STATE FORESTS

STANLEY G. FONTANNA.

State forests have six uses. They are demonstrations of good forestry practices in growing and harvesting forest products. They produce valuable forest products. They protect watersheds and wildlife. They provide places for recreation. Sometimes they are grazed.

The sixth purpose, or justification, has to do with the reason why most of them were established public realization of the need to place under management the forest lands that otherwise would be neglected. Thus, most State forests ( meaning, here, forest lands that have actually been designated State forests within the respective States and not including State-owned lands, such as game areas, forest parks, or forest lands not under any type of management) have been founded on a base of tax-reverted lands or low-value lands that were bought.

In 1885, New York began the acquisition of extensive forest land for the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves. Other State forests organized at early dates were the Mont Alto in Pennsylvania in 1891, the Pillsbury in Minnesota in 1899, the Clark County in Indiana in 1903, and the Higgins Lake and Houghton Lake in Michigan in 1903. Thirty-six States now have State forests.

States have come into possession of land for State forests through grants of land by the Federal Government; tax reversion; gift, exchange, and purchase; and lease of land from the Federal Government. Federal-grant lands, the remainder of the original Federal grants to the States for schools, internal improvements, and so forth, comprise approximately 28 percent of the total acreage in State forests and, except for 1.3 million acres in Minnesota and small scattering acreages in other States, are found in the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States. In Idaho, Montana, and Colorado, Federal-grant lands comprise the total acreage of the State forests.

Tax-reverted lands, titles to which have come to the States through tax delinquency, comprise approximately 31 percent of the total acreage in State forests. Except for a few thousand acres in other States, those lands are in Minnesota, Michigan, New York, and Washington.

The lands acquired by gift and exchange comprise approximately 36 percent of the total acreage in State forests. Except in Idaho, Montana, and Colorado, nearly every State that has State forests has acquired some of its lands by purchase; in many States purchase has been the only means of acquisition.

Federal-lease lands were originally acquired by the Federal Government in connection with the resettlement program of the 1930's, and have been leased to the State for forestry and other conservation purposes by the Federal Government under the administration of units of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior. As a rule, the leases are longterm and liberal; to all intents and purposes, the lands are administered as State forest lands. Lands so leased comprise but 4 percent of the total acreage in State forests. There are no lands in this category in any State west of the Mississippi; most of them are in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia.

Approximately 14 million of the 16.6 million acres of land in the State forests are in eight States: Michigan, 3.75 million acres; New York, 3 million acres; Minnesota, 2 million; Washington, 1.7 million; Pennsylvania, 1.67 Million; Idaho, 950,000; Oregon, 570,000; Montana, 520,000 acres. The remaining 2.6 million acres are in 29 other States.

On a regional basis, 15 million of the 16.6 million acres are in these sections : The Lake States ( Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota), 6 million acres; the Middle Atlantic States (Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, New Jersey), 5 million acres; the Pacific Coast States (Washington, Oregon, California), 2.2 million acres; the Rocky Mountain States ( Idaho, Montana, Colorado) , 1.8 million acres. There are only 660,000 acres in State forests in all of the Southern States; of this acreage, 450,000 acres are in lands leased from the Federal Government.

Or, in another classification of areas, the acreage is distributed thus: Saw-timber areas, 21 percent; pole-timber, 34 percent; seedling and sapling, 31 percent; poorly stocked and denuded areas, 14 percent. In the Pacific and Rocky Mountain States, the acreage in saw timber rises to an average of 33 percent; in the Eastern and Southern States, the average drops well below 21 percent.

Only five States reported estimated saw-timber volumes in excess of a billion board feet Washington, 12 billion board feet; Idaho, 7.3 billion; Pennsylvania, 3.6 billion; Montana, 2 billion; and Colorado, 1.01 billion.

Six States reported saw-timber volumes between 100 million and 1 billion board feet: Michigan, 650 million; Colorado, 309 million; Ohio, 250 million; South Dakota, 250 million; Indiana, 150 million; and Connecticut 109 million. Oregon, New York, and Minnesota did not report saw-timber volumes, but undoubtedly the saw-timber volumes in State forests in each is more than 100 million board feet.

The State forests generally are supervised by the State forester. The agency with which the State forester is connected varies among States, however. In 21 of the 36 States that have State forests, forestry is a division of a State conservation department or a department of natural resources, with the State forester in charge of the division. In seven States, the State forester is the administrative officer of a State board or commission of forestry. In four States, he is the forestry director of the State board of forestry and parks. In Pennsylvania, he is in charge of the Bureau of Forests in the Department of Forests and Waters. In Ohio, he is in charge of the Division of Forestry under the over-all administration of the agricultural experiment station. In Montana, he works with the State Board of Land Commissioners. Direct supervision of a State forest in each State is generally exercised by a district forester or State forest supervisor, who may be responsible solely for the management of forest land or who may combine management with other duties.

In Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado, administration of the State forest lands of Federal-grant origin is a joint responsibility of the State land boards and the State forestry agency. In each of those States the State land board was set up originally to dispose of Federal-grant lands; however, while a considerable acreage of forest lands in this category was still in State ownership, it was realized that the lands were an asset to the State and should properly remain in State ownership under adequate protection and administration.

ADEQUATE MANAGEMENT recognizes that the forests have several uses and allocates to each its proper place in the management plan. Elements of forest management that affect each of those uses are protection from fire, insects, and disease, and forest inventory.

Fire protection on State forests generally is good. Even in States that do not protect all forest lands, State forests are well looked after; in the States that have good over-all protection, State forests as a rule receive extra attention. Because most of the State forest lands are in restocking stages, good fire protection constitutes a large part of the management.

The degree of protection from insects and disease varies a great deal and depends largely on the probability of losses. In States where white pine is an important timber tree, for example, protection from the white pine blister rust is generally good. In Massachusetts, the State forestry agency carries on an active campaign against the tussock moth. In the Western States, bark beetles receive considerable attention.