1594 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



for the public in general, in which case the other beneficiaries may 

 reasonably be expected to share the responsibilities, or perhaps to 

 relieve him altogether of some of them. This situation is frequently 

 encountered in the case of private forests having great importance 

 for watershed protection. Regardless of extenuating circumstances, 

 however, ownership of forest land carries with it definite obligations 

 for productive use. 



THE PUBLIC 



When private owners of forest land cannot accept, or can success- 

 fully evade, the responsibility for certain measures essential to public 

 welfare, it is self-evident that the public must assume it. Public 

 resopnsibility is governed by the same principles and subject to the 

 same limitations that control the acceptance of responsibility by 

 private owners. Although decentralization of government and 

 dependence as far as possible upon local self-government is a well- 

 established American policy, in many instances local government has 

 neither the authority, the incentive, nor the means to assume new 

 obligations. In spite of tradition, changing economic trends are 

 compelling us to form new conceptions of the organization and func- 

 tions of local government. In instances where responsibility for 

 essential forestry measures cannot be assumed locally, it must of 

 necessity be passed on to larger governmental units. Thus responsi- 

 bility for certain measures is taken over by the States, or, when 

 circumstances prevent their functioning, by the Federal Government. 

 Ample justification for this sharing of responsibility is found in the 

 fact that these measures are essential to public welfare and national 

 prosperity. Critical conditions demand the utmost participation by 

 every agency capable of contributing aid. 



There are two ways in which responsibility may be fulfilled, both 

 of which are recognized and well established by precedent in most 

 important enterprises of national scope. In some instances a certain 

 agency the private owner, or the local, State, or Federal govern- 

 ment, as the case may be assumes complete responsibility for 

 certain activities which it alone is best able to carry out. Examples 

 are the Postal Service of the Federal Government, and the police and 

 fire protection of municipalities. In other instances, where the 

 interests of many agencies are involved, cooperative sharing of re- 

 sponsibility may best be accomplished through assumption of author- 

 ity by a single agency, with financial or other support from all inter- 

 ested parties. Precedent for this is found in the cooperative financing 

 of highway construction, to which local, State, and Federal Govern- 

 ment contribute, more or less in proportion to the extent of the local 

 or general public interests involved. 



Both these modes of sharing responsibility are embodied in the 

 forestry programs now being carried on in this country, the expansion 

 of which is proposed in this report. 



THE PRIVATE OWNER'S PART 

 RESPONSIBILITIES 



About 80 percent of the commercial forest land and 59 percent of 

 the saw timber is now in private hands. Of the private land 32 

 percent, and of the stumpage 12% percent is owned by farmers, the 

 remainder is chiefly in industrial ownership. 



