communities, and to provide a broader tax base has not 

 been considered a county responsibility. Because this 

 responsibility does exist, each county should support the 

 following plan of action : 



1. To cooperate financially with the State and Federal 

 Government in fire protection on private forest land. In 

 the fiscal vear 1942 county and private contributions for 

 fire control totaled about $78,000, but for various reasons 

 41 counties were not cooperating. On the basis of esti- 

 mates by the Forest Survey about 17 million acres should 

 have State-administered forest-fire control. The State's 

 estimate of the cost of adequate protection is about 4.6 

 cents per acre per year, or approximately $785,000 for this 

 State-wide area. Of this total, some $200,000 could justly 

 come from county and private funds. 



2. In those portions ot the State where forest land pre- 

 dominates or is the major source of income, to cooperate 

 with the State and Federal agencies in employing local 

 foresters to assist farmers and small private owners and oper- 

 ators to apply sound forest practices and to find markets 

 for their forest products. Fifteen counties have over 75 

 percent of their land in forest. Local appraisal of the situ- 

 ation is necessary to determine the required number of 

 foresters. 



3. To encourage better management of forest land 

 through equitable and up-to-date methods of taxation. 

 Faulty assessment is the major defect in the present 

 method of taxing forest property; but it is also true that 

 the nature and administration ot the property tax is not 

 conducive to progressive forest management. County 

 governments should improve assessment practices and the 

 administration of the present tax law and should give 

 their support to a sound differential timber-tax bill, such 

 as that already presented to the general assembly. 



4.- Local planning committees to give full consideration 

 to the conservation and development of the forest resources 

 of the counties, coordinating them with the other resources 

 in a unified program of land use. 



State Action 



The prosperity of the people and industries within the 

 State depends, to a great extent, upon the available 

 resources and the prudence with which they are utilized. 

 The State government, representing the people, has a 

 direct responsibility to assist in the maintenance of pro- 

 ductive resources and in the development ot principles 

 and controls for their utilization. With respect to the 

 forest resources, the State has the responsibility for the 

 following lines of action: 



1. To provide adequate fire protection for all State and 

 private forest land with funds furnished by the State and 



Federal Governments, counties, and private landowners. 

 The State's contribution in the fiscal year 1942 was 

 $58,750, but for adequate protection $300,000 annuallv 

 would be needed. This sum, added to Federal and county 

 cooperative funds, would provide intensive protection on 

 the 11.7 million acres under agreement in 1941 and would 

 extend coverage to the 5.5 million acres now without 

 protection. The need for greater effort on fire control is 

 apparent in the fire record of the first half of 1941. During 

 this unusually dry period fires burned over nearly 6 percent 

 ot the forest land protected by the State as compared to 

 about 2 percent in 1940, causing damage amounting to 

 nearly $1,000,000. 



2. To provide assistance to timberland owners in re- 

 ducing the losses caused by forest diseases and insects. 

 A trained forest pathologist and forest entomologist should 

 be attached to the State forester's staff, to work in close 

 cooperation with the State entomologist and the Divi- 

 sion of Forest Pathology and Forest Insect Investigations 

 at the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station. Under a 

 revised Federal act to provide for cooperative protection 

 against forest diseases and insects as well as fire control on 

 private and State-owned land, at least $10,000 of State 

 funds would be needed annually to finance both activities. 



3. To provide tree seedlings or seed to all landowners 

 who wish to reforest idle land. The Forest Survey estimates 

 there are about 545,000 acres in need of complete planting 

 and about 1.4 million acres of sparsely stocked forest land 

 that should be interplanted for maximum production 

 In the year ending in June 1940, the State Division of For- 

 estry distributed about 2.5 million trees to its cooperators, 

 enough to plant approximately 2,000 acres. Obviously 

 this rate of planting is too slow. Under the present cooper- 

 ative agreement, nursery stock is produced in State-oper- 

 ated nurseries with Federal and State funds. Federal con- 

 tributions, exclusive of Civilian Conservation Corps labor, 

 have amounted to less than $2,000 per year, however, and 

 the total Federal and State expenditure, including money 

 obtained from the sale of seedlings, is only about $15,000 

 per year. To make significant progress in the planting 

 program it is estimated that a total expenditure of at least 

 $50,000 annually would be needed. Presumably the State 

 and Federal Governments would share the costs not 

 covered by the sale ot seedlings. 



4. To provide more assistance to farmers in the manage- 

 ment of their woodlands. This can be accomplished 

 through the employment of more foresters to advise in- 

 dividual farmers concerning good management practices 

 and to assist them in obtaining a satisfactory market for 

 their forest products. The forestry personnel could be 

 made available through cooperative arrangements between 



64 



