52 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



LAND MANAGEMENT 



Among the most important improvements in management needed 

 are protection against fire, which should be extended over 191 million 

 acres additional and raised to the standards already indicated. 



Methods of cutting timber must be improved at least to the extent 

 necessary to prevent forest devastation and preferably to the require- 

 ments of extensive forestry. 



About 11 million acres of devastated forest and abandoned sub- 

 marginal agricultural land, almost entirely in the East, should be 

 planted primarily to meet watershed requirements. 



Range management must be begun on both privately owned forest 

 ranges and those remaining on the public domain to build the forage 

 cover up to normal density. Management must be brought to a 

 higher degree of perfection on the national forests and Indian reser- 

 vations. Artificial revegetation of some 900,000 acres at a cost of 



AREAS UNDER A PROPOSED PLAN 

 OF PUBLIC ACQUISITION 



50 



100 



150 200 



MILLION ACRES 



850 



300 



350 



Public Forest Land 



Private Forest Land 



FIGURE 24. Nearly all of the most critical watershed problems center in privately owned forest or aban- 

 doned agricultural lands of major watershed influence. A much larger public ownership is believed to 

 be the only satisfactory solution. 



$3,000,000 is desirable. The requirements in range management are 

 largely western. 



Special measures, frequently of an engineering character, may be 

 necessary as a last resort on perhaps 20 million acres mainly on aban- 

 doned agricultural land in the East, at a possible cost of about 

 $20,000,000. 



PUBLIC ACQUISITION 



The watershed protection problem is largely one of privately 

 owned lands. Since a substantial part of the benefits will accrue to 

 the public and not to the landowner, necessary action on very large 

 areas can hardly be obtained except through public ownership. 



Public acquisition of 155 million acres of privately owned lands, 

 three fourths in the East and including 22 million acres of abandoned 

 agricultural land, is therefore recommended for this purpose alone. 

 These lands are in forest areas having major or moderate influence on 



