60 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



needed in the management of the timber and other forest resources 

 should be obtained through research and made available through 

 extension. 



Financial obstacles, such as inequitable forest taxation, should be 

 removed. If the necessary protection of the public interest through 

 regulated and enforceable sustained yield management can be worked 

 out, it might be possible to provide for loans and to allow mergers 

 and the curtailment of production. This should strengthen the 

 financial structure of the forest industries and help to stabilize 

 ownership. 



Increased public aid would in itself however, increase private 

 responsibility for the productive use of the land held. 



All in all, therefore, private ownership would still have ahead of 

 it an enormous task and one which would require its maximum pos- 

 sible efforts. 



PUBLIC AID TO PRIVATE OWNERS 



ITS POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS 



The granting of public aid to private owners of forest land has 

 been in part an attempt to perpetuate the traditional American 

 policy of private ownership by stimulating private initiative. 



It is in part also a recognition of the public interest in land use, 

 the production of timber and other products, and in the resulting 

 economic and social benefits. This interest has local, State, regional, 

 and national aspects. 



Aid in fire protection recognized also a large public use of privately 

 owned lands and great public indifference in the use of fire. It 

 recognized outside risks beyond the control of individual owners. 

 Finally, it recognized protection against fire as one of the main require- 

 ments in forestry for timber production or other purposes. 



Aid in the control of forest insects and diseases recognized the 

 highly specialized and variable technical problems involved, the very 

 irregular occurrence of epidemics, as well as their State, regional, 

 national, and even international aspects. 



Aid in planting recognized the difficulty that small owners with 

 periodical requirements experience in obtaining seedlings at reason- 

 able cost. It recognized the widespread psychological appeal of 

 planting and attempted to remove possible obstacles. 



Advice in forest management attempted to offset the absence of 

 traditional knowledge of methods of timber growing and the lack of 

 practical demonstrations, and to overcome the inertia which handi- 

 caps an entirely new kind of enterprise. 



Research attempted to recognize the handicaps indicated in the 

 preceding paragraph, to build up a fund of knowledge and to have 

 the public do what large numbers of small owners could not possibly 

 do for themselves individuaUy. 



Taxation, either because of the existing form or of future uncer- 

 tainties, has rightly or wrongly been held by private owners to be a 

 primary obstacle to the development of forestry. Relief in many 

 States has gone to the extreme of outright subsidy. 



Aid began as early as 1876 in Federal research and in fire protec- 

 tion in New York in 1885. Marked development began in 1911 with 

 Federal participation in fire protection, and was still further 



