LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



Washington, March 27, 1983. 

 The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 



SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a report on the forest 

 problem of the United States prepared by the Forest Service of this 

 Department, pursuant to Senate Resolution 175 (72d Cong., 1st 

 sess.), introduced by Senator Royal S. Copeland. 



The Department construes the central purpose of the resolution 

 to be a coordinated plan which will insure all of the economic and 

 social benefits which can and should be derived from productive 

 forests by fully utilizing the forest land, and by making all of its 

 timber and other products and its watershed, recreational, and other 

 services available in quantities adequate to meet national require- 

 ments. 



The main findings of the inquiry made in compliance with the 

 resolution are: 



1. That practically all of the major problems of American for- 

 estry center in, or have grown out of, private ownership. 



2. That one of the major problems of public ownership is that of 

 unmanaged public lands. 



3. That there has been a serious lack of balance in constructive 

 efforts to solve the forest problem as between private and public 

 ownership and between the relatively poor and the relatively good 

 land. 



4. That the forest problem ranks as one of our major national 

 problems. 



The main recommendations, as the only assured means of anything 

 approaching a satisfactory solution of the forest problem, are for: 



1. A large extension of public ownership of forest lands, and 



2. More intensive management on all publicly owned lands. 



The extent to which the major problems of American forestry 

 center in, or have grown out of, private ownership are indicated by 

 the following: 



Ninety percent of the total area of devastated and poorly stocked 

 forest land and 95 percent of the current devastation is on privately 

 owned lands. 



Forest deterioration, which is far more extensive and hence more 

 serious than devastation, results from cutting without regard for the 

 future productivity of the forest, or from forest fires, or from the two 

 combined. More than 99 percent of such cutting and 98 percent of 

 the area burned annually is on private lands. 



The public policy of passing excessive areas of forest land to private 

 ownership and the private cut-put-and-get-out policy has wrecked 

 or seriously reduced the productivity of the land, made it difficult or 

 impossible to pay taxes, and hence has led to tax reversion so large in 



