A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



1517 



tually unregulated, and little if any progress has been made in 

 reforesting denuded lands. 



State-owned forest lands outside State forests and parks in some 

 instances are given little or no administration. Many of these hold- 

 ings are so widely scattered and in such small parcels as to make 

 management somewhat difficult. In many of the Western States 

 these lands are leased for grazing on an acreage basis without any 

 restrictions as to numbers of stock to be pastured or season of use. 

 In some instances timber is sold by estimate and cutting is not super- 

 vised. State lands inside national-forest boundaries, however, are 

 often given protection and other management under cooperative 

 agreements with the Forest Service. In some States there exists a 

 State forestry organization capable of expanding sufficiently to place 

 all State-owned forest lands under administration. 



The acreage of organized State forests should be increased greatly. 

 Much increase promises to come about through tax delinquency. An 

 aggressive purchase and exchange program should be formulated to 

 provide that the tax-reverted holdings will be consolidated for efficient 

 management. 



Since a large acreage of devastated forest land and submarginal 

 agricultural land will inevitably find its way into State ownership, 

 many of the forested States are faced with the necessity of financing 

 a large program of reforestation and fire protection in order to rebuild 

 watershed values. The division of responsibility for such activities 

 among the various public agencies is discussed in some detail in the 

 section of this report entitled "The Probable Future Distribution of 

 Forest Land Ownership." 



FEDERAL 



NATIONAL FORESTS 



On the national forests, a desirable type of administration is pro- 

 vided for a large area of forest and related wild land. As shown in 

 table 4, the national forests with a net area of 140,003,966 acres, have 

 107,773,000 acres in forest. Of this forested area 70 percent has high 

 watershed influence, 24 percent has moderate influence, and only 6 

 percent has slight or no influence. By far the greater part of this 

 land is located in mountainous sections at the headwaters of major 

 streams. 



TABLE 4. Watershed-protective influence of national forests 



