FOREST DESTRUCTION. 



A.— N0TE8 UN FOREST DESTRUCTION. 

 By GiFFORD PiNCHOT. 



The point of view of the ajri-icultural settler in any forest region, 

 whether in the United States or elsewhere, is that of hostilitj^ to the 

 timber which limits and confines his industry. To get rid of the tim- 

 ber with him means expansion, prog'ress, and well-being. As settle- 

 ment progresses and the forests disappear, a second phase of opinion 

 crystallizes and becomes effective. Its center of distribution is in the 

 towns or cities, and it is largely (-oncerned with purely sentimental 

 considerations. This school of thought regards the preservation of 

 the forest as an unmixed good with the same unyielding depth of con- 

 viction which, among the early settlers, marked the opinion that its 

 existence was an unmixed evil. 



From the point of view of national progress the one opinion is as 

 mistaken as the other. Both are likel}- to be survived by that phase 

 of thought which regards forest protection as a means — not an end; 

 which contends that every part of the land surface should be given 

 that use under which it will contribute most to the general prosperity, 

 and the purpose of whose action is best phrased, in the language of 

 President Roosevelt, as "the perpetuation of forests by use." The 

 essential reasonableness of this point of view is gaining recognition 

 among the adherents of both the schools of thought which preceded it, 

 and is doing more than any other single factor to call attention to the 

 wastefulness of forest destruction and to emphasize the essential prac- 

 ticability of conservative forestr}'. 



As a broad general rule, subject to many exceptions, it may be said 

 that the destruction of a forest on land better adapted for forestry 

 than agriculture is not likely to ))e more than temporary in character. 

 Ultimately the forest will return, but the time which must elapse 

 between the destruction of a forest and the reappearance of the same 

 type of forest on the same ground, however brief geologically, is 

 often of appalling length from the human point of view. 



Thus, great areas of land in New England, once cleared, are now 

 returning, through the gradual spread of the foi-est in old pastures and 

 on aV)andoned hillsides, to a wooded condition. The type of forest 

 SM 1901 26 ■ 401 



