73o CONGRESS!

SENATE
QTTMAT'T? /DOCUMENT
1st Session } | No> 12

A NATIONAL PLAN
FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

LETTER
FROM

THE SECEETAKY OF AGRICULTUKE

TRANSMITTING IN RESPONSE TO

S. Res. 175
(SEVENTY-SECOND CONGRESS)
THE REPORT OF THE FOREST SERVICE OF THE
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT ON THE
FOREST PROBLEM OF THE
UNITED STATES

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II

Index in back of Volume II

MARCH 13 (calendar day, MARCH 30), 1933. Referred to

the Committee on Printing

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
168342 WASHINGTON 1933 :
 SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 57
Submitted by MR. COPELAND

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

March 13 (calendar day, April 4), 1933.
Resolved, That the report of the Department of Agriculture entitled
"A National Plan for American Forestry/' transmitted to the Senate
on March 30, 1. 33, in response to Senate Resulution 175, Seventy-
second Congress, be printed, with illustrations, as a Senate document.
Attest :

EDWIN A. HALSEY,
Secretary.
II

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C.

Price $1.75 per set of 2 volumes.
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

Page
Federal and State aid 1051
Federal financial and other direct aid to the States 1095
The national forests as a form of Federal aid to the States 1095
Federal aid in organizaing forest credit facilities 1125
Other Federal forest activities as forms of State aid 11 35
Public acquisition of private lands as an aid to private forestry 1147
State aid to private owners and local political units 11 77
Factors affecting Federal and State aid . 1203
National programs required and the responsibility for them 1229
The area which can and should be used for forestry 1231
Future adjustments in land use and ownership 1241
The probable future distribution of forest land ownership 1253
Ownership responsibilities, costs, and returns 1303
A program for direct Federal and State aid 1329
A possible program for public regulation
Enlarging the consumption of forest products 1355
Protection against fire 1395
Protection against forest insects 1415
Protection against forest diseases 1419
How to stop forest devastation 1429
A program for intensive forest management 1455
Reforestation of barren and unproductive land 1485
A watershed protection program 1509
A forest range program 1 537
A program for forest recreation 1543
A forest wild life program. _. 1547
A program for forest research 1555
Forest extension, an appraisal and a program _ 1 575
The programs summarized as to costs, financing, and needed legisla-
tion 1 587

Appendix 1639
Alaska 1641
Puerto Rico__ 1646
Index 1653
in
1646 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

relation to present and future local needs; (2) damage by fire, past
and present, on forest and tundra lands; (3) localities in which fire
protective measures are justified; (4) kind, size, and cost of the pro-
tection organization needed.
This reconnaissance survey of interior Alaska, necessary as a
preliminary to establishing organized fire protection in this territory,
would be made largely by airplane, and would require about 3 years.
The survey and the fire-preventive organization are estimated to cost
$50,000 a year.
Fire protection is the only important forestry measure for the
interior forest which appears to be justifiable at this time. It is
doubtful if any system of intensive forest management will be justifi-
able in view of the slow growth and small size of the trees and the
restricted markets for a long time to come.

PUERTO RICO
By R. M. EVANS, Assistant Regional Forester Eastern Region

Puerto Rico is very sparsely wooded. The impenetrable forest

jungles,commonly associated with the West Indies, are so scarce that
one may cross and recross the island without seeing them, for, with
the exception of those in the Sierra de Luquillo, they are tucked away
in the more inaccessible places into which few except the "jibaro"
ever penetrate. The island is, however, by no means devoid of wood
growth. Around almost every habitation there are groups of trees,
and numerous scattered trees dot the open landscape. The protective
cover of shade trees of the coffee plantations gives a decidedly forested
appearance to many localities.
Puerto Rico presents an unusual combination of physical and
economic conditions. The insular and geographic position of the
country, its small size, its restricted area of level lands, and its density
of population, to mention but a few of many influences, have occa-
sioned unusual demands on the forests. The same cycle of change is
found here as is recorded by civilization everywhere a profligate
waste and despoliation of the bounties of nature, followed by an acute
need for what has been destroyed.
Puerto Rico is the eastermost and smallest of the Greater Antilles.
It is approximately 100 miles long and 35 miles wide and is remarkably
rectangular in outline. Its area is approximately 3,435 square miles,
or 2,200,000 acres. Puerto Rico and the other islands of the Antilles
and Central America and northern South America were formerly,
according to geologists, a united and distinct continental land mass
the Antillean Continent.
Puerto Rico embraces three main physiographic regions a central
mountainous core of volcanic origin, an elevated area of coral lime-
stone surrounding the mountainous portion, and the coastal plain.
The central mountainous area occupies by far the largest portion of
the island; it is also the most important from the standpoint of the
island's forests. Viewed from the sea, it presents a rugged and ser-
rated aspect; numerous peaks and summits, with no definite crest line,
rise from a general mass, which has been cut by erosion into lateral
ridges, separated by deep, steep-sided gorges.
 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1647

The Sierra de Luquillo, the most easterly of the three ranges making
up the central mountains, is nearly surrounded by low coastal plains
and is practically isolated. The remaining mountain mass forms an
uninterrupted expanse of broken uplands. The eastward portion is
known as the Sierra de Cayey that to the west, the Cordillera Central.
;

This region has an average elevation of about 2,500 feet, above which
the higher peaks project irregularly, a few to an elevation of more than
3,500 feet.
As a result of the almost uninterrupted action of abundant precipi-
tation, a high relative humidity, and a warm temperature, rock
weathering at the higher elevations is more rapid than erosion, as
shown by a soil mantle of unusual depth and almost no bare rock.
The characteristic soils are deep, reddish clay loams and tenacious
red clays. So cohesive, unctuous, and compact are these soils that
they are able to maintain themselves in an almost vertical position.
Cultivation, in consequence, is in many places carried on to the very
tops of the ridges and on the steepest slopes, yet evidence of gullying
and landslides in the high country is surprisingly inconspicuous.
Sheet erosion, which removes the top layers of the soil, is common,
but ordinarily escapes notice.
There can be little doubt that at one time Puerto Kico was com-
pletely forested. Following the Spanish settlement, early in the six-
teenth century, land passed rapidly into the hands of private owners.
Final clearings, severe burning, and the previous cutting of the more
desirable timber trees, all in preparation for the planting of coffee,
tobacco, cane, or other crops, continuing over a long period of time,
has resulted in the present naked state of the island 's hills and valleys.
The valleys and other topographically suited and fertile areas have
been justly devoted to tillage or coffee growing; but there remain
today approximately 1,100,000 acres of forest, brush, swamp, and
barren lands of which but an insignificant part contains forest growth
of economic value. According to statistics of the Department of
Agriculture and Labor of Puerto Rico, the land area of the island is
classified approximately as follows :
1648 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY

The best known of these, and the largest as well, covers about 12,000
acres of the Luquillo Range and is now under Federal management.
The aggregate of all the other remnants is believed to be well within
5,000 acres, making the total area of original forest less than 1 percent
of the total land area. The Insular Forest Service estimates that
Puerto Rico has not more than one eighth of its area in growing
forests of any kind, including the areas under coffee culture.
Of the 1,100,000 acres in the third classification above, there are
"
about 400,000 acres which have been assessed as timber and brush
lands" and a few thousand acres more classed as swamps and largely
"
under mangrove. Of the timber and brush" areas, the bulk are
found in the southern, southeastern, and southwestern parts of the
island. Insular authorities estimate that altogether 400,000 to
450,000 acres are unsuited to profitable agricultural use and should
be kept perpetually in forest.
About 95 percent of the land area is in private ownership. Of the
less than 130,000 acres remaining in public ownership, by far the
greater part lies in the mountains. Federally owned lands within the
Luquillo National Forest amount to 13,885 acres. Insular forests
account for about 40,000 acres, of which 25,000 acres are in the
uplands and 15,000 acres in mangrove swamps. Thus, less than
54,000 acres of the public lands are under definite control and
management.
Forests make their presence felt^ through their influence on climate,
on stream flow, and on soil erosion. In a country as abundantly
watered as Puerto Rico whether the forests cause slightly more rain
in the aggregate matters little. The most important influence of the
forest is in the checking of floods and erosion, though the conditions
in Puerto Rico are such as to make the control of floods by forestation
alone impossible. Throughout a greater part of the year the forest
soils inthe mountains are nearly, if not quite, saturated with moisture.
Steep slopes and rain in the form of brief but torrential downpours
are the rule and complete a combination favorable to most rapid
run-off. These make it necessary to supplement forestation by a
succession of reservoirs and a cleaning up of the channels if any
noticeable reduction of the eroding effects of floods is to be accom-
plished.
Forests aid in conserving the water in the soil. The trees increase
enormously the amount of water that goes into the soil instead of
running off on the surface and then help the soil to retain it.
Forests influence erosion in two ways: By reducing the force and
interrupting the passage of the run-off in the catchment areas around
the headwaters of the streams, they slow up the washing away of the
surface layers of the soil and greatly impede gullying. At the same
time, the ability of the run-off to transport eroded material is very
considerably lessened.
The greatest damage is done when the run-off is gathered into the
streams of the island and reaches the foothills country, wherethee
heavy clays of the interior are replaced by the lighter and more
readily eroded coast soils. The rivers are generally too short to choke
up and overflow yet they are continually widening and shifting their
;

channels, cutting off islands from adjoining fields, and undermining

their banks. The close relation of the existing forest cover to stream
flow and erosion is not difficult to observe. For this purpose, the
 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1649

lower reaches of the north coast rivers, particularly those rising in the
coffee district or the Luquillo, may be compared with the south coast
rivers. The former show relatively few abandoned channel beds
and less spreading stream bottoms, are obstructed only by sandy or
gravelly bars and relatively small boulders, and maintain a reasonable
flow of water even in the dry months. South side rivers, which are
largely fed by the rains falling on the steep grass slopes of the Cor-
dillera Central, have wide, dry bottoms showing often no less than
six different channels separated by low islands. The boulders,
which are everywhere strewn about, are several times the size of those
in the north coast rivers, and in the dry months the stream is of
insignificant proportions in the midst of surroundings indicative of
destructive power.
In the larger commercial sense, the forests of Puerto Rico are
particularly deficient. In their present condition, they neither add
to the island's export trade nor provide the raw material for important
local industries. They furnish only one fourth of the wood materials
actually used on the island. Even as they stand, however, they are
vitally important as a source of domestic wood supply.
The principal fuel of the island's \% million inhabitants is charcoal,
of which enormous quantities are used. There is also a demand for
stakes, posts, cabinet woods, and construction timbers. In normal
years, Puerto Rico imports wood products to the value of 5 to 6
million dollars, much of it in the form of softwood lumber from the
Southern States. Importation of this class of material will probably
continue, since no pines or other softwoods are native to the island,
but there appears to be no reason why the 400,000 or more acres of
land unsuited to agriculture should not be made to produce such
other forest material as is needed, with a surplus of valuable cabinet
woods for export.
The insular government is not unmindful of its forest problems, and
legislation has already been enacted which
will aid greatly in remedy-
ing the deplorable condition of forest areas. Existing laws provide
for
A forest service to have custody and management of lands reserved
for insular forest purposes.
An assessed valuation of $1 per acre of all areas over 5 acres in size
planted with 600 trees or more per acre.
Authority for the insular department of agriculture to purchase
lands for forestry purposes, at a price not in excess of $15 per acre.
Authority to establish auxiliary insular forests on private lands
above 1,000 feet elevation and to exempt from all taxation lands so
classified.
Authority for the Federal Government to acquire land for forstry
purposes, unspecified as to amount.
The three forest nurseries of the island produce about 1% million
seedlings annually, most of which are distributed free of charge to
landowners. Although the financial condition of Puerto Rico does
not permit any great increase of forestry activities at present, there is
a growing interest in forests on the part of the general public. Some
owners who are awakening to the value of tree crops as a part of
diversified agriculture are reforesting their nonagricultural lands as a
business undertaking.
1650 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY

More than 330 tree species are native to the island, and many useful
species have been introduced. On favorable sites, tree growth is
rapid. In 1922 a plantation of casuarina (an imported species) was
established near the village of Luquillo on the north side of the island
in soil too poor to grow sugar cane. Ten years later the trees in this
plantation averaged 6.1 inches in diameter breast high, and 57.5 feet
in total height. The volume of wood per acre in various products
amounted to 2,678 cubic feet, or 31.2 cords, or 600 poles (42 feet long),
or 4,200 fence posts. This plantation had grown during the 10 years
at the rate of 3.12 cords each year.
Another plantation of casuarina on the northern slopes of the
Luquillo Mountains reached an average diameter breast high of 2.85
inches and an average height of 34 feet in 3 years and 11 months.
In the same location mahogany averaged 1.41 inches in diameter and
11.1 feet in height at 3 years of age; cedro (Cedrela odorata), one of the
most valuable native species, at the age of 2 years and 4 months
averaged 1.71 inches in diameter and 12.8 feet in height. Many
valuable native species, such as capa bianco, capa prieto, ausubo,
laurel sabino, algarrobo, maria, and tabonuco, reach sizes suitable for
cabinet work and construction purposes in 30 to 50 years. Fuel wood,
charcoal, posts, etc., can be produced in 5 to 15 years from rapid
growing native species, such as guaba, guama, and bayahonda, and
from introduced species such as black wattle, tulipan, saman, and
eucalyptus.
In the higher portions of the mountains, particularly on the exposed,
wind-swept southern slopes, growth is slower, and a forest cover
would be more difficult to establish by planting.
Informed opinion, both local and Federal, holds that lands in the
central mountain ranges above 2,000 feet in elevation, totaling some
150,000 acres, should be publicly owned and kept perpetually in forest
as a source of wood products and for the purpose of water and soil
conservation. These lands, now mostly in private ownership, will
have to be purchased, and on large areas a new forest can be estab-
lished only by planting. Because of their inaccessibility, the greater
difficulty and cost of planting them, and the relatively long liquidation
period involved, they would hardly be attractive from the standpoint
of private forest enterprise.
To acquire the bulk of these mountain lands and place them under
management is perhaps the most important forestry project in the
island. The Federal Government should share in it to the extent of
expanding the Luquillo National Forest to a unit of 55,000 to 60,000
acres, which can be accomplished through the purchase of adjoining
lands worn out or abandoned for agriculture. Authority for such
purchases to a maximum of 50,000 acres was granted in 1931 by an
amendment to the Clarke-McNary Act. A rough estimate of time
requirements and ultimate cost suggests a 15-year program, with an
appropriation of $100,000 a year for the two purposes of purchase and
planting, making an aggregate budget of $1,500,000. This budget
should be apportioned $600,000 to the Federal Government, which
would purchase some 40,000 acres to supplement the present 14,000
acres of the Luquillo National Forest, and $900,000 to the insular
government, which would purchase 60,000 or more acres to supple-
ment the 25,000 acres of uplands already in insular forests. The costs
are figured roughly at $10 per acre, on the average, for the land, and
 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1651

$5 per acre for planting and seeding. By means of such a program

reenforced by the work of the insular Division of Forestry, the con-
tinued cooperation of private owners, and the power of example, the
island of Puerto Rico, instead of producing, as at present, only one
fourth the amount of wood sufficient for her needs, should within 50
years be producing the wood needed for the industrial uses of a greatly
increased population and should in addition number among her most
valuable exports a considerable volume of rich cabinet woods, such
as mahogany, tabonuco, ausubo, and cedro.
Under a cooperative agreement between the United States Forest
Service and the Insular Department of Agriculture and Labor, of
which the Division of Forestry is a unit, the Federal forest officer in
charge of the Luquillo National Forest is also employed as Chief of
the Puerto Rico Forest Service; thus complete cooperation in the
forestry work is secured by the Federal and insular governments, and
duplication of effort is avoided. This arrangement has worked well
and should be continued. The public lands in charge of this officer at
present consist of about 14,000 acres in the Luquillo National Forest
and about 40,000 acres of insular forests, widely scattered in six
forest districts, each under a guard or inspector. The service includes
also the work of the three forest nurseries, the distribution of seedlings,
and aid and advice in planting and forest cultural work. The present
annual forestry budget amounts to about $32,000, of which the cost
to the Federal Government for the administration of the Luquillo
National Forest is slightly more than $2,000. The rest of the work
is charged against insular funds. The ultimate annual cost of admin-
istering publicly owned land, if the acquisition and planting programs
previously mentioned are consummated, should be in the neighbor-
hood of 15 cents per acre, or about $10,000 for the Federal Govern-
ment and $20,000 for the insular government.
There is urgent need for the establishment in Puerto Rico of the
tropical forest experiment station already authorized by the Mc-
Sweeney-McNary Act. Growth and management of Puerto Rican
tree species, native and introduced, present practically a virgin field of
investigation. The multiplicity of species, their complex habits and
characteristics, the variable climatic factors, and the prevailing lack
of basic knowledge concerning them offer many practical but unusu-
ally difficultproblems. Until the basic knowledge required can be
made available through the facilities of a well organized forest experi-
ment station, progress in forestry, both public and private, will be
slow. Furthermore, such a station will be of value not only to Puerto
Rico; its influence should be felt in forestry matters throughout the
West Indies and in tropical America.