1338 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of farm woodlands and the remainder for lands in State and in other 

 forms of private ownership. It is believed that the importance of 

 this phase of forestry warrants the building up of an organization for 

 it as fast as qualified men can be provided, and that this can be done 

 within a 10-year period. 



COSTS SUMMARIZED 



Table 1 shows what is being accomplished now (1932) and what 

 might be done during the ensuing 5-year period if the proposed pro- 

 gram were put into effect immediately. It should be noted that 

 comparisons based on expenditures for any one year or for a period of 

 years are not an exact representation of protection effort. In most 

 of the States expenditures are very substantially increased during bad 

 years but, since conditions are never equally critical over the whole 

 country in any one season, the maximum of available protection 

 funds for the United States as a whole is never reached in any one 

 year. Thus in 1932 had the conditions in all regions been relatively 

 as critical as they were in the Middle Atlantic States, the total ex- 

 penditures for that year would have been nearer to 60 percent of the 

 adequacy figure, than to the 40 percent which they actually averaged. 



Table 2 constitutes an estimate of possible accomplishments by 

 5-year periods for the ensuing 20 years. 



In making up these tables, it has been the aim to suggest a plan 

 that would provide for a reasonably complete system of protection 

 and extension activities over all of the privately owned and the pub- 

 licly owned lands (other than Federal) by the end of the 20-year 

 period. The plan has also been to suggest a rate of progress fitted 

 to the relative possibilities of financing the program in the different 

 States so as to proceed as rapidly as possible toward the accomplish- 

 ment of the whole national program. This applies particularly in 

 fire protection where present systems vary from 15 percent to 100 

 percent of the needs in the different regions. 



Obviously those States whose protection systems are already nearly 

 adequate can make the additional effort needed before many of the 

 others can have under way even a fair percentage of what is needed. It 

 is probably a safe prediction that, without the interposition of more 

 extensive forms of Federal aid, those regions in which consummation 

 of the protection program is indicated within 5 years will more nearly 

 accomplish that result than will the other regions complete their 

 programs in 20 years. 



It should be emphasized that anticipated difficulty in financing 

 the fire-protection program is the only reason for indicating a gradual 

 progress in any region for more than a 5-year period. All of the States 

 have made the necessary legal provision for Federal aid in fire control. 

 All of them either have existing protection organizations that could 

 be sufficiently expanded within that time, or could create the organ- 

 izations needed. 



The organization needed for insect control and extension activities 

 could be provided within a 10-year period if necessary funds were 

 available, although many States do not at the present time have any 

 basic legislation providing for such activities. 



It is for such reasons that emphasis has been placed on the desirabil- 

 ity of the Federal Government increasing its participation in such ways 



