

LOST

Among these multiple services of forests, private owners in most
cases derive direct personal benefits from only a few. Under the
existing system of profit economy, they naturally seek to derive the
maximum immediate benefits, without regard to the less tangible
public values which are involved. This would not be objectionable
if there were no conflict between what individuals conceive to be to
their immediate interest and the long-run public welfare.

Unfortunately, such a conflict does exist in the majority of in-
stances. In seeking immediate profit, great injury has been done
both to individuals and to the public. Many communities and re-
gions have been impoverished by the devastation of their forests.
Millions of acres of fertile land from which the forest cover was re-
moved have been worn out and rendered utterly worthless by erosion.
Water supplies have become irregular, streams have been muddied by
heavy burdens of silt, and channels have been obstructed, necessitat-
ing huge public expenditures to keep them open and to control the
ravages of floods. In many places, forest destruction has resulted
in excessive depletion of our fish and of upland game and fur-bearers.
Burned snags and stumps have replaced the cool shade of green forests
along many of our highways, and the beauty of lake shores and river
banks has been destroyed.

993

994 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

POSSIBLE REMEDIES

These processes are still going on. Neither the States nor the
Nation can afford to let them continue. There are three possible
ways of putting an end to them, all of which already have a place in
our public policy. These are: (1) Education and persuasion of the
private owners, coupled with assistance by the public; (2) public
regulation of the practices of private owners; and (3) acquisition of
the forests by the public.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

The simplest and the surest method would be for the public to take
over the forests and manage them as public properties. This is being
done on a comparatively small scale. It may be done on a much
larger scale in the future. (See section on the "Probable Future
Distribution of Forest Land Ownership.") However, acquisition by
purchase is likely to be expensive and consequently slow, and judging
from past experience, acquisition by gift, exchange, or default is
uncertain, unsystematic, and most likely to come about after the
forest values have been seriously impaired. It is necessary, therefore,
to consider whether other methods may also be effective in protecting
the public's interests.

UNDER CONTINUED PRIVATE OWNERSHIP

Policies with respect to public acquisition of forest land will depend
to a considerable extent on whether the land will be utilized by private
owners in such a manner as to safeguard the public interests. If this
could be depended on, public acquisition would be largely unnecessary.
Four fifths of our productive forest land is privately owned. Ob-
viously, public acquisition of all of it in the near future is put of the
question. The greater portion of it is likely to remain hi private
ownership, at least for many years. Public welfare requires con-
tinued maintenance of forest cover on most of it, and continued
production of timber on a very considerable portion.

Experience here and abroad does not indicate that private owners
on their own initiative and unassisted will utilize the land for timber
growing or even maintain a forest cover to the extent that is desirable
or necessary. Their failure to do so results from several causes,
including lack of knowledge as to how to use the land effectively for
forestry; the belief that other uses will be more profitable; lack of
financial resources; lack of assurance that such use will yield a profit,
or even a well-founded belief, in many instances, that it will not;
desire to liquidate their investment and lack of interest hi the land
after the timber has been removed.

Public agencies can do much to stimulate private forestry through
research and education, and demonstration of forestry practices.
They can do more through various measures of public cooperation
and assistance, as discussed in other sections of this report. However,
cooperation which is optional with the forest owners, or public assist-
ance which is not accompanied by the obligation to handle the forest
conservatively, has yielded almost negligible results so far as the
adoption of good forest practices is concerned. Even though the
public pays a considerable portion of the cost of fire protection in

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY QQ5

many States, the owners of less than 6 percent of the privately owned
forest are making a conscious effort to keep it productive. Judging
from results thus far, there is little ground for confidence that the
major portion of our privately owned forest land will be used properly
unless there is some degree of public control. Such control is the
rule, at least for those classes of land most vitally affecting the public
interest, in nearly all except the more backward countries.

PUBLIC REGULATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IS NOT

UNUSUAL

The right of the public to regulate commerce and the various forms
of privately owned utilities which serve the public is generally recog-
nized in the United States as well as in other countries. Public
restriction on the use of forest land, however, has been opposed on the
ground that it involves infringement upon the rights of private prop-
erty and radical or even revolutionary extension of the sphere of
government. Consideration of the facts shows that that is not the
case. Such objections overlook the historical facts as to the nature
of private property in land and the functions of government. Title
to landed property in the United States, as in England, and in most,
if not all other countries, originated in a grant from the government.
In earlier times, the recipients or their successors were obliged to
render military or other service to the King or to the government as
a condition of holding the land. Even today, in the United States,
private ownership of land is not absolute. Land owners who fail to
contribute to the support of government through taxation forfeit
their land to the Government. Many owners of cut-over land have
been doing this in recent years. Both the State and Federal Govern-
ments retain, and frequently exercise, the right to expropriate any
private land that is needed for public purposes, and they even delegate
similar authority to certain classes of private corporations, such as
railroads, where such expropriation is in the public interest.

A major object of organized government, whatever its form, is to
control or restrict, so far as the public interest may require, the actions
of individuals that may affect the welfare of other individuals or of the
group as a whole. Absence of such control would mean anarchy. The
character and extent of governmental restriction or control vary with
the political philosophy and the stage of economic development of a
people. As social organization and economic relations become more
complex, control becomes desirable with respect to matters over
which it was not desirable at earlier periods. With increasing density
of population and increasing need for efficient utilization of limited
natural resources, the necessity of social control over such use increases
both to prevent harm to individuals, and also to insure the present
and future welfare of society as a whole. From the earliest times,
governments have concerned themselves, in varying degree, with
bringing about that utilization of their land and other resources which
would promote the general welfare.

FARM LAND

With agricultural land, most countries have sought to accomplish
this primarily through distributing it to individual owners and insur-
ing more or less stability of ownership. The owners have enjoyed
practically absolute freedom to use their land as they saw fit, although

996 . A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

governments have not hesitated to exert rather strict control over
certain phases of the use of private farm property in emergencies when
such action was necessary to protect the interests of the public.
Examples of such governmental interference in this country are the
campaigns against foot and mouth disease, bovine tuberculosis, cattle
tick, corn borer, and Mediterranean fruit fly; the requirement in
some wheat-growing States that barberries be eradicated; the pro-
hibitions in several States against planting currants and gooseberries
near white pine forests and against growing red cedars near apple
orchards (Virginia) ; the requirement in many States that livestock
be kept under fence; and the obligation of property owners to clean
up noxious weeds so as to prevent their spread to neighboring land.

In the past, the economic factors and conditions governing the
production of agricultural crops have been such that the owners had
an incentive to utilize their land generally in the public interest. The
present alarming situation with respect to erosion in certain portions
of the United States demonstrates that it has not always been so
utilized. In recent years the economic situation of agriculture has
changed until there is some reason to believe that individual self-
interest alone, at least in the present stage of enlightenment, is no
longer adequate to safeguard the public interests in the utilization of
farm land.

Recognizing this, governments have endeavored to promote the
voluntary adoption of improved methods through research, education,
demonstration, and other forms of assistance. Much has been accom-
plished in this way, but uncoordinated action by individuals does not
seem to be enough. The need for some degree of public or quasi-
public control over agricultural production or marketing is coming
to be recognized in many countries. Russia has her 5-year plan and
State farms; Italy has her "battle of the wrheat"; we have our Fed-
eral Farm Board, to say nothing of the laws proposed to restrict cotton
production in several States. A number of countries prohibit or re-
strict the agricultural use of land that is liable to become seriously
eroded and thus cause damage to other property or to the public
interests.

MINERALS

The development of mineral resources also has generally been left
to private initiative in most countries, except for restrictions designed
to safeguard the workers. An important exception in this country
is the Federal law restricting hydraulic mining in California in the
interest of navigation. (U.S. Stat.L., vol. 27, p. 507.) Mining being
strictly an extractive enterprise and highly speculative, rapidity of
turnover has been encouraged and great waste of the resources has
resulted. Many of the mineral industries have now reached a point
where they themselves recognize the need for some form of group
control, either by the public or through group cooperation of one kind
or another, in order to regulate output and conserve the resource.
Examples in the United States are the coal, petroleum, and copper
industries.

WILD LIFE

The individual States, and the Federal Government in the case of
migratory birds, have retained control over the exploitation of wild
animal life, even though most of it breeds and lives on privately owned

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 997

land. Moreover, large expenditures of public money have been made
and are still being made to conserve and propagate our fish, game, and
other wild life resources.

URBAN LAND

Many public restrictions on the use of urban land are so obviouslv
necessary and of such long standing that they are accepted by most
people without question. In this class are building codes, fire regula-
tions, sanitary ^codes, and the like. Most, if not all of them, are
based on the principle that an owner may not use his property in such
a manner as to harm or threaten harm to his neighbor or to the com-
munity as a whole. Many newer restrictions, typified by the various
zoning laws, that have grown up within comparatively recent years
carry this principle even farther, but generally have not been con-
sidered unreasonable infringements on private property rights.

WATER RESOURCES

The private use of water resources, even though the stream origi-
nates on private land, is subject to a greater or less degree of public
control by most States, and in the case of navigable streams by the
Federal Government, for such purposes as maintaining navigation,
preventing waste of irrigation water, preventing damage to owners
of property down stream from dams, preventing pollution of domestic
water supplies or of fishing streams, etc. In a few instances the public
has gone a step farther and regulated the use of land bordering the
streams or on their headwaters, so far as might be necessary to accom-
plish the above purposes. This has been done, for instance, under the
law regulating hydraulic mining in California, previously mentioned.

FORESTS

Individual owners have not felt the same incentive to handle forests
for continuous production as in the case of farm lands. As with
mines, they have deemed it more advantageous to exploit the timber
as quickly" as possible, and leave the regeneration of the forests to
chance. "This has resulted largely from the long-time nature of forest
crops and the interchangeability of timber capital and timber product.
It has been the common experience of all civilized countries that
unguided, voluntary action by private owners will not assure such
use of forests as will guarantee their perpetuation or safeguard the
interests of the public. Public control over the use of private forests
is a live question all over the world. In recent years it has become
increasingly evident in the United States that unrestricted freedom
of individual action is leading not only to waste of a great natural
resource, despoliation of forest lands and lasting injury to the general
welfare, but also to the ruin of the lumber and other forest incfustries
themselves.

EXISTING RESTRICTIONS ON FOREST OWNERS IN THE

UNITED STATES

As a matter of fact, some aspects of forest-land use by private
owners are already subject to a considerable degree of public regula-
tion in the United States. So far, the Federal Government has not
undertaken such regulation, although, of course, the various Federal

998

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

laws relating to the organization and control of business in general
affect forest use indirectly. Practically all of the individual States,
however, have adopted legislation designed not only to protect forest
property from damage by others than the owners, but also in some
degree to prevent an owner from using his land so as to cause direct
injury to others. These restrictions have to do mainly with the pre-
vention, suppression, and use of fire so that it cannot spread to
another's property. No attempt has been made to require such
management as will avoid less direct injury to others, through
erosion, silting, or irregular stream flow. Nor, with a few minor
exceptions, have the States undertaken to prevent an owner from
damaging or destroying his own forest, or to require him to keep his

*K-HW£

i MO- N./-^-/^:.-

•— L_ -'^ x »-c-

Genera! Slash Disposal V .— \

Required -^ ^

Limited Slash Disposal Required \.

(along roads, railroads, property lines, etc) \

FIGURE 1.— States requiring slash disposal.

forest land productive, or to preserve esthetic or recreational values
for the benefit of the public.

The various State regulatory measures deal with the following
subjects : Control of fire, control of insect pests, control of tree diseases,
silvicultural or other measures designed to maintain the productivity
of forest land.

CONTROL OF FIRE

The laws of every State restrict the use of fire by owners or opera-
tors of forest or woodland or impose requirements designed to prevent
the spread of fire to the property of others. These restrictions and
requirements vary widely in scope.

REDUCTION OF FIRE HAZARD

Regulations with this purpose are chiefly in connection with logging
operations. California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, New Jersey,
and Florida (in the Everglades only) provide that any dangerous slash
or inflammable debris (as determined by the State forester or equiva-
lent agency) must be disposed of by the owner, or at his expense, in a
manner approved by the State forester. In these States it is not

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 999

necessary that the debris be the result of the owner's operations.
Idaho, Montana, and Pennsylvania require that slash resulting from
logging operations must be disposed of as required by the State
forester or fire warden. New York requires the lopping of tops over
3 inches in diameter within the "fire towns." Thirteen States have
special requirements for the removal of slash along highways and
railroad rights of way. (See fig. 1.) In Maine, Minnesota, New
Mexico, and New Hampshire slash must be removed from strips
of specified width along the boundaries of adjacent property; in
Wisconsin along the boundaries of county forests, and in Minnesota
along lake shores.

In Oregon the operator must fell snags not only near engine settings
but also along property lines and near areas of reproduction. In
Washington the State forester may require felling of snags on any
part of the operation where he considers that they constitute a fire
hazard.

In 23 States, logging locomotives and stationary engines (unless
they burn oil), and in some instances portable and other mills, must,
be equipped with efficient spark arresters and other devices to prevent
the start of fires. Ten of these States require that cleared lines be
maintained along logging railroads and around engine and mill set-
tings, in order to prevent fires from spreading.

Chiefly in order to facilitate inspection and enforcement of slash
disposal and similar requirements, several States provide that owners
or operators must report intended cuttings and new set-ups of portable
mills. For example, Maine requires operators of portable mills to
obtain licenses, which may be suspended during dry periods. In
New Hampshire portable mills must be registered with the State
forester and must get a permit before operating in each location.
Massachusetts provides that portable mills cutting over 10,000 board
feet at a setting must notify the State forester as to the location, size
of the lot, and the approximate dates of operating. Minnesota
requires that the State forester be notified before any timber is cut
in a forest or wild land area (except in clearing agricultural land or to
cut one's own firewood), and that a notice be posted on the land giving
the legal description of the land to be cut over and naming the person
who will be responsible for disposal of the slash. New Hampshire
requires advance notice before pine is cut, with information as to the
name of the owner and the location and size of the lot. Timber
owners and sawmill operators are also obliged to report the quantity
of timber cut each year. In Rhode Island, timber owners must
register with the State Bureau of Forestry before cutting for other
than domestic use.

USE OF FIRE

Under the laws of practically all of the States it is a misdemeanor
to let fire burn on one's own land unless it is kept from escaping and
damaging the property of another. (In Nevada this is a felony.)
In most of the States, the person responsible for the fire not only is
liable for damages but may also be punished by fines, imprisonment,
or both.

The laws of 32 States contain some sort of restriction on the burning
of slash, brush, grass, or other material on one's own land. Thirteen

168342°— 33— vol. 1 64

1000

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

States require that persons burning over their land must give advance
notice to adjoining owners; and 7 of these and 6 others require specifi-
cally that "all due precautions" must be taken to prevent the spread
of fire to other lands. Seven States require that fire lines be cleared
around the areas where the burning is to be done. In 16 States, per-
mission of a fire warden or other public official must be obtained before
an owner may burn brush, etc., on his own land, at least during the
danger season; two other States require similar permits in certain
districts (Florida in the Everglades and Pennsylvania on gas and oil
lands). Four States (New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and
Pennsylvania in the gas and oil districts) require that a warden or

—

rT -/

1 J MISS.J AUA. GA,

I . (

Note: In Maine, Fire District Owners V-v /"~'\
Pay Special State Tax \

California Law Does Not Cover
Redwood Region

FIGURE 2. — States requiring owners to provide fire protection or to support protective organizations.

someone designated to supervise the burning be present, unless there
is no danger of the fire spreading.

FIRE PATROL AND SUPPRESSION

California (except in the redwoods), Idaho, Kentucky, Montana,
Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia require forest owners to pro-
vide a patrol and suppression organization approved by the State
forester or corresponding official. (Fig. 2.) An owner may maintain
his own organization, or he may meet the requirements through mem-
bership in and support of a recognized association which provides such
protection. New Hampshire has a similar provision for holdings of
more than 1,000 acres. In California, Washington, and Oregon log-
ging engines must also be equipped with pumps, hose, and fire-fighting
tools, and all snags within a specified radius of the setting must be
felled. In addition, Washington requires a patrol of logging railroads
following all trains. Several other States provide that the owner must
make every effort to suppress fires on his own land, and that if he fails
to do so the State will do it at his expense. In Maine, the State pro-
vides protection in the forest district, but collects the costs from the
owners in the form of a special tax. In Vermont, towns may assess

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1001

all owners of unoccupied or uninclosed land (containing inflammable
material) up to 5 cents an acre to cover costs of fire fighting (on any
land), unless such owners have, during the preceding year, provided
adequate protection for their land.

CONTROL OF INSECT PESTS

In a very few States, landowners are required to assist in preventing
or checking damage by forest insects. California and Oregon require
an owner to notify the State forester of any serious infestation by pine
beetles or other insect pests harmful to timber, and also to take steps
toward controlling such infestation and preventing its spread. These
States also provide for the creation of control districts in which all
owners must cooperate provided 60 percent of the owners request it.
In Massachusetts, an owner must give notice of an infestation by
gypsy or browntail moths and must destroy the eggs and nests of
these moths, of tent caterpillars, of leopard moths, of elm beetles, or
of "any other tree or shrub destroying pest." The State is obliged
to undertake the suppression of such infestations, but may assess the
costs against the landowners. In Vermont, the commissioner of agri-
culture may order an owner to destroy pests, including gypsy and
browntail moths "or any other threatening and unusual insect pest
found to be unduly injuring vegetable growth." In New York, the
conservation department may establish barrier zones and within them
destroy such trees and other vegetation as may be necessary to check
the spread of gypsy moths.

CONTROL OF TREE DISEASES

Legislation for the control of tree diseases is found in the white pine
region of the Northeast and the Lake States. In Maine the forest
commissioner, in New Hampshire the State forester, in Michigan the
commissioner of agriculture, and in Minnesota the commissioner of
forestry may designate areas within wnich blister-rust control is
advisable, and in these areas owners must carry out control measures
as ordered. Infected pines and Ribes (currants and gooseberries) are
declared public nuisances.

In New Hampshire, Michigan, and Minnesota, tin owner may not
plant pine or Ribes in the designated areas without a permit. In New
York and Michigan black currant is declared a public nuisance, but
other currants may be grown within districts designated as fruit-
growing districts. Within these districts the eradication of five-
needled pines may be required and such pines may not be planted
without a permit. Elsewhere, if protective measures against blister-
rust have been adopted, owners must eradicate Ribes within 900 feet
of pine (in New York). In Vermont the commissioner of agriculture
may order owners to destroy host plants and such pests or fungous
diseases as he may specify. Such plants may not be replaced until
all danger of spread of the disease is past. Planting of black currants
is prohibited in Connecticut. In Rhode Island, the board of agricul-
ture is authorized to make regulations regarding the planting of pines
and currant bushes.

1002

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

SILVICULTURAL REQUIREMENTS AND REGULATION OF CUTTING

Only two States have adopted compulsory legislation designed to
prevent an operator from denuding his own land by cutting. Louis-
iana requires an owner or operator cutting timber or bleeding trees for
turpentine to leave standing and unbled an average of two seed trees
per acre of the kind cut or bled and at least 10 inches in diameter at
breast height, on each 10 acres. In New Hampshire, a person cutting
pine must leave on every acre (where pine constitutes 75 percent or
more of the stand) at least one 10-inch wind-firm pine tree, capable
of bearing an abundance of cones. The Mississippi law provides that
owners or operators cutting timber or turpentining shall be "en-
couraged" to leave standing or unbled an average of one seed tree per
acre. Nothing is said as to how the encouragement shall be brought
about.

A few States provide for a certain degree of control over the time,
method, and extent of cutting where the owner has been given a quid

FIGURE 3.— States providing for some degree of public control over classified or "auxiliary" forests.

pro quo in the form of tax concessions (fig. 3). In the main, this
control is optional with forest owners, for they do not become subject
to it unless they apply to have their lands classified under the tax
laws.1 These forests are classified under various designations, such as
"reforestation lands" (Oregon, Idaho, Washington), "forest crop
lands" (Wisconsin), "forest plantations" or "native forest lands"
(Indiana), " forest lands " (Ohio, Connecticut), " forest reservations "
(Iowa), "forested or reforested lands" (New York), "forest, game,
fish, or recreation reserves" (Virginia), "young timber lands" (Ver-
mont), "classified forest lands" (New Hampshire, Massachusetts),
"forestry reserves" (Kentucky), "private forest reservations" and
"commercial forest reserves" (Michigan), "commercial forest planta-
tions" (Delaware), and "axuiliary forests" (Minnesota, Pennsylva-

1 Information regarding control over classified forests is based largely on " Digest of forest tax laws in the
United States in effect Jan. 1, 1932," Progress Report of Forest Taxation Inquiry, No. 16 (mimeographed).

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1003

ma, Maine, Alabama). In some States the owners are merely re-
quired to report the quantity of timber cut, as a basis for computing
the yield or severance tax to be paid; in other States they are subject
to restriction on methods of cutting or forest management.

In Alabama, timber on auxiliary forests may be cut, turpentined, or
otherwise utilized only under permit and in accordance with rules
formulated by the forestry commission. In Delaware, timber (except
dead and injured trees) may not be removed without the approval of
the State forestry department. In Idaho, the property must be man-
aged in compliance with the law regarding fire protection and slash
disposal, and in compliance with such reasonable regulations as the
board of forestry may prescribe for the care of the forests, cutting and
removal of timber, and use of the forage. Before cutting any forest
products, the owner must give 30 days' notice to the State board of
forestry. In Iowa, not more than one fifth of the number of trees
on a " forest reservation" may be removed in any one year. In Ken-
tucky, the "forestry reserves" are leased by the State, which controls
cutting on them. In Louisiana, classified forests must be maintained
in a growing and thrifty condition, must be protected from fire, so
far as practicable, and must be grown in accordance with rules laid
down by the commissioner of conservation and under his supervision.

In Michigan an owner may cut merchantable forest products only
with the permission of the department of conservation. In Minne-
sota he must manage the forest for the production of merchantable
timber under a detailed working plan prepared by the commissioner
of forestry in collaboration with the chief of the forestry division of
the State university. Only timber designated by the commissioner
may be cut. New Hampshire requires merely that the land be kept
stocked with trees sufficient to promise a prospective average yield of
25,000 board feet per acre. In New York forests must be cut accord-
ing to the principles of practical forest management as directed by the
conservation commission, and may be thinned with the commission's
approval. Ohio requires classified forests to be given reasonable pro-
tection and to be cared for and managed according to regulations of
the State forester. Rhode Island requires a working plan, which
must be approved by the State commissioner of forestry.

In Oregon classified land under contract is to be held for the growing
of forest crops upon terms and conditions required by the board of
forestry. Harvesting of timber, bark, forage, or other product with-
out permission of the State board of forestry is prohibited. In Penn-
sylvania auxiliary forests must be cared for and may be thinned under
the direction of the department of forests and waters, which also is
to prescribe methods of cutting merchantable timber and designate
the trees to be cut. In Vermont cutting must not be done in such a
way that "proper forest conditions are not maintained", and the local
assessors must be notified in advance of cutting. In Virginia, where
the land is leased to the State, the State forester controls the manage-
ment of the land and the method and time of cutting timber. In
Washington timber may be cut only with the permission of the State
forest board, and cutting must be done and the land reforested and
protected in accordance with regulations prescribed by the board.
In Wisconsin an owner of classified land must notify the conservation
commission and the tax commission in advance of cutting.

1004 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

Five States seek to prevent the exemption of mature timber by
providing that unless it is cut the land will cease to be classified.
In Massachusetts the stand must not exceed (for more than 2 years)
an average of 25,000 board feet of softwoods or 10,000 feet of hard-
woods; in New York the limits are 40,000 and 20,000 feet, respectively.
New Hampshire specifies a maximum of 25,000 feet, regardless of
species, and in Vermont the timber must be cut when the "listers"
(assessors) consider it mature. California provides that a special
board shall determine when timber is mature. If a considerable
area of forest should be classified, these limitations might in some
instances be a handicap to rational forest management. They
were adopted presumably for the purpose of heading off the opposi-
tion of nonforest-owning taxpayers.

In Connecticut, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wash-
ington, the land must be kept stocked with trees of valuable species,
and planting may be required unless the land restocks naturally
after cutting. In Connecticut, Iowa, and Indiana grazing of live-
stock is forbidden in classified forests. In Michigan (wood lots)
it is subject to restriction, and pasturage which is detrimental to
the trees is forbidden in Vermont. In Delaware, the owner must
take proper precautions against damage by fire, grazing, or
otherwise.

EFFECTIVENESS OF EXISTING RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION

On the whole, existing laws designed to regulate the handling
of private forests are not particularly effective in most of the States.
The general restrictions on the use of fire, including such require-
ments as burning permits, closed seasons, use of due precaution,
spark arresters, and precautionary measures in connection with
logging operations, are fairly w^ell enforced in most of the North-
eastern, Northwestern and Lake States. In several of these States
enforcement is spotty, depending upon the individual warden.
In most of the Southern and Central States, little attempt is made to
enforce the forest fire laws.

Some but not all of the States having slash disposal laws enforce
them fairly well as far as slash along highways and railroads is
concerned. Laws providing for general slash disposal have proved
harder to enforce, and their observance leaves much to be desired,
except perhaps in Washington and Oregon. Even there, there is
considerable difference of opinion as to whether the methods em-
ployed produce the best results. Compulsory patrol laws have
proved effective in the three Pacific Coast States, but have not
been thoroughly enforced elsewhere. Legislation for the control of
pine blister-rust is fairly well enforced in the States to which it
applies. The seed-tree laws of New Hampshire and Louisiana
are not strictly enforced, and probably would not be particularly
effective if they were.

Very little information is available as to the application of public
regulation on the forests which have been listed under the special
tax laws of various States. However, less than 1,000,000 acres
have been put under the law in those States which provide for some
control over listed lands. At the most, only 2 percent of the pri-
vately owned forest land in any State has been listed. It is evident

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1005

that optional regulation under the quid pro quo principle of existing
laws is not contributing very much toward the solution of our forest
problem.

PUBLIC CONTROL OVER PRIVATE FORESTS IN OTHER

COUNTRIES

Except for earlier restrictions on hunting, there was very little
public interference with the management of private forests in Europe
until early in the sixteenth century. At that time wood was still
the principal building material and the universal fuel. Populations
and industries were growing and with them the necessity for adequate
timber supplies. Long-distance transportation of wood was possible
only by water. The accessible forests in many regions were becoming
badly depleted. It was natural, therefore, that governments should
feel concerned over the prospects of a timber shortage and should
take steps to forestall it. Between 1500 and 1789 several of them,
including France, most of the German States, and Russia, under-
took to prevent further destruction of the privately owned as well
as the public forests. Many of the forest ordinances of this period
forbade owners to clear their forests or even to cut timber without
permission of the authorities, and in some instances it was required
that government foresters mark the timber before cutting.

These laws were not always strictly enforced, and finally, under
the influence of the French Revolution and the doctrines of Adam
Smith, practically all of them were repealed or fell into disuse. For
several decades thereafter, owners were allowed to manage their
forests practically without restriction. Devastation was acceler-
ated, but the development of railroad and other transportation,
the increasing use of coal, and the growth of international trade
made the danger of a timber famine seem remote.

It was not long, however, before widespread devastation of forests
was seen to have other results of even greater public concern than the
shortage of a useful commodity. Disastrous floods in many European
countries, accompanied by great property damage and loss of life,
were attributed to the destruction of the mountain forests. Mainte-
nance of the protective function of the forests, rather than the pre-
vention of a timber shortage, was put forth as a reason for state
restriction on the management of private forests. Most of the restric-
tive legislation during the past century had this as its principal object.
France incorporated such restrictions in her Forest Code of 1827,
Austria and Bavaria followed in 1852, Prussia in 1875, Italy in 1877,
Wurttemberg in 1879, Russia in 1888, Norway in 1893, Sweden in
1903, and Spain in 1908. In 1874, following a series of flood disasters,
the Federal Government of Switzerland was given authority to super-
vise the management of mountain forests. In Japan, heavy flood
damages extending over several years led to the adoption in 1882 of
legislation restricting the use of forests.2

In most countries these laws applied only to a comparatively smal
proportion of the privately owned forests. There was little or no
control over the remainder until after 1900. Even in Germany before

2 Fernow, B. E.f A Brief History of Forestry. 506 p. Cambridge, Mass., 1911.
Adam, Forstgeschichte, ch. XVII in Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft, ed. 4, bd. 4. Tubingen,

1006 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

the World War, 68 percent of the private forests were free from any
state supervision.

Since 1900, and particularly since the war, the scope of public
control has been greatly broadened in some countries, and extension
of control is being urged in most of the others. The maintenance of
timber supplies has again become a prominent factor in the legislation
of many countries. The fear of a general timber famine, to be sure,
has not played such a prominent role as it did in the earlier legislation.
Post-war efforts to build up sustained timber production arise partly
from the growing spirit of nationalism which makes each country
desire to be as nearly self-sufficient as possible. In many countries
the movement is based also to a considerable extent on the economic
necessity of reducing unfavorable trade balances, and of utilizing the
land so as to afford employment to as many persons as possible.

So far as information is available, the essential provisions for public
control over private forests in foreign countries are summarized in
the following pages.

Unfortunately, satisfactory information is not available as to the
effectiveness of these control measures. In some countries, existing
legislation is too recent for its results to be apparent. This is partic-
ularly true of those countries where it involves radical changes from
former methods. In other countries, the principles of sound forest
management are well understood and have long been practiced by
many forest owners, especially on the large holdings. Even with
these, however, the break with old traditions, the dissolution of family
estates, and the changed political and economic conditions in general
have recently tended to weaken the position of forestry. This has
been partly responsible for recent agitation for more restrictive
legislation in several countries.

Public control is probably most effective in Switzerland, where
there are almost no large private commercial forests and where prac-
tically everyone realizes the necessity of maintaining a forest cover
for protective purposes. In France and Germany, the various pro-
posals for new and more restrictive laws indicate that existing legisla-
tion is believed to be inadequate. In Norway, Sweden, and Finland
the laws are generally effective. In those countries control is thor-
oughly decentralized, and forest owners have a voice in it. Most of
the large holdings were already managed along sound lines before
regulatory laws were passed. Moreover, forests are so important a
factor in the economic life of all three countries that their importance
is well understood by everyone.

ARGENTINA 3

Upon completion of the requisite exploration and surveys, the
Argentine congress is to be asked to provide for expropriation of lands
classified by the forest service (Inspection General of National Forests)
as of public utility, including forests which affect the topography of
mountains and slopes, help to prevent erosion of soil in ravines and
torrents, protect springs and streams in general, or help to stabilize
maritime dunes and prevent erosion of shores.

3 Decreto reglamentando la explotacion de bosques y yerbales (Presidential decree of Oct. 4, 1906, on
exploitation of forests). Fablet, Luis E., and Brebbia, Carlos, " Monografia forestal de la Republica Argen-
tina." In Actes Congres International de Sylviculture, vol. 2, p. 295-327. Rome, 1926.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMEEICAN FORESTRY 1007

Meanwhile, there is no public control over private forests except
upon application by the owners and approval by the Department of
Agriculture. Such forests are to be protected by the State, and may
be cut or otherwise exploited only as authorized by the executive
(i. e., the forest service).

In the province of Tucuman, the cutting of trees in a 100-meter
belt along streams is prohibited, as is the destruction of groves in
pasture lands.

AUSTRIA <

Two thirds of the forest area of Austria is privately owned. About
two thirds of this land is in small tracts of less than *100 hectares (250
acres) owned mostly by farmers. Forest land may not be cleared
for other use without the permission of the local district authorities.
No forest may be devastated so as to make further timber production
difficult or impossible. Freshly cut-over land must be restocked
within 5 years; a longer period is allowed only in special cases. Older
bare land must be reforested within one rotation period. Advance
notice must be given before making a clear cutting of more than \%
acres (% hectare) and the authorities may impose certain require-
ments as to time of cutting, reforestation, etc.

A forest may not be handled in such a way as to expose a neighbor-
ing forest to wind damage. On light soils that are easily blown, and
on high mountains, clear cutting only in narrow strips or gradual
thinning is permitted, and only selection cutting is allowed in forests
near timber line. Disturbing of the soil must be avoided on the
banks of large streams and in places where there is danger of land-
slides.

Grazing is forbidden in places where it will damage or prevent
reproduction of the forest, and may in no case be in excess of the carry-
ing capacity of the range. Herders must be employed unless there
are other effective ways of keeping stock off reproduction areas.
Gathering of forest litter is also subject to certain restrictions.

Expert foresters approved by the Government must be employed
for tracts above a specified size, which depends on local conditions.
Owners must notify the local authorities of the presence of insect
pests which threaten other forests, and the owners of all forests which
are endangered by such pests must cooperate in control measures.

Where the safety of persons or of public or private property requires
special treatment of the forest as a protection against rock-slides,
avalanches, washing of the soil, etc., the area may be designated as
protection or "ban" forest. This is to be done by a commission,
assisted by experts, upon the application of a commune or other
interested party, or upon the recommendation of public officials.
Protection forests are to be managed by competent persons employed
for the purpose, in accordance with rules prescribed by the com-
mission.

Under a special law for regulation of torrents (1884), the interested
parties are obliged to contribute toward costs of forest planting and
other corrective work, which is carried out by the forest protective
organization. The State and the provinces have borne about 70
percent of these costs.

'Schindler, Karl, Die Forst-und Jagdgesetze der Oesterreichischer Monarchic. 465 p. WU?n. ISfl
Fernow, B. E., A Brief History of Forestry, p. 163-166. Cambridge, Mass., 1911 Weber, H., Forstpohti*.
Ch. XIX in Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft, ed. 4, bd. 4, p. 369. Tubingen, 1927.

1008 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

BELGIUM s

Nearly 60 percent of the forest area of Belgium is privately owned.
Most of the holdings are small. Under the law enacted in 1931,
which takes the place of a similar provisional law of 1921, the Minister
of Agriculture may forbid abnormal or excessive cutting of any wood-
land which is of special public importance because it serves to protect
the soil on mountains and slopes, to prevent erosion by streams, to
regularize the flow of streams and springs, to stabilize dunes and
coasts, or because it is necessary for purposes of the national defense
or nublic health. Cutting that removes more than half the volume
of timber in high forest, or that leaves less than 75 cubic meters per
hectare (about 1,000 cubic feet per acre), and cutting that removes
more than 60 percent or leaves less than 25 cubic meters in coppice
with-standards, is considered excessive. Broad-leaved forests of less
than 10 hectares (25 acres) and coniferous forests of less than 25
hectares, as well as coppice, and coppice- with-standards where the
overstory contains less than 25 cubic meters per hectare, are exempt
from control.

The Belgian law differs from the French law in that a forest owner
is not required to give advance notice of an intended cutting, and the
restriction is not limited to clear cutting but also covers abusive
cutting that is likely to lead to the same result. The Belgian law
also provides that the minister may authorize excessive cutting,
provided the owner will agree to undertake certain measures, such as
replanting the same or an equivalent area within a specified time.

A forest owner may appeal from a decision by the minister to a
commission consisting of a magistrate appointed by the King and
two persons named by the Superior Forestry Council.

Another law provides for prohibiting the destruction of forests of
special historic or scenic significance.

BRAZIL 6

Owners of forest land in Brazil may apply to have their forests
classified, especially in case of protection forests which serve to
regularize streams, prevent erosion, promote the public health or
national defense, or which are natural beauty spots or wild-life pre-
serves. These forests must be managed in a manner approved by
the forest service, as regards both timber exploitation and grazing.
The Federal Government, in cooperation with local governments,
is to grant special favors to compensate for the restriction. These
favors may include assistance in building roads, police protection,
and subsidies for planting.

BULGARIA

Less than one fifth of the forest land of Bulgaria is in private
ownership. The private forest is largely coppice, and is in small
units, with an average of only about 2 hectares (5 acres) for each

5 Bulletin Societg Centrale Forestiere de Belgique 28: 49-51, 342-344 (1921); 39: 81-96, 140-168 (1932).
Geneau, G., in Revue des Eaux et des ForPts 70: 349-353 (1932).

6 Decreto que da regulamento ao Service Florestal do Brasil, 16 Sept. 1925. Translated in International
Yearbook of Agricultural Legislation, 1925, p. 379-390. International Inst. Agr., Rome, 1926.

7 Law on forests, 21 July 1925. Translated in International Yearbook of Agricultural Legislation, 1925,
p. 390-454. Internat, Inst. Agr., Rome, 1926.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1009

owner. Protection forests include two categories : (1) Ordinary con-
servation zones, which are forest, grazing, or waste lands that should
be conserved as a matter of public interest in order to protect the
soil on mountains and slopes, to protect springs and streams, to
prevent erosion of shores and river banks, and to protect roads, rail-
ways, and inhabited places; and (2) compulsory conservation zones
in the mountains, where the land is exposed to especial danger of
erosion, torrents, and avalanches; and threatens to cause damage to
more or less distant localities, arable lands, roads, railways, etc.

In the compulsory zone the authorities may require stabilization
of the soil through afforestation or masonry work, and the State may
contribute 30 percent of the cost of the work. Owners cannot be
compelled to spend money on these lands, but if they do not the
State can expropriate the land.

Clearing of the forest and conversion to other use is not allowed in
either zone, nor may clear cutting be done. The State may prohibit
any cutting, grazing, or removal of litter until a management plan
is adopted. Such a plan, covering the utilization of the timber,
forage, or other products, may be prepared by the owner or his agent
and approved by the Minister of Agriculture and Domains. It must
insure the continued productivity of the forest but not necessarily
sustained yield. Permission of the State forest officer must be
obtained before cutting, and unless application is made before July 1
of each year the owner has to pay the officer's expenses in examining
the tract.

If the owners of one half of the forests within a given unit agree,
the State may require that small areas of mountain protection forests
be grouped into larger units so as to facilitate management. The
State is obliged to expropriate the lands of those owners who are
unwilling to cooperate and to pool its own forests with the others in
the unit for purposes of cooperative management.

The State may remove the inhabitants from protection zones; in
such an event it pays their moving expenses, grants them better
located cultivable land in exchange, and may also grant cash subsidies
to help them get started in the new location.

Nonprotection forests are subject to a less degree of control. Graz-
ing is not permitted in plantations less than 10 years old, in coppice
stands less than 2% feet tall, or on naturally reproducing areas under
old timber or on burns. The number of stock that may be run on
forest lands is subject to restriction, depending upon the character of
the forage. The local population may vote to exclude goats. Night
grazing is prohibited, and all stock must be accompanied by a herder.
Areas of more than 10 hectares (about 25 acres) may not be cut
without the permission of a State forest officer. The State is to
supply free planting stock to all classes of owners.

Forests other than protection forests may be subjected to further
control at the owners' request. Such forests may be cleared where
suitable for agriculture, where they will be restocked artificially,
where they are less than 10 hectares in area but not part of larger
tracts together containing more than 10 hectares, or in cases where
an equal area of other land has been satisfactorily restocked. Planta-
tions under 20 years old may be cleared (except where planted as
penalty for deforestation).

1010 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

CANADA

Neither the Dominion nor the Provincial Governments attempt
at the present time to regulate the management of private forests.
Such control has been proposed, however, notably in Quebec. There, it
is reported, "the Minister of Lands and Forests is urging the adoption
of legislation similar to that of the Scandinavian countries * * *.
It is hoped to bring about an arrangement under which such owners
in Quebec would be forced to secure advance authorization for cutting,
and to submit to an official checking of the quantities of timber cut." 8

CZECHOSLOVAKIA «

Almost two thirds of the forest land of Czechoslovakia is privately
owned. At least two thirds of the private forest is in large holdings
of more than 250 hectares (about 620 acres). Forest legislation is
based largely on the Austrian law of 1852. Under a law adopted in
1928, all owners of forests over 50 hectares in area must manage them
according to approved management plans prepared by qualified
foresters. These plans, which must provide for sustained yield so
far as it may be practicable, must specify the quantity and location of
cutting for io to 20 years ahead and must give details as to the areas to
be planted during at least 10 years. Until such plans are approved
each cutting must be reported, and it is forbidden to cut more than
one sixtieth (regulations specify one eightieth) of the area of high
forest or one twentieth of the area of a coppice forest in any one year
(except locust or oak grown for tanbark). In no case may the cut
exceed the annual growth. Cutting of high forest under 60 years old
or coppice under 20 years (with minor exceptions) is prohibited unless
such cutting is prescribed in the management plan, or unless special
permission is obtained. This does not apply to thinnings or neces-
sary improvement cutting. Owners worldng under approved plans
must keep adequate records and must submit certain reports to the
regulatory authorities after the end of each year.

For tracts of less than 500 hectares, the plans must be approved by
the local district forest authorities; for tracts of 500 to 5,000 hectares,
by the provincial authorities; and for tracts of more than 5,000 hec-
tares, by the Minister of Agriculture. An owner may be required to
revise his plan before the expiration of 10 years in case of any impor-
tant change in the economic situation of the forest, or in case the
approved plan is evidently resulting in overcutting. Owners of tracts
smaller than 50 hectares may be relieved of the necessity of reporting
each cutting if they adopt management plans.

DENMARK *°

In Denmark, nearly 70 percent of the forest is held by private
owners. Almost two thirds of this private forest is in units greater
than 60 hectares (about 150 acres). Control over private forests is
very slight. As long as an owner keeps his forest in good condition

8 Frost, Wesley (U.S. Consul General at Montreal), Manuscript report, Oct. 9, 1930.

9 Deutsche Forstzeitung 43: 786-767 (1928), and 45: 826 (1930).

Loi No. 37 concernant la protection provisoire des forets, 29 fevrier 1928. In Annuaire International de
Legislation Agricole, 1928, p. 346-349. Internatl. Inst. Agr., Rome, 1929.

Decret gouvernmental No. 97 portant execution de la loi concernant la protection provisoire des forPts
26 juin, 1930. In Annuaire International de Legislation Agricole, 1930. Internatl. Inst. Agr., Rome, 1930.

1° Koch, A. E., Manuscript on law of Sept. 28, 1805. July 18, 1922. Moller, C. M., " Model forest legisla-
tion." In Actes Congres International de Sylviculture, vol. 2, p. 626-642. Rome, 1926.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 101 1

he is not interfered with. If he does not do so, the State will carry
out such measures as may be necessary to insure restocking, at the
owner's expense. Most of the forests are classified as "protected"
forests, which may not be cleared. Other forests may be cleared, but
must not be devastated so long as they remain forests.

A purchaser may not cut timber, except for his personal use, within
10 years after buying a forest unless he gets permission from Govern-
ment inspectors and has the trees which are to be cut marked by them
(at public expense) . This is to prevent speculative purchase for the
purpose of exploitation. After 10 years he can cut as he pleases, so
long as he keeps the forest productive.

Forests may not be divided into tracts of less than 50 hectares (125
acres) nor may large forest estates be broken up into holdings of less
than 600 hectares (1,500 acres). This restriction aims to insure the
continued employment of trained foresters, which would not be feas-
ible with small tracts. Owners of less than 50 hectares may form
cooperatives and employ foresters, half of whose salaries will be paid
by the State.

EL SALVADOR »

An owner in El Salvador may not clear a forest for the purpose of
cultivating the land without permission of the Departmental Gov-
ernor; land cleared without permission must be reforested within 2
years. Permission to clear land may not be refused, however, except
in case of protection forests, the conservation of which is necessary
for the protection of soil on mountains or slopes, prevention of
erosion by rivers, lakes, and torrents, stabilizing the flow of springs
and streams, fixation of dunes, national defense, and public health.
In these forests cutting must be done in such a manner as to maintain
a reasonably continuous forest cover, and the trees that are cut must
be replaced by others of the same or better kinds within 1 year.
Outside of the protection forest areas, every owner of more than 45
hectares (about 110 acres) is required to establish a forest at the rate
of 1 hectare for each 50 hectares of land. This is not required where
the land is too sterile for trees, or where all of it is utilized for more
productive purposes.

ESTONIA 12

Prior to the war, most of the forests of Estonia were in large estates.
Upon the establishment of the Kepublic all private forests of more than
50 hectares (about 125 acres) in area were confiscated by the State.
The remaining private forests are under the general supervision of
State forest officers.

FINLAND "

More than 60 percent of the forest of Finland is owned by indi-
viduals and corporations. Sawmill and pulp companies own con-
siderable areas, but are not allowed to acquire forests within agricul-
tural districts. There are a few large individual holdings, but small

;'Die Waldungen Estlands, ihre Bewirtschaftung und der forstliche Unterricht in
Estland." In Actes Congres International do Sylviculture, vol. 2, p. 32^7. Rome, 1
is Lakari, O. J., " Measures for insuring sustained forestry in Finland." 26 p. £°%*IUI

Cajander, A. K., "The organization of forest administration in Suomi " Silva J^SS^Bt
Loi no 161 concernar.t les fortts appartenant aux particulars, 11 mai 1928. In Annuaire
de Legislation Agricole, 1928, p. 333-338. Internatl. lust. Apt, Rome, 1929

1012 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

holdings predominate. Forests must not be devastated or treated in
such a manner that natural regeneration is jeopardized. Stands of
immature conifer timber may not be cut, but they may be thinned in
a rational manner. Where necessary, cut-over areas must be re-
planted. Clearing of land for crops, pasture, or other use is allowed,
provided it is suitable and is actually put to such use. Unless the
forest is managed in accordance with a working plan approved by the
provincial forestry board, or unless the owner himself is merely making
a rational thinning of his woods, the board must be notified before
cutting, with information as to time, place, extent, and character of
cutting.

Forestry boards (eight in number) consist of 3 to 5 members each,
and an equal number of alternates, all appointed for 3-year terms.
The members are chosen by the provincial agricultural societies
and societies of rural economy, excepting one, who is selected by
the central Government office for the promotion of private forestry.
Each board has attached to it a provincial forest inspector (and in
some instances an assistant inspector) and provincial rangers aver-
aging 6 to 8 in each Province. Each provincial board is assisted
by communal boards, each consisting of at least three members
elected by the community.

The provincial boards look out for illegal cutting, and advise and
instruct the owners as to methods of reforesting cut-over land, in-
cluding both that newly cut and that already denuded. Forests that
have been mismanaged in violation of the law are subject to rather
strict regulation by the boards. As originally constituted, the function
of these boards was merely to prevent forest devastation, but the law
adopted in 1928 made them responsible also for promoting the devel-
opment of private forestry through dissemination of information, and
assistance in forestry operations and cooperative undertakings. This
had previously been left to the agricultural societies, under the super-
vision of the Board of Agriculture.

Protection forests may be so classified by the Government at the
request of the State Board of Forestry, where they are near timber
line, on drifting sand, or on steep slopes, where the destruction
of the forest cover would threaten to cause damage to other land.
Timber in protection forests, except for domestic use, may be utilized
only with the sanction of a forest official. As most of the forest that
falls in this class is State forest, this law has caused no difficulty.

FRANCE "

Two thirds of the French forest area is in private ownership, of
which more than half is divided among approximately 1,400,000
owners whose holdings are less than 50 hectares each, with an average
of about 2% hectares (6 acres). Less than one tenth of the area is
held by the 700 owners of more than 500 hectares (1,250 acres).

n Bourdeaux, Henry (editor), "Code forestier, suivi des lois sur la p6che et la chasse et code rural."
384 p., Paris, 1930.

Guyot, Charles, "Manuel de droit forestier a 1'usage des particuliers proprietaires de bois." 340 p.,
Paris, 1921.

Guyot, Charles, "Le reboisement et la conservation des forets privees." 38 p. Paris, 1920.

Revue des Eaux et Forfits 68: 428; 590; 655. 1930.

Loi relative a la reglementation de 1'abatage du chataignier, 6 d£ cembre 1928. In Annuaire International
de Legislation Agricole, 1928, p. 338-339. Internatl. Inst. Agr., Rome, 1929.

Anterrieu-Vons, "Organisation du service de defense des forets, etc." In Actes Congres International
de Sylviculture, vol. 5, p. 163-184. Rome, 1926.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1013

The "code forestier" adopted in 1827 and amended in 1859, which
still applies to most of the privately owned forests, except very small
holdings in flat country, places no restrictions on their management
except that no forest may be cleared (i.e., deforested) without four
months' advance notice to the proper authorities. The forest service,
with approval of the Council of State, may prohibit clearing only in
cases where conservation of the forest is deemed necessary for main-
taining the soil on slopes or mountains, protecting soil against erosion,
maintaining the flow of springs and streams, stabilizing of sand dunes
and protection of coasts, defense of the frontiers, or public health.
Abusive cutting, where subsequent grazing or browsing of the young
growth by rabbits may result in deforestation is considered as deforest-
ation and is forbidden. Areas cleared in spite of such prohibition
must be reforested within 3 years ; if the owner fails to do this work the
forest service will do it at his expense. Notice of clearing is not re-
quired in case of artificially established forests under 20 years old,
groves near dwellings, or tracts of less than 10 hectares that are not
contiguous with larger tracts or on ridges or mountain slopes.

Legislation adopted in 1882 and amended in 1913 provides for the
designation by law of mountain areas (" perimeters"), within which
the public interest requires reforestation and other work for protec-
tion of the soil and regulation of streams or torrents. These areas are
to be classified only after examination and hearings by a special com-
mission consisting of administrative officials, local citizens, and repre-
sentatives of the forest service and the highway department. Within
these perimeters the Government carries out the necessary work at
public expense, expropriating the land if necessary. Owners may
retain their lands providing they agree to perform the work and
manage the land subsequently as the forest service may direct. In
places where conditions are threatening but not sufficiently serious to
require restoration work, the service may forbid any utilization of
forest or grazing land for a period not to exceed 10 years. The
owner is to be indemnified for any loss of revenue, and if the restric-'
tion is extended beyond 10 years he may require the Government to
buy the land.

A protection forest law of limited scope was adopted in 1922. Under
this law protection forests are those which must be conserved in order
to maintain the soil on mountains and slopes, and to protect against
avalanches, erosion, and the encroachment of waters and sands.
After hearings and recommendation by the special commissions pro-
vided in the 1882 law, forests may be classified as protection forests
upon recommendation of the forest service, in consultation with the
secretaries of agriculture and finance, and within the limits of the
credits provided in the budget. These forests are subject to special
control by the forest service with respect to the utilization of timber,
forage, and other products, and are subject to expropriation by the
State at any time. Cutting may be done under approved manage-
ment plans; in the absence of such plans, permission must be obtained
for each operation. The owner is entitled to indemnity for loss
revenue resulting from restrictions on management, and he may
demand that the State purchase the forest if the loss amounts to one
half of his normal revenue. Any silvicultural or engineering work
that is necessary to hold the soil in place can be done by the forest
service at State expense. As protection of water supplies and regu-

1014 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

lation of stream flow are not within the scope of this law, the area of
private forests affected is very small.

A special law of 1893 applying only to the Maures and Esterel
regions of southeastern France restricts the right to use fire on one's
own land, and also provides that any owner can oblige his neighbors
to cooperate in maintaining a 20 to 50 meter firebreak along property
lines.

Another law, passed in 1924, extends the restrictions of the 1893
law to a larger area (Departments of Var and Alpes Maritimes) and
provides for the classification by special commissions of districts
particularly exposed to fire hazard. If, within 1 year after such
classification, the forest owners within a district have not voluntarily
joined in a fire protective association, they may be compelled to do
so by decree of the Council of State. By 1926, approximately 270,000
hectares had been classified and 10 cooperative associations had been
organized. This same law provides that the prefect, upon recommenda-
tion of the forest service and the commission, may forbid grazing
for 1 0 years on burned-over land.

Chestnut forests have been subject to special restrictions since
1928. An owner desiring to cut more than 20 trees (except coppice)
in 1 year must notify the prefect in advance, must replace each tree
that is cut by a new tree or a sprout within 2 years, and may not
pasture goats in plantations or sprout stands less than 3 years old.

Optional control is provided in two laws. A law of July 2, 1913,
authorizes owners to contract with the forest service to manage their
forests under agreements which must run for at least 10 years. The
scope of control, to be agreed upon between the owner and the service,
may range from mere police protection to complete silvicultural
management. The owner is to pay a fee for this service. It has been
reported that the fees demanded by the forest service have been so
high that very few owners have taken advantage of the law. Another
law passed in 1930 provides for a reduction of the transfer tax on
forest lands on condition that they shall be managed according to a
working plan approved by the local office of the forest service. As
an alternative, if the forest is more than 50 hectares in area, the
owner must get the permission of the forest office before cutting, must
replant within 5 years if natural reproduction fails, and must also
prevent damage from grazing and wild game. These restrictions are
to be effective for at least 30 years after the transfer of ownership.

ALGERIA 15

Only 5 per cent of the Algerian forest is privately owned. The
laws relating to use of private forests are patterned closely after the
forest code of France. The forest service may forbid clearing (de-
forestation) where the preservation of the forest is necessary for the
protection of soil on mountains or slopes, prevention of erosion by
rivers or torrents, stabilization of streams, fixation of drifting sands,
national defense, or public health. Areas cleared without permission
of the forest service must be reforested within 3 years. If the owner
fails to do this, the service will do it at his expense.

Brush-covered or denuded land which needs to be forested for the
same reasons may be declared to be of public utility and may be

15 Loif orestiere relative a 1'Algerie, promulguee le 21 fevrier 1903, also supplementary decree of the Governor
General, dated Aug. 20, 1904,

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 1015

expropriated for purposes of afforestation, at the option of the forest
service. If the land is not expropriated, the owners may continue to
use it, but may not clear the brush or trees without permission of the
service.

Abusive exploitation or overgrazing which will result in the destruc-
tion of the forest is considered equivalent to deforestation. Grazing
on reproducing burns less than 6 years old is prohibited.

Except for the restriction on clearing, owners may manage their
forests as they please, but with certain exceptions they must give
notice before cutting timber or harvesting other products. Except
where it is proposed to clear the land, this is merely to allow the author-
ities to check up the ownership of the forest and thus prevent trespass.

Burning of brush and slash near forests requires a permit and may
be done only if a forest guard is present. An owner of land that is
covered with brush or slash may be required by owners of adjoining
land to cooperate in clearing a firebreak around his property.

MADAGASCAR 16

Proprietors enjoy full rights of ownership and use of their forests
in Madagascar except that they may not destroy the forest without
permission of the Governor General, and must not use fire to clear
the land. Permission to clear may be withheld where the conserva-
tion of the brush or forest cover is necessary for protection of soil
on mountains or slopes, prevention of erosion by streams and torrents,
protection of springs and headwaters of streams, stabilization of
dimes and seacoasts, or for purposes of public health or national
defense.

An owner or operator clearing land without authorization may be
compelled to reforest it under the direction of the public authorities
at a rate not to exceed 25 hectares a year.

Recent legislation (1930) provides for classification of special
"protection forests" and "reforestation reserves". Protection forests
which include all forests on lateritic soil with slopes steeper than
35°, may not be exploited without permission of the forest service
and not more than 50 percent of the trees may be cut. Reforestation
reserves are temporarily closed to all exploitation. They include
bare or insufficiently wooded land on steep mountain slopes, littoral
dunes, or lands liable to serious gullying, and also isolated forests
of less than 500 hectares unless exempted by the forest service.

GERMANY "

In Germany, legislation on forestry matters has been left to the
individual States. Since the ^ revolution of 1918 a national forestry
law has been proposed and widely discussed, but it has not yet been
adopted. In order to clear up any doubts as to the authority of the
States to regulate private forests, an ordinance was passed in 1924
specifically confirming this authority, subject only to the restriction

is Decree of 1913 establishing regime forestier for the colony.

D6cret reorganizant le regime forestier applicable a Madagascar et dfipendances 25 janvier 1930. J
Annuaire International de Legislation Agricole. 1930, p. 533-542. Internatl. Inst. Agr., Rome, 1930.

" Von Arnswaldt, in Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 105: 298-306, 1929.

See also Weber, H., Forstpolitik, Ch. XIX, in Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft Ed. 4, Bd. 4. 1
ingen, 1927.

168342°— 33— vol. I 65

1016 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

that an owner must be allowed to manage his forest in his own way,
provided he keeps within the limits of "conservative forestry". As
each State decides for itself, what constitutes "conservative forestry",
practically any degree of control may be adopted. In some of the
States the old forest laws are still in force; others have adopted new
laws, providing for an extension of public regulation beyond that
previously in effect.

The essential provisions of the laws of the principal German states
are as follows:

BADEN 18

One third of the forest in Baden is privately owned. Three
fourths of this is in tracts of less than 20 hectares. Only 44 properties
are larger than 100 hectares, having an aggregate area of 7,000 hec-
tares, (approximately 17,300 acres). An owner may use his forest
as he pleases, so far as this does not interfere with the obligation to
maintain it as continuously productive forest. Management on a
sustained yield basis is not required. In order to insure that the
forest will be continuously productive, deforestation without per-
mission of the State forest service is forbidden, as is also the destruc-
tion or jeopardizing of the forest through mismanagement. Where
clearing is permitted, the land must be put to agricultural use within
a specified period. Permission to clear will not be granted if there
are valid objections by neighboring owners, or if the land is not
suited for agriculture.

Clear cutting (or its equivalent) requires the consent of the local
authority ; consent is to be refused unless the applicant agrees to plant
the area as directed by the district forest office and unless the success
of artificial restocking is reasonably certain.

All plantable forest land which will not become fully stocked natu-
rally must be planted. This includes land already denuded before
the law was passed. The district forest office is to see that sufficient
planting stock is grown, preferably in the private forests themselves,
or, if necessary, by public authorities, and that it is sold at low prices.
In case an owner fails to do the required planting at the time and in
the way specified, the State forest authorities are to do it at his
expense.

If he destroys the forest or utilizes it in a way that threatens to
destroy it, his operations may be stopped, he may be fined, and the
forest may be put under control of a State forest officer for not less
than 10 years. On such a forest the owner must notify the forester
by April of the kind and quantity of timber he desires to cut in the
succeeding fiscal year. The forester marks the timber to be cut, in-
structs the owner in methods of felling and removing the timber and
by products, and inspects the cutting area to see that his instructions
are carried out.

Cutting or hauling of timber at night is forbidden, as is night
grazing. The erection of buildings in or near forests, and the burning
of charcoal or use of fire for other purposes are subject to restrictions.
Forest properties of less than 20 hectares may not be subdivided
except by permission of the authorities.

18 Muncke, Th. (editor), Das Badische Forstgesetz in seiner jetzigen Qestalt. (Law of 1833 as amended
in 1854, and supplementary ordinance of January 30, 1855.) Karlsruhe, 1874.

Eichhorn, Das badische Forstgesetz und seine Erneuerung. Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 105:
441-454. 1929.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1017

BAVARIA 19

About half of the forest in Bavaria is privately owned. Most of
the pnvate forest is in small units. Only one fifth of it is managed by
foresters. Every owner is entitled to the free use and management of
his forests so long as the rights of other parties are not infringed upon,
and so long as he complies with the provisions of the forestry law which
are designed to insure the maintenance of the forest in a productive
condition.

Protection forests include those on ridges, steep slopes, hillsides,
and bluffs, those affording protection against avalanches and winds,
and those serving to maintain the flow of springs, to prevent the ero-
sion of stream banks, and to fix drifting sands. Such forests may not
be destroyed or even clear cut.

Other forests may be cleared only with the permission of the forest
authority, provided the land is unquestionably suited for agriculture
or other superior use, and provided the owner agrees to put it to such
use within a period to be specified. Land devoted to forests must be
kept forested and may not be devastated; that is, it may not be
handled in such a way as to threaten its continued existence as a forest.
Clear cutting is not considered as devastation, provided the land is
restocked promptly by natural or artificial means. Areas denuded
by cutting or through any other cause following the adoption of the
law must be reforested, by planting if necessary. If the owner fails
to do this within a specified time, the State foresters will do it at his
expense. When forest land or standing timber is sold, the authorities
must be notified and a permit obtained before the timber is cut.
This may be refused unless reforestation is assured. It may be re-
fused in case of young high-forest stands if less than 75 percent of the
trees are 12 centimeters or more in diameter.

Grazing at night or on areas occupied by young growth is forbidden,
and livestock must be accompanied by a herder. The use of fire and
the erection of buildings in or near a forest are subject to limited con-
trol. The owner must carry out such measures as may be required by
the authorities in case of insect outbreaks.

A private forest mav^ be subdivided only with the consent of the
forest authorities, and in no event may it be subdivided to such an
extent that the separate portions are incapable of regular management.

HESSE M

Less than one third of the Hessian forest is privately owned. Two
classes of private forests are distinguished: Class I forests (about 70
percent of the total), managed by technically trained foresters; and
class II forests, which are not so managed. Class I forests do not have
to pay the special forest protection tax which is collected from owners
of class II forests. All forests must be kept continuously productive,
and their yields increased so far as practicable. For clearing of forest
land, the permission of a superior forest official is required. Bare land
that is suitable for forestry and unused for crops or pasture must be

"» Ganghofer, A. Von, " Das Forstgesetz fur das Konigreich Bayern." Ed. 2, 381 p. Nordlingen, 1889.

Weber, H., "Forstpolitik," Ch. XIX, in Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft, Ed. 4, Bd. 4. Tiibingen,
1927.

» Endres, M., "Handbuch der Forstpolitik." Ed. 2, p. 176-178. Berlin, 1922.

Weber, H., " Forstpolitik, " Ch. XIX, p. 365-367, in Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft, Ed. 4, Bd. 4.
Tubingen, 1927.

1018 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FOKESTRY

reforested within a period to be fixed by the forest authorities. Pri-
vate forests, or public and private forests together, may be combined
into cooperative units and managed by the State forest service, upon
request of the owners. Individual owners also may have their forests
managed by the State, under voluntary contract.

A forest or the standing timber may not be sold without permission
of the forest authority, and the State has prior option on any forest
that is offered for sale. It is not permitted to break up forest proper-
ties so as to make units of less than one half hectare. Protection
forests must be handled in accordance with an approved management
plan and qualified foresters must be employed.

MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN 21

Private owners in this State hold slightly less than half of the forest
area. Forest devastation is forbidden, and forest land may not be
cleared for other use without permission of the forest authorities. Not
to exceed 4 percent of the area of a forest of 25 to 100 hectares may be
cut over in any one year. For a forest of more than 100 hectares not
more than 2 percent of the area may be cut in any one year, the
forest must be managed according to a working plan, and technically
qualified foresters must be employed.

Areas on which the volume of timber has been reduced below 40
percent of the original stand, by cutting, fire, or otherwise, must be
reforested within three years. If the owner fails to do this, the public
authorities will do it at his expense. Existing bare land must be
planted within a period to be fixed, and the State will contribute part
of the necessary funds for this work. The dividing of forests is
forbidden, except as may be allowed by a later law. Forests which
serve as recreation spots for people in the cities may not be cut without
permission of a special commission which is set up for the purpose.

The supervisory authority is the Agricultural Chamber, working
through its forestry committee, which consists of forest owners,
representatives of the communal forests, the small owners, and the

Erofessional foresters. Appeals from decisions of the Chamber may
e taken to the State Department of Agriculture, Domains, and
Forests.

PRUSSIA 22

Half of the forest in Prussia is privately owned. Mandatory
control applies only to protection forests, which are those protecting
other forests or watercourses from drifting sand, protecting lowlands,
roads or buildings against floods or landslides, protecting against
winds, or protecting the flow of streams. In these forests, methods of
cutting may be prescribed, and planting or other control work
required. A special law applying to the headwaters of the Oder, in
Silesia, forbids excessive removal of litter, grazing, removal of
stumps, or digging of drainage ditches.

Forests may be classified as protection forests upon application of
communes, local or district authorities, interested persons who are
exposed to danger, or the State police authorities. Forest owners are

21 Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 105: 298-306. 1929.

22 Manuscript report on law of July 6, 1875.
Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 105: 298-306. 1929.
Deutsche Forstzeitung 47: 654-655. 1932.

Weber, H., "Forstpolitik," ch. XIX, p. 415, in Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft, Ed. 4, Bd. 4.
Tubingen, 1927.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 101 9

to be compensated for losses suffered as a result of restrictions, at the
expense of the applicants or other persons benefiting from the restric-
tion. Beneficiaries may be required to pay for the construction and
maintenance of protection works. Restrictions may not be imposed
which will entail a greater loss than the amount of damage that will be
prevented.

A 1922 law provides for the preservation of stands of trees near
large cities and health resorts, or in industrial districts. Restrictions
will be removed in 1937 if interested municipalities or associations do
not lease or purchase the forests by that time.

New legislation has been under discussion for several years, but has
not yet been adopted. This contemplates extension of public control
to all private forests, under the general supervision of a special State
forest commission assisted by provincial commissions. Working
plans would be required for all forests above a given minimum area,
clearing without a permit would be prohibited, and reforestation of
cut-over land would be obligatory.

SAXONY 23

In this State almost half of the forest is privately owned. Three
fourths of the private forest is in small units, which for the most part
are poorly managed. The average private holding is only 5 hectares
in extent. Advance notice of proposed cutting must be given to the
State forest service. Certain restrictions are imposed on the cutting
of immature timber. Decisions of forest inspectors are subject to
review by a central board, which includes representatives of the State
forest service and of communal and private forest owners. Bare
forest lands must be reforested at an early date, under general super-
vision of the State foresters. Intervention in the management of
well-kept private forests is not contemplated.

THURINGIA 24

About half of the forest in Thuringia is privately owned. The
forest law of 1930 requires that all forests, regardless of ownership,
must be managed conservatively. For clearing iorest land, permis-
sion of the forest authorities must be obtained, and advance notice
must be given of any clear cutting in excess of one half hectare (about
1% acres), unless it is done under an approved working plan. The
owner of a forest over a minimum size to be fixed by the Finance
Department must employ a qualified forester and a protective force,
or be a member of a silvicultural association, or put his forest under
the control of the central agricultural chamber (Hauptlandwirt-
schaftskammer). At the owner's request, the State will take over
the management and protection of any forest, for a stipulated fee to
be paid by the owner. The cutting and sale of timber is left to the
owner. Under certain conditions forests may be classified as protec-
tion forests, and then their management is subject to a greater degree
of public control.

23 Steger, C. T. (United States vice consul), Manuscript report on law of October 25, 1923. (Dec. 14, 1923.)
M Deutsche Forstzeitung 45 : 1119-1120. 1930.

1020 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

WURTTEMBERG

25

Only one third of the forest is in private ownership in Wurttemberg.
Clearing of forest land (deforestation) requires the permission of the
Department of Finance, following a recommendation of the forest
service. Permission will not be granted where the clearing will break
up a contiguous forest unit or will endanger adjoining forests, or for
forests on heights or those which afford protection against wind.
Permission to cut clear or to thin heavily may also be withheld where
the forest officer determines that the forest should be kept intact in
order to prevent damage through landslides, soil washing, or wind-
throw of adjacent conifer forests.

Forest officers may require the modification of cutting and other
practices, including excessive grazing and removal of litter, which
endanger the continued existence of the forest. The owner must give
notice of outbreaks of insect and other pests and must carry out
control measures as directed.

Bare land suitable for timber production (whether denuded by the
owner or not) must be restocked within a specified period ; if it is not,
the work will be done by public agencies at the owner's expense.

The owners of small tracts may combine them for purposes of
management, and may arrange with the State forest service to provide
technical supervision and protection. The owners are to pay an
agreed sum for this service.

GREAT BRITAIN

Neither in Great Britain itself nor, with one or two minor exceptions,
in other parts of the British Empire has the Government undertaken
to exercise any control over the management of privately owned
forests. The necessity for some degree of control is coming to be
recognized, however, particularly since the World War. The report
of the Third British Empire Forestry Conference (1928) contains the
following statement:

It is suggested that legislation might provide for the protection of water sources
and the prevention of erosion and shifting cultivation, matters which the dis-
cussions show to be of prime importance in many countries. Similarly, it was
thought that governments who have not hitherto done so, might in certain
circumstances take power to assume, on conditions, the management of private
forests in the public interest.26

The annual report of the Forestry Commission of Great Britain for
1929 contains the following:

The measures which the commissioners have taken to improve private forestry
consist of provision of grants for planting, technical advice as to the conduct of
operations and educational facilities, the conduct of research and the dissemina-
tion of information. These activities * * * have not been successful in
arresting the deterioration of the home woodlands in private ownership, much less
in restoring the pre-war position.

There are three main lines of action to which recourse is possible: (1) State
assistance * * *; (2) restrictions on the user of woodlands, such as State per-
mission to fell or compulsory replanting * * *; (3) acquisition and replanting
by the State of felled and derelict woodland. This procedure has already been
applied by the commissioners, but purely on a voluntary basis.

In reviewing the whole situation with regard to private forestry the commis-
sioners have come to the conclusion that while they do not suggest any immediate

" Forstpolizeigesetz vom 19 February 1902 (and supplementary instructions of July 30, 1902) .
26 Third British Empire Forestry Conference, 1928, Summary Report, Resolutions, and Reports of Com-
mittees, p. 7.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1021

changes, it may become necessary in due course to ask Parliament for additional
powers.27

GREECE 28

Private owners control slightly more than one fifth of the forest
area of Greece. The forest code adopted in 1929 gives the state a
general right to supervise the administration and exploitation of
private forests. These must be handled in accordance with manage-
ment plans prepared by trained foresters and approved by the Minis-
ter of Agriculture upon recommendation of the Council of Forests, an
advisory body composed of Government officials, technical foresters,
and representatives of forest owners and industries. These plans
must be revised at least once every 10 years. Owners of small tracts
may form cooperatives for the protection, management, or exploita-
tion of their forests, and such cooperation may be required if one third
to one half of the owners in a given unit so request.

Protection forests, to be classified by the forest service upon applica-
tion by local officials or interested parties, include forest, pasture, or
cultivable land on which the public interest requires that a forest
cover be maintained to protect the soil on slopes, to protect land lying
below from snow and earth slides and soil washing, to protect land
from floods, coastal erosion, or drifting sand, or to protect the shores of
lakes and streams, roads, railroads, habitations, monuments, and
historical spots. Any cutting in protection forests which denudes
the land or jeopardizes its continuous productivity is prohibited, and
the Minister of Agriculture, with approval of the council, may forbid
any cutting, cultivation, or grazing. In general, selective cutting is
allowed, after due notice, and in coppice forests small areas may be
clear cut. Cutting of trees around sacred, historical, or artistic sites
is prohibited, except as partial cutting may be authorized by the
Minister. Owners cannot be compelled to undertake improvement
works at their own expense, but if such work is deemed necessary and
the owners are unwilling to do it, the state may expropriate the land.

With the approval of the local forestry commission and the Council
of Forests, the Department of Agriculture may classify land as in need
of reforestation or afforestation. This includes land with scanty or
no natural tree growth which should be forested for the reasons enu-
merated above, as well as land bordering highways and railroads.
Owners of large estates (over 3,000 stremma, or 300 hectares) may be
required to afforest up to 15 percent of their land, depending on its
character. The forest service furnishes seed and plants at low prices
for planting classified lands, and may do the planting in case an owner
refuses. In that case the owner is required to pay the same royalty
when timber is cut as though it were on a state forest. Clearing, cul-
tivation, or grazing of these lands is forbidden, except that a limited
amount of grazing may be permitted by the Minister of Agriculture.

Owners may be required to construct and maintain firebreaks
around forests that are especially subject to fire, and owners of pine
forests may be required to adopt other preventive measures, such as
thinning or pruning the stands. Fires may not be built in or near
forests between May 1 and September 30 unless proper precautions are
taken. Cost of extinguishing fires on private land is to be collected

" Tenth annual report of the forestry commissioners for the year ending Sept. 30, 1929, p. 30-31.
28 Loi No 4173 sur la sanction et modification du d£cret-loi du mai 1929 "sur le code forestier , 17 jum 1929.
In Annuaire International de Legislation Agricole 1929. Internatl. Inst. Agr.. Rome, 1930.

1022 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

from the owners. The timber in burned forests may not be exploited
for 5 years after the fire, nor may the land be cultivated for 10 years,
if the owner was responsible for the fire or failed to take suitable
measures to prevent and suppress it. After a fire, sheep, cattle, or
horses may not be pastured on the burned forest land, whether refor-
ested or not, for 5 years, nor goats for 15 years.

GUATEMALA 29

Forests at the headwaters of publicly used springs and streams in
Guatemala may be declared to be of public utility, and are then sub-
ject to control. Other forests may be put under control of the forest
department if the owners request it.

Strips at least 275 feet wide must be left uncut along crests and
ridges; forests on high lands or slopes may not be cleared where this
will result in landslides or washing of the soil that will jeopardize the
life or property of others; nor may forests be cut above or within 100
meters of springs belonging to other owners. For each tree cut in the
pine and coffee regions, three trees of the same species, or five of some
other valuable species, must be planted in the same year at the begin-
ning of the rainy season; if the planting does not succeed, it must be
repeated under the supervision of forest agents. The local magis-
trate and neighboring owners must be notified before land is burned
over.

HUNGARY30

Two thirds of the forest in Hungary is privately owned. The forest
law of 1879 and later amendments prohibited deforestation of "abso-
lute forest soil ", regardless of its ownership. Mountain forests which
should be preserved for their protective functions were to be classified
by a special commission within five years after adoption of the law.
Clear cutting is not allowed in protection forests, and they must be
managed according to management plans approved by the forest de-
partment. Grazing on ravine lands liable to erosion is subject to
certain restrictions.

Industrial corporations owning forests must follow approved man-
agement plans and employ trained foresters. Under a law adopted in
1918 private forests which are not handled under such plans are sub-
ject to public control, and must be kept productive.

New forest legislation was under discussion in 1930.

IRISH FREE STATE3'

Private owners hold four fifths of the forest area of the Irish Free
State. Restrictive legislation is based on the public interest in pre-
serving the amenity values of trees and wooolland, rather than on
protection of soil or water resources.

An owner must notify the authorities three weeks before cutting
trees that are more than 10 years old. The Minister of Agriculture
may prohibit cutting unless replanting of the same or an equivalent
area within 12 months is assured. The State may subsidize planting

2fl Ley forestal approved by Legislative Assembly Mar. 24, 1925. In El Guatemalteco, Apr. 16, 1925.

3° Fernow, B. E. A Brief History of Forestry, pp. 181-182. Cambridge, Mass., 1911.

Commission du Regime des Eaux du Danube, 8th session, Avril, 1925, Protocoles, p. 45.

3i Quarterly Journal of Forestry 24: 207-208.

Saorstat Eireann, Forestry Act (Acht Foraoiseachta) . 1928.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1023

up to £4 an acre. Cutting may be prohibited altogether where it is
desirable to reserve the trees for scenic reasons, in which case the
owner is to be compensated. The Minister has the power to buy out
any grazing rights or rights to dig turf which may interfere with forest
conservation. General permits, which may be issued for definite
periods, may allow cutting that is in accordance with good forest
practice.

ITALY 32

State intervention in the handling of private forests in Italy is
justified chiefly on the grounds of public welfare involved in the pro-
tection of soil and control of water. Three fifths of the Italian forests
are privatelv owned, mostly in small tracts. In general, owners are
not required to give notice or to obtain permission for ordinary cutting
in their forests, nor are they obliged to follow management plans.
They may not, however, clear forest land for another form of use with-
out the permission of the provincial forest organization. If a forest is
being utilized in a manner which threatens its existence, the forest
authorities (forest militia) may prescribe the method of use or sus-
pend exploitation altogether.

The 1923 law provides for a forest commission in each province
consisting of the forest inspector or his deputy, a civil engineer, an
agricultural expert, and an expert on mountain problems chosen by the
Minister of National Economy, two members nominated by the pro-
vincial council, and a special representative from each commune to
sit with the commission when dealing with matters affecting his own
commune.

Lands where the destruction of the forest, brush, or other cover will
lead to erosion of the soil or will disturb the flow of streams, to the
injury of the public, are to be classified by the commissions, upon
application of the forest service or other interested party, as protected
or ban forests. Such land may be cleared for cultivation or other use
only with the consent of the forest militia, and in the manner pre-
scribed by it. When the clearing of mountain land is permitted, the
slope must be reduced to not more than 20 percent by means of ter-
racing, and canals must be built to carry off the surface drainage
without washing. The method of using the timber and forage is also
to be prescribed, including season and method of cutting, length
of coppice rotation, use and control of fire, control of insects, and time
and intensity of grazing. An owner must notify the forest authorities
in case of insect or disease outbreak threatening to destroy his own
forest or to spread to other forests. Goats may not be grazed on pro-
tected areas, nor any stock on reproduction areas until the young
trees are old enough to escape injury, nor in poorly stocked forests
until reproduction is assured. Where it is necessary for the re vegeta-
tion or stabilization of the soil of protected areas, all grazing may be
suspended for a maximum period of 10 years. Any diminution of
revenue is to be allowed for in assessing the land for taxation.

Forests which protect land or buildings from avalanches, falling
rocks, drifting sand, and winds; or those which should be preserved for

32 Riordinaraento e riforma della legislazione in materia di boschi e di terreni montani, Regio decreto, 30
dicembre 1923, no. 3267. Liberia dello Stato, Rome, 1924. Also amendment in Regio decreto-legge, 3 gen-
naio 1926, no. 23.

Merendi, Ariberto, manuscript report in files of Forest Service. 1932. .

Pailli6, M., " Rapport sur 1'intervention de 1'Etat dans la gestion des forPts particulieres d apres quelques
legislations recentes." In Actes Congres Internationale de Sylviculture, vol. 3, pp. 32-53. Rome, 1926.

1024 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

hygienic reasons or for the national defense are also to be classified as
protected forests when requested by the provinces, communes, inter-
ested private parties, or the appropriate Government departments.
Such forests may not be cleared. Those benefiting from restrictions
on the use of such forests must indemnify the owners for any loss of
revenue that they may sustain by reason of the restriction.

The state, through the Ministers of National Economy and Public
Works, can select watersheds needing control work (reforestation or
engineering) and carry out such work; the owner is to be indemnified
for any loss of income. After the work is completed the land is to
be returned to the owner, but will remain subject to restrictions on
its use. Land that has been reforested must be kept in forest and
handled in accordance with an approved management plan, and
may not be grazed until the young growth is beyond the risk of
danger. In case the owner is unwilling to accept these restrictions
the state is authorized to buy the land. The owners themselves may
carry out the necessary control work, on the basis of an approved plan,
and may be reimbursed by the State for their expenditures. The
forest service, provinces, or communes may also temporarily or per-
manently expropriate lands within the protected zones, in order to
afforest them, improve existing forests, or stabilize dunes.

Associations may be formed for the reforestation of protected areas.
If such an association represents four-fifths of the area to be reforested,
it may expropriate the lands of remaining owners who are unwilling
to join. These owners must be bought out if they demand it.

Any owner afforesting brush, grass, or denuded land under the
supervision of the forest authorities is entitled to certain tax exemp-
tions, and if it is in a protected area the State will provide free tech-
nical supervision, free seed or plants, and will pay up to two thirds
of the cost of the work.

JAPAN 33

The maintenance of a forest cover in the mountains is especially
important in Japan, because of the steep topography, with soils and
rock particularly susceptible to erosion, and the heavy rainfall.
Regular flow of the rivers is desirable because of their extensive use
for power and irrigation. Forty percent of the forest is privately
owned.

The local governor may prescribe the method of working (including

fathering of litter, etc.) in private forests which are threatened with
estruction, and may stop operations and order the reforestation of
cut-over areas where such instructions are not complied with. He
may also order the reforestation of land denuded before the law was
passed. If the owner fails to plant when ordered to do so, it is to
be done at his expense by public agencies.

It is forbidden to burn over forest or wild land without a permit
and without prior notice to owners or managers of neighboring forests.
Owners must combat insect outbreaks.

Protection forests are to be classified by the competent Minister
in accordance with the recommendations of the local forest com-
mission, upon application of a municipality, a local authority, or
other directly interested party. These are forests which are neces-

33 Forest Act of Japan. Act 43, Apr. 23, 1907, revised by Act 75, June 1911. Department of Forestry,
Tokyo, 1926.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 1025

sary for protection against soil denudation, drifting sand, flood or
wind damage, avalanches or rock slides, for the regulation of water
supplies, the protection of fisheries or the public health, the guidance
of navigators, or the protection of scenic beauties at shrines, temples,
or historical sites.

No one may cut timber, gather by-products, or graze stock in pro-
tection forests without the permission of the local governor, who
may prescribe the methods of utilizing the forest and may stop cutting
altogether for a period of one year. An owner is entitled to com-
pensation from the Government for any direct loss resulting from
restrictions, including the cost of any reforestation that he may be
required to undertake. The Government may reimburse itself
through assessments against those who benefit from the restrictions.

Cooperative societies may be formed for the purpose of undertaking
to prevent forest devastation, to restore devastated forests, or to
maintain the safety of the land. Two thirds of the owners, repre-
senting at least two thirds of the area involved, must give their
consent. These cooperatives are under the control of the competent
Minister and the local governor.

LATVIA 34

Only about 15 per cent of the forest in Latvia is privately owned.
All forests of more than 50 hectares (about 125 acres) are subject to
the forestry law, which provides that cutting must follow the estab-
lished rules of sound forest management. In the case of forests
which serve to prevent drifting of sand or which should be preserved
for esthetic reasons, cutting is subject to special restrictions and
may be prohibited altogether.

LUXEMBURG 35

Private forests in Luxemburg are free from restrictions except
that clearing on" slopes of more than 35 degrees requires a permit.
This may not be refused if the area is suitable for building purposes,
mining, or grape growing, or if the timber stand is less than 20 years
old, or is adjacent to a dwelling.

MEXICO '«

No cutting is allowed in private forests in Mexico without the
consent of the Department of Agriculture, which may establish
regulations governing such cutting. Timber must be cut with a saw,
not with an axe. All owners or managers must take the necessary
precautions to avoid starting fires, must extinguish those on their
own land, and must assist in extinguishing those on neighboring
property. No exploitation will be authorized until a plan for re-
forestation has been submitted. Individuals or organizations ex-
ploiting communal, municipal, or private forests must carry out
artificial reforestation: (1) Wherever natural reforestation will not
take place, in the judgment of the local forest inspector; (2) where
repeated coppicing has resulted in marked degeneration of the forest;

3< Teikmanis, Andrfi, The Timber Problem. In League of Nations Economic Committee report.
Geneva, 1932.

35 Endres, Forstpolitik. Ed. 2, p. 220. 1922.

3« Ley forestal, Apr. 5, 1926. Diario Oficial no. 45, Apr. 24, 1926. Translated in International Year-
book of Agricultural Legislation, 1926, p. 202-206. Internatl. Inst. of Agr., Rome, 1927.

See also supplementary executive decree of May 6, 1932, on reforestation, in Mexico Forestal 10:78-79.
1932.

1026 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

(3) when a stand is clear cut and the land is not to be cultivated; or

(4) when the total cut exceeds 2,500 cubic meters of logs in the
temperate belt or 1,000 cubic meters in the tropical belt. The trees
that are cut must be replaced by trees of the same or better kinds.

The department may at any time order owners to restore vegeta-
tion destroyed by artificial or natural causes. If the owners are
unable to do this, the department is to help them. If the executive
(through the department) believes that certain lands should be
afforested because of their location or for topographic or hydro-
logical reasons, or for any other cause, it may order such work to
be done under penalty of expropriation of the land. The Federal
Government or the States may expropriate private woodland or
bare land for forest reserves, for reasons of public utility.

All wood-using industries must utilize wood completely, without
waste. Timber used for posts, mine props, and other uses where
frequent renewal is necessary must be treated with preservatives.

NETHERLANDS 37

Although more than 80 percent of the forest land of the Nether-
lands is privately owned, there are very few restrictions on its manage-
ment. In order to prevent serious forest insect infestations, unpeeled
conifer logs may not be left in the woods between May 15 and
August 1. An owner must take reasonable precautions to prevent
the spread of fires caused by railroads or tramroads. Those who
do not take such precautions are not entitled to collect damages
from the railroad or tramroad company causing a fire.

A recent law (1928) provides for reduction in taxation of forest
property having especial scenic or recreational value, provided the
public is allowed access to it. Land that comes under this law is to
be subject to sufficient public control to safeguard its scenic value,
and an owner must notify the forest service before cutting timber.

The state, or a municipality, or a recognized foundation incor-
porated for the preservation of natural beauty may expropriate
forests in order to protect the beauties of nature, and cutting in
such forests may be forbidden pending expropriation.

NORWAY 38

Nearly 80 percent of the productive forest area of Norway is
privately owned, and 70 percent is owned by farmers.

The township (herred) councils or individual parishes may, by
resolution ratified by the King, adopt regulations for preventing the
destruction of private forests within their respective territories,
except those on homesteads (farm wood lots). These regulations
may cover the methods of cutting and managing the forests, except
that clearing shall be allowed where the land is to be used for gardens,

" Boschwet 1922— Wet van den 19den Mei, 1922, houdende bepalingen betreffende den boschbouw.
Staatsblad van net koninkrijk der Nederlanden.

Van Dissel, E. (Director of State Forest Administration of the Netherlands), manuscript report in files
U.S. Forest Service. January 1932.

38 Lov av 7 juni 1916 om tillaeg til lov om vernskogens bevarelse og mot skogens tfdelaeggelse m.v. 8 august
1908. Also Law of August 8, 1908, on preservation of protection forests and prevention of forest destruc-
tion. (Translations by S. T. Dana.)

Lov nr. 4 om forandring i lov om vernskogens bevarelse og mot skogens 0deleggelse m.v. av August 1908 —
6 juin 1930. In Annuaire International de Legislation Agricole. 1930. Internatl. Inst. Agr., Rome, 1930.

Nieuwejaar, Otto, "Norwegian laws concerning protection forests and the prevention of forest destruc-
tion." Journal of Forestry 29: 87-91. 1931

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1027

crops, meadows, buildings, roads, etc. Restrictions on grazing
seasons, incorporated in an earlier law, are no longer provided.
The regulations may distinguish between commercial cutting and
that for domestic use; owners or users may be required to utilize
dead trees and other waste material before cutting green trees;
burning of brush land may be forbidden except with the approval
of the forest inspectors. Owners may be required to deposit a cash
guarantee that the area will be restocked in case of cutting for sale
or for industrial use; this is deposited in a savings bank and returned
to the owner with interest after the reproduction has become well
established.

The governing councils of the townships or the parishes, as the
case may be, may appoint township or parish forest boards consisting
of five residents, at least three of whom shall be forest owners. These
boards (or the councils if no boards are appointed) issue instructions
and supervise the enforcement of the law and regulations. They
appoint forest inspectors or rangers, who are paid half by the township
or parish, and half by the state if the regulations and provision for their
enforcement are approved by the state forest service.

A supplementary law of 1916 applies to all parishes which had not
already adopted regulations for private forests. This forbids the
cutting for commercial purposes or industrial use of conifers under 20
centimeters (approximately 8 inches) in diameter, except that sup-
pressed or unthrifty trees or others which should be removed for the
good of the forest may be cut after being marked by a state or county
forester. The forest board must be notified at least 14 days before
cutting any trees for sale or industrial use. Leaving of seed trees may
also be required.

Under the 1908 law, as amended in 1930, protection forests may be
classified by the forest service, acting in collaboration with a com-
mission of three members, two of whom must be forest owners.
Such forests may be those protecting against landslides, floods, drift-
ing sand, or those necessary for the protection of an adjoining forest
or cultivated land, or those which, because of their situation (high
altitude, latitude, proximity to the coast, etc.), would become devas-
tated if heavily cut or otherwise misused. Boundaries of such forests
must be marked. Provisions for the protection of these forests are to
be drawn up in each case by the forester of the district or by a forester
appointed by the forest service, and must be agreed to by the county
or township commission (see above) and ratified by the King. No
timber may be cut in protection forests except in a manner prescribed
by the forest service; upon request by the owner the trees to be cut
will be marked by the forester in charge.

PERU 39

Most of the forest land of Peru is still in public ownership. The
only public control over private forests is the requirement that per-
mission must be obtained before cutting timber near the seacoasts
or in the mountains within 20 kilometers of railroads.

3» Executive decree of Dec. 30, 1919.

1028 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

POLAND <°

Two thirds of the forest area of Poland is privately owned, and
two thirds of the private forest is in fairly large holdings.

Forest land may not be cleared for other use without special per-
mission. Nonprotection forests of less than 5 to 10 hectares, depend-
ing on the province, are not subject to this restriction unless they are
contiguous to larger tracts. Forests that are clear cut or denuded in
any other manner must be ^ reforested artificially within three years
unless natural regeneration is assured.

All forests must be managed under approved working plans on a
sustained yield basis, and no cutting (except to salvage dead or down
material) may be done that is not provided in the plan. Grazing is
prohibited in stands less than 15 years old or less than 3 feet tall.

The owner must notify the authorities of insect outbreaks and must
use reasonable effort to combat them.

Protection forests (classified by the forest service upon its own
initiative or upon the petition of interested parties) are those deemed
essential for preventing erosion, loss of soil fertility, land or rock
slides, washing of stream banks, drifting sand, or formation of torrents,
and those important for the national defense or for scientific purposes.
Such forests may not be destroyed in order to make other use of the
land. The methods of cutting and grazing are subject to the general
control of the forest service and the direct control of the district and
provincial administrative councils.

PORTUGAL «

Private forests in Portugal, if located within zones which have been
declared to be of public utility, are subject to public control on the
ground that a forest cover is necessary in order to regularize the flow
of streams, prevent flood damage to the lowlands, protect ridges and
waste lands, ameliorate the climate, or fix and conserve the soil in
mountain regions and coastal dunes. This classification is made by
the Minister of Agriculture, with the advice of the forestry section of
the Superior Council of Agriculture.

The State polices these forests, helps in drawing up working plans,
provides free seed and planting stock and technical direction of
planting operations, and exempts plantations of more than 1 hectare
from property taxes for 20 years.

The owners of classified forests must manage them according to
working plans approved by the forest service, must employ a forest
guard for each 500 hectares (about 1,250 acres) of forest in flat
country or 350 hectares (875 acres) in the mountains (or share the
cost with the State where small properties are situated close to State
forests), and must report all sales, leases, or exchanges of land or
timber within 30 days. The customary methods of exploitation are
allowed, but the land may not be clear cut or the stumps removed
unless the whole area is to be immediately reforested by sowing or
planting.

<o Revue des Eaux et Forfits 68: 393. 1930.
Deutsche Forstzeitung 45: 116-117. 1930.

Annuaire International do Legislation agricole 1927, p. 122. Internatl. Inst. Agr., Rome, 1928.
Swinarski, Teodor, " Der Sehutz der Privatforsten in Polen." Vierteljahrshefte der Polnischen Land-
wirtschaft 1: 68-77. 1929.
41 Bulletin de la SocifitS Centrale Forestiere de Belgique, 30: 16-21. 1923.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1Q29

Any infraction of the working plan or failure to carry out reforesta-
tion as required may be punished by a fine or by expropriation of the
land. An owner also may request that land subject to mandatory
control be expropriated. ^ The income from the sale of timber and
land from the State domain is to be used exclusively for the purchase
and afforestation of land to be managed as public forest.

Under the law of 1901 private forests outside of the zone of public
utility may be submitted to control upon the request of the owners,
ei ther individually or through associations. Forests subj ected to such
optional control are entitled to the same benefits and are subject to
the same restrictions as those subject to mandatory control, except in
the case of what is called " simple police control", in which the owner
merely desires public assistance in reforesting and protecting his
forest. In this case planting stock and technical help in planting are
furnished at cost instead of gratis, and the owner is not obliged to
follow any set plan of management.

Since 1927 all private owners have been required to obtain permis-
sion before cutting, unless their forests are handled under approved
working plans.

RUMANIA «

About 40 percent of the forest area of Rumania was privately
owned in 1922, but agrarian legislation allotting public land to the
peasants has resulted in a considerable increase in private forest since
then. A large part of the standing timber is controlled by large
owners or industrialists, either through direct ownership or through
lease.

Mandatory control is applied to protection forests; that is, those
on the crests and slopes of mountains and hills or on the headwaters
of torrents, as well as any others serving to prevent landslides, erosion,
or washing of stream banks, to protect roads or railroads on or near
steep slopes, stabilize drifting sands, or to regularize stream flow ; and
those needed for the national defense (upon recommendation of the
Minister of War).

Such forests must be managed according to working plans, or equiva-
lent plans of operation, prepared by qualified technicians and approved
by the Technical Council. Deforestation is not allowed. In case of
cutting within 12 years, a guarantee fund must be deposited with the
Ministry of Domains to insure that the area will be reforested. After
12 years this deposit may be dispensed with, providing the owner has
managed his forest for at least 10 years in such a manner that the cut-
over areas are well stocked and in good condition. If the owner or
operator fails to reforest satisfactorily within the period prescribed
in the plan, the State will do it at his expense.

Grazing may be allowed only to an extent that will not endanger the
regeneration of the forest. It is not allowed in even-aged stands less
than 30 years old which have followed clear cutting, in coppice less
than 15 years old, in selection forest with a cutting cycle of less than
15 years, or in any forest where gullying has started or is threatened.

In nonprotection forests stock may not be grazed in stands less than
10 years old (except those of willow, cottonwood, and the like, which

42 Sburlan, A., "Die Walder Rumaniens, deren Holzindustrie und Holzhandel." Centralbl. f.d.
Gesamte Forstwesen 55:49-70. 1929.
Rumanian Code forestier. Apr. 1, 1910.

1030 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

may be grazed after 3 years). Deforestation (including destruction
by overgrazing, by burning, or by overcutting contrary to an approved
working plan) is forbidden with certain exceptions, and then requires
the approval of the Minister of Agriculture and Domains, after a
field examination and recommendation by the Technical Council.

Forest other than protection forest may be subjected to the regime
forestier upon application by the owner. The State is to encourage
the reforestation of all forests by having State forest officers make
working plans when requested to do so by the owners, by furnishing
seed and plants free or at cost, and by premiums and tax reductions
in return for good forest management.

RUSSIA «

Although, strictly speaking, there are now no private forests in the
Soviet Union, considerable areas of forest have been turned over to
the villages and agricultural communes, workers' associations, and
even to individuals, for use and management. These are practically
equivalent to private forests. The holders must protect them from
fire, theft, and overgrazing, and must follow working plans prepared
by the Provincial Forest Department at the cost of the user. Openings
that will not reforest naturally must be replanted. Clearing for other
use may be permitted under suitable restrictions. If users fail to
comply with these requirements the forests may be taken from them.

Exploitation of most of the state forests is under control of the
Supreme Economic Council, and is not subject to regulation by the
forestry authorities. Cutting on a large scale has been done without
regard to the perpetuation of the forests, and great areas have been
devastated. In view of the evil effects of denudation in certain re-
gions, the Government in 1931 provided for a segregation of forests of
silvicultural importance, to be protected and managed by the Com-
missariat of Agriculture. These forests include those of the poorly
forested districts of the south and east and those on the headwaters of
certain rivers such as the Volga, the Don, and the Dnieper. Cutting
in these forests must be gradually reduced so that by 1935 it does not
exceed the annual growth. All forests in a 1-kilometer strip on each
side of the lower and middle reaches of the Volga, Don, Dnieper, and
Ural Rivers are declared protection forests, in which only dead and
defective timber may be cut.

The former forest law (that of 1888) provided for various degrees
of public control, depending on the situation of the forest. Local
forest boards were set up in each province and district, consisting of
representatives of the local administration, forest owners, foresters,
and a local justice, with the governor as chairman.

The board's permission was required before forest land could be
cleared, but it was usually granted (except in case of " protected"
forests) where the land was suitable for agriculture. Except in clear-
ing land it was not permitted to cut in such a manner as to prevent
natural regeneration, or to pasture cattle on land stocked with young
growth. Owners of nonprotection forest could submit a working
plan to the board, and if it was approved they were allowed to operate

«Der Forstkodex der Russischen Socialistischen Foderativen Sowjet-Republik. (Translated into
German by E. Buchholz.) Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt 51:132-146. 1929.
Fernow, B. E., A Brief History of Forestry, pp. 264-268. Cambridge, Mass., 1911.
Buchholz, Erwin, Die Wald- und Holzwirtschaft Sowjet-Russlands. 131 pp. Berlin, 1932.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 1031

under it without further restriction. The Government provided free
technical advice, plants, and seed free, or at cost, and long-term loans
on forests managed under working plans.

Forests on the headwaters and upper reaches of streams (except in
the Caucasus and certain northern Provinces) were classed as pro-
tected forests. These were subject to the same restrictions as the
nonprotection forests, and in addition the forest board could prohibit
clearing unless the area was so small that no harm would result.

A third class of forest included the protective forests, which were
those protecting drifting sands, banks of rivers and other waters, and
mountain slopes liable to erosion, landslides, or avalanches. These
forests were classified by the forestry boards, and were required to be
managed under working plans prepared (without cost to the owner)
by the Crown forest department and approved by the board. Con-
version to farm use was prohibited, and the board could prescribe in
detail the method of management and utilization. All protective
forests were exempt from taxation. Expropriation was provided for
in case an owner refused to incur the expense of the measures imposed
by the board, but he was allowed to recover his forest at any time
within 10 years by paying the costs, with interest.

SPAIN «

In 1930, three fourths of the forest land (about one half of the pro-
ductive forest) of Spain was in private ownership. Under legislation
then in force, clearing of forests (deforestation) is forbidden except to
put the land to agricultural use and upon written agreement that it
will be thus utilized within a reasonable time. Permission to clear
must be obtained from the civil governor, after consultation with the
forest or agricultural officer of the district, or both of them. Permis-
sion of the Governor must also be obtained before converting coppice-
with-standards to simple coppice.

Clear cutting, except where the land is to be cleared, is also for-
bidden. An owner may cut not to exceed one fifth of the total number
of trees during any 10-year period in forests of the principal commer-
cial species, or during a 5-year period for fast-growing species such as
poplar, aspen, willow, birch, alder, and eucalyptus. This restriction
does not apply to coppice stands, but in those the stumps must not be
uprooted. It also does not apply to tracts of less than 5 hectares, or
to forests cut in accordance with working plans where the cut does
not exceed the annual growth. Certain exceptions are also allowed
where the forests are comparatively inaccessible or where ties are
being cut for the national railways, so long as sufficient young trees
are left to insure the continued existence of the forest. Stands that
are planted expressly for production of posts and mine props may be
cut clear if the land is replanted within a year. To take advantage
of these exceptions, special permission must be obtained from the civil
governor upon recommendation of the municipal authorities. Within
the above limitations, the owner is not required to report any cutting.

Two thirds of the fines collected for violations of the law go into a
special fund which is used to reward those who restock bare lands.

44 Real decreto de 3 de diciembre de 1924 regulando las cortas y descuajes en los montes de propledad
particular, y instrucciones para su cumpliraiento.

168342 °— 33— vol. 1 66

1032 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

SWEDEN 45

In Sweden, more than three fourths of the forest is privately owned,
and more than half of this belongs to farmers. Control over the
management of private forests is vested in the provincial forest con-
servation boards, of which there are some 24. There is no central
board, and these boards are entirely independent of the State forest
administration, although they cooperate closely with it. An owner
may appeal from the board's decisions to (1) the provincial govern-
ment, and (2) the King. The boards under this law consist each of
three persons acquainted with local conditions, one representing the
National Government, one the local government, and one the local
timber owners' association. If there is more than one association,
each has a representative, and the local government's representatives
are increased accordingly. Each board employs a technical forester
as secretary, as well as assistants, rangers, and office staff. It is the
duty of the boards to inspect private forests, enforce regulations, and
promote forest management through extension and demonstration.
Each parish may have a similar local board of three members, one
appointed by the county board and two by the parish vestry board.

A forest conservation tax or a severance tax is collected, amounting
to 1.3 percent of the value of the cut wood. Of this, 90 percent goes
for the support of the conservation board in the district where col-
lected, and 10 percent goes to the national treasury for distribution, if
necessary, among other districts. The boards also receive subsidies
from the central and provincial governments, and some income from
the sale of seed and planting stock, etc.

In most of the provinces young forests may not be felled except to
fill domestic needs where no other timber is available, or unless such
cutting is in accord with good forestry principles (thinning) and done
with the permission of the forest conservation board, under such
restrictions as the board may impose. Older forests may not be cut
in such a manner as to imperil the regrowth of the forest, nor may the
ground be treated after cutting in a way that will prevent forest
reproduction. Unless authorized by the board, no cutting may be
done, except for domestic use of the owner, which will not leave
enough timber to meet future domestic needs. An owner may ask
the board for a statement as to the legality of any proposed cutting,
and any cutting done in accord with such a statement will be legal.
The board may prohibit cutting that is being done or that there is
reason to believe will be done contrary to regulations or stipulations.
The provincial forester may be authorized to enforce this provision,
subject to confirmation by the board itself within 10 days.

Unless reproduction takes place within a reasonable time after
cutting, the owner may be required to restock the land by artificial
means. He may also be required to reforest areas destroyed by fire,
storm, insects, grazing, etc., but unless such destruction was his own
fault he may not be required to spend more than the salvage value of
the damaged timber, plus any compensation (such as insurance) that

« Law of July 24, 1903 (Protection forests) . Law of July 24, 1903 (Vasterbotten and Norrbotten) . Law
of June 13, 1908 (Gottland). Law of June 15, 1923 (Forest in general). Law of June 15, 1923 (Forest con-
servation boards). Law of July 24, 1903 (Timber sale agreements). Law of October 11, 1912 (Forest con-
servation tax) .

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1033

he may have received for the loss. The board is to agree with the
owner as to the measures necessary to insure regrowth. In case of
failure to agree, the county government may be requested to appoint
an investigating committee which will report its recommendations,
and if necessary a court may decide the matter. If the required
measures are not carried out within the specified period, the board,
through its forester and two other persons, in company with the
owner, is to make an investigation and, if necessary, to carry out
the measures at the owner's expense. The board may also require a
deposit to guarantee reforestation where artificial reforestation is
likely to be necessary because of the method of cutting.

At the request of the board, the provincial government may restrict
cutting in areas where reproduction is likely to be especially difficult
or impossible, may require that seed trees be left, and may empower
the board to prescribe measures lor insuring reproduction. It may
even require that the board's consent be obtained for any cutting,
except for domestic use, and that the timber be marked by the county
forester or other person designated by the board.

With the board's permission, forest land may be cleared for culti-
vation, pasture, buildings, etc., if the land is suitable for such use and
if the area to be cleared is not unreasonably large.

Leases or timber-sale agreements may not be made for longer terms
than 5 years.

A special law deals with protection forests, the preservation of
which is necessary for protection against landslides and drifting sand.
The King, upon recommendation of the local conservation board, may
decree that no cutting shall be done in such forests, except for the
domestic use of the owner, without a permit from a State forester.
Further restrictions may be imposed if necessary. If an owner prefers
to give up his land rather than submit to restriction on its use, the
State is to buy it.

There are also special laws applicable to several of the individual
provinces. In Vasterbotten and Norrbotten it is forbidden to cut
coniferous trees for commercial use that are less than 21 centimeters
(8.4 inches) in diameter inside bark, except where orderly manage-
ment of the forest requires that such trees be cut. Even then a permit
must be obtained from the local forester and he must mark the trees
to be cut. The owner has to pay the forester for his time and expenses
in making inspections, but not for the cost of marking. Forests may
be cleared in order to cultivate the ground, erect buildings, etc., but
the wood that is cut may not be sold except with the permission of
the forester.

In Gottland, an owner may not cut any timber (except for his own
use or to clear the land for cultivation) without the permission of the
conservation board, which may prescribe measures to insure restock-
ing. This permission is to be given only after inspection on the ground.
The board may carry out reforestation measures at the owner's
expense if he fails to do so. If necessary, the King, after a hearing by
the county commissioners, may impose restrictions on grazing in
order to protect young growth.

1034 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

SWITZERLAND *«

Less than one third of the forest area of Switzerland is privately
owned, and the private forests are mostly in very small tracts. Few
are over 200 hectares (500 acres) in extent. There are practically no
important areas of private forest in the high mountain districts.
Public regulation is based on the policy that the forest area of the
country must not be diminished.

Although many of the cantons had laws regulating clearing of
forest land, these were generally little enforced until severe floods in
1830 and subsequent years called attention to the protective value of
forest cover. Later, the Federal Government made small grants
toward reforestation and engineering works in the Alps. In 1876 a
law was passed providing for Federal control over protection forests
in the mountainous portions of certain cantons. In 1902 the Federal
Government assumed general supervision over all the forests of the
country, which were to be classified as protection forests and non-
protection forests. This classification was done by the cantonal
authorities, subject to approval by the Federal council.

Protection forests were those in the reception basins of torrent and
those affording protection against avalanches, falling rocks, landslides,
soil washing, irregularities of stream flow, and harmful climatic influ-
ences. In 1914, 60.8 percent of all private forests were classed as pro-
tection forests. In 1923 nonprotection forests were put under restric-
tions similar to those governing protection forests.

Deforestation or even clear cutting is forbidden unless especially
authorized (for nonprotection forests) by the cantonal or (for protec-
tion forests) by the Federal authorities. Where such permission is
given, the authorities may require the afforestation of an equal area
elsewhere. All cutting must be supervised by foresters. Cut-over
areas, as well as openings caused by fire, avalanche (where possible to
restock such areas), windstorms, etc., must be reforested within 3
years. Trees in wooded pastures must be conserved so far as possible.

The Federal Government or the cantons may require an owner to
construct defensive works against avalanches and rock slides, and to
establish protective forests where these are necessary to protect
existing forests from damage. The confederation and the cantons
pay a large part of the cost of such work. An owner may demand
that the canton or commune purchase land on which the creation of a
protective forest or defensive works has been ordered. The Federal
Government contributes up to 50 percent of the purchase price for
lands bought by the cantons or communes.

Where privately owned forests are in especially exposed situations
or in the reception basins of torrents, the owners may be compelled to
pool their forests so that they can be managed according to a common
plan. The Federal Government pays the cost of organizing these
combinations and the cantonal foresters are to supervise them without
cost to the owners. The formation of similar associations may also
be required in other places upon request of two thirds of the owners
if they own more than one half of the forest land within the unit. The

16 Loi federate concernant la haute surveillance de la Confederation sur la police des forSts, du 11 Octobre
1902.

Fernow, B. E., A Brief History of Forestry, p. 191-197. Cambridge, Mass., 1911.

PailliS, M., "Rapport sur 1'intervention de 1'Etat dans la gestion des forets particulieres d'apres quel-
ques legislations recentes. In Actes Congres International de Sylviculture, p. 32-53. Internatl. Inst.
Agr., Rome, 1926.

Petitmermet, M., manuscript report in files of U.S. Forest Service. 1931.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 1035

Federal Government (in some instances with additional grants by
the cantoris) contributes 30 to 50 percent of the cost of reforestation
in protection forests where the opening is the result of fire, storm,
avalanche, or insect epidemic, and also contribute up to 40 percent
of the cost of logging roads and other facilities for transporting
timber.

Most of the cantons have their own forest laws, which supplement
the Federal law. Some of them are considerably more restrictive.
In Berne, for instance, no forest may be cleared unless at least an equal
area is planted. Grazing in the catchment basins of torrents is pro-
hibited, and any forest grazing or gathering of litter is subject to strict
supervision. Protection forests must be handled under working plans
approved by the cantonal council, and their execution is supervised by
the cantonal foresters. All cutting, except for household use, must
be authorized in advance. In Vaud all trees over 15 centimeters
(6 inches) in diameter that are to be cut must be marked. Any cutting
removing more than 20 cubic meters per hectare (approximately 280
cubic feet per acre), or unduly breaking the canopy, must be author-
ized in advance, and the method of cutting may be prescribed in
detail.

In Valais, for every cutting amounting to more than 5 cubic meters
in high forest or 12 cubic meters in coppice, the trees must be marked
with the assistance of a cantonal forester, and for commercial cutting
hi excess of 30 cubic meters of timber or 40 steres of cordwood the
marking must be done by the forester. When clearing is allowed, the
owner must reforest an equivalent area at his own expense. Grazing
where the young growth is less than 4 meters high is forbidden. In
Neufchatel trees to be cut must be marked in company with an
inspector. Clear cutting of more than 0.3 hectare in one place may
not be done unless authorized by the Federal council.

TANGANYIKA47

The area of privately owned forests in Tanganyika is relatively
small. Not more than one fourth of the area of any forest of more
than 250 acres may be cleared unless reforestation is assured. The
Conservator of Forests may control felling on lands situated on catch-
ment basins where it appears that cutting of the timber would jeopard-
ize water supplies. Private owners who manage their forests under
working plans approved by the conservator are not subject to other

restrictions.

TURKEY <8

Less than 5 percent o£ the Turkish forest is privately owned. The
forestry law of 1924 requires an owner to obtain a permit before cutting
in his forest. Such permission may be refused unless he submits a
plan of exploitation.

YUGOSLAVIA «

About one third of the forest area of Yugoslavia is in private owner-
ship, mostly in small holdings. The forest legislation is based on the
principle that the soil of the country, regardless of its nominal owner-

« Proceedings of British Empire Forestry Conference, 1928, p
« Hinkle, E M., Manuscript report i~ -'" '• TT °
« Loi sur les forfits, 21 decembre 1929.

aUgrenovic,B Aleksander?Manuscript report in files of U.S. Forest Service. 1932.

.rruueeumgs ui .DIIUSII jiiiupnc A-UICOUJ w**~*~~*~, , _»-• - ,noo

Hinkle, E. M., Manuscript report in files of U.S. Forest Service. 1932.

Loi sur les forfits 21 decembre 1929. In Annuaire International de Legislation Agricole, 19,

1036 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

ship, belongs to society, including all future generations, and that
consequently it must not be utilized in such a way as to destroy or
reduce its productivity. The owner has the right to dispose of the
timber in any way he may see fit, provided he does not impair the
continued productivity of the land or the protective effect of the forest
in case of classified protection forests.

Existing forest must be conserved. Land that is essentially forest
land (because of soil, topography, and location) may be cleared only
for building roads, reservoirs, or other construction. The clearing
of other forest land may be authorized where it will be put to better
use, without injury to other parties. Local administrative officials
may authorize clearings of less than 5 hectares ; larger ones are passed
upon by the governor of the province. Management plans must be
submitted for forests of over 300 hectares, and every forest enterprise
with an annual output of over 30,000 cubic meters of hardwood or
50,000 cubic meters of softwood is required to employ a qualified
forester, who must be a Yugoslav citizen.

Forest devastation is forbidden, as is any practice that will im-
poverish the soil or endanger its continuous productivity. Cut-over
land must be reforested within three years and land denuded prior
to adoption of the law (1930) within five years, according to methods
prescribed by the authorities. If an owner fails to do this, it is to
be done at his expense.

Every owner must take care, in cutting his forest, not to expose
neighboring forests to damage from wind. He may be required to
leave a protection strip as wide as twice the height of the neighbor-
ing trees. Owners must use all reasonable means to combat disease
or insect epidemics, and must notify the authorities immediately of
their outbreak. Forests may not be grazed so as to injure the young
growth. Livestock must be in charge of a herder, must use designated
roads in going to and from the range, and must be kept in corrals
between sunset and sunrise. Goats are not to be allowed in forests,
with certain exceptions. Methods of utilizing dead litter and green
foliage (for fodder) are also subject to restriction, as is the use of fire
in or near forests.

Private forests may be divided only with the consent of the proper
authorities, who may refuse permission when the division seems likely
to jeopardize continuity of production. Two thirds of the owners of
forests within a natural unit, if they own at least two thirds (by value)
of the land, may form a cooperative association for purposes of protect-
ing and managing the forests, and other owners within the unit may
be required to join.

Protection forests are to be designated by the governor in each
province, either upon his own initiative or upon request by interested
parties, and after examination by forestry experts. Permanent
protection forests are those protecting the soil from sliding, blowing,
or washing; those protecting springs or preventing rapid run-off or
avalanches, and those near timber line. Temporary protection forests
are those serving as windbreaks, etc. Forests serving purposes of
national defense may be either permanently or temporarily classified.
Clear cutting in protection forests is forbidden, and the Minister of
Forests and Mines may prescribe measures essential to maintain the
protective effect of the forest. In case these restrictions exceed those
necessary to prevent devastation the property is to be partly or

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1037

wholly exempted from taxation. If the restrictions are so onerous
as to cause serious loss to the owner he may require that those who
are benefited buy the forest. All protection forests must be managed
under approved working plans, prepared by graduate foresters who
are Yugoslav citizens. These plans are to be based on continuous
forest production, but not necessarily on the principle of sustained
yield.

Land which is not now forested, but which is suitable for forest
growth and should be forested in order to protect the soil, prevent
silting, or promote health, etc., is also to be classified as protection
forest by a special commission in each province. Afforestation of
such land must be undertaken promptly and completed within 50
years. The State is to cooperate by providing planting stock and
supervision, and by granting tax exemptions, cash subsidies, and
non-interest-bearing loans.

ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF FOREIGN CONTROL POLICIES

The policies of the various countries differ widely as to both the
degree and the method of public control over private forests. Certain
fundamentals, however, are common to many of them. Most of the
world has come to the conclusion that forests should be preserved, and
that this will require public action. Hiley has stated the situation
concisely, as follows:

It may be accepted as a generalization that private or commercial ownership of
forests, when unfettered by legislative restriction, generally leads to devastation
* * *. The accepted solution of the problem is some form of state intervention,
and state control of forests is now practiced in nearly every civilized country in
the world.50

The essential features of a composite policy, which might be built up
from the most generaUy accepted principles of the many different
policies described above, may be summarized as follows:

1. As a general principle, an owner is free to manage and utilize his
forest as he pleases, so long as such use does not directly or indirectly
injure other individuals or the public welfare.

2. Destruction or mismanagement of forests which serve to hold the
soil in place, conserve water, regulate the flow of rtreams, protect the
public health, or promote the national defense is certain to result in
injury to others. The public exercises a sufficient degree of control
over this class of forests to insure that their protective functions are
not jeopardized. This involves the maintenance of a continuous
forest cover. It frequently involves the execution of reforestation or
engineering improvement works, or even the afforestation of hitherto
nonwooded land, either by public agencies or by the owner. Except
where reforestation is made necessary by act of the owner the public
pays part or all of the cost. The public usually indemnifies the owner
for any loss of income resulting from restrictions on the use of protec-
tion forests. As an alternative the public may acquire the land,
either at the owner's request or by condemantion.

3. Protection forests are classified as such by a commission or by
some high governmental agency, upon the recommendation of some
public body or upon application of interested individuals or groups,
and after appropriate investigation and hearings. The forest service

«" Hiley, W. E., The Economics of Forestry. 256 p. Oxford University Press, 1930.

1038 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

or other agency responsible for enforcing the law may initiate the
classification and may be required to make the field examination and
report its recommendations, but it generally does not have the power
to render the final decision as to classification.

4. Cutting in classified protection forests may be done only with
permission of the competent authorities. The methods of cutting and
of utilizing the forage and other products which may be allowed in
such forests are specified in some detail either in the law or in regula-
tions of the supervisory authority. Reforestation of cut-over areas
is compulsory. Management plans and employment of trained forest-
ers may be required but generally are more or less optional. An
owner handling his forest according to an approved plan and under the
supervision of a trained forester is not required to get a special permit
for each operation.

5. Gross misuse which destroys or seriously impairs the produc-
tivity of the land is generally assumed to be inimical to the public
welfare. The object of control over other than protection forests is
generally not to compel owners to produce any particular kind or
quantity of material, but to insure that the land will be kept in a pro-
ductive condition. Sustained yield management is usually not
required, and control over methods of management and utilization is
reduced to a minimum. A permit is usually required for deforesta-
tion, but it is granted if the land is suitable for other use and will be
utilized productively. Otherwise, reforestation by natural or arti-
ficial means is required. Working plans are usually optional with the
owner, and are primarily for his own protection or convenience.
Although the public exercises or holds in the background definite
mandatory powers to prevent destruction of nonprotection forests, it
attempts to bring about good management largely through educating
and cooperating with the owners.

6. Public control in many countries is democratized and decentral-
ized by being put under the general supervision of local or provincial
boards or commissions on which forest owners, technicians, and
administrative officials, and in some instances the local population,
are represented. A few countries, mostly small ones, have only one
central commission for the entire country. In some countries these
boards have their own administrative and inspection forces and work
independently of the state forest service. In other countries the
boards exercise general supervision but actual administration is by
officers of the state forest services.

IS FURTHER PUBLIC REGULATION DESIRABLE IN THE

UNITED STATES

PRACTICES IN NEED OF CORRECTION

In order to determine whether further public control over private
forests in the United States may be desirable, it is necessary first to
inquire what controllable conditions or practices threaten to destroy
the forests, to hinder or prevent their replacement after cutting, or to
render them less productive. These may be classified as follows :

(1) Failure to provide effective protection against fire, as well as
practices which cause fires directly or which increase the fire hazard,
and also the failure to adopt reasonable measures for preventing and
suppressing fires.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1039

(2) Neglect of reasonable measures for preventing or checking
attacks of diseases and insects, and also those practices which favor
the spread of destructive pests.

(3) Destructive exploitation. That exploitation is destructive
which (a) destroys potentially usable timber without using it; (6) ren-
ders natural reproduction of good species uncertain or impossible
(unless the operation is followed promptly by effective artificial re-
forestation) ; (c) depletes the growing stock in quantity or quality so
that the forests of an economic unit are incapable of maintaining a
continuous production ; or (d) increases unnecessarily the hazard from
fire, insects, diseases, and storms for either the remaining or the
succeeding stand or for neighboring forests.

(4) Clearing of forest land not needed for agriculture or other use,
where the physical and economic conditions are so unfavorable to such
use that abandonment and reversion to a state of idleness are fairly
certain.

(5) Improper silvicultural practices, resulting in unsatisfactory
stocking, reduction in yields, and in the productive capacity of the
soil, deterioration in quality of the product and reduction in net
income.

It is desirable that all of the above practices be checked or corrected.
It probably is not desirable and certainly is not practical at the
present time, to correct all of them through mandatory regulation by
public agencies.

PRACTICES TO WHICH OPTIONAL REGULATION MIGHT APPLY

Up to a certain point, the right of the public to exercise mandatory
control is generally recognized, at least in theory. Beyond that point,
depending on local conditions, regulation will be feasible only if it is
acceptable to the owners and shared by them. As has been pointed
out, the public can compel individuals to desist from practices which
will result in direct injury to other individuals or to the public. The
right of the public to interfere for the purpose of maintaining the yields
of private forests at a high level is less well established.

Practices which are undesirable chiefly because they reduce the
owner's income and depreciate the value of his property include the
following :

(1) Premature cutting of immature or economically unripe timber
of desirable species and quality, especially where this is done at a loss.

(2) Wasteful methods in woods and mills.

(3) Premature turpentining of timber that is too small, and
turpentining methods leading to waste of the timber.

(4) Improper or inefficient silvicultural practices, such as:
(a) Choice of species not suited to the site.

(D) Carelessness as to the source of seed for raising planting stock,
resulting in the use of races ill-adapted to the site.

(c) Adoption of too short rotations, leading to deterioration of the
site, difficulty of natural reproduction, and production of inferior
material.

(d) Reliance on coppice rather than seed to establish the new stan

(e) Failure to maintain the optimum density of stand, or to thin
and weed as necessary.

(f ) Failure to reforest or afforest bare areas resulting from earli
logging, fires, etc.

1040 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

(g) Failure to maintain a suitable mixture of species so as to main-
tain the fertility of the site and take full advantage of its productive
capacity.

(h) Culling the best trees, thus leaving inferior and defective
individuals as a growing stock.

(i) Failure to cut old decadent and defective trees which are
hindering the growth of valuable individuals.

(5) Cutting of timber (except where desirable to reduce surplus
growing stock) in excess of the annual increment of the unit.

Desirable standards with regard to these practices cannot be
attained through restrictive legislation, unless the owners voluntarily
consent to public control. About all that the public can do is to
attempt to persuade them to adopt desirable practices. This can be
accomplished in part through systematic suggestion, education, and
demonstration. In some instances, however, forest owners will
readily accept a certain degree of restriction in return for assistance
by the public. In view of the public benefit that would result from
the better handling of forests in general, it is appropriate for the
public to help individual owners or associations of owners in improving
their practices, providing the owners will submit to restrictions which
will safeguard the public interest.

PUBLIC AID AS BASIS FOR OPTIONAL REGULATION

Such assistance may take the following forms, all of which have been
tried in foreign countries, and several of them in the United States,
as discussed in other sections of this report:

(1) Management of the forest for the owner, to such extent and
with such division of the costs as may be agreed upon.

(2) Grant of free or low-cost planting stock and other material.

(3) Tax concessions or adjustments of various sorts intended to
lighten the financial burden on the owner.

(4) Loans or other credits on favorable terms, sponsored by public
agencies.

(5) Concessions in public forests, providing for integrated sustained
yield management under some degree of public control.

(6) Public insurance against fire and other loss, or some form of
assistance in establishing a working system of private insurance.

(7) Outright subsidy, for certain specified operations or practices.

(8) Assistance in construction of roads and other means of exploiting
the forests efficiently on a permanent basis.

(9) Assistance in preventing and combatting fires and fungus and
insect pests.

Public aid will not be justified merely for the purpose of benefiting
individual forest owners. It will be justified only if benefit to the
public will result. It should not be regarded as a bonus or gift to
forest owners, but as a payment for which value will be received by
the public. So far as practicable, grants of public aid should be con-
tingent upon acceptance of restrictions which will insure that the
value will be received. In short, private forest owners should not be
favored with special privileges or services at the expense of the public
treasury, unless they assume corresponding obligations with respect
to the handling of their forests.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1041

OPTIONAL REGULATION THROUGH ASSOCIATIONS

One other form of control which has been proposed recently is con-
trol through organizations of forest industries or forest owners. From
the standpoint of the public, there can be no legitimate objection to
voluntary association or combination of owners and/or operators for
the purpose of bringing about desirable ends which they cannot
accomplish independently. Such objectives, for instance, might be
protection against fire or insect epidemics, or adoption of sustained
yield management in a unit where holdings are comparatively small
or intermingled or for other reasons not capable of management as
independent units. The laws of some countries seek to promote the
formation of associations for these purposes, particularly among the
owners of small and medium-sized tracts. In this country several
States provide for associations for protection against fires and insects.

In order for such combinations to accomplish their purpose, it might
be necessary to provide some way by which owners who will not con-
form voluntarily to the policies of the group would be compelled to do
so. Whether a State can legally, or would if it could, grant authority
to associations or combinations of individuals to compel action by
other individuals is doubtful. It is not likely that the State would
either delegate its police powers to private individuals or associations,
or sanction enforcement through "unfair" methods of competition.
It must follow, then, if there is to be any compulsion of unwilling
owners, that it will have to be exercised by public agencies. It is
fairly certain that such authority will not be exercised unless to
enforce policies which are clearly in the public interest — those making
for the stability of industries, communities, employment, and public
revenues; for the conservation of natural or human resources; or to
protect the interests of consumers.

There is no doubt that the Federal Government has the authority
to enforce compliance with a program for organized fire protection, or
even for the regulation of cutting, where preservation of the forest is
necessary for purposes of national defense, to prevent damage to lands
or other property of the Federal Government, to maintain the naviga-
bility of streams and harbors, or to prevent damage to persons or
property beyond the borders of the State. Tho authority of the
States, at least, undoubtedly goes further than this. It might be
feasible for State law to provide that when most of the owners — per-
haps two thirds or three fourths, in consultation with a suitable public
agency — agree upon certain practices as desirable or necessary to safe-
guard or promote the public interest, the remaining owners may be
required to fall in line, at least to the extent that they do not obstruct
the program of the group. If such a policy should be adopted, it
would also be necessary to provide that where owners refuse or are
unable to conform with the prescribed program their land may
be expropriated, either permanently or temporarily, after due
compensation.

PRACTICES WHICH MIGHT PROPERLY BE SUBJECT TO
MANDATORY REGULATION

Obviously, the simplest way to insure the correction of harmful
practices would be for the public to acquire all of the forest which
affects the public interest. But even if the public should embark on

1042 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

a large-scale program of acquisition, it would probably take a very
long time to get all of the forest that should be acquired. Meanwhile,
if there are no restrictions on the utilization and management of the
forests, present practices may be continued, with irreparable injury to
the forests themselves, to their owners, and to the public. Whether
or not the eventual solution is to be public ownership of virtually the
entire forest area, some means should be found to protect the public
interest as long as the forests remain in private ownership. Much can
be accomplished through public assistance to and cooperation with
private owners. There is nothing in the experience of this or any
other country, however, to give grounds for confidence that voluntary
cooperation will sufficiently safeguard the forests.

From the standpoint of public policy, there can be no valid objec-
tion, in principle, to such degree of public control over private property
as may be necessary to prevent injury to other individuals or to the

Eublic in general. This principle is thoroughly established in the
iws of every State. That it applies to forest property as well as
to every other kind of property is admitted by spokesmen of the
forest owners, even though they may question the advisability of
regulation which goes beyond this. To quote two of them:

The States * * * can and should make drastic regulations to prevent
forest fires. * * ^ * Every owner of forest land (should) be required to conduct
operations thereon in such a manner as to avoid creating a fire menace to adjacent
property.51

Like every other owner of property, the owner of forest land is bound in law
so to use his property as to do no harm to the property of another, and to do no
public injury. This obligation is universal, is everywhere recognized, and should
be enforced.52

The application of this principle to forest property has been clearly
upheld by the Supreme Court of Maine. That court ruled that the
State may regulate cutting or destruction of trees growing upon
privately owned land, for the purpose of promoting "the common
welfare by preventing or diminishing injurious droughts and freshets,
and by protecting, preserving, and maintaining the natural water
supply of the springs, streams, ponds and lakes and of the lands, and
by preventing or diminishing injurious erosion of the land and the
filling up of the rivers, ponds and lakes." One of the principal
reasons which the court gave for reaching its decision is stated
as follows:

The amount of land being incapable of increase, if the owners of large tracts
can waste them at will without State restriction, the State and its people may be
helplessly impoverished and one great purpose of government defeated.53

PREVENTION OF DIRECT INJURY TO OTHERS

That mandatory or compulsory control is logical public policy is
shown by the fact that it is already provided for, in varying degree,
by the laws of several States with respect to those practices which
threaten direct injury to other persons or the general welfare. These
practices include :

(1) Practices which increase the danger from fire, such as (a) care-
lessness with fire in connection with timber-cutting operations or

« R. S. Kellogg, in Journal of Forestry 19 : 641-646. (October 1921.)

M Wilson Compton, in Journal of Forestry 18 : 258. (March 1920.)

*3 See Seventh Report of the Forest Commissioner of the State of Maine. 1908. pp. 30-35.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1043

other use of the land; (6) failure to provide and, if necessary, to use
suitable safeguards and fire-fighting equipment in connection with
operations (firebreaks, spark arresters, tools, etc.); (c) increasing the
fire hazard through creating or leaving dangerous accumulations of
slash, standing snags, or other inflammable material, or through
clear cutting over too large areas; (d) failure to control fires, no matter
how they start, so as to prevent their escape to another's land.

(2) Practices which increase the danger of damage by diseases
and insects, including (a) creation of breeding places through leaving
accumulations of slash, or leaving unpeeled logs in the woods under
certain conditions; (b) failure to carry out such sanitary measures,
within reasonable limits, as may be necessary to check the spread of
insects or diseases.

(3) Practices which increase the danger from wind throw to the
adjacent forests of other owners. This frequently results from clear
cutting close to the boundary lines of the property.

PROTECTION OF WATERSHED VALUES

According to another section of this report ("Watershed and Related
Forest Influences"), some 300 million acres of forest land now in
private ownership has great public value for purposes of protecting
watersheds, preventing erosion or landslides, and for related purposes.
Large areas of other land that was cleared in the past have eroded
so badly after a brief period of cultivation that they can no longer
be used unless reforested. In the section on "Current Forest Devas-
tation and Deterioration" it is estimated that some 850,000 acres a
year of privately owned commercial forest land is being devastated,
chiefly as a result of fires following cutting. Probably 300,000 to
350,000 acres of this is so located as to have high value for protective
purposes. For this class of forest, mandatory regulation might
legitimately go much farther, and might extend to any practices which
will destroy or seriously impair the protective value of the forest,
such as:

Methods of logging which tend unnecessarily to destroy or damage
immature timber and young growth.

Clear cutting of large areas on sites where exposure to ^ sun and
wind will result in site deterioration, erosion of the soil, or increased
danger from fire; especially clear cutting on steep slopes.

Failure to leave suitable seed trees or to provide otherwise for
prompt restocking by natural or artificial means.

Overgrazing, resulting in injury to or elimination of young growth,
destruction of protective ground cover, deterioration of the site, or
erosion; especially on reproduction areas.

Clearing of land (deforestation) either to put it to other use or to
leave it in a state of denuded idleness.

FURTHER MANDATORY REGULATION

It can be argued that mandatory regulation should go much
farther than this. It can hardly be denied that devastation of his
own land by a forest owner, even where watershed and soil protec-
tion are not involved, results in loss to the community, State, and
Nation. It not only impoverishes existing communities, but it also
reduces the sum total of natural resources available for future genera-

1044 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

tions. Anyone who has seen the wrecked landscapes and man-made
deserts which have followed the exploitation of forests in some of the
flat lands of the Lake States or the southeastern coastal plain will
readily admit that the public welfare has been adversely affected. It
is unthinkable that the public should be helpless to protect itself
against such waste, or should have to wait and repair the damage
after it has been done instead of preventing it. However, if fires can
be held in check the most serious cause of forest devastation and
deterioration will have been eliminated, and nature will grow a new
crop of timber on most of the land that is cut over in the future, as
well as on much of that already cut over.

Mandatory regulation beyond that sufficient to hold fires and pests
in check, and in the case of protection forests, to maintain a forest
cover, might be too drastic for the American people for a long time
to come. Even if laws providing for a greater degree of regulation
were adopted, they would undoubtedly be difficult to enforce. At-
tempts to enforce them would very likely jeopardize the effectiveness
of more moderate and reasonable forms of regulation. It should also
be recognized that general mandatory regulation, even of protection
forests, is not likely to be adopted overnight, either by the Federal
Goverment or by any considerable number of States. This will have
to come about gradually. Quite possibly, however, it may come
more rapidly than was the case with the modest degree of regulation
now in effect with respect to the control of fire. The cumulative
effects of the mistreatment of forests and forest land are becoming
more and more evident. As soon as the public demonstrates its
readiness to help them by assuming its equitable share of the cost of
maintaining protection forests, forest owners will be less likely to
object to reasonable restrictions.

ELEMENTS OF A POSSIBLE PUBLIC REGULATION POLICY

If it should be decided to go farther than existing laws in the
direction of public regulation, there are several principles which
might well be taken into account in formulating policies.

In the beginning, at least, public mandatory regulation should be
confined to those things that are clearly the most essential and which
the public most unquestionably has the right to demand for its own
protection. Specific recommendations on this point are discussed in
a later chapter of this report. (Section on "A Possible Program lor
Public Regulation" in the chapter on "The National Programs Re-
quired.") The regulatory laws should be simple and their scope
clearly defined. They should provide that forest owners or their
representatives be consulted in the formulation and execution of
enforcement regulations.

On its part, the public should fulfill its responsibilities in protecting
the owners against injury for which they are in no way to blame, such
as fires originating on outside land or from causes beyond their control.
It is desirable also that the public go a long way in helping forest
owners to carry out a positive, constructive program, that is, to do
more than merely prevent the destruction of their own or neighboring
forests. The question of public assistance to private owners is
discussed under the headings "Federal and State Aid" in other
sections of this report. In some instances, such assistance might

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 1045

well be contingent upon a still further degree of public control. This
might be the case where acceptance of aid, and consequently of con-
trol, is optional with the owners. It is only reasonable that the
public should pay for measures aimed primarily at benefiting the
public rather than the individual owners. The principle should be
maintained from the outset, however, that a private owner is neither
morally nor legally entitled to any reward or compensation for obey-
ing such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent injury to other
individuals or the public.

Because of constitutional limitations upon the powers of the Federal,
State, and local governments, no uniform method of public control
can be applied to all private forests in the United States. Control
may be exercised under certain conditions by the Federal Government.
Under certain other conditions the States unquestionably have the
necessary authority to do what the Federal Government cannot do.
For these reasons a comprehensive policy would embrace three forms
of control: (a) Mandatory control by the Federal Government;
(b) mandatory control by the States and/or subdivisions of States,
such as counties, municipalities, or forest districts; (c) public or
cooperative control at the option of the owners themselves. Certain
combinations of the three might be desirable; for instance, the
Federal Government might assist the States financially and otherwise
to carry out control under State laws, just as is being done now in fire
protection. The division of responsibility for the exercise of control
is discussed in another section of this report.

In cases where no legitimate form of control or voluntary action
under private ownership can be relied upon to maintain the forest in
the condition required by the public interest, provision should be
made for expropriation, with due compensation, by Federal, State,
or local authorities. This step should be taken before the forest is
destroyed, for rehabilitation of devastated forests will require many
years and is likely to be much more costly in the long run than acquisi-
tion of the existing forest.

OBSTACLES TO MANDATORY REGULATION
ANTAGONISM OF FOREST OWNERS

As has been shown, the right of the public to protect its own interests
and those of individuals by restrictions upon the use of private prop-
erty has sound legal basis and is freely acknowledged, in principle.
Nevertheless, aversion to outside control over one's own actions is
deeply ingrained in human nature. In part, objection to public
control is purely selfish. In part, however, it is due to a sincere fear
that control would be abused: that it would be unreasonable, would
not stop where it properly should stop, or would give some individuals
an unfair advantage over others. Opposition on the grounds that it
would cost the taxpayers money or that it would involve an extension
of bureaucracy is largely specious or due to a lack of understanding
as to just what public regulation might involve.

If public control were really believed desirable or necessary, no
reasonable person would object to a reasonable cost or to the setting up
of the requisite enforcement organization. As was pointed out in the
sections "Is Forestry Justified?" and " Watershed and Related Forest
Influences/' the devastation of forests has cost the taxpayers a great

1046 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY

deal more than any system of regulation likely to be proposed. More-
over, the enforcement of fire laws and restrictions on denudation of
forest cover, even when coupled with such contributions toward
protection and management as the public should equitably make, is
bound to cost less, at least during the next few decades, than public
purchase and management of the entire forest area.

In the case of forests, the fear of bureaucratic control may be
attributed in part to the vagueness which has enshrouded most of
the discussion of the subject. With some degree of justification,
many have assumed that a public agency would be empowered to
specify in detail how an owner may manage his land and cut his
timber, and would be given a free hand to try out all sorts of silvi-
cultural fads at the owner's expense. If this were to be the case,
there would be good reason to shudder at the extension of bureau-
cracy. Silviculture is not an exact science, and it is impossible to
standardize methods of handling forests under the great diversity
of conditions which exist. No public agency (or private, for that
matter) is wise enough to dictate the specific methods to be fol-
lowed by forest owners. Such dictation is neither necessary nor
desirable. All of the regulation that is necessary to protect the
public interests can be accomplished without it. As a general
thing, it should be necessary to interfere with an owner's manage-
ment of his forest only when his practices are prejudicial to the
public interests.

Where the proposals for public regulation have been definite
and obviously reasonable, there has been less opposition. For
example, there is little opposition now to restrictions on the use of
fire during danger seasons, or on the careless use of fire in general.
Such requirements are incorporated in the laws of most States,
and have the backing of a considerable body of public opinion.

Likewise, there is not much opposition in principle to requiring
such disposal of logging slash as may be necessary to obviate undue
hazard to neighboring property. There is more opposition in
practice, however. Slash disposal may be costly. Operators are
not anxious to spend any more than is absolutely necessary to reduce
the fire hazard, since from the individual point of view this appears
to be an unproductive outlay. Naturally, it is feared that the
public agencies responsible for enforcing the requirements may
insist on more intensive and costly measures than are really neces-
sary. There is some ground for this feeling, because the underlying
principles and the technique are not yet thoroughly understood,
even by foresters. Many States have enacted laws dealing with
the disposal of slash, and the necessity of adequate slash disposal
is fairly well recognized in most forest regions, but there is still
difference of opinion as to what the requirements should consist of
and how they should be determined.

PUBLIC INDIFFERENCE

The opposition of persons who would be subject to regulation
is passively supported by the indifference of the general public,
which has not realized that mistreatment of forest lands has any
particular effect on its own interests. These two factors combined
constitute the greatest practical difficulty confronting a policy of

A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1047

public regulation. Until they can be in a large measure overcome
it will be difficult to get adequate regulatory laws adopted, or to
enforce the laws that may be adopted.

CONTROVERSY OVER JURISDICTION

Another thing which has confused the issue is the controversy
as to whether control should be exercised by the Federal Govern-
ment or by the States. This is a very important problem when it
comes to the application of public control. It is discussed in the
section of this report which deals with The National Programs and
the Responsibility for Them. It should not be allowed to obscure
the fundamental question, namely, whether an\ public agency
should exercise any control over the use of private forests.

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS AGAINST AND FOR PUBLIC REGULA-
TION IN THE UNITED STATES

Various arguments have been or may be advanced in opposition
to a policy of public regulation. The principal ones, together with
the corresponding arguments in favor of regulation, are briefly as
follows :

1. Against regulation. — Regulation is not necessary, because we
shall not need forests in the future. This argument is based pri-
marily on misgivings as to future timber requirements.

For regulation. — Other sections of this report have shown that
the maintenance of forests is of great public concern, not only to
supply useful and essential raw materials, but also because of the
other, frequently more important, public values of forests. The con-
servation of forests is an established public policy in nearly all civil-
ized countries. In the United States this policy is recognized both
by the Federal Government and by the States through legislation
and large expenditures of public funds for maintenance of public
forests, for protection of privately owned forests against fire and'other
damage, for encouragement of forest planting by private owners, and
for forest research, education, and extension work. It is also recog-
nized through special forest taxation legislation in many States.

2. Against regulation. — Regulation is not necessary, because private
owners, in pursuing their individual self-interest, can be depended on
to handle their forests in such a manner as to serve the public interest.
That this has not generally been the case in the past was because the
public put obstacles in their way, or did not do its share in removing
existing obstacles.

For regulation. — The public welfare has suffered, and is still suffer-
ing, great and well-nigh irreparable injury as a result of the destruc-
tion and deterioration of forests under a policy of unrestricted freedom
of private action. Even if the public should do all that it legitimately
could in helping forest owners, there would be no assurance that every
owner would handle his forest in the public interest. Regulation
would impose restrictions only on those who proposed to act contrary
to the public interest.

3. Against regulation. — For the public to interfere in the manage-
ment of privately owned forests would be a radical invasion of the
rights of private property, contrary to our traditional policy.

168342°— 33— vol. 1 67

1048 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

For regulation. — It has been shown in the preceding pages that for
the public to regulate the use of private property in order to protect
and promote the public welfare does not involve any new or untried
principle. On the contrary, this policy is firmly established in the
legislation of this and other countries. Instead of being an unwar-
ranted invasion of private property rights, it is necessary for the
defense of private property as well as the public welfare. The
destructive practices of some owners make it difficult for other
owners, who would like to handle their forests conservatively, to do so.

4. Against regulation. — A policy of public regulation would necessi-
tate an army of public employees and bureaucrats whose meddlesome
interference would stifle private enterprise.

For regulation. — No large number of public employees would be
necessary. Regulation can and should be decentralized, and the
owners should have a share in it. Owners who follow good practices
would not be interfered with. There need be no attempt to dictate
details of management.

5. Against regulation. — Regulation would mean further Federal
encroachment on the authority and responsibilities of the States.

For regulation. — Regulation need not be centralized. Where only
State or local interests are involved, the States would naturally
decide upon their own policies of regulation, without interference from
the Federal Government. Direct Federal regulation would logically
be confined to cases involving national or interstate interests, where
these will not be protected by State or local action. Even in these
cases, there is no reason why Federal authorities should not cooperate
closely with the State authorities. If the State laws and their
enforcement in any State should be adequate to protect the Federal
interests, Federal interference would not be necessary.

6. Against regulation. — Forest owners cannot afford to adopt the
measures that might be required of them.

For regulation. — To the extent that restrictions consist merely of
prohibition of acts that will cause direct harm to others, the cost to
the owner of abstaining from such acts is not a legitimate consider-
ation. This is a long-established principle of law. Restrictions that
go beyond this, which will not bring an offsetting benefit to the owner,
would be justified only if the public bears the expense.

7. Against regulation. — The cost of regulation would add greatly
to the burden of the taxpayers.

For regulation. — Devastation and deterioration of our forests has
been exceedingly costly to taxpayers, both through the loss of indus-
tries and shrinkage of the tax base in forested regions and through the
cost of remedial measures such as flood control works and dredging of
silt from rivers and harbors. In comparison with these costs, the
cost of regulation would be ridiculously small, even when coupled
with greatly expanded public assistance in forest protection and
development. At least for the next few decades it would be cheaper
for the public to prevent further forest devastation by means of
suitable restrictions upon the acts of the owners than to acquire and
rehabilitate a major portion of the forest land after the forest cover
has been destroyed.

8. Against regulation. — Existing regulation, though mild in scope,
is not well enforced in most States and is not particularly effective.

A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 1049

For regulation.— Existing regulation has not had a fair chance to
become fully effective. Much of it is relatively new, forest owners in
many instances are not aware that the laws exist, and adequate funds
and personnel have not been provided for enforcing them. Moreover,
the public has not always done its part in helping forest owners.

9. Against regulation. — Regulation would not be effective because
of the antagonism of forest owners.

For regulation. — As explained above, part of the antagonism to the
idea of regulation is due to a misconception as to what regulation
would involve. Other sturdy individualists object because of a dis-
inclination to allow a public agency or anyone else to tell them how to
run their business. The newer generation of forest owners, however,
has a better understanding of the evil results of unrestricted private
exploitation than their predecessors had. If the public will do its
part, it is not fantastic to believe that many owners will accept and
even welcome a reasonable degree of restriction, providing it is applied
impartially to all owners. As soon as a large proportion of forest
owners, or of the more influential owners, can be made to see that a
certain amount of restriction would be for the best interest of all and
would not involve excessive interference with private business, such
regulation can be effective. Regulation of a considerably more
intensive character than might be desirable at the present time in the
United States was quickly accepted by the forest owners and has been
very effective in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

10. Against regulation. — Public opinion is indifferent. Without
the support of an informed public opinion, regulation would not be
practical.

For regulation. — The public is rapidly becoming cognizant of the
desirability of forest preservation. The damage done by forest
fires is much better understood than it was. Events of the last few
years have brought the dangers of floods and erosion prominently to
public attention. The value of forests for recreation is appreciated
as never before. The old idea that practically all land is suitable for
agriculture is now pretty well exploded and it is more evident than
formerly that a considerable area of forest land will have to remain in
forest if it is to produce anything. Even forest owners are beginning
to realize that devastation of most forests is unprofitable and econom-
ically foolish.

11. Against regulation. — Instead of trying to regulate private
owners, the public should buy, or acquire by other means, all of the
forest land.

For regulation. — Land acquired through tax default or through gift
is likely to have had its productive and protective values seriously
impaired before the public gets it. Purchase of the major portion of
the still productive land would certainly be costly, and even if such a
program could be agreed upon it would require many years for com-
pletion. Some provision should be made to prevent devastation of
such land during the interim before it is acquired by the public.
Moreover, under the most ambitious plan of public acquisition that i-
likely to be adopted, so far as can be foreseen at this time, a very large
area of forest land will remain in private ownership.

1050 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

CONCLUSION

Existing control does not go far enough to protect the present or
future generations. It is to be expected that proposals for more
adequate enforcement of existing legislation, as well as for further
requirements, will meet with opposition and indifference. However,
this is no reason for dropping public regulation as one of the essential
means for insuring that our forest resources will be perpetuated and
handled so as to promote the public welfare. On the contrary, every
effort should be made to obtain the backing of public opinion, includ-
ing the forest owners, for adequate regulation.

To do this will involve a continuous process of education regarding
the importance of forests to the welfare of individual citizens and of
the public as a whole. It should be made clear, particularly to forest
owners, that such regulation as is proposed will not unduly interfere
in the handling of their property, and that in the long run it will be to
their advantage through preserving property values and extending the
life of forest industries. As soon as practicable, regulation based on
the principles outlined above should be adopted as a public policy.
Specific suggestions for a program of public regulation of private
forests in the United States are given under the heading " A Possible
Program for Public Regulation " in a later part of this report (The
National Programs Required and the Responsibility for Them).