1266 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the southern pine of the Pacific Douglas fir, is important. The 

 ability of the forest to restock naturally and rapidly, if given a chance, 

 as in the South and New England, is a very real advantage when 

 compared to the more slow and uncertain natural restocking in the 

 pine regions of the West. Most properties involve planting of 

 denuded lands; cheap artificial restocking, as in the South and Lake 

 States, is an advantage over costly planting, as in the western forest 

 regions. 



Cost of protection against fire and other agencies must be incurred 

 annually, and mount to a major item in the cost of growing forests. 

 The exceedingly high costs in such regions as the northern Rockies 

 and Pacific are a marked disadvantage when compared to the 

 lower protection costs in New England and the South. Many of the 

 measures to obtain forest production, such as reservation of seed 

 trees from cutting, protection of young advance forest growth, pre- 

 vention of loggings fires, must be done as part of the logging opera- 

 tion. Regional differences in the ease and cost of these are material 

 and affect the opportunity for private forestry. 



Particularly in the Pacific region, careful selection of the high- 

 quality trees for cutting gives the owner a chance to increase im- 

 mediate returns an opportunity less evident in many of the eastern 

 regions. Notably in New England and the South, the forest owner 

 can draw on resident, cheap, rural labor, which depends in part on 

 other than forest work, usually on agriculture. Such regions have in 

 this respect a great advantage over the Pacific region, where non- 

 resident imported labor must be depended on largely. 



Forest lands in the South often can be leased for the hunting 

 privileges, and in the southern Rockies for grazing privileges, thereby 

 reducing current ownership costs. In regions such as the northern 

 Rockies, where returns from other than forest uses are impossible, 

 the owner is obviously at a relative disadvantage. The financial 

 ability of the State to carry a large share of the cost of protection, as 

 in New England and the Middle Atlantic regions, is an important aid 

 to the private owner, when compared to lack of financial ability in 

 much of the South and in the northern Rockies. 



AID OR HINDRANCE DUE TO PUBLIC ACTION 



The foregoing costs-pf-production factors are not greatly nor 

 rapidly affected by public action, but other factors of this nature are 

 so affected. For example, where trespass laws give real protection 

 to the forest owner, as in the Pacific region, he is more favorably 

 situated than where he lacks adequate protection, as in the South. 

 Where local taxation is high in relation to the real income-producing 

 value of the forest property, the recurring costs necessarily are an 

 unfavorable factor. In the States of the New England and Middle 

 Atlantic regions, where the non-Federal share of fire-control costs 

 are paid by the State from general funds, the forest owner is better 

 off than in the northern Rockies and Pacific regions, where he is 

 assessed with most or all of the non-Federal share. States with 

 regulatory laws regarding slash disposal, reservation of seed trees, 

 etc., so far quite generally leave the private owner to assume the 

 extra costs to the degree the laws are enforced. The probability that 

 costs made necessary through regulation will be assumed by the 

 State is a factor to be considered by the owner. 



