186 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



abandoned communities, industries destroyed, and workers set 

 adrift. That is the inevitable result of forest depletion. 



Federal and state governments have /long been trying to do 

 something to prevent this uneconomic use of land. They have 

 the example of what has happened in the cut'over regions of 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, the South, and the Pacific 

 Coast. They are aware of the problems of stranded populations, 

 bankrupt county governments, and burned soil. Thus far, with 

 the exception of a few state governments like those of Penn- 

 sylvania and New York, the only agency which has attacked 

 the problem in a large way is the Federal Forest Service. 



TIMBER DEPLETION 



There are two regions in the United States today in which 

 there is extensive timber cutting. These are the South and the 

 Pacific Northwest. The South, one of our chief lumbering re' 

 gions, is also rapidly becoming a great pulp-wood region, with 

 its fast-growing loblolly, slash, and long' leaf pines. In the West 

 the magnificent Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, Ponderosa pine, in 

 cense cedars, with their stumps six feet in diameter and their 

 trunks reaching up into the air 200 feet, are a source for struc- 

 tural timbers, lumber, pulp, and poles. One important thing 

 about both of these regions is that they are at a great distance 

 from the biggest market for timber products, the Northeastern 

 industrial states. 



To get some idea of just how or why the timber is cut as 

 it is, take for example a lumber company on the flanks of Mt. 

 Shasta in northern California. That company has been oper 

 ating for a great many years in a region rich in Ponderosa pine 

 and firs. Much of the land was acquired by having employees 

 homestead rich timber sections and then turn it over to the 

 company. Today that company has practically reached the end 

 of its supply. It has invested many thousands of dollars in 

 building railroads to haul the timber from the forest to the 



