FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 13 



probably still be desirable, however, to concentrate the bulk of forest- 

 land purchases in the eastern part of the country. 



The program of forest-land purchases under the Weeks law was 

 the first project of such a character handled by the Department of 

 Agriculture. In recent years other land-purchase programs for pur- 

 poses such as wildlife refuges, control of soil erosion, and curtailment 

 of submarginal farming have become necessary and advisable in the 

 public interest. To meet the need for coordination and correlation 

 and to provide for unity of action, there has been set up in the Depart- 

 ment an Office of Land Use Coordination. 



This office acts as a clearing house for land purchases of all depart- 

 mental bureaus. It receives and records all detailed project reports, 

 determines relationships of separate land-purchase and management 

 projects to each other and to the whole, provides for adjustment of 

 geographical conflicts and interbureau cooperation. Through it, all 

 land-purchase work of the Department is now unified, correlated, and 

 coordinated. 



A NEW TYPE OF FOREST COMMUNITY 



As a wdiole, the lumber industry, though is has endorsed sustained 

 yield as an objective, is still financed and operated on a basis of quick 

 liquidation. Consequently, woods labor is largely transient and with- 

 out permanent community ties. This makes for an unsatisfactory, 

 unsound social structure. It is a definitely inadequate policy for 

 successful sustained-yield operation of forest lands, to which per- 

 manent communities of skilled workers are essential. 



With funds and authority from the Farm Security Administration, 

 the Forest Service has developed two subsistence homestead com- 

 munities — one of them in the southern Appalachians, the other in the 

 Lake States. In their establishment the Forest Service is experi- 

 menting in community development of subsistence farms based on 

 forest economy. The idea is to furnish a cash income to the settlers 

 through employment in forest work, and to aid them in finding addi- 

 tional employment in private commercial forest operations. Home- 

 steaders are charged a moderate rental for lands and houses. Aid is 

 given in the development of modern farm programs and assistance 

 in finding markets for surplus crops. 



SUSTAINED-YIELD MANAGEMENT AND PERMANENT 

 COMMUNITIES 



If our forests are to do their part in maintaining permanent, pros- 

 perous communities, they must be so handled that a continuous supply 

 of timber is assured for each community dependent upon forest in- 

 dustries. This means sustained-yield forest management. 



To the layman "sustained yield" may sound mysterious. If so, 

 one might consider, by way of example, an individual who has fort- 

 unately accumulated a capital of $200,000 and then invests it so that 

 he secures a safe return in the form of annual interest. If he keeps 

 his expenditures within this interest, he has a sustained-yield opera- 

 tion. If not, sooner or later his capital is dissipated, his income gone. 



This situation has a direct parallel in forest management. A man 

 who owns 200,000 acres of productive timberland may establish saw- 



