Other Federal Forests 



383 



ment of the Federal, State, and private 

 lands within the boundaries of the re- 

 vested lands. One cooperative unit has 

 been proposed, and public hearings 

 have been held. 



During the fiscal year 1947, some 

 469.3 million board feet of timber, 

 valued at about $2,197,018, was cut 

 from the lands in commercial sales 

 under the administration of the Bu- 

 reau of Land Management. In ad- 

 dition, about 394,000 board feet, 

 consisting largely of posts, cordwood, 

 and similar products, was cut without 

 charge by local residents. The 239 graz- 

 ing leases that were issued covered 

 276,000 acres, receipts from which 

 totaled $18,128. 



THE UNRESERVED PUBLIC DOMAIN of 



the United States still includes more 

 than 169 million acres of unappropri- 

 ated and unreserved public lands, in- 

 cluding 132 million acres in grazing 

 districts established under the Taylor 

 Grazing Act of 1934. There is more 

 than 265 million acres of unreserved 

 public lands in Alaska. Forestry activi- 

 ties on that land are under direction 

 of the Bureau of Land Management, 

 Department of the Interior. 



Much of this land in continental 

 United States is range and watershed 

 land that bears only grass or brush or 

 is semidesert or desert, but about 28 

 million acres is classed as timber or 

 woodland, of which, according to the 

 Bureau of Land Management, ap- 

 proximately 3 million acres bears com- 

 mercial timber estimated at 9.5 billion 

 board feet. These forest and woodland 

 areas are remnants left from large 

 grants, the establishment of national 

 forests, parks, and other Federal reser- 

 vations, and as a result of the operation 

 of the public-land laws under which 

 the public lands were patented to pri- 

 vate ownership. Because they are 

 widely dispersed throughout 20 States, 

 a large number of the major forest 

 types are represented, from the Doug- 

 las-fir in the Northwest, the white pine 

 in Idaho, the lodgepole pine in Mon- 

 tana and Wyoming, the spruce and 



aspen of the Lake States, the pinyon- 

 juniper of the Southwest, to the pine 

 and oak-pine types of the Southeast. 



Until recently, only dead, down, or 

 damaged timber or timber threatened 

 with damage from fire could be sold 

 from the unreserved public domain, 

 although timber could be taken with- 

 out charge for noncommercial pur- 

 poses. By the act of July 31, 1947 (61 

 Stat. 681), Congress authorized the 

 sale of, among other resources, timber 

 and timber products from these public 

 lands, in accordance with rules and 

 regulations of the Secretary of the In- 

 terior. Authorization is also given for 

 free permits for use other than for in- 

 dustrial or commercial purposes or for 

 sale. 



Policies of the Bureau of Land Man- 

 agement provide for developing the 

 timber resources of the public lands, 

 protecting them from fire, insects, and 

 disease, and managing them in accord- 

 ance with good forestry practices with 

 the objective of insuring continuing 

 crops of timber and improving water- 

 shed, wildlife habitat, and recreational 

 opportunities. 



Disposal requirements are designed 

 to provide for protection and improve- 

 ment of the residual stand and for re- 

 stocking of the land to desirable timber 

 species. The forestry work is under 

 general direction of the Division of 

 Forestry in the office of the Director, 

 Bureau of Land Management, and is 

 handled locally as far as possible by the 

 forestry personnel in the offices of the 

 regional administrators of the Bureau. 

 The rather wide dispersion of these 

 lands renders supervision and manage- 

 ment difficult. 



During the fiscal year ended June 

 30, 1947, about 15.4 million board feet 

 of timber, valued at $58,024, was cut 

 from these public lands in the United 

 States, of which about 8.9 million 

 board feet was utilized through free 

 permits to local residents. In Alaska 

 an estimated 45 million board feet 

 was sold, yielding $57,535, and addi- 

 tional timber products such as posts, 

 poles, lagging, and house logs, with an 



