WHAT OUR NATIONAL FOREST POLICY SHOULD BE 



613 



is that we would regard any particular tract of land as 

 forest land, to be protected as such, until that land is 

 actually converted to other uses. In other words, a 

 classification of land by actual use rather than by soil 

 examination. 



Our forest protection plan must include the disposal 

 of slash. I have become convinced that there is no 

 half-way measure ; that we have got to make as a definite 

 plank in our forestry program the practical fireproofing 

 of our woods as far as we can within reasonable cost 

 limits. The disposal of slash must, the country over, be 

 recognized as a part of the logging operations. These 

 things I would accomplish under the police powers of 

 the State, applying the principle I stated a few moments 

 ago, the Federal Government working as a co-operator 

 of the State, and looking to the State to carry these re- 

 quirements out with the private owners. 



I said that forest fire control in my judgment would 

 accomplish 75 or 80 per cent, possibly more, of the task 

 of getting our lands back in timber growth, but there 

 will be cases, there will be regions, where we must go 

 beyond that, and as those cases and regions become clear, 

 and as we know with certainty what should be done in 

 addition to keeping out the forest fires, we should have 

 the legal authority to make those essential things a re- 

 quirement on the timber owner. Again, that principle 

 must be coupled with a correlary that such requirements 

 must be fair and equitable in consideration of the actual 

 co-operating conditions; that they must be framed and 

 enforced by local authority in which the interests who 

 are affected can be locally represented and which will 

 have the maximum opportunity to know the local condi- 

 tions with which they are dealing. 



In connection with these two planks the first two 

 commandments, as I see it, in our forestry program 

 the control of fire and the following of fire control with 

 such other measures enforced by local authority as may 

 be necessary actually to prevent the denudation of forest 

 lands, I believe we should undertake to largely extend 

 the existing public forests, for we have many areas of 

 cut-over land which will come back into timber very 

 slowly, perhaps not at all, unless planting is resorted to. 

 I think that it is up to the Federal Government and the 

 states to shoulder a considerable part of that work. I 

 think that the Federal Government and the states in the 

 forested regions should both embark on a policy of the 

 acquisition of public forests. 



The next point which I think everyone who has con- 

 sidered this question recognizes is a mighty important 

 one is that of forest taxation. It is too big a subject to 

 spend any time on here. It seems to me that the best 

 way to tackle that problem is for each state whose forest 

 resources are important, to work for the designation of 

 a legislative commission which would be instructed to 

 make a thorough study of the subject of existing methods 

 of taxing forest lands upon the denudation of such lands 

 and to report suitable legislation. The Federal Govern- 

 ment might, if it were enabled to by Congress, co-operate 

 with these states in making such a study of taxation. 



Lastly, our forestry program should provide for get- 

 ting much more accurate information on many of the 

 questions that are involved. We need a much more ac- 

 curate census or inventory of our timber resources, not 

 only our standing stumpage, but our timber growing 

 resources, than we have ever had. We need with tha't 

 much better information than we have ever had on what 

 our national requirements for timber are, region by 

 region what the requirements of our principal industries 

 are, region by region. We need to get those two sets of 

 figures to see how far we can fit them together, seeing 

 how much land the country ought to have perpetually 

 in timber. 



These are the five main points which it seems to me 

 our forestry program should aim at. There are, of 

 course, others, but I have sheared them down to what 

 seems to me to be the five essentials. How should we 

 go at it? 



In the first place, we should have, sooner or later, 

 sooner if possible, a comprehensive federal forestry law. 

 Its first plank should be an appropriation, which I have 

 put at not less than a million dollars, to enable the 

 Forest Service to co-operate with the states in forest fire 

 prevention, in working out the methods of handling 

 various classes of timber land, in addition to fire pre- 

 vention, which are necessary actually to keep them in 

 timber growth, and in other phases of forestry. 



The expenditure of this million dollars would be regu- 

 lated on the same basis as the expenditures under the 

 Agricultural Extension Act and under the Federal Aid 

 Road Acts, that is, that the states must put up at least 

 dollar for dollar with the Federal Government. The ex- 

 penditures under that act should be further limited to 

 states which meet what the Federal Government regards 

 as essential minimum requirements in fire protection and 

 methods of cutting; but I want to say right here that if 

 such an act as that were passed and I were responsible for 

 administering it, I would say to the states that the thing 

 we want to get across first is fire protection. 



The second plank should be one for extension of the 

 federal forests by purchase and by consolidation through 

 exchanges. 



The third plank should be one that will enable the 

 Federal Government to assist the states in working out 

 this question of forest taxation. 



The fourth plank should be a provision for a general 

 survey of forest resources that I spoke of, and in that 

 I would include, where it is necessary, co-operative 

 studies with the state in regard to classes of land that 

 should be devoted to forest purposes. 



So much for federal legislation. Now, concurrently 

 with that we need state laws which will carry out the 

 state end of this game, because the plan that I have 

 outlined is not going to be effective unless we get the 

 states in it. 



My idea as to state legislation is that you don't want 

 to attempt too much in your law; that you have got to 

 put your confidence in a commission, or a board, or some 

 . (Continued on page 617) 



