62 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



000, the Tusayan of Arizona, $64,000, 

 and there are many others which now 

 yield very substantial returns. Under 

 such circumstances there certainly is 

 not the same need of making advances 

 on futiire receipts because the citizens 

 are already receiving a direct contribu- 

 tion from the forest resources for local 

 institutions. Then again there are 

 some forests with relatively little tim- 

 ber value which were established and 

 are maintained not so much to produce 

 forest products as to protect the water 

 used by the local communities in irriga- 

 tion, for domestic supply, and other 

 purposes. In such forests the receipts 

 may be very small now and in the 

 future. 



Obviously the local communities are 

 already receiving very large benefits 

 from these forests in the protection of 

 their water and advances would not be 

 made to them for this reason, and also 

 because the resources are not of a 

 character to justify it. Still again, 

 certain forests have in the past been so 

 badly abused through forest fires and 

 otherwise that it will be a long time 

 before the timber which is now growing 

 up will yield substantial receipts. There 

 is no reason why under such conditions 

 any advances should be made by the 

 Government. In the first place, the 

 resources do not justify it and it hap- 

 pens that on most of the forests in this 

 condition there are considerable re- 

 ceipts from grazing which constitute a 

 substantial contribution to the com- 

 munity upbuilding. 



The situation may best be illustrated 

 by a few specific examples. We have 

 on the Ohinpic Peninsula an extreme 

 illustration of the need of applying the 

 proposed plan of making advances for 

 the public improvement. The Olympic 

 National Forest occupies 62 per cent 

 of Jefferson County and 46 per cent of 

 Clallam County. The Olympic Forest 

 carries the largest body of timber of 

 any of the National Forests of its size. 

 Surrounded as it is by private timber 

 lands which are much more accessible, 

 it has not been possible to place any 

 considerable amount of the Government 

 timber on the market at the present 

 period of great depression in the lumber 



industry. There has been, therefore, 

 very little return to these counties from 

 receipts from the National Forests. A 

 great deal of these counties is still in 

 a state of wilderness. Only a small be- 

 ginning has been made in the con- 

 struction of means of transportation. 

 The conditions are such that the con- 

 struction of serviceable roads is ex- 

 tremely expensive. The people of the 

 coimties have bonded themselves heav- 

 ily in order to build roads, and with 

 such funds as they are able to raise in 

 this way only a small part of the work 

 can be done which is necessary to 

 lay the foundations for the development 

 of the agricultural and other resources 

 of the counties. The development 

 problem of these counties is first of all 

 to open up the logged-off lands outside 

 the National Forests and to establish 

 upon them permanent homes. This 

 cannot be done without roads and the 

 relatively small population already heav- 

 ily burdened with taxes cannot possibly 

 meet the situation. The Olympic 

 National Forest contains at least 33 

 billion feet of timber. Ultimately 

 there will be a return of from $300,000 

 to $500,000 a year gross receipts from 

 this forest. Pending the time that 

 these timber resources can be realized 

 upon, they certainly should be made to 

 make some contribution to the develop- 

 ment of the counties through the plan 

 of federal advances such as is being 

 proposed. In my opinion, if the plan 

 which has been outlined in this paper is 

 adopted the first projects which should 

 be given consideration by Congress are 

 in Jefferson and Clallam Counties in 

 Washington. 



A nimiber of other very urgent 

 examples could be given, such as Curr 

 County in Oregon, where 64 per cent 

 of the county is in a National Forest 

 and where there is at the present time 

 very little return to the communities 

 from the forests because of the inac- 

 cessibility of the timber and other re- 

 sources and where there is a most 

 urgent need for road development in 

 order to open up the resources sur- 

 rounding the National Forests as well 

 as those within its boundaries. The 

 small population, 2,044 people, cannot 



