PROGRESS IN FORESTRY AND EXISTING PLANS 



One of the essentials for the formulation of a comprehensive forest 

 policy and plan of land use is an understanding of the wide variation, 

 as between different aspects and as between different classes of land 

 ownership, in the present practice of forestry and the formulation of 

 plans for future progress. 



In the following pages are presented the basic purposes, the progress, 

 and accomplishments, from the standpoint of forestry practices, first, 

 of Federal administrative agencies responsible for the national forests, 

 the Indian forests, the national parks and monuments, and other 

 Federal forest land. These are followed by a review of research in 

 forestry. The treatment of the Forest Service includes particular 

 reference to underlying objectives, and the principles which have been 

 followed in striving to meet these objectives. 



A group of two sections reviews the situation as to State, county, 

 and municipal ownership and management of forest lands, including 

 the historical setting, the divergence of State forest policies, the objec- 

 tives, and the progress attained. 



The last five sections review certain outstanding phases of the 

 forestry situation that have to do particularly with private owner- 

 ship or enterprise. The first of these discusses the character, extent, 

 and causes of forest devastation and deterioration ills which tie in 

 very closely with private ownership of forest land. The succeeding 

 discussion of the break-down of private forest-land ownership deals 

 with the extent and causes of the recent unprecedented shifts from 

 private to public ownership largely via tax delinquency. The sec- 

 tion on status and opportunity of private forestry reviews the status 

 of outstanding economic problems as they affect the private handling 

 of forest land, and some of the equally important economic problems 

 involved in private forest-land management, and compares the 

 existing status and financial results of private forestry with the poten- 

 tialities. Following a review of forest research on the part of endowed 

 and other private agencies, a final section summarizes the considerable 

 degree of public regulation of privately owned forests which now 

 exists and the principles upon which this regulation is based, and 

 presents some of the factors to be taken into account in considering 

 an expansion of public regulation. 



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