2 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE PROGRESS OF FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES 



The American people have reason to be proud of the progress of 

 forestry in the United States. In its modern phase this progress has 

 been made largely since 1900, although it began in 1876 with the 

 appointment of one man in the Federal Department of Agriculture. 



THE FEDERAL CONTRIBUTION 



To this progress the Federal Government, the States and their 

 political subdivisions, various quasi-public agencies, and private 

 owners, have contributed. 



THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



The national forest enterprise has been the most conspicuous single 

 effort in the development of American forestry. 



The great significance of the national forest enterprise lies in the 

 fact that it has been a trial on a grand scale of Federal public adminis- 

 tration of a great natural resource in the public interest. This has 

 been a radical departure from the traditional American policy of 

 private ownership of natural resources and their exploitation for 

 private profit. 



The national forests now exceed 161 million acres. The 140 million 

 in the continental United States contain nearly one sixth of our com- 

 mercial forest land or that suitable for timber growing, and 30 percent 

 of our noncommercial forest land or that chiefly valuable for such 

 other purposes as watershed protection and grazing. They contain 

 one third of the remaining saw timber. 



Virtually all of the major streams west of the Great Plains head in 

 them. All of the lands purchased in the East are on the watersheds 

 of navigable streams. 



They contain 83 million acres of range lands in the West, or 12 

 percent of the total western range area. 



Substantial or large parts of practically all the major mountain 

 ranges in the United States fall within the national forests, which 

 constitute the great playgrounds and include much of the most beau- 

 tiful scenery of the country. 



They constitute pur great public hunting grounds, 75 percent of 

 the range of the big game animals of the West, and much of the 

 western fur-bearing area. They include 60,000 miles of streams and 

 many thousands of lakes suitable for fish. 



For all of these interrelated resources the soil is the basic resource. 



Of hardly less significance in the national forest enterprise than the 

 trial of public administration of a natural resource has been the adop- 

 tion of far-reaching plans to insure both maximum use and perpetuity 

 and the use of each forest resource in relation to all. 



All of the 74,680,000 acres of commercial forest is under timber 

 management, 21 million acres have detailed sustained yield manage- 

 ment plans, and 29 million acres more general plans. All of the 1,250 

 million board feet cut annually from 125,000 acres is under silvicul- 

 ture which will perpetuate the forest and maintain the forest capital. 

 About 25,000 acres are now being planted annually. The sustained 

 yield capacity of the forest is being steadily increased. 



