Comprehensive state laws regulating the practice of forest management on private lands are in effect in seven of the United States. Established to protect a wide range of non-timber forest resources and to ensure reforestation after harvest, these laws may impose significant administrative costs on states and significant compliance costs on landowners and timber operators. Total state administration costs for 1984 are estimated at $10.1 and total private sector compliance costs are estimated at $120.5 million, for a total regulation cost of $130.6 million.
The resource protection effectiveness of state forest practice regulation is difficult to quantify. However, agreement is strong that regulation has led to significant improvements in forest resource conditions and has helped to increase reforestation.
Forest legislation is one of the important institutional elements for the development and expansion of the forest sector. It provides the structural framework within which national forest policies are set and in turn reflects or should reflect their objectives and priorities. It is also an indispensable instrument for the implementation of those policies.
Forest laws in the sector specific sense have been modified and developed considerably during the last decades. They tend to incorporate more and more provisions on environmental protection and natural resources management and become de facto part of such legislation. Forest legislation as a whole can today only be interpreted meaningfully if it is considered within the framework of an expanding legal system for environmental conservation and social development.