838 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



provided for fire control on forest lands in all ownerships. This 

 course is necessitated by the fact that no specific financial provision 

 for the administration of State forests has yet been made. In 1931 

 the legislature designated as State forests certain other areas, embrac- 

 ing an additional half million acres of State land, but these are as yet 

 only paper forests. 



From tax-reverting cut-over lands the Conservation Department's 

 program aims at blocking up an approximate total of 4 million acres 

 of State forests in the next 10 years. Comprehensive legislation has 

 been enacted looking to a determination of the form of use to which 

 are best adapted all the lands now in or which may come into State 

 ownership, with provision for placing in reservations for various pur- 

 poses those lands calling for permanent public ownership and ad- 

 ministration in order to give them their highest usefulness ; and there 

 is provision also for acquisition of private lands which should be 

 consolidated with the State's holdings. In line with this legislation, 

 a land classification survey is covering the areas within and adjoining 

 the State forest boundaries, and has already gone over nearly 2 mil- 

 lion acres to obtain a factual basis on which to rest acquisition and 

 management programs. Thus the forest and land use problem is 

 being aggressively and constructively attacked. On the other hand, 

 the situation presents some uncertainties. 



A possible difficulty in carrying out the constructive policy upon 

 which the State has made so promising a start arises from the fact 

 that neither with respect to the lands received through Federal grant 

 nor with respect to those received through tax forfeiture is the State 

 free from restricting obligations. The granted lands are lands held 

 by the State in trust, for specific purposes. The tax-reverted lands 

 likewise carry an obligation of trusteeship for the various taxing 

 units in the proportion of the unpaid taxes, with the State's equity 

 in them usually less than 10 percent of the whole. There is a con- 

 siderable inclination among the local county and township officials 

 to feel that under these circumstances the county rather than the 

 State should have the determining voice regarding what disposition 

 shall be made of the land. It remains to be seen what kind of division 

 of responsibilities and what plan for satisfying claims and obligations 

 will be worked out. Most of all, it remains to be seen what the public 

 sentiment of the State will permanently sustain and demand and 

 how successful the State will be in obtaining the continuity and 

 stability of policy and the competent conduct of the enterprise 

 necessary for its success. 



That a high standard of competence as well as integrity are funda- 

 mental to making the essentially business enterprise of forest manage- 

 ment anywhere a success, and that no business, public or private, can 

 be expected to succeed if it cannot be run solely with a view to the 

 most efficient conduct of the enterprise, are matters that have already 

 been repeatedly brought out. Nepotism in a private concern en- 

 dangers the invested capital; and public administration equally 

 requires freedom from the dry rot of political motive or control for 

 narrowly political ends. It is all a question of developing high stand- 

 ards of e ciency in the field of State government and providing the 

 necessary stability when the enterprise is in competent hands. 



