The History of Forestry in America 



pletion, lumber prices, and forest own- 

 ership, and the report of the forestry 

 policy committee of the Society of 

 American Foresters, headed by Pin- 

 chot, aroused widespread interest 

 by showing the seriousness of the 

 situation. As a result of these reports 

 and the ensuing discussion, two bills 

 were introduced in Congress. The 

 Capper bill, which was revised once 

 or twice, proposed direct Federal con- 

 trol of operations on private lands, 

 through a taxation and bounty device. 

 The Snell bill proposed Federal assist- 

 ance to States in the exercise of their 

 police power over private lands. Both 

 bills included cooperation for protec- 

 tion against forest fires. The bills were 

 debated widely and heatedly. 



The result was the appointment of 

 a Senate committee to consider these 

 and other proposals for legislation and 

 to hold hearings in various sections of 

 the country. Meanwhile, the Forest 

 Service undertook a series of "mini- 

 mum-requirements" studies to develop 

 a clearer analysis of what might be 

 acceptable as reasonably good forestry 

 practices in the various forest regions 

 and types of forest. The Senate com- 

 mittee's deliberation led to enactment 

 on June 7, 1924, of the Clarke-Mc- 

 Nary Law. 



This act extended the national for- 

 est acquisition policy to lands pri- 

 marily useful for timber production 

 rather than for watershed protection 

 and broadened the fire-protection co- 

 operation of the Weeks Law. Small 

 appropriations were authorized for co- 

 operation with States in growing forest 

 planting stock for farmers and in 

 advising farm-forest owners. 



Enactment of the McSweeney-Mc- 

 Nary Law in 1928 provided a broad 

 charter for forestry research. It set up 

 a 10-year program that included a 

 system of forest and range experiment 

 stations, expanded research in forest 

 products, and a Nation-wide survey of 

 forest resources and requirements. The 

 Knutsen-Vandenberg Act of 1930 au- 

 thorized a larger national forest plant- 

 ing program than had been possible 



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before. By 1947, more than 1.2 million 

 acres had been successfully restocked. 



The depressed and distressed condi- 

 tion of the lumber industry in the late 

 1920's led President Herbert Hoover 

 in 1930 to appoint a Timber Conser- 

 vation Board to study what might be 

 done about it. One result was a tem- 

 porary relaxation of efforts to sell Gov- 

 ernment timber. The study also led to 

 the Copeland Report (A National 

 Plan for American Forestry, S. Doc. 

 12, 73d Congress), an encyclopedic 

 analysis of the forestry situation, pub- 

 lished in 1933. The report laid greatest 

 emphasis on acquisition of forest land 

 by Federal, State, and local govern- 

 ments and increased assistance to pri- 

 vate owners. A 20-year goal for 

 acquisition was placed at 134 million 

 acres for the Federal Government, and 

 90 million acres for State and local 

 governments. 



Good forestry practices were in- 

 cluded in the lumber and other forest- 

 industry codes under the National In- 

 dustrial Recovery Act of 1934-35. 

 Although this act was declared uncon- 

 stitutional, work on the codes, particu- 

 larly on the lumber code, was beneficial 

 in giving the lumbermen a better 

 understanding of what sustained-yield 

 management means, of the advantages 

 of selective logging, and of the nature 

 of essential silvicultural measures. 



Another depression-born activity 

 that did much to dramatize forest con- 

 servation was the Civilian Conserva- 

 tion Corps. Set up as a major feature 

 of Federal unemployment relief in 

 1933, almost half of the 2,600 camps 

 operating at its peak in 1935 were en- 

 gaged on forestry projects. In 9 years 

 of existence, the Civilian Conservation 

 Corps contributed some 730,000 man- 

 years of work in forest protection, in 

 construction and maintenance of im- 

 provements on public forests, in tree 

 planting, and in timber-stand im- 

 provement. It greatly stimulated the 

 establishment and expansion of public 

 forests, particularly by States and 

 communities in the East. 



The Norris-Doxey Farm Forestry 



