A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1235 



high steep country in the alpine zone, and also large areas in the 

 transitional zone between desert and commercial forest especially 

 susceptible to erosion. Careful regulation of other uses, and espe- 

 cially of grazing, is essential on these areas. 



Although some 449 million acres of the total forest area serves to 

 protect our streams and soils, it will probably not be necessary to set 

 aside more than 5 million acres from commercial timber use for 

 protective purposes exclusively. Because of their location in moun- 

 tainous areas where scenic values are high, possibly 1 million out of 

 the 5 million acres will be included in the areas where recreational use 

 will dominate. The net reduction of commercial forest area will, 

 therefore, be about 4 million acres. 



THE LAND NEEDED FOR WILD LIFE 



Although increasing attention will probably be given to the control 

 and protection of the wild life population in the forests, it should not 

 be necessary to devote any areas to exclusive use for this purpose. 

 Recreational or watershed reserves as well as noncommercial forest 

 lands may well serve as special areas for the protection of wild life, or 

 such special wild life areas may be established as needed elsewhere on 

 the commercial forests, but this need not interfere with other use. It 

 may, however, be necessary to restrict the grazing of domestic live- 

 stock to conserve food for wild life in special cases. Practically the 

 entire forest area may contribute in some degree to the production of 

 wild life of social or economic value. 



THE LAND NEEDED FOR RANGE AND LIVESTOCK 



More than half of the forest lands of the United States is used for 

 the grazing of livestock. In the West and South most of this is in the 

 noncommercial forest area or the more open forests of the yellow pine 

 types. If properly handled, livestock can generally be produced on 

 such forest areas without detriment to commercial timber production, 

 protection of watersheds, or recreational use. Scientific control is 

 necessary, however, to keep grazing within limits consistent with the 

 maintenance of the other use values. 



In the Central States large areas of hardwood woodland have been 

 seriously deteriorated by grazing of domestic livestock. Although 

 the practice has been carried to excess and eventually leads to the 

 destruction of the woods so used, it has a limited place in the agricul- 

 ture of the region. It, therefore, seems necessary to allow about a 

 million acres reported as commercial forest land for pasturage of this 

 sort, which in effect is devoting it to agriculture rather than forestry. 



THE LAND NEEDED FOR TIMBER PRODUCTION 



About 17.5 billion cubic feet per year may be set up as a reasonable 

 minimum objective for a national program for timber production. 

 This covers estimated normal timber requirements of about 16.5 

 billion cubic feet per year with a margin of safety of 1 billion cubic feet 

 to provide for possible future calamities, such as the chestnut blight, 

 which might wipe out entire species, and to provide for holding or 

 increasing an export trade in forest products. A growth of this 

 amount would probably yield about 60 billion board feet of saw 



