A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1503 



This rate, while slower than that of the southern pine and Pacific 

 coast fir types, is quite satisfactory. This growth rate coupled with 

 high quality product and intensive demand close at hand justifies the 

 planting of 7# million acres. 



Planting for erosion control of an additional half-million acres is 

 clearly desirable. This area is divided between the bluff lands of the 

 upper Mississippi River and the sand-dune areas of the Lake region. 



This program by no means reclaims for productive use all of the 

 27 million acres of idle land estimated to be available for forestry, and 

 of which only a relatively small area will restock naturally in 40 years. 

 After planting 7)1 million acres of the best of this unstocked land there 

 will remain approximately 15 million acres for future attention. Only 

 the most urgent and most clearly justified plantations have been 

 recommended. 



CENTRAL REGION 



The Central region, predominantly agricultural, is a large importer 

 of lumber. Of the 14 % million board feet of lumber used annually 

 only 1% billion board feet are produced locally. Reliable data on fuel 

 wood and farm timber consumption are lacking but they are large. 



Deterioration of agricultural land fertility, through improper crop- 

 ping methods and erosion has reached a point where a large acreage 

 of farm land is now definitely submarginal. Not less than 10 million 

 acres, according to State soil surveys, informed State officials, etc., 

 have been so destructively eroded that permanent profitable agri- 

 cultural use of them is impracticable. On upwards of 6 million acres 

 of this land no practical means other than forest planting, supple- 

 mented in some instances by engineering works, will stop erosion. 

 This condition accounts for the fact that the percentage of denuded 

 land recommended for planting is higher in the Central States region 

 than elsewhere. The other 24 million acres will in part be restocked 

 naturally and a still larger part will be revegetated well enough with 

 grass, weeds, and brush to stop erosion if eliminated from agricultural 

 use. 



The area recommended for planting, including that purely for farm 

 woodlands, is 6 million acres. 



While erosion control is the primary reason for planting, the timber 

 produced promises to have a ready home market and will help to 

 solve the regional problems of cheap low grade lumber. 



SOUTH REGION 



The commercial forest area in the South region is 190,758,000 

 acres, of which 43,555,000 acres, as the result of fire and mismanage- 

 ment, are now barren or poorly stocked. An additional 19 million 

 acres of submarginal agricultural land brings the total area of non- 

 productive land available for forestry to about 62% million acres. 



Natural restocking in the South takes place rapidly if seed trees 

 are present and if reasonable fire protection is given. With this in 

 mind, it is estimated that 45 million acres of this idle land will restock 

 naturally within 40 years, most of it in 20 years. The remaining 

 17,555,000 acres wiirnot reach a productive condition within a rea- 

 sonable time without planting. The immediate planting (20-year 

 program) of only 5,750,000 acres of this land is recommended, of 

 which iy z million acres should be planted purely to increase timber 



