A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 411 



Oklahoma and Arkansas. Some companies owning extensive tracts 

 of timberland in Arkansas and Louisiana have purchased the lands 

 of settlers believed to be responsible for frequent fires. 



Some landholders are cutting their timber in such a way as not to 

 cause deterioration of the stand and on a continuous-production basis. 



Much idle farm land is potential forest land, since it is at least 

 exceedingly doubtful that it will again be needed for crop production 

 for many years. 



MEASURES NEEDED FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION 



In the Arkansas and Red River drainages the adoption of adequate 

 fire-control standards such as are outlined in the section of this report 

 entitled "Protection Against Fire" would better watershed condi- 

 tions more quickly than any other measure. Adoption of simple 

 forestry practices would contribute greatly to the improvement of 

 watershed conditions. These would include better cutting practices 

 and the elimination of grazing from cut-over hardwood areas at 

 least until the forest cover has reestablished itself. Clearing of hills 

 that are too steep for profitable cultivation should not be permitted. 

 The present widespread erosion of hill crop lands and the increasing 

 abandonment of these lands indicate that cultivation of slopes the 

 grade of which exceeds 12 or 15 percent is uneconomic except under 

 most unusual circumstances. 



Forest planting is needed to supplement natural restocking, on 

 abandoned agricultural lands and on some forest lands. Some 

 500,000 acres in the Ozark-Ouachita highlands and about 250,000 

 acres in the upper coastal plain region should be reforested. 



Special measures of erosion control and probably of water control 

 are needed on many areas. These would include such devices as 

 soil-saving dams on badly gullied abandoned agricultural lands, 

 check dams on mountain areas to assist in holding back the surface 

 flow, terracing of some of the most severely eroded abandoned agri- 

 cultural lands, sodding of some particularly bad areas, and stream- 

 bank correction to prevent undercutting. 



In the Breaks areas, grazing, which is probably more responsible 

 than any other factor for extensive erosion, should be more closely 

 regulated. Much can be done to control severe washing and gully- 

 ing by such devices as check dams, erosion fences, etc. Such devices 

 can only be of lasting benefit if cover conditions are properly main- 

 tained. Investigation should be made into the possibility of reduc- 

 ing by range management, tree planting, reseeding of depleted range 

 land, and special erosion-control measures the quantity of silt added 

 by this area to the burden of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. 



In these drainages satisfactory cover conditions might be expected 

 to result from extending to the unreserved public domain and to 

 private forest lands the practices now in effect on the national forests. 

 It is doubtful that the private owner can undertake to put these 

 measures into effect. Forest planting, elimination of grazing, and 

 other needed erosion-control measures would result in heavy charges 

 against the land. For this reason, and in view of the relationship 

 between forest conditions in these drainages and the floods of the 

 lower Mississippi, public ownership of about 19.2 million acres in 



