1564 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



gative program that would meet these needs would cost $750,000 a 

 year. In summary, the full program is as follows: 



1. Intensive erosion-stream flow studies which for specific sets of 

 conditions will attack all phases of this problem, from intensive 

 small-scale, closely controlled experiments measuring single factors 

 to ultimate studies of larger duplicate or triplicate watersheds. 

 Eighteen such intensive studies are proposed at an average annual 

 cost of $25,000 each or a total annual cost of $450,000. 



2. Supplemental and ordinarily less intensive studies dealing pri- 

 marily with erosion but covering water relationships also. Twenty- 

 six such studies are proposed, with an annual cost of from $5,000 

 to $20,000 each or $300,000 altogether. 



The proposed amendment of the McSweeney-McNary Act to 

 include specific authorization for forest-influence investigations would 

 provide also for studies of the influence of forests upon climate and 

 rainfall. Such investigations will probably be of greatest importance 

 in the western treeless plains, although some incidental investigations 

 may ultimately prove desirable elsewhere. 



FOREST LAND CLASSIFICATION 



The depression has brought to a head a land-use situation that is 

 now one of the most critical of our internal problems. As shown in 

 the section "Research in the United States Forest Service: A Study in 

 Objectives", this situation is characterized by widespread abandon- 

 ment of agricultural lands, particularly of the submarginal class; the 

 breakdown of town and county government as a result of land aban- 

 donment and nonpayment of taxes; an unregulated back-to-the-land 

 movement growing out of unemployment, with the prospect, in some 

 instances, of further misuse of agricultural lands ; and excessive erosion 

 and floods following the cultivation of land that should have been 

 kept in forest. Most of these features of the situation contain the 

 seeds of even graver consequences. It seems vitally necessary that 

 prompt and intelligent action be taken, upon the basis of a clear under- 

 standing of the uses for which the different classes of land are best 

 fitted. 



Classification of our existing and potential forest land according 

 to the use to which it is best adapted is therefore made one of the objec- 

 tives of the proposed lO^ear research program. The classification 

 would be based on information obtained through the Forest Survey 

 and through investigations in forest economics and forest manage- 

 ment and erosion-stream flow studies supplemented by information 

 obtained through special studies of the character of the land, what 

 it can be expected to produce, and related economic and social ques- 

 tions. Such studies should include the development of the principles 

 for determining whether land should be used for agriculture, timber 

 production, erosion control, recreation, or other uses or combination 

 of uses. 



Research by the Forest Service on the forest aspects of land classi- 

 fication must be conducted in close cooperation with agricultural 

 experts working on the agricultural phases of the land-use problem. 



Legislative provision for a study of the principles according to 

 which land would be classified in terms of its best use might take the 

 form of an additional section of the McSweeney-McNary Act, or of 



