1320 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Illustrative costs for forestry under private ownership are given in 

 table 5. These figures are based on present costs on national forests 

 and other available data but cannot be safely applied to any one 

 individual operation, although they may represent fair averages for 

 very large properties. 



TABLE 5. Representative costs for intensive private forestry, in cents per acre 



per year 1 



1 These are generalized costs for forest properties, in which at least half of the stand is assumed in either 

 virgin forests or in merchantable stands. Silvicultural cutting charges, stand betterment, and planting 

 charged off at 1 percent per year as a capital investment. 



2 Typical second-growth turpentine forest in the South. 



THE POSSIBLE RETURNS FROM MANAGED FOREST 



LANDS 



SOURCES OF RETURNS FROM FOREST PROPERTIES 



Timber, whether in the virgin forest, or grown as a crop tended by 

 man, has always been considered the principal source of revenue to an 

 owner of forest property. Such secondary crops as turpentine, forage, 

 game, and recreational values, have, however, under favorable 

 conditions, produced greater incomes than the timber crop itself. 

 Indeed in many places the timber has been maintained solely to 

 perpetuate and increase these auxiliary forest values. 



Under ideal conditions, and through multiple-use management, all 

 the resources of the forest are husbanded and developed for use and 

 for revenue. Even where the maj or returns in income must come from 

 the timber crop, the sale of other products often furnishes sufficient 

 funds to pay a great share of the current operating expense. There- 

 fore good forest management must give consideration to all uses as 

 possible sources of revenue and as lightening the burden of carrying a 

 long-time timber crop. In the United States many of these tangible 

 values of forest lands, regardless of ownership, have not been exploited. 

 In some instances, markets have not been sufficiently developed to 

 provide sources of revenue, in other cases unrestricted free public use 

 has been permitted by custom and tradition. 



There is, however, another important group of forest values which to 

 date are not marketable and yet which contribute benefits to special 

 groups and the general public. Among these, watershed protection, 

 as it affects water supplies and water power, is the most important. 

 Recreational use of the forest, likewise, is for large parts of the 

 country a nonre venue-producing resource. If the forest is in public 

 ownership, the general taxpayer pays for these nonrevenue-producing 



