The work of the States in forestry is still in the pioneer stage, and the work of a State Forester must still bear largely on the creation of a right public sentiment in forest matters. In State forestry the need for agitation has by no means passed. It is often the duty of the State Forester to prepare or endeavor to secure the passage of good State forest laws, or to interpose against the enactment of bad laws. In particular, much of his time is likely to be given to legislation upon the subjects of forest fires and forest taxation. Upon the latter there is as yet no sound and effective public opinion in many parts of the United States, and legislatures and people still do not understand how powerful bad methods of forest taxation have been and still are in forcing the destructive cutting of timber by making it impossible to wait for the better methods of lumbering which accompany a better market. I have known the taxes on standing timber to equal six per cent. a year on the reasonable value of the stumpage.Thirteen States have State Forests with a total area altogether of 3,400,000 acres. Of these New York has the largest area. Its State Forests cover 1,645,000 acres, partly in the Adirondacks and partly in the Catskills; Pennsylvania comes next with nine hundred and eighty-four thousand acres; and Wisconsin third, with about four hundred thousand acres.
Twenty-nine States make appropriations for forest work. Excluding special appropriations for courses in forestry at universities, colleges, and schools, the total amount spent for this purpose is about $1,340,000. Pennsylvania has the largest appropriation,—three hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars, in addition to which a special appropriation of two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars has been devoted to checking the chestnut blight. Minnesota comes second with two hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars; New York third with about one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, and Wisconsin next with ninety-five thousand dollars.
Thirty-three States have State forest officers, of whom fifteen are State Foresters by title, while the majority of the remainder perform duties of a very similar nature.
Eleven States are receiving assistance from the Federal Government under the Weeks law, which authorizes coÖperation for fire protection, provided the State will furnish a sum equal to that allotted to it from the National fund, with a limit of ten thousand dollars to a single State.
For purposes of reforestation, ten States maintain forest nurseries. During the year 1912 they produced in round numbers twenty million young trees, of which fourteen million were distributed to the citizens of these ten States.In some States the waterpower question falls within the sphere of the State Forester, as well as other similar Conservation matters, while it has usually been made his duty to assist private timberland owners in the handling of their holdings, whether these be the larger holdings of lumber companies or the farmers' woodlots. In many States the State Forester is made responsible for the enforcement of the State forest fire laws, and for the control and management of a body of State fire wardens, who may or may not be permanently employed in that work. The enforcement of laws which exempt timberlands or lands planted to timber from taxation, or limit the taxation upon them, are also usually under his supervision.
The work of forestry in the various States being on the whole much less advanced than it is in the Nation, the State Forester must still occupy himself largely with those preliminary phases of the work of forestry through which the National Forest Service has already passed. Much progress, however, is being made, and we may fairly count not only that State forest organizations will ultimately exist in every State, but that the State Foresters will exert a steadily increasing influence on forest perpetuation in the United States.
