sible. Furthermore, roads that give access to National Forest timber 

 are investments which pay their own way over a period of years. Use 

 of these roads by the public results in substantial benefits to the 

 localities the roads serve. 



The long-range objective of this Department is to provide and 

 maintain a system of forest development roads and trails which will 

 adequately service the National Forest System at the levels needed 

 to meet expected needs and optimum production of products and 

 services. For the year 2000 this means servicing (a) the protection 

 requirements of a watershed producing at least 200 million acre-feet 

 of water each year, (b) recreation and wildlife resources used each 

 year by 635 million visitors, (c) a timber resource supporting an 

 annual cut of 21 billion board feet, and (cl) 60 million acres of 

 rangelands. 



Service at these levels of production and utilization will eventually 

 require the construction of about 379,900 miles of new roads and 6,000 

 miles of new trails, along with the reconstruction to higher standards 

 of about 105,000 miles of roads and 10,500 miles of trails. About 

 26,500 miles of existing trails will be replaced in service by the con- 

 struction of new roads. About 80 percent of these long-range 

 requirements should be met by the year 2000. 



Program proposals for forest development roads and trails for 

 the 10-year period 1963-1972 are as follows : 



1. Complete the construction and reconstruction of about 79,- 

 400 miles of multiple-purpose roads and 8,000 miles of trails. 

 This constitutes about 17 percent of the long-range requirements 

 for these facilities. 



Approximately 40 percent of the value of the work on roads 

 for access to timber which are planned for this period will be 

 constructed by purchasers of National Forest timber, but paid 

 for by the Government through adjustment of stumpage prices. 



2. Provide maintenance to full standards on the 268,900 miles 

 of existing access roads and trails and on the new roads and trails 

 constructed during the period. 



Land Adjustment, Land Purchase, Land Use 



Within the units in the National Forest System the pattern of land 

 ownership is quite irregular. In some units, National Forest owner- 

 ship is well blocked together. In many others, the previous patent- 

 ing of land under the public land laws, or the way in which land was 

 available for purchase, resulted in a scattered pattern of ownership. 



Within exterior boundaries of National Forests and National 

 Grasslands, there are about 40,000,000 acres in non-Federal ownership. 

 One consequence is the occurrence of occasional conflicts because pri- 

 vate owners of some inholdings object to public programs of use on 

 neighboring National Forest or other Federal land, or because such 

 ownerships are developed for uses that are not compatible with use 

 for the public of neighboring National Forest land. Some privately 

 held inholdings are a source of direct damage to these Federal lands. 

 And some, which are suitable for tree growing and for other National 

 Forest purposes, are unmanaged or in need of expensive rehabilita- 

 tion, and are contributing nothing to the economy ; there are no rea- 

 sonable prospects that these conditions will be corrected or changed. 



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