354 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



adds to the impression that we have so much timber in reserve that 

 we do not need to concern ourselves about supplies of forest materials. 

 Not only the public, but many economists, have been misled by statistics 

 showing the aggregate of timber still standing in the country. 



Forest depletion is injurious long before the last tree is cut, and 

 long before all but the last center of production is exhausted. Often- 

 times our minds are centered on total production and general markets, 

 overlooking the relation of the forest and its industries to the life of 

 the regions and the communities in which they are located. When 

 local resources are so depleted that industries close, the question of 

 vanishing supplies takes on a new significance. And that is exactly 

 what is happening in hundreds of communities. The forest supplies 

 are used up ; the chief industry, a sawmill, a box factory, or a wood- 

 working establishment closes. Subsidiary industries dependent on the 

 primary undertaking have to close also. And what is more, the land 

 formerly producing the timber, if non-agricultural, is left in an un- 

 productive condition and a burden for many years on the community. 



Many important wood-using industries are already embarrassed for 

 supplies. Especially acute is the situation faced by the manufacturers 

 of news-print paper in the Northeast, in the Lake States, and else- 

 where. Enormous investments have been made in permanent mills, 

 water power, and equipment. The local sources of supply of pulp 

 wood are becoming rapidly exhausted. Because of this situation and 

 because of the difficulties in obtaining raw materials from Canada we 

 have seen the new construction of mills taking place only in Canada, 

 largely with American capital. 



Other industries using special wood products are equally embar- 

 rassed. Some are able to secure materials from a distance ; others have 

 to cJose and move to new sources of supply. 



Because there is still an abundance of timber in the far West, the 

 East and central West cannot complacently see the basis of their own 

 industrial prosperity destroyed. In short, we have in many localities 

 a very real problem of shortage of forest supplies, and very real con- 

 sequences of forest depletion. 



FOREST RENEWAL NOT PROVIDED FOR 



The problem of supplies does not merely concern the amount and 

 character of timber now standing. It concerns as well the production 

 of new crops of timber by growth. I would have little concern about 

 the amount of timber used if we were growing new stands in place of 



