A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 3 



Range management plans have been prepared or are in preparation 

 for the entire national forest area utilized for grazing ; fairly intensive 

 plans for 33 million acres. National forest ranges now support 8 mil- 

 lion head of cattle, horses, sheep, and other domestic livestock. 



The full services which the forest and range cover can render in 

 watershed protection are gradually being assured by the management 

 of timber and forage and their protection against fire. 



The national forests are now visited each year by more than 30 

 million people seeking recreation. Management plans provide for 

 the gradual development of camping grounds, for the leasing of sum- 

 mer home sites, and for other needed facilities. More than 50 areas 

 containing about 9 million acres have already been set aside to pre- 

 vent needless impairment of pioneer conditions. 



Under protection wild life is being gradually increased, despite the 

 fact that 100,000 big game animals are being killed annually. As fast 

 as the possibility of management is reached plans are prepared and 

 put into effect. 



Protection against fire is necessary in the management of all forest 

 resources. In spite of a rapid increase in human use, the size of the 

 area burned in the average year has been reduced from about 1,350,000 

 acres to about 500,000 acres between 1910-15 and 1920-25. The 

 ratio of actual to allowable burn has been brought to 1.07 to 1. On 

 all but 30 of the 95 million acres requiring protection a satisfactory 

 ratio has been reached. An important factor in this improvement has 

 been the development of detailed plans for fire protection. 



In normal years business for the entire national forest area includes, 

 in part, more than 80,000 individual business transactions, some of 

 great size; the administration of all use; the control of some 8,100 

 forest fires; the planting of 25,000 acres; the planning and construc- 

 tion of nearly 4,000 miles of roads; of more than 8,500 miles of trail; 

 the purchase of 450,000 acres of forest land. Aggregate expenditures 

 in 1930 reached more than $11,500,000 for administration and pro- 

 tection and $6,000,000 for capital investments. Receipts were nearly 

 $7,000,000. 



A competent staff has been developed, the stability of which is 

 assured by civil-service protection, a stability common to all Federal 

 agencies engaged in forest activities. 



Opposition to such a radical departure as the national-forest enter- 

 prise was inevitable. Violent to begin with and still sporadically 

 recurrent, it is gradually decreasing. In general the national forest 

 concept of Federal administration in the public interest of a great 

 national resource under a policy of integrated sustained yield man- 

 agement has become an accepted fact in public opinion. Although 

 facing many unsolved problems of administration, resource manage- 

 ment, and protection, the national forests are an outstanding example 

 of land administration and of public administration of any sort. 

 Forty years' trial has built up the resource itself, despite continu- 

 ously enlarging use. The national forests have become a vital part 

 in the existence of local communities and even of whole States, the 

 source of being of many industries, and the opportunity for the 

 employment of labor. They are already showing something of the 

 magnitude of the economic and social services which the sustained 

 yield forest can render, but the full possibilities are far in the future. 



