Many of the forests will help supply the country's timber needs after the 

 more accessible commercial lands are cut over. Others, though of supreme 

 importance for watershed protection, do not have large commercial value. 

 Moreover, a great deal of money must be spent for roads, trails, bridges, 

 telephone lines, and other improvements in the national forests. In spite 

 of all this, some of the forests are already yielding returns in excess of oper- 

 ating costs, and annual revenues are gradually increasing. In 1944, total 

 receipts from timber sales, grazing fees, special land uses, and other resources 

 amounted to over 15 million dollars. Normally, receipts from timber sales 

 form the larger part, followed by receipts from forage use. 



Since Federal property is not taxable, 25 percent of the gross receipts is 

 turned over to the States, to be apportioned to the counties in which the 

 forests are located for road and school purposes. An additional 10 percent 

 is used for road and trail building in the forests. These, plus the expendi- 

 tures by the Forest Service for protection and improvements of the national 

 forests, provide direct benefits to the local communities. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FORESTS 



To make the national forests more useful to the public and facilitate their 

 administration and protection, various kinds of improvements are needed. 

 Some of these are primarily for official use, like fire-lookout stations, ranger 

 and guard stations, and telephone lines ; others are purely for the benefit of 

 the public, as, for example, drift fences, stock-watering places, and camp- 

 grounds ; still others, such as roads, trails, and stock driveways, facilitate the 

 task of administering and protecting the forests and serve the public 

 generally. 



The Forest Service cooperates with State and county officials, good-roads 

 organizations, and private individuals in. locating, surveying, constructing, 

 and maintaining roads in the national forests. Road and trail construction 

 work is ordinarily financed from regular appropriations by Congress to the 

 Forest Service, but money has also been made available by special allotments 

 of emergency funds provided by Congress. 



Main forest-highway projects are handled by the Public Roads Adminis- 

 tration of the Federal Works Agency. The construction, repair, and main- 

 tenance of roads and truck trails required primarily for administrative 

 utilization and protective purposes, together with the building and mainte- 

 nance of foot and horse trails, are handled directly by the Forest Service. 

 Whenever possible, such work is coordinated with fire control, so that in 

 remote areas of great fire hazard construction crews may be available as part 

 of the fire-suppression organization. 



Where grazing is a major use of the forest, and the expenditure is plainly 

 warranted, the Forest Service develops water supplies for livestock and 

 builds drift fences, bridges, stock trails, and other works. Local stockmen 

 frequently cooperate in these improvements. 



REFORESTATION AND RANGE RESEEDING 



Many of our national forests, particularly in the Lake States and the 

 South, contain areas that were devastated by heavy logging and repeated 

 fires prior to their establishment as national forests. Where devastation is 

 so complete that desirable types of forest growth cannot be expected to 

 return naturally, it is necessary to plant trees in order to return them to 

 forest productivity as soon as possible. Most planting is done with tree 

 seedlings grown in Forest Service nurseries, rather than by direct field 

 seeding. A score of such nurseries, with a potential capacity of some 250 



