June 10, 1921 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Forestry Legislation 



*By George N. Ostrander 



President of the Empire State Forest Products Association 



Editor's Foreword: 



Space would not permit the publicdtion of Mr. Oxtrntider's address 

 in the June 10 issue of IIakdwood Rkcord, along with the telegraphic 

 report of the sessions of the Natiotial Hardwood Lumber Assoeiation 

 in Philadelphia. However, the address is heing used at the first op- 

 portunity since then, iecawse it elaborates and explains the important 

 resolution on the National forestry policy whieh the convention 

 adopted. This resolution was written by Mr. Ostrander, who was prob- 

 ably the first member of the lumber industry to discover the lurking 

 menace to the industry i7i the Snell Bill as well as the Capper Sill. 

 The Copper Bill, with its very obvious intention to fasten Government 

 control and operation on the lumber industry, was condemned from 

 the first, but the Snell BUI has received strong and wide support in 

 the rank and file of the lumber industry. Mr. Ostrander first pointed 

 out the dangers in the Snell Bill nearly a year ago when lie addressed 

 the Empire State Forest Products Association on fhe subject of a 

 national forestry policy. In this address he voiced the opinions which 

 crystallised in the National Hardwood Lumber Association resolution. 

 Mr. President and Gentlemen: 



It is an honor, which I greatly appreciate, to be invited to 

 address this meeting upon a subject of such intense, present interest 

 as forestry legislation. Forestry legislation is so intimately related 

 tn the property rights and economic practices of the lumber industry 

 that each proposal for such legislation should be closely scrutinized 

 and carefulh' anah'zed to ascertain whether such rights may be 

 invaded, and to guard against the enactment of unwise economic 

 plans. Tor two years, public attention has been focused upon this 

 subject through a campaign of the United States Forest Service to 

 establish a National Forest Policy. It is my purpose today to 

 present some observations on this campaign and the legislation which 

 it has proposed and to submit certain recommendations in relation 

 thereto. 



The Chief Forester of the United States early in 1919 proposed 

 a program for the protection and beneficial utilization of our forest 

 resources, and for their renewal and continuance. The principles 

 of the proposed program were stated to be, fire protection, the ex- 

 tension of public forests, forest renewal, protection against insects 

 and disease, economic utilization, reform in taxation, a survey of 

 forest resources, land classification, forest loans, forest insurance, 

 and the mandatory regulation of the practice of forestry on private 

 timber lands, to assure fire protection and forest renewal. This 

 campaign proceeded with little respect, either for the property 

 rights or the economic practices of the lumber industry. 



In publications of the Forest Service and in many addresses 

 made by the Chief Forester, uncontrolled lumbering practices were 

 condemned in reproachful terms, as against the public welfare and 

 in violation of the ordinary duties and obligations of citizenship, 

 and the general conduct of the lumber industry was frequently 

 asserted to be reckless, extravagant and destructive. 



The commercial timber tract, it was alleged, had usually been 

 purchased and held with a view of exploiting the timber and not 

 with a view of a permanent productive enterprise. The handling 

 of commercial timber lands was stated to be almost wholly by 

 methods of exploitation, and the purpose of the owner in holding 

 land temporary, his interest being in the growing timber only. 

 Col. Graves' Principles 



Col. Graves, the then Chiot' Forester, in certain public addresses, 



stated: "The public interests in the right handling of private 



•Address delivered at the twenty-fourth annual meeting of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association, Philadelphia, Pa., June 9, 1921. 



forests are so great that the matter cannot lie permitted to drift 

 any longer without definite action. Our nation and the individual 

 States cannot afford to permit the forests to be dissipated, as is 

 now being done, without measures for replacement. The public 

 cannot afford to permit the different localities and the nation at 

 large to suffer the injurious consequences of forest dissipation. The 

 public must take steps to stop destructive processes now going on 

 and substitute for them constructive methods of forestry. 



' ' To bring about the practice of forestry on private lands, there 

 will be required more far-reaching action, both on the part of the 

 private owner and the public than has heretofore been proposed. 

 In order to safeguard its own interests, the public should make it 

 mandatory for all timberla'nd owners without discrimination to 

 adopt adequate measures for fire protection for forest replacement." 



Circumstances connected with the war may offer an excuse for this 

 lack of rcsjiect, cither for the property rights or for the citizens 

 engaged in the lumber industry, as it seems to have proceeded upon 

 the misapprehension that governmental control and regulation of 

 industry had become a fixed and approved American policy. 



These proposals of the Forest Service have found legislative 

 expression in a Bill introduced in Congress by Mr, Snell of New 

 York. 



Section 1 of this Bill provides: "That the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, through the Forest Service, is hereby authorized and directed, 

 in co-operation with appropriate officials of the various States, or 

 other suitable agencies, to recommend for each forest region of the 

 United States the essential requirements in protecting timbered and 

 cut-over lands from fire in reforesting denuded lands, and, where 

 and to the extent necessary, in the cutting and removing of timber 

 crops by such methods as will promote continuous production of 

 timber on lands chiefly suitable therefor; and the Secretary of 

 Agriculture is further authorized on such conditions as he may 

 determine to be fair and reasonable in each State to co-operate with 

 the various States and through them with private and other agencies 

 within the States in bringing into effect such essential requirements 

 favorable for forest protection and renewal, with a view to furnish- 

 ing a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of the 

 people of the United States." 



By Section 2 of the Act, the Secretary of Agriculture is author- 

 ized to withhold co-operation in whole or in part from States which 

 do not comply in legislation or in administrative practices with 

 such requirements as shall be established in accordance with Sec- 

 tion 1, which I have just quoted. This co-operation, it should be 

 borne in mind, is effective only through the subsidy of federal 

 appropriation for the benefit of the States. 



Forest Policy Is Missed 



These are the only provisions in the Bill which relate to forestry 

 upon private timber lands. It is apparent from even a casual read- 

 ing of them that the Bill avoids completely a legislative definition 

 of any ])olicy for forestry on private timber land, or, in fact, any 

 forest ]iolicy at all. The only provision in the Bill which rel.ates to 

 a forest policy is that the Forest Service, through the Secretary of 

 Agricultirre, may suggest what it conceives to be "essential require- 

 ments" for the purpose of providing adequate protection against 

 forest fires, for reforestation of denuded lands, and for other pur- 

 poses, all essential to continuous forest production. There is no 

 definition whatever of what may constitute these "essential require- 

 ments." The determination of these requirements is left entirely 

 within the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture. 



It may be proper at this point to observe that there arc so many 

 possible interpretations of what these "essential requirements" 



