1550 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



14.4 percent in the West. Experimental projects of this kind are 

 now under way. Impetus should be given to the rapid development 

 of ways of meeting the situation on a broad scale. 



(2) On State lands, ownership and control of both game and land 

 should provide an excellent opportunity for unified management. 

 Even here, however, the control and management of the game may 

 be in one State department and the management of State lands in 

 one or more other departments. In certain instances where wild life 

 and other forest-land resources are administered by separate State 

 agencies, the two are in direct competition in the independent acqui- 

 sition of lands of the same general character, and one or the other, 

 because of greater activity, aggressiveness, or public interest, may 

 be forging ahead. Sound land management would dictate a coordi- 

 nation of objectives and a unification of interests if wild life and other 

 land-resource management are to attain desired results within the 

 State. 



(3) On Federal lands, the Federal Government has an interest in 

 the development of the game resource as well as in the development 

 of other resources and uses. Without the same control of game as of 

 other resources, it must in general depend on cooperation with the 

 States in working out measures of benefit not only to game but to 

 other resources, uses, and services of forest land affected by game ; for 

 example, timber, forage, watershed protection, and recreation. This 

 is especially true of the national forests which embrace 140 million 

 acres in 31 different States, and are in practically every instance 

 multiple-use forest units. 



The working out of satisfactory arrangements with the State con- 

 stitutes one of the important problems in the correlation of wild 

 life and other land management on the national forests and most 

 other Federally administered forest lands. Correlation of game and 

 land management on national-forest lands in cooperation with a 

 State is exemplified on the Pisgah National Game Preserve in North 

 Carolina where the value of game preserves and need of game man- 

 agement as a demonstration of what might be done on similar areas 

 early resulted in the State ceding jurisdiction of game to the Federal 

 Government and later approving the plans developed for the area. 



PROVISION FOR PUBLIC HUNTING GROUNDS 



The third requirement in a wild-life program for forest lands is 

 adequate provision for public hunting grounds. One of the best 

 established and most ingrained American traditions is that of the 

 privilege of the hunt. In earlier days public lands covered a vast 

 expanse, wild life was abundant, and the privilege was open to all 

 who would make use of it. With the passing of public lands into 

 private ownership, accompanied by diminishing game supply, restric- 

 tion of areas available for public shooting was inevitable. Today in 

 the East, with more than nine tenths of the forest land in private 

 ownership, and with closure of great tracts of this area to public 

 shooting, open lands available for those who enjoy the sport and who 

 reap accompanying benefits are entirely inadequate to meet demands. 



With increasing restriction of shooting on private land, public 

 shooting grounds are becoming increasingly essential if hunting is to 

 be available to the rank and file and this social value of game is to 



