824 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the data thus obtained, made under date of July 1, 1932, showed a 

 total of 7,822,439 acres of State forests, 730,293 acres of forested or 

 chiefly forested State parks, and 5,336,460 acres of other State forest 

 lands. The present report, based on other data, makes a considerably 

 different showing. The difference is mainly due to a more systematic 

 procedure, designed to classify on a clear-cut, consistent basis through- 

 out. 



To obtain a uniform classification a set of definitions was drawn up. 

 State forests were defined as individual land areas either specifically 

 set aside by legislative act or established under legislative authority 

 contemplating their permanent retention and administration by the 

 State for forest (as distinguished from essentially park) purposes, and 

 organized in definite units of administration; while State parks were 

 divided into two classes, those chieflv forest and those not in major 

 part forest land. State parks falling in the latter class are left out of 

 consideration in this subsection. The definition adopted for the 

 former class limited them to areas maintained to serve public recrea- 

 tional and inspirational (scenic) needs, with or without watershed 

 protection as a secondary objective, and with the utilization of com- 

 mercial products either prohibited or severely restricted. The 

 criteria thus set up afford, it is believed, a more accurate picture of the 

 situation with respect to State forests than has previously been drawn, 

 provided it is borne in mind that in several States the definition shuts 

 out a large area having a certain measure of qualification for the 

 name. The excluded lands are neither organized forest units estab- 

 lished with legislative sanction nor forest lands entirely unreserved 

 and awaiting disposal, but are intermediate between the two. Of 

 them more will be said presently. 



In the section of this report entitled Forest Land the Basic 

 Resource the area of forest land in State, county, and municipal 

 forest ownership is given as 10,632,000 acres. In the present sub- 

 section an aggregate of more than 13,200,000 acres of forest land is 

 shown as in State ownership, and the folio whig subsection, Community 

 Forests, shows 1,000,000 acres in these forests. The above figure of 

 10,632,000 acres, however, embraces only commercial forest land, 

 suitable and available for the growing of timber of commercial 

 quantity and quality. It therefore excludes forest areas withheld 

 from use for timber production in order to safeguard higher public 

 values for such purposes as recreation and scenic or watershed pro- 

 tection. For example, forest lands within State parks are outside the 

 reckoning. While its showing of area in State, county, and municipal 

 ownership is based on other data than those more recently gathered 

 for the present and the following subsections, the amounts here shown 

 are in approximate accord with the earlier total; for omitting State 

 parks, they aggregate a little more than 11,500,000 acres, not all of 

 which could be classed as available for commodity production. 



Tables 8, 9, and 10 present the results of the restudy of State 

 forest land ownership made for the present report. 



