TasLe 41.—County-owned areas } in selected counties of western Oregon as of 1932-33 and as of 1935-36, by generalized cover type ® 
Se a aa aS SSS ee 
Commercial conllen wires of diameter Hardwoods: 
District, county, and date vo Cut-overs, | noncommer- All cover 
etc.3 cial forest, types 
20+ inches | 6-20 inches | 0-6 inches | nonforest 
| 
Columbia River: 
Clatsop: Acres | Acres Acres Acres Acres Acres 
VIG 51932 eee eee eee he Sa et 4, 500 11, 400 3, 900 4, 900 13, 400 38, 100 
Pui ltys1 93 6 eee enna neers tee ee ee eee 9, 700 17, 100 6, 800 12, 000 16, 100 61, 700 
Columbia: 
April 1932 400 6, 400 3, 000 17, 900 1, 300 29, 000 
uly a1 93 6 eee een err ee ee ee 900 | 10, 800 7, 300 | 61, 800 2, 900 83, 700 
Oregon coast: 
Tillamook: 
ARUDIE HOSP Ye 8 pe er ae ee eae 16, 600 11, 700 22, 600 17, 900 6, 800 75, 600 
October 936i Stara ae sete oe ae eS 27, 800 16, 700 23, 400 | 61, 300 11, 000 140, 200 
Coos: 
Vi aye 933 Scene ree ee ae 5, 300 7, 000 1, 500 1, 600 1, 900 17, 300 
October 1935 15, 700 29, 000 | 8, 000 13, 800 5, 900 72, 400 
Willamette River: 
Benton: 
TAUNAY) SCRA VG os si ae et pare Pee a 2, 000 700 | 1, 500 700 300 5, 200 
Marche) 93 6 see eese eae os ns We Sk ee 7, 700 2, 200 2, 800 5, 400 1, 400 19, 500 
Lane: § 
May 1933___ 7, 900 7, 400 500 6, 600 3, 200 25, 600 
May 1936 30, 200 15, 800 | 3, 000 17, 200 6, 400 72, 600 
South Oregon: | 
Douglas: 5 
Septemberelos2eeesto eee case se a 2 ee ee 25, 600 6, 600 2, 100 5, 800 2, 200 42, 300 
Decembergl 935 wes mesma te ater ees ERS ee yy oe 109, 900 19, 800 | 4, 900 12, 100 5, 200 151, 900 
Josephine: | 
VI ‘es yp. 33 Spepeemee nate cates eats ese ae eae NS 22, 700 | 12, 900 | 5, 600 6, 300 3, 300 50, 800 
Septembersl936Saoeses ss ee aes ee ee ee 29, 100 13, 900 | 6, 000 7, 700 3, 500 60, 200 
| 
Total: 
L932 Bot eee ee aa nas BE mae Eerie Se eee 85, 000 64, 100 40, 700 61, 700 32, 400 283, 900 
LOB 5-3. tere mers tase a IL Va SE) Tetra ad Le i orl 231, 000 125, 300 62, 200 191, 300 52, 400 662, 200 
| 
1 Acreages rounded off to nearest hundred. 
Areas within agricultural zones of Benton, Lane, and Tillamook Counties not included. 
2 For Clatsop and Tillamook Counties, where extensive fires occurred in 1933, new cover-type data were obtained in 1936 for use in the 1936 computa- 
tions shown here. For other counties, cover-type data taken in 1932-33 were used in the 1935-36 computations, no material changes in cover type having 
taken place in the interval. 
3 Lands cut over since 1920, old cut-overs not restocking, and deforested burns. 
4 Data include 32,188 acres deeded by owners to Tillamook County to save costs of tax-forfeiture proceedings, 
5 Data include some small areas situated in Oregon coast district. 
even without counting in the 32,000 acres of tax- 
delinquent land deeded directly to Tillamook 
County by the owners to save the county foreclosure 
costs. In Washington, there were no foreclosures 
between 1933 and 1936. Where the cut-over lands 
are physically unsuited for agriculture the rate of 
reversion will progressively increase as the old- 
growth timber area is reduced and tax pressure on 
it increases. Some counties will acquire consider- 
able areas of merchantable timber through tax 
foreclosure. Unless the States liberalize tax-delin- 
quency laws or county officials drastically reduce 
assessments on cut-over lands, the acreages of 
county-owned land will greatly increase in the next 
two decades. 
131 
Washington has adopted legislation whereby 
forest land acquired by counties through tax rever- 
sion can be deeded to the State and managed by it 
for the benefit of the county, with the provision 
that the State will be reimbursed for the cost of 
protection and management from receipts accru- 
ing through the sale of products raised on these 
So far none of the Oregon counties has 
made any attempt to manage forest land acquired 
lands. 
through tax foreclosure, and probably none of 
them can afford to undertake adequate manage- 
ment. Oregon might well follow the Washington 
precedent. 
If Oregon does nothing to facilitate transfer of 
reverted lands from county to State ownership and 
