1296 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Pacific Coast region. In this region the areas needed for watershed 

 and recreation in the commercial forest class are less than the area 

 of the same class which must be devoted for timber production. 

 Therefore, the 23.5 million acres under timber needs can in part be 

 placed in the watershed and recreational areas. To arrive at the 

 estimate of total public forests, the 5.1 noncommercial under water- 

 sheds is added to the 23.5 million acres of commercial timber forests. 



North and South Rocky Mountain regions. In both these regions 

 the commercial forest areas required for watersheds are sufficiently 

 large to take care of the timber and recreational needs. No agri- 

 cultural land is involved. Therefore, the total public forests is 

 identical with the amounts set up for watershed forests. 



These estimates, totaling 223 million acres, form the recommended 

 program for eventual public forest acquisition. Large as they are, 

 and much as they exceed existing official programs of the State and the 

 Federal Governments, they nevertheless are conservative in the 

 following respects : 



1. The estimates for public watershed-protection forests do not 

 include many of the forest areas of moderate influence now in private 

 ownership. 



2. The areas recommended for watershed protection are assumed 

 to be used for timber cropping. In many cases especially light cut- 

 ting will have to be used, and in some cases no cutting can be per- 

 mitted because it would disturb the stability of the protection. 



3. The recreational use, with few exceptions, is assumed to be 

 filled by areas managed for watershed protection or timber production, 

 or both. In some areas this will not be feasible, because of intensive 

 recreational use. 



4. Reliance has been placed on private ownership to carry well over 

 half of the total job of systematic timber production. This is vastly 

 in excess of the proportion now being produced on the private forest 

 lands as a whole. 



The public program recommended is the minimum that can meet 

 the public share of the known needs for watershed protection, timber 

 production, and recreational use. 



THE PROBABLE DISTRIBUTION OF FOREST-LAND 

 OWNERSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC AGENCIES 



As has already been brought out, State forests in the West have 

 been created from grants of Federal land, but in State forest programs 

 depending on purchase, the major control of State forest-land owner- 

 ship is financial ability. Unquestionably there are material differ- 

 ences in various States in prevailing public recognition of forest 

 problems. There is very much more active interest in some States 

 than in others. But an analysis of existing effort in all phases of 

 forestry (see earlier discussions of Federal aid) indicates conclusively 

 that financial ability is the dominant factor, particularly as to what 

 is likely to be done in the future. 



There are many ways of rating wealth. Clearly the financial 

 ability of States to go ahead on programs of State forest acquisition 

 will involve consideration of at least the following factors and their 

 interrelation: Total wealth, spending power, acres of private forest 

 land, population. 



