COUNTY OR COMMUNITY WORKING PLANS AS A BASIS 

 FOR WOODLOT EXTENSION WORK 



By W. D. Sterrett^ 



The Forest Service has recently completed a number of State- 

 wide woodlot-marketing studies, made as a general basis for 

 woodlot extension work. The next step, which was taken up to 

 a certain extent last simimer, is to follow up these general studies 

 with studies of particular counties. I wish to suggest that it might 

 now be desirable to have this county work centered on the prep- 

 aration of detailed county working plans, based on thorough 

 investigation of economic, silvicultural and agricultural conditions 

 in given counties. This work might also well be taken up by any 

 State forestry agency. Such a plan should consist in organization 

 of a given coimty (or community) with reference to woodlot and 

 forest problems, showing in detail for different classes of land the 

 need for woodlots, and their possibilities and limitations as com- 

 pared with other crops. Such a plan would require as a basis: 

 (1) topographic and soil maps as a basis for land use maps; (2) 

 economic data such as are being collected for representative 

 coimties by the Forest Service in cooperation with the Office of 

 Farm Management (see attached form) ; (3) all available Census 

 statistics in regard to the county, including population, rural and 

 urban; total county area; area in farms; number of farms in dif- 

 ferent size classes; value per acre; per cent of farmland in woodlots; 

 per cent in other unimproved land; and value of woodlot products 

 cut on the farm, etc.; (4) complete market data, showing the 

 market possibilities for all classes of woodlot material and trans- 

 portation facilities; (5) silvicultural data, especially on the yield 

 possibilities of the different important species on different classes 

 of land. 



It is important to select a county which forms a natural com- 

 mimity unit, with one main town for outlet and intake and dis- 

 tribution o f produce and supplies. The advantage of taking a 

 county lies in the large amotmt of necessary statistical data which 

 is already available for this unit. 



In such plans an important thing is the recognition that the 

 county or community, rather than the individual farm, is the 



* Research Dept., U. S. Forest Service, Washington, D. C. 



467 



