1224 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



vately owned body of timber will pay no regard to property lines or 

 county boundaries, and therefore State action becomes necessary to 

 safeguard the general interest. 



STATE FORESTRY LEGISLATION AND APPROPRIATIONS 



State interest in private forest resources is not an idea of recent 

 times. Protection and supervision of forest lands has long been 

 accepted as a proper function of State government. As early as the 

 seventeenth century, forestry and timber problems claimed the 

 attention of our colonial legislative bodies. Prior to the establish- 

 ment of our National Government hundreds of laws dealing with 

 the use or care of forests had been placed on the statute books. 

 Most of the Colonies gave legislative recognition to the menace of 

 forest fires. These early statutes, however, were of regulatory nature 

 only and were chiefly directed toward the protection of public and 

 private property in merchantable timber and improvements. 



No State had enacted legislation providing for the establishment 

 of forestry departments or had provided funds for fire control until 

 the latter part of the nineteenth century. The States which pioneered 

 in making funds available for the protection of their forest resources 

 were Minnesota, New York, California, and Pennsylvania. 



Minnesota in 1876 appropriated $2,500 to be expended as premiums 

 for the planting of forest trees, to aid an association of private forest 

 owners. In 1895 a forest commission was created, with duties of 

 preventing and suppressing forest and prairie fires. Expenses of 

 such work, to be paid by the State, were not to exceed $5,000. New 

 York in 1885 appropriated $15,000 for fire protection and sundry 

 forestry purposes. California in 1887 appropriated $15,000, part of 

 which was directed for use in fire prevention. Pennsylvania in 1897 

 provided for fire extinguishment, with payment shared equally by 

 county and State. The county cost was limited to $500 annually. 



By 1911, 12 States were expressing interest in their timber resources 

 to the extent of making available a total of $165,975 for forestry work. 

 Since that time, interest in forestry has been so largely expanded that 

 at present 45 States are recognizing certain responsibilities in the work. 

 Their interest, extending both to private and to State-owned forest 

 lands, finds its most direct measure in the amount of State funds 

 made available, which at present amount to more than $7,800,000 

 annually. This figure is taken from the latest State budget expendi- 

 ture estimates submitted to the Federal Government. The following 

 summary helps to visualize the character of the several projects which 

 the State aid funds support and develop : 



Percent of estimated 

 expenditures 



1 . Administration 7. 6 



2. Protection: 



Fire 41.5 



Disease 1- 9 



Insects 2. 6 



3. Reforestation and nursery work 14. 5 



4. Purchase of forest land 15. 7 



5. Maintenance and improvement of State forest land 12. 



6. Research 1. 2 



7. Education 1. 6 



8. Extension 1. 4 



Total.. - 100.0 



