STATE FOREST POLICY 



By HERMAN HAUPT CHAPMAN 

 Assistant Professor of Forestry, Yale University 



As the virgin timber supplies in the 

 different states near the point of ex- 

 haustion, the question of growing tim- 

 ber to meet the many urgent needs of 

 our industries and arts is brought 

 squarely before the public. The National 

 Government has been able by timely 

 legislation and the courageous action of 

 several of our Presidents to retain title 

 to an immense area of public timber 

 lands lying west of the Mississippi 

 River. But constitutional limitations 

 will probably confine the operations of 

 the Government to public lands, or to 

 tracts situated at the headwaters of 

 navigable waterways. In the Eastern 

 states, especially, state governments 

 have duties and responsibilities in for- 

 estry which can never be assumed suc- 

 cessfully by the National Government. 



The first of these duties is the en- 

 couragement of private forestry. No 

 matter how much land the state may 

 finally acquire, much the larger and 

 more valuable portion of the timber- 

 lands capable of producing the most 

 rapid growth of timber will remain the 

 property of private owners as wood- 

 lots or of large land owners or corpora- 

 tions as cutover lands. Upon these 

 lands, the production of new crops of 

 timber must depend upon private ef- 

 fort. 



But left to themselves, private own- 

 ers will be slow to undertake forestry 

 on a large scale. The extensive grow- 

 ing of timber can be carried on by in- 

 dividuals only as an investment which 

 must give them a return on their money- 

 Under present conditions the danger of 

 destruction or severe damage to timber 

 by forest fires is so great that such in- 

 vestments are not safe, and the com- 

 472 



paratively long period which the in- 

 vestor has to wait, with his property 

 exposed all the time to fires, before he 

 can realize any returns will discourage 

 many who otherwise would grow tim- 

 ber. A second, equally serious draw- 

 back is the heavy taxes which in many 

 localities are assessed against standing 

 timber and which threaten to absorb 

 whatever profit might otherwise be 

 made by the owner. It is clearly the 

 duty of state governments to remove 

 these two great obstacles to private 

 forestry by passing and enforcing suit- 

 able laws. 



Most states have already passed fire 

 laws making it an offense to set fire to 

 woodlands either purposely or acci- 

 dentally. Such laws have always re- 

 mained a dead letter until the office of 

 fire warden was created for the proper 

 enforcement of the law. The most 

 primitive form of a fire warden system 

 is that which imposes the duties of fire 

 warden for a town upon the town 

 supervisors. Experience has shown 

 that such officials are indifferent to 

 these added duties. The best results 

 have been obtained in states which 

 have created the office of state fire 

 warden and made the local or town 

 wardens appointive. The town board 

 may retain the power of appointing a 

 fire warden, or he may be appointed by 

 the state warden, who should in any 

 case approve the appointments and 

 have the power to remove an inefficient 

 warden. By this plan a warden may be 

 secured who is willing to devote the 

 proper time to his duties and who can 

 be retained in office by reappointment 

 as long as he is willing to serve. With 

 an active and efficient state fire warden 



