A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 339 



in all ownerships. It is probable that there is now more timber at or 

 near merchantable size in northern New Jersey, for example, than at 

 any time since the Civil War. Fire protection is unquestionably 

 beginning to show its effects in most of the region. 



Public ownership has been an unquestioned factor in the restoration 

 of the forests of this region. Over 10 percent of the forest area is 

 now publicly owned, and most States have an acquisition program of 

 considerable magnitude. New York already possesses nearly 2 % million 

 acres of forest land, and is actively buying another million. Penn- 

 sylvania has nearly 2 million acres in State forests and State game 

 lands. Federal ownership in the White and Green Mountains of 

 New England now covers more than half a million acres. These 

 Federal forests have been established primarily because of their 

 watershed value. It is particularly significant that many municipali- 

 ties in this region own watershed forests. In every State communities 

 have acquired part of the land from which they obtain water, and 

 where these lands have required reforestation they have been planted. 

 Some 350 communities in New York now possess municipal forests; 

 New York City has the largest area on its Ashokan Reservoir drainage. 

 Glens Falls has planted more than 2 million trees on the denuded 

 land acquired as a city watershed. Cities and towns in Massachusetts 

 own over 50,000 acres of watershed forests. Forty towns in Vermont 

 possess municipal forests, largely for watershed protection. Newark, 

 N.J., has a watershed forest of 35,000 acres. Private water companies 

 own considerable acreage of forest land. Forests on municipal water- 

 sheds not only serve the local public by yielding good water, but they 

 have returned revenues from the sale of forest products. Altogether 

 in the region of northeastern drainages the public owns some 5K 

 million acres' of forest, the greater part of which may be classed as 

 protection forests. 



CONCLUSIONS 



The abundant rainfall and the many streams of the northeastern 

 United States are during the greater part of the time, and under most 

 conditions, an enormous asset to the region. At other times, and 

 under some conditions, they are a very great liability. Both as an 

 asset and a liability they are of extreme importance. 



Because rates of run-off and stream flow are immensely increased by 

 steep slopes protection of watersheds is particularly necessary in the 

 more mountainous portions of the Northeast. The zone, shown in 

 figure 3, where the forests are believed to exert a major influence on 

 watersheds, is prevailingly mountainous, and includes most of the land 

 previously described as very steep or steep. The forests here should 

 be classified as protection forests. The area of moderate influence 

 coincides roughly with the moderately steep and part of the gently 

 rolling land, and that of slight influence with the remainder of the 

 gently rolling and practically all of the flat land. There are local 

 exceptions to these classifications, but only the coastal sands subject 

 to wind erosion are large enough to map. The forest on the latter is 

 today either in very bad shape or entirely lacking, but it or some other 

 form of soil-binding vegetation is clearly needed. It should be noted 

 that the relatively level watersheds from which many large munici- 

 palities in the region derive their domestic and industrial water have 

 not been included in the area of major forest influence, although their 



