THE NATIONAL FORESTS AS A FORM OF FEDERAL AID TO 



THE STATES 1 



L. F. KNEIPP, Assistant Forester, Forest Service 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Relationship of the national forests to the general forest situation 1095 



H istorical background of national forest system 1 096 



The direct consequences of national forest administration 1098 



Details of the 1927 study of national forest relationships 1101 



The financial status of national forest administration, 1923-27 1 104 



Effect of national forests upon costs of local government 1106 



Probable costs of local government without national forests 11 09 



The probable situation if the national forests had not been created 1110 



Best lands privately appropriated and taxed residual lands protected 



by States 1111 



If the national forests had instead been administered as State forests. _ 1118 



General summation of results of study 1121 



RELATIONSHIP OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS TO THE 

 GENERAL FOREST SITUATION 



The basic problem of forestry is the adequate protection, develop- 

 ment, management, and controlled utilization of approximately one 

 fourth of the total land area of the continental United States. This 

 requires large capital outlays and current expenditures for (1) the 

 permanent organizations essential to effective protection, improve- 

 ment, management, and research; (2) protection against fire, insects, 

 and diseases; (3) construction and maintenance of the physical im- 

 provements requisite to the protection and use of the natural resources; 

 and (4) forest planting, sanitation, and other cultural operations 

 demanded by sound principles of silvicultural management. 



Such expenditures, in the main, are long-time investments. Only a 

 small proportion is capable of early financial liquidation. Long-time 

 credits and low rates of interest are imperative requirements. Rela- 

 tively few of the States and only a minor proportion of the owners of 

 private lands are able, under prevailing financial and economic con- 

 ditions, to make available the funds requisite for the complete a-nd 

 adequate protection, development, improvement, and management 

 of all the forest properties within their borders or under their control, 

 to the degree dictated by major considerations of public interest. If 

 the Federal Government failed to participate in certain phases of the 

 problem, the entire enterprise of forestry in the United States would 

 verge on failure. 



The retention or establishment by the Federal Government of 

 actual ownership of certain parts of the forest land area, and the 

 assumption of all costs incident to their protection, development, 

 improvement, and management, including the manifold phases of 



1 In this section, expenditures and receipts recorded are actual total disbursements made and revenues 

 derived during periods indicated. They therefore differ from the cost figures in other sections of the report, 

 which treat certain forms of expenditure as capital investments and charge as annual costs only the amounts 

 required to cover interest costs and amortization of such capital investments. 



168342 33 vol. 2 4 1095 



