A Forest Policy for the United States 



A forest policy for the United States is being sought. 

 Most people are under the impression that the United 

 States has a comprehensive forest policy because it 

 has 160,000,000 acres of National Forests; and so it 

 has as far as those particular tracts of land are con- 

 cerned. But when we stop to consider that these 

 National Forests represent only one-fourth of the 

 forest area and one-fifth of the timber in the country 

 we can readily see that something more is needed. 

 There should be some definite steps taken for the 

 efficient management of the other three-fourths. 



The history of privately owned timber land in the 

 United States is pretty well known. The land was 

 for the most part acquired some years ago, often at a 

 merely nominal price. Much of it has been stripped 

 of timber at a good profit; some of it has been held 

 so long that the present investment is far from nom- 

 inal; but that is incidental and has no direct bearing 

 on the case. The point is that the owners' interest lies 

 in the timber and not in the land. At the most favor- 

 able moment, which is sometimes when he is forced 

 to it, he cuts the timber, pockets his profits, stops- 

 paying taxes, and lets the land degenerate into a 

 brush covered waste, subject to fire and erosion, and, 

 in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, entirely unpro- 

 ductive. He has not in the past, and, under the pres- 

 ent conditions of taxation, fire hazard and market, 

 never will do anything to produce another crop. And 

 yet he continues to claim the right to monopolize 

 the land. 



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