1208 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The pecuniary advantages of the tourist business to States and 

 communities in which Federally supported properties are located are, 

 of course, generally recognized, and accepted, where the resources 

 are of sufficient national interest to warrant the Federal expense in- 

 volved. But the principle upon which Federal care of areas of out- 

 standing educational, scenic, and recreational value is justified has 

 very much less application in determining a Federal-aid policy for 

 protection of vast acreages of privately and State owned forest lands. 



No attempt is made here to evaluate this factor as against cost of 

 maintaining the conditions that make forest lands attractive for that 

 purpose. The intent is only to point out that it is a factor that should 

 be weighed in determining a Federal-aid policy. 



FACTORS AFFECTING POLICY OF FEDERAL AID 



Some of the broader national considerations pointing to Federal 

 participation in State forestry affairs, together with the degree of the 

 Federal interest, have now been explained. The system of Federal 

 aid in forestry as it operates under present-day legislation and appro- 

 priations has been described in a preceding section. It remains to 

 consider as realistically as possible the more specific factors which 

 condition the usefulness of Federal aid and which must be observed 

 in the successful administration of its present and future programs. 



Against the Federal-aid forestry projects it has sometimes been 

 argued that a Federal bureau has been put in a position where it can 

 dictate State policies and procedure by threat of withdrawing funds, 

 thus weakening State and private initiative and independence; that 

 States in which the ratio of Federal taxes to allotments is high are 

 made to pay for forestry in States where the reverse is the case; and 

 that the bait of Federal funds has caused some States to appropriate 

 more for the work than they should. 



In other words, the issue of Federal aid in forestry is on all fours 

 with the issue in many other forms of Federal aid. It must be ad- 

 mitted that there are arguments on both sides, and Federal aid must 

 depend for justification on whether or not its advantages outweigh 

 its disadvantages. The position taken by the writer is that the ad- 

 vantages predominate, provided that the law is administered in a coop- 

 erative and not a dictatorial way, that a proper balance is maintained 

 between Federal contribution and Federal requirements, and that 

 Federal assistance to States and private owners is maintained on a 

 ratio that properly represents the national as compared with State 

 and private interest. These considerations are factors in all of the 

 activities of Federal aid in forestry as now administered. The more 

 important activities demand separate discussion and will be taken up 

 in the following order: Protection against fire, establishment of wood- 

 lands, woodland management, research, control of forest insects, 

 control of tree diseases, acquisition of lands, and finance. 



PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE 



ATTITUDE OF LANDOWNERS 



The major interest of owners of forest land in the past has been in 

 the merchantable wood that it supported rather than in the growing 

 of another crop of timber. Following the clearing of many millions 

 of acres of land and its devotion to farming, it came to be the general 



