198 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



Table 121. — Commercial and noncommercial jorest land ' requiring protection from fire, and area protected 

 during 1952, by section and region oj United States and Coastal Alaska 





Total area 

 requiring 

 protection 



Protected 

 area 



Unprotected forest land 



Section and region 



Area 



Proportion of 

 total forest 

 area requir- 

 ing protection 



North: 



New England - _ _ _ 



Thousand 

 acres 

 31, 378 

 44, 894 

 55, 201 

 41, 827 

 35, 168 



Thousand 

 acres 

 31,378 

 44, 894 

 55, 199 

 30, 554 

 4,933 



Thousand 

 acres 



Percent 



Middle Atlantic - - - _ - 







Lake States - - - -- 



2 

 11,273 

 30, 235 



(^) 



Central _ _ - 



27 



Plains - - _ . 



86 







Total 



208, 468 



166, 958 



41,510 



20 







South: 



South Atlantic ... _ . . 



47, 288 

 96, 906 

 53, 071 



45, 399 

 79, 657 

 40, 655 



1,889 

 17, 249 

 12, 416 



4 



Southeast 



18 



West Gulf - . - - . . - - - - 



23 







Total .-._.. ... 



197, 265 



165,711 



31, 554 



16 







West: 



Pacific Northwest . . . 



54, 131 

 52, 082 



55, 261 

 89, 630 



54, 131 

 52, 082 



55, 184 

 80, 381 







California . . . . _ .= . 







Northern Rocky Mountain 



77 

 9,249 



(^) 



Southern Rocky Mountain _ . . . 



10 







Total ... _ 



251, 104 



241, 778 



9, 326 



4 







United States . . . 



656, 837 

 16, 508 



574, 447 

 16, 508 



82, 390 



13 



Coastal Alaska .... 











Total 



673, 345 



590, 955 



82, 390 



12 







' Includes approximately 185 million acres of noncommer- 

 cial forest land; of this total, 10 million acres is nonforest 

 land in California and North Dakota. The total comprises 

 35 million acres in the North, 4 million acres in the South, 



the decreasing value of the dollar. The following 

 tabulation shows little significant change in 

 eflfective fire control funds from 1932 to the mid- 

 1940's. Following the war, an increase of about 

 a third in terms of 1952 dollars was realized. 



Buying power 



of the dollar ' Expenditures in 

 Year: Actual expenditure 1962=1.00 1952 dollars 



1932 .$12,100,000 3.3 $40,066,000 



1937 15,400,000 2.4 37,470,000 



1942 21,300,000 2.0 43,293,000 



1947 44, 600, 000 1.4 62, 378, 000 



1952 63,200,000 1.0 63,200,000 



' Derived from U. S. Dept. of Commerce Business Sta- 

 tistics, 1955 edition, indexes for labor, supplies, and equip- 

 ment. 



It is significant to note that there was no im- 

 portant change in effective dollar expenditures 

 from 1947 to 1952, a period when protected area 

 increased substantially and the demands for 

 better resource protection likewise advanced. It 

 is to the credit of fire protection forces everyAV'here 



134 million acres in the West, 

 Coastal .\laska. 

 2 Negligible. 



and 12 million acres in 



that fire losses did not creep up as available funds 

 became spread thinner and thinner. Obviously, 

 this trend cannot long continue before the weight 

 of a bigger job under more or less fixed financial 

 resources will result in greater timber losses. 



Today almost half of the total fire-control bill 

 is in the West (table 125), where under hazardous 

 combinations of fuel, weather, and topography, 

 fire organizations have achieved considerable 

 success but not completely satisfactory protec- 

 tion. About one-third of the total expenditure 

 is in the South, with a substantial part of the cost 

 in the Southeast Region. New England, the 

 Middle Atlantic, and the Lake States Regions 

 spend most of the fire-control dollars in the North. 



Expenditures made in 1952 to protect private 

 forest land totaled $43 million, or 67 percent of 

 the national total. Slightl}' over $15 million, or 

 24 percent, was spent on the national forests. 

 Expenditures on forest land of different owner- 

 ships in 1952 are shown in table 126. 



