A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



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TABLE 7. Estimated net loss or gain under different assumed forms of private and 

 State ownership of national-forest lands compared with actual total net gain to 

 State and counties for period 1923-27 Continued 



Table 7 leads inevitably to the conclusion that acting through the 

 central agency of the Federal Government the people of the United 

 States have very definitely and largely assisted each of the States 

 containing national forests to work toward an adequate program of 

 forest conservation within its borders more effectively than would 

 have been possible if the entire burden of forest protection had rested 

 upon the State and its component units of government. It is true 

 that the national-forest system was established in recognition of a 

 national need, as a measure of national security and welfare, rather 

 than with the studied purpose of assuming part of the State's 

 function or obligation in the field of forest conservation ; nevertheless, 

 the national policy markedly has aided the States to meet the 

 inescapable requirements of economic and social necessity created 

 by dangerous trends in forest-land utilization. No other use to 

 which the national-forest lands might have been devoted, no other 

 principle or method under which they might have been adminis- 

 tered, would as fully or effectively have enabled the States to 

 meet the tremendous problem which confronted them. There would 

 have been no greater economic and social use and enjoyment of 

 the lands and natural resources comprising the national forests 

 than that which has been allowed under Federal management. 

 There could have been no other way by which greater financial re- 

 sources could have been made available for purposes of forest pro- 

 tection, regeneration, and management with less tax burden on the 

 properties and citizens of the States and counties in which the national 

 forests are situated. Neither could there have been any fairer or 

 more equitable way by which both the common and collective interests 

 of all the people of the United States, as represented in assured future 

 supplies of timber and adequately protected watersheds, and the more 

 localized interests of the States and their citizens, could be har- 

 moniously correlated and coordinated. The record shows no in- 



