Part 7 (2/2)
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 wood finally sapped the resources of these productive timberlands
shi+ft was then made farther ard to the Lake States Their vast stretches of white pine and native hardwoods were cut to a skeleton of their original size The lu operations then spread to the southern pine belt In a few years the supplies of ion were considerably reduced Then the ard trail was resumed The strip of country between the Mississippi River and the Cascade, Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges was coainst our tied 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 coiual The merchantable timber left in the United States is estirowth trees of poor quality One-half of this ti and costly haul from these Pacific Coast forests to the easterntimber 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 ti annual growth at the rate of less than one-fourth of this total consuin 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 tiin the reclamation of our 326,000,000 acres of cut-over ti fair crops of ti 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 wedown 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 daed timber and property valued at 85,715,000
Year by year, fires and bad ti 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 toforests We ain Our new startand tree increase The landowners, the States and the Federal Govern 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 coh united public action Everyone er The public es in many of our tax o into the business of raising timber The Government must do its share, the private landowner must help to the ut pay timber increases
France and Scandinavia have solved their forest proble 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 tiht of as treasures which ethe trees in the forest than he would of setting fire to his ho out their forestry proble the future take care of itself
Our States should aid generally in the work of preventing forest fires They should pass lahich will requireof private forest lands They should passwill be encouraged Uncle Sae 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 inforests,whether idle lands were better adapted for far 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 ownershi+p is to increase the area of publicly owned forests Such actions would prevent the waste of valuable ti 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 Governland 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 streaation, 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 require industry Exact figures are needed on the tirowth 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 probleent of all is the dereater assistance to the state forestry departned to perpetuate our foreststi 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 slashi+ngs,forest products such as pulpwood or naval stores
If our forests are to be saved for the future we ree, luck plays a part inthe size of the forest So their third cut of saw logs
Despite forest fires and other destructive agencies, these forests have continued to produce Sorown 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 frorow 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 tirowers”