Forests will be Exhausted Unless Remedy is Adopted.

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 5, 1 January 1921, Page 114

Forests will be Exhausted Unless Remedy is Adopted.

From that excellent little trade journal, Yates Quality, we cull the following articles:—

RATE OF DEPLETION PROBABLY IS THREE TIMES ANNUAL GROWTH. The rate of depletion of the forests of this country is more than twice, probably three times, what is actually being produced by growth in a form serviceable for products other than firewood. Consequently, high prices of lumber are not wholly due to increased costs of production. An important factor is the ever-retreating sources of timber supply. Already the supplies of all the great eastern centres of production are approaching exhaustion, with the exception of the South, and even there most of the mills have not over 10 to 15 years’ supply of virgin timber. Already the Southern pine is being withdrawn from many points as a competitive factor and its place taken by western timbers. This inevitably results in added freight charges, which the consumer must pay.

These facts are called to public attention in the annual report of the forester of the United States Department of Agriculture, recently published. Their presentation is accompanied by a plea that the nation adopt an enlarged programme of public acquisition of forests by the Government, the States, and municipalities, and protection and perpetuation qf forest growths on all privately owned lands

which may not better be used for agriculture and settlement-

In the early years of the present century it looked as though the management of forests as permanent, productive properties might be voluntarily undertaken by private owners on a large scale, but since then the situation has materially changed. The need for the adoption of an enlarged programme of acquisition, the United States Department of Agriculture points out, has become increasingly urgent. More than 20 years ago the Division of Forestry, as it was then called, offered to give advice and assistance to private timber owners who might wish to consider applying forest management to their properties. By the middle of 1905 requests had been received for the examination of private holdings, large and small, comprising in all 10,900,000 acres of land. Many of these requests were from large lumber companies and other owners of extensive timber tracts. On the strength of the showing made by the preliminary examinations, a number of these large owners entered into co-operative agreements for the preparation of working plans.

But private forest interests failed to follow up the beginning, and the Federal Government and the States, in the opinion of the Department of Agriculture, must join hands to work out a programme that will correlate public and private enorts looking to the protection and proper administration of forests. The function of the Federal Government, in addition to handling the national forests, it is suggested, would be to stimulate, guide, and co-ordinate State action, and conduct necessary investigations regarding the best methods of forestry, to assist the States in the classification of land, and to harmonise action between the different States. The States would also handle public property owned by them and they would have a further direct responsibility in connection with the protection and perpetuation of private forest lands.

With regard to the Federal attitude toward private forestry, it is suggested that the Government would work primarily through State agencies. To initiate the proposed policy, a Federal law would be necessary authorising the Government to cooperate with the States in bringing about the protection and right handling of forest lands within their borders and providing means for such cooperation.