THE FACTS 



SUMMARY 



A good and continuous supply of forest products is necessary for the 

 safety and the prosperity of the United States in peace or in war. 



The beginning of timber shortage is here already, and cannot but 

 grow worse for many decades to come. In item after item the price of 

 lumber and other forest products is already almost prohibitive. 



We are consuming nearly three times more wood than we are 

 producing. As with any other crop, wood cannot be consumed faster 

 than it is produced without exhausting the supply. At the present rate, 

 our saw-log timber will be gone in about fifty years. 



It is possible, but probably not practicable, to reduce the rate at 

 which our timber supplies are used up. Our per capita consumption of 

 lumber is decreasing, but population is increasing more than fast 

 enough to make up for it, so that our total consumption of wood will 

 tend to increase. 



But if we can use less, there is still a limit below which we cannot 

 safely go. Western Europe has long been at or below this limit. Al- 

 though one-fourth of its entire land area is in permanently productive 

 forests, and although it uses per person less than half as much as we, 

 Europe has been forced to import increasing amounts of timber. 

 There is every probability that our use of timber must shortly be re- 

 duced to the European level. 



We cannot make good our timber deficit by importation from abroad, 

 because the shortage in high-grade timber is world-wide. 



We have exported timber freely, but now our forests cannot 

 much longer supply us at home. We must either go without essential 

 limber supplies, to the great hazard of our national safety and tb.e 

 certain sacrifice of our industrial prosperity, or we must take imme- 

 diate sfeps to assure ourselves an adequate supply of home-grown 

 timber, which it is perfectly practicable to do. 



The present timber deficit has long been foreseen and efforts to meet 

 it have not been lacking. National and State Forests have been created. 

 But the timber of the National Forests is largely inaccessible, and 

 cannot for many years be a material factor in the market. The 

 greatest annual cut of timber which the National Forests may event- 

 ually be able to su; >piy cannot exceed one-fourth of what we are using 



913 



