Broadening Horizons in Public Forest Administration

Abstract

the public will and public objectives as evidenced in legal enactments. The character of the administration of public affairs in any period is fixed by the social and economic objectives which it seeks to attain. Public administration at any given time necessarily reflects the stage of social development of the community at that time. Policies and standards of efficiency that have had reasonable justification in one period may prove entirely out of tune and even harmful in a later period when conditions have radically changed. This fact is well illustrated by the history of the administration of natural resources, of public lands, and particularly of public forests in the United States. In tracing the evolution of public land policies in this country, four major periods may be discerned, although they overlap to some extent and are not always sharply defined: (1) the period of territorial expansion, (2) the period of rapid disposal of the public domain throughout a large part of the nineteenth century, (3) the period of withdrawal from disposal of some of the public timberlands commencing near the close of that century, and (4) the beginning of planned development of the nation's forests in the twentieth century, first on public lands and then on lands that had passed from public to private ownership. The first three periods have been analyzed and evaluated. The following analysis has to do with the fourth period, and with issues and policies that involve private as well as public forest lands.