FOREST DEVASTATION : 

 A NATIONAL DANGER AND A PLAN TO MEET IT 



Report of the Committee I'or the Appi^ication of Forestry, 

 Society of American Foresters 



Submitted for Consideration by the Society 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Philadelphia, Pa., November i, 1919. 



Mr. Frederick E. Olmsted, President, 

 Society of American Foresters, 



Stanford University, California. 

 Dear Sir : 



The committee appointed by you to recommend action for the prevention 

 of forest devastation on privately-owned timberlands in the United States has 

 completed the attached report. The report is signed by all the members of the 

 committee, but Prof. Donald Bruce and Prof. J. W. Tourney do so with the 

 reservations set forth in their statements, which are appended. 



In preparing this report, and particularly in the statement of our present 

 forest situation, the committee has freely used the results of investigations 

 carried on by various Government agencies, such as the National Conservation 

 Commission, the Bureau of Corporations, the Bureau of the Census, and. above 

 all, the Forest Service. To the last the committee is indebted for many of 

 the facts upon which its conclusions are based. 



Certain publications of the Forest Service, especially the recent addresses of 

 the Chief Forester, Col. H. S. Graves, give so thorough an analysis of the 

 effect of uncontrolled lumbering upon wood-using industries and local communi- 

 ties, and present the argument so convincingly, that no unbiased person can fail 

 to appreciate the social and economic menace of our present policy. As Colonel 

 Graves well says : "A national policy of forestry seeks the protection and 

 beneficial utilization of our present forest resources, the renewal after cutting 

 of forests on lands not needed for agriculture and settlement, the stability of 

 forest industries and of satisfactory conditions for forest workers, and the 

 restoration of forest growth on lands now idle and non-productive." 



The program advocated by Col. Graves and that recommended by the Com- 

 mittee differ in certain respects. Col. Graves himself, however, is authority 

 for the statement that while we differ in details we are working together, and 

 our purposes are the same. The goal which he has set out to achieve is also 

 our goal, and must be the goal of every forester and timber owner who has 

 the perpetuation of our timberlands truly at heart. 



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