Watershed protection, like timber growing, is 
best served when forest soils are kept stable and 
productive. Mainly this involves the elimination 
of destructive logging and overgrazing, protection 
against fire and other hazards, and the rehabilita- 
tion of devastated or sparsely stocked forest lands, 
including some of the low-grade noncommercial 
types. Good forest practices—still far from general 
attainment—will go a long way toward providing 
satisfactory watershed conditions on the great bulk 
of the commercial forest lands. 
But under certain conditions, some practices 
need to be supplemented or modified in the inter- 
ests of good watershed management. Fire-protec- 
tion plans should give more recognition to high- 
risk or special-value watershed areas (see pp. 81, 84). 
How to lessen disturbances to ground cover and 
soil in logging operations also needs constructive 
attention. In some areas the generally acceptable 
cutting practices may need modification to afford 
more protection or to increase water yields. Local 
situations of this kind occur on steep slopes, frozen 
soils, or in areas of rapid snow-melts such as the 
White Mountains of New Hampshire; on the un- 
stable, highly erodible soils of the West and of 
the southern Piedmont and upper Coastal Plain; 
and in the rougher mountain sections, both East 
and West. 
Good range management also helps provide good 
watershed conditions. But, as with timber man- 
agement, practices which would aid recovery are 
not always applied. ‘There is constant pressure to 
overstock and the range is often grazed too closely. 
Livestock are trailed where they should be hauled. 
These and other practices which are detrimental 
must be corrected. Deterioration from past abuse 
is so great on critical areas of the western forest 
range that it will take many years of careful man- 
agement to attain satisfactory watershed conditions. 
Some forest land on steep slopes with easily dis- 
turbed soils should be closed because grazing it is 
virtually impossible without endangering water- 
shed values. 
Watershed improvement is beset with many diffi- 
culties. Public apathy and lack of understanding 
is a potent obstacle. For the most part, people 
are unaware of serious watershed situations even 
after floods or other calamities occur. Little is 
done about them because the public does not un- 
derstand the cause or the cure or is not sufficiently 
aroused to demand action. 
Inadequate technical knowledge also hampers 
watershed protection. There have been some no- 
table research contributions but as yet they have 
not come into general application. Land man- 
agers have much to learn about how timber cut- 
ting, grazing, and other uses may be harmonized 
with watershed services. They need more infor- 
mation on how forest and range practices affect 
water and soil. They need a working knowledge 
of the economics of watershed management, and 
techniques for maintaining water supplies, stabiliz- 
ing soil, and controlling runoff. It will take 
greatly strengthened research to provide all this. 
Watershed management is preeminently a public 
responsibility and public forests afford the main 
opportunity for it. Many lands of high watershed 
value are in Federal, State, and community own- 
ership—notably the national forests. “Their man- 
agement should set the pattern for all watershed 
lands. However, several things stand in the way 
of putting them in first-rate shape for watershed 
protection. 
Many public forests are remote. Some are poor- 
ly consolidated and hence difficult to manage. 
Much of the land, severely exploited before it was 
placed under administration, is dificult and costly 
to rehabilitate. Whatever the obstacles, it wiil 
take intensified protection and management and 
a great deal of watershed restoration to assure 
satisfactory watershed services. Mostly this is a 
matter of more adequate facilities to do the work. 
Public forests should be extended to include 
many millions of acres of critical watershed lands 
not suited to private management. Private owners 
have little incentive in watershed management, 
since it yields no direct revenue and mainly bene- 
fits others. Furthermore, the high cost of restor- 
ing badly depleted watershed lands usually pre- 
cludes private investment. The job clearly will 
have to be shouldered mainly by public agencies. 
Yet there remains the hard problem of assuring 
reasonably good management, in the public in- 
terest, of watershed lands in private ownership. 
At present these include about two-thirds of the 
lands having major or moderate protective in- 
fluence.2> Most of the unsatisfactory watershed 
conditions center here. Bettering them is closely 
linked with getting good private timber manage- 
ment, though it is inherently more difficult. There 
are no pat solutions, but basic remedies generally 
lie in fostering good cutting practices and con- 
70 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
