A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



PUBLIC INTERESTS SHOULD DETERMINE EXTENT OF FORESTRY 



EFFORT 



The justification for forestry does not depend finally on a meticulous 

 calculation of the exact percentage at compound interest which each 

 minor area of forest land can produce. Calculations of direct finan- 

 cial return may be acceptable in showing whether a private owner can 

 retain his forest property. But the mere fact that a forest may offer 

 little or no prospect of profit to the private owner should not be the 

 deciding factor in planning its future use. The final determination, 

 based upon a careful weighing of all the factors, including the public 

 values involved, should rest with public, not private, agencies. The 

 National Government, the State governments, and communities must 

 consider as well the increased public income, the opportunities for 

 self-supporting employment, the financial and social values of settled 

 and permanent communities, the national advantages of home-grown 

 forest products for domestic and export use, and the uncalculated but 

 real values of forests in watershed protection, for recreational use, and 

 in game production. The mere fact that forestry may not be justified 

 for many private owners or the fact that they may think it is not, 

 is not a point of much evidential value to the public agencies. 



This statement, like any generalization on an economic question, 

 cannot be taken to mean that the evidence shows or the Forest Service 

 asserts the necessity for forestry on every acre of forest land, regard- 

 less of financial considerations. Such an assertion or reading of the 

 evidence would be a manifest absurdity. But there is definite need 

 for a very great and prompt increase in the acreage of forest land 

 handled under the principles and practice of forestry. 



PUBLIC CAN AFFORD AN ADEQUATE FORESTRY PROGRAM 



Public interest in forest problems has been increasing steadily 

 during the past 40 or 50 years, and much progress has been made. 

 The concrete and solid steps in forestry include the establishment of 

 the original national forest system in the West through reservation 

 of public lands; its extension to the East through purchase; establish- 

 ment and expansion of State forests in many States; development of 

 State^ Federal, and private owners' cooperation in fire control effort ; 

 adoption of laws making a start toward regulation of private land 

 treatment in many States; forestry practice on some private land; 

 establishment of schools for training of foresters; and a great increase 

 in research and other activities, which are building up a factual foun- 

 dation for forestry practice. 



All of these are good, but they are not enough. The tempo of 

 forestry effort needs to be speeded up before it is too late. The 50 

 million acres which agriculture has already given up after trying to 

 use it profitably; the 60 million acres of devastated forest land;the 

 nearly 250 million acres of cordwood and ragged but partially stocked 

 cut-over forest lands; the whole regions from which too rapid exploi- 

 tation of the basic resource of timber has driven self-sustaining agri- 

 culture and community life; the generally unsatisfactory level of the 

 essential activity of fire control; the wide-spread depreciation of 

 watershed and recreational values of forest land; the continuing re- 

 duction in yield capacity of our forests; the unstable position of 

 important forest industries; all of these call for a comprehensive 



