FORESTRY AND THE WAR 

 By Dr. B. E. Fernow 



The relations of the war to forests and forestry are many; they can 

 be discussed from a variety of points of view. There is the role which 

 forests are playing in military evolutions — the consumption of materials 

 for war uses, the destruction of forests in the war zone, the disturbance 

 of regulated forest management where such existed, etc. 



It is not my purpose to exhaust the theme, but to direct attention 

 particularly to what I consider the most important and possibly most 

 lasting effect, namely, upon the development of future forest policies 

 in our country. I shall only briefly touch on other relationships. 



The war has taught us, in the first place, new appreciation of the 

 value of forests and forest products. We have been made aware of 

 the fact that, as in olden times, forests play a not unimportant role in 

 modern military tactics — important enough to pay particular attention 

 to the maintenance of boundary forests as a matter of State policy. 

 Indeed, the aeroplane development as a most efficient reconnoitering 

 means imparts a particular, additional value to forest cover as a screen 

 against observers. 



Next, we have found that in modern warfare forest products are 

 needed in large quantities, and that home supplies are preferable to 

 importations, not only because of the possible inability of securing 

 such, but on account of transportation difficulties. 



The average trench requires alone about one cubic foot of wood to 

 10 feet of trench — say, 60,000 feet, board measure, to the mile, or 15 

 billion to the French front, not to account for shelters, artillery screens, 

 block-houses, etc., and fuel. Such structures consume on the French 

 front as much as $500 to $1,200 worth of wood apiece. 



Again, forest industries which were on the decline or entirely aban- 

 doned have been revived by the war and new uses for wood products 

 developed. 



In Germany, cut off from the outside world, the long-abandoned 

 naval-stores industry, based largely on spruce, and the tan-bark indus- 

 try, based on oak coppice, have been revived, while in France the need 

 of pine timber has nuidc serious inroads in the turpentine woods of the 

 Landes. 



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