3. Federal, State, and private holdings should be 
exchanged and consolidated to improve the ex- 
tremely patchy pattern of forest-land ownership 
now common in the region. 
4. Private timberland owners, both operating 
and nonoperating, should be urged to merge their 
holdings so as to form properties of a size and com- 
pactness that will promote sound financing and 
efficient management for continuous production. 
5. Federal loans on private timberlands should be 
made only to those private owners who agree to 
adopt and maintain sustained-yield practices; these 
loans should be made at low interest rates and with 
long term amortization privileges. The loaning 
policies of all Federal agencies should be coordi- 
nated accordingly. All borrowers should be re- 
quired to carry forest-fire insurance if it becomes 
available at equitable rates. 
6. Defects and inequities in existing State and 
Federal tax laws as these affect forest lands should 
be corrected. 
should be given by State and county planning 
boards and by chambers of commerce to recom- 
mendations developed by the Forest ‘Taxation In- 
quiry of the Forest Service (4). 
7. As a basis for intelligent land-use planning, 
classification of rural lands should be undertaken 
immediately by Federal and State agencies, acting 
jointly. Following this classification, adequate zon- 
ing laws should be enacted, and should be effec- 
tively administered. 
With this purpose in view, study 
Public Acquisition of Forest Land 
Because of the instability of private forest-land 
ownership, it appears that the most direct way to 
restore and to maintain forest-land productivity 
in this region is through expanded public owner- 
ship. Theoretically, the Federal, State, and county 
governments should participate in a joint public- 
acquisition program. ‘The financial inability of the 
counties to administer forest. land adequately 
shifts their share of the burden to the other agencies. 
The States of Oregon and Washington have only 
limited funds for acquiring and administering addi- 
tional forest land. In view of this region’s pre- 
eminence in the Nation as regards forest resources, 
the Federal Government is justified, as a matter of 
national welfare, in assuming leadership in acquisi- 
tion of forest land here. 
137 
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 
A guiding policy of Federal acquisition should be 
to acquire forest land unlikely to remain in private 
ownership that could advantageously be adminis- 
tered as national-forest sustained-yield units, in 
cooperation with owners of neighboring land if 
possible, and for which State acquisition is not in 
prospect. 
The program should be well rounded, including 
virgin-timber areas, second-growth areas, and de- 
forested land. Choice of areas to be acquired 
should be governed by the following purposes: 
Stabilization of ownership and encouragement of 
sustained-vield management; consolidation of na- 
tional forests for more effective administration and 
protection; protection of watersheds; prevention 
of premature cutting of second-growth forests; re- 
habilitation of denuded and deteriorated lands; 
and encouragement of better forest practice on 
the part of operators who do not intend to hold their 
lands for continuous production—the last to be 
accomplished by acquiring only the cut-over lands 
left in good condition where this is possible, or by 
discriminating against abused land in the price 
paid for it. 
In planning acquisition, a territorial distribution 
of areas should be made between the States and the 
Federal Government, the latter assuming responsi- 
bility for areas that cannot be handled effectively 
by the States. 
Any Federal acquisition program would be con- 
ditioned on the funds made available. It is highly 
desirable that sufficient Federal money be made 
available to attain all the objectives listed. Land 
now deforested could be obtained very cheaply 
and a considerable acreage of this type of land is 
a Federal responsibility. Second-growth timber- 
land would be more expensive, but would be 
cheap compared with old-growth timberland, and 
should be acquired in large quantity. For the 
most part this would involve purchasing lands 
outside existing national-forest boundaries, leaving 
acquisition of alienated lands inside national-forest 
boundaries to be effected through exchange. 
If Federal funds sufficient to acquire 25 to 35 
billion feet of saw timber within the next 5 to 10 
years are made available, a Federal program should 
be set up to control overproduction in the Douglas- 
fir lumber industry by the methods outlined in the 
