CURRENT FOREST DEVASTATION AND DETERIORATION 



By R. M. EVANS, Assistant Regional Forester, Eastern Region 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction and definitions 851 



Current forest devastation 851 



Current forest deterioration 857 



Effects of fire 857 



Effects of cutting 86 1 



Conclusion _ 867 



INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITIONS 



The depletion of timber in the United States has not resulted primarily from 

 the use of our forests, but from their devastation. The kernel of the problem lies 

 in the enormous areas of forest land which are not producing the timber crops 

 that they should. 



This statement from A Summary of the Report on Timber Deple- 

 tion and Related Subjects Prepared in Response to Senate Resolution 

 311, in 1920, is typical of many which have been made during the 12 

 years since it was written. It expresses the widespread belief that 

 cutting, which removes the timber from at least 10 million acres, 

 and fires, which burn over more than 41} million acres each year, 

 are depleting the forest growing stock and rapidly reducing much of 

 the country's forest lands to unproductive wastes. Upon this belief 

 the demand for public regulation of private forest land is largely 

 based. 



Before intelligent consideration can be given these problems, the 

 two terms, forest devastation and forest deterioration, need to be 

 defined. The difference between the two conditions is one of degree 

 rather than of kind. For the purposes of this statement 



Devastated forest land is land that without artificial restocking will 

 not produce a commercially valuable crop of timber within a tree 

 generation. 



A deteriorated forest or stand is one which, because of the treatment 

 to which it has been subjected, has had its capacity to produce desir- 

 able wood or other forest products greatly reduced when measured 

 in terms of value, either of quality or quantity. 



Deterioration, unless stopped, progresses ultimately to devastation. 

 Land classified as devastated is not necessarily bare of all vegetative 

 cover, the criterion being the production of a commercially valuable 

 crop of timber within a tree generation. They are elements of the 

 same problem, but they can best be examined separately. 



CURRENT FOREST DEVASTATION 



The present total area of commercial forest land in the United 

 States is considered to be about 495 million acres. Of this, about 

 20 percent is old growth; about 67 percent is second growth, cordwood 

 areas, and areas with some degree of restocking; the remainder, about 

 13 percent, or more than 60 million acres, will not produce a com- 



851 



