A NATIONAL PLAN .FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 83 



of the important part that the growing and harvesting of forests and 

 the distributing and marketing of forest products plays in the economy 

 of many communities and regions. 



To carry out the mandate of the resolution it is necessary to outline 

 a program coordinating the efforts of Federal, State, and private 

 agencies in attacking the problems of forest-land use. Such a union 

 of strength, while not a new departure in American affairs, has not as 

 yet been satisfactorily accomplished in this field, but is none the less 

 necessary. 



The formulation of a national policy and program involves many 

 complications. It is possible to formulate the policy and program 

 and to present the facts upon which they are based, only by means of 

 a careful review of various controlling aspects of the forest situation. 

 This report, therefore, analyzes the situation as to forest land and 

 timber supplies with respect to such things as character, ownership, 

 availability, and present and potential timber-producing capacity; 

 and it associates these aspects with the drain that is taking place on 

 our forests, and with present and potential needs for timber products. 

 It appraises the use of forest land not only for growing timber, but 

 also with respect to the importance and the requirements of watershed 

 protection control, recreation, wild-life production, and forage. 

 These are treated as multiple uses, several or all of which usually 

 apply in varying degree to the same tract. The status and progress 

 of forestry under private and under various forms of public ownership 

 are reviewed, the status and results of Federal and State aid are con- 

 sidered, and existing programs and policies are weighed. The already 

 extensive experience of the Federal and some State Governments in 

 managing forest lands is highly significant in pointing a way to work 

 out the problem. 



Upon this essential factual foundation the report sets up a group of 

 coordinated national programs, each designed to accomplish the 

 needed results in the particular field dealt with. The recommended 

 division of responsibility by agencies, public and private, is set forth. 

 The report proposes an immediate program for Federal and State 

 legislation, appropriations, and other action. In this coordinated 

 program public acquisition and management occupy a central posi- 

 tion interrelated with all other phases. 



In brief, the report is a searching reexamination and restatement of 

 our Nation's forest problem; an analysis of the actual and potential 

 values of forest land and its uses in relation to our national, social, 

 and economic structure; and a constructive program for necessary 

 action featuring Federal and State cooperation and forest land 

 acquisition and administration. 



The report has given less detailed consideration to the more imme- 

 diate, and in some respects transitory, problems of the lumber and 

 other forest products industries, which have to do with excess indus- 

 trial capacity, heavy carrying charges, the merger of private owner- 

 ships, interstate compacts, etc. Not only has tune not been available 

 for thorough study and matured conclusions on such essentially 

 industrial problems, but important though these are, their treat- 

 ment is not vital to the purposes of the resolution, and of this report. 

 These subjects, moreover, were included in the program of President 

 Hoover's Timber Conservation Board. Nor has time permitted 

 study of the important and involved relations of transportation and 



