A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1043 



other use of the land; (6) failure to provide and, if necessary, to use 

 suitable safeguards and fire-fighting equipment in connection with 

 operations (firebreaks, spark arresters, tools, etc.); (c) increasing the 

 fire hazard through creating or leaving dangerous accumulations of 

 slash, standing snags, or other inflammable material, or through 

 clear cutting over too large areas; (d) failure to control fires, no matter 

 how they start, so as to prevent their escape to another's land. 



(2) Practices which increase the danger of damage by diseases 

 and insects, including (a) creation of breeding places through leaving 

 accumulations of slash, or leaving unpeeled logs in the woods under 

 certain conditions; (b) failure to carry out such sanitary measures, 

 within reasonable limits, as may be necessary to check the spread of 

 insects or diseases. 



(3) Practices which increase the danger from wind throw to the 

 adjacent forests of other owners. This frequently results from clear 

 cutting close to the boundary lines of the property. 



PROTECTION OF WATERSHED VALUES 



According to another section of this report ("Watershed and Related 

 Forest Influences"), some 300 million acres of forest land now in 

 private ownership has great public value for purposes of protecting 

 watersheds, preventing erosion or landslides, and for related purposes. 

 Large areas of other land that was cleared in the past have eroded 

 so badly after a brief period of cultivation that they can no longer 

 be used unless reforested. In the section on "Current Forest Devas- 

 tation and Deterioration" it is estimated that some 850,000 acres a 

 year of privately owned commercial forest land is being devastated, 

 chiefly as a result of fires following cutting. Probably 300,000 to 

 350,000 acres of this is so located as to have high value for protective 

 purposes. For this class of forest, mandatory regulation might 

 legitimately go much farther, and might extend to any practices which 

 will destroy or seriously impair the protective value of the forest, 

 such as: 



Methods of logging which tend unnecessarily to destroy or damage 

 immature timber and young growth. 



Clear cutting of large areas on sites where exposure to ^ sun and 

 wind will result in site deterioration, erosion of the soil, or increased 

 danger from fire; especially clear cutting on steep slopes. 



Failure to leave suitable seed trees or to provide otherwise for 

 prompt restocking by natural or artificial means. 



Overgrazing, resulting in injury to or elimination of young growth, 

 destruction of protective ground cover, deterioration of the site, or 

 erosion; especially on reproduction areas. 



Clearing of land (deforestation) either to put it to other use or to 

 leave it in a state of denuded idleness. 



FURTHER MANDATORY REGULATION 



It can be argued that mandatory regulation should go much 

 farther than this. It can hardly be denied that devastation of his 

 own land by a forest owner, even where watershed and soil protec- 

 tion are not involved, results in loss to the community, State, and 

 Nation. It not only impoverishes existing communities, but it also 

 reduces the sum total of natural resources available for future genera- 



