640 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TABLE 1. Timbered areas of the public domain 



1 Acreages as of June 30, 1932; report of U.S. Land Office. 



2 States east of 104th meridian. Total area, 1,059,867 acres. 



s Exclusive of O. & C. R.R. and Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands. 



The volume of commercial timber on the public domain is small 

 in comparison with the Nation's total timber supply. Estimates 

 recently made by the Forest Service on the basis of the best available 

 data place the total stand at slightly more than 20 billion board feet. 

 As will be shown later, the primary value of the greater part of the 

 forested portion of the public domain is in its relation to erosion and 

 stream flow and its use as range for livestock. 



"Prompt and effective action must be taken if the value of very 

 much of the remaining public domain is not totally to be lost." 

 This statement is quoted from the report of the Public Land Commis- 

 sion appointed by and reporting to President Roosevelt. In the 

 more than 20 years since this report was made, and in spite of con- 

 tinued pressure, no constructive policy for the proper management 

 of public-domain lands has yet been adopted. Until suitable legisla- 

 tion is passed, the lands will remain without any measure of 

 effective administration. Thus one tenth of the land area of the 

 Nation remains a "no-man's land" to be used or abused by anyone. 



TIMBERLAND MANAGEMENT 



The legal possibilities for the practice of effective silviculture on 

 the public domain are indeed limited. Acts of June 3, 1878, and 

 March 3, 1891, authorized the removal, under permit, of limited 

 quantities of timber without charge if they were removed strictly for 

 personal use. An act of March 4, 1913, provided for the sale of dead 

 and down timber without restriction as to intended use. No pro- 

 vision has yet been made for the orderly cutting of the mature timber 

 crop, and almost no provision is made for the administration of such 

 cutting as results from the acts referred to above. The nearest 

 approach to a provision for forestry practice is the interpretation 

 of the above laws which permits of pooling community needs. This 

 enables a mill owner to contract to cut in one operation the supply 

 of timber needed by several families. Reimbursement must be 



