A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 7 



Much greater emphasis and even a realignment of personnel will be 

 required if they are to occupy the place they can and should. One 

 State New York gives the head of its forestry work the protection 

 of civil-service standing by law, and six give this protection to officers 

 in lower positions. 



State expenditures for all forest activities totaled about $9,000,000 

 in 1932. 



PUBLIC REGULATION 



State effort in public regulation has been mainly in legislation deal- 

 ing with the use of fire and its enforcement. Nearly all States have 

 such fire legislation, a few are enforcing it effectively, and many make 

 some attempt at enforcement. 



OTHER PUBLIC FORESTS AND PARKS 



Nearly 1,000 county, municipal, and town forests now aggregate 

 about 1 million acres. 



County forests of slightly more than half the total area have sig- 

 nificance in Wisconsin chiefly, and in New York. Two fifths of the 

 Wisconsin forests, originating in tax delinquency, are under adminis- 

 tration. 



Probably half the number and four fifths of the area of all municipal 

 and town forests protect municipal water supplies and are under inten- 

 sive protection and administration for this purpose. Many have 

 recreational significance. 



In 29 of the 48 States tax-delinquent lands revert to the counties 

 or towns. The area of forest land already delinquent has reached 

 many millions of acres. ome provision for consolidation and ad- 

 ministration as county forests or for transfer to the State or for admin- 

 istration by the State has been made by law in Wisconsin, Oregon, 

 and Minnesota. 



Total expenditures by the political subdivisions of States hi the 

 field of forestry were about $1,650,000 in 1932. 



THE PRIVATE OWNER'S CONTRIBUTION 



Nearly 400 million acres, or practically 80 percent of the commercial 

 forest land in the United States, is in private ownership, and 127 

 million acres of this is in farm woodlands. 



By far the largest conscious contribution of the private owner to 

 American timber production is in fire protection. Toward the cost 

 of organized protection on about 225 million acres, as already indi- 

 cated, the owners contributed approximately $1,000,000 in 1932, or 

 about one sixth of total expenditures. For the 2 preceding years the 

 contribution was between one fifth and one fourth. Nearly 20 million 

 acres more are protected by the owners themselves at a cost of about 

 $300,000. 



Organized sustained-yield management for areas exceeding 1,000 

 acres is believed to be in effect on about 2.3 million acres; and meas- 

 ures other than fire protection to prolong productivity, on more than 

 15K million acres. The extension over the entire farm-woodland 

 area of fragmentary data from New England indicates active efforts 

 to promote tree growth on about 4 million acres. Private owners 



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