A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1551 



be realized. Thorough fact finding and analysis is required to deter- 

 mine the true situation in various regions. It is a matter which 

 should be kept definitely in the foreground if the greatest public 

 benefits are to be derived from the game resource. 



Senate Resolution No. 175 specifically mentions among other things 

 leased hunting and fishing rights, the development of which would 

 afford valuable resources for recreation, and improvement in national 

 health, besides giving wealth producing and steady employment to a 

 large number of persons, etc. However, although there can be no 

 question about the leasing of private lands if not contrary to the laws 

 of the States in which the land is located (as discussed in the section 

 "Wild Life a Forest Resource"), the leasing of public lands is of 

 doubtful value. There are no instances available of existing leases 

 on Federal, State, or other publicly owned or controlled land, for 

 such, purposes as would furnish the basis for sound judgment as to 

 the probable benefits of such action. It is believed, however, that 

 the objectionable features of a leasing system on public land out- 

 weigh any possible financial benefits, that it is not consistent with the 

 best use and development of the game resources for public benefit, 

 and that funds needed for development of the game resource and 

 land management can be obtained more effectively in other ways. 

 It should be possible adequately to meet the costs of such manage- 

 ment through the medium of hunting and fishing license fees, the in- 

 come from which should be sufficient to cover the costs of correlated 

 land management in so far as the wild -life resource is concerned. In 

 the East the provision for public hunting grounds should be an im- 

 portant consideration in any plans of forest-land acquisition. 



PROVISION OF ADEQUATE AREAS FOR WILD LIFE 



The fourth requirement in a wild-life program involves the forest 

 land itself. It includes adequate area of such lands to provide for: 

 (1) General forest habitat requirements of wild-life species, (2) public 

 shooting grounds, already discussed, (3) special wild-life areas for 

 specific purposes of protection or management, (4) areas devoted to 

 the preservation of wild-life species, (5) areas for all purposes of wild 

 life in parks and zoological gardens. In addition, adequate areas of 

 nonforest land are needed as winter range in order to permit the fullest 

 proper development of the wild-life resource on some forest lands. 



All forest lands are usable by one or more wild-life species of social 

 or economic importance. Accordingly any area that is devoted to 

 forestry in the future can be used for wild-life production. 



Forest and other land-area requirements of wild life are closely 

 associated with ownership and control of land between the broad 

 classes of Federal, State, and private. One of the broad problems 

 surrounding land rquirements for wild life, therefore, is to meet such 

 requirements for the most part under existing and future conditions 

 of tenure, in a way to accomplish satisfactory progress in meeting 

 wild-life objectives. 



ON PRIVATELY OWNED AREAS 



Privately owned forest lands amount to 444 million acres, or 72 

 percent of the total of 615 million acres of forest land in the United 

 States. Of this total 150 million acres or 24 percent of all forest land 



