A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



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TABLE 2. Summary of national forest contributions to State or county revenues or 

 development programs during fiscal years 1923 to 1927 Continued 



4. The development and maintenance of public improvements. 



The examining officers experienced great difficulty in obtaining 

 accurate figures on the amounts expended by the counties, the States, 

 and the private owners of land, within the national forests, in road and 

 trail construction and maintenance, the protection of State or private 

 forest lands against fire, insects, or disease, the protection of fish and 

 game, the maintenance of schools for residents within national -forest 

 boundaries, the enforcement of civil and criminal processes, and the 

 assessment and collection of taxes on lands within national forests. 

 In the great majority of cases the county officials were unable to 

 segregate the costs applicable to national-forest areas. Costs of 

 school maintenance were most readily determinable because they 

 represented fixed activities at fixed locations, but frequently only a 

 part of the cost could be charged to national-forest territory. Koad 

 and trail construction and maintenance costs were reasonably deter- 

 minable. The other items of cost specifically chargeable to the 

 national-forest areas were not determinable because they were not 

 segregated from the similar expenditures upon parts of the country 

 not within the national forest. 



As a matter of fact, the majority of county and State expenditures 

 are influenced by project activities or by population rather than by 

 area of land. The existence of national forests reduces rather than 

 increases the burden of cost to counties and States. The national- 

 forest lands are protected against fire, insects, and disease at Federal 

 expense without contributions by the county or State except where 

 county or State property is directly involved. State, county, and 

 private lands indirectly benefit from this protection. The Federal 

 Government also cooperates liberally in the development and main- 

 tenance of the most expensive classes of public improvements, namely, 



