by short-sighted owners who permit destructive 

 cutting on their properties. 



Under the plan suggested above, South Carolina 

 (as well as other States) would have ample oppor- 

 tunity to administer forest regulation within its 

 borders in a manner most acceptable to it, provided 

 only that its practices conform, as a minimum, to 

 the Federal standards. Within the framework of 

 these standards, specific rules of practice could be 

 developed for as many local administrative areas as 

 might be needed. In handling the job the State 

 would also have access to financial aid from the 

 Federal Government. This program should be 

 given priority by South Carolina because of the 

 urgent need for bringing the forest land into full pro- 

 ductivity, not only to promote local welfare and 

 prosperity, but as a direct means of discharging the 

 State's responsibility in the national picture. 



Federal Standards of Forest Management 



The Federal standards should protect forest lands 

 against fire, insects, and disease and prevent their 

 improper exploitation. This may be accomplished by: 

 (1) Requiring adequate restocking after cutting; (2) 

 prohibiting premature or wasteful cutting in young 

 stands; (3) providing for a reserve of growing stock 

 of desirable trees to keep the lands reasonably pro- 

 ductive; (4) preventing avoidable damage to uncut 

 trees, young growth, and watersheds; (5) regulating 

 grazing to prevent damage to tree growth, and (6) 

 prohibiting clear cutting except where it is silvicul- 

 turally necessary or the land is to be put to some 

 other suitable use. 



Most operators will find it good business to go be- 

 yond these standards. And it should be noted that 

 the regulation. proposed does not involve any inter- 

 ference with ordinary business practices. It does 

 not dictate the details of cutting or personnel 

 management, or impose a load of reporting and 

 accounting. It deals only with the prevention of 

 forest destruction and deterioration and with 

 keeping forest lands reasonably productive. 



Public Forests for South Carolina 



The benefits of public ownership and operation of 

 forest lands warrant at least a moderate extension of 

 this form of ownership in South Carolina. Further 

 acquisition of national-forest land is needed, parti- 

 cularly within the national-forest boundaries, to 

 consolidate the present holdings. The advantages 

 of public ownership include continuity of tenure 



and availability of trained personnel for adminis- 

 tration and protection; combined, these carry as- 

 surance of uninterrupted management in accordance 

 with long-term plans. Public forests, also, are more 

 readily devoted than private forests to other func- 

 tions than timber production, such as watershed 

 protection, recreation, and wildlife management. 

 They constitute demonstration areas where good 

 methods of management may be exhibited or prom- 

 ising innovations tried out. 



A strong incentive for the establishment of small 

 public forests is the possibility of devoting to per- 

 manent forest the lands in so-called "problem areas" 

 which have repeatedly reverted to the county be- 

 cause of tax delinquency. The present laws in South 

 Carolina provide for the transfer of unsold tax de- 

 linquent land to the County Forfeited Land Commis- 

 sion, thus enabling a county to place such land in 

 county forests, wherever forest management is prac- 

 ticable, and convert submarginal areas from liabilities 

 into productive assets. The Aiken County Forest is 

 an example of this procedure. However, since only a 

 small amount of tax delinquent land is in blocks suf- 

 ficiently large for efiicient forestry operations, such 

 developments are limited. 



Forest Research 



Most of the remedial measures that have been 

 suggested involve the use of technical methods of 

 forest management or forest product utilization, or 

 both. These methods are based upon knowledge 

 acquired partly by experience and partly by re- 

 search. Systematic forest research is the most de- 

 pendable way of acquiring the needed information. 

 The principal agencies now working on problems of 

 forest -management, reforestation, forest surveys, 

 forest economics, etc., pertinent to South Carolina 

 are the Appalachian and the Southern Forest Exper- 

 iment Stations of the United States Forest Service, 

 with headquarters at Asheville, N. C, and New Or- 

 leans, La., respectively. Research in the utilization 

 of forest products, which of course is beneficial to 

 the wood-using industries and to the public at large, 

 is being conducted by the Forest Products Labora- 

 tory at Madison, Wis. 



Information Service 



A far greater efi^ort than is possible under current 

 extension services is needed to develop among the 

 people of South Carolina a keener appreciation of 



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