CONNECTICUT'S FOREST PROGRAM^ 



\i\ T. S. W'ooLSKv, Jr., 



Consulting Forester 



At a special meeting of the Connecticut Forestry Association, a 

 program for the future was jjroposed as follows : 



1. Purchase by the State during the next ten years of at least lUO.OOO 

 acres of forest (about one-tenth the total potential forest area and 

 one-fifteenth the total gross area) to be organized and administered 

 as State forests for the continuous production of timber. An initial 

 appropriation of ."iO.OOO l)y the General Assembly of 1921 is to be 

 asked for. 



v\ Reorganization of State Forester's office. 



• ">. Publicity on the rapid exhaustion of forest resources. 



A. A revised tax law under which standing timber should pay a 

 products tax at the time it is cut and the soil an annual land tax based 

 solely on the value of the land apart from the timber. 



5. That the County Farm Bureaus should give advice on the growth, 

 management, and marketing of forest crops. ^ 



With the industrial liquidation and deflation which is confronting 

 the New England states and the consequent need for economy and re- 

 trenchment in public expenditures any forestry program which dimin- 

 ishes the current revenue and increases appropriations will naturally 

 be difficult to engineer. But the situation is a serious one and demands 

 drastic reform. The appropriation would be largely an investment and 

 not an administrative cost. 



' Based on committee reports and resolutions read before a meeting of the 

 Connecticut Forestry Association at Hartford, November 27, 1920. Connecticut 

 Timber Supply, by R. C. Bryant. Chairman ; State Forests, by W. O. Filley, 

 chairman ; A New Forest Tax Law for Connecticut, by H. H. Chapman, chair- 

 man ; Cooperation Between the Private Forest Owners and the Public, by P. P. 

 Wells, chairman; Forest Fires, by A. E. Moss, chairman. 



' It is of interest to note that the association also voted to stop the commer- 

 cial exploitation of the National Parks. Land chiefly valuable for commercial 

 purposes should be placed under national forest management and administered 

 as National Forests. 



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