350 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Public acquisition and management of 3.3 million acres of aban- 

 doned lands or of such submarginal farm lands clearly headed for 

 abandonment, none of which will reforest naturally within a decade, 

 appears to be the only prompt and effective solution of the erosion 

 problem on much of the piedmont plateau, in adjacent portions of 

 the coastal plain, and in the mountains. Wherever the areas to be 

 acquired are scattered, or difficult to administer because of small 

 size, local handling preferably by counties is naturally suggested. 

 But it is very doubtful whether counties that have suffered a con- 

 tinuous shrinkage in their area of improved farm land, and even the 

 States themselves that have not yet financed State-wide fire protec- 

 tion, can handle a purchase, planting, and engineering investment 

 covering hundreds of thousands of acres. Even if tax- title were 

 obtainable, there would still remain the planting and other items, 

 and subsequent annual costs of protection and administration. 

 Heavy Federal participation seems inevitable. It is certainly logical 

 for the Federal Government, which has spent $33,000,000 on dredging 

 and other maintenance of navigable streams within the States com- 

 prising the South Atlantic drainages, to spend a few million dollars 

 additional to safeguard its investment. 



Similarly, the large area of mismanaged and inadequately protected 

 forest land in the mountains and in the piedmont should also be in 

 the hands of the public. Administration of a type similar to that 

 given the national forests would meet the watershed situation and 

 restore the streams to their pristine condition. All of the forest area 

 of major influence, some 15% million acres, should be in public owner- 

 ship. Whether these lands, like the abandoned agricultural lands, 

 should become national forest, or county and State forest through 

 some form of Federal cooperation, is a detail to be worked out when 

 all the facts have been more carefully ascertained than at present. 



EAST GULF DRAINAGES 



The East Gulf drainages as here discussed include those portions of 

 the Southern States drained by the rivers from the Savannah to the 

 Mississippi. As shown in the accompanying map, figure 5, there are 

 seven of these rivers. The map shows the areas on which according 

 to our present knowledge a forest cover exerts or should exert a 

 favorable influence upon stream flow and erosion, and in a general 

 way indicates the relative degree of this influence. The forest areas 

 of the drainages are classified according to watershed protective 

 influence as f oUows : 



Acres 



Major influence 18, 709, 000 



Moderate influence 4, 335, 000 



Slight influence 50, 269, 000 



The southern portion of Florida, which is not shown on the map, 

 and the portion of south Georgia that drains into the Okefenokee 

 Swamp present no watershed protection problem. They are very flat 

 and very near tidewater level. Much of the excess water from torren- 

 tial rains collects in swamps and runs off slowly. The soils are mostly 

 absorptive sands, and comparatively little erosion takes place on 

 the cultivated lands. 



In Florida the more inland dunes, as on the Chocatawhatchee and 

 Ocala National Forests, have become stabilized under a forest or 



