THE STATUS OF FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES 



By (hrrUm Wcsijrhlt Price 



[vice-president of the national conservation association, forester of the letch- 

 worth PARK ARBORETUM, AND LATELY ASSISTANT UNITED STATES FORESTER] 



THE fruits of the ino\'einent for forest conser\'iition are the Forest 

 Service, the national forests, and a public sentiment deep and 

 strong for the preser\-ation of all the forests of America. These 

 are three assets for which the Nation may well be thankful, as it may be 

 thankful for the man to whom it chiefly owes them. They constitute three 

 of tlie great objects for which Gifford Pinchot has striven wisely and un- 

 flinchingly, and their accomplishment is in a very real and unusual sense a 

 personal achievement. 



What do these three things mean? The existence of our Forest Service 

 means that the United States now possesses an organization animated by 

 high ideals, permeated by the spirit of public service, trained and efficient, 

 to handle the country's forests. The national forests themselves mean 

 that two billion dollars worth of tangil)le natural resources are now pro- 

 tected and conserved by wise and regulated use. While in a public senti- 

 ment generally vigorous and informed, lies in the last analysis the surest 

 safeguard of all for the perpetuation of the forest resources of America. 



So much for the progress won in less than two decades. For twenty 

 years ago, not a single national forest had been established; the Forest 

 Service, now three thousand strong, contained less than a dozen persons; 

 and except for a nucleus of devoted men and women alive to the urgent 

 need for forest conservation, the American people were as yet in the main 

 indifferent to the question of forestry. Now what must be added to these 

 great accomplishments before all our forests are safe? 



The Nation and all the States own about one-fourth of our forests. 

 The other three-fourths are owned by lumbermen, farmers and lantled pro- 

 prietors. So far, very few of these private owners are practicing forestry. 

 Probably less than one per cent of all the privately owned forest lands 

 in the United States are being well protected from fire, or are lunibered 

 carefully and wisely so that they will produce a satisfactory second crop. 

 The reasons why pri\'ate forest owners are so slow to practice forestry 

 would make a long story, or rather a series of long stories. But there is 

 nothing in any of them to show that forestry does not pay well enough to 

 justify the individual in practicing it. The chief reason why it is not more 

 generally practiced lies in personal desire for large immediate returns, in 

 the traditional American attitude toward the forest as a thing to loot, and 

 in disregard of the principle that the private ownership of large bodies of 

 forest land is a public trust. 



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