WHERE FORESTRY AND RECREATION MEET 531 



that at least one-third of the timbered areas of the National Forests 

 comes within this class. They include the areas on the headwaters 

 of streams which are of primary importance for streamflow protec- 

 tion and regulation, and in which no cutting can take place for this 

 reason, or since the quality of timber on such areas makes cutting 

 impracticable. They also include stands or scattered trees, often of 

 good quality, located in canyons, slide rock, steep or rocky areas 

 where logging cannot be profitably undertaken because of the char- 

 acter of the ground, or because of the stands not being sufficiently ex- 

 tensive or dense, or of a quality to make exploitation profitable. In 

 these non-commercial stands, particularly at the higher altitudes and 

 on exposed sites, the most picturesque trees are found. Trees with 

 peculiar twisted forms are found or dwarf trees the size of shrubs 

 are common as the higher altitudes are approached. For the reasons 

 indicated, no cutting will take place within the so-called non-com- 

 mercial forest containing the timber for which there is the greatest 

 need from a scenic standpoint for maintaining it in its virgin state. 



A good many "outdoor enthusiasts feel that even many commercial 

 stands of timber should be maintained in their natural state, believing 

 that where nature is disturbed esthetic values will be seriously impaired. 

 The best example of carrying this idea to extremes — though I believe 

 the danger of unrestricted cutting taking place also enters into the 

 question — are the State Forests of New York. While this State has 

 owned forests for many years, the cutting of all dead and green timber 

 is still prohibited by statute. It has been my feeling, however, that 

 there has been a good deal of misunderstanding along this line, many 

 people laboring under the impression that cutting means devastation 

 and seriously interferes with natural conditions. This is not strange, 

 for until comparatively recently little conservative cutting of timber 

 has taken place, and at the present the greater part of the lumber and 

 timber products which are produced are cut from timber privately 

 owned, according to long-established lumbering methods. 



In contrast to the stand taken by the idealist, we have the lumber- 

 man who. in general, is able to appreciate trees only from the stand- 

 point of the amount and value of the lumber which they will produce. 

 He feels that all trees large enough to make merchantable material 

 should be cut. This is natural, for he has found, if operating in private 

 stumpage. that the carrying charges are almost invariablv such as 



