A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 377 



erosion problems of the upper Mississippi Basin, it is far exceeded by 

 the Federal interest. Nowhere do conditions at the " headwaters of 

 navigable streams" have a more direct and crucial bearing upon 

 Mississippi River problems than in these uplands of Wisconsin, 

 Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. In few other portions of 

 the United States do erosion conditions approach the seriousness of 

 those of the silt-loam uplands of the Mississippi. The conditions 

 existing on certain eastern mountain areas prior to their purchase for 

 national-forest purposes do not compare with those that now exist 

 on these uplands. 



A public acquisition policy is needed. The purpose of such a policy 

 would be first to acquire the more critical areas, plant or otherwise 

 revegetate them, and place them under the form of management 

 that would most quickly develop a full protective cover. Altogether 

 something like 7 million acres in all should be brought into public 

 ownership, including probably 2} million acres of abandoned farm 

 lands. 



Public acquisition would be very difficult. The land involved is 

 held by many small owners, and parts of it are still sufficiently pro- 

 ductive that high prices would be asked. The urgency of the situa- 

 tion, however, should prevent these factors from acting as a deterrent. 

 Could sums equal to those that are annually expended for dredging 

 and stream improvement in the upper Mississippi Basin be spent in 

 acquiring eroded land and reconditioning it, the need of continuing 

 this dredging would be largely eliminated. 



Planting would be required on at least one third of the eroded 

 abandoned farm lands. This reclamation would be difficult at best; 

 not only has cultivation changed the structure of the topsoil but the 

 subsoil has been exposed over large areas. Investigations are needed 

 to determine what methods of planting should be used. 



It would seem desirable to require that on slopes, the grade of 

 which exceeds 10 or 15 percent, a forest cover be restored and main- 

 tained. 



Special measures of erosion control are needed to reclaim at least 

 250,000 acres of the most severely gullied land. These would include 

 the use of check dams, soil-saving dams, contouring and ditching, 

 and similar devices. Research is necessary to determine where each 

 of these devices is needed. If erosion proceeds much further, still 

 greater works will be necessary, and over a very much larger area. 

 Additional fire protection, so badly needed elsewhere, is not 

 urgently required in this basin. Most of the States have very 

 largely attained the objectives set up in the section of this report 

 entitled " Protection Against Fire." 



SUMMARY 



In the heavily glaciated portion of the upper Mississippi River 

 Basin watershed conditions are not bad. The forest cover, while 

 helpful, is of relatively little consequence in watershed protection 

 because of the absorptive character of the soils, the large areas of 

 swamps, and the relatively level terrain. Only at the very head of 

 the Chippewa River is there any outstanding need for protection 

 forests. Here a forest area of about a million acres should be managed 

 for watershed protection. Because of the very great influence of this 



