1514 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



present owners do not intend to retain possession permanently is 

 implied by the fact that, even prior to the present depression, great 

 areas of cut-over land in the Lake States, the South, the Pacific 

 Coast, the northern Rocky Mountains, and other regions had become 

 tax delinquent. 



Too often, logging methods have been used that were extremely 

 damaging to young growth left standing and that induced rapid run- 

 off and erosion. Broadcast burning of slash in the ponderosa pine 

 and other types has been curtailed in recent years only. 



Fire control on private timberlands is inadequate in all regions of 

 the United States with the possible exception of the northern and 

 southern Rocky Mountains. (See table 5 of the section of this report 

 entitled "Protection Against Fire.") The best available data show 

 that only about 54 percent of the 412 million acres of private timber- 

 lands needing protection are receiving it. More than 150 million 

 acres of private forest land in the 11 Southern States and more than 

 35 million acres in the Central States receives no protection. Partly 

 as a result of this fact, the area burned over annually in the 5-year 

 period 1926-30 averaged more than 37} million acres in the South 

 and 1,379,000 acres in the Central States. Recently in some western 

 regions there has been a tendency to withdraw protection from 

 cut-over lands where such action does not jeopardize virgin timber. 



Grazing on private timberlands has likewise failed to meet water- 

 shed requirements. In the East, grazing use of woodlands has often 

 been so heavy as to destroy the litter cover, pack the soil, and prevent 

 the establishment of young trees in the stand. The watershed descrip- 

 tion section has shown that this treatment increases run-off and in 

 some instances causes erosion. In the West, where range forage on 

 timberland is usable it has been sold without serious attempt to 

 regulate use in such a way as to maintain the vegetative cover. The 

 proportion of the 228 million acres of privately owned forest land 

 used as pasture on which watershed management receives even inci- 

 dental consideration is insignificant. 



Partly as a result of the practices just mentioned, about 56 million 

 acres of privately owned forest land in the United States has been 

 devastated. The Lake States with 12 million acres, the South with 

 23 million acres, and the Northeast with 5 million acres of such 

 devastated land clearly illustrate the lack of concern for forest values. 



So long as the treatment of private land does not damage other 

 land, or the public, public intervention is not called for. Where bad 

 management will result in irregular stream flow, floods, erosion, or 

 silting, or otherwise damage public or private property, certainly 

 management restrictions &re justified. They cannot properly be 

 applied, however, unless the public is willing to bear its share of the 

 expense which such action may entail. As an alternative to regula- 

 tion the only recourse seems to be public acquisition of critical water- 

 shed areas. This is discussed in detail in the section of this report 

 entitled "Public Regulation of Private Forests." It is estimated that 

 approximately 155 million acres of major-influence watershed land 

 should be acquired by the public in order to safeguard public welfare. 

 The distribution of this land by regions is shown in table 9. 



The importance of privately owned forest land to watershed protec- 

 tion is shown in table 2. Certainly, with a total of 297 million acres of 

 privately owned forest land classified as of high and moderate water- 

 shed influence, the condition of such land is a matter of public concern. 



