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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A CONSTRUCTIVE PLAN 



A plan which will fiilly meet the 

 situation and at the same time be 

 entirely practical to apply is as follows : 



Congress has made a continuing 

 appropriation of 35% of the gross 

 receipts from the Forests to aid in 

 community development and main- 

 tenance. Inasmuch as the objects of 

 this provision can not be accomplished 

 at present where the timber is inacces- 

 sible and unmarketable, a modification 

 of the present plan is proposed to make 

 these heavily timbered forests service- 

 able to the people at the present time 

 during the most severe pioneer stage of 

 the region's development. The pro- 

 posal is that where the existing resources 

 justify it and the public need can be 

 shown, future receipts be anticipated 

 and advances be made by Congress for 

 the construction of roads, bridges and 

 similar public works, these advances to 

 be returned to the Treasury from the 

 sums which will be received later on 

 when the timber can be placed on the 

 market. If need be, the advances 

 could be deducted from the amounts 

 which wotdd later go to the communities 

 as their share of the gross receipts from 

 the forests. In such an event the 

 Nation would not be making a new 

 contribution to the communities, but 

 merely advancing a portion of what they 

 would ultimateh' receive anj'how. 



APPLICATION OF THE PLAN 



In application the plan would call for 

 a specific appropriation for individual 

 projects, each of these to be considered 

 separately and on its merits. Probably 

 the simplest procedure would be to use 

 the county as a development unit 

 rather than a National Forest which 

 might spread over several counties. 

 The question of whether in any given 

 county the Government should make 

 advances on the basis of its forest 

 resources for the benefit of the commun- 

 ity development would depend wholly 

 upon the public need for such advances 

 and upon the resources in the National 

 Forest comprised within the county 

 which could be used as securit}^ for the 

 advance. In short, we are dealing with 



a question of public business and no 

 advances should be made except upon 

 an adequate showing that existing 

 resoiu-ces are amply sufficient to cover 

 the outlay. Thus Congress would be 

 in the position of a board of directors of 

 a banldng institution passing on a loan. 

 The showing of the public need and of 

 the resources which are to repay the 

 advances would be made by the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture through the Forest 

 Service. 



The procedure in the case of a 

 given county would be somewhat as 

 follows: The Forest Service and the 

 local county officials would cooperate 

 in the study of a county's needs for 

 public improvements, not merely within 

 the boundaries of the National Forest 

 but in that portion of the county outside 

 of the boundaries and adjacent to the 

 Forest. The public improvement which 

 would usually be desired would be the 

 construction of roads and bridges. In 

 the majority of cases the immediate 

 purpose of such development would be 

 to make the agricultural lands more 

 accessible to the market. In many 

 cases the purpose woiild be to open up 

 new agriciiltural regions, as for example, 

 in the logged-off lands outside of the 

 National Forests, such as occur in great 

 quantity in the Northwestern States. 

 In some instances the purpose of the 

 roads would be to open up a mining 

 region. In still other cases it is possible 

 that the development of the recreation 

 resources would be the most important 

 need of a region. Such a study would 

 result in a general plan of needed 

 development of public works, including 

 the determination of the specific roads or 

 other works which should be undertaken 

 immediately. This plan would show 

 also the direct public service which 

 would be rendered by the improvements 

 in the development of agriculture and 

 other resources and the benefit which 

 would result to the public at large. 



In addition there would be prepared 

 by the Forest Service a full statement 

 showing the amount of timber and 

 other resources in the National Forest 

 within the county and the receipts that 

 can conservatively be anticipated as soon 

 as these resources can be realized upon. 



