HOW THE I^ATIONAL FOEESTS BENEFIT THE STATE 5 



Assistance is also given the State, counties, and private individuals 

 in fire protection and protection against forest insects and tree 

 diseases. The annual cash value of these benefits to the local com- 

 munities is estimated at $12,056. 



SUMMARY OF DIRECT RETURNS AND BENEFITS TO STATE AND COUNTIES, ANNUAL 



AVERAGE, 1923-1927 



25 per cent fund S297, 554 



Road and trail expenditures (including 10 per cent fund) 1, 205, 564 



Indirect contributions 12, 056 



1, 515, 174 



This is equivalent to a tax of 8 cents per acre per year for all national- 

 forest lands, including rocky and barren areas, or other lands of 

 no value for grazing or timber from which no revenue can be derived 

 by the Federal Government, although expenditures must be made 

 each year for their protection and development. 



PRESENT RETURNS VERSUS PROBABLE TAX REVENUE 



This sum of $1,515,174 per year, returned by the Federal Govern- 

 ment to the State and counties, is, in effect, a direct offset against 

 taxes which might be collected if the national forests did not exist. A 

 comparison between this amount and the tax revenue value of 

 national-forest lands shows that of the 18,971,409 acres of Government 

 forest land in California only 4,179,148 acres are in the taxable cate- 

 gory. The remaining 14,792,261 acres consist of inaccessible timber 

 stands, nonmerchantable stands of young growth and inferior timber, 

 brush lands, and considerable areas of barren lava or granite which 

 are found along the summits of the moimtain ranges. A large part of 

 this area is used for sununer range for stock but is of such low forage 

 value that profitable private ownership is not possible. Land of 

 this character is not worth paying taxes on, yet under Forest Service 

 management it does return a small revenue to the State and county 

 through receipts from grazing fees. In nearly all cases the lands 

 classified as nontaxable have valuable watershed cover and must be 

 protected and managed to safeguard that important function. 



There is almost no agricultural land in CaHfornia witliin national- 

 forest boundaries remaining in Government ownership. What did 

 exist was largely acquired privately before the national forests were 

 created, or taken up later under the forest homestead act of June 11, 

 1906. A thorough land classification of the national forests was 

 completed in 1920, and all lands primarily of agricultural value, where 

 occurring in sufficiently large tracts to make an economic farm unit, 

 were classified as agricultural and opened to homestead entry. The 

 Forest Service has since found that, in its desire to be fair with prospec- 

 tive settlers, it was entirely too hberal in its classification. Some 

 7,000 tracts embracing 328,000 acres were opened to homestead 

 entry in California. According to the last report 56 per cent of these 

 homesteads have been abandoned. On the Modoc National Forest 

 88 tracts were opened to entry and onl}^ 3 are actually occupied to-day. 

 This is an economic condition confronting not only national-forest 

 land but all land situated in the mountains. Lands in western 

 Trinity and eastern Humboldt Counties, which were homesteaded 

 15 to 60 years ago, are 72 per cent abandoned, and like conditions 

 exist in portions of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range. 



