Forest Protection Policy and Programs-- 
Fire, Insects, and Disease 
Christopher Risbrudt and James McDivitt (1) 
Introduction 
The review draft of the southern timber study 
report illustrates that the forest resource has a sig- 
nificant impact on the economy of the South. 
Forests occupy 181.5 million acres, or 36 percent of 
the total land area. Of the South's timberlands, 90 
percent are privately owned. The timber inventories 
of the South exceeded 220 billion cubic feet and 
produced 7.5 billion cubic feet of products in 1984. 
The stumpage value of timber harvested was over 
$3 billion, and the value added by harvest and trans- 
port was another $3.1 billion in 1984. The 1982 Cen- 
sus of Manufactures shows all forest industries with 
value added of $19.7 billion. Employment exceeded 
550,000 persons, who received $8.5 billion in wages 
and salaries. 
This major industry has shown great achieve- 
ment in the history of forestry, but the situation is 
changing. Net annual timber growth has leveled off 
or begun to decline. One of the reasons is an in- 
crease in mortality. Base projections from "The 
South's Fourth Forest" show removals exceeding 
net annual growth and declining inventories in the 
1990's. This scenario forebodes rising stumpage 
and product prices, lowering rates of increase in 
harvests, and declining forest industries' employ- 
ment. To sustain employment and vigor in the forest 
industries of the South, we must exercise the oppor- 
tunities to increase forest productivity. 
One of the basic mechanisms to achieve the 
economic potential of the South's “fourth forest" is 
protection. Protection is the vital step upon which 
the success of all other forest management de- 
pends. 
The purpose of this paper is to review the histo- 
ry of public policy and programs for protection in the 
(1) During preparation of this manuscript, Christopher Ris- 
brudt was director of Policy Analysis, USDA Forest 
Service, Washington, DC. He is presently Deputy Re- 
gional Forester in the Forest Service's Northern Re- 
gion, Missoula, MT. James McDivitt is branch chief of 
Policy Analysis in Washington. 
South and assess their current effectiveness. The 
paper will also provide a point of departure for dis- 
cussion of options for protection policy and pro- 
grams of the future at this symposium. 
History 
The passage of the Weeks Act in 1911 provided 
the first legislation in Federal-State cooperative fire 
protection. It approved up to $10,000 per year in 
Federal fire-protection funds to match State funds 
where the State had an administering agency. Sec- 
tion 2 of the Weeks Act authorized cooperative 
agreements with States to organize and maintain a 
system to protect from fire the lands in navigable 
river watersheds. In response to the Weeks Act, 
Southern States began passing legislation to pro- 
tect State forests from fire and to institute fire-control 
systems. Virginia and North Carolina were the first 
to pass such laws (1915) and Arkansas (1933) the 
last. 
As aresult of the post-World War | decline in the 
southern lumber industry, the Senate requested 
and received a status report on the industry. One 
recommendation was increased cooperation with 
the States in fire protection. In 1924 the Clarke- 
McNary Act expanded Federal aid for fire protection 
to forested watersheds of navigable streams and 
authorized $2.5 million annually for fire protection. 
In the early 1900's most fires were intentionally 
set, for a variety of reasons. Annual burning of forest 
lands was a southern tradition; in 1927 a monumen- 
tal reeducation effort was mounted to attempt to 
reverse it. Arson was also used to seek revenge 
upon forest landholders for grievances real and 
imagined. While acres burned in the 1980's were but 
10 percent of the acres burned in the 1920's, over 
97.5 percent of the fires were still person-caused in 
1986, a percentage that has stayed nearly constant 
over time. This rate represented slightly over one fire 
per thousand population in 1986, and a reduction of 
about 17 percent over the last decade. 
Fire protection grew in importance and was aid- 
ed by the Rural Community Fire Protection Act of 
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