A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



1493 



roads, schools, and other public improvements can then be abandoned 

 to reduce the per capita cost of government. 



Forest planting has a part in this solution whether it be the planting 

 of marginal land near cities primarily for recreational use or the more 

 extreme action contemplated by public acquisition of large tracts of 

 marginal land. 



TROUBLESOME FEATURES TO BE OVERCOME IN PLANTING 



LAND CLASSIFICATION 



Land classification should be undertaken to obtain essential 

 information as to abandoned or other land that is definitely sub- 

 marginal, land that is eroding or is needed for protection, and land, 

 now partly agricultural, which should be blocked up into forest 

 units as previously discussed. Abandoned agricultural land con- 

 tributes very largely to erosion problems and it frequently offers 

 greater opportunities for profitable timber returns than do the poorer 

 classes of forest lands. Although depreciated in fertility from an 

 agricultural standpoint, abandoned agricultural land is normally 

 more fertile than the average devastated forest site, and it is usually 

 more accessible. For these reasons forestation measures on sub- 

 marginal farm land should be considered on a par with those on forest 

 land. Final decisions as to the land to plant must be reached through 

 the medium of proper land classification or its equivalent. 



THE TECHNICAL FEATURES OF PLANTING 



Marked progress has been made in meeting the technical difficulties 

 in forest planting but much remains to be learned through research 

 and experience. One of the difficulties to be overcome in the planting 

 of denuded forest land is the direct outgrowth of processes that 

 brought about denudation. 



Clear-cutting and clean burning of forested areas may bring about 

 changes of the site so unfavorable to seedling survival, that it will be 

 impossible directly to reestablish the original species. 



Studies of clear-cut and clean-burned forest sites in the northern 

 Rocky Mountains showed striking differences between conditions on 

 these areas and those under natural timber, as indicated in table 3. 



TABLE 3. Characteristics of clear-cut, clean-burned sites in the northern Rocky 



Mountains 



The changes which result from cutting and burning are unfavorable 

 to the growth of tree seedlings and may easily be fatal to them. Such 

 maximum surface temperatures and drought-like conditions, though 

 they exist but a short time, may make the difference between the 

 success and failure of plantations on open sites, 



