A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



MAJOR PROBLEMS AND THE NEXT BIG STEP IN 

 AMERICAN FORESTRY 1 



A SUMMARY OF THE REPORT ON SENATE RESOLUTION 175 



By EARLE H. CLAPP, In Charge Branch of Research 



CONTENTS 



Page 



The progress of forestry in the United States 2 



The Federal contribution 2 



The State contribution 



The private owner's contribution 7 



The contributions of other agencies 8 



Progress in sum 8 



The major forest problems 11 



The problem of privately owned forest lands 11 



The problem of the agricultural land available for forestry 18 



The problem of unmanaged public lands 21 



The problem of balancing the national timber budget 



The problem of watershed protection 



The problem of forest recreation 29 



The problem of forest wild life 30 



The problem of forest ranges 32 



The problem of knowledge 33 



Why the solution of the major forest problems constitutes one of our 

 major national problems 



The major objectives 40 



To get forest land into productive use 40 



To meet national requirements for forest products and services 40 



To obtain the full economic and social benefits of the forest 41 



To meet these objectives requires national planning 41 



The required activity programs in a national plan 



Adequate provision for timber production 43 



Adequate watershed protection 51 



Adequate provision for forest recreation 



Adequate provision for forest wild life 54 



Adequate provision for forest ranges 55 



Adequate provision for forest research 55 



The required agency programs in a national plan 57 



The alternatives 57 



Private ownership 



Public aid to private owners 60 



Public regulation 64 



Public ownership 67 



The cost of the national plan and how it could be financed 70 



The cost of the public program 



The cost of the private program 



How the programs could be financed 



The most important legislation required 74 



By the States 74 



By the Federal Government 



The essence of the national plan 76 



i This statement embodies the findings of all the sections of this report which follow. In a very real 

 sense it is an expression of the findings and the conclusions reached by a large group of men. Acknowledg- 

 ment is made to this entire group, which includes the authors of the sections and a much larger number of 



Forest Service employees and those of other organizations who aided in the collection of the data and their 

 compilation and preparation for publication. Because references to sections would have to be exceedingly 

 numerous, none whatever are made. 



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