FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES 69 



portance, for foresters believe that enough spruce grows there 

 to supply perpetually one-third of the raw material needed for 

 paper making in the United States. Already private interests 

 are buying timber for paper pulp from the two Alaskan Na- 

 tional Forests. 



So our forest history has been one of lavish use, and rapidly 

 diminishing resources. Beginning with a country plentifully 

 supplied with timber we have destroyed this forest heritage 

 with fire and axe until only about one-fourth remains. Each 

 day this remnant diminishes. To fulfill the needs of a rapidly 

 growing nation we have cut out region after region and now 

 we are beginning on the last region of all the Pacific North- 

 west. Worst of all we have treated our forests like a mine that 

 once exhausted has finished forever its service to mankind 

 a needlessly wasteful thing to do. And we have done this in 

 the face of what the nations of Europe have learned. For with 

 a little care and a little vision, the forests of the United States 

 could be made to produce far more than they produce now 

 far more, in fact, than they have ever produced. And they can 

 be kept productive forever. That is the heart of America's for- 

 est problem. To build up and restore the productive capacity 

 of her forest lands. 



