1044 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



tions. Anyone who has seen the wrecked landscapes and man-made 

 deserts which have followed the exploitation of forests in some of the 

 flat lands of the Lake States or the southeastern coastal plain will 

 readily admit that the public welfare has been adversely affected. It 

 is unthinkable that the public should be helpless to protect itself 

 against such waste, or should have to wait and repair the damage 

 after it has been done instead of preventing it. However, if fires can 

 be held in check the most serious cause of forest devastation and 

 deterioration will have been eliminated, and nature will grow a new 

 crop of timber on most of the land that is cut over in the future, as 

 well as on much of that already cut over. 



Mandatory regulation beyond that sufficient to hold fires and pests 

 in check, and in the case of protection forests, to maintain a forest 

 cover, might be too drastic for the American people for a long time 

 to come. Even if laws providing for a greater degree of regulation 

 were adopted, they would undoubtedly be difficult to enforce. At- 

 tempts to enforce them would very likely jeopardize the effectiveness 

 of more moderate and reasonable forms of regulation. It should also 

 be recognized that general mandatory regulation, even of protection 

 forests, is not likely to be adopted overnight, either by the Federal 

 Goverment or by any considerable number of States. This will have 

 to come about gradually. Quite possibly, however, it may come 

 more rapidly than was the case with the modest degree of regulation 

 now in effect with respect to the control of fire. The cumulative 

 effects of the mistreatment of forests and forest land are becoming 

 more and more evident. As soon as the public demonstrates its 

 readiness to help them by assuming its equitable share of the cost of 

 maintaining protection forests, forest owners will be less likely to 

 object to reasonable restrictions. 



ELEMENTS OF A POSSIBLE PUBLIC REGULATION POLICY 



If it should be decided to go farther than existing laws in the 

 direction of public regulation, there are several principles which 

 might well be taken into account in formulating policies. 



In the beginning, at least, public mandatory regulation should be 

 confined to those things that are clearly the most essential and which 

 the public most unquestionably has the right to demand for its own 

 protection. Specific recommendations on this point are discussed in 

 a later chapter of this report. (Section on "A Possible Program lor 

 Public Regulation" in the chapter on "The National Programs Re- 

 quired.") The regulatory laws should be simple and their scope 

 clearly defined. They should provide that forest owners or their 

 representatives be consulted in the formulation and execution of 

 enforcement regulations. 



On its part, the public should fulfill its responsibilities in protecting 

 the owners against injury for which they are in no way to blame, such 

 as fires originating on outside land or from causes beyond their control. 

 It is desirable also that the public go a long way in helping forest 

 owners to carry out a positive, constructive program, that is, to do 

 more than merely prevent the destruction of their own or neighboring 

 forests. The question of public assistance to private owners is 

 discussed under the headings "Federal and State Aid" in other 

 sections of this report. In some instances, such assistance might 



