SOLVING OUR FORESTRY PROBLEMS
A system of forestry which will provide sufficient lumber for the
needs of our country and keep our forest land productive must be
built on the extension of our public forests. Our National
Forests are, at present, the one bright feature of future
lumbering. Their tree crops will never be cut faster than they
can be grown. A balance between production and consumption will
always be maintained. Our needs for more timber, the necessity
for protecting the headwaters of streams, the demands for saving
wild life, and the playground possibilities of our forests
justify their extension. Approximately eighty per cent of the
American forests are now privately owned. The chances are that
most of these wooded tracts will always remain in the hands of
private owners. It is important that the production of these
forests be kept up without injuring their future value. We must
prepare for the lumber demands of many years from now.
Some method must be worked out of harnessing our idle forest
lands and putting them to work growing timber. Any regulations
that are imposed on the private owners of woodlands must be
reasonable. Changes in our present methods of taxing timberlands
must be made to encourage reforestation. The public must aid the
private individuals in fighting forest fires, the greatest menace
that modern forestry has to face. A national policy is needed
which will permit the private owner to grow trees which will give
him fair and reasonable profit when sold.
The farmers of this country use about one-half of all the lumber
consumed annually. They own approximately 191,000,000 acres of
timber in their farm woodlots. If farmers would devote a little
time and labor to the permanent upkeep and improvement of their
timber, they would aid in decreasing the danger of a future
lumber famine. If they would but keep track of the acreage
production of their woodlands as closely as they do of their corn
and wheat crops, American forestry would benefit greatly.
Between 1908 and 1913, the U.S. Forest Service established two
forest experiment stations in California and one each in
Washington, Idaho, Colorado, and Arizona. They devote the same
degree of science and skill to the solution of tree growing and
lumbering problems as the agricultural experiment stations give
to questions of farm and crop management. Despite the fact that
these forestry stations did fine work for the sections that they
served, recently a number of them had to close, due to lack of
funds. Congress does not yet realize the importance of this work.
More forest experiment stations are needed throughout the
country. Such problems as what kinds of trees are best to grow,
must be solved. Of the 495 species of trees in this country, 125
are important commercially. They all differ in their histories,
characteristics and requirements. Research and study should be
made of these trees in the sections where they grow best. Our
knowledge regarding tree planting and the peculiarities of the
different species is, as yet, very meagre. We must discover the
best methods of cutting trees and of disposing of the slash. We
must investigate rates of growth, yields and other problems of
forest management. We must study the effect of climate on forest
fires. We must continue experiments in order to develop better
systems of fire protection.
We need more forest experiment stations to promote the
production of more timber. Twenty of our leading industries
utilize lumber as their most important raw material. Fifty-five
different industries use specialized grades and quality of
lumber in the manufacture of many products. This use of lumber
includes general mill work and planing mill products, such as
building crates and boxes, vehicles, railroad cars, furniture,
agricultural implements and wooden ware.
Our manufacturers make and use more than two hundred and
seventy-five different kinds of paper, including newsprint,
boxboard, building papers, book papers and many kinds of
specialty papers. The forest experiment stations would help solve
the practical problems of these many industries. They could work
out methods by which to maintain our forests and still turn out
the thirty-five to forty billion board feet of lumber used each
year. They are needed to determine methods of increasing our
annual cut for pulp and paper. They are necessary so that we can
increase our annual output of poles, pilings, cooperage and
veneer.
A forest experiment station is needed in the southern pine belt.
The large pine forests of Dixieland have been shaved down from
130,000,000 acres to 23,500,000 acres. In that region there are
more than 30,000,000 acres of waste forest lands which should be
reclaimed and devoted to the growing of trees. Eastern and middle
western manufacturing and lumbering centres are interested in the
restoring of the southern pine forests. During the last score of
years, they have used two-thirds of the annual output of those
forests. In another ten to fifteen years home demand will use
most of the pine cut in the South. The East and Middle West will
then have to rely mostly on the Pacific Coast forests for their
pine lumber.
The Lake States need a forest experiment station to work out
methods by which the white pine, hemlock, spruce, beech, birch
and maple forests of that section can be renewed. The Lake States
are now producing only one-ninth as much white pine as they were
thirty years ago. These states now cut only 3,500,000,000 feet of
all kinds of lumber annually. Their output is growing smaller
each year. Wisconsin led the United States in lumber production
in 1900. Now she cuts less than the second-growth yield of Maine.
Michigan, which led in lumber production before Wisconsin, now
harvests a crop of white pine that is 50 per cent. smaller than
that of Massachusetts. Experts believe that a forest experiment
station in the Lake States would stimulate production so that
enough lumber could be produced to satisfy the local demands.
Not least in importance among the forest regions requiring an
experiment station are the New England States and northern and
eastern New York. In that section there are approximately
25,000,000 acres of forest lands. Five and one-half million acres
consist of waste and idle land. Eight million acres grow nothing
but fuel-wood. The rest of the timber tracts are not producing
anywhere near their capacity. New England produces 30 per cent.
and New York 50 per cent. of our newsprint. Maine is the leading
state in pulp production. New England imports 50 per cent. of her
lumber, while New York cuts less than one-half the timber she
annually consumes.
Another experiment station should be provided to study the
forestry problems of Pennsylvania, southern and western New York,
Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware. At one time this region
was the most important lumber centre of the United States.
Pennsylvania spends $100,000,000 a year in importing lumber which
should be grown at home. The denuded and waste lands at the
headwaters of the Allegheny River now extend over one-half
million acres. New Jersey is using more than twenty times as much
lumber as is produced in the state. Ohio is a centre for wood
manufacturing industries, yet her timber-producing possibilities
are neglected, as are those of other states needing wood for
similar purposes.
European nations have spent large sums of money in investigating
forestry problems to make timber producing economically feasible,
and have found that it paid. In this country, our forest
experiment stations will have to deal with a timbered area twice
that of all Europe, exclusive of Russia. That is why we shall
need many of these stations to help solve the many questions of
national welfare which are so dependent upon our forests.