A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1155 



ficial public service, not always susceptible of valuation in monetary 

 terms or financial revenues but nevertheless distinct and of great public 

 importance. 



Aside from minor economies in production costs, financial returns 

 from private forest properties of the kinds under consideration can be 

 realized only by larger sales of products or by high returns per unit 

 of product. Considering collectively the States of California, Oregon, 

 Washington, Idaho, and Montana, larger sales would be possible only 

 with demands for timber greater than those which can now before- 

 seen. If Pacific coast stumpage is pressing inexorably for liquidation 

 at the rate of 25 billion board feet per year and if total national lumber 

 consumption does not exceed 30 to 35 billion board feet per year the 

 impossiblity of increasing financial returns by a greater volume of 

 sales becomes obvious. 



Private owners of timbered lands are subject to all the inexorable 

 laws of financial economy. To maintain financial solvency the 

 periodically realizable values produced by a forest property must at 

 least equal the values consumed by the processes of production 

 during the same period. In the case of private ownership intangible 

 and abstract social values not translatable into monetary returns 

 cannot figure in the equation, no matter how essential and important 

 they may be to general public welfare. Costs of ownership and 

 production must be met by cash outlays and therefore must be offset 

 by cash returns. In simple terms, the owners of large timbered 

 holdings pressing for liquidation must reduce the costs of ownership 

 or increase the financial returns of ownership if they are to avoid 

 the wreckage of their properties, or bankruptcy. 



New principles of forest utilization now in course of development 

 and application promise substantial increases in net returns and 

 markedly improved conditions for permanent forest practice. To 

 the extent they prove to be practicable they will aid greatly to 

 relieve the situation. In situations where such principles of utiliza- 

 tion are inapplicable and where financial adjustments cannot be 

 worked out under private ownership public participation is essential 

 to the conservation of the economic and social values involved. 

 Reduced to its elementary form, the solution of the problem pre- 

 sented by certain types of private forest ownership will lie in the 

 willingness of the people of the United States to assume a larger part 

 of the costs of such forest conservation either by relieving the private 

 owner of a larger part of the costs of maintaining the property in a 

 fully productive state, or by paying more for the commodities of the 

 forests thus conserved, or by taking over the ownership and control 

 of that portion of the unexploited forest area which, in the public 

 interest, should be withheld from industrial exploitation until needed 

 to meet actual public requirements, or by public regulation, which 

 may have to be accomplished by provisions for expropriations. 



Public contribution to decreased costs might take several forms. 

 With the support of public credit properties might be refinanced at 

 lower rates of interest with consequent reduction of financial pres- 

 sure. The public might assume a larger share of protecting existing 

 values against destruction by fire, disease, and insects. The public 

 might underwrite a system of forest insurance under which the risk 

 of forest-land ownership would be appreciably diminished. The 

 public might grant partial exemption from annual taxes. None of 



