io 4 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



It is a battle that is far from won and never can be won until 

 foresters, state, federal and private, are so equipped and so 

 organized that they can cope on more even terms with years 

 of high fire danger. It calls for money, for planning and for 

 everlasting cooperation. Today cooperation is the key-note of 

 forestry in America. Forestry is becoming recognized as a joint 

 responsibility. The private owners will not by themselves, bring 

 about fire protection, or forest practice on a nation-wide scale. 

 Neither will the States, or even the Federal Government. All 

 must join hands and it is on this basis of mutual help and con- 

 certed effort that forestry gives greatest promise of going 

 forward. The individual private timber owner plays a tremen- 

 dously important role in the forest drama and without his 

 help progress will be slow and insecure for he is the owner of 

 two thirds of our forest land. How best to secure the practice of 

 forestry on those lands of his is the big unsolved problem of 

 forestry today. 



Legally, of course, a timber owner can do with his property 

 much as he pleases. He can hack and destroy the forest and 

 leave it a shambles incapable of further usefulness. Some lum- 

 bermen are doing this. Their only desire is to cut the timber as 

 quickly and cheaply as possible and abandon the land once 

 the logs are removed. Others are seriously and earnestly try- 

 ing even in the face of economic obstacles to keep their land 

 productive. The question has been raised as to whether any 

 individual has the right to treat even his own property in such 

 a way that it becomes a public liability. One group of foresters 

 believe that the Federal Government should exercise its police 

 powers to the end that destructive methods of lumbering be 

 modified and that fire protection and some form of forestry 



