HOW CAN THE PRIVATE FOREST LANDS BE BROUGHT 

 UNDER FOREST MANAGEMENT? 



By W. N. Sparhawk 

 Forest Bxaminer, U. S. Forest Service 



The country's requirements for timber will necessitate the continua- 

 tion of forest production upon practically the whole of our present 

 forest area, exclusive of land suitable for agriculture. At least seven- 

 tenths of this area is now in private ownership. These facts lead in- 

 evitably to the conclusion that forestry must be practiced on private 

 lands, unless we are to depend on other countries for our timber supply 

 in the future. 



Two ways in which this may be brought about have been suggested : 

 First of these is the general acquisition of forest lands by the public, 

 until there shall ultimately be enough such land in public ownership to 

 insure a timber supply sufficient to meet the national requirements con- 

 tinuously. 



Among the arguments in favor of such a plan are : 



1 . The growing of forest crops is a long-time venture whose returns 

 are uncertain. Private enterprise, which depends for its return solely 

 on profits, cannot be expected to go into such a business under the 

 economic conditions which have prevailed hitherto. The public, on the 

 other hand, can afford to undertake forestry even if its profits cannot 

 be shown in dollars and cents, because of the great indirect public 

 benefits derived from forests and from an assured supply of timber. 



2. H the public owns the forests they can be managed for the public 

 good, even though such management might not in certain localities be 

 in accord with the methods which produce the largest money return. 

 In the care of protection forests, for instance, the direct money return 

 should be a subordinate consideration, yet private owners could hardly 

 be e5cpected to manage them in such a way as to protect watershed 

 values to the serious reduction of their own profits or perhaps the en- 

 tailment of a direct loss. 



Serious disadvantages of this method are the great initial cost of 



acquiring the land, because of which it is likely that the acquisition 



would proceed slowly, and that productive capacity of our remaining 



forests would be greatly reduced before they could come under public 



490 



