222 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TABLE 18. Current annual growth and drain (1925-29 basis) 



At one extreme are the western regions, particularly the Pacific 

 Coast. In the West the drain is shown to be about eight times the 

 growth for saw timber and more than three times the saw-timber 

 and cordwood growth combined. This situation is largely explained, 

 and also justified, by the existence of large quantities of overmature 

 timber in the West which are making no net growth, but which may 

 logically be drawn upon for some time to supply a considerable share 

 of the Nation's needs for lumber. To just what extent and for what 

 period this is true will depend in part upon the proportion of the old 

 growth which may prove economically available. It will also be 

 influenced by the extent to which cut-over areas are promptly and 

 adequately restocked and protected. Lumber is the chief saw-timber 

 product of the West which in large quantity can stand the cost of 

 transportation to distant regions. It is natural, therefore, that lum- 

 ber should account for a larger proportion of saw-timber drain in the 

 West over 70 percent than in either of the other regional sections. 

 B In the New England and Middle Atlantic regions is a very^ different 

 situation. Here the old-growth stands with which excessive drain 

 might, be offset are New England hardwoods of poor quality and 

 doubtful accessibility. Consequently, a saw-timber growth less than 

 half the current saw-timber drain even if it is slightly larger than the 

 current cut for lumber and an all-timber growth that is only two 

 thirds of the total drain, represent a condition^ far less favorable 

 locally than that indicated by the greater ratios in the West. Pro- 

 gressive depletion is still under way in both the New England and 

 Middle Atlantic regions. 



Most dangerous of all is the situation in the Lake-Central-South 

 section, which comprises 310 million acres or 63 percent of our com- 

 mercial forest land and a similarly large proportion of the country's 

 timber producing^ potentialities. Here, it is true, high growth 

 capacity per acre in most of this territory and relative proximity to 

 large consuming centers, broadly speaking, constitute especially 



