44 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A plan of land use, which with a reasonable margin of safety would 

 approximately balance the national timber budget, is shown by the 

 following tabulation: 



Acres 



ID tensive timber management 70, 000, 000 



Extensive timber management 278, 900, 000 



Simple protection on land relatively favorable for timber manage- 

 ment 40, 700,000 



Simple protection on land relatively unfavorable for timber manage- 

 ment 69, 700, 000 



Total 459, 300, 000 



By approximately the end of the century this adequate timber 

 supply plan could be expected to produce about 17}' 2 billion cubic feet 

 and balance possible normal requirements with a margin of safety of 

 1 billion. Saw-timber production would reach about 60 billion board 

 feet as compared with possible normal requirements of 55 billion. 



This plan would leave about 50 million acres available for other 

 purposes or as idle land : 



Acres 



Denuded forest land 33, 500, 000 



Unused agricultural land 15, 800, 000 



Total 49,300,000 



The various activities which are essential to both plans are so 

 important that separate detailed consideration is necessary. 



PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE 



The following program for the control of forest fires covers all 

 classes of forests for all forms of use rather than commercial forests 

 for timber production only. It deals mainly with commercial forest 

 land, but also with noncommercial forest chiefly valuable for water- 

 shed protection and grazing and of areas reserved for recreation. 



The program is based in part on the certainty of occurrence of 

 forest fires as a result of human occupancy and use. That fires are 

 bound to occur is shown by a country-wide average of over 156,000 

 fires and of nearly 41} million acres burned over annually in the 5-year 

 period between 1926 and 1930. 



In addition the program set-up has recognized the area needing but 

 not now receiving protection, or 191 million acres, the difference 

 between 512 and 321. 



A further basis for the program is a determination of the allowable 

 bum, or the percentage of the area by types that may burn over 

 annually without impairing radically the forest values as determined 

 by the predominant purpose of management. 



An examination of how closely this objective has been reached 

 under current expenditures affords still another criterion for the re- 

 quired program. Current annual expenditures for 1926 to 1930 of 

 $5,437,598 on the national forests, including $1,780,840 capital invest- 

 ment in roads, etc., give a ratio of actual to allowable burn of 1.07 

 to 1, but an area of approximately 30 million acres on the Pacific 

 coast and in the northern Rocky Mountains needs much more inten- 

 sive protection to reduce a ratio of 5 to 1. 



A ratio of nearly 11 to 1 on areas outside of the national forests 

 shows that expenditures of $5,400,000 for 1927 to 1930 must be ma- 



