Improvement Systems Cost 253 



so as to absorb the improvements put in with emergency money 

 in connection with fire-fighting and the work done by the regular 

 salaried officers at odd times between other duties. The total has 

 certainly never reached as much as 0.5 cent per acre per year 

 (equivalent to about $115 per township per year). 



A great amount of the improvements now present on the Na- 

 tional Forests were put in at private expense in years past but 

 must now be maintained by the Service, since they have been de- 

 serted by their owners. From year to year the amount of new 

 construction increases. The total value of the National Forest 

 improvements, figured on replacement cost, was estimated in 

 1914 at $3,553,000. Ten per cent of this sum will probably ap- 

 proximate the current annual depreciation. This amounts to 

 $355,300, leaving for new construction on about 160 million 

 acres of Forest, about $194,700 a year, or about 0.12 cent per 

 acre (equivalent to about $28 per township). At this rate it will 

 be about ten years before the sum total of the annual appropria- 

 tions is wholly required to maintain existing improvements, at 

 which time the improvements will have a replacement value of 

 about $5,500,000. With some 6900 townships in the National 

 Foresits, the improvement investment, at this time, will total about 

 $797 per township, and really less than that, since many improve- 

 ments must be constructed outside the boundaries of the Forests. 

 As compared with the cost of the system on the well improved 

 township previously hypothecated, this amounts to 1.6 per cent. 

 As compared with the township well improved, but with trails 

 instead of roads, it amounts to about 5.3 per cent. 



Such figuring is of use in showing the ridiculous insufficiency 

 of the present appropriations and of the Improvement Plans 

 necessarily based upon them. This is still more evident if attempt 

 is made to compare the cost of the finished improvement system 

 possible under current appropriations with the present or future 

 value of the Forests. The result is a practically disappearing 

 decimal. 



The same situation, or worse, is to be found with our State 

 Forests and with the Private Protective Associations. The situa- 

 tion is only slightly better on most of our privately owned forest 

 estates and parks. Adequate appropriations cannot be hoped for 

 until practising foresters fully appreciate what improvements 



