1590 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



pioneers seeking fertile virgin lands to clear and cultivate. The de- 

 velopment of communities provided opportunities for trade and busi- 

 ness. The discovery of mineral wealth and the need for drawing 

 upon new timber resources as those of the settled East became 

 depleted, resulted in the extension of these industries, and, with them, 

 of necessary transportation systems. 



This entire movement and development, if the resulting exploita- 

 tion may properly be called development, has been characterized 

 by a national policy of bestowing extremely liberal property rights 

 on those who appropriated lands and land resources. Since 1785, 

 Congress has donated over 200 million acres of the public domain to 

 the States, and approximately 94 million acres to the railroads, to 

 enable them to raise funds for their development. Little limitation 

 was imposed upon the disposal of these lands, which were for the most 

 part sold indiscriminately to individuals who proceeded to reap a rich 

 harvest. At the same time the Government has given or sold vast 

 areas of mineral, forest, and farm lands to private owners, until 

 approximately nine tenths of the 1,441 million acres of original 

 public domain have been disposed of. Any thought of responsibility 

 for the future, any disposition to conserve a part of these resources 

 was largely submerged by the policies of an enthusiastic young Nation 

 in the process of growing up. 



These policies and methods of encouraging settlement and develop- 

 ment of new areas and of stimulating the conversion of apparently 

 inexhaustible resources are not matters for unqualified condemnation. 

 They have been justified, in part at least, by results. Never before 

 in history has a nation grown so rapidly in size, in wealth, and in 

 power. It might even be asserted with some justice that the United 

 States of today owes its position in world affairs largely to the result 

 of these same policies. Yet to those who look beyond the present and 

 plan for the future, it is disturbing to note that much of our present 

 wealth is tied up in costly superstructures dependent upon basic 

 resources that have been extensively sacrificed for their development. 

 We have built large cities, powerful institutions, enormous industries, 

 extensive systems of transportation. Our expansion in agriculture 

 has been tremendous. American standards of living are high. But 

 for this we have paid with the exploitation of a large part of our forest 

 and land resources, and in so doing we have definitely mortgaged 

 our national future. 



The story of forest and wild-life depletion, extensive land devasta- 

 tion, uncontrolled streams and wasted water resources, eroded and 

 abandoned farm lands, declining forest industries, decadent communi- 

 ties, alarming tax delinquency with virtual bankruptcy of local 

 government in many regions, has all been told in previous sections of 

 this report. It is, of course, obvious that this situation cannot 

 continue if the Nation is to thrive. It is equally obvious that most 

 of these serious ills have been caused directly by the national policy 

 of allowing the private owner of land to exploit its resources at will 

 for his own immediate gain, with few restrictions in the interests of 

 public welfare. Our American assumption has always been that 

 private initiative, through self-interest, would find ways of keeping 

 land productive. We now discover that this same self-interest, 

 together with lack of concern for the public or the future, has caused 

 the ruin of land by the millions of acres. Many owners have dis- 



