Forest Resources of the Pacific Northwest 



49 



In Orefion, the State is to pay the county an annual 5 

 cents |)or acre phis 12,'2 percent of the final yield, the 

 remaintler of the revenues going to the State irreducible 

 school fund. Although this law has been in effect since 

 1031, no action has been taken thereunder, partly 

 through county inertia and partly because of lack of 

 State api^ropriations. 



Idaho has legislation as yet too recent to have been 

 put into effect, which provides for a classification of 

 lands to determine which are chiefly valuable for State 

 forests. The county commissioners are authorized 

 either to give county-owned lands to the State, or to 

 sell them to the State for the amount of delinquent 

 taxes due. Net revenues are to be shared equally be- 

 tween the State and the counties. 



There is as yet no similar law in Montana. 



Federal aid has been extended to the States in solving 

 this problem. Under the Fulmer Act, the United 

 States may buy land and turn it over to the State for 

 administration. The State must then pay all current 

 administration costs, and pay the United States 50 

 percent of the gross income derived therefrom, until 

 eventiudly title is secured by completely repaying the 

 Federal outlay. Furthermore, where the State acquires 

 tax delinquent land, the Federal Government may pay 

 half of the cost of administration. In order to receive 

 this aid, the State must (a) have authority to manage 

 State forests, (6) have a macliinery for taking over tax- 

 foreclosed lands, and (c) have a satisfactory State 

 forester. All purchases under this act must be ap- 

 proved by the National Forest Reservation Commis- 

 sion. Idaho has qualified imder this act by appropriate 

 legislation. No Federal appropriation under this act 

 has been made, and hence, no accomplishment has as 

 yet been possible. 



For many years, the Forest Service has been making 

 exchanges of timber land within the national forests 

 and in some localities (through special legislation) 

 adjacent thereto for the purpose of concentrating 

 ownership. It has also exchanged timber (to be cut 

 under the usual regulations) for cutovcr land, thus 

 increasing the national forest area. These latter ex- 

 changes are restricted in quantity by the limitation 

 of the cut from the national forests, under sustained 

 yield, and by the unwillingness of the Forest Service 

 seriously to reduce its contribution to county support 

 (25 percent of the gross revenues from the national 

 forests). 



The National Forest Reservation Commission is 

 also administering a policy of outright purchase of 



merchantable timber, wherever such purchases will 

 contribute to the establishment of sustained-yield 

 units, or, in some regions, serve as demonstration 

 forests. The total appropriations have been small 

 as compared with the magnitude of the task, and have 

 been largely expended in the eastern States. Only 

 one such purchase, involving about 6,600 acres, has 

 as yet been made within this Region. 



Inauguration of Sustained-Yield Management 



Because of diversified ownership, sustained-yield 

 management must in most cases be a cooperative 

 affair. In a very few instances, public timber so 

 dominates tlie situation that the Forest Service can 

 assure this type of management more or less regardless 

 of the attitude of the operator, who is, in this circum- 

 stance, favorably disposed. In cases where the natural 

 management units are almost exclusively in private 

 ownership, the reasons already stated have prevented 

 any action. In the majority of instances, however, 

 there is a division of ownership between private cor- 

 porations and public interests which greatly improves 

 the opportunity. 'W'liile some progress has been made 

 in a few of these cases, there is as yet little actual 

 accomplishment. Progress has at times been blocked 

 as much by a lack, on the part of some of the public 

 agencies, either of a proper policy or .of authority to 

 enter into the necessary agreements, as it has been by 

 the handicaps of the private owners. 



A Regional Program 



The foregoing section of the staff report does not 

 attempt to formulate a program, but is limited to a 

 bare statement of the more significant facts of the 

 forest situation of the Pacific Northwest. 



Any factual statement may lead to diverse con- 

 clusions by those who read it. The discouraging nature 

 of some of the facts of this report may engender an 

 attitude of defeatism in the minds of some, but to the 

 majority they will be a challenge to prompt and aggres- 

 sive action. 



Based on these facts as to conditions in this Rcgi<Mi, 

 the Forest Advisory Committee of the Pacific North- 

 west Regional Planning Commission, in consultation 

 with representatives of the major public and private 

 interests in the resource, has formulated a construc- 

 tive program.' 



' Part II, Report of Forest Advisory Committee, Pacific Nortltwett Regional Foretl 



Program. 



