New Security for Forest Communities 



from the heart of the Shelton business 

 district to an industrial site on the 

 water front. 



In addition to those improvements, 

 private business and residential con- 

 struction in and near the two towns has 

 increased markedly. Now that the fu- 

 ture security of the communities seems 

 assured, further advances can be ex- 

 pected under the cooperative sus- 

 tained-yield program as new processes 

 are developed for the expanded and 

 more complete utilization of the raw 

 products grown on the lands of the 

 unit. These new utilization facilities 

 are expected also to provide a market 

 for raw material from the young forests 

 of the noncooperating landowners who 

 are within the area. 



THE ADMINISTRATION of the coop- 

 erative-unit phase of the Sustained- 

 Yield Unit Act requires that private 

 cooperators contribute substantially to 

 the cooperative enterprise. 



They must own considerable areas 

 of productive forest lands and volumes 

 of merchantable timber. They must 

 agree to maintain the lands committed 

 to management in a high state of 

 productivity by carrying out advanced 

 programs of forestry, protection, and 

 development. They must agree to fol- 

 low timber-cutting plans that are 

 geared to the sustained productive ca- 

 pacity of the cooperating lands of the 

 unit. They must keep abreast of ad- 

 vances made in manufacturing tech- 

 niques, so as to assure fullest possible 

 use of all available raw products and 

 achieve maximum employment and 

 community support. 



In return for the public benefits that 

 will accrue as a result of these commit- 

 ments by the private cooperators, they 

 are given the privilege of purchasing 

 national forest timber within the co- 

 operative unit at appraised prices with- 

 out competitive bidding. 



THE EXTENT to which programs of 

 cooperative forest management ulti- 

 mately can be applied in our national 

 forest system depends on several fac- 



337 



tors. One is the willingness of qualified 

 cooperators to assume the responsi- 

 bilities that the Forest Service imposes 

 to assure the fulfillment of the objec- 

 tives of the act. Another is that the 

 forest lands proposed for commitment 

 to cooperative management be of rela- 

 tively high productivity otherwise, 

 sustained-yield management on them 

 might be poor business. 



Because of the widely mixed nature 

 of the ownership of private forest land 

 throughout the country, many poten- 

 tial cooperators cannot meet the mini- 

 mum qualifications of land and timber 

 ownership. Sometimes the low produc- 

 tivity of some of our forest zones 

 discourages long-term private-forest 

 programs. These facts, plus the extent 

 of private-forest depletion in some 

 areas, make it seem unlikely that co- 

 operative forest-management units will 

 embrace very large proportions of the 

 Nation-wide public-forest resource. 



Present indications in the Pacific 

 Northwest are that cooperative-man- 

 agement units will not involve more 

 than 25 percent of the total sustained- 

 yield cut allowed on national forests 

 maybe much less. In California there 

 are only a few opportunities for the 

 beneficial institution of cooperative- 

 management programs. 



In the northern Rocky Mountains, 

 it is probable that cooperative-man- 

 agement units will be limited. In other 

 national forest regions the extensive 

 development of cooperative sustained- 

 yield management programs does not 

 at this time appear likely. 



From a national standpoint, there- 

 fore, cooperative management is ex- 

 pected to have restricted application. 



FURTHER AUTHORITY was extended 

 by the Sustained-Yield Unit Act to 

 agencies that administer Federal for- 

 ests. By formal declaration they can 

 establish sustained-yield units that 

 comprise only Federal forest land. This 

 aspect is designed to protect the sta- 

 bility of communities that depend pri- 

 marily on the sale of Federal timber or 

 other forest products. It is intended to 



802062 49- 



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