NORTHERN IDAHO FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 



Forest-Resource Ownership 



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THE success ot forest planning is limited by the 

 ability and desire of landowners to participate. 

 The private owner is concerned with the immediate 

 and practical problem of making an income on his invest- 

 ment, which, in northern Idaho, has not been particularly 

 easy during recent years. Most private forest owners 

 have been forced into a relatively short-time viewpoint in 

 the management ot their lands. 



The primary pub'ic interest extends beyond the next few 

 years — or even the next two or three decades — and the 

 social gains and losses of forest communities must be 

 balanced over a longer period. Today the immediate 

 interests of the private torest-land owner and the long- 

 time interest of the public are in direct conflict, with the 

 public facing a distinct economic loss. One ot the primary 

 objectives of forest planning is to help the present private 

 owner go farther in satistying the public interest than he 

 has been financially able to do in the past. To the extent 

 that this is not possible, an etFort must be made to transfer 

 the title of forest land to a torm ot ownership which can 

 assume this responsibility. 



The ownership pattern in northern Idaho does not lend 

 itself readily to effective timber management. By the 

 very nature of the crop, requiring a century or more to 

 mature, forest units, it they are to be managed efficiently 

 on a commercial scale, should occur in large unbroken 

 blocks. Yet, its patchwork nature is one of the out- 

 standing features ot the present ownership pattern. This 

 arises partly from the subdivision of the land into many 

 small holdings, but partly from the fact that even the 

 large timber holdings are generally not solid blocks. 

 Unity of management is desirable and can be achieved 

 either through cooperation of the many owners or through 

 the amalgamation of the units into fewer holdings. 



' The bulk of the land-ownership information was collected from 

 county records in 1934. Since that time an appreciable area has passed 

 from private hands to the counties. Although it has been necessary to 

 adjust area and volume-inventory estimates to allow for the cutting, 

 fire losses, and growth between type mapping and January 1939, it has 

 been impracticable to make any changes in ownership status. 



History of Ownership 



The local problems ot forest-land ownership may be said 

 to have had their origin in the Federal land policy in dis- 

 posal of the public domain, which was geared to meet the 

 needs of an agricultural industry in farm regionj where 160 

 acres of tarm land would adequately sustain a family. In 

 retrospect, the unwisdom of carrying this policy into the 

 forested mountains of the West is obvious. 



In the middle of the nineteenth century, the entire area 

 of northern Idaho — 12.5 million acres — was unappropriated 

 public domain. The creation of the Lapwai Indian Reser- 

 vation by the Stevens Treaty of 1855 marked the first 

 large elimination of land from this public domain, and 

 marked also the beginning of 50 years of extensive aliena- 

 tion. In 1863 the organic Act of the Idaho Territory 

 provided for the reservation ot sections 16 and 36 in every 

 township to turnish revenue for the use ot public schools 

 and established the nucleus of the State holdings. The 

 fertile prairies began to attract homesteaders in large 

 numbers during the 1870's, and a wave of settlement 

 followed which extended into the outer fringes of the 

 timbered country. Settlement was stimulated by the 

 construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the early 

 eighties. By the terms of acts of 1864 and 1870, this 

 company had acquired the largest single private-land 

 holding in northern Idaho, a checkerboard allotment ot 

 unoccupied odd-numbered sections for 40 miles on both 

 sides of its track, and the privilege of making lieu selections 

 for the occupied sections in two additional 10-mile strips. 

 According to a record compiled in 1924, the railroad 

 received 1.2 million acres of land under the terms of this 

 grant. 



Although large forest areas were thus earmarked, these 

 early grants were made sight unseen on a purely arbitrary 

 basis, with no conscious etfort to select forest land. Nor 

 did the first settlers seek forest lands to any extent. This 

 situation changed only with the beginning of the present 

 century, when lumbermen from the Lake States turned to 

 the western white pine for the continuation of their 



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