12 Department Circular 112, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



military reservations, which are valuable chiefly for the production 

 of timber or protection of watersheds, and all lands of similar char- 

 acter hereafter revested in or acquired by the United States; and 

 authorize the President upon recommendation of the National 

 Forest Reservation Commission, or otherwise, to incorporate such 

 lands in National Forests. 



About a fifth of the forest lands in the United States are now 

 publicly owned. One of the most direct and effective means of 

 arresting devastation and offsetting the dangers arising from concen- 

 tration of timber in private ownership is the extension of publicly 

 owned forests. It is, under present conditions, the only effective 

 means for overcoming the depletion of old-growth timber of high 

 quality and for restocking many denuded areas which require 

 planting. 



The public should own a half of the timber-growing land hi the 

 United States, well distributed through all the principal forest 

 regions. Every encouragement should be given to the States and to 

 municipalities to acquire forest land, but the Federal Government 

 must take the lead, In all Federal acquisitions, there must be an 

 equitable compensation to communities for the tax returns of which 

 they are deprived. 



Appropriations for the purchase of forest lands should be used: 

 First, to complete the program laid out for the protection of the 

 watersheds of navigable streams under the Weeks Act, through 

 acquiring about one million acres in New England and about five 

 million acres in the Southern Appalachians; and second, to acquire 

 cut-over land not necessarily upon important watersheds but dis- 

 tributed through all the principal forest regions where areas suitable 

 for Federal management can be obtained. Much desirable timber- 

 growing, land in the vicinity of existing National Forests can be 

 acquired by exchange for National Forest timber or timber certificates ; 

 and the administration of the National Forests will be improved and 

 simplified through the consolidation of mingled public and private 

 lands. As part of this policy, it is of the utmost importance that all 

 timber-growing land and land valuable chiefly for watershed pro- 

 tection which the Government now owns or controls or in any manner 

 may acquire shall be withheld from other disposition, with a view 

 to its incorporation in National Forests. An effective administrative 

 agency for carrying out this policy and for determining the best 

 means of liquidating existing equities in such lands, as in the case of 

 Indian Reservations, now exists in the National Forest Reservation 

 Commission, representing three executive departments and both 

 Houses of Congress, which passes upon purchases under the Weeks 

 Act. 



