fires can be intensified. The restocking of large 

 areas can be speeded up through planting. Clear- 

 cutting practices should give way to sounder methods 

 of forest management. Watersheds contributing to 

 floods would benefit from improvement measures. 

 Steps could also be taken immediately to expand 

 recreational facilities and game resources. 



Intensify Fire Protection 



Prerequisite to all plans for the development of the 

 forest resources is the better control and, so far as 

 possible, the prevention of fire. Programs such as 

 that instituted by the Wyoming Valley Chamber of 

 Commerce in cooperation with the Pennsylvania 

 Department of Forests and Waters should be extended 

 as soon as possible throughout the region. 



A high degree of local responsibility helps to reduce 

 the number of fires and to improve detection and 

 control. Spotters who can watch for fire while en- 

 gaged in their regular occupations might be trained 

 to report fires in areas not readily visible from fire 

 lookout towers. Local fire-fighting organizations, 

 also made up of volunteers, could be expanded. 

 Paid fire fighters would then have to be called out 

 only when the hazard is great or fire gets out of hand. 

 Fire-danger stations, manned by paid experts, could 

 be set up at key points to make day-by-day estimates 

 of fire danger during fire seasons and to keep the fire- 

 spotting and fire-fighting organizations informed. 



In addition, fire-prevention methods, such as cutting 

 and plowing fire lanes and burning safety strips along 

 highways and railroads, should be carried on much 

 more extensively than at present. More access roads 

 to remote parts of the extensive forests are vitally 

 needed. Public support is essential in all of this work 

 and every means should be utilized to build up a 

 genuine popular desire to cooperate. 



Plant Waste Areas 



Several planting projects should be undertaken .in 

 soon as seedlings can be made available. In all, it is 

 estimated thai there are approximately 200,000 acres 

 in need of planting. 



Unused Areas Neai Towns 

 Town forests and school forests could l>c planted on 



idle areas near towns. Immediate returns, of course) 

 would not be apparent, but such planting would help 



to build up an interest in forest conservation. If the 

 people themselves plant and care for these forests, 

 each group will come to feel thai the forest is theirs 

 and, in consequence, will want to proteel it. Eventu- 

 ally such forests will provide a source of timber and 

 income and will serve as recreational areas. 



Aline Waste Banks 



In general the tree species that will grow on mine 

 waste banks do not grow to commercial size. It 

 therefore seems impractical under present knowledge 

 to plant waste banks unless they cause damage to 

 individuals or to other places than the land on which 

 they stand. However, many of the mine waste banks, 

 especially those in towns and those from which silt 

 washes into the streams, might well be planted now. 

 Recent legislation provides a program for cleaning 

 up the Schuylkill River; prevention of coal silting by 

 planting or otherwise stabilizing waste banks at the 

 river's source would aid this program. 



Surface Strippings 



Although natural afforestation will gradually take 

 place on the unsightly banks of soil, shale, and sand- 

 stone thrown up in the process of digging for coal, the 

 establishment of a forest cover could be attained 

 earlier through planting. However, the deep ditches 

 from which coal has been removed are difficult to 

 plant. Some of them that have become filled with 

 water could be developed as recreational lakes 



( T nused Farm Land 



On going farms, open areas with poor soil generally 

 should be put back into forest. Steep, open ridges 

 where the danger of erosion is greal should also be 

 forested. Some of these open .ire, is will quickly In- 

 restocked by seed trees along their borders, bul others 



return to forest slowly and should be planted Fur- 

 thermore, natural reforestation on such areas may 



result in stands of inferior species or species that i\o 

 not meet the needs of the locality. For example, in 

 some areas the supply of softwoods for construction is 



insufficient; here suitable softwood species should Ik- 



planted. 



Some abandoned farm lands will restock naturally, 

 but many will require planting, Extensive an-. is. 

 especially in the northern counties, could be c • isoli- 

 dated by public agencies into tracts large i 

 warrant constructive management. 



The Anthracite Forest Region A Problem Area 





