What Needs to be Done 
KKK 
DY 
N BRIEF, the findings of the 1949 forest survey 
reveal that, although the timber supply outlook 
in Florida has improved in many ways since the 
first forest survey, some of these gains have been 
offset by further deterioration in other ways. The 
principal gain was the increase in growth brought 
about by a substantial increase in the amount of 
young timber, coupled with a marked reduction in 
mortality. As a result of this increased growth, 
along with a reduction in commodity drain, during 
the year 1948 both saw-timber and all growing-stock 
growth exceeded drain for the State as a whole. 
However, in spite of these encouraging improve- 
ments, many undesirable forest conditions that existed 
at the time of the first forest survey have become 
worse. Florida now has less area of pine types and 
more area of scrub oak, more area of poor quality 
hardwood type, more volume of cull hardwoods, and 
smaller volume of large, quality timber. There is 
still far too much poorly stocked land, and in some 
areas too many worked-out turpentine trees in the 
stands. 
These undesirable conditions are not entirely the 
result of past practices; many of the factors giving 
rise to these conditions are still active. In spite of 
the improvement in forest practices since the first 
survey, indiscriminate and careless burning of the 
woods for range improvement and other reasons, 
poor naval stores practices, and poor cutting practices 
are still prevalent enough in Florida to cause further 
serious deterioration. A continuation of these prac- 
tices not only threatens to nullify past gains but to 
retard the build-up in forest productivity. 
To meet its own need for wood products and also 
to contribute its share of timber to the national 
goal,* it is estimated that Florida should plan to 
grow twice as much saw timber and three-fourths 
8 National goal for annual growth placed at 20 billion 
cubic feet of all timber, including 72 billion board feet of 
saw timber, by Forest Service reappraisal of the forest situa- 
tion in 1945. 
again as much timber 5.0 inches and larger as it 
did in 1948. This would mean increasing saw-timber 
growth from a little more than a billion board feet 
to more than 2 billion, and growing-stock growth 
from 370 million cubic feet to nearly 650 million. 
Before any substantial progress can be made 
toward the achievement of this goal, corrective 
action along several lines must be stepped up. 
1. Reduce the loss of timber due to fire. The 
first and most important step toward reducing fire 
damage is the extension of organized fire protection 
to all forest land in the State. But the job of reducing 
fire losses does not stop with organized fire protec- 
tion; in many cases it will have to be followed by 
intensive effort to get better enforcement of fire 
laws, and by education*aimed at making local people 
aware of the harm done by indiscriminate burning. 
Even when landowners realize that they should 
protect their land from wildfires, they frequently 
need information and technical advice on how to use 
fire safely and effectively (fig. 39). Still more re- 
search on the techniques of prescribed burning and 
their relation to timber management, turpentining, 
and grazing is needed. 
2. Integrate timber growing and grazing. A good 
deal, perhaps most, of the damage to timber values 
caused by fire would be eliminated if burning in 
connection with cattle raising could be controlled. 
The landowners themselves, especially those in the 
northern part of the State, are becoming increasingly 
aware of timber values and are becoming more and 
more interested in controlling the burning on their 
land. The big job is that of restraining the people 
who run their cattle on other people’s land and 
have no stake in the timber. The recently adopted 
fence law in Florida, which requires that stock be 
kept off State highways, promises to be an important 
step in this direction. The law will require fencing 
range land adjacent to State highways. Landowners 
can then control grazing by refusing to permit the 
building of a fence on their land or by making the 
46 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
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