owni:rship of forest land and timber 



315 



the 1930's, as shown in the following tabulation of 

 net areas added to or eliminated from the national 

 forests (including limited associated lands com- 

 prised of experimental and land-utilization areas): 



Increase or 

 decrease (— ) 



Period (fiscal year) : (thousand acres) 



1930-34 2, 841 



1935-39 12, 892 



1940-44. 

 1945-49- 



1950 



1951 



1952 



1953 



1954 



1955 



1956 



385^ 



276 



111 



128 



-216 



-55 



56J 



3, 051 



1, 839 



685 



Total 21 , 308 



Much of the land added to the national forests 

 in the depression years was by purchase. Such 

 acquisitions, besides the basic purposes of water- 

 shed protection and timber production, was de- 

 signed to aid forest landowners, minimize tax de- 

 linquency, and place cutover and depleted forest 

 lands under stable management. 



Areas acquired for national-forest purposes 

 steadily declined after the depression, however, 

 and in 1954 and 1955 statistics show a net decrease 

 in the area of national forests and associated lands. 

 In recent years, land has been added to the 

 national forests primarily through land exchanges 

 and transfers from, other Federal agencies. Ex- 

 changes and transfers to other agencies have also 

 accounted for most of the recent eliminations from 

 the national forests and associated lands, as 

 shown below: 



Thousand 



Additions, fiscal years 1950-56: «"■<■» 



Reserved from public domain 44 



Purchases 227 



Exchanges — conveyed to United States 1, 077 



Transfers — from other Federal agencies 373 



Donations 6 



Total +1,727 



Net adjustments in acreages from new surveys, 



release of claims, etc +102 



Eliminations, fiscal years 1950-56: 



Returned to public domain 105 



Sales, patents, and miscellaneous grants 124 



Exchanges — conveyed by United States 455 



Transfers — to other Federal agencies 460 



Total 



\et change, fiscal years 1950-56- 



1, 144 



+ 685 



Although purchases were temporarily of large 

 importance during the depression years, purchased 

 land in the national forests as of June 30, 1956, 

 amounted to only 10 percent of the total national- 

 forest area. Lands acquired by exchanges of 

 national-forest land or timber, transfers from 

 other Federal agencies, or donations constituted 

 5 percent of the total: 



June SO, I9S9 June SO, l9Sf: 



. . Area Proportion Area Propor- 



Origtn {thousand {percent) {thousand tion 



Reserved public lucres) acres) {percent) 



domain. 156,109 97.7 153,938 85.0 



Purchases 2,996 1.9 18,397 10.2 



Exchanges 554 .3 6,727 3.7 



Transfers from 



other Federal 



agencies 100 .1 1,589 0.9 



Donations 2 408 0.2 



Total '159,751 100.0 '181,059 100.0 



' Includes experimental areas, and certain Bankhead- 

 Jones Title III lands transferred to the Forest Service prior 

 to January 2, 1954. 



Lands originally acquired from the public 

 domain thus still make up 85 percent of the 

 national-forest area. They contain a considerabl}- 

 higher proportion of the timber volume in the 

 national forests. 



Purchases for national forests have been con- 

 centrated in the East, as shown in table 179, 

 while land acquired by exchange has been located 

 primarily in the West. 



National- Forest Management 

 FOR Multiple Use 



The basic purpose in establishing the forest 

 reserves, according to the Administration Act of 

 1897, was "to improve and protect the forest 

 within the reservation, or for the purpose of 

 securing favorable conditions of water flows, and 

 to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the 

 use and necessities of citizens of the United States." 



Subsequent legislation has also recognized the 

 importance of continued use and consei'vation of 

 all resources in the national forests — including 

 water, timber, recreation, forage, wildlife, and 

 minerals. Management of the national forests is 

 thus geared to the concept of "multiple use" and 

 "sustained yield" of all resources for the benefit 

 of a wide variety of user groups. 



Much land in the national forests is primarily 

 suitable for public ownership because of the 

 multiple values involved, including the predomi- 

 nance of water and the growing importance of 

 recreation. In the western national forests are 

 found the headwaters of all the major rivers that 

 run through the various Western States. These 

 public forests provide the water supply for some 

 1,800 cities and towns, more than 15 million acres 

 of irrigated farmlands, and thousands of power 

 plants and industrial installations. Management 

 of national-forest lands for water production is of 

 critical importance throughout both the West and 

 the East to insure increasingly important supplies 

 of usable water and to protect enormous invest- 

 ments in irrigation, power, and industrial develop- 

 ments. 



