WOOD FOR THE NATION
Westward the course of forest discovery and depletion has taken
its way in the United States. The pine and hardwood forests of
the Atlantic and New England States first fell before the bite of
the woodman's ax and the sweep of his saw. Wasteful lumbering
finally sapped the resources of these productive timberlands.
Shift was then made farther westward to the Lake States. Their
vast stretches of white pine and native hardwoods were cut to a
skeleton of their original size. The lumbering operations then
spread to the southern pine belt. In a few years the supplies of
marketable lumber in that region were considerably reduced. Then
the westward trail was resumed. The strip of country between the
Mississippi River and the Cascade, Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges
was combed and cut. Today, the last big drive against our timber
assets is being waged in the forests of the Pacific Coast.
Our virgin forests originally covered 822,000,000 acres. Today,
only one-sixth of them are left. All the forest land now in the
United States including culled, burned and cut-over tracts,
totals 463,000,000 acres. We now have more waste and cut-over
lands in this country than the combined forest area of Germany,
Belgium, Denmark, Holland, France, Switzerland, Spain and
Portugal. The merchantable timber left in the United States
is estimated at 2,215,000,000,000 board feet. The rest is
second-growth trees of poor quality. One-half of this timber is
in California, Washington and Oregon. It is a long and costly
haul from these Pacific Coast forests to the eastern markets.
Less than one-fifth of our remaining timber is hardwood.
56,000,000,000 board feet of material of saw timber size are used
or destroyed in the United States each year. Altogether, we use
more than 26,000,000,000 cubic feet of timber of all classes
annually. Our forests are making annual growth at the rate of
less than one-fourth of this total consumption. We are rapidly
cutting away the last of our virgin forests. We also are cutting
small-sized and thrifty trees much more rapidly than we can
replace them.
[Illustration: A FOREST CROP ON ITS WAY TO THE MARKET]
The United States is short on timber today because our fathers
and forefathers abused our forests. If they had planted trees on
the lands after the virgin timber was removed, we should now be
one of the richest countries in the world in forest resources.
Instead, they left barren stretches and desolate wastes where
dense woods once stood. It is time that the present owners of the
land begin the reclamation of our 326,000,000 acres of cut-over
timberlands. Some of these lands still are yielding fair crops of
timber due to natural restocking and proper care. Most of them
are indifferent producers. One-quarter of all this land is bare
of forest growth. It is our duty as citizens of the United States
to aid as we may in the reforestation of this area.
Fires are cutting down the size of our forests each year. During
a recent five-year period, 160,000 forest fires burned over
56,488,000 acres, an area as large as the state of Utah, and
destroyed or damaged timber and property valued at $85,715,000.
Year by year, fires and bad timber practices have been increasing
our total areas of waste and cut-over land. We are facing a
future lumber famine, not alone because we have used up our
timber, but also because we have failed to make use of our vast
acreage of idle land adapted for growing forests. We must call a
halt and begin all over again. Our new start must be along the
lines of timber planting and tree increase. The landowners, the
States and the Federal Government must all get together in this
big drive for reforestation.
It is impossible to make National Forests out of all the idle
forest land. On the other hand, the matter of reforestation
cannot be left to private owners. Some of them would set out
trees and restore the forests as desired. Others would not. The
public has large interests at stake. It must bear part of the
burden. Proper protection of the forests against fire can come
only through united public action. Everyone must do his part to
reduce the fire danger. The public must also bring about needed
changes in many of our tax methods so that private owners will be
encouraged to go into the business of raising timber. The
Government must do its share, the private landowner must help to
the utmost and the public must aid in every possible way,
including payment of higher prices for lumber as the cost of
growing timber increases.
France and Scandinavia have solved their forest problems along
about the same lines the United States will have to follow. These
countries keep up well-protected public forests. All the
landowners are taught how to set out and raise trees. Everyone
has learned to respect the timberlands. The woods are thought of
as treasures which must be carefully handled. The average man
would no more think of abusing the trees in the forest than he
would of setting fire to his home. The foreign countries are now
busy working out their forestry problems of the years to come. We
in America are letting the future take care of itself.
Our States should aid generally in the work of preventing forest
fires. They should pass laws which will require more careful
handling of private forest lands. They should pass more favorable
timber tax laws so that tree growing will be encouraged. Uncle
Sam should be the director in charge of all this work. He should
instruct the states how to protect their forests against fire. He
should teach them how to renew their depleted woodlands. He
should work for a gradual and regular expansion of the National
Forests. The United States Forest Service should have the power
to help the various states in matters of fire protection, ways of
cutting forests, methods of renewing forests and of deciding
whether idle lands were better adapted for farming or forestry
purposes.
Experts believe that the Government should spend at least
$2,000,000 a year in the purchase of new National Forests. About
one-fifth of all our forests are now publicly owned. One of the
best ways of preventing the concentration of timber in private
ownership is to increase the area of publicly owned forests. Such
actions would prevent the waste of valuable timber and would aid
planting work. For best results, it is thought that the Federal
Government should own about one-half of all the forests in the
country. To protect the watersheds of navigable streams the
Government should buy 1,000,000 acres of woodlands in New England
and 5,000,000 acres in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The
National Forests should also be extended and consolidated.
Federal funds should be increased so that the Forest Service can
undertake on a large scale the replanting of burned-over lands in
the National Forests. As soon as this work is well under way,
Congress should supply about $1,000,000 annually for such work.
Many watersheds in the National Forests are bare of cover due to
forest fires. As a result, the water of these streams is not
sufficient for the needs of irrigation, water power and city
water supply of the surrounding regions.
Right now, even our leading foresters do not know exactly what
the forest resources of the country amount to. It will take
several years to make such a survey even after the necessary
funds are provided. We need to know just how much wood of each
class and type is available. We want to know, in each case, the
present and possible output. We want to find out the timber
requirements of each state and of every important wood-using
industry. Exact figures are needed on the timber stands and their
growth. The experimental work of the Forest Service should be
extended. Practically every forest is different from every other
forest. It is necessary to work out locally the problems of each
timber reservation. Most urgent of all is the demand for a law to
allow Federal officers to render greater assistance to the state
forestry departments in fighting forest fires.
Many state laws designed to perpetuate our forests must be passed
if our remaining timber resources are to be saved. During times
when fires threaten, all the forest lands in each state should
be guarded by organized agencies. This protection should include
cut-over and unimproved land as well as timber tracts. Such a
plan would require that the State and Federal governments bear
about one-half the expenses while the private forest owners
should stand the balance. There would be special rules regulating
the disposal of slashings, methods of cutting timber, and of
extracting forest products such as pulpwood or naval stores.
If our forests are to be saved for the future we must begin
conservation at once. To a small degree, luck plays a part in
maintaining the size of the forest. Some woodlands in the South
Atlantic States are now producing their third cut of saw logs.
Despite forest fires and other destructive agencies, these
forests have continued to produce. Some of the northern
timberlands have grown crops of saw timber and wood pulp for from
one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty years. Expert foresters
report that private owners are each year increasing their
plantings on denuded woodlands. New England landowners are
planting between 12,000,000 and 15,000,000 young forest trees a
year. The Middle Atlantic and Central States are doing about as
well. To save our forests, planting of this sort must be
universal. It takes from fifty to one hundred years to grow a
crop of merchantable timber. What the United States needs is a
national forestry policy which will induce every landowner to
plant and grow more trees on land that is not useful for farm
crops. Our forestry problem is to put to work millions of acres
of idle land. As one eminent forester recently remarked, "If we
are to remain a nation of timber users, we must become a nation
of wood growers."