We hope too that the legislative committees find that the program merits their support, for as I have suggested, we may reasonably anticipate that modification of existing legislative authority or additions thereto will be necessary as the program progresses.

In one way or another-as I have tried to show-benefits of the national forest program will affect nearly every citizen. Whether it is wood, water, recreation, wildlife, or forage, the utilization of national forest resources directly or indirectly enters nearly every home. Members of Congress represent the views of all the people. We in the executive branch are likewise working in the interest of all the people. Both we and Members of Congress have the same objectives of serving the public well and capably. The furtherance of the national forest program is one way in which we can discharge that responsibility.

Finally, I want to say that the distinguished record of the Forest Service in administering these public properties for the past 50 years entitles them to respect and confidence in their ability to effectively carry forward the program proposed. I have every confidence its objectives will be attained. I have every confidence its achievement will fully justify its costs.

STATEMENT OF RICHARD E. MCARDLE, CHIEF, FOREST SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ON THE PROGRAM FOR THE NATIONAL FORESTS

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am glad to pick up where Mr. Peterson concluded in explaining the national forest program recommended to the Congress by Secretary Benson.

Mr. Peterson briefly explained the need for the program, recalled progress in recent years and the good to the country from putting the program into effect. I shall try to summarize the specific program proposals, tell you something about the acceleration that would be involved in relation to our present activities, and give you an estimate of what the program would cost.

The national forest program is no quickie affair. The Forest Service for many years has maintained an inventory of needed works. It is our shelf of needed jobs.

The Forest Service also has completed recently an exhaustive study of our present and prospective timber situation. Conclusions of that study as to future timber needs were instrumental in establishing long-range nationalforest timber goals. The findings of a Departmental Committee on Research Evaluation contributed to the research program.

The point I make is that the program sent to the Congress by the Secretary has been developed carefully over the years, is soundly based, and has been thoroughly considered.

In the first instance, the estimates were developed in our national forest and regional offices in accord with certain basic assumptions. The field estimates have necessarily been screened and coordinated, both functionally and geographically, in order to mold the integrated program which you have before you. I hope you will bear these points in mind when I later describe the costs of the program and the step-up that would be involved over present operational levels.

THE NATIONAL FOREST PROGRAM

The program consists basically of two parts. First, we developed a series of long-range objectives for each of the main renewable resources of the national forests such as water, timber, range, recreation, and wildlife. These are geared to what we believe should be achieved in resource management by the year 2000. Second, we outlined a series of some 65 major actions and numerous subitems organized into 6 groups of activities. All of these should be accomplished within the next 10 to 15 years in order both to meet current needs during that time and to prepare adequately to meet the longer range objectives.

The long-range objectives are geared to the basic assumptions that by the year 2000, population will reach 332 million people, an 88 percent increase over now, and that gross national product by that time will reach $1,800 billion, or about 4 times the present level. Higher assumptions could have been used. We believe those chosen to be reasonable.

The action proposals for the next 10 to 15 years are called the short-term or interim program. Today I want to talk primarily about this short-term

program. Furthermore, the cost estimates and comparisons with present levels of activity relate only to the short term.

The program consists of six groups of activities: Resource development and management, protection, roads and trails, land adjustments and uses, administrative structures and equipment, and research. In the resource development and management group, I would like to comment specifically on timber, water, range, and recreation and wildlife.

Timber. The long-range timber goal for the national forest system is an annual harvest on a sustained-yield basis of about 21 billion board feet of sawtimber to be achieved by the year 2000. This goal is about three times the 1957 timber cut and is that portion of the national need which the national forests could reasonably be expected to produce under intensified management.

By the end of the short-term program, annual cut should reach 11 billion board feet, in contrast to 6.4 billion board feet in 1958 and 8 billion in 1959. The increase in annual timber cut by the end of the short-term program will be enough to build 400,000 five-room frame houses or enough to house twice the population of the District of Columbia.

Better standards of regeneration, hazard reduction, salvage and erosion control will be applied, and inventories and timber management plans will be completed and brought up to date.

Three-fourths of the needed tree planting job on the national forests will be completed during the short-term program. This will mean planting an area larger than Connecticut. An area twice the size of Massachusetts, or over 17,000 square miles, will be treated with various stand improvement measures such as pruning, weeding, thinning, and release cutting.

Water. Water resource management of the national forests has two principal long-range objectives: (a) Protection of the watershed by stabilizing the soil and thereby preserving and improving water quality, and (b) managing the area to increase water yield. Both objectives will continue to receive major consideration in the long-range multiple-use management of these lands. The national forests cover one-fifth of the West, receive one-third of the precipitation because of their high elevation and mountainous character, and furnish over half the waterflow.

Much of our water-resource management depends upon how we manipulate the timber, the range, and the wildlife habitat, how successful we are in protection against fire, how efficient we are in building roads, and in minimizing erosion hazards.

But in addition to those impacts on water-resource management caused as a result of other national-forest activities, there are numerous specific things that need doing to improve the quality and increase the quantity of water.

These include such things as completing soil surveys on an area larger than the State of Alabama, or about one-fifth of the total national-forest area needing such surveys; controlling erosion on 14,000 miles of roads and trails, or over 41⁄2 times the distance between New York and San Francisco; stabilizing 10,000 miles of gullies and channels; and numerous other items such as control of sheet erosion and stream pollution, construction of upstream flood control structures, inventories of water yields, and watershed management plans. Range.-A long-term objective for management of 68 million acres of rangeland in the national-forest system is to improve the range resource in order to achieve a sustained high level of forage production, and better watershed conditions. This objective can be attained through intensified management, better range practices, and more balanced use.

Range analyses and management plans are to be completed on each of the nearly 8,800 range allotments on the national forests. Undesirable or poisonous range plants will be controlled or revegetation will be undertaken on nearly 7,000 square miles. Enough fence will be built to enclose 115 ranches the size of the King Ranch in Texas-some 18,000 miles. Nearly 100,00 water facilities are to be built. And finally, where stocking adjustments are necessary to balance utilization and available forage, these will be carried out as rapidly as practicable bearing in mind the needs of both the range and other factors. Recreation and wildlife.-Probably the most phenomenal increase in any use of the national forests in the next few years will be in recreation. Recreational visits have multipled about seven times since World War II. We expect them to nearly double again in the next decade and to be nine times more than present levels by the end of the century.

Briefly, our long-range recreation objective is to prepare to accommodate this tremendous number of people adequately but modestly, and with due safeguards

for their health. Likewise, our goal is to develop the wildlife habitat to yield a fish and game population adequate to meet the needs of an equally phenomenal increase in hunters and fishermen.

Some 13 major action proposals are listed for recreation and wildlife habitat development on page 15 of the printed program. I can only mention a few. First of all, "Operation Outdoors" is to be completed. We are finding that our sights were not high enough when "Operation Outdoors" was prepared and already actual use for 1958 exceeds the forecast in "Operation Outdoors" for 1962.

We propose to build enough additional family units for campers and picnickers to accommodate the entire city of Denver at one time-over 100,000 new family units. One and a half million acres of key wildlife areas are to be approved, as are 7,000 miles of fishing streams.

Protection. The importance of adequate protection of the national forests from disease, insects, fire, and other destructive agencies, can scarcely be overemphasized. They adversely affect all of the renewable natural resources, but we know more about their quantitative effect on timber than on other resources. In 1952 net sawtimber growth would have been about double it it had not been for the effect of these agencies. Causes were 45 percent due to disease, 20 percent to insects, 17 percent to fire, and 18 percent to all other destructive forces. The long-range objective is to minimize these damages to the fullest extent practicable.

About a 50-percent increase over present levels of protection against insects and disease is needed during the short-term program. An additional 100 million acres of national-forest timberlands and critical watershelds should receive fire protection adequate to meet the fire situation in the worst years. To achieve this fire protection means nearly doubling present preventive effort, detection, skilled firefighting crews, training, supervision, and equipment. It means better techniques for suppressing fires when small and for stopping large fires from running. It means reducing hazardous fuel conditions by such things as burning 300,000 acres of concentrated debris, felling snags on over 300,000 acres, prescribed burning on 31⁄2 million acres, removing roadside fuel on 37,000 acres, and maintaining some 12,000 miles of firebreaks.

Roads and trails.-Adequate access to national-forest lands continues to be a problem and a deterrent to intensive management, utilization, and protection. Right now there are about 150,000 miles of forest development roads which eventually should increase to 542,000 miles (chart 6). There are about 112,000 miles of trails which may eventually decrease to about 80,000 miles.

During the short-term program, the plan is to build 90,000 miles of development roads and 8,000 miles of trails. About half the forest development roads to be built in this period will be constructed by timber purchasers but paid for by the public through adjustment of stumpage prices.

Construction of forest development roads scheduled for the short-term program will be equivalent to building 30 such roads extending all the way between New York and San Francisco. By the year 2000, the development road system should have increased to about 464,000 miles. It will be another 15 years before the entire system of 542,000 miles is completed.

Although not part of the national-forest program as such, because the responsibility does not rest with the Department of Agriculture, it should be mentioned that in addition to the forest development roads, there are also over 24,000 miles of forest highways that aid development of the national forests. When fully installed, there will be about 70,000 miles of these highways under a program administered by the Bureau of Public Roads in the Department of Commerce. Land adjustments and uses.-Effective management of the national forests requires reasonable consolidation of ownership where there is intermixed public and private land. Although such consolidation is a continuing function, the proposal for the interim period is to exchange about 1.4 million acres of scattered or checkerboard national-forest land for other areas. By doing this, some 11 million acres of private and State land can be excluded from national-forest boundaries. Special attentioon will be given to completing the consolidation of national-forest lands in the boundary waters canoe area in Minnesota and in certain key watersheds in the Cache National Forest in Utah.

It is also proposed to survey, post, and establish corner markers on 100,000 miles of national-forest property lines. This is equivalent to going around the State of Pennsylvania a hundred times.

The determination of surface rights of mineral claimants on national-forest lands underway since the approval of the act of July 23, 1955, will be com41258-59--25

pleted. This determination will have been made on 120 million acres of national-forest lands.

Administrative structures and uses.-Certain administrative structures and equipment for fire protection, housing, communications and transportation are absolutely necessary. We plan to build in the short-term program some 2,700 dwellings, another 2,700 service buildings, and over 500 lookouts; replace 9,000 radios; build 3,000 miles of telephone lines; build 25 new aircraft landing fields: and reconstruct 37 existing fields.

Research. Forest research is the handmaiden of progress. It must keep ahead of practical applications. The research program proposed for the shortterm period is needed to yield not only quick results for applicability during that period, but also information of value in attaining long-range objectives. Only that portion of the total forest research program of the Department of Agriculture that has a direct impact on national-forest management is included. This is estimated at about two-thirds of the total.

Research must have adequate laboratories, greenhouses, scientific equipment, and other facilities. The short-term program includes the construction of 17 specialized laboratories and related greenhouse and service facilities for research in pests, tree genetics, physiology, forest soils and hydrology, forest fires, and forest products; 30 office-laboratory buildings; and stream gages, fencing, and other minor research installations on about 100 experimental forests and ranges.

Some 14 specific fields of research are outlined in the short-term program eovering each of the basic renewable resources of the national forests and ranging all the way from research in tree genetics to the preferences of recreational

users.

STEP-UP PROPOSED IN SHORT-TERM PROGRAM

We must not develop one resource and lag behind in another. During the past years, some unbalance has crept into national-forest resource management. The recommended program would restore desirable balance and coordination. Variable rates of speedup are proposed for different activities. Comparisons are de rived by relating what is proposed for the short-term program to what has actually been done in the post 10 years.

The step-ups range all the way from a 50-percent increase or less in some activities to a hundredfold increase in gully and channel stabilization. For example, annual timber cut should increase 14 times, but reforestation and stand improvement over 19 times (chart 7). This is essential in order that timber harvesting does not get further out of balance with regeneration and cultural measures. Likewise, whereas recreation visits are expected to double, new family campground and picnic units will increase 19 times. This also is essential to bring these facilities into balance with number of visitors. Over three times as much road mileage is proposed for construction in the short-term program as was built in the past 10 years.

ESTIMATED COSTS

Now as to costs. Senator Hayden's letter of March 25 to Secretary Benson requested that Department witnesses be prepared to discuss especially the proposals described in the short-term program.

The figures I am about to give you are our best estimate of what the shortterm program would cost in terms of 1958 dollars. I should make clear that what may be recommended in subsequent budget requests to the Congress will necessarily depend upon overall budgetary needs and financial resources of the Federal Government. However, the Secretary of Agriculture has recommended to the Congress a program of needed action on the national forests. You who must evaluate this recommendation are entitled to know how much the Department of Agriculture believes it would cost.

Basically there are two kinds of expenditures-recurrent and nonrecurrent. Recurrent includes such things as timber sales, administration and management, maintenance of recreational areas, preparation and maintenance of management plans, inventories, and range analyses, and the continuing aspects of research. Nonrecurrent costs include such things as timber stand improvement, channel and gully stabilization, tree planting, range reseeding, construction of facilities, roadbuildings, and wildlife habitat improvement. The total cost of the program divides roughly 50-50 between recurring and nonrecurring items.

Due to the recurring nature of some activities, total costs will be greater the longer the short-term activities are strung out. In the estimates given here the assumption is that the interim program will be completed in 12 years.

Costs are explained in three ways: (1) Total and annual costs, (2) costs by functions, and (3) costs in relation to revenues.

Total and annual costs.-Total gross costs are estimated at $3.4 billion. This is about $2 billion more than national forest activities would cost in the next 12 years if they continued at the 1959 level without change (table 1).

If program costs were compared to a continuation of recent trends in expenditures related to national forests rather than to 1959 costs, the step-up would be much less. National forest expenditures have increased very rapidly in the past 10 years-from $54 million in 1950 to $119 million in 1959, or more than double. Thus, comparing program costs to a continuation of recent trends in appropriations, the difference would be $1.4 billion (chart 8).

The average annual cost of the program would be about $283 million, or $164 million more than the 1959 level of $119 million.

The program has been so planned that costs should increase at approximately equal amounts for each of the first 5 years, then level off for the next 6 years at a maximum annual cost of $321 million, and decline somewhat the last year of the short-term program because of completion of certain nonrecurrent items. TABLE 1. Comparison of estimated costs if program accomplished in 12 years with estimated fiscal year 1959 level of expenditures

Assuming that the program gets underway in 1961, the increased costs would be $38 million annually for each of the first 5 years. This means that for each of the first 5 years the annual step-up in cost would be $38 million more than the preceding year.

In round figures and in oversimplified terms, it can be said that the program would require increased costs of about $40 million for each of the first 5 years, then leveling off at about $321 million for most of the remaining short-term period.

Of all the costs I am mentioning, I would like to impress upon you those two estimates.

Costs by function.-Table 2 shows the estimated annual program costs for each of the six principal functions and for several subitems.

Construction and maintenance of forest development roads and trails would continue to be the most costly item with a maximum annual direct expenditure of Government funds during the short-term program of about $85 to $89 million. In addition to the direct Government expenditures for forest development roads, there would continue to be a substantial portion of the total road program constructed and maintained by timber purchasers and financed through reductions in amounts paid by the purchasers for national forest timber. This amount would average $51 million annually during the short-term program. Expenditures for timber resource development and management would be the second largest item and those for recreation and wildlife habitat would be the third. These would be followed closely by the estimated costs for research and fire protection.