A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 29 



precipitation, easily eroded soils, the clearing of steep slopes for agri- 

 culture, and deteriorated forests accentuate the watershed problem. 



The Ouachita-Ozark Mountain area of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and 

 Missouri make up only 5 percent of the Mississippi River drainage, 

 but have contributed from 25 to 50 percent of the peak flow of the 

 lower-river floods. No other area of equal size is as great a factor 

 in flood height. Hillside agriculture, cutting without provision for 

 the future of the forest, fires that burn one seventh of the area 

 annually have markedly reduced the possible watershed protection. 



The Breaks of the Arkansas and Red Rivers and the Badlands of 

 the Missouri contribute a volume of sediment to the Mississippi far 

 in excess of the proper proportion of a total area of only 20 million 

 acres. The cutting of the sparse tree growth and excessive grazing 

 are partly responsible. 



Only an exceptionally luxuriant vegetative cover saves the Pacific 

 coast dense forest region with its heavy precipitation from being an 

 extremely critical watershed problem. 



The ponderosa-lodgepole pine belt forests are the source of two 

 thirds of the irrigation water of the West, of one third of the 14 

 million installed horsepower capacity of the country, and of muni- 

 cipal supplies for 6 million people. Destructive cutting, fire, and un- 

 regulated grazing have reduced the effectiveness of the cover over 

 large areas. 



Eighty million acres of semiarid woodland and brush lands con- 

 stitute the most critical western erosion and flood problem on forest 

 lands. Depletion of the normally sparse vegetative coyer chiefly by 

 destructive grazing and fire have seriously impaired its protective 

 values. 



THE RELATION OF OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT TO CRITICAL 



PROBLEMS 



Private land ownership is the key to the watershed problem on 

 eastern agricultural lands, to practically all of the forest-land problem 

 of the East, and also to the ponderosa-lodgepole pine problem of the 

 West. 



The unmanaged public domain, which includes over 23 percent of 

 the semiarid woodland and brush lands, constitutes the most critical 

 erosion and flood problem on western forest lands. 



THE PROBLEM OF FOREST RECREATION 



Recreation in this report means anything done directly for the 

 pleasure or enrichment which it brings to life, in contrast to things 

 done primarily to obtain the necessities. 



People who visit the forest for recreation have a great variety of 

 purposes. It may be the desire for play, the preservation of health, 

 the pursuit of beauty, communion with nature, favorable environ- 

 ment for contemplation, scientific knowledge, adventure, or to escape 

 from civilization. While few go to the forest for all of these pur- 

 poses, each one influences at the very least tens of thousands of 

 people. 



The best available figures on current annual volume indicate about 

 250 million man-days spent in recreational use of the forest and an 

 expenditure by forest recreationalists of not less than $1,750,000,000. 



