A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



127 



of the commercial forest land of the United States), the ease with 

 which forests are renewed, their rapid growth, and the relative 

 proximity to important consuming centers. The ultimate theoretical 

 timber-producing possibilities of all the forest lands in these two 

 regions, carefully managed, appear to be in excess of the consumptive 

 capacity of these same regions as measured by current standards. 



Although the permanently productive iise of forest land for timber 

 purposes is in itself highly desirable, this is economically feasible, 

 insofar as timber supplies are the primary purpose, only if the timber 

 can be marketed profitably. This points to the fundamental ques- 

 tion, rendered temporarily more acute in the Pacific Coast region by 

 the presence of large volumes of virgin timber, whether or not other 



New England 



Middle Atlantic- 

 Lake 



Central 



South.. 



Pacific Coast.,... 



N. Rocky Mt 



S. Rocky Mt._._ 



All Regions j 



I Saw-timber 

 1 Areas 



40 



I Cordwood 

 Areas 



80 120 



Million Acres 



Fair to 

 Satisfactory 

 Restocking Areas 



160 



200 



Non-restock- 

 ing Areas 



FIGURE 3. Forest area (commercial) of the United States by region and character of growth. 



regions of the United States and, for that matter, foreign countries 

 can most advantageously and economically fill some of their own needs 

 for timber products from the surpluses that can be grown and probably 

 will not be needed in the South and West. Upon the answer to this 

 question must partly hinge the justification for expenditures to keep 

 all of the forest lands in these two regions permanently productive. 

 Parenthetically, the authors hazard the opinion that with such 

 interregional dependence for timber supplies, the United States as a 

 whole is not likely to use as much timber as would be used if all 

 regions had ample supplies at home. It is believed that proximity to 

 abundant forest supplies and to wood-using and other forest indus- 

 tries tends to make people forest conscious and apt to consume more 

 timber and timber products than they would if these must be 

 brought from distant points even though at reasonable cost. 



