1270 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



investment insofar as it keeps lands more productive than they 

 would otherwise be. 



The total expenditures from all sources for protecting private 

 forest lands against fire averaged $5,400,000 for 1926-30 and was 

 $7,221,000 in 1931. Of the latter amount about 80 percent was paid 

 by the public, and 20 percent by the landowner. The estimated 

 needs total $19,828,000, of which public agencies would pay $14,871,- 

 000 a year, if the same proportionate division is maintained. It 

 seems at least possible that, as the States and the Nation increase 

 their appropriations and approach this estimated total of needed 

 public aid to private landowners, the public may be much more 

 inclined to assume the additional costs of full ownership and realize 

 the concomitant powers and benefits. 



TABLE 4. Present and needed annual expenditures for fire control on State and 



private lands 



[Amounts in cents per acre] 



1 Average 1926-30. 



2 Incomplete records of expenditures on private land in New Mexico. 



Tax-relief laws on forest lands, cut-over stands, or growing forests 

 exist in about 30 States yet few owners have taken advantage of 

 them. About one and one half million acres is listed out of the total 

 forest area in private ownership, the average being below 0.5 percent 

 of the total area. The maximum is reached in Oregon at 3.1 percent. 

 The preferential tax, a form of public aid, has not so far influenced 

 retention of forest lands in private ownership, or modified materially 

 poor treatment of forest lands. Apparently, judging from present 

 actions by owners, the preferential tax holds little interest for them. 



A very generalized tabulation of costs for a timber property will 

 show 5 to 10 cents per acre per year for fire control, 15 to 25 cents for 

 timber management, and 20 to 50 cents for taxes. The public may 

 go so far as to assume the costs of the first item, but unless the forms 

 and amount of public aid are greatly expanded the owner will have 

 to meet the others. 



In the main, the conclusion is warranted that public aid so far has been 

 only a minor factor in keeping forest lands in private ownership . Other 

 conditions not affected by public action have been far more controlling. 



In the analysis of factors affecting permanence of ownership of 

 private forest lands, some not greatly nor rapidly affected by public 

 action, and others that were so affected were listed. If there were 

 nothing to forestry but fire control then public aid would have high 

 potentialities for keeping lands in private ownership and management. 

 But since other expenditures are necessarily involved and such as 

 are unlikely to be assumed by the public public aid can hardly be 

 regarded as a general formula to keep forest lands in private ownership. 



