

FOREST MANAGEMENT AND THE STATK. 43 



FOREST MANAGEMENT AND THE STATE. 



State action to protect its forests may be (1) by promoting manage- 

 ment by private owners, arid (2) by itself undertaking the management 

 of forests on State lands. 



PROMOTION OF PRIVATE MANAGEMENT. 



The main difficulties in the way of the introduction of private man- 

 agement on an extensive scale and in all parts of the State where 

 forests of commercial value grow, are: 



(1) Protection against jire. This is of special importance in the 

 longleaf belt, the chief seat of the lumber industry of the State. At 

 present the renewal of the forest is made impossible by the fires which 

 periodically burn the forest grass and litter and destroy the seedlings. 

 But protection is difficult for the private owner, who is exposed not 

 only to fires originating 011 his own tract, but also to those which invade 

 it from his neighbor's lands. To maintain an efficient fire-fighting 

 force would usually involve a prohibitive expense. It is possible that 

 something might be done in the way of fire protection by the organiza- 

 tion of State fire wardens or a forest patrol, particularly if the expense 

 could be reduced by employing local officials already intrusted with 

 other duties. But the only really effective way of controlling fires is 

 to keep them from starting. The forests do not begin to burn up of 

 themselves. While it is true that lightning has been known to origi- 

 nate forest fires, the proportion of fires f roai natural causes is so small 

 as to be negligible. It is from those of human agency that the forest 

 needs protection. To secure this a strong, enlightened public senti- 

 ment is needed. In a community which regarded setting fire to a 

 man's woods as seriously as setting fire to his barns the problem of 

 fire protection would be reduced to insignificant proportions. There 

 is no more important work for the State to do in protecting its forests 

 than to educate public opinion in the matter of fires. 



(2) Taxation. Forest management, which involves holding cut-over 

 lands for a long term of years without return, is impossible in the face 

 of high taxes. To tax forest lands on the same principle as agricul- 

 tural land is simply to put a premium on destructive lumbering. Even 

 if the valuation is put low enough not to be in itself inequitable, the 

 necessity of paying taxes annually on land recentLy cut over, which will 

 yield no revenue as tirnberland for many years, is a discouragement 

 to all holders not possessed of large capital. Taxation based on the 

 value of the standing timber, or taxation of the crop when harvested, 

 would be at once more wise and more just than a tax levied at a con- 

 stant annual rate. 



(3) Theft. The same unfortunate sentiment which permits setting 

 fire to forests operates also as a source of loss to the owner by a more 



