June, 1937] Land Utilization in New Hampshire 67 



years. The latter would require only the public investment in manage- 

 ment or part of the management for a similar period. 



It should be recognized that in either ease management beyond a 

 certain point in intensity would result in subsidizing the project for 

 the benefit of local inhabitants. Under able management, however, an 

 intensity of management consistent with expected financial returns 

 could be projected. 



In the face of the failure of forestry development under private 

 ownership due to the long time involved, public ownership, if accom- 

 panied by trained and efficient management of the right intensity, would 

 be a sound public policy. Public ownership without such management 

 would contribute little to the social needs. In the meantime there is 

 the possibility of attaining management under private ownership 

 through a program of public control and support of forest management 

 practices. 



I The benefits expected from a public forest could be obtained through 

 a Forest Conservation Program, and less public money would be re- 

 quired. In such case the area would be set off as a special district, and 

 a forester with broad social interests chosen to represent the Govern- 

 ment. The land would remain under private ownership, and the in- 

 dividual owner would continue to operate and manage his timber lot ; 

 but he could enter into a voluntary agreement with the Government to 

 do certain definite things in the development of long-time timber re- 

 sources. Small payments would be allotted to the owner for carrying 

 out definite projects. A portion of such payments would become a 

 first lien on the timber and would be payable when timber was har- 

 vested. If these payments were equivalent to present taxes, this would 

 mean approximately $35,000 in the area available for constructive tim- 

 ber development. This would involve probably a total expenditure 

 of about $40,000 a year by the Government and perhaps a similar sum 

 by owners for a period of years. The basis of the payment would be 

 the carrying out of practices which the individual cannot afford to do 

 but which should be done in the long-time public interest. Such a 

 plan would result in the elimination of cull wolf trees, the thinning of 

 growing stands, and the general development of the timber resources. 

 After the initial period public investment would be diminished to a 

 nominal amount. Local people would still have an interest both in 

 sentiment and in actual investment, in a developing forest program. 

 They would not be so completely divorced from the resources and the 

 management of the resources as in a program of public ownership. 



Relating People to Resources 



It has been stressed again and again in this manuscript that the prob- 

 lem is one involving the welfare of local people and society as a whole. 

 Since local people own very little of this land, the programs suggested 

 would benefit them very little unless the productive forest activities 

 were related to them. The activities should be designed as constructive 

 social programs to divert people from mere road building to participa- 

 tion in productive enterprises. Such a program could furnish employ- 

 ment to over 100 men for 100 days or more a year, and this with a sub- 



