1288 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TABLE 13. Areas of privately owned forest and abandoned agricultural land of 

 major influence on watersheds suggested for public acquisition in the 5 eastern 

 regions 



[Values given in millions of acres] 



The study of watersheds in its broad conclusion, therefore, still 

 depends on private ownership to safeguard watershed values on more 

 than half of the eastern watershed areas. This situation may look 

 differently at some relatively near time in the future, when treatment 

 of private lands may have changed significantly, or when the cumu- 

 lative effect of bad agricultural practices may have become fully 

 operative. Such a situation appears to exist in southern Illinois 

 where several million acres of formerly farmed land is in process of 

 going out of agricultural use and is eroding. 



As already brought out, continuing or permanent private ownership 

 of forest lands depends on the opportunity for making a profit from 

 forestry, and this varies greatly from region to region. A large part 

 of the most critical watershed areas are on the headwaters of streams, 

 where the conditions for successful private ownership are often less 

 favorable than the average for the general region. Dependence on 

 private ownership to conserve watershed values on important areas to 

 the degree indicated will certainly not be justified unless a timber- 

 production program of the magnitude outlined in this section is made 

 effective. 



It should again be emphasized that these are only approximate 

 areas of major watershed importance, on which private ownership 

 has most markedly failed to conserve the public values, and where, 

 therefore, public ownership appears as the most effective solution. 

 Detailed field examinations are needed as a basis of definite plans for 

 public acquisition. Other considerations than condition of land 

 necessarily have a bearing on the feasibility of public ownership as a 

 remedy for depreciating watersheds. 



LIMITING FACTORS IN ESTABLISHING PUBLIC PROTECTION FORESTS 



Public watershed protection forests, in order to accomplish their 

 primary purpose, necessarily must bring into public ownership a 

 reasonable proportion of the total hill land within their boundaries. 

 On a mountain slope, for example, if 10 percent were acquired and 

 well managed while the remaining 90 percent remained in bad condi- 

 tion, or was subjected to destructive practices, the effect of the public 

 ownership on the watershed as a whole would be relatively slight. 

 Quite probably the public effort would not be justified, since the same 

 expenditures made in an area where a higher percentage of land could 

 be acquired and managed, would pay larger dividends in watershed 

 protection. 



