THE PROBABLE FUTURE DISTRIBUTION OF FOREST LAND 



OWNERSHIP 



By S. B. SHOW, Regional Forester, California National Forest Region 1 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Stability of ownership prerequisite to forestry 1253 



The basis for private ownership of forest lands 1256 



The basis for public ownership 1256 



The basis for division of public ownership between agencies 1261 



Progress to date in public forest acquisition and existing programs 1263 



How much forest land will private owners retain and use in accordance 



with public interest? 1265 



Public ownership and timber production 1278 



Public ownership and watershed protection 1286 



The multiple-use forest program recommended for public ownership 1294 



The probable distribution of forest-land ownership between public agencies _ 1 296 



The cost of the public-acquisition program 1299 



A suggested immediate Federal and State program 1300 



Summary 1301 



STABILITY OF OWNERSHIP PREREQUISITE TO FORESTRY 



Stability of ownership of forest lands is a prerequisite to the stability 

 of forestry. The bulk of the commercial forest lands are now in 

 private ownership, but significant changes in ownership are taking 

 place with great rapidity, and on a Nation-wide scale. Extensive 

 tax delinquency in the cut-over regions; failure of any considerable 

 number of owners to take advantage of the special forest tax laws 

 enacted by many States specifically to help the private owner remain 

 in the forest-land business; the rapid exploitation of forests with 

 scanty provision by the owners for continuing in the forest-growing 

 business ; and the very large areas of forest land offered at distress 

 sale to public agencies all are indicative of existing changes in forest- 

 land ownership. These trends are even more significant as symptoms 

 of widespread and imminent changes in the distribution of ownership. 



Formerly forested land, now or recently used for farming, is being 

 abandoned as unsuitable physically or economically for farming, and 

 is thereby becoming available again for forest production. Major 

 changes in the character of ownership of such land are obviously 

 inevitable if it is to be managed for its highest value of forestry. 



Other sections of this report bring new information to bear on the 

 forest situation and the forest problems of the Nation. To a very 

 high degree, these finally focus on the question of ownership whether 

 existing ownership is accomplishing the full conservation of forest 

 values so clearly needed, whether it is likely to, and whether a realine- 

 ment of ownership should be deliberately sought, regardless of the 

 trend toward breakdown of private ownership, and the consequent 



1 The subsection Estimated Public Share of Land Ownership for Timber Production is largely the work of 

 E. I. Kotok, Director, California Forest Experiment Station. The tabulation of census records used in 

 estimating areas feasible for public ownership in the subsection, Limiting Factors in Establishing Public 

 Protection Forests was worked out by W. N. Sparhawk, Senior Forest Economist. 



1253 



