68 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



Today this region is the outstanding lumber-producing re- 

 gion in the United States. It contains the last great stand of 

 timber yet untouched by the axe. When the forests of this 

 region are exhausted, there will be no other region in the 

 United States to which we may turn for great virgin areas of 

 wood. When that day comes, the only areas of virgin timber 

 toward which we may look, will be Canada, the Tropics and 

 Alaska. But the forests of Canada are slow growing and over 

 wide areas they are of inferior quality and small size. The 

 forests of the Tropics are still an unsolved enigma. 



The forests of Alaska contain storehouses of timber some 

 of which are yet unexplored. As a whole, Alaska is not a tim- 

 ber country for the interior is covered with only a sparse stand 

 of stunted inferior species. Along the larger streams, birch and 

 spruce attain fair size, but as we leave the streams we find the 

 trees become both smaller and scarcer. The interior forests are 

 suffering greatly from fire for the coming of the white man 

 has been attended by this enemy of the forest and practically 

 no efforts are being made to provide fire protection. 



In the coast forests of Alaska valuable timber grows, chiefly 

 Sitka spruce, western hemlock, red and yellow cedar. Douglas 

 fir, although abundant further south, is absent. The individual 

 trees are smaller than in the Pacific Coast forest, but much 

 larger than the trees of the eastern forest. This narrow coast 

 belt of heavy timber extends for a thousand miles along the 

 Pacific. 



At some future time, when the eastern spruce now used for 

 paper has become exhausted, this hemlock and Sitka spruce 

 of Alaska will probably be called on to take its place. And 

 when that time comes, Alaska's forests will assume a new im- 



