A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1531 



Private ownership of this type of forest land is generally not favor- 

 able to good watershed conditions. A large proportion of these 

 lands were acquired either as a land speculation or with the purpose 

 of exploiting the virgin timber. The practice of industrial forestry 

 on a permanent basis is the exception, and privately owned cut-over 

 lands are not generally in a satisfactory condition. Too heavy 

 cutting, unnecessary destruction of young growth in logging, fires in 

 logging slash, and improper grazing use, have occurred too often. 



In this belt tax delinquency on cut-over lands is exceptionally 

 heavy, and the desire on the part of the owners to dispose of such 

 lands is nearly universal. Many of the counties are financially 

 unable to accept the responsibility of ownership of cut-over lands, 

 and the States have shown little inclination to take over such lands. 

 Existing conditions strongly encourage a greatly enlarged program 

 of Federal acquisition of this type of land, as is shown in the section 

 of this report entitled " Public Acquisition of Private Lands as an Aid 

 to Private Forestry." 



These forests are especially suited to multiple use. Timber cutting, 

 grazing, recreation, and watershed use all have a definite place. There 

 is urgent need for much carefully conducted research to develop the 

 facts of proper management so that these various uses may be properly 

 correlated. 



SEMIARID WOODLANDS AND BRUSH LANDS 



Throughout the West there is a belt usually below but sometimes 

 intermingled with the commercial timber where, either because of the 

 semiarid climate or of past treatment, the cover consists of scrubby 

 timber or brush. This includes the chaparral and brush fields of 

 California and the pinon-juniper, aspen brush, oak brush, and similar 

 types. In these types the understory vegetation is generally sparse 

 and is not easily maintained. The natural balance is finely drawn, 

 and even slight changes in cover may give rise to an adverse watershed 

 condition not easy to overcome. Annual precipitation is low, but 

 individual storms are sometimes very intense. Snow storage on these 

 areas is not heavy as a rule. 



The major watershed problem is erosion, although floods and mud 

 flows are locally important. These areas are most often the lower 

 reaches of watersheds heading in the timber belt above, in which case 

 the material eroded from them is fed into the stream channels from 

 which water is obtained for irrigation, power, and domestic use. 

 Less frequently, as in parts of southern California and of the South- 

 west, the woodland areas themselves are the main source of water for 

 these uses. 



Fire control is not particularly difficult except in California, 

 although fires often are permitted to burn over large areas of brush 

 fields. In parts of California, owing to steep slopes, the inflammable 

 character of the brush, and the extreme drought conditions that 

 normally occur during the summer season, fire is the major problem. 

 Here torrential or merely heavy rains on areas denuded by fire result 

 in heavy run-off and in great damage by floods and erosion. Where 

 flood waters are spread out over settling areas for the purpose of 

 raising the level from which water supplies can be obtained by pump- 

 ing, fine eroded material tends to seal the soil in such a way as to make 

 percolation difficult. 



