CHAPTER 21 

 THE TASK AHEAD 



The welfare of the nation is to a large extent dependent on the per- 

 petuation of our forests. HERBERT HOOVER. 



IT requires no gift of prophecy to tell which way a man is 

 headed who spends five times his income. So far as our forest 

 income is concerned, we Americans, typify that man. 



We are headed toward forest bankruptcy. Each year we are 

 using this forest capital of ours nearly five times as fast as 

 nature is able to declare dividends in the form of annual 

 growth. Each year finds us with less wood and fewer forests 

 than before. Inevitably that sort of thing has an ending. We 

 can not go on as we have, using wood many times faster than 

 we are replacing it. One of three things will have to be done 

 decrease our use of wood, import it from foreign countries, or 

 grow more timber at home. To use less wood than we have 

 actual need for is to lower our standards of living. It would 

 mean the enforced acceptance of more, or less, unsatisfactory 

 substitutes. To depend on foreign imports is to subject ourselves 

 to the hazards of high duties and uncertainty of supply. The 

 only really practical answer to the dilemna of our vanishing 

 forests is to roll up our sleeves and grow more timber at home. 



Profligacy with forests is no new thing among the nations 

 of the world. Many countries have travelled the broad, easy 



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