PROBLEM 4 Why Must We Practice Conservation? 



Destruction of forests. The destruction 

 of forests in our country has been enor- 

 mous. Figure ^550 indicates how small a 

 percentage of the original 800 million 

 acres is left. Of this area comparatively 

 little has been replanted with new trees 

 for future use. Forests have been re- 

 moved to make way for farms, for with 

 the increase in human population it has 

 been necessary to devote more and more 

 land to agriculture. Trees have been cut 

 for lumber, for fuel, and for pulp to 

 make paper. Even nowadays, though 

 steel is used for many purposes, vast 

 quantities of lumber are still needed for 

 building houses and ships, for telegraph 

 poles and railroad ties. From trees more 

 than 17 million tons of paper and card- 

 board are produced each year. And 

 wood is used in countless minor ways, 

 for plastics, for rayon, for alcohol, and 

 during World War II it was even made 

 into feed for cattle. You can see how 

 dependent we are on trees. If we were to 

 continue to waste our forests as we have 

 in the past we should soon be in serious 

 trouble. 



Cutting of forests has not been the 

 only source of destruction. We have lost 

 millions of acres of valuable timber 

 through forest fires. While lightning fre- 

 quently sets forest fires, the large major- 

 ity are accidentally or intentionally set 



by man. Flying sparks from railroad, 

 start some fires but many are set b\ 

 lighted cigarettes thrown from an auto- 

 mobile, by careless campers, or through 

 some other form of carelessness. Some 

 are deliberately set to improve pasture 

 conditions or to encourage the growth 

 of such shrubs as blueberries. Most forest 

 fires are avoidable, and, although there 

 is much state and federal control of for- 

 est land, about 12 million acres are de- 

 stroyed by fire every year. Not only are 

 the trees lost in a forest fire but, as a rule, 

 the kinds of plants that grow for many 

 years after a forest fire are of little direct 

 use to us. 



Forests prevent floods. The forest floor 

 is a mass of dead and decayino- leaves and 

 twigs — all organic matter. Below this is 

 a mixture of soil and decaying organic 

 matter called humus. This material with 

 the tangle of roots near the surface makes 

 the soil in a forest act as a sponge. When 

 large snowdrifts melt or heavy rain- 

 storms come, the water does not quickly 

 flow down a forest-covered hillside. 

 Much of it is absorbed and held by the 

 spongy forest floor. Where forests have 

 been burned or cut, rain and water from 

 melting snow rushes down the bare hill- 

 sides into the valleys, and the swollen 

 streams overflow their banks. The floods 

 cause loss of property and life, and the 



