A LETTER TO OUR MEMBERS 



On December i8th the following United States will last probably from 



letter was addressed to the members twenty to thirty-three years, 

 of the American Forestry Associa- When the forests fail, the lumber 



tion by the Secretary: business, now the fourth greatest in- 

 dustry in the country, will, of course. 



The year just closing has been one disappear. Suffering among all 

 of great activity for the Association, building industries will immediately 

 The magazine, Forestry and Irriga- follow ; mining will become greatly 

 TION, has been purchased and mater- more expensive ; then naturally the 

 ially improved. Weekly press bulle- price of coal, iron, and all other min- 

 tins have, since July ist, gone to fif- erals will rise; by this the railroads 

 teen hundred newspapers; 118,937 "^"^i^^ be directly affected and the cost 

 circular letters and 125,437 folders of transportation and water power 

 have been distributed. The Secretary for lighting, manufacturing and trans- 

 has delivered 37 addresses in 12 portation will immediately increase. 

 States, and 1,647 ^^^w members have All goods made from products of the 

 been added to our rolls. mines will increase in price, which 



The forest problem is far-reaching, will hamper, not only agriculture, but 

 Through timber supply alone it af- the cost of production generally. In 

 fects the welfare of the whole Nation, fine, when the forests fail, every man, 

 As the following testimonies show, woman and child in the United States 

 it underlies the problems of irrigation, will feel the pinch. And through mis- 

 drainage, soil conservation, control use the forests are failing rapidly, 

 and use of rivers and the safeguard- Gifford Pinchot, Forester. 

 ing of the public health. 



• Redeeming ^" ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Gj)yern- 



„. We have made a be- the Desert ment has reclaimed 



Metsaee ginning in forest preser- , . , ^50,000 acres, upon 



^ Nation but . . .only a '^^'"-^ ^[^ "°^ ^^^^"- 20,000 people, 



beginning ... The country is un- representing 4.000 families. It is a 



questionably on the verge of a tim- ^-easonable estimate that, in another 



ber famine . . . The only trouble decade, 2,000.000 more acres may be 



with the movement for the preserva- f ^claimed, _ upon which 250,000 more 



tion of our forests is that it has not human bemgs may maintain them- 



gone nearly- far enough, and was not ^%^^- >" ''easonable comfort 

 begun soon enough. It is a most , ^^ f^^er for. this work comes 



fortunate thing, however, that we be- f^^.'^^^ i"°"^ streams rising m moun- 



gan it when we did. We should ac- ^^"f " To maintain he supply of this 



^,,,v^ ;^ +io^ A^^^i^^u.v A w^u-i. water, it is essential that forests be 



quire m the Appalachian and W hite . ' . ^. ^ • Ar» 



T\/r^,,»nf^;^ ^^r^\r^J^ ^w <-u^ r^ ^4- 1 A maintained upon these mountains, io 



Mountain regions all the forest lands ^, . j ^t :• 1 -r^ ^ • j- 



4-v,o<- ,-<- ,v ^^?o;ki t.^ • r ii, this end, JN'ational rorests are mdis- 



tnat it is possible to acquire for the , , 



use of the Nation. These lands, be- Pe"''able_^ 



cause thev form a National asset, are ^'.^^ m,w^LL Dtrector, 



as emphatically National as the rivers ^- ^- ^^^^«^««^^^« ^^^^'^^^^ 



which they feed, and which flow ^u ^ f tu 



through so many States before they Saving }j% waterways ot the 



reach the ocean. the sfil United States annually 



sweep from land to sea 



Theodore Roosevelt, ^ ^-^^-^^ toj,s ^£ e^rth. Of this, 



President. ninety per cent, is chiefly soil matter. 



In weight it is comparable with the 



p Under present policies total tonnage of all our railroads and 



Destruction ^^ "^e and waste, the river and lake vessels. Its bulk is 



timber supply of the one-fifth of a cubic mile ; it equals a 



