Other Federal Forests 



nomic adjustments. The lands are ad- 

 ministered by the Soil Conservation 

 Service of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture in accordance with title III of 

 the Bankhead-Jones Act (50 Stat. 

 522), under which the Secretary of 

 Agriculture is authorized and directed 

 to develop a program of land conser- 

 vation and land utilization, including 

 the retirement of lands that are sub- 

 marginal or not primarily suitable for 

 cultivation. The following relates to 

 this last mentioned area and particu- 

 larly to the forested parts thereof. 



The greatest part of the 7,150,000 

 acres is devoted to grazing, but in- 

 cluded in the area is approximately 

 500,000 acres of commercial forest 

 land. Additional acres, of course, sup- 

 port woodlands or stands of pinyon 

 and juniper which have value for local 

 use and as watersheds. Located in 19 

 States, the forest lands include many 

 of the broad forest types, such as mixed 

 hardwoods, hardwood-pine, and south- 

 ern pines, the post oak and blackjack 

 oak types of Oklahoma and Texas, 

 some ponderosa pine, and limited areas 

 of aspen and spruce-fir forests in New 

 Mexico. Hardwoods and southern pine 

 types predominate. 



Much of this land had been cut over 

 and often repeatedly burned or heavily 

 pastured before it was acquired by the 

 Government. The timber stands are 

 therefore comprised in large measure 

 of young growth with some residual 

 timber. When acquired, such stands 

 were often understocked and, in the 

 hardwoods, ran heavily to the poorer 

 species because of persistent cutting of 

 the more valuable trees. Fire protec- 

 tion in the intervening years, however, 

 has aided in the natural restocking of 

 many of the most depleted areas. Be- 

 cause much of the land was denuded or 

 consisted of worn-out fields, a large 

 job of artificial reforestation was, and 

 is, necessary. Some 41,000 acres have 

 so far been planted and nearly twice 

 that area remains to be reforested. 



The general policy of the Soil Con- 

 servation Service is to manage the 

 forest lands under sound forestry prin- 



ciples to build up to a practical maxi- 

 mum both quantity and quality of the 

 timber stands, with the ultimate ob- 

 jective of regular and sustained pro- 

 duction of forest products. Utilization 

 by local residents, either for domestic 

 needs or as a means of supplementing 

 their incomes, is encouraged. 



Forestry work on the land-utilization 

 projects, as well as other land-manage- 

 ment activities, is under the general 

 direction of the Land Management 

 Division of the Soil Conservation Serv- 

 ice. Over-all supervision of on-the- 

 ground forestry activities is provided 

 by a regional forester on the staff of 

 each of the several regional conserva- 

 tors. The management and utilization 

 plans are prepared by foresters, who 

 also give training and supervision to 

 the personnel handling sales, planting, 

 and other forestry work. 



Saw timber and a variety of forest 

 products are sold from the timbered 

 land each year. During the calendar 

 year 1947, some 26.4 million board 

 feet of saw timber, 9,200 cords of pulp- 

 wood, 3,000 cords of fuel wood, 94,000 

 fence posts, 5,600 poles, and other mis- 

 cellaneous materials were sold for a 

 total of $232,946. The lands also pro- 

 vided forage, habitat for wildlife, and 

 recreational opportunities. 



THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHOR- 

 ITY owns about 485,000 acres of land 

 which lie above the normal full-pool 

 levels of its series of reservoirs. Prac- 

 tically all of the land was acquired in 

 connection with the reservoirs. About 

 340,000 acres are forested, including 

 some 40,000 acres of plantations. Ex- 

 cept for certain areas dedicated to for- 

 estry demonstration and investigation, 

 the Tennessee Valley Authority retains 

 no lands solely for timber production. 

 It does, however, make such forestry 

 use of the forest areas as is compatible 

 with their primary purposes. 



The forest lands of the Tennessee 

 Valley Authority are distributed from 

 the mountains of eastern Tennessee 

 and western North Carolina down into 

 northern Alabama and northward 



