A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 55 



ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR FOREST RANGES 



The outstanding need for forest ranges is sustained yield manage- 

 ment properly coordinated with the management of timber, water- 

 shed, wild life, and other forest resources. 



For the ranges on the 190 million acres of privately owned com- 

 mercial forest lands, the incentive is a return from grazing which in 

 many instances can be made a material factor in meeting costs and 

 increasing profits. Only coordinated sustained yield management, 

 however, will insure the largest returns without interfering with 

 timber production. 



On noncommercial forest lands in private ownership of 38 million 

 acres the range use may be dominant. Sustained yield management 

 offers the only means for obtaining the largest continuous returns. 



Watershed requirements will ordinarily but not always be met by 

 thoroughly effective management for the timber and range resources. 

 But satisfactory range management purely from the standpoint of 

 continuous forage production is about as far as the unaided private 

 owner can be expected to go. 



Publicly owned or managed forest lands fall into two classes. One 

 class includes the National and State forests and the Indian reserva- 

 tions. The need here is for perfecting management including the 

 restoration of depleted ranges. 



The second class includes the forest lands of the western public 

 domain, 13 million acres of which, along with 9 million of interspersed 

 nontimbered lands, should be added to the national forests and placed 

 under management. The remainder, consisting of small, widely 

 separated areas, usually parts of larger range areas, should be placed 

 under a form of public administration which will assure satisfactory 

 management. 



ADEQUATE PROVISION FOR FOREST RESEARCH 



Since lack of knowledge has handicapped the whole forestry move- 

 ment, adequate provision for it is one of the essentials in a compre- 

 hensive national plan for the future development of forestry. 



Such lack is one among the many factors which have led to the 

 long series of mistakes in public and industrial policies which have 

 created our most critical forest problems. 



Such lack accentuated by the absence of traditional knowledge is 

 one among the many factors which have delayed constructive remedial 

 measures in growing and protecting timber, decreased their efficiency 

 increased their cost, and discouraged efforts to put them into effect. 



The building up of research has in practically all cases fallen 

 seriously behind the creation and management of public forests and 

 attempts to formulate State and national policies. 



The great enlargement and intensification of the program recom- 

 mended in this report for all phases of forestry in themselves demand 

 a corresponding development of research by all agencies. 



BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 



Research in the Forest Service covers silviculture, forest manage- 

 ment, and protection against fire, range management, erosion and 

 streamflow, forest products, and forest economics including the 

 Forest Survey. 



168342 33 vol. 1 5 



