1304 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



crops. The ownership of forest land carries with it an obligation to 

 use the land productively, if society needs the products. If there is 

 no immediate need for them, an owner is under an obligaton at least 

 not to abuse the forest, but to leave it capable of yielding its products 

 and services as soon as a need for them arises. 



To use forest land wisely it must be developed. To hold it 

 without developing it is to derive less than the full measure of service 

 which it is capable of yielding. Development requires the expendi- 

 ture of labor and money. Within reasonable limits, increases in 

 expenditures for forestry can be expected to more than pay for them- 

 selves in increased returns. As in Europe in normal times, the largest 

 net returns will be derived from those forests which are the most 

 intensively managed. 



Expenditures for the development of local transportation systems, 

 if prudently made, will be more than repaid through the increased 

 value of the timber and other resources thus opened up, as well as in 

 the reduction of fire losses and costs of fighting fire. Silvicultural 

 measures, such as the removal of diseased, misshapen, or otherwise 

 inferior trees, thinning of crowded stands, and measures for reducing 

 or preventing the ravages of insects or disease, will result in more 

 valuable crops of timber. Planting up of denuded spaces in the forest, 

 or replacement of inferior kinds of trees with better ones, will increase 

 the yields in quantity as well as in quality and value. Expenditures 

 for the development and administration of forage resources of the 

 forest will not only be returned through increased receipts from grazing 

 but they will help to prevent damage to the vegetative cover that 

 might result in erosion and undesirable acceleration of stream flow. 

 Investments in the development of game and recreation resources, if 

 they do not bring in a direct cash return, will more than pay for 

 themselves in increased public enjoyment of the forests. When the 

 economic liabilities and social losses in unproductive lands are con- 

 sidered on the one hand, as against present and potential returns 

 from well-managed forests on the other, the essential costs for proper 

 management appear as a relatively low investment. 



Forest-land management entails capital and current expenditures 

 for some or all of the following : 



1. Resource management of timber, forage, water, recreational 

 values, and wild life. 



2. Improvement of property through capital investments and 

 current outlay. 



3. Protection against fire, insects, tree diseases, trespass by man 

 and animals, and poisonous weeds. 



The attempt to arrive at prevailing and future costs of managing 

 and protecting forest land otiscloses insufficient data on other than 

 Federal forests. Detailed costs are available for the national forests 

 covering a 20-year period, but only fragmentary data for forests in 

 State and private ownership. For this reason the national-forest costs 

 have been analyzed in detail. These costs may reasonably be as- 

 sumed to represent costs on other large forest holdings where similar 

 protection and management are to be applied. Also, existing national 

 'forests and proposed extensions constitute a large public enterprise 

 warranting special analysis pf jpresent and proposed expenditures and 

 .ajxpropriations.. 



