2. FORESTRY 



Water Quality in Forests 



Lands classified as forest, approxi- 

 mately three-quarters of them in 

 private ownership (see Figure VII-4) 

 make up almost exactly one-third of 

 the total land area of the United 

 States. A large portion of this is well 

 supplied with precipitation, and the 

 excess over that lost by evapotran- 

 spiration is the source of much of the 

 water reaching streams, lakes, and 

 ground waters. 



Water issuing from essentially un- 

 disturbed forests, even those on steep 

 terrain or with thin or erosive soils, 

 is ordinarily of high quality — low 

 in dissolved and suspended matter 

 except during major floods, high in 

 oxygen content, relatively low in 

 temperature, and substantially free 

 of microbial pollutants. These qual- 

 ities are desirable and highly visible 

 to recreational users of these lands, 

 and some are absolutely essential to 

 fish such as trout and salmon. They 

 are also highly important to down- 

 stream users, whether agricultural, 

 urban, or industrial. In addition to 

 any legal rights these users may have 

 acquired to water volume, they of- 

 ten have built-in dependencies — aes- 

 thetic, technical, or economic — on 

 quality features; they are commonly 

 prepared to resist any real or prospec- 

 tive impairment, regardless of the 

 interests of the owners of the lands 

 from which the water comes or other 

 social claims on its use. 



Nevertheless, these water-yielding 

 lands are required for a variety of 

 other goods and social purposes — 

 timber, recreation in many forms, 

 grazing and wildlife production. A 

 very large proportion of public and 

 private land is held especially for 

 such uses, whereas only rarely is 

 there any direct recompense to the 

 landholder for the outflowing waters. 

 Despite contrary advocacy, it will sel- 

 dom be defensible to propose water 



quality as the exclusive goal of forest 

 land management over large areas. 



Now, all uses, all manipulation of 

 soil and vegetation, pose some poten- 

 tial risk to water quality — sometimes 

 major, sometimes trivial. Even wild- 

 erness camping, construction of roads 

 essential for adequate fire protection, 

 or forest cutting or herbicide treat- 

 ments to reduce transpiration and so 

 increase water yield conceivably could 

 affect water quality adversely. Ac- 

 cordingly, conflict between absolutely 

 unaltered water quality and other 

 land uses will likely be inevitable 

 at times, and may have to be resolved 

 on economic or political grounds. 

 Moreover, conflicts between compet- 

 ing land uses — as forage versus 



timber, large game versus domestic 

 animal grazing, industrial raw ma- 

 terials versus scenic impact — may 

 be resolved on grounds other than 

 water quality. 



But there is abundant evidence — 

 chiefly from U.S. Forest Service ex- 

 perimental watersheds — to demon- 

 strate that other uses of watershed 

 lands either already are or can be 

 made compatible with essentially un- 

 impaired water quality. A variety of 

 techniques and constraints will be 

 needed, such as where and how roads 

 are built, the nature and timing of 

 silvicultural or harvesting practices, 

 how recreationists travel and camp. 

 Many of these are known already; 

 others are under investigation; still 



Figure VII-4 — OWNERSHIP OF U.S. FOREST LANDS 



The diagram shows the forest ownership pattern in the U.S. in 1952. Federal, state, 

 and local governments owned only 27 percent of the forest land. An additional 

 13 percent was under the control of forest industries. Such a situation makes forest 

 management difficult because many private owners lack the incentive, knowledge, 

 or interest to use approved forestry practices on their lands. 



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