practices that may degrade 
water quality. 
Many State personnel have 
also been trained to be 
certified pesticide applicators. 
This assures that advice, 
assistance, and services 
they provide will be in 
compliance with both State 
and Federal laws and the 
pesticides used will be in 
accordance with the label 
requirements and restrictions. 
A third environmental area in 
which State forestry 
organizations are involved is 
air quality, specifically in 
smoke management from 
prescribed fire, smoke from 
wildfire, and spray drift from 
pesticide applications. 
Several States have 
developed guidelines for use 
in preparing prescriptions for 
controlled burning. The 
guidelines are tied to the 
needs of local areas and to 
the local weather forecast to 
assure that smoke will 
dissipate quickly without 
posing a visibility hazard on 
highways or airfields. Smoke 
in heavily populated areas is 
avoided, too. 
State forestry organizations 
are also monitoring stations 
that measure atmospheric 
deposition and ozone levels. 
"Free" Public Assistance 
The controversy over 
providing free (that is, 
tax-supported) public 
assistance and financial 
incentives to private 
landowners is still alive after 
75 years. The debate focuses 
on three basic points. First is 
the policy of spending public 
funds to assist individual 
landowners in management 
and partial financing of 
forestry practices such as 
planting and timber stand 
improvement. Second is the 
question of whether the 
investment of these funds 
provides a reasonable return 
for the public good. Third is 
the question of whether the 
Government's providing free 
services deprives the private 
enterprise forester of work 
and income. More recent is 
the related question of 
whether the availability of 
financial assistance reduces 
the investments made by 
nonindustrial landowners. 
Each of these questions has 
been argued many times 
with various data. Four 
studies merit attention in the 
context of these questions. 
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