A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1353 



The plan does not contemplate that the cost of maintaining the 

 protective values of the forest would be imposed upon the private 

 owners. It proposes to apportion the costs of the program in an 

 equitable manner between the Federal Government, the States, and 

 the forest owners, as nearly as possible commensurate with the bene- 

 fits to be derived. It endeavors to retain the principle of cooperation 

 in a form which would induce the willing acceptance of regulation by 

 forest owners, and which at the same time would insure that the 

 public expenditures in aid of private forestry will accomplish the 

 results that are intended. 



As stated at the beginning of this section, a program of public 

 regulation such as has been described would supplement an acquisi- 

 tion program. It would aim at preventing the devastation of forests 

 which the public might later acquire, and at protecting the public 

 interests, to the extent that might be necessary, in forests which will 

 remain more or less indefinitely in private ownership. Public regu- 

 lation is not advocated as a general substitute for eventual public 

 ownership of a large proportion of the Nation's forest land. 



