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How Forest Ownership Affects the Outlook 
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Many aspects of the forest situation have been 
discussed, with particular emphasis on timber 
supplies. Attention now needs to be directed 
more sharply to the broad problems that are asso- 
ciated with ownership. 
Character of ownership largely determines the 
treatment and management of forests, the stability 
of forestry enterprises, and the kind of action 
needed to put the Nation’s forests on a perma- 
nently productive basis. It is therefore a funda- 
mental factor in the forest situation. 
Private ownership, which accounts for two- 
thirds of all forest land and three-fourths of the 
commercial, as shown in the following tabulation 
and figure 27, is of necessity motivated mainly by 
financial return. 
Ownership of forest land 
(million acres) 
‘ All owners Private Public 
Class of land: 
Gommercialo 2 a 461 345 116 
Noncommercialy -24 1 ies 163 64 99 
ARO tal entrap eam sie Leelee 624 409 215 
Private forestry as a rule must yield revenue com- 
mensurate with costs and without long waiting. 
It therefore centers on those uses, principally tim- 
ber growing, that produce cash returns. 
PRIVATE 
(6%) STATE AND 
a LOCAL GOVERNMENT 
PUBLIC 
° 100 200 
_ MILLION ACRES 
300 400 
FIGURE 27—Ownership of the 461 million acres of commercial 
: forest. 
Forests and National Prosperity * 
The need for large-scale public ownership— 
Federal, State, and local—has largely grown out of 
limitations that make good management in pri- 
vate ownership uncertain. One of these is the 
long-deferred or sometimes very small returns from 
timber crops. Another is the lack of incentive in 
bettering watershed protection and other services 
of the forest. Government ownership is relatively 
free of pressures for immediate revenues. Full 
recognition can be given to all forest uses and 
services including those which benefit the general 
public rather than the individual owner. Public 
ownership generally affords more assurance of con- 
tinuity of policies and conservation practices than 
private ownership. It offers the best opportunity 
for multiple-use management and for the rehabili- 
tation of forest lands where values are low or are 
slow to accrue. However, a very large acreage is 
economically suitable for private forestry. 
This basic difference between public and_pri- 
vate ownership bears importantly on both the 
handicaps and opportunities in forestry. But there 
are also differences among private owners and 
among the main public categories with respect to 
purpose, tenure, and stability, and facilities for 
practicing good forestry. 
Public Forests Have An Important Role 
Although private forests carry a heavy responsi- 
bility, the keystone of American forest. conserva- 
tion policy is permanent public ownership and 
management of a substantial part of the forest land. 
This policy, inaugurated in 1891 by the act author- 
izing the creation of Federal forest reserves, was 
in part prompted by widespread abuses in and 
following disposal of the public domain. 
Government ownership of forests—Federal, State, 
and local—has been slowly extended through res- 
ervation, purchase, or exchange. Some 215 million 
acres, about one-third of all the forest land, is 
publicly owned or managed: 
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