struction, then the States take care of the maintenance in the forest highways. In the case of the forest development roads, you not only have to use the funds we may authorize for construction, but you also have the continuing obligation to do the maintenance on those roads. Is that not correct? Mr. CLIFF. That is correct in general. We do get our timber purchasers and some counties to do part of the maintenance. But we maintain about 75,000 miles of roads that are on the system now which is a continuing job and has to be financed each year. But part of the maintenance is done by the other users of the national forest roads and trails. We are getting that kind of cooperation where we can. We still have a big maintenance job to do on the system. Mr. BALDWIN. Thank you. Mr. FALLON. Any other questions? Mr. MACK. Mr. Cliff, you supplied me a chart showing the timber sales of the Forest Service for the years 1950-57, together with the revenues; also statement as to the potentials of sustained yield cut as near as possible. Would you please insert that in the record for the information of the committee. Mr. CLIFF. I would be glad to do that, sir. (The information referred to follows:) NOTE. Allowable cut is 9 billion board feet for all national forests exclusive of Alaska. 'Total allowable cut including the national forests in Alaska is 9.892 billion feet. Mr. MACK. I would like to ask you one question, Mr. Cliff. Are you recommending that we increase the amount above what was authorized in the bill as presently introduced? Mr. CLIFF. No, sir. I am not in a position to make such a recommendation. Mr. MACK. If the bill amount were increased, could the Forest Service use that money to increase the sustained yield cut from its forests? Mr. CLIFF. In all honestly, Mr. Mack, I would have to say that we could use additional funds for this program if they were made avail able. Mr. MACK. Your answer to Mr. Fallon was based on the fact that you, as a member of the administration, are supposed to support the administration's position. Mr. FALLON. Mr. Cliff, may I ask this question. Do I understand you to say that you are asking for less this year than is authorized? Mr. CLIFF. The budget request was less than is authorized by about $4 million. Mr. FALLON. I thought I understood that. If there is no objection on the part of the committee, at this point in the record we will insert the complete statement of Mr. Cliff. (The statement referred to, consisting of 10 pages, is as follows:) NATIONAL FOREST TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM-STATEMENT BY EDWARD P. CLIFF, ASSISTANT CHIEF, FOREST SERVICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUL TURE Mr. Chairman and committee members, I appreciate this opportunity to apappear before your committee in connection with H. R. 9821. Among other things the bill would provide authorizations for forest highways and forest development roads and trails. The authorizations for forest development roads and trails directly affects the Department of Agriculture. The Department has not yet taken a position on the provisions that affect it. Therefore my statement will be limited to a discussion of the status of the national forest trans-portation system. THE NATIONAL FORESTS The national-forest system is comprised of about 181 million acres of Federal land located in 40 States, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. These lands are divided into 148 national forests in 10 regions. The gross land area within the exterior boundaries of these forests is about 224 million acres-this is equal to more than one-tenth of the area of the continental United States. The national forests contain 37 percent of the commercial timber of saw-log size and 20 percent of the commercial forest lands of the United States. They comprise the most important watershed lands in the west and the 20 million. acres in the States lying east of the Great Plains occupy and protect the headwaters of numerous important streams. These lands provide food, shelter, and cover for one-third of the Nation's big-game animals and have 81,000 miles of fishing streams and 24 million acres of ponds and lakes. They supply forage for 1.1 million cattle and 2.7 million sheep owned by nearly 20,000 ranchers. The demand for the national-forest resources of water, wood, forage, wildlife and recreation has expanded rapidly in recent years. For example, there were 522 million recreation visits in 1956-an increase of 188 percent in 10 years. Timber cut increased 157 percent to 7 billion board feet between 1947 and 1956, and receipts from all national-forest uses increased from $18,372,799 in 1947 to $111,759,132 in 1956—a gain of 508 percent. We can expect the use of the national forests to continue to increase greatly. By the year 2000 the national forests should annually produce 24 billion board feet of timber if they are to carry their full share of the job of producing wood to meet the Nation's predicted requirements by that time. Recreation visits are expected to increase to 66 million by 1962 and 100 million by 1975. Water supplies are already becoming a limiting factor in growth of parts of the West and demand for water and water developments will have heavy impacts on the national forests. The present national forest transportation system is inadequate to meet present needs and must be expanded to keep pace with the sharply upward trend in An adequate system of access roads and trails is essential for proper protection of the increasingly valuable national forests and to their proper multiple-use management. use. THE NATIONAL FOREST TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM The road-and-trail system which serves the national forests is a complex of highways and access roads and trails under various ownerships and jurisdictions. For administrative purposes, these facilities are grouped into a forest highway system and a forest development road and trail system. There are 24,260 miles of forest highways; 129,211 miles of forest development roads; and 114,090 miles of trails. When fully installed we estimate there will be about 70,000 miles of highways and 480,000 miles of access roads and that the trail network will be reduced to about 80,000 miles. This will require the eventual installation of about 350,800 miles of new forest-development roads. Currently the Government and purchasers of nationalforest timber are constructing about 2,800 miles of new roads each year. Of the existing development system, 52,434 miles of the roads and 11,300 miles of the trails which will be retained in the ultimate system are in need of further improvement. This year the Government and purchasers of national-forest timber will reconstruct about 1,100 miles of roads. FOREST HIGHWAYS Forest highways are sections of State, county, and other important public roads in and adjacent to the national forests; they provide the network of thoroughfares necessary for the movement of traffic in and through the forests. These highways provide primary access to and outlet from the forest-development road and trail system. They are important in hauling forest products and are heavily used by the general public. As of June 30, 1956, the forest highway system included 24,260 miles of public roads classified as follows: The Commissioner of Public Roads for fiscal year 1956 reported 15,819 miles of forest highways in need of further improvement. Although not presently in the forest-highway system there are about 20,000 miles of State, county, and local public roads in the national forests which meet the requirements for designation as forest highways and which are in need of improvement for public travel. The forest-highway program is administerted by the Bureau of Public Roads under rules and regulations approved by the Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture. FOREST DEVELOPMENT ROADS AND TRAILS The Federal Highway Act defines forest-development roads and trails as being of primary importance for the protection, administration, and development of the national forests and the use and development of resources upon which communities within or adjacent to the national forests are dependent. All forest roads wholly or partly within or adjacent to and serving the national forests and which are not included in the forest-highway system are placed in the forest-development system. Trails supplement the road network and extend access into areas where roads are impracticable, uneconomic, or prohibited by administrative policy. Trails are of great importance for fire protection, administration of livestock grazing, and public enjoyment of recreation and wildlife resources. Federal funds are made available under the authorizations for forest-development roads and trails in the Federal-Aid-Highway Acts and the authority to use 10 percent of the receipts from the national forests for roads and trails is provided in the act of March 4, 1913. Both funds are appropriated to the Department of Agriculture and administered by the Forest Service. They are programed for work on the forest-development system according to the relative needs of the various national forests. The appropriation in fiscal year 1958 was $24,336,000 and the 10-percent fund amounted to $10.8 million. The program of work on roads and trails of the development system is based on a transportation plan which is periodically revised as needs and conditions change. This program of work involves the maintenance of existing facilities, the construction of new, and reconstruction of existing inadequate access roads, trails, and bridges for all national-forest purposes. Since 1941 the demand for national-forest timber has made it necessary to concentrate most of the available funds for construction on timber-access roads. Expenditures on access roads and trails needed for fire control, recreation, grazing, and wildlife utilization have been held to projects in the most critical category. This has unbalanced plans for orderly and progressive development of the national forests on a correlated, multiple-use basis. Work has been programed on forest-development roads and trails for fiscal year 1958 as follows: By the Government: Upkeep of the system: Routine maintenance and care_ Bridge replacement_ Restoration_. Total for upkeep--- Development of the system : Surveys and plans for all roads and trails and construction engi- Construction and reconstruction of all-purpose roads and trails__ Total for construction___ Total, Government.. By purchasers of national-forest timber: Construction and reconstruction of timber-access roads_-_ Total, program... Millions $8.0 3. 4 2.3 13. 7 4.7 3.6 13. 2 21.5 35.2 36. 2 71.4 As the table indicates, a small proportion of the funds are programed for all-purpose roads. These roads have primary value for fire protection and for managing national-forest resources other than timber. Some 72,000 miles, or 56 percent, of the existing system are classed as all-purpose roads. More positive action on roads in the all-purpose category and on deficient trails should not be postponed much longer. TIMBER-ACCESS ROADS The objective of the Forest Service is to cut the full allowable rate for each of the 422 working circles. An important factor in meeting this objective is adequate access roads. A greater mileage, and a higher average cost per mile, is required for adequate transportation to provide intensive timber management than for all other multiple uses of the national forests. Allowable cutting rates are determined from estimates of the present timber inventory and growing capacity of the commercial land within each working circle. For most western working circles advances in logging techniques and in utilization practices have greatly expanded the area of commercially operable land and have increased the volume per acre which is feasible to harvest. The total allowable cut, including the national forests of Alaska, as of April 15, 1957, was 9.89 billion board-feet per year. The actual cut of 6.91 billion board-feet in fiscal 1956 was 70 percent of this total. Twenty-three of the 422 working circles have small allowable cuts of only 2 million board feet or less and are mostly in areas where there is little commercial-timber cutting. For the other 399 working circles the timber harvest in fiscal year 1956 compared to allowable rate of cut is summarized in the following table: An Funds appropriated for timber sales are being fully utilized in marketing and supervising the harvest of national-forest timber. Shortages of trained personnel have developed in some areas particularly on the Pacific coast. undesirably high rate of turnover in timber sale personnel has been due in part to inadequate housing for the families of men who must be stationed at places where rental housing is not available. We have started to correct this situation through an accelerated housing construction program. Without additional timber sale personnel and other associated facilitating measures, timber access road construction will not close the gap between allowable and attained annual cut. In the analysis which follows it is presumed that these other provisions will be expanded to keep step with progress on access road construction. The following table summarizes this analysis: Summary of status of development of national forest working circles On the 142 working circles in which cutting was within 10 percent of allowable rates most additional road construction is required primarily to maintain cutting accomplishments rather than to increase cutting rates. Lack of timber access roads is the major factor preventing attainment of allowable cut in 50 of the 399 major working circles. In these working circles, there is a market demand for the full allowable cut and additional road construction is essential before it will be possible to offer the full allowable cut. Rights-of-way problems are impeding construction of timber access roads and attainment of allowable cut to a major degree in nine working circles. There are lesser rights-of-way problems in many of the 50 working circles mentioned above, but in these 9 working circles cutting progress is blocked until specific major rights-of-way difficulties are resolved. On 138 working circles the cut is below 70 percent of allowable primarily because of unsatisfactory market conditions. Although markets are the primary problem, these working circles need additional roads which will assist to bring about desirable marketing conditions. These working circles are located mostly in the Rocky Mountain States, Alaska, where there is a lack of mill capacity to handle the timber, and in States east of the Great Plains, where we have more low grade hardwood timber than the market will absorb. On 60 working circles cutting at less than allowable rates is due to a series of miscellaneous reasons such as (1) unresolved conflicts between timber harvesting and other uses of the forest; (2) personnel shortages; (3) where sufficient time has not elapsed since solution of rights-of-way problems and upward revision of allowable cuts to attain cutting goals; and (4) failure of timber purchasers to cut as expected. Recent progress on timber access roads In the 5 fiscal years ending on June 30, 1957, the national-forest timber cut increased from 4.4 to 7 billion board-feet. During this same period allowable cutting capacity estimates were increased from 6.6 billion board-feet to 9 billion board-feet exclusive of Alaska. Public road construction during the 5-year period amounted to 3,229 miles at a cost of $62,432,526. Purchaser built road construction was 9,476 miles at an estimated value of $94,309,587. Government funds spent for engineering and supplementing purchaser construction amounted to $12,773,863. The Forest Service favors construction of spur or temporary roads by purchasers and construction of main or tap roads with public funds. The intermediate system roads generally referred to as branch roads can be built by either timber purchasers or with public funds depending on the circumstances |