A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1037 



wholly exempted from taxation. If the restrictions are so onerous 

 as to cause serious loss to the owner he may require that those who 

 are benefited buy the forest. All protection forests must be managed 

 under approved working plans, prepared by graduate foresters who 

 are Yugoslav citizens. These plans are to be based on continuous 

 forest production, but not necessarily on the principle of sustained 

 yield. 



Land which is not now forested, but which is suitable for forest 

 growth and should be forested in order to protect the soil, prevent 

 silting, or promote health, etc., is also to be classified as protection 

 forest by a special commission in each province. Afforestation of 

 such land must be undertaken promptly and completed within 50 

 years. The State is to cooperate by providing planting stock and 

 supervision, and by granting tax exemptions, cash subsidies, and 

 non-interest-bearing loans. 



ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF FOREIGN CONTROL POLICIES 



The policies of the various countries differ widely as to both the 

 degree and the method of public control over private forests. Certain 

 fundamentals, however, are common to many of them. Most of the 

 world has come to the conclusion that forests should be preserved, and 

 that this will require public action. Hiley has stated the situation 

 concisely, as follows: 



It may be accepted as a generalization that private or commercial ownership of 

 forests, when unfettered by legislative restriction, generally leads to devastation 

 * * *. The accepted solution of the problem is some form of state intervention, 

 and state control of forests is now practiced in nearly every civilized country in 

 the world. 50 



The essential features of a composite policy, which might be built up 

 from the most generaUy accepted principles of the many different 

 policies described above, may be summarized as follows: 



1. As a general principle, an owner is free to manage and utilize his 

 forest as he pleases, so long as such use does not directly or indirectly 

 injure other individuals or the public welfare. 



2. Destruction or mismanagement of forests which serve to hold the 

 soil in place, conserve water, regulate the flow of rtreams, protect the 

 public health, or promote the national defense is certain to result in 

 injury to others. The public exercises a sufficient degree of control 

 over this class of forests to insure that their protective functions are 

 not jeopardized. This involves the maintenance of a continuous 

 forest cover. It frequently involves the execution of reforestation or 

 engineering improvement works, or even the afforestation of hitherto 

 nonwooded land, either by public agencies or by the owner. Except 

 where reforestation is made necessary by act of the owner the public 

 pays part or all of the cost. The public usually indemnifies the owner 

 for any loss of income resulting from restrictions on the use of protec- 

 tion forests. As an alternative the public may acquire the land, 

 either at the owner's request or by condemantion. 



3. Protection forests are classified as such by a commission or by 

 some high governmental agency, upon the recommendation of some 

 public body or upon application of interested individuals or groups, 

 and after appropriate investigation and hearings. The forest service 



" Hiley, W. E., The Economics of Forestry. 256 p. Oxford University Press, 1930. 



