1294 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the practices of agriculture on hill lands will have to be modified, or 

 agriculture will have to be given up, if the problems of erosion are to 

 be fully solved. Forestry can not be a means of halting erosion on 

 plowed lands. 



THE MULTIPLE-USE FOREST PROGRAM RECOMMENDED 

 FOR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP 



PRACTICABILITY OF MULTIPLE-PURPOSE PRINCIPLE 



The need for publicly-owned and managed forests has been dealt 

 with as they apply to the protection of watersheds, the conservation 

 of recreational areas, and the building up of continuous and permanent 

 sources for timber crops. In arriving at final estimates of the areas 

 which should be placed under public ownership, fulfilling these three 

 major purposes, the possibilities of multiple services have been care- 

 fully weighed. Generally, and with regard to the major portions of 

 the proposed public forests, it will not be necessary nor desirable to 

 segregate and dedicate certain areas for timber cropping, other areas 

 solely as watershed units, and still others as recreational units. A 

 sikllfully managed forest can serve all these purposes at the same time. 

 But there will be instances where management will necessarily be 

 devoted to one dominant use, whether it be timber cropping, water- 

 shed protection, or recreation. 



In the earlier part of this discussion independent estimates were 

 made for the additional public forest needed to meet our timber, 

 watershed, and recreational requirements. Thus it was estimated 

 that 133.4 million acres were required for watershed, 172.1 million 

 acres for timber, and 21 million acres for recreation. In the light of 

 the possibility of multiple use, it is necessary to determine how far the 

 areas in these three categories overlap. 



REGIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MULTIPLE-USE 

 ACQUISITIONS 



Three classes of land now in private ownership have been considered 

 as available commercial forests, noncommercial forests, and aban- 

 doned agricultural lands that can be devoted to forestry. 



In table -15 the adjustments in areas between uses has been at- 

 tempted. Under the heading "Net total acquisition" the first 

 column gives the net total commercial forests now in private owner- 

 ship which should be placed under public management. This figure 

 has been adjusted to meet the needs for all contemplated uses. Sim- 

 ilarly the next column gives the area of noncommercial forests needed 

 under public ownership, and the third the area of abandoned agricul- 

 tural lands. All three recommendations are totaled in the last 

 column. The adjustments and the detailed calculations made are as 

 follows : 



New England region. The 3.6 million commercial forests needed 

 for watersheds will take care of the 3.5 million acres set up for timber 

 growth; the 0.4 million acres of agricultural land needed for watersheds 

 will be sufficient to take care of the 0.3 million acres required for 

 timber; the 3.6 million acres set aside for timber and watersheds will 

 be insufficient for recreational needs, so that 2.3 million acres will have 

 to be added; the noncommercial areas remain unchanged. Thus, the 



