are unable or unwilling to maintain productivity, public 

 ownership is desirable. Public ownership of forest lands 

 in North Carolina should aim to secure the following: 

 (1) Forest management on land that is submarginal for 

 private ownership; (2) protection of the watersheds of 

 certain streams; (3) blocking up of existing public forests 

 and purchase units for more efficient administration; (4) 

 provision of additional recreational areas; and (5) demon- 

 stration ol good forest management including the produc- 

 tion of high-quality timber. Communities and counties 

 should acquire some ot the land, but the bulk of it should 

 be in State or Federal ownership. 



Intensify Research 



Before the people of North Carolina can manage and 

 utilize their forest and and resources to best advantage, 

 they must have more definite information concerning good 

 forest practices. Some of the needed information is avail- 

 able, lacking only application. A much larger part is still 

 to be obtained by careful experimentation and investiga- 

 tion. Few individual landowners are able to do more than 

 practice trial and error methods which are usually expen- 

 sive and time-consuming. The best way to meet the 

 need is by organized research under the direction of skilled 

 technicians. These can be either privately or publiclv 

 employed, but in North Carolina where small landowners 

 and small wood-products industries predominate, much 

 public research is necessary. Responsibility for this re- 

 search rests partly with the State, partly with the forest 

 schools, but predominantly with the Forest Service, since 

 it maintains a regional forest experiment station within the 

 State to study forest problems of this and neighboring 

 States. The research activities ol all these agencies should 

 be closely coordinated. 



Forest research has been under way at the Appalachian 

 Forest Experiment Station at Ashville, N. C, since 1921. 

 During this time considerable progress has been made; but 

 constantly changing forest and economic conditions create 

 problems that cannot be solved by a stereotyped research 

 program of limited duration, and therefore there are still 

 many investigations to be completed and others to be 

 started. To be effective, research must be able to attack 

 new problems as they arise without abandoning established 

 long-time investigations basic to the practice ot forestry. 

 In North Carolina greater emphasis should be placed on 

 the following phases of forest research: 



1. Determination of the most satisfactory silvicultural 

 management for pine in the Coastal Plain and piedmont. 



2. Costs and returns ot sustained-yield management, 

 particularly in the mountain hardwoods. 



3. Comparative advantages of growing pulpwood, 

 sawlogs, veneer bolts, or other forest products with respect 

 to net income, cutting cycles, employment, and industrial 

 development. 



4. Methods of classifying soils as to their potential 

 forest productivity in order to obtain a sound basis for 

 making land use classifications. 



5. Forest-products research to develop new and expand 

 old markets to facilitate utilization of little-used species 

 and low-grade material. 



6. The small sawmill industry, with special emphasis 

 upon cutting practices, logging and milling, marketing of 

 product, and finances. 



7. Improvement in fire protection and control technique, 

 especially in the Coastal Plain; also investigations to de- 

 termine economically justifiable expenditures for fire 

 control, by forest types, and the equitable apportionment 

 of such costs among public and private interests. 



8. Forest watershed management and its effect upon 

 erosion, water supply, stream flow, and flood control. 



9. Intensification of the Forest Survey to provide 

 volume, growth, and drain data by counties and industrial 

 territories. 



10. Planting of denuded areas and abandoned fields in 

 the western Coastal Plain and piedmont with emphasis on 

 methods, costs, species, sites, and returns. 



11. Beef cattle production in the Coastal Plain forests, 

 its possibilities and correlation with timber production. 



12. Development ot standard log grades for pine and 

 hardwoods. 



13. Pond pine silviculture to obtain more effective use of 

 pocosins and "open land." 



14. Forest land use planning to bring about a proper 

 balance among forestry, farming, watersheds, recreational 

 areas, range use, and wildlife developments. 



15. Forest economics investigations to determine the 

 relative net returns to the owner and the relative emplov- 

 ment made available to the public from maintaining grow- 

 ing stocks of 1, 3, 5, 8, or 10 M board feet per acre in each 

 important softwood and hardwood type. 



Intensive research along these suggested lines will 

 provide the basis for a great improvement in timber man- 

 agement and utilization. Forest research requires time, 

 however, and measures to increase the utility of the forest 

 resource should not be delayed. With existing knowledge 

 there are many opportunities to improve forest practices, 

 growing stock, protection, and utilization for greater social 

 and economic good. These opportunities can be realized 

 through an organized action program participated in by 

 individuals, local governing bodies, and public agencies. 



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