394 



Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Indiana, 

 and Wisconsin anticipate small yearly 

 additions by purchase. 



Minnesota, Washington, and Ore- 

 gon plan to acquire tax-reverted lands 

 from the counties. 



Massachusetts has legislative au- 

 thorization for acquisition of 500,000 

 acres, but no appropriation for pur- 

 chase. 



Connecticut has a goal of 200,000 

 acres and is adding land by purchase 

 at the rate of 6,000 acres a year. 



Ohio's goal is 587,000 acres, and for 

 the fiscal year 1945-46 the State ap- 

 propriated $1,800,000 for land pur- 

 chase. 



California plans to add considerably 

 to its State forest acreage; the legisla- 

 ture appropriated $2,000,000 in 1947 

 for the purpose. 



New York's acquisition program 

 contemplates the purchase of 20,000 

 to 40,000 acres annually. 



Yearboo\ of Agriculture 1949 



Michigan spends $250,000 yearly 

 for blocking in the present State areas, 

 and also acquires considerable acreage 

 annually by exchange. 



Pennsylvania has a legislative ap- 

 propriation for the purchase of land. 



STANLEY G. FONTANNA is the deputy 

 director of the Michigan Department 

 of Conservation, a post he has held 

 since 1934. He is a graduate of the 

 University of Michigan, a veteran of 

 the First World War, and a former 

 employee of several large lumber com- 

 panies. He is a senior member of the 

 Society of American Foresters, presi- 

 dent of the Association of State Forest- 

 ers, chairman of the Joint Committee 

 of Society of American Foresters and 

 Charles Lathrop Pack Forestry Found- 

 ation on State Forestry Administration 

 Surveys, and a member of the Advisory 

 Board of the Charles Lathrop Pack 

 Forestry Foundation. 



COMMUNITY FORESTS 



GEORGE A. DUTHIE 



Community forests are the wood- 

 lands that are owned by the cities and 

 townships, school districts, counties, or 

 another public body in a State. 



They are of many types, but they are 

 all alike in that they are maintained 

 for the public benefit and use. 



They have many purposes, but they 

 are all an expression of the Americans' 

 innate love for trees and belief that 

 there is a close relationship between 

 forests and good living. 



Many kinds of communities have 

 public forests, but they have in com- 

 mon a progressive citizenship that is 

 alert and resourceful in making it a 

 good place to live in. 



The character of community forests 

 differs according to ownership and 

 purpose. County and township forests 

 have about the same pattern. City and 

 town forests, distinctive from county 

 forests, have the greatest variations in 



size and type; sometimes they are large 

 tracts that protect municipal water 

 sources; sometimes they are only small 

 areas, in or near a town, and were 

 planted so as to beautify the environs. 

 School forests are mostly used for edu- 

 cational purposes. Among organization 

 forests are those maintained for the 

 public use by churches, service clubs, 

 the Boy Scouts, 4-H Clubs, and simi- 

 lar groups. In brief, community for- 

 ests are public forests that are not 

 Federal forests or State forests. 



The 3,113 community forests in the 

 United States cover 4,413,950 acres. 

 Of the 1,121 municipal forests, about 

 one-fourth are for watershed protec- 

 tion. There are 1,279 school forests. 

 County and township forests together 

 number 617, organization forests 96. 



THE COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP FOR- 

 ESTS are the most extensive. They ac- 



