A FOREST POLICY FOR CALIFORNIA 427 



work the people are somewhat interested, in fact, they are somewhat 

 proud of it, but they take it rather for granted and lack the interest 

 that they would have in work which they were doing more largely on 

 their own initiative. 



Outside of the National Forests, the forest lands, with very few 

 exceptions, have not yet taken even the first step in forestry — that of 

 forest protection. A lot of' damage is done each year by fire to property, 

 and sometimes even to human life. • The private timberlands are 

 subject to a process of timber mining; reproduction is not considered. 

 The owners are uninterested in the fate of the cut-over land excepting 

 ultimately to get the most out of them and let them go, temporarily 

 incurring the expense of carrying them in order to control rights of 

 way, prevent the location of saloons, etc. But we must not blame the 

 •private timber owner too much for this attitude, for he is under 

 tremendous pressure to liquidate his investment and get out of the 

 game as soon as he can. He is finding timber a poor investment. He 

 is heavily in debt, and interest charges are oppressive. Taxes are a 

 heavy burden. This, with the mill capacity to produce far more 

 lumber than is needed, with anxiety to ])roduce it, makes for low 

 prices and negligible profits. The industry as a whole is wretchedly 

 organized. It lacks cooperation. Jt lacks trained men. It lacks re- 

 search work. On the whole the lumberman is rather bewildered and 

 does not know just what to do to bring his industry to a more stable 

 condition. 



Now what do we need to do to bridge the gap between conditions 

 as they now exist in California and conditions as they may exist in 

 2016 if we only go about the construction of that bridge with sufficient 

 intelligence, enthusiasm, and perseverance? Some of the things that 

 are needed are the reorganization of the lumber industry, research 

 work to ascertain facts and principles and to show how they may 

 be applied, a revision of State laws, a well-organized forestry asso- 

 ciation, and a forestry publication. The industry is invited to a journey 

 along the road to close cooperation, standardized accounting, sales 

 agencies — domestic and foreign — trade-marked and advertised lum- 

 ber, association eflfort, etc., and in addition to help the industry reor- 

 ganize properly the public must know and understand the difficulties 

 of the industry, and sympathize so far as sympathy is needed. The 

 Government must adjust tax and timber sale policy in an equitable 

 way to the public and to the industry. The Government must extend 



