16 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The underlying cause of the difficulties of the forest industries and 

 particularly the lumber industry, which may be most acute on the 

 west coast, is only in part the overload of forest land and timber. 

 The cut-out-and-get-out policy which has been followed almost uni- 

 versally is also a primary cause. 



Sustained yield management would in many cases have required 

 smaller plant capacity, lower investments, and hence carrying charges 

 and capital costs. It would have resulted in lower operating costs 

 from leaving unprofitable timber in the forest to grow, and higher 

 returns from a larger percentage of high-grade material. It might 

 also have resulted in curtailed production. The residual value of a 

 growing forest would have been high as compared with bare land. 

 In brief, devastation has resulted in losses which might have been 

 profits under sustained yield management. 



The entire difficulty is merely another phase of the larger problem 

 of private ownership. 



IT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SERIOUS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LOSSES TO THE 



PUBLIC 



The economic and social losses to the public extend far beyond the 

 forest industries themselves. 



Dependent industries soon succumb after the departure of the 

 forest industries, the tax base is reduced, and local rates must be 

 higher on the remaining property. Tax receipts of local political 

 units fall and many become bankrupt. Outside contributions for local 

 governmental activities become necessary. The standards of com- 

 munity life in schools, churches, roads, etc., are lowered. The popu- 

 lation necessarily becomes shifting and labor transient. All possibility 

 of a balanced economic and social structure to which productive 

 forest land and permanent forest industries should contribute is lost 

 for many years. 



IT HAS FALLEN FAR BEHIND PUBLIC OWNERSHIP IN MANAGEMENT AND 



ADMINISTRATION 



Practically the entire cut on publicly owned forest land is now 

 made with provision for the renewal of the forest (fig. 5), but probably 

 less than 5 percent of that on privately owned land. The cut on 

 privately owned land is more than 70 times larger. ^ 



Although the area of publicly owned commercial forest land is 

 only one fourth that of private, 10 times as much public land is being 

 managed under intensive sustained yield timber management plans 

 and about 4 times as much with conscious effort to prolong produc- 

 tivity (figs. 8 and 9). 



One hundred and two million acres of the western forest ranges are in 

 public and 42 in private ownership. The area of public ranges under 

 some kind of management plans is about 16 times, and that under 

 fairly intensive management plans about 12 times those in private 

 ownership (fig. 10). 



The area of publicly owned land now being planted is about twice 

 that privately owned. 



A little over half of the privately owned land needing protection 

 against fire is under organized protection, but with a public contri- 

 bution of five sixths of the cost. Practically all of the publicly owned 



