1108 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the roads and trails. Thus, in two important respects, the national 

 forests diminish rather than increase the costs of county government. 

 Although the protection of fish and game is primarily a State function, 

 the State largely is relieved of that responsibility within the national 

 forests through the cooperation of the forest officers. The continued 

 presence and active cooperation of forest officers under present con- 

 ditions makes it unnecessary for the States to station any game 

 wardens within large areas of national-forest lands. Were it not for 

 the cooperation of the forest officers, the employment of additional 

 game wardens would be absolutely necessary, the total cost of their 

 salaries and expenses being chargeable to the specific areas now within 

 national forests. 



The same principle applies to other activities now handled by the 

 field officers of the Forest Service with a minimum of contributed 

 time but which in the absence of such cooperation would require the 

 employment of additional men or the expenditure of additional funds 

 by the State, county, and private interests directly involved. The 

 enforcement of civil and criminal processes is least necessary within 

 the predominantly publicly owned national forests, and the presence 

 within such areas of trained and highly qualified men prepared to 

 cooperate with the local authorities in the enforcement of State laws 

 and county ordinances diminishes rather than increases the expense of 

 such enforcement. Since the national forests normally are the most 

 scantily populated parts of a county, they impose minimum require- 

 ments of public education. The return to the county of 25 percent 

 of gross national-forest revenues annually is secured without any 

 process of land assessment or tax collection, so that the counties are 

 relieved of the costs of such work. The assessment and collection of 

 taxes on private lands or improvements within national forests is 

 facilitated rather than hampered by the existence of the forests 

 because of the excellent status and other records available to the 

 State or county officials. The difficulty of securing definite estimates 

 of costs from the State officials themselves is rather a concrete demon- 

 stration of the negligible or the wholly minus character of such costs 

 to the county or State. 



Subject to these numerous explanatory qualifications, the results of 

 this phase of the study are presented in the first column of figures in 

 table 3. 



TABLE 3. Approximate effect of Federal administration of national forests upon 

 costs of State and county government and private land management within and 

 adjacent to the national forests for the fiscal years 1923-27 



