1160 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



certain forest properties of major importance to public welfare, with 

 clear and unencumbered titles and at costs safely within sound limits 

 of actual monetary value. The section " State Accomplishments and 

 Plans" so fully covers the subject of State holdings that their dis- 

 cussion here is unnecessary. 



As is quite natural, the Federal program of acquisition through 

 purchase, exchange, or donation thus far has developed with greatest 

 rapidity and has attained the greatest present and prospective dimen- 

 sions. It actually has been carried out in some degree in all of the 

 31 States containing national forests and should eventually extend to 

 several more. Collectively it represents the largest area and invest- 

 ment of public funds to date and prospectively. Its continuous oper- 

 ation over a period of 21 years has served to stabilize the principles 

 and policies by which it is directed and controlled. There has been a 

 more systematic collection and recordation of factual data, making 

 available detailed statistical information. Due to these several cir- 

 cumstances it is both feasible and desirable to discuss the Federal 

 acquisition program in greater detail than is possible in relation to 

 State, county, and municipal programs. 



PRESENT PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES OF FEDERAL 

 ACQUISITION PROGRAM 



Where national interests are concerned, and under prevailing public 

 policies, the control and management of certain forested areas is 

 properly a Federal function, and if the lands involved are not in 

 public ownership and control, their acquisition is an essential pre- 

 requisite to effective Federal action. For example, the policy of 

 Federal cooperation in protection of the watersheds of navigable 

 streams and stimulation of timber production east of the Great 

 Plains was almost wholly dependent upon Federal acquisition through 

 cash purchase of the areas essential to the consummation of the 

 project. In other words, in certain parts of the United States the 

 Federal function of watershed and forest protection necessitates a 

 broad program of land acquisition. 



Unless it is complete and comprehensive, Federal ownership within 

 any given area fails in some degree of its purpose, is less efficient, 

 and more expensive. Privately owned lands interspersed among or 

 contiguous to the Federal lands add greatly to costs of protection 

 and seriously interfere with processes of utilization and management 

 necessary to realize the full public values of the public properties. 

 Lands owned by persons who will not cooperate in essential programs 

 of forest protection against fire, insects, or disease markedly diminish 

 the effectiveness and increase the costs of such protective measures. 

 Lands which control access to and consequently the utilization of 

 publicly owned natural resources frequently increase the costs and 

 difficulties of such utilization or create undesirable monopolies. 

 Where natural units of timber operation are characterized by diverse 

 ownerships and conflicting plans or policies of use and management, 

 it is impossible to manage the public properties as efficiently and 

 economically as would be the case were the unit wholly in public 

 ownership. 



The present purposes and objectives of the Federal acquisition 

 program, therefore, are (1) to create conditions most favorable for 



