Forest Industry Assistance Programs on 

 Nonindustrial Lands 



It is to the credit of the 

 industry that it recognized 

 both the need for and the 

 desirability of engaging in 

 various programs and 

 degrees of assistance to 

 nonindustrial owners of 

 timberlands in order to 

 raise the level of 

 management of these lands. 



For almost all of our Nation's 

 history, either the public or 

 private sector has pressed 

 for regulating the 

 management, particularly 

 the harvest, of timber on 

 privately owned 

 timberlands. Henry 

 Clepper's 1971 book, 

 "Professional Forestry in 

 the United States," recalls 

 many early efforts to 

 promote public regulation 

 of cutting practices on 

 private lands. One of these 

 was a report by the 

 Committee for the 

 Application of Forestry, 

 appointed by Frederick E. 

 Olmstead, president of the 

 Society of American 

 Foresters, in 1 91 9. This 

 committee, chaired by 

 Gifford Pinchot, produced a 

 report that declared: "Within 

 less than fifty years, our 

 present timber shortage will 

 have become a blighting 



timber famine." One of the 

 report's recommendations 

 was that the Federal 

 Government be authorized 

 "to fix standards and 

 promulgate rules to prevent 

 the devastation and to 

 provide for the perpetuation 

 of forest growth and the 

 production of forest crops 

 on privately owned 

 timberlands for commercial 

 purposes" (Clepper 1971, 

 p. 138). 



Both Olmstead and Pinchot 

 had Forest Service 

 backgrounds and were 

 generally acknowledged as 

 leaders in the field of 

 forestry. There was, 

 however, a group of Society 

 members who opposed the 

 proposal for mandatory 

 regulation to be enforced 

 by the Federal Government. 

 It appears that then, as 

 today, within the profession, 

 there were sincere 

 proponents of strict Federal 

 regulation, advocates of 

 strict hands-off free 

 enterprise, and people who 

 favored all levels of 

 intermediate controls, 

 including State Government 

 control, voluntary best 

 management practices, 

 and variations of all of these. 



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