The Peoples Property 



301 



No user of the national forest gets 

 any vested right in the property. Each 

 use has a limited duration. Privileges 

 to use are just that privileges, and 

 not rights above those of all the people, 

 who own the forests. 



The national forests, exclusive of 

 those in Alaska and Puerto Rico, con- 

 tain 518,417 million board feet of tim- 

 ber, which is 32 percent of the Nation's 

 total. The timber is managed on the 

 basis of sustained yield the cut is re- 

 stricted to the sustained productive ca- 

 pacity of the management unit. The 

 system gives stability of supply of forest 

 products, employment, and tax base, or 

 its equivalent. 



The timber is sold to help supply 

 the local, regional, and national needs. 

 About 25,000 sales are made each year. 

 They range from a few dollars' worth 

 to large sales that involve 100 million 

 board feet or more and are valued at 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tim- 

 ber for domestic use is granted free in 

 small quantities to certain classes of 

 local users, including farmers. Many 

 farmers make an off-season business of 

 buying and cutting stumpage and sell- 

 ing the products. 



Timber cutting is now proceeding at 

 the rate of nearly 4 billion feet a year, 

 an increase from about 1*4 billion in 

 1939. The national forests now supply 

 10 percent or more of the national lum- 

 ber cut, plus large quantities of poles, 

 posts, mining timbers, railroad ties, 

 pulpwood, fuel wood, and Christmas 

 trees. 



With the sharp reduction in private 

 stumpage, the demand for national for- 

 est timber is steadily increasing. The 

 policy is to make it available just as 

 fast as possible, subject to sustained- 

 yield limitations. Needed are an ex- 

 panded system of access roads, better 

 timber inventories, management plans 

 to insure orderly sustained-yield mar- 

 keting. That achieved, it is estimated 

 that the annual cut could be increased 

 to about 6 billion board feet. As forest 

 management becomes more intensive, 

 including reforestation of about 3*4 

 million acres of burned areas and blank 



spots, the annual cut can be further in- 

 creased. 



Of great potential importance is the 

 national forest timber in southeastern 

 Alaska 78 billion board feet, mostly 

 hemlock and spruce, which is partic- 

 ularly suited to pulp and paper manu- 

 facture. It will support a cut of about 

 a billion board feet a year, which, if 

 converted into newsprint, would supply 

 about one-fourth of the Nation's needs. 

 Encouraging indications are at hand 

 that large-scale pulp operations in 

 Alaska may soon be initiated under 

 favorable long-term contracts. A pre- 

 liminary award of one such contract 

 has already been made. 



Puerto Rico has a small national 

 forest. In that wood-hungry country, 

 every tree in the national forest has 

 great value, especially for charcoal, the 

 universal fuel. 



The Sustained- Yield Unit Act of 

 March 29, 1944, which provides for co- 

 operative sustained-yield units, affords 

 a means of combining the management 

 of private and public timber under cer- 

 tain conditions so as to insure good for- 

 estry and sustained-yield practice on 

 areas of private forests where short- 

 term liquidation or inadequate supply 

 for sustained yield would otherwise 

 jeopardize community stability. We are 

 giving effect to this law as fast as prac- 

 ticable. One large unit has already been 

 established under a 100-year coopera- 

 tive agreement. About 100 applica- 

 tions, formal and informal, were on file 

 for processing in 1948. 



The existence of the national forests 

 provides assurance of continuity of tim- 

 ber supply in varying measure to many 

 communities and consumers. National 

 forest timber cannot fully replace dis- 

 appearing or curtailed private supplies 

 of stumpage, but in many situations it 

 can greatly reduce the adverse conse- 

 quences of private liquidation. 



NEARLY THE WHOLE irrigated agri- 

 cultural system in the West depends on 

 water from streams that rise in the na- 

 tional forests, or from underground 

 sources mainly fed from national forest 



